Your Year in Films

[Devon Malcolm]

26 minutes ago, ColinBollocks said:

5, Calibre - The Scottish highlands on film always make me a little weak at the knees, for some reason, but thankfully the meat of the film is genuinely thrilling and another win for Netflix. Wonderfully acted and full of suspense.

This is one of Netflix's best so far, I think. Really top notch thriller, the ending was superb. I find with films like this that they can't usually bring about an effective ending but that wasn't the case here. He really stuck the landing.

[Merzbow]

I watched a Gaspar Noe film in the cinema while sitting next to en elderly woman who brought her dinner with her, that's easily the the highlight of my year in films.

[Loki]

How the fuck do you all find the time to watch so many movies??  Some of you have kids as well.  Gladstone, I can only assume you have a film on in the background 12 hours a day or something.  I've seen almost none of the films you've listed there.

I absolutely loved 3 Billboards and I don't care if you didn't.  Outside of that, The Meg was an absolute ton of fun as well.  I, Tonya was a very surprising high-quality drama with some seriously impressive performances.

Otherwise, most of this year was spent catching up with 2017's films  

 

[Devon Malcolm]

I work from home, Loki. I may have mentioned it once or twice!

[Keith Houchen]

I'm very ill and weak dole scum, I too may have mentioned it once or twice.

[Loki]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I work from home, Loki. I may have mentioned it once or twice!

I work from home but that means actually working, not watching Sherlock Gnomes on someone else's dime   I'm just jealous.

Keith, you're the sort of person the Tories warn me about.  I bet you have a spare bedroom too.

[Keith Houchen]

5 minutes ago, Loki said:

Keith, you're the sort of person the Tories warn me about.  I bet you have a spare bedroom too.

It's actually a prayer room that has a double bed.

[Devon Malcolm]

17 minutes ago, Loki said:

I work from home but that means actually working, not watching Sherlock Gnomes on someone else's dime   I'm just jealous.

I would like to point out that I don't choose to put Elton John cartoons on during the day, some of these are ones I've been dragged to by kids.

[AdamTH17]

Going to have to catch Blindspotting if Daveed Diggs does indeed produce a worldie of a performance. He was one of my favourite aspects of Hamilton, dripping with charisma and character.

[Keith Houchen]

According to my Letterboxd, I've watched exactly 10 films from 2018.  So here they are in order of best rated to worst. (Snowflakes in parentheses)

1 - Mission Impossible: Fallout (5)

=2 - Christopher Robin, The Rachel Divide, BlacKkKlansman (4)

5 - Hereditary (3.5)

6 - The Commuter (2.5)

=7 - The House With A Clock In It's Walls, Avengers Infinity War (2)

=9 - Ant Man And The Wasp, Final Score (1.5)

 

[Kaz Hayashi]

A late entry for me, but it had to be done. I’ve some how managed to never watch ‘Its a Wonderful Life’ until tonight. Always been aware of it, never really knew what it was about, decided to do the most cliche thing possible and watch it after putting the baby to bed, with my wife & sister, on Christmas Eve (1st time for all of us). What a fucking treat that was.

[Astro Hollywood]

I've had fuck all time to watch films this year, but off the top of my head, my top 5 goes: Possum, Sorry to Bother You, Mandy, Ghost Stories, and Halloween. 

[Devon Malcolm]

The President's posted his list, RT if you agree.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Be warned: This is a really long post.

Time for my annual 'let's review and think about every new film I saw this year to determine an order' post.

This year I managed to catch, I think, 41 new releases which is way more than I expected, but still not very many in the grand scheme of things. So in case anyone thinks to point out how shit my top 10 ends up being, (i) I know I haven't seen everything, and I know that there's stuff I haven't seen that would have ranked quite highly (hi Blindspotting) and (ii) I'm a bit of a mainstream populist so my favourite films of the year and the subjective-'best' films of the year are going to be totally different. I guarantee you no self-respecting film enthusiast's having Solo in their top 10 like I have. Personal preference rules my list which is why films that should be higher aren't and films that definitely should be lower also aren't. Sorry Fallout.

(I should also point out that any of my top 20 probably would have made top 10 in any other year. I liked loads of films this year.)

As usual I tend to work through this chronologically in the order I watched the films and figure out the order as I go.

 

January

We usually start things off by trying to catch some of the early awards contenders, which this month meant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Post.

I really liked Three Billboards. I think I did, anyway - I actually can't remember all that much about it nearly a year on, except the feeling that I really liked it. I didn't understand people calling it a comedy (is it because Martin McDonagh wrote it?) so either it's not a comedy and I'm right or I totally misinterpreted it. Still enjoyed it, though, and Samara Weaving turns up in two scenes which is worthy of a top 5 of the year by itself.

The Post was fine. Great cast doing their best to elevate material that, these days, seems more and more like fantasy. Once upon a time, a single reported scandal brought down a presidency, and the world lived happily ever after. Ha.

We also saw Coco. I loved the beautiful visuals, the details in the world of the dead... and the ending. Fucking hell, Pixar. The two of us were sat there in the cinema, wracked with sobs, full on ugly crying at this film. Not even Up managed that. Even now, just thinking about it makes me tear up a bit. 

Finally, there was that surprise Netflix drop of The Cloverfield Paradox. It did not take long for me to be asked to turn it off but no, I insisted we watched until the end. Why, I don't know. "What a load of shit" was our summary once it was, mercifully, over. "I'll not see a worse film this year", I thought. WRONG.

February

Keeping on with Oscar contenders, in February we saw I, Tonya and The Shape of Water. I, Tonya was really good, really pleased we saw it. Shape Of Water, not so much. Went to see that after a job interview (I didn't get it) and just before the Beast From The East snowstorm hit, so maybe I wasn't in the right place, but it didn't capture me. I think it was the point where she didn't just have a connection or a bond with the fish but actually wanted to have sex with the fish where it lost me. Blah blah symbolism imagery blah blah she still had sex with a fish. I'm out.

First superhero film of the year! Black Panther. He was one of my favourites in Civil War, and from the comics I've read, so I hoped this was going to be good. It was. And it had a rhino in it too. Really cool production design, interesting characters - I didn't full on love it but really liked it.

Oh, also Mute on Netflix. Suddenly The Cloverfield Paradox wasn't the worst film I'd seen this year! I think Mute might be one of the worst films I've seen in my life. I mean, it was AWFUL. One of the comic relief parts was a fucking paedophile! I mean, christ, it made Duncan Jones' Warcraft film seem like a masterpiece by comparison. Fucking terrible.

My 2018 film list - end of Feb:

1. Coco

2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

3. Black Panther

4. I, Tonya

5. The Post

6. The Shape of Water

7. The Cloverfield Paradox

8. Mute

 

 

March

I can't remember when exactly the Beast From The East was, but I think it was very end of Feb/beginning of March. We used being snowed in to watch a load of films, alternating with a my-choice, her-choice. I picked The Big Sick, she picked Lady Macbeth. She picked Office Christmas Party, I picked Last Flag Flying. I was quietly confident I'd picked a good one - new Richard Linklater film, with Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston in the cast, should be a winner, right?

Sadly not really. It was really, really tedious (with the exception of one good scene where Carell, Cranston and Laurence Fishburne buy mobile phones) and curiously gung-ho, 'Murica, support-our-troops-or-GEDDOUT in tone. Wouldn't recommend even if you're a Linklater fan.

Over to the other streaming service for Annihilation which I will confess I just did. not. get. Had to watch several Youtube videos afterwards to try and understand the ending and I've still got no bloody idea what it was about. I know a lot of people loved it, but I'm not one of them.

Cinema-wise, we saw Game Night which was a really nice surprise. A big, mainstream comedy that was genuinely funny all the way through! Ace! And finally, when Brett broke his hand and the Flight Of The Concords tour got cancelled, we used our now free night in Glasgow to watch Tomb Raider. It's probably not a great film, but we had a really nice date night watching it so it gets a thumbs up from me. And Alicia Vikander's a better Lara Croft than Angelina Jolie ever was.

Right at the end of the month, it was off to the IMAX for Ready Player One. Which I know a lot of people, and several on here, hate. It's massively flawed, it's got loads of problems, it's probably a bit shit really, but I fucking loved it. It gave me that feeling that you get watching a classic Spielberg blockbuster for the first time, and that's a feeling I rarely, rarely get these days. So I think it's brilliant despite it definitely not being brilliant.

April

Starting off with A Quiet Place which I thought was absolutely marvellous. Tense, nerve-shredding, agonising brilliance. Absolutely adored it but couldn't watch it again in case it's not as special the second time. A single nail has never been so scary.

Then another quite quiet film with the Alternate John Krasinski, Cargo on Netflix, with probably the best Martin Freeman performance I've seen. Well worth a watch if you like zombie films, or father-daughter films (the baby in this puts in a good shift) or Australian films (Freeman doesn't do an accent).

Then the big one. Avengers: Infinity War. It's not for everyone, but for everyone it's for, it's a masterpiece. What an achievement. Yeah, if you don't like the MCU you're not going to like this. But I'm a big MCU fan and this was ... well, put it this way. I went to the 10am screening, took a quick break for lunch and then went and watched it again in the afternoon. I think I've seen it about half a dozen times now and I like it more each time. Funnily, I wasn't "100/10 PERFECTION AMAZING" after the first viewing, it took a bit of time settling in my head, but once it did... I can't imagine anything topping it this year.

My 2018 film list - end of April:

1. Avengers Infinity War

2. Coco

3. Ready Player One

4. A Quiet Place

5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

6. Black Panther

7. Game Night

8. I, Tonya

9. Cargo

10. The Post

11. Tomb Raider

12. The Shape of Water

13. Annihilation

14. Last Flag Flying

15. The Cloverfield Paradox

16. Mute

 

 

May

Documentary time! It got a very limited cinema release, so Nothing Like A Dame counts for this list. It's just four old luvvies sat around telling stories, but what amazing stories! Bunch of national treasures, are Smith, Dench, Plowright and Atkins.

I wasn't fussed about Solo before its release. The trailers did nothing for me, I didn't much see the point in it existing. As a massive Star Wars obsessive, that made me quite sad, actually. Instead of organising the trip to the midnight screening, I had to be persuaded just to go along. Once it started, though - actually, almost as soon as it started - it won me over, and I had a really good time watching it. It's utterly inconsequential, but it's loads of fun. I tell you, between this, Avengers and Journey's End, Paul Bettany had a damn good 2018.

Couple of weeks later was Deadpool 2. It's fine. I'm not a huge Deadpool fan so the first one didn't blow my mind - nor did this, but I did think it was about as good. Domino's a great character, but overall the film didn't leave a huge impression on me, apart from the blatant fridging of Vanessa.

June

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. If you read the Films You've Watched thread when this came out, or listen to the Nerdfest Podcast, you'll have heard my thoughts on this abomination. I won't repeat myself because this post's long enough as it is. A bigger pile of shit than the Triceratops produced in the original. I've managed to repress most of it now, happily, so can objectively make the genuinely difficult decision about whether this shitarse of a film is worse than Mute, which, as mentioned above, might be one of the worst films I've ever seen, ever.

July

Let's have another good one. Journey's End was superb. I wasn't familiar with the play on which it's based, so, not knowing what happened, I was drawn in, gripped, shocked, devastated and left silent, astonished, bereft at the end. I could say "that's the best performance I've seen him give" about everybody in this film - Bettany as mentioned above, but also Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin (he's incredible in this), Toby Jones and Stephen Graham. It's on Netflix now. Watch it.

Also Skyscraper which was almost the right side of ridiculous, but not quite. Silly.

My 2018 film list - end of July:

1. Avengers Infinity War

2. Coco

3. Ready Player One

4. A Quiet Place

5. Journey's End

6. Solo

7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

8. Black Panther

9. Game Night

10. I, Tonya

11. Cargo

12. Nothing Like A Dame

13. The Post

14. Tomb Raider

15. Deadpool 2

16. Skyscraper

17. The Shape of Water

18. Annihilation

19. Last Flag Flying

20. The Cloverfield Paradox

21. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

22. Mute

 

 

August

After all the incredible reviews, we had to get to the cinema to see Mission Impossible: Fallout, and it did not disappoint. Simply amazing action and stunning set pieces throughout. I think it did lose a little from the fact neither of us had really seen much of the franchise prior to this, but only a little.

Because I'm an MCU completist, I had to find time in between moving house to take myself to Ant-Man And The Wasp. It's alright. I liked it more than Ant-Man. Good mid-credits sting.

And once we'd sorted out all the moving and the internet finally got sorted and so on, we went to BlacKkKlansman which was excellent. I confess I'd seen very little Spike Lee prior to this (we watched Do The Right Thing the following night) but if this is him on form, his on form form is top quality. There's some deeply powerful, uncomfortable, horrifying moments in this film, and the performances are great across the board.

September

There was a Monday this month where we were both off - at least I think it was this month - so we had a look at what was on and Crazy Rich Asians won. I'd heard good things but didn't really know what I'd make of it. Turns out I would be thoroughly and completely charmed by it. What a lovely film, anchored by Constance Wu and Henry Golding being just two of the most charming people you could hope to watch on a cinema screen. Cracking supporting cast as well (when Gemma Chan's the third most attractive person in your film you know you're onto a winner aesthetically). It's extravagant as hell, but gets away with it because of all the charm. CHARM, I TELL YOU!

We also watched Early Man on Prime, which had the odd sensation of watching a disappointing Aardman film. This was confirmed by the fact Curse of the Were-Rabbit was on over Christmas and that's a stone cold classic. This just isn't up to their usual standard. There's a few laugh out loud moments but only a few. Why did it have to be about football?

October

The only cinema trip this month - right at the end, it must have been - was Bohemian Rhapsody. Rami Malek was astounding as Freddie Mercury (you almost forget you're watching an actor at times) and the Live Aid concert at the end is sublime. I've loved Queen since I was little so I was quite happy with what's basically a 'greatest hits' biopic of the kind Walk Hard put an end to for several years. Not for everyone but if you had Greatest Hits I play in the car on every family holiday then it's probably for you.

The rest of the stuff I saw this month was on a plane when we went to New York. On the way out, I watched Incredibles 2 and Isle Of Dogs. Also Justice League but I'd rather not talk about that. 

Incredibles 2 was fine. It's good - I mean, it's Pixar, so yes, it's good - but the first one has never been one of my favourites. I've tried to love it as much as people tell me I should but it just leaves me a bit cold. This one's the same. It's as good as the first one, which means if you love The Incredibles you'll likely be very happy with this. Isle Of Dogs took me a while to get into properly but once it did, I really liked it.

On the flight back I watched Infinity War again, but also Rampage. Rampage is TERRIBLE. I'd have been cool with The Rock having a chat in sign language with a gorilla. But it gets really bad, really quickly, and keeps getting worse and worse the more it goes on. The moment that I think best exemplifies this is when George the gorilla straight up eats a woman whole and within about a minute we're meant to feel sorry for the poor guy. HE JUST ATE A WOMAN AND HE'S THE GOOD GUY. THAT'S NOT WHAT GOOD GUYS DO. I KNOW SHE WAS THE VILLAIN BUT HE FUCKING ATE HER. And that's the most anyone has ever cared about the movie Rampage.

My 2018 film list - end of October:

1. Avengers Infinity War

2. Coco

3. Ready Player One

4. A Quiet Place

5. Journey's End

6. Solo

7. BlacKkKlansman

8. Crazy Rich Asians

9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

10. Black Panther

11. Bohemian Rhapsody

12. Game Night

13. Mission Impossible: Fallout

14. I, Tonya

15. Ant-Man and the Wasp

16. Cargo

17. Nothing Like A Dame

18. Isle Of Dogs

19. The Post

20. Tomb Raider

21. Deadpool 2

22. Incredibles 2

23. Skyscraper

24. Early Man

25. The Shape of Water

26. Annihilation

27. Last Flag Flying

28. Rampage

29. The Cloverfield Paradox

30. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

31. Mute

 

November

We watched this on BBC2 but it did get a cinema release as well, so again, it counts. They Shall Not Grow Old is a remarkable documentary. It doesn't try and tell the full scope of the story of the First World War - it's narrow in scope, you'd have to assume deliberately - but it tells the story of its focus tremendously. The moment where it shifts from black and white to colour is truly jaw-dropping and one of the greatest moments in film this year. A must see.

Back to Netflix for Outlaw King. Stephen Dillane does good heel work as Edward I, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is probably at his most enjoyable as Douglas, Florence Pugh is dependably great (she seems to elevate everything I've seen her in and is pretty much the sole reason I want to see Fighting With My Family) and it's got some cracking, gory, brutal medieval battles, but it's let down significantly by Chris Pine who is dull as this post if you don't care about what I think about films. I've heard interviews with him talking about the role and all the complexities he wanted to put into it but you see none of that in the finished film. He's just so bland you wonder why anyone in Scotland wanted to follow the Bruce.

Speaking of bland central characters, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. I didn't find Johnny Depp as ruinous a presence as in the first film but he does nothing that many other actors couldn't have done just as well. I've got many problems with this film but there were also plenty of things I liked, one example being "why do none of the wizards wear robes at any point?" vs "but look how stylish their coats are". It directly influenced me getting a fancy new coat for Christmas so it must have left some sort of impression.

December

I saw bloody loads of films in December. I put this down to being off at weekends at the moment and my other half working Saturdays, so I'll watch a film on a Saturday then go and do the food shop. In this fashion I did see Mortal Engines, A Star Is Born and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Mortal Engines does some terrific world-building, but the story and characters are naff. In this it is not unlike its source material, but you have to appreciate the world-building. Or at least I did. 

I'd heard nothing but the highest praise for A Star Is Born, and maybe my expectations were too high because of it, but while I thought it was very good, I didn't love it, and I wasn't compelled to download the soundtrack straight afterwards like so many people seemed to have done. As for the tear-jerking ending, it's no Coco. Lady Gaga puts on a hell of a performance, though, and she's got a Hamilton cast-member as her sidekick which is another plus point.

Spider-Verse was another one where so many people were singling it out as the greatest superhero film / comicbook film / just film of the year, I felt I had to go and see what the fuss was about. Again, I thought it was very good, but I didn't leave thinking it was the greatest thing I'd ever watched. Maybe I need to be more acquainted with the comics? It is very good, I have to emphasise that, but I wouldn't put it above Infinity War, or Black Panther for that matter.

Meanwhile on Netflix, I have much enthusiasm for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. I love a Western, and I really liked the frame of the storybook to link the six stories together. Watched it again the other night - I think my order of preference has changed a little bit, and I can imagine it changing again if I watched a third time and noticed new things and paid more attention to different bits. It's great, anyway. 

There was also Roma, which, in a theme for this month, I'd heard nothing but "HAIL CUARON AND THE GREATEST OF ALL FILMS" type hype about, but didn't quite get that feeling myself. Don't get me wrong, it's masterfully directed with some fucking gorgeous shots and beautiful imagery, but I was never completely drawn into the plot or the characters. (But it's still very good indeed.) And then Bird Box. I'd read the book a few weeks before it appeared on Netflix and wondered how the premise would transfer to screen. Quite well, as it turns out, until about 45 minutes from the end where it diverges completely from the book and, for me anyway, falls off a bit of a cliff as a result. It was doing so well up to that point but unfortunately it lost me for that last act.

And finally,

(finally! Sorry)

We popped out on Boxing Day to Mary Poppins Returns which was just a joy. Nearly at Paddington levels, which is something most films could only dream of. For two hours I lost track of the real world and all its shit and was immersed in an escapist vision of fun and happiness and Disney magic. Which is about everything you could possibly hope for with a Mary Poppins film.

 

And that brings us to the end of the year! My final ranking of 2018 films is therefore as follows:

1. Avengers Infinity War

2. Coco

3. Ready Player One

4. A Quiet Place

5. Journey's End

6. They Shall Not Grow Old

7. Solo

8. BlacKkKlansman

9. Crazy Rich Asians

10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

11. Black Panther

12. Bohemian Rhapsody

13. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

14. Game Night

15. Mission Impossible: Fallout

16. Mary Poppins Returns

17. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

18. I, Tonya

19. Roma

20. Bird Box

21. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald

22. Ant-Man and the Wasp

23. Cargo

24. Nothing Like A Dame

25. A Star Is Born

26. Mortal Engines

27. Isle Of Dogs

28. The Post

29. Tomb Raider

30. Outlaw King

31. Deadpool 2

32. Incredibles 2

33. Skyscraper

34. Early Man

35. The Shape of Water

36. Annihilation

37. Last Flag Flying

38. Rampage

39. The Cloverfield Paradox

40. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

41. Mute

 

 

If you got this far, thank you for reading my rambling working-out of which films I liked most in 2018. If you agree, hurray! If you don't, sorry. But whatever you think, don't quote this post if you reply to it - it's too bloody long and it'll make everyone else have to scroll down that whole mess above twice.

[The King Of Swing]

Clovefield Paradox was the biggest load of toss I'd seen in years.

Failed at sci-fi, horror and drama.