Movie Date with Brendan @brendanmoviedate - Tumblr Blog | Tumlook (2025)

So it's May 2024 and I’ve completely dropped the ball on getting my best of 2022 list out in anything resembling a timely fashion. Having new baby (I can’t believe he’s 20 months old already) and a new house has really eaten up all of my time and prevented me from seeing or writing about movies. But rather than give up, I’ve decided to rack my brain to rank movies I watched two years ago.

The funny thing about writing this list so long after the fact is that my short list that I made ages ago no longer resonates with me and some films on the cusp have pushed out some of the other films that captivated me at the time but have faded from favour in the intervening months.

10. Prey

Predator as a film was such a simple concept - soldiers being hunted in the woods by an apex predator. Somehow, all the sequel and crossovers manage to bloat this concept out to ridiculous proportion, adding way too many layers of backstory onto something that's best left unknowable.

Prey, by Dan Tractenburg, director of 10 Cloverfield Lane, revitalizes the Predator franchise much as he did with the Cloverfield franchise. Just as his first feature found new ways to plumb a gimmicky upstart franchise, so too did his sophomore effort find new stories to tell in a moribond franchise that feely distinct while still be reverential to the other films without being beholden to them.

9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

After a rather long and drawn out stagnant period of Marvel films (which we’re still mostly in), Doctor Strange’s second film was a gonzo breath of fresh air. Picking up threads from a TV show (Wandavision) and a Spider-Man movie (No Way Home) and propelling the whole MCU towards its new direction on top of being a fun, stand alone movie shouldn't work, but director Sam Raimi managed to succeed in tying all these disparate threads together while also bringing his goofy Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell touch to make one of the few auteur Marvel movies.

8. Pearl

Conceived during the filming of X, Pearl functions as a prequel story focusing on the primary antagonist as a young woman dreaming of stardom. The film takes place during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, which obviously parallels the covid epidemic more than 100 years later that affected production of the film. While not a main theme of the film, it definitely functions to transport the audience to that time.

One theme that permeates the movie is the rise of film and movie stardom, like X, which had a similar focus on the pornographic film industry. It will be interesting to see these themes carrying through to the 80's set MaXXXine.

7. Decision to Leave

Unfortunately, this film is the one on this list that has faded the most. I remember really enjoying the psycho-sexual thriller aspect of this film and but found it's plot a little illusive. Park Chan-Wook is a favourite of mine and I'm always down for his brand of pervy weirdness, so I'll definitely have to give this one a rewatch. That being said, I remember loving it and it earning a place on this list.

6. Avatar: The Way of Water

I was a big Avatar (and 3D) skeptic when it first came out, just as I was a Titanic skeptic when that came out, despite, and perhaps because, I was such a big fan of James Cameron’s action movies. However, time and wisdom prevailed and I’ve since been converted into fans of both films. And while I don’t think I agree with Cameron taking 10+ years between films, I began to look forward to the second Avatar movie after it became apparent that it was actually coming out.

Fortunately, the wait was mostly worth it, as this sequel surpasses the original’s thinly veiled Pocahontas plot for something much more personal and resonant. Taking place years after the original, the film picks up with Jake and Neytiri now the proud parents of a whole clan of kids who they need to protect as the human colonizers return with a reborn Stephen Lang coming after them.

While the first movie pioneered 3D film and paved the way for cheap imitators, this new film ups the game by shifting most of the action to the ocean and forcing Cameron to reinvent and revolutionize how water looks on film. It’s truly a worthwhile spectacle.

The environmental messages of the first movie remain, but they’re populated with new themes of family and sacrifice creating a film with a more heartfelt and human feel than any of Cameron’s previous films. With a filmography mostly propped up by strong visuals and exciting set pieces, Avatar 2 represents a clear shift in a filmmaker who apparently appreciates family more as he gets older. I’m excited to see Cameron reveal more of himself as these sequels go on and he gets closer to retirement.

5. Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun was a blind spot for me growing up. I predated my interest in action films by a few years and despite having watched a number of 80s classics growing up, I’d ever seen the film until very recently. But with the new era of stunt maniac Tom Cruise and his whisperer Christopher McQuarrie writing the script, I was pretty excited at the prospect of a sequel.

Like his Mission: Impossible franchise, Maverick is an explosive, exciting film that keeps building towards a fantastic climax. Interestingly, the story is pretty much free of politics, which simultaneously makes in feel timeless and fixed in a 80's cold war.

4. The Batman

At 3 hours long and darker in tone than the Nolan films, Reeves’ The Batman could easily have been an indulgent mess, but bolstered by some really strong performances and clear direction, the film rivals Nolan's output for the best Bat-film. Whereas Nolan's films owe much of their success to Michael Mann, Reeves' film takes heavy influence from David Fincher, in particular, Zodiac.

The standout performance in the film is certainly Colin Ferrell, who's Penguin is both posturing and snivelling. I'm eagerly anticipating the miniseries focused on his character that's finally coming out this year.

3. Tar

Todd Field's Tar, only his third film, and his first in 15 years, is a powerful look at how quickly a well-respected and talented genius can lose everything based on their abuse of privilege. Cate Blanchett gives a fantastic performance, one that may be her signature role for years to come based on how well she embodied the performance.

2. Aftersun

As a new father and as somebody who has suffered from depression in the past, this film really resonated with me. The disparity between parental love and crippling depression is expertly depicted in this slow burning film about a divorced father and his daughter trying to connect on a resort vacation.

Paul Mescal, the 26 year old Irish actor, plays 31 year old Callum with a beaten-down ennui that makes you forget he’s way too young to be playing someone with an 11 year old daughter. He looks and feels older than me, with the weight of life and depression having aged him by a decade.

Newcomer Frankie Corio portrays Sophie as a daughter who’s learning to be independent, almost by force, as she tries to connect with her dad who clearly isn’t all there. Similarly, these circumstances make her feel older than 11.

Scottish director Charlotte Wells brings the energy and themes from a career of short films into her debut feature, making it feel as impactful as a short film, but with more room to breathe and let the characters develop.

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once

There's not really much more to be said about the widely successfully Oscar heavyweight, other than to say that on top of all the crazy, imaginative, multiversal action, the film is ultimately about relationships and, in particular, family. Being able to bring a breath of fresh air to timeless ideas and make them feel wholly inventive is a triumph in my book.

Honourable Mentions

Not a whole lot of honourable mentions this year, as I didn't see a whole lot. Even just finding enough films to fill out the title graphic was difficult. That being said, there were some fun horror movies this year, like Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and Barbarian, that could have crept on to the list. Three Thousand Years of Longing was a film I really enjoyed, and could easily be on this list after a rewatch.

2023

As it's almost 2024 right now, I technically can't be looking forward to any movies this year. Hopefully, we can all look forward to my best of 2023 post relatively soon.

“Goodness Is Something To Be Chosen. When A Man Cannot Choose, He Ceases To Be Man.”

My favourite movie podcast, Blank Check with Griffin and David, is just wrapping up a series of Stanley Kubrick, which gave me the perfect excuse to rewatch some of my favourite films of his and fill in the gaps of ones I’ve put off for whatever reason. For some, I’ve seen multiple times, most only once, and a handful never before.

Because everyone loves a listicle, I decided to rank the films and give brief thoughts on each of them.

13. Fear and Desire

Kubrick’s first feature film, Fear and Desire definitely feels like a filmmaker trying to find his feet. Serving as an anti-war movie without being about a specific war, Kubrick touches on sentiments that would find greater prominence in the wealth of Vietnam War movies in the 70s and 80s. The film has excellent cinematography, with Kubrick shooting it himself after a brief career as a photographer and documentary filmmaker, hinting at the great shots his later masterpieces would be known for.

This was my first, and likely only, time watching this.

12. Killer's Kiss

A slight noir, Killer’s Kiss is Kubrick’s final film before becoming a master filmmaker. While not breaking any new ground, the film is a solid noir, paving the way for his first real masterpiece, which we’ll get to in due time.

As with Fear and Desire, this was my first and only time watching this.

11. Spartacus

This feels the least like a Kubrick to me. In fact, it’s a film I was aware of as a kid well before I knew anything about Kubrick or any of his other movies. The“I am Spartacus” is so a part of film history and popular culture that it’s been ingrained in my brain since childhood. Having only watched it for the first time this year for Blank Check, I found the film to be iconic and powerful, but in a way more in keeping with the Golden Age of Hollywood than with Kubrick’s filmography. It’s definitely a Kirk Douglas and Dalton Trumbo film more than a Kubrick one.

I’ll probably watch this again, but more because it’s a Golden Age historical epic and less because Kubrick directed it.

10. Lolita

This was only my second time watching Lolita after having watched it 15+ years ago. My favourite part then remains my favourite part now - Shelley Winters. Her obvious advances towards James Mason throughout the first act of the movie are as hilarious as they are painful. Once her character exits the movie, it really starts to drag.

Peter Sellers is also great, particularly because his character keeps popping up in various disguises and brings the weirdest energy.

I don’t see myself rushing to watch this one again, but I might watch clips of the parts I liked.

9. Paths of Glory

This one surprised me. I don’t tend to love war films, as the list will attest, but this is more courtroom drama and satire of bureaucracy than war film. The generals are depicted as middle managers and all the shit trickles down to the lowest ranks after a disastrous and avoidable mission goes sideways.The satire hits hard and is heavier than in Kubrick’s later films when he starts to perfect the balance of light and dark.

As with all of his pre-Lolita films, I’d never watched this before. I’ll definitely watch it again some day.

8. Full Metal Jacket

The first act of Full Metal Jacket is so good that it would be impossible for the rest of the movie to live up to it. Had the movie just been the boot camp, it would have been much higher on the list.

When I first watched Full Metal Jacket, I remember being bored to tears by the rest of the movie, again, because I don’t like war movies. However, on this watch, I quite enjoyed the second act, where Joker is acting as a journalist for Stars and Stripes magazine. The scene where all the writers are meeting with the editor-in-chief is quite compelling and features a great performance from John Terry.

I’ll probably give this one another watch down the road, and who knows, maybe I’ll come to like the third act too.

7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I’ll admit that I think Dr. Strangelove is overrated. The satire is too on the nose and some of the performances are too out there. With that being said, I do think there are some wonderful moments of subdued comedy from Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott, and Peter Sellers, which makes the movie work for the most part. Surprisingly, the Sellers performance that works the best is Mandrake, the RAF officer locked in with Hayden’s General Jack D. Ripper. His straight man performance rides the line perfectly between banal and absurd. Sellers’ other roles are too far one way or the other.

I’ll definitely rewatch this for the performances mentioned above.

6. The Killing

The Killing surprised me. It was a taut noir thriller centred on an elaborate heist at a race track. Sterling Hayden leads the ensemble cast of character actors each tasked with a different role in the heist, which all goes according to plan until it doesn’t. While I think this is an excellent noir, there’s still a considered gap between this and the next film on the list.

I look forward to revisiting this film on multiple occasions.

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey

This is Kubrick’s first masterpiece and the film that cemented him as a legend. Science fiction had never been so polished and full of ideas and rarely has since. Every modern sci-fi film is compared to either this or Star Wars, which itself owes a lot to 2001.

While the segment featuring Dave and Hal is often lauded and imitated, every sequence in this film is masterful and captivating. Here Kubrick is in complete control of every shot, every set, and every performance.

2001 is a classic and I’ll revisit it multiple times.

4. Barry Lyndon

While Spartacus may have been the highest profile blind spot in my Kubrick viewership, Barry Lyndon is the most egregious. Produced at the height of his powers, Barry Lyndon has all of Kubrick’s signature elements: deliberate camerawork, pitch black humour, and captivating use of music.

The film stars Ryan O’Neal, an actor I’ve been aware of for a long time, but have somehow avoided seeing everything he’s in. From the sounds of it, his character here is indicative of what he’s like in real life, which adds an extra layer to the film.

At 3 hours, it’s a difficult to take everything in. I look forward to future viewings to gain more appreciation for Barry Lyndon.

3. A Clockwork Orange

I’ve seen A Clockwork Orange countless times now. Despite the troubling subject matter, it’s extremely watchable. Broken up into 3 distinct acts showing Alex’s criminality, rehabilitation, and reintroduction into society, with the first and third acts serving as mirror images of each other, the film expertly sets up multiple payoffs as the film heads to a conclusion.

Like nearly every Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange is infused with comedy, of both the black and farcical variety. From Alex attacking a woman with a giant phallus to the head guard’s eyes popping out of his skull at the sight of a woman trying to seduce Alex, the film is rampant with ridiculous and broad comedy.

Though contemporary at the time of release, because of the pervasive use of brutalist locations and the idiosyncratic character actors, A Clockwork Orange feels very much a time capsule of 1970s Britain.

2. Eyes Wide Shut

When Eyes Wide Shut first came out, I avoided it due in part to the negative discourse surrounding it, but mostly because I was 14 and the rumoured sexuality of the movie was too much for me to handle in a mature way. Flashforward 20+ years and I’m able to appreciate not only the sexuality I had misattributed to the movie, but also the complicated in’s and out’s of the relationship depicted between Cruise and Kidman. When I first watched it two years ago, I loved it and this viewing, being my second, only increased my regard for it.

Eyes Wide Shut takes all of the elements Kubrick has made a career of utilizing and combines them expertly, allowing the film to jump from drama to comedy to horror to thriller in a seamless way. In part because of juxtaposition and in part because of Kubrick’s craft, these different elements all land perfectly. The comedy is hilarious and the dread is overwhelming despite the film being neither a dedicated comedy or horror movie.

There’s a growing movement to make Eyes Wide Shut a Christmas movie - and while I don’t think I’ll ever be jumping on that bandwagon of making it a holiday tradition, I’ll certain make it regular watch as it’s quickly become one of my favourite films.

1. The Shining

I first saw The Shining around the time Eyes Wide Shut came out. One of my friends was the first in our group to get a DVD player so we would often watch movies at his house on Friday nights. His player came with a handful of DVDs, including The Shining, so I was excited for a chance to watch it (after having seen the Simpsons parody episode countless times). Despite being 14 and in the company of a rowdy group of friends, I distinctly remember being enthralled for most of the movie. Once Jack ventures into Room 237, I remember the group of us exploding into revulsion and juvenile laughter. That image of the bathtub lady has haunted me ever since, despite not being that prominent of an element in the story.

Having now seen the film countless times (and having watched the sequel and read both books), the magic of The Shining still hasn’t faded. With each viewing, I’m able to appreciate a different element of the film. In this case, the leisurely setup of transitioning the Overlook hotel to winter feels so cozy and comforting that I hardly mind the time it takes to get to the scares.

All of the elements of the film work. With a set so meticulously constructed and iconically decorated, with pacing so deliberate, and with actors so dialed into their roles, The Shining is a movie that I will never stop loving.

Quietly yearning for what you don't have, while dreading losing what you do. Desire and fear.

After a relatively weak year for cinema in 2020 due to theatres being closed, 2021 boasted a lot of great movies that took advantage of theatres opening back up. With a bunch of holdover movies from the previous year as well as movies made or finished during the pandemic, there was no shortage of great films to watch.

Normally, I write this blog soon after the new year and end up paying lip service to the handful of films I wanted to watch, but didn’t get around to. Often times, one or two of these would have made the top ten, so I decided this year to delay the post until after the Oscar nominations and until after I had seen all the Best Picture nominees. I’m glad I did it, as 2 of the movies I recently watched made the list, and I didn’t have to cram half a dozen or more movies into my winter break before going back to work. While there are a number of movies from 2021 I wanted to watch but didn’t, I was able to watch all the ones I really wanted to. Sorry House of Gucci, I’ll get to you eventually, but I doubt you would have made it on here.

10. Dune

This was my most anticipated movie of the year. It’s Villeneuve direction one of my favourite books with cinematography by Greig Fraser and a stacked cast scored by Hans Zimmer. Everything about this movie is right up my alley, but unfortunately it only gets part of the way there. Perhaps it’s because I knew the plot too well, but the film felt a bit sterile for me.

However, what worked, really worked. It’s a tremendously beautiful film, with incredible set design and epic ship landing scenes. I could have watched an entire film of just those massive ships landing outside of the brutalist cities. That just the little teases of other planets we got were enough to fully develop those worlds speaks to how much thought and care was put into the design and thought behind this movie.

Everyone in the cast is phenomenal with Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem stealing the show. Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen is the stuff of nightmares with a spectre-like presence. I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel and look forward to seeing who rounds out the rest of the cast.

Of all the films on this list, Dune is the one most deserving of a rewatch. I’m sure watching it a second time will stop me from tracking the plot versus the book and allow me to enjoy the film on it’s own terms.

9. Licorice Pizza

I’m a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan and went through a rewatch of all of his films prior to the release of Licorice Pizza, which allows me to place the film firmly in the middle tier of his filmography. That speaks to his quality as a filmmaker that even a middle PTA-film ends up being one of the best of the year.

With Licorice Pizza, Anderson returns to the tone of the films he made earlier in his career with Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love being the closest comparables. This movie is a hangout film through and through, with plot threads left dangling or tied up early in the film. However, like the best hang-out movies, it’s incredibly fun and features two captivating performances from Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Hopefully these two become regulars in PTA films in the same way that Cooper’s father was.

8. Power of the Dog

While not the most timely movie for me, with themes covered frequently in films at this point, it’s hard to deny the power of Power of the Dog. From incredibly nounced performances to a sublime New Zealand landscape doubling for the American West, Jane Campion’s film is superbly made. The narrative builds in economical way towards a finale that is as much earned as it is unexpected, avoiding the obvious third act that I was initially dreading as I watched.

7. The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix is one of my favourite movies of all time and one that played an important role in broadening my mind philosophically as an adolescent. That it features some of the best action choreography of all time compelled me to rewatch it constantly and absorb it’s ideas into my core. Even the sequels, which are greatly flawed, are films I genuinely love. Reloaded features the best action and expands the ideas of the first film while Revolutions features the most emotional moments (and an awful Zion invasion subplot). So even though no Wachowski projects have lived up to the incredible promise set up by The Matrix, when news hit of a new Matrix movie, I was always going to be excited for it, and I was always going to love it.

While the film has been criticized for its lackluster action and that it doesn’t match the look of the original films, I appreciate that this is a new movie with a new perspective and new things to say. The film grapples with its legacy while presenting a heart-felt love story.

6. Nightmare Alley

Like Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley falls somewhere in the middle of Guillermo Del Toro’s filmography. And like PTA’s films, that still makes Nightmare Alley a heck of a good movie.

With some of the best production design of the year (Cate Blanchett’s office alone is a marvel) and noirish cinematography, Nightmare Alley is a visual feast presenting a dark narrative and a detestable protagonist. It would be a hard movie to watch if it wasn’t so good looking. That final scene is both inevitable and haunting.

5. Drive My Car

I’m a huge fan of Haruki Murakami’s work, having read most of his novels (though I haven’t read his short stories yet). And with Burning being such an incredible movie, I had high hopes for Drive My Car.

Clocking in at 3 hours, it’s a big ask of an audience, but fortunately it’s a really comfy movie that you’d gladly continue watching. Like all of Murakami’s work, there are so many beautiful lines in this movie that create images beyond what’s on screen, whether it be the story of the girl that regularly breaks into her crush’s home or Misaki’s story of how she learned to drive by taking her mother to and from the train station everyday.

It also features one of my favourite thing in movies, when the opening credits happen well into the movie (40 minutes in this case). It’s such a badass thing to do. See also A Long Day’s Journey into Night.

4. Titane

This is a bonkers movies about a serial killer car show model who has sex with a car and then starts to turn into one. It’s body horror beyond what even Cronenberg could imagine. Julia Ducournau, who’s previous film Raw only hinted at this level of body horror, has demonstrated that she has an innate sense of what makes people tick and has a flair for depicting it in a bold way. I’ll be there for whatever insanity she comes up with next.

3. The Worst Person in the World

From Norwegian director Joachim Trier, this film features Renate Reinsve as a gifted woman who struggles with sticking with things as she switches from major to major in school. This same uncertainty lends itself to other aspects of her life as her indecisiveness starts to take a toll on her personal life. It’s a beautifully meditative film that hints at the existential struggles we all face in this day and age.

2. The Green Knight

From David Lowery, one of my favourite meditative directors, The Green Knight is a badass masterclass in filmmaking. Based on Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the film is a fantasy quest movie with a metaphysical bent. Everything about it is spectacular, the cinematography, the music, the sound design, and most of all, the performance from Dev Patel. It’s a knockout film that cost $15 million but looks like it cost 10 times that amount.

1. Pig

Nicholas Cage has done well for himself in the last few years taking on roles in a number of well regarded movies like Mandy and Colour Out of Space. But unlike those movies, in which he gives unleashed performances, in Pig, Cage is restrained. He’s carrying so much emotion in just a look.

When his prized truffle pig is kidnapped, Cage retreats from his cabin back into the cooking scene of Portland to track her down. It’s John Wick but about compassion and cooking instead of revenge.

Pig was the most emotional compelling movie I saw all year.

Honourable Mentions

A lot of movies could’ve cracked the top ten, including C’mon, C’mon, West Side Story, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Parallel Mothers, but one that I want to give special shout out to is Malignant. What an insane movie. I wish more filmmakers would make weird films like that for mainstream release.

2022

The weird thing about writing this blog now, is that a handful of 2022 movies have already come out. From those I’ve seen already, only The Batman might make the list, but there are a whole bunch of others that I’m looking forward to.

For the franchises, I’m excited to seeKnives Out 2,Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse,Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,Mission: Impossible 7, andJohn Wick 4.

Even more exciting is the prospect of getting new movies from a bunch of my favourite filmmakers such as Daniels’Everything Everywhere All At Once, Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, Fincher’sThe Killer,RobertEggers’ The Northman,JordanPeele’sNope,AriAster’sDisappointment Blvd.,Lanthimos’ Poor Things, JamesGray’sArmageddon Time, Park Chan-wook’sDecision To Leave, Cronenberg’sCrimes Of The Future, Wes Anderson’sAsteroid City, and Alex Garland’s Men.

So a lot of interesting films to check out in 2022 and I’m sure a bunch of surprises will pop up here and there as well.

No promises about posting more frequently, that obviously hasn’t worked out. The text time I write will probably be this time next year.

We fought in an immoral war that wasn't ours for rights we didn't have.

I’ve been trying to write the blog post for 4 months but haven’t been struggling to find the motivation after a terrifying 2020 that’s drained me of the will to do much of anything. So far, 2021 has been much of the same, except it seems like the solidarity that my community shared in 2020 has given way to frustration and defiance. Social distancing and community safety seem to be the furtherest thing from many people’s minds all while our COVID cases are constantly breaking single-day records. While the hope that we’ll soon be out of this is bright, the accumulating darkness and death we’re experiencing right now really nails home how trivial it is to be watching and writing about movies.

Normally, watching a good movie is one of the best ways to escape the banality of everyday life, but without theatres, the movie-going experience is inextricably tied to the banality of being locked down in your own home. For that reason, a number of the movies that I would have enjoyed seeing in the theatre, or even with home viewing in a different context, didn’t resonate with me. Films like Nomadland, which has received unanimous acclaim, or I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which is totally in my wheelhouse, didn’t resonate with me.

Originally I excused my lateness in writing this post as an opportunity to catch up on 2020 releases that I hadn’t gotten around to (like Minari or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), but with April almost over, I still haven’t been able to find the energy to watch them. Instead, I’ve been watching mostly 90′s junk thrillers or pure escapist action movies. Quickly realizing that I probably wasn’t going to get around to the rest of my 2020 watchlist anytime soon, I set the Oscars as my next goal. If I missed that deadline, then nothing was going to get me motivated to write this (I’m actually just finishing it up after a break to watch the Oscars).

Every year I put together a collage image of 30 films that make up my short list. Normally finding the last couple of films to fill it out to 30 is a struggle as is narrowing down the list to the top 10. Oddly, this year, there was no shortage of films for my short list, but I had a hell of a time finding enough of them that I wanted to put in the top 10. So a couple of films that might not have made it in past years have popped into the top 10 because I actually got to see them in theatres (you’ll know when you see them).

10. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Aaron Sorkin’s sophomore directorial effort was one of the biggest films to be sold to streaming because of the theatre shutdown. Featuring a stacked cast and the typical Sorkin pacing and dialogue, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an actors showcase, withYahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Rylance standing out.

9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a hard film to describe. It’s essentially a road movie about the difficulty of having an abortion as a minor. The film’s mood is played sullenly for the most part, so when the emotion breaks through in the second act during the questionnaire that the film takes its name from, the impact it has is immeasurable.

8. The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man was the last movie I saw in theatres before theatres were shut down. Being the only movie on this list from the“before times” probably endears me to it, but nevertheless it was a solidly crafted film. It’s brutal, mean, and scary in a way that horror thrillers too often fail to be. Director Leigh Whannel had a really solid debut with 2018′s Upgrade and proves that wasn’t a fluke with a worthy followup.

7. Tenet

A new Christopher Nolan movie will always be an event for me. As one of the only blockbuster auteurs, his movies are spectacular and uncompromising at the same time. Tenet came out in theatres at a time where COVID seemed to be under control in Vancouver, allowing me a chance to see it twice on the big screen. My first screening was in IMAX and was rife with the sound problems that made the dialogue unintelligible. However, my second viewing at a different theatre had no such issues, allowing me to fully appreciate the intricate plot.

Tenet is a much more stylized Nolan film, with the whole thing feeling like a riff on a Bond movie. Despite some of the heavy-handed dialogue (”including my son!”), awkward backwards walking, and underwhelming final set piece, Tenet was the biggest event film of 2020 and was one that I’ll be glad to revisit.

6. Bacurau

Bacurau is a modern day Western set in a fictional town in Brazil that I went into knowing nothing about beforehand, which is the best way to see it. All I’ll say is that Udo Kier comes to town and things get weird. Bacurau made me feel horrified, uncomfortable, and celebratory at different times.

5. Palm Springs

Palm Springs follows the surprisingly growing trend of Groundhog Day style time loop movies. While Happy Death Day and Edge of Tomorrow apply it to another genre, Palm Springs stays firmly within the romantic comedy genre of its predecessor and provides a goofy yet sentimental story. The timing of Palm Springs’ release couldn’t be more appropriate, as it unintentionally depicts what being in lockdown feels like while simultaneously providing a lighthearted break from it.

4. Undine

As one of the films I watched as part of VIFF’s at home event, Undine was the most compelling of the dozen I watched. It’s a film about jilted lovers, underwater welders, and mermaids that threads the line between romantic drama and fairytale expertly.

3. Da 5 Bloods

Da 5 Bloods is the latest in Spike Lee’s exploration of being black in America throughout different periods of time. Like with BlackkKlansmen, Lee crosscuts real life footage from present day to nail down the connection between the treatment of black people in the United States in the present and the past. While the film is a little shaggy and shifts tone and genre, it’s incredibly compelling and features the best performance of the year in Delroy Lindo’s Paul.

2. Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor has all of the body horror of his father’s early work with a meanness that feels appropriate for such a shitty year. The film looked great and featured a great lead performance from Andrea Riseborough who, between this and Mandy, seems to be the new star of weird horror.

1. Another Round

As much as I love Mads Mikkelsen’s Hollywood work, he’s on a whole other level in his Danish work. In Another Round, he plays a jaded school teacher who starts to appreciate life once he and his friends start maintaining a constant blood alcohol level. It’s funny, tragic, and powerful and the best movie I saw in 2020.

Honourable Mentions

As I mentioned earlier, I had a hard time filling the top 10, so I don’t really have any honourable mentions. However, Mank was originally in there before I actually started to write the list.

2021

Dune, No Time to Die, and Last Night in Soho are holdovers from last year that I’m still dying to see in theatres. Other than that, I’m not super excited about much, as I don’t want to look forward to a movie only to have it delayed or released on a streaming platform.

At this point I’m more looking forward to a post-COVID world and being able to watch movies in theatres again. I don’t care what the film is, I’ll watch it.

Yer fond of me lobster ain’t ye?

Another year, another broken promise that I’d write more often. I’m not going to fool myself going forward and expect I’ll be able to keep up with reviewing every movie I see. However, I’ll continue to write my year-end movie review and perhaps a couple here and there when I feel inspired.

Looking back to last year’s post, I wouldn’t make too many changes, though I would certainly moveInto the Spider-verseslightlyhigher up. I would also consider addingUpgradeto the list for how brazen it is.

Most of the films I called out as ones to watch for 2019 ended up being either on my list or in the composite image, which goes to show that it’s worth getting excited for new films more often than not.

Vancouver being the way that it is, sometimes we don’t get timely releases of films when other cities do. As a result, I haven’t had a chance to see1917andUncut Gemsyet. The latter of which I’ve been dying to see for months and would probably feature on this list.

Here’s the 10 best films I’ve seen from 2019:

10. John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum

WhereasJohn Wick: Chapter 2was the perfect escalation of its pared down predecessor,Chapter 3is merely an excellent continuation of the newly minted franchise. However, while not bringing anything entirely new to the world ofJohn Wick, it is still an intensely entertaining film. The first 20 minutes is some of the best fight choreography in the series to date and enough to secure a spot on this list.

9. Long Day’s Journey into Night

From directorBi Gan,Long Day’s Journey into Nightis a noirish drama about a man (Huang Jue) returning to his hometown following the death of his father to track down his lost love (Tang Wei). The film is a slow burn that jumps between past and present before descending into a surreal 60 minute single take shot filmed in 3D. Regretfully, the only screening I could attend was entirely 2D, but nonetheless, the sequence was still enthralling. This is the type of film that proves that spectacle doesn’t necessarily need to be tied to tentpole movies.

8. Booksmart

Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut suggests she has an effortless understanding of comedy. Written by a quartet of female writers,Booksmartfeels likeSuperbadfor a new generation (I can’t believe that film came out 12 years ago). Interestingly,Jonah Hill’s sister,Beanie Feldsteinstars, alongsideKaitlyn Dever(daughter of the guy that voiced Barney the Purple Dinosaur). While it would be easy to say it’s“the femaleSuperbad,”Booksmartis in fact much more than that. Replacing the misfits trying to get laid story with one about a pair of overachievers realizing almost too late that there’s more to life than good grades lets the film be looser and allows the comedy to happen more naturally.

7. Midsommar

Ari Aster’s follow-up to 2018′sHereditarybegan filming almost immediately after wrapping post-production on his previous film. As a result,Midsommarhas that extra layer of a director exhausting himself by putting everything on the screen.Midsommaris a much more mature work thanHereditaryand one that took a while to grow on me. My initial reaction was less enthusiastic than it is now, but it’s one of the films from 2019 that has stuck with me the most. I imagine a second watch or the extended director’s cut might raise my appreciation of it even more.

Florence Pughgives a knockout performance that when combined with her roles inLittle Womenand last year’sLittle Drummer Girlprove that she’ll be a star in no time.

6. Knives Out

Rian Johnson’s first post-Star Warsfilm sees him reinvigorated and working with a bigger name cast than he has in the past. Essentially a whodunnit along the lines ofAgatha Christie,Knives OutfollowsDaniel Craig’s southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc as he investigates the murder of a wealthy publisher (Christopher Plummer). In addition to playing with a few plot twists, Johnson includes a couple of structure twists as well that turn the film on its head.

In addition toCraig’s hammy performance, other standouts includeAna de ArmasandChris Evansas the publisher’s caregiver and grandson, respectively.

Johnsonhas hinted at the possibility of more Benoit Blanc mysteries, and as long asDaniel Craigis onboard, I’ll gladly watch them.

5. The Lighthouse

InRobert Eggers’ followup toThe Witch,Willem DafoeandRobert Pattinsonplay a pair of lighthouse keepers in isolation. As would be expected,The Lighthouseis a paranoia-fuelled chamber piece, withDafoe’s gruff experienced lighthouse keeper getting on the nerves of the youngerPattinson. And while this setup allows the two leads a chance to really dig into the 19th century dialects, the film takes the occasional departure into the eldritch for a very unsettling film.

As with Black Philip inThe Witch, there’s a standout animal character inThe Lighthouse- fittingly, a seagull.

4. Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s presumably penultimate film is perhaps his most mature work, ruminating on the idea of legacy and the film industry as a whole.Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywoodis almost aTarantinohangout movie reminiscent of parts ofJackie BrownandPulp Fiction. A lot of time is spent on scenes that don’t necessarily lead to the film’s climax, but allow the characters room to breathe and feel real. Other than the historical event hinted at throughout the movie, the film doesn’t seem to have a particular direction, which allows you to live in the lives of these characters more than if it was purely plot driven.

The main cast ofLeonardo DiCaprio,Brad Pitt, andMargo Robbieis great, but it’sPittwho puts in a career best performance. There’s a quietness and a sadness to his character that brings some added depth to an otherwise bold cast.

3. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt’s other great performance this year is inJames Gray’sAd Astra. Having seenGray’sThe Lost City of Zand purposefully avoiding trailers and reviews, my expectation for this film was a reflective voyage centred around the ideas of obsession, loss, and family. All of these ideas were present inAd Astra, but the real surprise was how seamlessly a space opera was added into the story. I never thought I’d see a lunar shuttle chase, but I’m glad I did.

The amount of casual sci-fi world building in the film is staggering, with entire premises treated as banal. We get to seePitt’s Clifford McBride travel from Earth to the Moon mundanely on a commercial flight. Most films would take the opportunity to spoon feed to the audience why this is odd, butAd Astratreats it as normal as the characters do, making it all the more fascinating.

2. The Farewell

StarringAwkwafina, who has quickly shot to stardom after featuring inCrazy Rich Asians,The Farewellgives the actress the chance to stretch her dramatic muscles playing Billi, who returns to China to visit with her grandmother who has cancer. Billi’s family insists on keeping the grandmother’s illness a secret from her so she can live out her life in happiness, while Billi struggles with the morals of lying to her grandmother. This premise allows for not only the comedy of misunderstanding, a staple in comedy, but also emotional tension and the devastation of preparing to send off a loved one.

The comedy-drama balance is handled expertly by directorLulu Wang, makingThe Farewellthe movie I both cried at and laughed at the most this year.

1. Parasite

Had you told me a couple of months ago that my pickingParasiteas the best movie of the year could be considered a safe choice, I would have scoffed. Yet here we are, andParasitehas widely been hailed as the best film of the year. I suppose in hindsight it’s not hard to see why. It’s both a crowd-pleasing film and a film that’s deeply disturbing and thrilling.

After having seenBong Joon-ho’s last five movies, one would be forgiven for expecting a linearity inParasite. Most of his films tend to have a point A to point B element with an expected (though often subverted) outcome. Heck,Snowpierceris about a group of people moving from the back of the train to the front, one car at a time. YetParasiteis different. The film sets up a premise you only find out about as it happens and is quickly overturned once you’re comfortable with it.

I saw this movie the same day I sawJokerand the difference in how the subject matter of class is treated is stark. WhereasJokerwanted to go all dark andTaxi Driverwith the theme,Parasitehad fun with it and let the elements of drama, comedy, and horror slide along the theme of class.

LikeBong’sMemories of Murder,Parasitewill be one of those films I endlessly revisit.

Honourable Mentions

Films that almost cracked the Top 10 that I wanted to shout out here areUsandDoctor Sleepfor being really solid, exciting, horror-thrillers. As well asThe Irishmanfor being a classicScorcesefilm that givesDe NiroandPacinoample time to with each other. Finally, I wanted to applaudAvengers: Endgamefor not only managing to pull off such an ambitious finale, but to make it so goddamned fun.

2020

This year I’m looking forward to new blockbusters from two of my favourite directors,Christoper NolanandDenis Villeneuve-TenetandDune, respectively.

Despite the stumble withSpectre, I’m extremely excited forDaniel Craig’s last outing as Bond withNo Time to Die, by auteurCary Fukunaga. I can’t wait to see how his style meshes with the Bond template.

Also of great interest are the new films fromDavid FincherandEdgar Wright-MankandLast Night in Soho.

“Where I come from, the sea carries our tears away.”

After several on the fly course corrections, the DC Universe diverts once again away from the grim dark aesthetic and tone that muddied most of the previous outing with a bright, fun, and silly movie in Aquaman.

Rather than making pains to connect this film to an inconsistent set of precursor films, Aquaman sheds the anchor of being in an extended universe to focus on a stand alone story featuring Aquaman’s first visit to Atlantis in order to stop an attack on the surface world. It’s a goofy premise, but one that makes you completely forget the two Marthas and exploding piss jars.

There’s really not much to say about the film’s plot, other than that it is a completely serviceable race-against-time McGuffin chase around the world with a few conflicts along the way. This allows for some great set pieces which director James Wan certainly has an eye for.

While most of the characters lack true depth below the surface, there are still some great character moments between Arthur and his father. It’s a relationship that’s rare in a superhero movie for its drama-free simplicity and one that feels more real as a result. And even though it’s contrived and Nicole Kidman’s performance is a little odd, the relationship between her and Aquaman’s dad is quite affecting.

While there are a few hiccups in the cast, for the most part it’s great. In particular, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is great as Black Manta, giving the villain a sympathetic note despite being out right bad. It should go without mention that Willem Dafoe is great as well, as Aquaman’s mentor. Seeing him in more compassionate roles is refreshing after a career filled with sinister villains.

And of course, the film would fall apart if not for the incredible work Jason Momoa does in portraying Aquaman. This is a far cry from the character shown in Justice League. Rather than being a dude-bro, Momoa’s Aquaman is now fun, fragile, and conflicted. This is why you shouldn’t put the cart before the horse making a shared universe of films. Given the proper time and space to breathe, Momoa and Wan have been able to craft Aquaman into a full character, which certainly cannot be said for his representation in Justice League.

Though, I found the film to be exciting and engaging, the plotting and editing were a bit wonky. Without going into specifics too much, it’s pretty clear that all of the scenes with a young Arthur training alongside Dafoe were meant to be earlier in the film and were moved later in the film to address pacing issues. While not the end of the world by any means, it’s certainly a bit disorienting when trying to follow along.

Even though it’s been a huge mess so far, hopefully the success of Aquaman, and to a lesser extent Wonder Woman, allows Warner Bros. to give filmmakers more leeway to make oddball superhero movies like this. We certainly don’t need anymore Man of Steels.

“This was an origin story the whole time.”

Split had me fooled into believing that M. Night Shyamalan had recaptured the magic he had with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and had me hoping that Glass would be something spectacular. After having watched Glass, I now doubt that the magic was ever real to begin with. The stilted dialogue, uneven pacing, awkward cinematography, and odd plotting typical in his films were all forgivable and less noticeable when the ideas were interesting and the characters well acted. All of the flaws found in Glass have been present in most of Shyamalan’s movies, but unlike those films, Glass completely shatters as the ideas it supports are simplistic and trite.

After seeing Split’s bonkers twist ending revealing it was a backdoor sequel to Unbreakable, I’ve been trying to figure out how these two worlds would be brought together. Had you told me it would be in a film set mostly in an asylum with the characters locked up in separate cells, I wouldn’t have believed you. This act of the film presents the most of the movie’s “ideas,” but it is unfortunately the longest portion of the film, much of it wasted on Sarah Paulson’s doctor character trying to convince McAvoy, Willis, and Jackson that their powers are merely delusions, despite the fact that we’ve SEEN evidence to the contrary in Unbreakable, Split, and even the first act of Glass (Not to mention that Jackson has no real powers, other than being“smart,” which the film keeps trying unconvincingly to pass off as being on par with the abilities of the other characters).

The comic-book-as-real-life motif that was interesting in Unbreakable in 2000 barely even registers as an idea after an entire genre of superhero films has developed, expanded, collapsed, and flourished again. There have been three separate live action Spider-Man franchises and one animated one since Unbreakable came out, so of course its ideas of superheroics won’t feel fresh. However, Glass doubles down on its comic book motifs, butembarrassingly seems to not know anything about comic books. Terminology like“showdown” and“limited series” are thrown around as if they mean anything, but land with a thud.

The film’s third act is where the whole film comes apart. The rug is pulled out from under the audience more than once, but every twist, save for one so obvious that it barely registers as one, falls completely flat and adds to a messy conclusion that is anything but satisfying.

It’s a shame Glass couldn’t have been a better movie. Successful elements were certainly there, namely James McAvoy’s multiple performances. And the first act, with Bruce Willis prowling for criminals, was actually quite fun. But the rest of the movie is a mess. Which I guess shouldn’t come as a surprise from a director who labouredly tried to explain that his cameos in the two previous movies were the same character. At this point, it’s safe to say Shyamalan is no autuer, rather, he’s a shiller of schlock. His catalog is probably easier to enjoy with that expectation in mind.

“Beware the quiet man. For while others speak, he watches. And while others act, he plans. And when they finally rest…he strikes.”

During the opening monologue of the 76th Golden Globes this year, Andy Samberg made a joke about how Vice invaded the wrong award category (Drama) a la the invasion of Iraq. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association certainly has a history of letting films into the wrong categories, like The Martian winning Best Musical or Comedy a few years ago, in the case of Vice, it is a lot less cut and dry.

The second in a series of political films from Adam McKay, Vice take some of the same beats of The Big Short, but applies them to a much more linear and straightforward biopic. Whereas The Big Short had a frenetic energy to it and a lot of instructional scenes to help the audience keep up with the nitty-gritty of the financial world, Vice really only has to explain what the Unitary Executive Theory is for the film to make sense beyond a narrative sense. This frees up McKay to tell a more straight-forward dramatic biopic and use his comedy for outright satire and to play with the formal aspects of his film. What results is a film that is both clearly by the same authorial voice as The Big Short, and very different in its use of comedy. It’s essentially a drama with a few comedy sketches thrown in as satire, which makes sense considering McKay’s background in comedy writing for SNL.

Even though the film is clearly told from a liberal perspective and outright calls Cheney a dirtbag in its opening minutes, Vice succeeds in presenting Cheney as a compelling protagonist that is even sympathetic at times. His reaction to his daughter’s coming out is almost enough to make-up for his ruthless ambition throughout the film. Christian Bale does a great job of vanishing into the role, following his worrying trend of gaining weight for the part rather than wearing prosthetics.

Also great in Vice is Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, the driving force behind Dick’s transformation from a fuck-up to a power-player. Despite little physical transformation, Adams is almost as invisible in the role, able to display the most natural acting of anyone in the film.

While many of the beats in the story are well-known to even the most casual follower of politics, there are enough revelations and ideas presented that the film is genuinely informative. Combined with the wit and comedic timing of McKay, Vice is an extremely entertaining film that raises questions about the people and motivations behind world events. If McKay’s up for making them, I would gladly watch the next films in what I hope becomes a series of political satires.

“They wanted a show, I gave them a show.”

After a barren 2018 on this blog, I decided that I would try and review every movie I see in the theatre in 2019. Let’s see how long this lasts. Rather than being mostly positive as I’ve tended to be by only reviewing movies I really liked, I’m going to have to be a bit more critical. First up is Vox Lux.

Vox Lux, by writer-director Brady Corbet, depicts in two halves the origin and resurgence of a pop star, Celeste, played by in part by both Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman. Sandwiched in between a school shooting prologue and a concert performance finale, the film focuses on Celeste’s recovery from being shot and her embarking on a music career in the first half and her rebound from personal setbacks and her career comeback in the second half.

There came a point 40 minutes into the film’s diptych narrative, where I started getting antsy waiting for Natalie Portman’s half, as she’s the headliner and the reason we were all there. While entertaining and well acted, Celeste’s origin felt protracted with little point other than to compare her loss of innocence to that of America after 9/11 (really). Had I known that I would be begging for the film to go back to the first half as soon as Portman started chewing scenery and spitting out invective in a hammy accent, I would have gladly gone back to a plodding narrative if it meant the performances would be good.

Portman’s acting came as a shock to the system, as normally I really enjoy her performances, especially in last year’s Annihilation. However, her performance in Vox Lux is so over the top and out of line with the nuanced performance Cassidy displays that I was pulled right out of the film while I tried to reconcile the two performances. When Cassidy shows up again as Celeste’s daughter, momentary confusion set in once again as I tried to suss out any potential narrative trickery. Whereas Cassidy’s Celeste has a mild Irish accent and conveys her character as much through body language and expression than through speech, Portman’s Celeste acts like an SNL character from Staten Island or the mom in an Adam Sandler movie. Her performance felt so at odds with everything else in the movie that I began to reflect back on her previous performances that I enjoyed, like the one in Jackie, and question whether they were actually good.

On the other hand, Cassidy is genuinely great in this, able to convincingly depict both Celeste and her daughter Albertine as completely different characters. After having already stolen the show in both Tomorrowland and Killing of a Sacred Deer, I think it’s safe to say that Cassidy is poised for a fruitful career.

Lead performance aside, Vox Lux is a mostly enjoyable movie showing the growing confidence and capability of an up-and-coming director. Choosing to juxtapose two moments in Celeste’s life is a bold construction, but one that does little other than help illustrate her loss of innocence.

At times, Vox Lux seems like it’s poised to be a visual and aural treat, with an exciting music video and a powerful vocal performance in the first half, but otherwise the cinematography and music are rote. Even the final concert scene, which is the culmination of the entire film feels flat. Despite theoretically providing for a larger budget, the concert depicted feels unintentionally stark and cheap. For a film about a pop star, that its visuals and sounds aren’t electric is a real issue.

Perhaps the most interesting and exciting choice the movie makes is to have Willem Dafoe provide voice over narration at key points of the film. While often a bit heavy handed in meaning, Dafoe’s delivery is delightfully verbose, lending an arcane layer to a film that probably doesn’t deserve it.

With a restrained or replaced Portman and some visual and aural innovation, Vox Lux could easily have been one of the top films of 2018. And while the experience wasn’t entirely satisfying, that Corbet is as ambitious as he is, is a good sign that his future output might live up to the potential that Vox Lux suggests he has.

“This is the dance of Great Hunger. The dance seeking the meaning of life.”

I can’t believe I’ve left this blog lay dormant for a year. Part of it is not being as inspired to write and part of it is the less than stellar crop of films this year. This isn’t to suggest that there weren’t any great films in 2018, rather there was nothing to wow me to such an extent that I felt compelled to shake off the lethargy and write.

While no one individual film got me excited enough to write, the gradual build up of great films has finally won out and compelled me to reflect on what I saw this year.

Before I get started, I’d like to address my list from last year. Normally I don’t feel it necessary to reconsider my rankings, as they’re clearly subjective and of the moment. However, in the time that has passed, I’ve had time to properly reflect on this films I saw during or after writing this list. First, Good Timewould very likely be in the bottom half of the list due to how vibrant, kinetic, and propulsive it is. Second, The Phantom Thread would very likely be at #1. I’ve watched this a couple of times now and firmly believe it to be a near perfect film. Perhaps I’ll go back and do a retrospective post on it after my next watch. What films I’d bump off to make room for them, I have no idea, but it would likely be between The Shape of Water, Get Out, and The Last Jedi (it’s still one of the best Star Wars films, though).

As is usual, this list is missing a bunch of stuff I haven’t seen yet. Such is life. The good stuff that I have seen, but didn’t make the cut is in the composite image above.

Without further ado, here’s my list for 2018:

10. Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

This one was a surprise. The trailers seemed visually appealing, but were fairly underwhelming, while the premise of multiple spider-characters running around could very well have turned into a convoluted nightmare. However, despite these signs, Into the Spider-verseworks.

By focusing on Miles Morales rather than Peter Parker, we’re able to forgo the tragic origin story necessary for the latter character, and gloss over and, in some instances, ridicule the continuity of the three other incarnations of Spider-man that have appeared on screen since 2002. The film is fast and loose with its plot, but you never really care, as the characters and their relationships are all compelling. I was duped by some of the elementary plot twists because of how engaging the characters were.

I mentioned the visuals earlier, but I need to emphasize that they’re the reason this film is on the list. Rather than using a generic animation style or copying other popular animated films, Spider-man: Into the Spider-versecreates a dynamic, living visual language that feels as real as anything in a live action film. Rather than approaching the uncanny valley of realism, the colours, lights, buildings, and character designs all evoke a fun, poppy, comic book movie.

While by no means profound, Into the Spider-versewas an emotional, exciting spectacle. I’m tempted to go see it in 3D to see how the animation translates to that format.

9. Black Panther

I’m a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but will be the first to admit that a lot of the films suffer from the same bland plots and generic villains. Lately, Marvel has tried to differentiate these films and push them into different genres, but they still tend to blend together to all but the most fervent fan.

Black Panther is a breath of fresh air from a stale series of movies. Director Ryan Coogler is afforded the opportunity to not only craft the afrofuturism of Wakanda, but also depict the type of real life community rarely shown in Marvel movies - Oakland. That the film opens with the mythical creation story of Wakanda and a flashback to Oakland in 1992 before jumping into the present day action lets you know that this film is going to be about something, rather than just an episode in the overarching Marvel story. It’s about the people of Wakanda and their place in the world, but it’s also about Black Americans and their place within their own country.

Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger is easily the best villain in a Marvel movie. His conflict with Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challla is drawn down ideological lines that parallel the differences between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. One ofKillmonger’s final lines of the movie is the most haunting line of dialogue this year and has stuck with me months after watching the film -“just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships.”

8. Annihilation

Alex Garland’s Ex Machinawas the film that got me started writing about movies, so it’s only fitting that his latest finds its way on this list. Based on the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilationtells the story of a military team exploring“the Shimmer,” an ever-growing domain of iridescent light where biological systems merge and mutate.

This was a really heady sci-fi movie with a lot of horror elements to it, including a frightening dance scene that reminds me of the one from Ex Machina (maybe because Sonoya Mizuno is in both scenes). The almost entirely female cast is excellent with a stand out performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh.

7. Hereditary

I didn’t know that much about Hereditary before going into it, but it made for a better viewing experience. For that reason I won’t say that much about it, other than I’ve started doing the tongue-in-cheek tock sound.

6. Mission Impossible: Fallout

After nearly stalling out after the abysmal first sequel, the Mission Impossible series has been steadily improving to the point where it’s now the best and most consistent action franchise. Mission Impossible: Fallout marks the first return director to the franchise in Christopher McQuarrie and the first direct sequel. Not content with repeating themselves, McQuarrie and Cruise put together the most relentless instalment in the series with stunts and set pieces beyond any of its predecessors. If the series ends here, it would certainly be on a high note. I don’t envy the director that’s tapped to follow this one up.

5. Suspiria

I only saw the original Suspiria recently, but I could tell right away why it’s considered a classic. This singular film is about a new member to a mysterious/sinister ballet company discovering its secrets set to an over-the-top prog rock score by Goblin,with bright, psychedelic cinematography. Why anyone would attempt to remake such a unique film seemed audacious. That it was Luca Guadagninore-teaming with his cinematographer from Call Me By Your Name,Sayombhu Mukdeeprom,and bringing in Radiohead’s Thom Yorkemade for an inconceivable finished product.

Thankfully the remake just takes the premise of the original film as a starting point and goes off into some weird territory that would seemingly be below its pedigree. Suspiriaisn’t a perfectly crafted film, but it’s certainly a memorable one. With a number of weirdly creepy scenes and some oddly touching ones as well. And though his score isn’t as present in the final film as I would have liked, the scenes featuring Yorke’s “Suspirium” and “Volk” (as well as its remix earlier in the film) are beautiful and terrifying.

It would be an injustice not to mention how good Tilda Swinton is in this, especially the climax once you realize she’s playing 3 characters in frame at the same time.

4. You Were Never Really Here

You Were Never Really Hereis a film whose violence is rarely shown on screen, but the weight of that violence is. We see it on the faces of the witnesses, perpetrators, and victims, making it all the more harrowing.

Joaquin Phoenix plays a hitman tasked with rescuing girls from sex trafficking rings with his weapon of choice - a hammer. One such job goes awry and he finds himself tracking down those responsible all the way to the top of the local government. It’s by no means an original premise, but the way in which writer/director Lynn Ramseyfilms around the violence denies the visceral enjoyment a vengeance thriller normally provokes. Rather, we see how certain kinds of loss can’t be restored through revenge. Phoenix gives it his all playing an empty man looking for redemption.

3.Mandy

Speaking of vengeance, Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy follows the typical revenge thriller template and doesn’t shy away from the violence. But that’s the only thing about it that’s typical. It feels like someone painted a heavy metal album cover on velvet and that somehow came to life. The film is a dreamlike experience from start to finish and utilizes a career-best Nicolas Cage freakout performance to oscillate between absurdity and tragedy.

The gender politics of this movie are certainly worthy of discussion, but it should be noted that despite the movie following the murdered wife trope, Andrea Riseborough’s Mandy is the strongest and most fully-formed character in the whole film. Her death haunts the audience and Cagelong after the film is over, despite all the distracting chainsaw fights and cheddar goblins.

I should also mention that Mandyfeatures one of the last scores ofJohann Johannsson, the brilliant composer of Sicario and Arrival. Like all of his work, it’s not the score you’d expect for this kind of film; it’s melancholic and nostalgic rather than bombastic.

2. Widows

Widowscertainly checks of a lot of boxes for me - an auteur director, a stellar cast, a crime story, and Chicago politics. DirectorSteve McQueen teams up writer Gillian Flynn to craft a film that combines a heist plot with an election plot while breaking down the lines between race and class in one of the most segregated cities in the world.

I could talk all day about the performances, especially those from lead Viola Davis and scene stealers Elizabeth Debicki and Daniel Kaluuya, but in this instance I want to focus on the directing, and on one scene in particular:

After a presentation at a tenement project of a community outreach program he spearheads, alderman hopeful Jack Mulligan (Colin Ferrell) hops in his town car and discusses the election and the issues surrounding itwith his campaign manager as they drive back to his large family home.

Rather than filming the inside of the car, as would typically be done, McQueenplaces the cameraon the car hood pointing at both the tinted window and a portion of the neighbourhood they’re driving through. The car ride is only a few minutes from the tenement building to Mulligan’s house, yet the neighbourhood very quickly shifts from low income to extremely rich in a matter of blocks.

It’s an inspired choice to add an extra layer to an exposition scene and helps elevate what could easily be a derivative genre film into a classic.

1. Burning

Lee Chang-Dong’s Burning is based on the Haruki Murakamishort story “Barn Burning” and features the story of a love triangle between Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) and Hae-mi (Jun Jong-seo), two childhood neighbours that reconnect as adults, and Ben (Steven Yeun), a Gatsby-esque figure Hae-mi meets while travelling in Africa. Ben is a mysterious figure that rubs Jong-su the wrong way who slowly ingratiates himself into both their lives.

Fittingly, Burningis a slow-burn of a film, that takes its time developing these characters. And while ostensibly the film is about the tension between Jong-su and Ben, Hae-mi is the soul. Her scenes are full of life and light, contrasting the darkness in Ben and the suspicions in Jong-su. JunJong-seoprovides a captivating performance, the highlight of which is her sunset dance to Miles Davis’s“Generique.”

Steven Yeun is revelatory as Ben, showcasing a smouldering performance with just a few looks and gestures. It’s understated, but unsettling.

Honourable Mentions

Almost cracking the top 10 were Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger, a ghost story I think I need to rewatch to properly evaluate, and The Night Comes For Us, an incredibly visceral action movie from a lot of the talent in front of and behind the cameras on the Raid movies.

2019

For 2019 there are a few films from perennial favourites Quentin Tarantino, Bong Joon-Ho, and Rian Johnson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite, and Knives Out, respectively. I’d expect most of these to be on next years list.

Similarly, based on how much I liked Get Out, The Witch, and Nightcrawler, I’m looking forward to Jordan Peele’s Us, David Eggers’s The Lighthouse, and Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw. There isn’t same track record with these filmmakers however; so I won’t get my expectations too high.

For some blockbuster fare, I’m counting the days to see John Wick: Chapter 3 and eagerly await the long anticipated debut of Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. It’ll also be nice to see the end of the decade long Infinity Gauntlet storyline in Avengers: Endgame.

Embarrassingly, I’m morbidly curious to see not only the new Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, but also the Detective Pikachu movie with Ryan Reynolds. These can’t possibly be good, right?

“This breaks the world.”

If this blog is any indication, I haven’t seen many films this year, as I only posted 5 reviews of new movies the entire year. In reality, life has gotten in the way - lots of films started as drafts that never got completed, while others never even got that far. Though my 2017 wasn’t as movie crazy as 2016, I still saw a lot of new movies, at a rate of 2 1/3 per week, so there’s a lot to choose from for this list. Given that I didn’t write about most of these films already, expect a lengthier post than usual.

As always, this list isn’t meant to be written in stone. The rankings of these films will surely change, probably even as I write this. Looking back at last year’s list there are quite a few movies I’d move around or switch out, so I’m not going to sweat being“correct” this year. On the same note, there are a few films I haven’t seen yet (Good Time and Mudbound being the most notable) and some that I saw after I made the above graphic (The Post, Phantom Thread, and I, Tonya), so this list isn’t perfect.

10. Get Out

Jordan Peele’s directorial debut is a phenomenal example of what genre films do best - taking a heightened premise and grounding it in reality to comment on society. While marketed as horror, and inexplicably categorized as comedy for the Golden Globes, Get Out certainly borrows elements of both, but is more akin to something like The Twilight Zone or The Stepford Wives. Peele has described it as a“social thriller,” which is as bland in its specificity as“horror” or“comedy” are in their broadness. It’s more accurately somewhere in the middle, with social and thriller aspects, as well as clear horror imagery and comedic timing.

Peele recodes Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with the paranoia of the aforementioned The Stepford Wives or The Invasion of the Body Snatchers to create something with the social progression of the former and the high concept of the latter two. It feels both fresh and familiar, as the mashed up elements soon give way to imagery and sequences unique tothis film.

Daniel Kaluuya is revelatory as Chris, the black boyfriend meeting his white girlfriend’s family for the first time, while trying to navigate around their misguided attempts to be welcoming and PC that go so far as to be racist again. But Chris just shrugs it off and smiles, wanting to make a good impression. Clearly, this is the type of engrained social prejudice he’s had to endure for most of his life and had to ignore to fit in.This isn’t the racism I’m used to seeing in film. I’m used to seeing the heightenedCrash or American History X racism that filmmakers so often rely on to shock the audience into sympathy. However, this is the type of racism that is infinitely more present and empathic because of how common it is and how related it is to social uncomfortability. We all feel something akin to this on a regular basis, even if it’s as innocuous as our parents embellishing or fabricating a story about us to impress upon their friends what good parents they are. The polite thing to do is to grin and bear it and hope the moment passes. But what if the moment doesn’t pass and the whole situation starts to snowball? How and when do you extricate yourself at the expense of being polite?

While clearly this conflict is only part of what makes Get Out so compelling, it’s an immediate hook that doesn’t let go as the uncomfortability turns to outright hostility and violence.

Get Out is an incredible clarion call of a first time director arriving fully formed with something to say. I can’t wait for Peele’s next feature and am excited that he’s got a bunch of “social thrillers” lined up in the future.

9. The Florida Project

Sean Baker made splashes in 2015 with Tangerine, a movie filmed entirely with an iPhone camera. Yet despite the gimmick garnering most of the attention, the film itself was a beautiful, funny, and often melancholic look at transgendered sex workers and Armenian cab drivers and how their worlds intersected at a donut shop. The Florida Project switches coasts and ditches the iPhone but maintains the sun drenched colour palette and characters from society’s margins.

The film is told from the point of view of a young girl, Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who lives in a motel with her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). While Moonee runs around the motel causing trouble, Halley finds it more and more difficult to find work and support herself and her daughter. Willem Dafoe co-stars and puts forward the performance of his careeras the motel’s manager, Bobby, who tries to maintain order while being equal parts supportive and exasperated by Moonee and Halley.

Though the film has been criticized for being“poverty porn,” The Florida Project avoids falling into the trap of romanticizing these characters. Rather, the slice of life approach to the film cuts as a double-edged sword - while Moonee and her friends appear to be having the time of their lives (as kids are wont to do, no matter their conditions), it’s Halley that’s struggling day-to-day, as much due to her choices as due to misfortunate circumstance. The Florida Project a matter of fact portrait of fully conceived characters without any exploitation. It also happens to be an incredibly entertaining film.

8. The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest is a cold and clinical film about cold and clinical people. Colin Farrell (in his second knockout collaboration with Lanthimos) plays Steven, a surgeon who develops a friendship out of guilt with Martin, the son of a patient that died during surgery. Martin (a revelatory Barry Keoghan) ingratiates himself into Steven’s life and family, engineering vengeance for the death of his father.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a shockingly unpredictable film with an uncomfortable dilemma that I won’t reveal here. While Keoghan is the real breakout of the film, Nicole Kidman also impresses as Anna, the matriarch of the family that pushes Steven into solving the crisis they find themselves in.

Though not particularly violent, the film is certainly unsettling, with certain scenes and imagery sticking around well after viewing. The trailer is particularly great at demonstrating how this film lingers with you. Even the creepy, slowed down version of Ellie Goulding’s “Burn” works marvellously, despite the current ubiquity of such covers underwhelming in movie trailers.

7. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

No movie property are fans more possessive of than Star Wars. After George Lucas’s prequel trilogy failed to live up to expectations, complaining became synonymous with being a Star Wars fan, creating a culture where the fans feel indebted to by the creators of their favourite films. With hundreds of supplementary material filling in every corner of the Star Wars story since 1977, everyone had their own personal Star Wars beyond the original films, from novels to comics to games, so it’s understandable the passion fans have for the franchise and its history - it was aggressively and intentionally cultivated.

For a time, it seemed like this was going to be the legacy of Star Wars - always at the thrall of fans’ expectations for the sake of continuing a never-ending merchandising cash cow. Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm and the announcement of a new trilogy seemed to confirm this approach, especially after The Force Awakens debuted a nostalgia heavy film with new analogues for most of the familiar characters, weapons, and locations from the first trilogy. Even the behind-the-scenes drama upheld this storyline, as Rogue One, Solo, and Episode IX all had their directors taken off the films at various points, ostensibly because they didn’t fit the mold of Star Wars.

All of this is to say that somehow Rian Johnson was able to make the best and boldest Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back, onethat burns away all the chafe hanging on to the franchise and allow it to finally detach itself from Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey and divert the story away from the scion of a queen and a messiah.

Without getting too deep into spoilers, The Last Jedi takes the best elements of J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, the characters, and subverts the most tedious aspects, the unexplained backstories, to create a film that truly explores the key elements underlying the original film - darkness and hope.

6. John Wick: Chapter 2

When it debuted back in 2014, John Wick had the appearance of the innumerable EuropaCorp cheapo action films like Taken, which re-popularized the aging action hero shoot-em-up genre. Instead, audiences were treated to an extremely visceral and well-conceived action film, featuring some of the best shot fight and shootout scenes since The Raid. The secret, of course, was the hiring of stuntmen and fight choreographers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who have been in the industry for over two decades, as directors. While the transition from stunts to directing is obviously a huge jump, having an expert knowledge in how to conceive and frame an action scene certainly helps in producing a great action film.

Although Stahelski and Leitch are largely responsible for the success of the film, Derek Kolstad’s script, which builds a world rich in detail and structure, gives the film a heart and pulse that elevates it beyond spectacle. The success of the script lies in how the world unfolds slowly without getting in the way of the basic revenge plot. Wick’s backstory and the rules of the Continental only hint at a larger underworld that remains unvisited for the sake of the plot.

Even given how incredible a success John Wick was, its sequel completely blows it out of the water. John Wick: Chapter 2’s action scenes are more intense, but more importantly, its world gets fleshed out significantly. We’re treated to blood oaths, a European Continental, and a hobo network, all the while hinting at a political structure that will surely be important in the eventual third film. Despite how goofy the whole thing seems, it’s played seriously, and works, because of how natural it feels in connection to John Wick’s journey. Whereas the first film sees a reluctant John Wick dipping a toe back into the shallow end of the intricate underworld of assassins, this film sees him pushed into the deep end and encountering everything he worked so hard to escape from. So while this world feels fresh and exciting to the viewer, it’s actually exhaustive and treacherous for Wick.

Keanu Reeves is perfect for this role. His combination of physical training and trademark stiffness creates a fully formed action hero that demonstrates not only his expertise as an assassin, but also his vulnerability and weariness after giving up his retirement.

Of all the films on this list, John Wick: Chapter 2 will certainly be the one I revisit most often. Rather than being just a popcorn film, it feels like a full meal.

5. The Shape of Water

I’ll admit it - other than Pan’s Labyrinth, I’ve never found Guillermo del Toro’s films to be entirely satisfying. He’s certainly a visionary director, with all of his films having distinctive production design and his stories never bereft of ideas, but the final package has always left me wanting more. That being said, I’ve always tried to love his films, as a director of his enthusiasm and creativity is worthy of being celebrated and supported.

Fortunately, I can whole-heartedly say that The Shape of Water is an unmitigated success. Featuring the best cast he’s ever assembled (Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlberg, and Doug Jones) and the perfect balance of tone, del Toro has managed to craft a truly unique film worthy of his ideas and design. It’s a period cross-species love story thriller and it’s wonderfully pervy and strange.

If this is the del Toro we can expect in the future, keep him away from the PG-13 spectacles (I’m looking at you Hellboy and Pacific Rim), and give him free reign to more uniquely weird films.

4. Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 could have easily been a disaster. Making a sequel to a science fiction classic 35 years after its release seems like an impossible task to pull off. Combined with the last minute replacement of the composer Johann Johannsson with Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer, you’d be forgiven for expecting a misfire. Yet somehow Denis Villeneuve was able to pull it off, creating a film that starts with the themes, visuals, and sonic landscape of the original, while expanding every aspect to eclipse the it.

While I’ll be the first to celebrate the original Blade Runner as a classic, I’ll only do so with the acknowledgment that it has significant plot issues. It’s an all-time great in terms of cinematography and soundtrack, but the story lacks agency for the main character and has a very thin plot for a neo-noir. While there’s a thematic elegance to Harrison Ford’s Deckard tracking down and dispatching rouge replicants while falling in love with one, it lacks an actual mystery for Deckard to solve (outside of the singular “enhance” scene). Blade Runner 2049 solves that predicament by adding a compelling mystery to its visual and aural tapestry without sacrificing the themes of humanity and autonomy.

Though Villeneuve has certainly cemented himself as a visionary director with this film, Blade Runner 2049 is entirely a showcase for cinematographer Roger Deakins. From the foggy outskirts of Los Angeles, to the neon-lit, rain-soaked downtown, to the orange-tinted wastelands of Las Vegas, the way these locations are shot say more about the dystopic future than the dialogue ever could. Deakins manages to make the bleak seem vibrant, expressing both awe and despair. He will assuredly receive his 14th (!) Oscar nomination for best cinematography this year. Hopefully the Academy finally deems it time to have him win one.

3. Dunkirk

One of the tensest films this year, Dunkirk succeeds by stripping away a lot of the dialogue and plot intricacy. It’s Christopher Nolan’s best movie, and demonstrates how powerful the director can be when he eschews the twisty plots he’s known for.

You can read my original review here.

2. mother!

I don’t know if I’ll ever watch mother! again. It was a flash in the pan movie that will have nowhere near the impact it did when I first saw it in the theatre. But that initial experience, now four months removed, still stays with me. It’s equal parts trauma and revelation and will forever be associated with 2017 for me, especially given the explosive #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that have come to reshape the perspective of not only the entertainment industry, but also society in general.

You can read my original review here.

1. A Ghost Story

David Lowery’s live action remake of Pete’s Dragon last year nearly cracked my top ten last year due to it’s mature treatment of a family story. It wasn’t an overly cartoonish adaptation the way most of the Disney “live-action” remakes have been, nor was it overly dark. Rather it felt like a family movie in that it could appeal to the entire family. That he was able to make me care about Pete’s Dragon, when it could have easily been a Jungle Book-style cash in, means I’m on board with whatever he’s got planned next.

Which just so happened to be A Ghost Story.

This film, in which Casey Affleck is covered with a sheet for most of its duration and which features a five minute scene of Rooney Mara eating an entire pie, is an odd one. Ostensibly about grief, A Ghost Story goes well beyond that jumping off point, becoming a rumination about existence and time. And while the film floats along at a leisurely pace, its imagery and score is so evocative that I my brain kicked into overdrive contemplating my own existence and my occasionally debilitating obsession with time.

Seeing A Ghost Story was an incredibly personal film going experience for me - I saw it by myself, and became so absorbed by the film and its themes, that the theatre might as well have been completely empty. While the visceral reaction to mother! may have been stronger, A Ghost Story connected with me in a profoundly emotional way unlike any film in years.

Honourable Mentions

Some of the latest films I’ve seen, like Phantom Thread and The Post, despite not being in the leading composite graphic, are very nearly good enough to make the top ten. Similarly, films like Ladybird and Call Me By Your Name are certainly worthy of being in the best of the year conversation, but they lack the originality of the films on this list to really connect with me. The film I was most conflicted about leaving off was Thor: Ragnarok, as it burns down a stuffy self-serious franchise in the way only Taika Watiti can.

2018

Off the top of my head, there didn’t seem to be too many films coming out in 2018 worth getting excited about. But after a quick reminder of what’s coming out, I’ll gladly reverse that position. On top of the two holdovers from my 2017 list (Alex Garland’s Annihilation and Duncan Jones’ Mute), there are a few films I’m extremely intrigued by, includingLuca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria,featuring a score by Thom Yorke, and Lars von Trier’s serial killer film The House That Jack Built. I have no idea what to expect from either of these films, other than that they’ll be bold. Similarly, I’m not sure what to expect from a Sicario sequel without Denis Villeneuve or Emily Blunt, but Soldado is written by Taylor Sheridan (who’s still batting a thousand) and shifts the focus onto Benicio Del Toro’s time bomb of a character. With two perfect action films in The Raid and The Raid 2, I’m going to anticipate any film from director Gareth Evans. That Apostle features Dan Stevens rescuing his sister from a cult makes that anticipation fervent.

On the blockbuster front, there’s the impossibly bloated Avengers: Infinity War, featuring close to 75 characters, which seems like a recipe for disaster, but after absolutely killing it with Winter Soldier and Civil War, I’m optimistic the Russo Brothers can make this work. But before we get to that crescendo, we’re treated to Black Panther, which looks incredible. I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up on my best of list next year.

There’s not a lot to get excited about outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one exception is The Predator, directed and written by Shane Black. After The Nice Guys and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I’m on board with anything from Black, even if it is a seemingly moribund franchise.

“My wife loves having company.”

In an age when movie trailers spell out what you’re going to be seeing, the marketing for Darren Aronofsky’smother!was refreshing in its deliberate eclecticism and obtuseness. Only barely hinting at the plot and focusing on characters and imagery, nothing in the trailers prepared you for what you’d experience at the cinema. This is exactly the way trailers should work, by making you curious, rather than certain, of what the movie is all about. Remember when The Matrix was teased, and no one had any idea what to make of it? Not knowing what to expect makes the ensuing film much more enjoyable. That one of the criticisms of mother! is that it wasn’t the movie we were sold in the marketing is asinine. What about those trailers and posters suggests this was going to be a typical horror movie? If anything, the marketing promised only that this would be atypical and weird.

mother! delivers entirely on this promise, by being bold, uncomfortable, and relentless. I’ve never been more anxious during a movie or more fixated on the screen than while watching mother!, and that is owed entirely to how unlike most movies it is. It haunts you not with jump scares that will fade with each repeat viewing or with staccato-filled music that puts you on edge (there’s no score), but rather with a situation that slowly spirals further and further out of control while tightening its grasp on you.

This is what I need for a horror movie to be successful, tension and panic. I almost wanted to leave the theatre because of how overwhelming my empathizing was with how powerless Jennifer Lawrence felt. So much so that I missed an embarrassing amount of symbolism, religious and otherwise, that was plainly right in front of me. The film affected me in a way that prevented me from engaging with it on an intellectual level, which is rare. So while many viewers and reviewers will focus on the allegorical and symbolic aspects of the film and praise it for the ambition of its message or condemn it for its pretension, my experience was solely focused on the craft of the film - the editing, the cinematography, and the sound. These all worked wonderfully to create a disturbing, dreadful picture.

And while the technical aspects elevate the film, the leads of mother! do an impeccable job of making the film connect. Without Jennifer Lawrence’s paranoid confusion, the audience’s grasp on the chaos that ensues would be even less tenable. Similarly, Javier Bardem’s oddly calming reassurance serves to deepen the anxiety and strip Lawrence and the audience of their agency.

Aronofsky is attempting to do a lot with mother! -by layering a well-made horror film with audacious symbolism and meaning, he made it not only haunting and atmospheric, but also confrontational and angry. Clearly, judging by its rare F CinemaScore (which means what exactly?), audiences weren’t happy to be met with a film so antagonistic. But whether you think these added layers are unwarranted or help the film transcend the genre, they certainly don’t detract from the power of the film to haunt, even long after the credits have rolled.

“You're weekend sailors not the bloody navy.”

Christopher Nolan has been one of my favourite filmmakers for a while now. Memento was one of the most refreshing films I’ve ever seen, with a structure perfectly integrated into a plot about memory loss. Since then, Nolan has had a meteoric rise, going from smaller plot-based films to giant blockbusters heavy on visual and sonic spectacle. Often these two components will conflict, with plot holes creeping into his films. It soon became clear that Nolan was torn between intricate plots and evocative scenes, with his films bloating to close to 3 hours in trying to do both. So far Inception has been his best film, in which plot, structure, emotion, visuals, and soundtrack all coalesce into a near perfect science fiction film. In Dunkirk, Nolan seems to finally realize that it’s near impossible to make a labyrinthine plot work, so he eschews plot almost entirely for what can only be described as one of the tensest movies ever filmed.

Dunkirk is very clearly about the evacuation of Dunkirk, in which civilian vessels are called upon to evacuate British troops that are soon to be surrounded by oncoming German troops. That’s the extent of it. However,Nolan introduces an intriguing structure to the film, in which the scenes on the beach following the soldiers, the scenes at sea following the civilians, and the scenes in the air following the pilots all take place over different lengths of time before meeting up at the evacuation. While interesting, this plot structure is the weakest part of the film, as it takes you out of the film to solve a temporal puzzle that isn’t particularly relevant to the plot of the film.

But despite the hiccup with the minor plot manipulation, Dunkirk is a relentlessly nerve-wracking film. The film is essentially a feature length panic attack that doesn’t let up until the very end. Nolan drags out suspenseful moments longer than he normally would, and there is very little dialogue that would normally be a reprieve from the anxiety. To intensify matters, Hans Zimmer’s score includes a ticking clock motif that becomes so rhythmic that it disappears into the sonic tapestry of the film. It’s not until the music suddenly cuts out in one of the film’s final moments that you realize how tense you were the entire film. It comes as a moment of relief. This might sound torturous, but this stress followed by relief is so in line with the arc of the film that you feel completely attuned to what the characters are feeling.

Interestingly, the casting of the film is tiered, with more classically trained actors, like Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance, playing the more composed characters, a commander and civilian boater, respectively; recognizable fixtures, like Tom Hardy, James D’Arcy, and Cillian Murphy, playing the middle tier soldiers; and complete unknowns, like Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, and Harry Styles (okay, unknown in film), playing the soldiers that are doing everything they can to survive and get home. Not surprisingly, the audience’s connection to these characters follows this tiering, as we’re thrown into the perils the soldiers face up close.

One aspect of Dunkirk that shouldn’t be forgotten is that it’s shot on film, and with IMAX cameras for most the movie. Nolan has used IMAX on his films before, dating back to The Dark Knight, which makes the spectacle all that more immersive. In Dunkirk, Nolan has accepted the limitations of the equipment (IMAX cameras are very loud) and minimized the amount of dialogue, creating scenes that are more sensory-based, with the image, sound design, and soundtrack driving the film. Seeing dogfights, sinking boats, and beach explosions on a giant screen makes Dunkirk seem even grander that it already is.

While I love Inception for its incredible feat of combining a complex plot and amazing visuals, Dunkirk is a bold and exciting experiment for Nolan. Despite being one of his most minimal films, Dunkirk is also one of his most powerful. I would love to see Nolan continue in this vein, eschewing the complicated plots and 150 minute runtimes that we’ve come to expect from him in favour of evocative imagery and gripping sonic landscapes. Dunkirk represents a true maturity of Nolan as a filmmaker, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pick up his first Best Director Oscar nomination for it.

“Who doesn’t like hats?”

Edgar Wright is one of those filmmakers that gets the title“visionary director” thrown into the marketing campaign whenever he has a new movie coming out. Forgetting that the term“visionary” is both pedestrian and innocuous when it comes to filmmaking and can literally be applied to any director that successfully completes a film, Edgar Wright is truly a director whose“vision” transcends that of his contemporaries. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World are each already considered classics and demonstrate a director who not only has a detailed understanding of the craft of filmmaking, but also has the courage to break with conventions and create something as weird as it is beautiful. His latest endeavour, Baby Driver, continues this endeavour of taking a genre and examining it through the lens of another genre to create something wholly unique by today’s standards.

While all the marketing focuses on the plot and characters to make the film look like a typical heist/getaway-driver movie, Baby Driver is unique in its relationship with and usage of music in the film. The title character suffers from tinnitus and uses music to drown out the constant ringing; this music informs a lot of the film’s structure, with action scenes choreographed to the beats in the songs he’s listening to. It’s really cool and involves the audience further into the action, which is saying a lot, because the action is spectacular.

While having an interesting structure and dynamic filmmaking is enough to make the film a curious experiment, having an exciting plot and compelling characters is necessary to make the film truly great. Fortunately, on top of a quiet, but charismatic lead played by Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver sports an incredible supporting cast, including Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Eiza Gonzales, among others. They all bring something exciting and unique to what could otherwise be very bland stock characters. And while the plot might not be the twisty spectacle most contemporary crime films rely on, it’s still very engaging and features enough dynamic shifts to keep the viewer on board for the whole film.

Baby Driver is so far one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, yet because of how brilliant Wright is, I can’t help but feel like Baby Driver doesn’t quite match up with his potential to create a generation-defining seminal film. Scott Pilgrim came very close, Baby Driver is just a little bit behind it, but so far none of Wright’s films have been able to completely transcend his influences. Maybe by doubling down on the music aspect, Wright could have made Baby Driver his masterpiece, but as it stands it’s just an incredible example of a crime film with a twist. I know this is the equivalent of telling a gifted student he’s not working hard enough because he only got an A, so don’t take this as anything but an endorsement. I’m firmly on board for any future film Edgar Wright makes and can’t wait for the film that truly exemplifies his extraordinary talent and vision. But in the meantime,Baby Driver is an incredible film that you should definitely see in the theatre.

“Strange isn't it? Here we are. In the darkest corner of this Earth. And we're afraid of our own kind.”

One of the most successful elements of Mad Max: Fury Road is its effortless world-building. With a brief introduction to Immortan Joe and his citadel, we get the basics of this post-apocalyptic power structure that gets built upon during the feature-length chase with the different denizens that inhabit the world. That this backstory exists, without being explained to the audience, enriches the film, rather than stopping it dead in its tracks like in so many other films.

It’s no surprise that some of my favourite films recently have utilized this technique to sequelize what might otherwise have been a flash-in-the-pan film. Both John Wick: Chapter 2 and The Raid 2 expand upon their simple premises by opening up their worlds of crime hotel networks or comic book villains without derailing the action.

This discussion of world-building brings me to The Bad Batch, the latest film from Ana Lily Amirpour, featuring Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, and a small turn from Jim Carrey. Of the three films I mentioned earlier, The Bad Batch is probably the most like Fury Road only in that they both deal with desert wastelands in what look like post-society settlements. And even though all three comparables I’ve mentioned are action films, The Bad Batch certainly is not. Rather, it’s a fairly simple narrative with intriguing, yet intentionally underdeveloped characters, but featuring complex, effortless, environments.

Because of how understated the normally driving elements of the film are, it’s the world-building that held my attention rapt and had me pondering how exactly all this came together. Arlen (Waterhouse), a new“inmate” in a giant desert prison in Texas, finds herself confronting two starkly different communities - one is a muscle beach cannibal junkyard and the other is a marketplace rave town square. The former is the Bridge, home to 1/3 almost-grotesque bodybuilders, 1/3 cannibals, and 1/3 chained up amputees having already lost limbs to the other 2/3. Miami Man (Momoa) is at home here, partaking in both the cannibalism and the weight training, while raising a family and painting portraits to fill the rest of his time. The latter is Comfort, a seemingly perfect oasis in the desert heat, with real food, free drugs, and nightly DJ performances (by Diego Luna I’ve just learned!) all organized by The Dream (Reeves), who not only has a mansion in the middle of the desert, but also a harem of pregnant groupies that adore him.

None of this is ever really talked about, other than in philosophical terms, which makes these settlements immensely compelling. I sort of stopped paying attention to the plot and started fixating on why Keanu Reeves has a mansion or why the DJ operates out of a boombox-shaped RV decked out in neon lights or whether Jim Carrey’s mute hermit has survived being eaten because he’s useful or too unhygienic. So while I can’t really say The Bad Batch is a great movie, I can certainly recommend it for being so thoroughly thought out, well directed, and well acted. We need more weird movies like this, ones that don’t follow formulas, and let actors play in odd spaces.

“I’ll do the fingering.”

Despite being a rather robust franchise that’s endured 6 films over the course of nearly 40 years, I’ve never been a fan of the Alien series of movies in the same what that I have other series, like Star Wars, for instance. Ridley Scott’s Alien is a perfect movie, with an incredible cast, nightmarish designs, and precise pacing. Subsequent films have been diminishing returns, though Aliens is still a very good film in its own right. So what better way to reinvigorate a moribund franchise that barely survived two crossovers with Predator (to be fair the first one had its moments) than to bring back Ridley Scott as director?

Scott’s second outing, Prometheus, was a heavily flawed prequel story that was redeemed by a number of outrageously wild sequences and ideas, like the head autopsy or the alien abortion. Further, it displayed a shockingly misanthropic approach to its characters, killing most of them off with the same level of emotion that you’d find in a teen slasher. All in all, it was a happy mess that featured a really great Michael Fassbender performance as the android David, who engineers the bonkers plot with the mentality of a child burning an anthill with a magnifying glass.

Which brings me to this year’s Alien: Covenant, a sequel prequel that partway bridges the gap between Prometheus and Alien. Back are both Scott and Fassbender, suggesting that this film might reach some of the outlandish heights of Prometheus while the marketing suggests a return to the claustrophobic horror of Alien. However, what we end up with is somehow even more disjointed than Prometheus, but also more out-there in terms of some of its scenes, which makes it both better and worse than its predecessor.

There are some truly great moments in this film and it should come as no shock that Fassbender is at the centre of them. He returns not only as David, but also as a new and improved android, Walter, who’s had all the kinks worked out, like curiosity and creativity. They don't meet until about halfway through the movie, but once they do, Scott's intentions behind not only this movie, but also Prometheus, become clear. He's not really trying to make an Alien movie. Rather, Scott is stealthily trying to make a new sci-fi franchise that distills the iconography from Alien and the themes of Blade Runner into a B-level thriller. With that in mind, you realize that the horror scenes with xenomorphs are afterthoughts to Scott's actual interests: the nature of creation and our understanding of why we're here. This explains why the best scenes in the movie aren't the alien stalking the halls of the Covenant, but rather a scene where David teaches Walter to play the recorder.

This scene alone is worth watching the movie for. In addition to being a manifesto of sorts for Scott's prequels, it serves as a showcase for Fassbender's incredible dual performances. Both David’s knack for learning and creativity and Walter’s programmed obedience get a lot of play in a scene that features not only ruminations on life and its creation, but also on the role of art as it relates to defining the soul. And while the discussion is fascinating in its own right (despite being a bit trite), that it occurs during an overtly homoerotic scene featuring one actor playing two different androids is enough to make this one of the single best scenes in cinema this year. It’s completely bonkers. If the film were entirely scenes like this, without the xenomorphs, it would be a no-brainer recommend. As it stands, Alien: Covenant is as flawed a film as Prometheus, but still worth watching for all the really weird character scenes.

“He's a cartoonist. He thinks he's going to solve the Zodiac.”

2007 was not only one of the best years for film in the 21st century, but also the year I really started to appreciate film as something more than just fleeting entertainment. The 3 movies to do it were No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton. In my mind, these were classics from the moment I first watched them, with something new to unpack after every viewing. It’s easy to see why these films opened my eyes - they rejected typical movie pacing, were somewhat anti-climatic, were beautifully shot, had incredible performances, and had dark themes punctuated by gallows humour. However, for what ever reason, I skipped Zodiac, which might not standout as much as the awards favourites I listed above, but definitely deserves to be (very) near the top of the best of 2007.

I’m sure there are a number of reasons it took me so long to watch (and even longer to appreciate)Zodiac. First of all, it was not a high profile release and didn’t do well at the box office. Second, it didn’t have the same awards buzz around it as other releases, so it didn’t immediately appeal to my newfound snobbishness. However, the biggest detractor keeping me from watching it was my general distaste at the time for David Fincher. Being 10 and 14 when Se7en are Fight Club were released respectively, I understandably gravitated towards the more obvious and violent aspects of the films. As I grew older, these elements remained the standout moments, but had greatly diminished in esteem. Fincher seemed juvenile to me, because I didn’t understand what his films were actually about. Combined with what I still consider to be a saccharine misstep - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - mid-2000s Fincher was down and out in my books.

I finally did get around to watching Zodiac, likely around the time The Social Network came out and forced we to reconsider Fincher’s genius, but it didn’t enthral me in the way that it should have, likely because I didn’t give it my full attention or patience (any non-theatrical viewing often competed with studio projects for architecture school around this time). But for the past few years it found its way back onto my radar, largely in part to its critical reappraisal (it tied Children of Men for 12th on the BBC Culture poll of 177 critics from around the globe last year). And after an excruciating delay, I finally rewatched Zodiac yesterday, having being prompted by watching Tony Zhou’s video essay on Fincher in his series Every Frame a Painting (embedded below).

After this careful rewatch, I’m entirely willing to endorse Zodiac as one of the best of the 21st century and certainly the best of Fincher’s career as well. From performances that slowly change and evolve over more than a decade to the relentless approach to exposition and data that Fincher provides, to watch the film is to take on the challenge of detective by trying to piece together nearly insurmountable amounts of evidence, thus completely empathizing with the central figures of the film.

Jake Gyllenhaal provides his second amazing performance (after 2005′s Brokeback Mountain) as Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist whose proximity to the crime articles being written at his newspaper turns an earlier fascination into full-on obsession once the case goes cold. The way Gyllenhaal portrays the shift from wide-eyed innocent to full-on obsessive is striking, showing two completely different character traits without ever betraying when that switch happens. This role hints at the greatness Gyllenhaal would achieve in films like Enemy and Nightcrawler after he removed himself from the toxic world of tentpole blockbusters.

Robert Downey Jr. likewise impresses in one of his last pre-Marvel roles as Paul Avery, the crime reporter covering the Zodiac case, whose passion for cracking and chronicling the case dissolves into addiction and self-destruction after he becomes the target of a threatening letter from the killer. Downey Jr. effectively portrays both the surefire cockiness of Avery at the height of his career, as well as the wallowing depths of his alcoholism. Neither are states unfamiliar to Downey Jr. and his many of his characters, but he portrays them with relatively muted effectiveness here that he’s still very impressive.

Mark Ruffalo is perhaps the most unsung of the lead trio in Zodiac (even I’m mentioning him third!) as David Toschi, the SFPD Inspector who joins the case after a cab driver is killed by Zodiac in San Francisco. As per usual, Ruffalo brings an indescribable quality to his performance that simultaneously perfectly integrates him into the film and highlights his as one of the most natural and fully-formed performances in the film. Toschi’s trajectory throughout the film is less an arc than those of Graysmith or Avery, than it is a sine curve with his involvement waxing and waning as the politics of his professional life and pressures at home pull him from the case. In this way, Ruffalo portrays the one character whose obsession doesn’t completely control him despite its lingering presence.

As a film about obsession, Zodiac is certainly somewhat autobiographical, as the meticulous, tedious approach to the case is precisely the way Fincher works. With upwards of 70 takes on some scenes and meticulously framed shots, Fincher brings a compulsive approach to his filmmaking. As an architect who used to get hung up on little details that wouldn’t even be seen on presentations in my studio projects in school, I can definitely empathize with this approach. Attaining your uncompromised goal through considered rigour is incredibly taxing, but can be superbly rewarding as well.

Some of this rigour pays off in the technical achievements of the film. As one of the early adopters of digital over film, Fincher is able to create a distinctive look to Zodiac that stood out from many of his contemporaries when it was released. Similarly, by using film cameras for the murder segments, Fincher is able to create a jarring, but ultimately indecipherable, distinction between these scenes and those that investigate them.

Zodiac is Fincher’s best film, not only for its own successes, but also for the way it acts as a key to his whole filmography, allowing you to see past the overt qualities of films like Se7en or Fight Club, and appreciate the thematic, technical, and character aspects of those films. Zodiac is one of those films that I can see becoming more and more personal to me the more I watch, as the nature of obsession and following something to its conclusion is something I struggle with regularly. Seeing this presented on screen so effectively and in varying degrees might make me biased in favour of Zodiac, but that it’s so incredibly well-made doesn’t hurt either.