Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Classic lines and the movies they're not from

When I was about ten minutes into watching Dirty Harry for the first time on Monday night, my eight-year-old knocked on the door to the living room, as he is wont to do.

Oftentimes his excuse for interrupting us after we've already packed them away for bed is that he wants to give us a final bedtime hug. It's the perfect scam. He gets to prolong the inevitable, but we aren't allowed to be mad. And frankly, we have no inclination to be. How can you reject the affections of a sweetly pajama'd boy wanting one last embrace?

My wife wasn't watching with me so maybe he thought this gave him a bit more leeway. I'd paused the movie, of course. He asked "Is this a violent movie?"

It hadn't particularly been so far, but I knew it would be. "Yes," I told him.

He asked a few more follow-up questions. I don't totally remember what they were. But apparently I was feeling charitable as I volunteered that this was a movie with a famous line in it, and I wondered if he'd ever heard it.

Then, doing my best Clint Eastwood interpretation: "Go ahead. Make my day."

Of course, that was a bit of a can of worms as then I had to contextualize the line. I explained that it was tough cop with a gun staring down a bad guy. And that needed further clarification, so I had to explain that it was the equivalent of saying "Give me an excuse to shoot you. It would make my day to shoot you." So then of course I had to explain that Dirty Harry was actually a good guy, but he just got results by whatever means necessary.

I was actually surprised to see that Dirty Harry was not, as I had assumed, the San Francisco cop equivalent of the Man With No Name. I expected him to be unflappable and emotionless and never for a moment at a disadvantage, as that's how the Man With No Name strikes me. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in this movie involves Harry running from phone booth to phone booth as he needs to keep answering calls from a man holding a woman for ransom, threatening to kill her. He's flappable as hell in these scenes, and seems to have no certainty whatsoever that everything will turn out alright. Just one of the many reasons I was very positively surprised by this movie.

A bit of a disappointment, though? The line I quoted is not actually from Dirty Harry.

I waited all movie for this line, and it never came. I had to settle for "Do you feel lucky, punk? Well do ya?" A good line, to be sure, but it's no "make my day."

Checking online afterward, I realized that the line I most associate with Dirty Harry is from Sudden Impact, a film that didn't come out until a full 12 years after this one, and is not even the second movie in the series. In fact it's the fourth film after The Enforcer (1973) and Magnum Force (1976). How often does the fourth film in any series produce its most quotable line?

But what I think surprised me more was not that it came from a later movie in the series, but that it came from a movie as recent as 1983. When I first became aware of that quote, it couldn't have been long after 1983. Which makes a certain sense, of course, as I probably caught it when it was just coming into bloom as a cultural phenomenon. Because I didn't see movies like Sudden Impact in 1983 (being only nine and ten years old), I must have thought it was an older reference that I was only learning just then because I'd grown old enough to know about such things.

Of course, there's also a chance that I didn't know "Go ahead. Make my day" until much later, maybe even the 1990s. I just don't remember. It's all lost in the swirl of memory.

Having liked Dirty Harry as much as I did, I now feel there's a decent chance I will eventually watch the other movies in the series, even though I imagined I'd only watch this one to correct an oversight in my filmography.

Then again, will it be worth watching The Enforcer and Magnum Force -- about which I hear very little -- just for Sudden Impact to "make my day?"

I may actually find out.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The largest inflatable screen in the southern hemisphere

So I did finally see Aquaman on Sunday night, and the conditions were pretty much perfect. The
temperature was lovely in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, where they had cordoned off an area as they do nearly nightly between December and March as part of the Twilight Series. This photo should give you some idea of the beautiful backdrop and general environment.

Plus there was the little matter of the largest inflatable screen in the southern hemisphere.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, I'll paint a little more of a picture. My wife and I were in the second most prestigious bean bag section, the first being called "Gold Grass" (a nice play on "Gold Class," the high-end range of screening rooms in the Crown cinema chain). This meant we had great proximity to the screen and our own bean bag chairs, just not direct food service to our chairs. Which was really fine, because they close the food trucks about 15 minutes before film time anyway, so it's not like anyone's serving you in your bean bag during the movie. (In part because that would be a huge distraction.)

This setup was fine-tuned to avoid distractions to your viewing experience. It may not be such a surprise to say this in an outdoor environment, but the sightlines were flawless, a benefit of the hill's gradual slope downward. The real nice touch, though, was that anyone who brought their own chair was relegated to a section to the right of everybody else. Still a plenty good view, no worry about that, but not in the way of anyone who didn't have a chair. And if they were in each others' way, well, that was their own problem I guess.

My wife and I had brought a canteen full of margaritas, which were on the strong side, and a couple other light snacks, but we'd intend to patronize the food trucks, and did so. Actually, there was really only one truck serving hot food, but the selection was decent enough. The pizzas were passable but a bit undercooked. The real find was the chicken you see below, which had a gourmet-sounding name that I've already forgotten. We wished we'd just ordered three of these.


As we settled into our spots and let the margaritas soak into us, we also soaked in the top ten songs in the Hottest 100 from Australian radio station Triple-J. It's a big deal countdown of the year's best songs that always plays during Australia Day weekend, and as I have just gotten out of my own countdown period, I feel a kinship to this countdown even if I can't get behind the voters' selections. For example, #1 this year was a song called "Confidence" by a band I'd never heard of called Ocean Alley. They're Australian, but that's not a prerequisite -- the #4 song was a much more respectable choice from a non-Australian artist, Childish Gambino, whose "This is America" seems a lot more of a defining 2018 song. (That could be my American bias coming through.) Anyway, this drag of a song quickly became nicknamed by my wife and me "Cabinet Baby," because that's what it sounds like they're saying when the band talks about "confidence, baby."

Once that was done and people were queueing up for their last food before the movie began -- which for us included ice creams and gummy snakes from the treat truck, though not the yummy looking coffee cocktails -- they started blowing up what they promptly introduced to us as "the largest inflatable screen in the southern hemisphere."

That's likely true -- why would they lie -- but it made me laugh because Australia seems to have a thing about size. The IMAX screen at the Melbourne Museum is supposed to the world's third largest, which is maybe why I liked Gravity so much. The largest? It's supposed to be in Sydney. I guess this might also be true except that I have to imagine some sultan in Dubai would put up the money to make a larger one, just because.

Anyway, the thing was big. And decidedly imperfect. The white screen was pretty dirty and even included some spots where you could see the fading daylight out of the other side. It's true that this was not noticeable and mattered not one bit once the movie started, but we did make a couple comments between us that maybe it was time to replace it. Then again, who knows how much money the largest inflatable screen in the southern hemisphere actually costs?

After this nice setup, it's too bad it wasn't a better movie. And that actually kind of surprised me. I guess I hadn't sufficiently canvassed my friends for their opinions on Aquaman, because I was going on its dynamite box office performance and the 8/10 given by my fellow critic/editor at ReelGood. When it was completely silly, that didn't surprise me, but when it was completely silly in a way I didn't particularly enjoy, that did.

I will say that the opening scene in which Nicole Kidman fends of the guards from Atlantis was fantastic. I don't remember if it was all one take, designed to look that way, or none of the above, but I do remember that the camera went up into the ceiling of the house at one point, to look down on the whizz-bang action scene taking place below. I felt incredibly jazzed by the film's potential at that point. Alas, it set a standard the rest of Aquaman could not live up to.

Or maybe the strong margaritas just made me too sleepy for its relentlessly repeating narrative structure.

In any case, I look forward to my next evening under the stars in front of TLISITSH.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Introducing: Un-lee-shed

In the tradition of last year's bi-monthly series Re-coen-sidering, here comes Un-lee-shed.

I have always thought of myself as a big Spike Lee fan, which made it all the more gratifying that he really returned to form with last year's BlacKkKlansman, my #2 of the year.

However, thinking a little bit extra about Lee last year made me question my own Lee credentials.

I call myself a big Lee fan, but you know what? I haven't seen anywhere close to his whole filmography. In fact, even if I devote a bi-monthly series to watching his features I haven't seen, I'll still have a couple left to tackle when the series is over.

Better get started.

So every two months in 2019, starting in February and ending in December, I'll watch one Lee film I have not previously seen, and post about it here. I'll go chronologically, unless I run into sourcing issues. This is the tentative list, pending availability of course:

She's Gotta Have It (1986)
School Daze (1988)
Get on the Bus (1996)
4 Little Girls (1997)
Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
Chi-Raq (2015)

That would still leave Mo' Better Blues (1990), Clockers (1995) and Girl 6 (1996) (my goodness was Lee prolific in the 1990s) as remaining unseen, and serving as good alternatives should I have trouble sourcing any of these.

You might argue that one of the above three titles is more significant in Lee's filmography than Miracle at St. Anna, but I'd like to spread things out chronologically as much as I can, and my coverage of 21st century Lee films is actually pretty good. Besides, I'm as curious about Lee's misguided attempts, of which there have been many, as I am about the times that his instincts are true. And I don't want to take others' word about which constitutes which. I saw Bamboozled about five years ago expecting to dislike it based on others' assessments of its merits, but I ended up loving it.

Not a lot more to say except I'm going to go track down She's Gotta Have It.

One final note that I hope goes without saying. I'm including hyphens in the name of this series in order to draw attention to my own cleverness, but this is not meant to be pronounced as a three syllable word ending in "shed." It's just "unleashed." Don't forget it. There will be a quiz later.

See you back here next month.

Friday, January 25, 2019

2018 in portmanteaus

Another year, another post of wacky new movie titles that result from the joining of common words, parts of words or rhyming sounds in the titles of two separate films!

That's what a portmanteau is, though it's usually something like "brunch" or "Brexit" and not the unholy commingling of two 2018 movies.

However, I'm a movie blog and right now I've got 2018 movies on the brain. Hope you enjoy what that brain has concocted.

First Man and the Wasp - In a giant leap for insectkind, Hope Pym stows away on the Apollo 11 and buzzes past Neil and Buzz down to the moon's surface.

Ralph Breaks the Incredibles - Bob, Helen, Violet, Dash and Jack Jack meet their match in a clingy lunkhead who attaches to them like a virus.

If Bumblebee Could Talk - Upon moving to New Orleans, the yellow transformer starts speaking in only Louis Armstrong trumpet blasts.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Small Foot - Concerning the perils of trying to ride a yeti like a horse. They don't like that.

The Death Wish of Stalin - After his family is killed in a break-in, Joseph Stalin decides to murder 20 million of his own people.

Madeline's Magdalene - An unstable improv student refuses to stop playing the role of Jesus' 13th apostle.

The Chappaquiddicktime Murders - Ted Kennedy is wanted for driving his car off a bridge and drowning a bunch of muppets.

Suspiria: Day of the Soldado - Mexican drug cartels start smuggling drugs in the body cavities of dancing witches.

A Simple Favourite - Queen Anne drinks her martinis in one gulp underneath a painting of her own vagina.

Mary Poppins Queen of Scots - About the rivalry between Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee that results in the former's beheading.

Mom and Dad! Here We Go Again - Parents kill their own children while singing ABBA songs.

Crazy Rich Annihilations - The shimmer hits Singapore, causing the 1% to fuse biologically with their priceless jewelry.

Ocean's Eighth Grade - A group of 14-year-olds ruin their plan to steal a diamond necklace by posting about it on YouTube.

Grinchester - An old green grump realizes he hates Christmas because he is being haunted by the ghosts of shotgun victims past.

When We First Reformed - A pastor repeatedly goes back in time in a magic photobooth to try to save Earth from environmental destruction.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Vice - In one of the alternate universes, Dick Cheney thinks he's the only Spider-Man.

Three Identical Strangers: Prey at Night - Realizing they were separated at birth, triplets don masks and terrorize the occupants of a deserted trailer park.

Solo: A Star is Born - Lady Gaga decides she's more successful without a duet partner, rechristens herself "Solo" because she "doesn't have any people."

BlacKkKlanther - Ron Stallworth infiltrates Wakanda, reports back on whether they are trying to revolutionize science.

You Were Never Really Hereditary - A damaged loner saves a young girl from her grandmother's malevolent forces, revealing that her brother was the target all along.


Thursday, January 24, 2019

The magical mystery tour of 2018














The Beatles released their album Magical Mystery Tour exactly 50 years before Paul Schrader released his film First Reformed. The studious among you will know that the hit Beatle album came out in 1967, but so was my #1 film of 2018 finished in 2017, making its film festival debut last year and even ending up on my radar as a result of appearing on Keith Uhlich's top ten of 2017 (which I listen to on the podcast The Cinephiliacs).

I doubt Schrader meant his shout-out to the Beatles as any kind of celebration of that 50th anniversary, but he could have meant it as a good summation of 2018. (Mild spoilers about First Reformed to follow, but I hope you've seen it by now.) In the film, the "magical mystery tour" is a nickname given for an activity engaged in by Mary (Amanda Seyfried) and her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger), in which he lies on his back and she lies on his stomach, face to face. It's not sexual, but the physical proximity transports them into a kind of mental odyssey that they experience as an escape from their depressing reality. Later in the film, Mary gets Pastor Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) to try it with her in Michael's absence, and the film slips the bounds of realism for a glorious two minutes of screen time.

Unfortunately, the beauty and ecstasy that initially greet Toller in his out-of-body journey are replaced by scenes of pollution and environmental collapse. Toller can only distract himself from reality for so long.

In times that remain forever fraught under the Trump presidency, audiences need our distractions from the real world as well. Movies were our magical mystery tour in 2018, allowing us to abandon our cares for a certain amount of time. Those cares crept back in, of course, but with the best of the best, we staved them off as long as possible. Of course, some of the best also specifically engaged our worst and deepest fears, in order to help spur us into action to make the change we wanted to see in the world. At its core, a magical mystery tour is a bumpy ride, and thus was 2018.

Three who had a good year

Nicolas Cage - I'm sure Nicolas Cage made just as many terrible straight-to-video films this year as he ever does -- the man likes to work and/or needs money -- but for the first time in quite a while, I'm not inclined to punish him for it. In fact, I don't even want to look them up to see if they exist. His 2018 mainstream films were solid gold, representing three of my top 25 films of the year. (I'd hoped Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (#126), in which he voices Superman and which I saw late in the year, might constitute a fourth, but I actually thought it was kind of lame.) I had already reserved a spot for Cage on this list on the basis of Mom and Dad (#9) and Mandy (#20), but then he appeared in a movie I liked better than either of those. His voice, anyway. Cage's turn as Spider-Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (#6) was the cherry on top of a year in which we saw the actor embrace the version of himself that turned him into a cult icon: Crazy Cage. First was Mom and Dad, in which Cage sings the "Hokey Pokey" while destroying a pool table with a sledgehammer, among other inspired lunacy. That's some outsized stuff, but the movie actually does a surprisingly good job capturing some real insight about the way parenthood changes you. Then you've just got the batshit crazy Mandy, in which Cage actually starts out quite reserved before turning into a bloody-faced avenging angel. The retribution he delivers to those psychopathic cult members is grisly and wonderful, but nothing can match up to a post-traumatic scene where he chugs a bottle of whiskey in his underwear. History has shown that Cage is unlikely to keep up this string of good choices, as there is certainly another Left Behind just around the corner. But I'll luxuriate in the moment while it lasts.

Toni Collette - Collette continued to add to her resume as one of our most naturalistic actors in 2018. That's a funny comment to make in a year in which she had to react to more unnatural circumstances than you can shake a stick at. In my review for Hereditary (#39), I wrote that Collette "cries ugly" with the best of them. Her response to repeated trauma in that film is a blood-curdling portrait of grief, as she submits a symphony of anguished screaming and crying that lays bare the inadequacy of most actor's responses to similar circumstances. But that's just one of many modes Collette offers us in that film; the righteous indignation of her fiery response to her insubordinate son is also etched in our collective mind. Then there's everything in between, her vocal pauses, her tics, her twitches, the computation of new information on her face. However, my actual favorite Collette film in 2018 was Hearts Beat Loud (#12), which reminds us that her range extends to normal characters not dealing with supernatural disturbances. The role of Leslie, landlord and love interest to Nick Offerman's Frank Fisher, is not the type that would normally stick in your memory. But the range of her reactions in one particular scene, where Frank has come to her door after too many drinks, is another example of how her approach changes within the scene as the scene's dynamics shift. It's hard to describe what Collette is constantly doing right without feeling like you are just describing good acting technique in general, but she delivers a superlative version of that technique every time out. She's going to win an Oscar one of these years and it will be long overdue. It's a crime she wasn't nominated this year.

Awkwafina - Awkwafina had a good year not so much because I loved both of her films – I was only mildly positive on one of them – but because she so resoundingly overcame my initial impression of her. And that initial impression was based exclusively on her stage name. At the start of 2018, I didn’t know the woman born as Nora Lum from a hole in the ground. Then I saw her name as one of those cascading down the poster for Ocean’s 8. Her moniker made me grumpy. I’m not such an old fogey that I begrudge musicians (Lum is also a rapper) their stage names, but I don’t love it when those names confusingly call out to an existing property, like A$AP Rocky, or indeed, a woman who names herself after bottled spring water. Whether she was Awkwafina or Aquafina or Mr. Dobalina Mr. Bob Dobalina, I was wary. Her role in Ocean’s 8 (#75) didn’t necessarily cure me of all my preconceptions, as she’s a bit underutilized by that film, and confirmed some of my worries about her persona when she was on screen. (I swear I am getting to positive things here.) She did ultimately win me over, which left me actually excited when I saw her materialize in Crazy Rich Asians (#8). That movie may have been a love affair between Constance Wu and Henry Golding, but it was also a love affair between me and Awkwafina. In a smartly written role that puts her comedic gifts to perfect use, Awkwafina showed me the full powers of a comedienne who didn’t even get to be funny in Ocean’s 8. Not only does she radiate charm, quick wit and an enviable ability to call out bullshit, but she’s kind of the heart and soul of this movie, the one who helps Wu's Rachel bridge that gap between east and west and provide her a much-needed measure of comfort. She retains her goofiness at all times as well. If Nora Lum really is bottled water, I can’t wait for my next drink.

Honorable mentions: Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2), Kathryn Hahn (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Private Life), Andrea Riseborough (The Death of Stalin, Mandy)

Three who had a bad year

Michelle Williams - It seems that every year there’s an actress I generally adore on this list. Three years ago it was Emma Stone, two years ago Kate Winslet, last year Scarlett Johansson. Well, the great Michelle Williams gets her turn this year with a year that was decidedly not great. It was a Williams start to the year as I saw two of her 2017 performances, All the Money in the World and The Greatest Showman, in the month of January in the approach to last year’s ranking deadline. The first movie was really good, and she really good in it; the second was a preview of things to come in both regards. Her performance in the very disappointing Amy Schumer vehicle, I Feel Pretty (#134), was lowlighted by the bizarre choice to play her character with a highly affected Betty Boop/Marilyn Monroe accent, only squeakier. It was the boldest thing about a character that had a truly confused role in the story. She’s set up as kind of a villain, a fashion scion who turns up her nose at the new down-market collection, but by the end the movie embraces her character, without really explaining the transition in her narrative function. By far Williams’ worse offense in 2018 was choosing now as the first time to dip her toe in the superhero side of the industry. Venom (#145) was a hot mess of a movie, and not in a good way. Williams must have been good enough in her scenes, because I felt sorry for her every time she came on screen. Unfortunately, since it was a huge hit, she’s probably married to this turd of a franchise now. The way Williams made the news at the start of the year makes it all the more of a shame that she went on to appear in a couple turkeys. It came to light that she made only $1,000 for the reshoots of All the Money in the World while her co-star, Mark Wahlberg, got upwards of $1.5 million. At least the PR she got from how she handled that unjust disparity was good.

Eli Roth - After I watched both a non-2018 Eli Roth movie I didn’t like (The Green Inferno) and a 2018 Eli Roth movie I didn’t like (The House with a Clock in its Walls) this year, I figured Roth making this list would be a cinch once I got around to seeing Death Wish. (Not that the non-2018 film is really relevant for this discussion, but it did bring me into the appropriate head space to consider him.) Then I actually sort of liked Death Wish (#95), a problematic truth I am still grappling with. However, the optics of Death Wish – whether I liked it or not – were enough to decide, yes, Eli Roth was a guy who had a bad year. A movie in which a white vigilante kills (some) minorities, which functions as a (possibly unintentional) celebration of gun ownership, is just not a useful tone or message in 2018. Roth actually seems to go out of his way to make the villains mostly scuzzy white guys, but you can’t just sweep under the rug the scene in which Bruce Willis’ character straight up assassinates a black gangster, however reprehensible that character may be. Roth also failed on the other end of the spectrum with The House With a Clock in its Walls (#140), which is practically Disney. That’s not the right usage of Roth’s sensibilities, either, even if it’s supposed to be kind of a horror movie for kids. It’s really weird, but not in a good way – I can’t get that bizarrely protracted scene of Jack Black’s head on a baby’s body out of my mind. The Green Inferno is probably more the type of movie Roth should be making, but that wasn’t any good either. I’m in favor of directors feeling their way through their careers and trying to challenge themselves, rather than just going with what has worked for you in the past. Too bad the feeling being done by Roth feels like that of a blind man.

Joel McHale - McHale has never been a lead in a movie of any particular note, and that didn't change in 2018, making it seem a bit like picking on him to include him here. But the fact of the matter is, he did appear in two of my worst three movies of the year, making him a shoo-in for this dishonor. (To be fair to McHale, he also appeared in A Futile and Stupid Gesture (#59), which I liked, playing Chevy Chase, an actor with whom he has significant familiarity from their Community days. But since I didn't even remember he was in that film until I checked IMDB, I'm excluding it as a feather in his 2018 cap.) Undoubtedly as a favor to the creative team, McHale appeared as himself in my bottom-ranked film of the year, Game Over, Man! (#149), in which he was required to engage in a fight to the death against a fellow hostage in this shitty stoner version of Die Hard. Credit for playing himself as an asshole, but only a small amount of credit. His protest for the benefit of social media is that he won't kill a woman, setting up the punchline that she actually kills him by sinking her stiletto high heel into his temple. Yawn. Then I saw him pop up again in my third worst film, The Happytime Murders (#147), in which he plays an arrogant FBI agent. I don't remember if he does anything particularly obnoxious in this film, but the whole film is obnoxious, meaning his decision to appear in it at all is damnable enough. (The Razzies considered his work bad enough to send a nomination his way, anyway.) The scene I remember is an extended take of a puppet blowing an endless plume of cigarette smoke into this face as he sits there, impassive. That feels like a metaphor for his year. Maybe if he stopped playing arrogant assholes he'd start getting better roles.

Dishonorable mentions: Chloe Grace Moretz (Suspiria, The Miseducation of Cameron Post), Jennifer Ehle (I Kill Giants, The Miseducation of Cameron Post), Alexander Skarsgard (Hold the Dark, Mute)

The year superhero movies did crazy things

Possible spoilers to follow for 2018 superhero movies, most notably Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

I heard someone say that 2018 featured a record number of superhero movies. So anyone who had hoped this trend was going away soon, sorry, you’re out of luck.

However, I do have some good news: superhero movies are holding themselves to a higher standard.

Or at the very least, doing some things that are, shall we say, unexpected.

Twenty eighteen was the year that one of the five most iconic superheroes of all time – I consider the other four to be Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Hulk – was killed. Twice, actually. Not twice in the same movie. Killed in two different movies.

That’s right, in the famous ending of Avengers: Infinity War, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man melted away into so much space dust. It took a (wrenching) 30 seconds to transpire, but by the end, there weren’t even any cobwebs remaining. Now, we all know that Spidey will be back – the teaser trailers for his next standalone feature have already dropped – but credit Marvel for, in the moment, allowing us to experience the gravitas of this chipper young do-gooder, just in the initial bloom of his powers, shuffling off this mortal coil.

But there were no takesies-backsies in the second movie in which Spider-Man was killed. In Into the Spider-Verse, the Peter Parker from our universe is crushed in a single death blow from Kingpin, and he doesn’t come back from it. Of course, another Peter Parker from another universe does show up, mitigating some of that loss, plus there’s all the other spider heroes who step up in his place. But it’s a different actor (Jake Johnson) doing the voice, meaning “our” Spider-Man (Chris Pine) is well and truly deceased.

In our podcast about Infinity War I talked about how the time had come when a high stakes property like Game of Thrones was finally rubbing off on superhero movies, bringing permanent ends to (at least this version) of certain characters’ storylines. Many of those disappeared superheroes will come back, but some will not, and it’s long overdue. I suppose we got a start on this in the previous year with Logan, but 2018 gave it a shove further in a direction that seems like it will, paradoxically, help the long-term sustainability of superhero movies. By cutting some storylines short, you are actually lengthening our investment on the whole because now we’re actually worried about the characters. At one time, no really big punch was enough to end, or even bruise, most superheroes. This past year, that kind of punch could be fatal.

I don’t want to get too sidetracked on this type of “crazy thing” superhero movies did. Perhaps the most culturally significant “crazy thing” was the release of a nearly all-black superhero movie, Black Panther. Not only was this not a niche product, but it ended up becoming one of the biggest box office hits of all time. It’s easy to say in retrospect that the appetite was there, but Marvel couldn’t have known it until they actually released the movie. One point three billion dollars later, they look really smart to have assembled this particular cast and this particular director, and chosen this particular time to unleash this panther on the world. Yesterday, it became the first superhero movie ever to earn a best picture nomination. Crazy indeed. 

Two of the year’s more successful superhero movies were about serious antiheroes, though only one of them was good. Let’s start with the bad one. In a third 2018 appearance of a Spider-Man adjacent property, Venom stormed the box offices in autumn, even though every single critic hated it. I’m sure more of them wanted to like it, because the idea of an evil demon-looking guy with a mouthful of fangs that would make any shark jealous seems like just the kind of counterintuitive decision that might relieve the drudgery of reviewing yet another superhero movie. Unfortunately, the execution was inept, leaving only audiences in on this lovefest. Then you’ve got Deadpool 2, which somehow eclipsed the first in terms of sheer joyous anarchy. And if you want to talk about killing off superheroes, just witness the hilarious skydiving arrival of the X-Force in Deadpool 2.

We can’t walk away from 2018 without celebrating two final “crazy” superhero feats. Aquaman accomplished the “crazy” distinction of being an actually successful movie to emerge from the DC Cinematic Universe, though I won’t be able to comment on its other artistic successes until I see it this weekend (see here for an explanation of my lateness). Then perhaps the most fun superhero movie of the year, though many of them qualified in this regard, was a sequel no one seemed to want to one of the MCU’s lesser original films. Ant-Man and the Wasp far surpassed the original in terms of pure cinematic thrills, and had a great tie-in to Infinity War in the end.

And yes, I’ve just worsened the problem of the forever renewing superhero cycle by devoting another thousand words to what these movies are doing right.

Hey, if I’m going to see another eight of them in 2019, better at least go in with a sense of optimism. 

Welcome to the two-timers club, Ethan

A small shout-out to Ethan Hawke, who has now appeared in two of my #1 films. Hawke's first trip to the top came in 2000, when he starred as the title character in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet, and he's done it again with First Reformed.

He joins an illustrious club of two-timers that includes Paul Dano (There Will be Blood, Ruby Sparks), Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men, Birdman), Kate Winslet (Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and ... well, you can read the rest of the names here. There are not yet any three-timers that I know of.

Mr. Hawke may not realize it, but this award also comes with a set of steak knives.

2018 by the numbers

Breakdown of movies by star ratings: 5 stars (2), 4.5 stars (16), 4 stars (30), 3.5 stars (32), 3 stars (17), 2.5 stars (23), 2 stars (19), 1.5 stars (4), 1 star (5), half star (1). Three-point-five has the most movies, as it always does, but the ones on either side of it are not the next most on both sides, as 2.5 stars came up more often than three. There was also a real dearth of movies I really hated. In fact, if we are going with three stars and above as movies I liked, I liked a whopping 97 of the 149 movies I saw. (I say "whopping" but last year it was 99/145, so pretty similar.)
Total new movies watched in the calendar year: 257
Total rewatches: 63
2018 movies seen for the first time in the theater: 78
2018 movies seen for the first time on video/streaming/a plane/that kind of thing: 71
2018 movies seen twice: 7 (Mom and Dad, Annihilation, First Reformed, Hearts Beat Loud, Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

Ten best that weren't released in 2018

More than a hundred of the films I saw in 2018 were not released in 2018, and here were the best of those, listed alphabetically:

About Elly (2009, Asghar Farhadi) – Was Asghar Farhadi ever not great? I’m still looking for a first example.

Europa Europa (1990, Agnieszka Holland) - The World War II coming-of-age story I never knew I wanted. 

Faces Places (2017, Agnes Varda) - A really lovely culmination (so far, she's not dead yet) of the career of a filmmaker whom I didn't discover until this year. 

Mikey and Nicky (1976, Elaine May) – The best John Cassavetes film John Cassavetes didn’t make … and in fact, better than every Cassavetes film not named The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Also, stars Cassavetes. 

Orpheus (1950, Jean Cocteau) - I was introduced to a new voice in magical realism this year, and it was a very old voice, Jean Cocteau. Orpheus was mesmerizing. 

Othello (1951, Orson Welles) - Welles' down and dirty version of Othello took years to complete and went through a variety of financial and creative hardships. It was worth it. 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013, Ben Stiller) - How could it have taken five years to see a movie so obviously in my wheelhouse? Indeed, it did not disappoint. 

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Kim Jee-woon) - I saw this early in the year and the details have faded. The feeling of unnerving creepiness has not. 

Turtles Can Fly (2004, Bahman Ghobadi) - I dug up this Iranian director in a desperate search for auteurs in Audient Auteurs. He delivered me this gem of a coming-of-age war story.

Vampyr (1932, Carl Theodor Dreyer) - The only non-2018 film I gave five stars this year. Dreyer continues to floor me with a silent film of unparalleled vision and execution. 

Loose ends

Going by other names

Adrift could have been called ... You Were Never Really Here
Early Man could have been called ... First Man
The Nun could have been called ... The Land of Steady Habits
Death Wish could have been called ... The Old Man and the Gun
Pacific Rim: Uprising could have been called ... I Kill Giants
Suspiria could have been called ... The Endless

Nice to meet you ...

John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman)
Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians)
Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)
Brady Jandreau (The Rider)
Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud)

Welcome back ...

Selma Blair (Mom and Dad)
Josh Hamilton (Eighth Grade)
Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
Paul Schrader (First Reformed)
Andrew Dice Clay (A Star is Born)

A letter:

To All the Boys I've Loved Before,

Sorry to Bother You. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Ben is Back. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot.

When We First Met, You Were Never Really Here.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Love, Simon

Lightning round

To cap things off, a final flurry of superlatives:

Highest ranked best picture nominee: BlacKkKlansman (#2)
Lowest ranked best picture nominee: Bohemian Rhapsody (#82)
Best picture nominees I haven't seen yet: None!
Actor who should have gotten an Oscar nomination but didn't: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Actor who shouldn't have gotten an Oscar nomination but did: Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Actress who should have gotten an Oscar nomination but didn't: Charlize Theron, Tully
Actress who shouldn't have gotten an Oscar nomination but did: Marina de Tavira, Roma - I guess? (no good choice here)
Best Netflix movie: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (#4)
Worst Netflix movie: Game Over, Man! (#149)
Movie I should have loved but didn't: Roma (#35)
Movie I shouldn't have loved but did: Mom and Dad (#9)
Director who lost me: Duncan Jones (Mute)
Director I finally got: Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin)
Movie that got better the more I thought about it: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (#4)
Movie that got worse the more I thought about it: Ready Player One (#83)
Best sequel: Avengers: Infinity War (#13)
Worst sequel: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (#133)
Worst movie that's called a sequel but really isn't: The Cloverfield Paradox (#144)
Best movie where people play themselves: The Rider (#10)
Worst movie where people play themselves: The 15:17 to Paris (#128)
Best movie named after a Massachusetts town: Chappaquiddick (#104)
Worst movie named after a Massachusetts town: Winchester (#106)
Best criminals: Shoplifters
Worst criminals: Gotti
Scariest bear: Annihilation
Least scary bear: Paddington 2

That's about enough of that. One more 2018 post tomorrow and then I start learning Chinese and how to ride a unicycle.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

2018, from First to worst

I watched a shit ton of 2018 movies in 2018, and in the beginning part of 2019. What else is new.

Actually, there is one new thing, something I feel quite proud of: I fell just short of setting a record.

Let me explain.

The 149 movies I'm ranking this year are my second highest total of all time, just two short of the personal record I set in 2016. You might think I'd be disappointed not having seen three more movies and broken the record. When you're in range of a record, you go for it, don't you?

And I could have. I've watched only 21 new-to-me movies in January, which is just less than one a day. Easily could have crammed in three more, especially when I devoted five of my January viewing slots to rewatches, two of which were from another year, the remaining three getting watched again just for the purpose of fine-tuning my list.

But the fact of the matter is, when I got in range of the hallowed 151, I pulled back. Something about beating that record frightened me. I'm not sure it's something for a 45-year-old man to be proud of that he mashed in more ranking-eligible films in his viewing year than ever before. By not setting the record at least I can tell myself I have a life.

But who am I kidding? Movies are my life in a way I'm not suddenly ashamed of. I love my family and other hobbies like sports, painting and reading, but I don't suddenly wish I devoted a large percentage of my free time to some other all-consuming passion. Besides, Roger Ebert's empathy machine has been and remains a great way for better understanding the world around us and the people with whom we share it.

Still, 149 does feel slightly better than 151. Healthier.

Before I give you my dramatic reverse countdown of my top ten, my bottom five, and the complete list, I usually like to tell you about the movies that won't be making the list. Below are the five movies I most regret not having an available outlet to see before my ranking deadline. The list is smaller this year and I only truly care about #2 and #1. Whether that's an indication of Australia releasing more movies at the same time they're released in the U.S., or a front-loaded release schedule of good films in 2018, I don't know.

5. Welcome to Marwen - Because I just can't quit Robert Zemeckis (and I loved the documentary it's based on)
4. The Sisters Brothers - Because Jacques Audiard interests me (and it's got a funny title)
3. Destroyer - Because Nicole Kidman (and she looks wackadoodle in it)
2. Burning - Because I hear it's incredible (and regret missing my chance to see it at MIFF)
1. If Beale Street Could Talk - Because Barry Jenkins' follow-up to Moonlight must be seen (though not until after February 14th)

Are you ready for it? ARE YOU READY FOR IT?

10. The Rider - Not a single documentary made my top 25 this year, and that was in a year of high quality among non-fiction films. Chloe Zhao's story of a rodeo rider who's been knocked out of the game by a head injury is about as close as you can get to a documentary among fiction films, though. It not only stars a real-life rodeo rider who was knocked out of the game by a head injury (Brady Jandreau), but also the man's real father, real mentally challenged sister, and real-life friend with far worse brain damage than he has. While the ways these actors obviously connect with the material are fascinating, it doesn't mean a whole lot unless they're delivering artistically (as anyone who's seen Clint Eastwood's The 15:17 to Paris will know). Zhao, Jandreau and company do that with great understatement and emotional resonance, painting a portrait of people who love a calling so much that they continue to risk their lives doing it. They just can't imagine any other way, but that's not expressed through histrionics or lengthy speeches. They simply, quietly, pursue the life they know and love, or struggle desperately to come to grips with not being able to. This meditative love letter to the South Dakota badlands grabbed me in its rhythm and burrowed deep, enough to breach my top ten for the year.

9. Mom and Dad - Through a quirk of my iTunes rental of Mom and Dad, my initial viewing did not set the 48-hour expiration clock running, giving me the chance to watch Brian Taylor's film a second time later in its 30-day rental window. I'm glad for that because I could have easily pooh-poohed loving this movie once and pushed it down to about #23 for the year. Instead, I realized that a delicious horror comedy about an apocalyptic event that causes parents to want to murder their own children might actually belong in my top ten. Ditching his Crank co-director Mark Neveldine, Taylor has delivered something audacious and juicy, but also something surprisingly perceptive about the death of identity that accompanies becoming a parent. Sure, gonzo Nic Cage is probably the headline here, but a much more nuanced Selma Blair grounds us in a reality we may all recognize: that there's something true about parents' latent desire to just have their kids out of the picture. Now don't go calling the cops on me, I love my own kids ... but I wasn't repelled by images of other parents hunting theirs down with unquenchable violent rage, especially since Taylor smartly errs on the side of leaving most of it up to our imagination. Taylor also wonderfully turns the tables on Cage in a third act development I won't spoil, the movie's funniest section. This is B-movie trash with a brain, and it's fun as hell. 

8. Crazy Rich Asians - When a movie pulls all its emotional strings in just the right way, your reaction becomes involuntary. Is Crazy Rich Asians one of the ten best movies of 2018? Possibly not. Did it make me cry on three non-consecutive occasions in its final 15 minutes? Yes, yes it did. On both viewings, in fact. And that counts for something in an age where most movies go in one ear and out the other, leaving no kind of emotional imprint whatsoever. There’s an argument that Crazy Rich Asians is just a well-constructed romantic comedy and that without the all-Asian cast, it wouldn’t amount to much more than any other good representative of the genre. Others can make that argument, but I won’t. At its core this is a universal story about the struggle to overcome the gulf between social classes and the loyalty to good people with checkered resumes, even if you have to break the rules of “polite society” in demonstrating that loyalty. Okay, maybe I’m also describing every costume drama I’ve ever seen, but Crazy Rich Asians combines that classical element with the eye candy of a modern fairy tale to give us something transcendent. Something magical. Even as I try to describe it I find myself flailing to rationalize its impact on me; it just works, and the charm of Constance Wu and new favorite Awkafina is a big part of it. I do also think that all-Asian cast is worth celebrating in 2018, and I hope my affection for this makes up for the fact that I couldn’t get all the way there with similarly representation-positive Black Panther.

7. Eighth GradeIn all the richly deserved accolades for Eighth Grade, there’s been a lot of credit given to writer-director Bo Burnham for being able to climb inside the head of an early teenage girl and present a true document of her thoughts and life. Not as much credit has been given to the actress playing that teenager, Elsie Fisher, whose instincts toward naturalism are that of a master, a veteran, not a girl who is only 15 in real life. There’s this one moment I always think of, when she’s sitting in the back seat of a car, slowly realizing that a boy about four years older is trying to get her to take her shirt off. It’s a game of Truth or Dare, and Fisher’s Kayla is looking down, weighing which answer is the lesser of two evils. The way she starts to give one answer and changes to the other halfway through the word is something you just can’t teach; it’s born of natural acting instinct. Burnham and Fisher get all the details right in this week-long journey of a girl fighting her own insecurities and shyness. It’s a high school movie devoid of outsized villains and clichés, as the inevitable popular girl is more indifferent to her than vindictive. The true-to-life gawkiness, even of the popular kids, is fully encapsulated. And as a dad myself, I was obviously moved by the tightrope Josh Hamilton tries to walk as he seeks an impossible middle ground between parent and friend. In his own ways, he’s as dorky, as gawky, and as vulnerable as his daughter and her classmates.

6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseWhen I first learned of the existence of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I thought it was some second-rate release from a studio with a lesser share of the character rights, like Batman: The Killing Joke. No offense to that movie, which I haven't seen and is possibly quite good, but it didn't seem to have a full compliment of modern resources behind it, and felt like it was clinging to the coattails of the more established Batman properties out there. Well, Marvel can go send Tom Holland's Spider-Man home after this movie. Sony may have just been trying to make some money off of the parts of Spider-Man it didn't sell off to the MCU, but the result was what I called in my review "what it looks like when a comic book and a kaleidoscope have sex." It's one of the most visually accomplished and visually distinct animated movies I've ever seen, complete with numerous touches that mimic the tactility of the comic book page. But all its sound and fury, and multiple universes worth of content, is in service of something funny, wonderful and human. Just think what a good year it might have been for Phil Lord if he'd also gotten to execute his vision for Solo. I instantly fell in love with Miles Morales, and I'm glad that members of minority communities can now, maybe, really see themselves in even the upper echelon of iconic superheroes.

5. Climax - In the past decade I have become a true devotee of French director Gaspar Noe, having watched two of his films (Irreversible and Enter the Void) two different times, and maintaining a limited appreciation for a third (Love). However, this marks the first time I’ve actually been able to rank one of his films in my year-end list, and it shot all the way up to #5. After Love wasn’t all I’d hoped for, I didn’t know if Climax would mark a rebound for Noe, or see him go further astray from the horrific imagery and queasy button pushing of those two films I love. Score one for classic Noe. Climax is cleaved evenly between two movies, both of which make astounding use of Noe’s camera, which has always ducked and weaved and floated and wandered like no other camera in modern film. The first shows a bunch of incredibly talented modern dancers contorting and spinning their bodies in joyous ways. The second is … well, the inverse of all that, but in ways it wouldn’t be sporting to reveal as this movie is not yet out in the U.S. Suffice it to say that this goes to places as confronting and as uncomfortable as Irreversible and Enter the Void, with a delirious array of audacious long takes and camera movements that don’t seem physically possible. You leave this Boschian nightmare exhausted and exhilarated.

4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - When I started watching The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, I was a bit annoyed. I thought “Two hours and 13 minutes of Tim Blake Nelson talking like a hifalutin hayseed and killing people while grinning sadistically?” Then he gets shot through the head, a lovely surprise, as I thought it meant the Coen brothers were doing something new and unique with structure. Somehow I had avoided learning that this was a collection of six short films. After a first viewing, Buster Scruggs landed in my 10-20. After a second, it’s all the way up to #4, and I watched the second time in a prolonged state of bliss, totally immune to any urge to sleep even though I started at 10 p.m. after a 40-minute run. The on-again, off-again Coens – whose work I also revisited this year in a bi-monthly viewing series – are most assuredly on again after the disappointment that was Hail, Caesar! It’s an extended argument against their own misanthropy, as laid out in that first story, and though it uses the tools of misanthropy on occasion, it’s ultimately a solemn consideration of the great equalizer known as Death. However, it’s also got one of their most sweetly optimistic stories (“All Gold Canyon”) and one of their most romantic (“The Gal Who Got Rattled”). In total, it’s a snapshot of some of our finest filmmakers playing with a number of related themes, and it proceeds in a sublimely perfect sequence toward the infinite void. It may be my favorite feature-length collection of short films, ever.

3. Everybody Knows - Nobody knows yet about Everybody Knows, as it basically hasn't been released yet. That's the risk when you see something at a film festival in August, gambling that it'll be on everyone's lips come top ten season ... and it doesn't get released in either of my countries of reference (the U.S. and Australia) until the following year. But for a scant few days, until it was topped by my current #1, this was my favorite film of the year, giving Asghar Farhadi the most realistic shot yet for one director to top my year-end rankings twice. Farhadi couldn't duplicate the feat he achieved with 2011's  A Separation, but he accomplished many others, including directing as comfortably in Spanish as he did in French or Persian (with terrific lead performances by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem), and adding yet another to his great repertoire of films in which character relationships are tested by inciting incidents and the miscommunications that stem from them. I've heard Farhadi described as today's Bergman, and though that's a huge compliment, I don't see him doing the same things Bergman did. I see a supremely gifted storyteller who delivers compelling human drama without any formalist fixations or unnecessary technique. Would that all storytellers could possess his economy and perceptiveness.

2. BlacKkKlansman - Spike is back. The sum total of all the chills, the laughs, the tears, and the moments of pure cinematic invigoration I felt while watching BlacKkKlansman came down to that one three-word thought: "Spike is back." Lee's 21st century output is no kind of barren wasteland -- 2002's 25th Hour is also a favorite -- but nothing he's delivered in 20 years has been as consistently realized as his adaptation of the true story of two Colorado police officers who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, one of whom was the Klan's ideal target. John David Washington inherited all of Denzel's charisma, but this performance is no simple feat, just as nothing Lee gives us is lacking in some kind of core contradictory element. How is a movie this angry this funny? How is a movie this skeptical of dangerous white institutions also this loving in its portrayal of a police department? How does a movie so keenly aware of the hate in people's hearts also embrace film's overriding function as entertainment, as the type of escapism to warm those hearts? And just when you think Lee has been "had, took, hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, and run amok" -- to quote another famous Lee hero -- he dollies his characters back into reality, and then transitions to an end scene of real footage that will leave you shaking. Spike Lee hasn't forgotten how to do what he does best, and he's rarely done it better than here.

1. First Reformed - Who could have guessed the director of the tawdry Lindsey Lohan vehicle The Canyons, more notable for the actress showing her breasts than the director showing any talent, would helm my #1 movie of the year? Had I seen The Canyons in its release year of 2013, it might have been my worst of the year, but just five year short years later, Paul Schrader has delivered my best. There's precedent for this, of course, but it's buried deep in his history. I was with this movie the whole way, then at the very end I thought "Huh?" Followed by the shortest assessment period in the history of provocative ending assessments, lasting about 90 seconds, at which point I decided I loved the ending as well. First Reformed grapples with more interesting issues than I can fit into a capsule of this size, but what I love about it is how it considers the difficulty, yet the absolute necessity, of maintaining hope in the face of overwhelming despair. It's an outlook that must be embraced by both people of faith and people of environmental activism, as they are confronted on a daily basis with the near certainty that their best intentions will be futile. Yet if they don't try, who will? Made me think of my dad, both a member of a church facilities committee and an environmental crusader, who requires this kind of irrational, beautiful hope to keep doing what he does. This magical mystery tour came to take me away, and it's the best movie of the year.

Now, five movies that cannot possibly be described that way. Ladies and gentlemen, my worst of 2018:

5. Venom - I'm not sure if Venom was really this bad or if I'm just incorporating the howling critical reaction into my ranking, but either way, this is a piece of crap. I have no history with this character so there were no expectations to be met or frustrated. I just sat and watched something ridiculous, unsatisfying and shoddy unfold before me, and Tom Hardy's best attempts to draw out the absurdity of the material couldn't make it any more palatable.

4. Gringo - The only of my bottom five with some genuine pedigree of support -- it has a passable 46 on Metacritic -- Gringo may have offended me more than any other film I saw this year. It doesn't quite descend into outright racism, though the portrayal of David Oyelowo's character is weirdly close to that, but it expends a considerable amount of character development on total shitheads, just one of the film's many massive failures on the execution level. A complete tonal misfire.

3. The Happytime Murders - What more needs be said about an idea that looked so bad it had be good, yet was just as bad as it looked? Well, I'll go with three sentences more. There's no longer anything surprising about seeing vulgarities emanate from puppets, but that wouldn't have been such a sin if any of those vulgarities contained a modicum of cleverness. Instead, this is a creative dung heap of a movie. What a shame that talented puppeteers are reduced to plying their trade in garbage like this.

2. Mute - Duncan Jones came THIS CLOSE to being the first director to direct both a #1 film for me (Moon, 2009) and a worst film. For no reason whatsoever, Mute is set in the "Moon universe," containing exactly one scene that references that movie. I'd have much preferred zero scenes, and to free Moon from the taint of this bizarre near-future sci fi film about prostitutes and pedophiles and black market surgeons and god knows what else. It's shit.

1. Game Over, Man! Aliens is suing for defamation of character. A surprise pleasure in the Netflix rom-com When We First Met, Adam Devine was quick to curdle that good will in his Netflix follow-up, a brain-dead stoner variation on Die Hard. It's so puerile, dick jokey, gay panicky, moronic and in all other ways unpleasant that I hated it as much as I did even though I was watching it in the beautiful environs of Bali, on my ten-year anniversary vacation with my wife (and without our kids).

Here's all of 'em!

1) First Reformed
2) BlacKkKlansman
3) Everybody Knows
4) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5) Climax
6) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
7) Eighth Grade
8) Crazy Rich Asians
9) Mom and Dad
10) The Rider
11) Shoplifters
12) Hearts Beat Loud
13) Avengers: Infinity War
14) Outside In
15) Isle of Dogs
16) Sweet Country
17) Vice
18) The Death of Stalin
19) Private Life
20) Mandy
21) Deadpool 2
22) Ant-Man and the Wasp
23) Foxtrot
24) Tully
25) Incredibles 2
26) Love, Simon
27) Disobedience
28) Chris the Swiss
29) Whitney
30) Mid90s
31) The Endless
32) Annihilation
33) First Man
34) Kin
35) Roma
36) Blindspotting
37) Shirkers
38) RBG
39) Hereditary
40) Minding the Gap
41) Three Identical Strangers
42) Sorry to Bother You
43) Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
44) Custody
45) People’s Republic of Desire
46) When We First Met
47) The Favourite
48) Leave No Trace
49) The Mercy
50) Bad Times at the El Royale
51) Tag
52) To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
53) Paddington 2
54) Black Panther
55) Widows
56) A Quiet Place
57) You Were Never Really Here
58) A Star is Born
59) A Futile and Stupid Gesture
60) The Night Eats the World
61) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
62) Euthanizer
63) Revenge
64) Mission: Impossible – Fallout
65) Unsane
66) Cold War
67) Zama
68) Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
69) Green Book
70) Bird Box
71) Upgrade
72) Profile
73) The Gospel According to Andre
74) Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
75) Ocean’s Eight
76) Summer of ’84
77) Swinging Safari
78) American Animals
79) Beirut
80) Mary Poppins Returns
81) The Children Act
82) Bohemian Rhapsody
83) Ready Player One
84) Game Night
85) The Seagull
86) The Old Man and the Gun
87) On Chesil Beach
88) Juliet, Naked
89) The Insult
90) Two is a Family
91) Creed II
92) Madeline’s Madeline
93) Super Troopers 2
94) Support the Girls
95) Death Wish
96) Marrowbone
97) Sicario: Day of the Soldado
98) Adrift
99) Suspiria
100) Skyscraper
101) Thoroughbreds
102) Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
103) The Strangers: Prey at Night
104) Chappaquiddick
105) Solo: A Star Wars Story
106) Winchester
107) Galveston
108) Holmes & Watson
109) Mary Magdalene
110) The Land of Steady Habits
111) Hold the Dark
112) Pacific Rim: Uprising
113) Damsel
114) Mary Queen of Scots
115) Thunder Road
116) Ralph Breaks the Internet
117) Outlaw King
118) The Commuter
119) Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
120) Peter Rabbit
121) Kings
122) Ibiza
123) Tomb Raider
124) A Simple Favor
125) I Kill Giants
126) Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
127) The Grinch
128) The 15:17 to Paris
129) Mortal Engines
130) The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
131) Cargo
132) A Wrinkle in Time
133) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
134) I Feel Pretty
135) Life of the Party
136) Early Man
137) The Miseducation of Cameron Post
138) Wildlife
139) The Bookshop
140) The House With a Clock in its Walls
141) The House That Jack Built
142) Gotti
143) The Open House
144) The Cloverfield Paradox
145) Venom
146) Gringo
147) The Happytime Murders
148) Mute
149) Game Over, Man!

And ending with ... five titles I thought I needed to isolate for further explanation:

35. Roma - Was planning to watch it again to see if I thought it was more than just a very beautifully made and technically accomplished movie, but never did. I've missed the boat on Roma ... for now.

54. Black Panther - I really tried, but a second viewing just couldn't move the needle on this. Culturally but not creatively groundbreaking.

84. Game Night - Probably should be higher ... I was very tired and don't remember most of it.

94. Support the Girls - Movie I just didn't get that I was most disappointed that I just didn't get.

138. Wildlife - Movie whose wild critical acclaim baffled me the most.

Thanks for reading, but don't let the conversation end in your head! Love for you to leave a comment below, and tell me all the ways I messed this up.

Monday, January 21, 2019

As if I were watching alphabetically

Tomorrow night I will wrap up my 2018 viewing season with Lucrecia Martel's Zama, the only 2018 movie I will see that starts with Z.

It's a heavier final dish than I would have liked. That's both because it could be long and ponderous -- Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, a huge fan, nonetheless warned not to start it at 9:30 after a couple of beers -- but also because it's got an outside chance to rank very highly on my chart. (Though Martel's The Headless Woman, which I admired but which was pretty head-scratching, suggests it's likelier to end up in my respectable mid-40s.) Ideally, you'd prefer to finish off with something you can be safely sure you'll stash away somewhere around the middle of your rankings.

It'll possibly be the only time I've wrapped up with a foreign language film, adding to the degree of difficulty when I've got cumulative exhaustion coming out the wazoo.

However, it's not the only time I've given myself a challenge on my last day of film watching. Far from it. Films that ended up in my top ten for the year after watching them on the last day included Inside Llewyn Davis (#3 of 2013) and The Hateful Eight (#6 of 2015), both of which I couldn't watch any earlier because they hadn't been released yet, and Love is Strange (#7 of 2014), which, like Zama, was just a random final day viewing selection.

Just last year my final viewing, Darkest Hour, nearly crept into my top ten, finishing at #12 -- though I suspect recency bias had something to do with that. However, recency of viewing isn't likely always to benefit a film. I think if I'd had two more weeks to sit with Llewyn Davis I would have named it my #1 film of that year, since I now think of it as that and have already seen it thrice.

I don't really have anything profound to say about Zama and have already elongated this post more than it probably needed to be. Maybe I just didn't want my last non-year end wrap-up post to be a screed about Lars von Trier.

Next time you hear from me, I'll reveal my 2018 rankings from #1 to # whatever. Come on, pretend you're as excited as I am about this.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

I'm not going to give Lars von Trier the satisfaction

Around the end of the ranking year, you tend to get locked into your idea of which films make up your top ten and which make up your bottom five. And by "you" I mean "me" because you, the actual person reading this, probably don't bother yourself with any of this type of obsessiveness.

Watching Lars von Trier's The House That Jack Built on Friday night, I wondered if I might need to rethink some of that.

Not my top ten. My bottom five.

In fact, for a time, I thought this was lining up to be my worst movie of the year.

Which gave me pause. Considerable pause.

You see, that's just what von Trier wants me to do.

The bastard.

Cinema has a number of enfant terribles who make movies that push our buttons in similar ways, but von Trier is definitely the terrible-est of them. Ever since he got kicked out of Cannes for saying nice things about Hitler, it's become clear that all that talent masks a guy who just wants to figure out new ways of pissing us off. If he's not pissing us off he's not really alive, he thinks.

Not that there's no value to making art that provokes and pisses off. But von Trier's approach to it seems to be particularly juvenile. He calculates every filmmaking decision and every comment to assess what will make proper society faint. It's not only predicable, but it's actually boring.

And "boring" was easily the first word that came to mind to describe the over-long serial killer flick The House That Jack Built, which clocks in at 150 minutes for no reason other than the fact that von Trier has always felt it necessary to indulge every little whim he may have. Okay, not always -- this was not what the man was doing when he made terrific films like Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. In fact, even as recently as Melancholia I don't think he was anywhere near this creatively wasteful. Now, though, he elongates scenes and goes on tangents like he's being paid by the minute of celluloid he produces.

Never mind that this film actually includes a self-aggrandazing montage of clips from his own previous films. The ego of it all.

Watching a film that seemed both boring and misogynistic -- and no, Lars, you can't undercut the accusations of misogyny just because you address them directly in your dialogue -- I was inclined to think that this is the type of movie it's worth taking a stand about in naming your worst of the year. It's dramatically lethargic and it puts bad things into the world.

Then I thought, "Shit, that's just feeding into von Trier's narrative."

If I hate his film I give him even more power than if I love it. He's like Trump. Whether you love him or hate him, you are inflating him either way.

Fortunately, particularly in the second half, von Trier does some things that interested me enough to avoid any real consideration of this as my worst of the year. In the end, I did not even give it only one star. One-point-five stars was where I landed. When the film goes from mostly realistic to obviously absurd and fantastical, it helps recontextualize some of what he's doing, trending it toward noble failure territory rather than just the ghettos of misanthropy. The grotesque imagery itself had some really chilling moments, such as the taxidermy scene, which I have to credit in some form.

Really, though, no matter what I say about von Trier, it's not going to cut him. Of course part of that is because he will never read this. But even if he did, it wouldn't shame him. Like Trump, he's already heard every variation on every insult anyone could deliver toward him. It just fuels him to make another unmistakably von Trierian film.

And as much as I'm tired of this guy's shtick, he does make valuable movies from time to time. I don't mind telling you that I'm actually considering Melancholia for the "best of the 2010s" list I release a year from now, honoring my favorite 25 films of the decade. That I watched it just a few months ago and haven't ruled it out for this list tells you something about whether I really want this guy to go away or not.

More than anything I just want him to figure out something that's genuinely useful to say, and not just useful for making decent people hyperventilate.