Ruk's Top 88 Movies of 2018

[rukaio101]

18. Apostle

 

So apparently the guy who directed The Raid can make good non-action movies too. Whodda thunk it?

 

Seriously though, this was a damn enjoyable little film. More tense, slow and atmospheric, where the Raid was fast and frenetic, this movie reminded me a lot of the Wicker Man (the good version, not the ‘Bees’ one) and in almost every good way. Dan Steven proves once again why he’s one of my favourite working actors and works brilliantly as a grim everyman attempting to rescue his sister from a mysterious cult. The side cast is also great from Martin Sheen’s ‘true believer’ to the more violent and psychopathic Mark Lewis Jones, who is arguably more frightening than much of the supernatural stuff in this movie. One particular death in particular is liable to turn your stomach badly.

 

Admittedly, in terms of horror, it’s much more interested in providing a slow burn and surreal imagery than going for active scares, but that’s not a negative. And when it does go for the horror, it’s pretty damn effective. From Dan Stevens being chased through an underground river of blood and viscera to the poor sod who slowly gets a drill through his head, there’s a lot here that will really stick with you.

 

But yeah, once again, this was a great way for director Gareth Evans to show that he isn’t just a one-trick pony. Count me intrigued to see where he goes with his next film.

 

 

(Also, I swear to God, the guy in that poster looks like Sylvester Stallone to me and I can't stop seeing it.)

[rukaio101]

17. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

 

And the title to most comedic misleading title of 2018 goes to…

 

Yes, as much as the title may make it sound like some sort of anime version of Silence of the Lambs, there is, unfortunately, zero actual cannibalism in this movie and only a tiny bit of actual (non-human) pancreas eating. In actual fact, it’s more of an emotional drama centering around a very introverted Japanese school student who accidentally learns that one of his classmates has a terminal pancreatic disease that she’s been keeping secret from the rest of the school. She decides to use this excuse to become friends with him and try to force him out of his shell before she dies. Because that sounds far more fun than a Grindhouse-esque horror romp, right? Hahaha…..

 

Honestly, to tell the truth, I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy this movie all that much. As I mentioned with 'Leave no Trace', Dramas aren’t really my thing, especially ones with as clearly emotionally manipulative premises as this had. I mean, come on, terminally ill schoolgirl? That’s like a neon goddamn sign for emotionally manipulative shit. The only way it could get more cheap is if she also suffered from parental abuse or a drug addiction (Spoiler alert: She doesn't). Plus, while I wouldn’t say I despise the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, I am at least aware enough of its numerous problematic implications in the real world for it leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. So yeah, I had plenty of reasons to feel a bit skeptical going in.

 

Which was why I was honestly really pretty surprised by how much I really genuinely enjoyed this movie.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like this movie turned out to be something completely different from what I was expecting. It covered the same sort of tones and themes and ideas that I was expecting. And I can’t even say that the main female protagonist didn’t technically fall into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope (even if the relationship didn’t ultimately end up quite being romantic, much to my appreciation). But I’ve always been of the opinion that’s there’s no such thing as an inherently bad trope, merely bad writing. And you can take tropes that so often appear as bad storytelling devices and make them good with good writing. And, as weird as it feels to say this sentence, ‘I Want to Eat Your Pancreas’ is really really well written.

 

In hindsight, this probably shouldn't have surprised me too much, since the story that this film is adapting, originally a web novel of the same name, has already gone through numerous incarnations in Japan, including a live action film and a manga, so clearly something must’ve been highly appealing about it. And really I can see what. The film is well paced, well written, the relationship between the two leads (while seeming a bit basic romcom-y at first) eventually evolves into something a lot more complex and interesting and the film has an exceptional grasp of its own themes and underlying ideas and messages. Even if it uses a lot of tropes and storytelling devices that I’m not necessarily fond of, it uses them in such a way that I can’t help but enjoy them anyway. It made me laugh, it kept me engaged and, while I won’t say it made me cry (I’m really not much a crier at movies) it certainly made me feel quite a lot of something. If the original stories and live-action adaptations are all as quality as this, I can understand why the story is doing so well in Japan.

 

Yet, funnily enough, probably my biggest issue with the story (aside from one third act twist that I’m decisively mixed on) is actually related to the adaptation process, specifically the animation in the movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from bad. It captures the emotion of each scene well enough and there was never a moment where the animation looked notably poor. It’s just that it came off as… well… rather bland to me. The two main characters have very generic anime designs (to the point where they could easily be used as background NPCs in another anime), there’s very little of the way of visual or directorial style and the one sequence towards the end where they attempt to show off the animation in a trippy and fantastical way just kinda came off as… eh. Maybe this is because I watched the movie right after two other great anime films (that will be appearing later on the list), both of which had excellent visual/directorial style, but the animation in this just came off as bland in comparison. Again, it’s not bad and it gets the job done competently enough, but it’s the one C grade aspect in an otherwise A+ movie.

 

Still, I really did enjoy this movie a lot. While it was more or less what I was expecting going in, it nonetheless managed to tell its story in a very very good way and I never ended up feeling bored or irritated with it. And while I did have a few foibles here and there, including with the animation, there was never anything I outright disliked about the movie. So yeah, as weird as it feels to say, ‘I Want to Eat Your Pancreas’ is an excellent and heart-pulling drama. Go watch it.

[rukaio101]

16. BlacKkKlansman

 

I mentioned back when I covered ‘Sorry to Bother You’ that this was a very good year for movies about race and next up in that roster is this movie. It would’ve been so easy to take a premise like this and just turn it into a simple ‘Black guy embarrasses crazy racists’ sort of flick. And, in fact, it is fairly easy to ignore the subtext and just read the movie as like that. But this movie goes so much deeper and manages to create both a much more nuanced exploration of race, while also puncturing a large hole in the clearly flawed idea that we’ve now reached a ‘post-racial’ society. It's the sort of movie that seems fairly basic at first glance but, like a lot of Spike Lee's movies on race, has a lot more to say beneath the surface.

 

In particular, I really liked the movie’s nuanced commentary on the police in this movie, in regards to how they treat race. The main character is a policeman, so you’d naturally expect the movie to be pro-police, minus the obvious ‘bad apples’ that are cartoonish racists. And while a lot of that does end up being true, there is in fact a cartoonishly racist police officer who ends up getting his comeuppance at the end of the film, it’s shown that the actual flaws in the police in regard to race run much deeper in the system, from the precinct captain’s insistence on investigating the various ‘black power’ movements that are shown to be loud with fiery rhetoric but without much actual threat to them (rather than the local KKK chapter, members of whom are actively plotting terrorist attacks), to the boneheaded incompetence like sending the sole black cop to protect the KKK rally, to the ultimate shutting down of the investigation in spite of its clear successes. It's not just one cartoonish racist cop who's the problem, the rot begins much further up. 

 

Even the main character himself is not shown in a fully golden light, for his deeds in infiltrating a black power movement while undercover and it’s left deliberately ambiguous to the audience whether or not he’s in the right to stay working for the police. And, as mentioned before, there’s a lot about this movie that’s easily applicable to modern day. From the clear in-your-face references like ‘Make America Great Again’ to the subtler stuff woven throughout the movie. It’s the sort of film where you can find meaning both on the surface and under, if you care to look.

 

So yeah, once again, this was a really damn good movie. It has great acting, a lot of good tension and humour and some really powerful moments, especially the white power/black power bit. It’s not my favourite in regards to movies about race this year, but it’s still pretty damn high up near the top.

[TomCruiseTop]

What a strange coincidence you should choose the number 88... 

[rukaio101]

2 hours ago, JamesCameronScholar said:

What a strange coincidence you should choose the number 88... 

Except I didn't choose the number 88, it just happened to be the number of movies I watched last year. In the same way that 85 was the number of movies I watched for this list last year and 75 was the number I watched the year before. Simple as.

 

But please, continue to less-than-subtly imply stupid things about me. I'm sure if I gave the slightest damn about what you think, I'd find it devastating. 

 

 

[rukaio101]

15. The Favourite

 

Or as it's otherwise known, 'Bitches be cray-cray', am I right? Seriously though, Yorgos Lanthimos (I'm certain I've butchered that spelling) has always been one of those directors I've been meaning to check out but have never actually gotten around to doing so. I heard enough good things about The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer, but for one reason or another they never ended up directly on my plate. So I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into this.

 

Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. On the contrary, I was honestly kind of surprised at just how funny this movie was. Admittedly, it's funny very much in a dark comedy sort of way, but I had a lot of good laughs when I saw this that I very much wasn't exxpecting. Emma Stone in particular surprised me with her comedic talents, with some fantastic facial expressions to help punctuate certain jokes. Although then again, all three of the leading ladies were honestly really good. Olivia Colman has always been a underrated favourite of mine (especially considering how often she seems to show up on British TV) and Rachel Weisz makes a satisfyingly dignified foil for both her and Emma Stone. All three actors work off each other brilliantly to create an excellent product. Needless to say the Oscar noms are very deserved in their case.

 

But yeah, honestly this movie was great. Strong characterisation, strong acting, some great political intrigue and surprisingly hilarious to boot. If I had to pick any flaw, it does sometimes get a little too artsy for its own good, especially on that final shot, but that's a minor blemish at best for a movie that I honestly really enjoyed.

[rukaio101]

14. Revenge

 

Boy, this was a really good year for somewhat trippy movies with one-word titles, wasn’t it? I’ve already covered Apostle, Mandy and Overlord, but on my list this year, nearly half my Top 20 films have one-word titles. That’s pretty damn impressive, right? Right...?

 

...Okay, look, I’m buying for time because I couldn't come up with a good introduction for this. Except, obviously, that it was really really damn good.

 

Revenge has been touted as a feminist revenge thriller and, while I’m not entirely sure to what extent I’d agree with that descriptor, there’s no denying it’s a really great movie. Tense and exciting, with some enjoyably hateable villains and an almost cartoonish level of blood, this movie grips you from very early on and never feels like it outstays its welcome. And it doesn’t even always rely on gore or action to provide its tension. There’s one scene very early on with a very creepy ‘nice guy’ character that was almost ‘Get Out’ levels in how much it subconsciously unsettled you and made you think something was wrong, even before the actual awful stuff starts happening

 

Really, in a lot of ways, it's the perfect sort of action thriller, with a likeable protagonist who you want to see survive, hateable antagonists you want to see dead, tense sequences, great use of action and a quite frankly ridiculous amount of blood. Seriously, in that climactic fight, I'm fairly certain that the characters should not have had that much blood in them to begin with, let alone actually surviving having lost it all. But it's clearly a deliberate stylistic choice that I admit I did kind of enjoy. So yeah, it's a fun movie and if you haven't seen it, check it out.

[rukaio101]

13. Searching

 

I did say this was a good year for movies with one-word titles, right?

 

Anyway, Searching is a movie with a fairly unique gimmick, in that the entire movie takes place on a computer screen. Phone calls, texts, messages and the like are all used to move the story along and we never see anything that happens outside that screen. As far as I know, this movie isn’t the first to try such a thing, a few horror movies have also done so in the past, but this easily pulls it off the best. It’s the sort of gimmick that, if poorly handled could quickly become eye-rolling in its obnoxiousness, but the movie really manages to make it work and manages to use a lot of inventive storytelling techniques with it, from half-typed out text messages that never get sent, to google searches and messages that clearly help convey the main character’s internal feelings.

 

It also helps that the mystery itself unfolds pretty damn interestingly. We open with a neat little Up-esque montage of the family growing up together, followed by the mother’s death from cancer and the father and daughter slowly growing somewhat estranged. Then the daughter stops answering her calls and her father grows increasingly desperate as he tries to contact her through dozens of different methods, leading to the unavoidable conclusion that she’s gone missing. In a normal movie, much of the 'attempting to contact her' stuff would be skipped over pretty quickly, but this movie shows each of the father's steps as he tries to get in contact with his daughter, in almost painstaking detail and we really get a sense for that growing panic and worry in the father’s gut as he realises something is genuinely wrong.

 

Honestly, I was surprised by how gripped I was for the entire movie. I won’t say basic-storywise it does anything amazingly original and there are a few contrived coincidences that lead the character to the real answer, but it’s all told in such a fantastically visual way, with the way it all unfolds or how each step of the father’s investigation is shown and how he makes logical deductions and steps. Even if there are a handful of moments where the computer gimmick feels a touch forced at times, it’s all entirely worth it for just how much it adds to the movie.

 

Seriously though, this movie took a gimmick that I honestly wasn’t all that sure about and really showed how it could work on the big screen. And sure, just as much credit should go to John Cho who really does hold everything together with his fantastic performance. Trust me when I saw that Boffy nom is very well deserved. To sum up, this movie was so much better than I ever thought it could be and was a very strong contender for my Top 10 for much of the year. Unfortunately, it narrowly got overtaken by a few late entries I saw towards the year, including the next movie on this list...

[rukaio101]

12. Suspiria

 

You know, a lot of people are fairly down on remakes these days. And, to some degree, it’s fairly understandable. Why waste money retelling a story that’s already been told and in a way that, most likely, will be inferior to the original product? But then you get remakes like this, that take the same kind of premise as the original movie (a dance academy run by witches) and takes it off in entirely new and exciting directions, providing a product that is simultaneously very different and similar and easily stands on the same level as the original movie.

 

Seriously, I loved the heck out of this movie, from its weird surreal imagery, to the subtle subtexts of each character’s relationships, to the haunting hypnotic dancing scenes to the way the movie almost creates its own unique form of magic, distinct and different from the original, leading to the mind-blowing (heh) conclusion. I was fairly cautious going in, since I’m rarely fond of movies with overly long running times, but this movie dragged me in quickly and refused to let me go for nearly 3 hours, keeping me compelled and interested through the entire running time. There’s one early scene in particular involving a room of mirrors (if you’ve seen it, you know the one) that legitimately might be my favourite movie scene of the year.

 

Still, if I did have to pick some flaws, it’s that it does feel like the movie kinda peaks a little bit early with that scene and that the climax, while involving some great make-up and an excellent twist, was a touch more anti-climactic than I’d like. Plus I wasn’t overly fond of the psychiatrist subplot. But those are more than made up for by everything else in the movie and how much genuine magic it contains.

 

To sum up, (and go on a very mild tangent) this movie very much goes to show why I’ve always wished we could’ve gotten Terry Gilliam’s interpretation of Watchmen, rather than Zack Snyder's slavish reproduction of the original comic book. Because you just plain can’t live up to a classic by copying it beat for beat. You have to go off in your own direction and make something new of it, even as you keep to the ideas of the original. And sure sometimes that won’t always work, but it’s worth a shot, isn’t it? Especially if you end up with something as fantastic as this.

 

 

 

(Also, drink a shot for yet another one-word title.)

[rukaio101]

11. Hereditary

 

And the one word title domination continues with another equally surreal horror movie. I’ll admit, this movie really took me a while to get around to. I’ve been meaning to see ever since it came out, but it didn’t stick around in my local cinemas long enough to really get a chance. But boy am I glad I saw it when I did.

 

Now, I will confess, this was a somewhat interesting viewing experience for me in hindsight, because I didn’t go into this movie blind like most people. While waiting to get a chance to watch it at home, I’d already read a number of thinkpieces and spoiler-heavy reviews talking about and interpreting the various events of the movie. Which didn’t particularly bother me, I’m far from a spoilerphobe, but it did affect my viewing experience somewhat. Specifically, it let me appreciate just how well put together the entire movie was.

 

Seriously, the entire film is packed with clever foreshadowing and subtle clues, both visual, dialogue and story-wise. It was so well constructed, like those model houses Toni Collette’s character keeps fiddling with throughout the movie, even if a lot of it is not necessarily something you can easily catch on first viewing. From the very opening speech, clues are laid down and the movie masterfully unfolds its puzzle with more and more pieces and strange events. Admittedly, I can understand why a lot of people were rather confused seeing this film, considering they don't explain a very important part of the mystery until a very clumsy throwaway exposition line in literally the last scene, but knowing what they were going for from the beginning only made me appreciate it all the more.

 

But it’s not just the story that I appreciated. The acting in this movie was phenomenal, with special mention to the Toni Collette and Alex Wolff who both just blew it out of the park as a mother and son both collectively starting to lose their goddamn minds in different and frightening ways after a sudden tragic event. Gabriel Byrne is a little more subdued but he does fine as the skeptical grounded father trying to keep things sane and Millie Shapiro is a sufficiently creepy kid, even if she doesn’t get as much screentime as you’d expect. The direction and production design as well is great, with excellent use of darkness and various visual cues here and there.

 

Overall, the 2010’s have really been a surprisingly interesting decade for horror and this is yet another great notch on its belt. Haunting, well-constructed and with some genuinely Oscar-worthy performances, it’s little surprise to me that this has been getting the accolades that it has.

[TomCruiseTop]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style - check it out if you ever get a chance. 

 

I hope your degree/masters is in a numeric subject because boy did they sell you down the river if it was any form of lit major. 

[rukaio101]

3 hours ago, JamesCameronScholar said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style - check it out if you ever get a chance. 

 

I hope your degree/masters is in a numeric subject because boy did they sell you down the river if it was any form of lit major. 

Considering this is coming from a guy who writes/debates like he got his degree from an unlicensed hotdog vendor, forgive me if I'm not exactly feeling torn apart by your attempts at criticism.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Anyway, on a more relevant/less catty note, I'm probably going to start counting down the Top 10 fairly soonish, once I've eaten dinner and taken the dog for a walk. So yeah, keep an eye out for that.

 

[rukaio101]

10. Funan

 

...Well, it's good to start this list off on a light-hearted note, right?

 

Seriously though, I wrote my initial review for this back in November, a review that was probably one of my most introspective pieces of the year and writing it legit made me think a lot about the way I watch movies like this. And needless to say, time has only made it linger more strongly in my mind. The film is an animated production set during the Cambodian Genocide, following a separated family during their trials and tribulations at the hands of the vicious Khmer Rouge. It is also a phenomenally powerful and tragic film that needs to be seen. It wasn't a pleasant viewing experience by any means, but it was a necessary one nonetheless and really made me think about what it even means to 'enjoy' a movie about tragic real-life events.

 

Now, I suspect most of you probably haven't had a chance to see it yet, since I watched it at a festival and it hasn't really rolled into cinemas yet (I'm personally hoping the producers are planning to give it a shot at the animated Oscar nest year), but if it happens to end up screening near you, I'd definitely say check it out. But don't go in expecting any light-hearted animated fun. This movie will crush your soul every bit as hard as Grave of the Fireflies and arguably even harder. That's just the sort of movie it is.

[Avatree]

On 1/30/2019 at 8:14 PM, rukaio101 said:

48. Sorry to Bother You

 

You know, I mentioned this in my Green Book review, but there really were a surprisingly high number of good movies about race and race relations this year. Seriously, I usually only tend to stumble across 2 or 3 in any given year (although I suppose that could arguably say more about my filmwatching habits than anything else), yet this year I’ve already seen nearly double that of mostly pretty damn good quality. And that’s not even including Blindspotting and If Beale Street Could Talk, both of which I gave a miss. And while this movie is currently on the bottom rung of those that I have seen, aside from Green Book obviously, that’s certainly not because it’s a bad movie.

 

Honestly, this really was an interesting movie to me, from its weird off-beat tone to its fiercely biting satire, most of which felt at least fairly on point. LaKeith Stansfield does a good job as the everyman telemarketer trying to move up in the world, the movie does a good job of portraying a lot of the toxicity of corporate culture and honestly, while I’ve heard a lot of people complain about it, I really liked the weird final third twist, which I thought was a great ‘Modest Proposal’ esque critique of many companies approach to their workers

 

Honestly, if I had to say anything bad about this movie it’s that, and bear with me for a second… I actually think it could’ve done with being even more weird and out there. And trust me, if you’ve seen the movie, I wouldn’t be too surprised if you raise your eyebrows at that. But no, I really think it could’ve/should’ve gone further with the weird surreal ridiculous satire. A lot of the big satires that have really stuck with me tend to be the ones that don’t hold back with their punches and metaphors and keep them going throughout the entire film’s running time. And while this film certainly does have some of its big satirical premises near the beginning of the film, it’s honestly a bit subdued for the first half or so. And large part of me suspects that the big controversy and mixed reception about the big third act twist has more to do with it seeming out of place compared to that more subdued first half.

 

Then again, I am telling a movie that features Tessa Thompson getting bullets and bladders of sheeps blood thrown at her while she recites an obscure movie line that it needs to be more weird so maybe that just says more about me than anything else. (Also, considering what I know about actual real life performance art, that shit was practically tame.) But hey, it was still an interesting movie, so credit where credit is due on that front.

I understand that criticism. at points it turns insane, at other points it doesn't feel weird "enough". I think that's quite deliberate to make the world closer to our own world.

[rukaio101]

9. A Quiet Place

 

You know the saying ‘tension so thick you could cut it with a knife?’ Well, that doesn’t describe this movie. No, this movie is so tense, you could boil it down, run it through a cement truck and use the resulting mixture to create a bridge so strong that extra-heavy trucks could it use to carry goods across the fucking English Channel.

 

What I’m trying to say is that the movie is really very tense.

 

Seriously, this movie more than lived up to the hype for me. It’s fantastic. I spent nearly half the run time actively gripping my armrest, heart pounding in my chest, eyes fixed to the screen barely able to look away. The premise is exactly the right kind of simple but effective story this movie needed, the performances are excellent all round, from veterans to child actors, and I really appreciate the movie’s willingness to just skip the usual cliches and just show us the monsters almost straight off.

 

And need I even mention the direction? It's practically masterful, tense at every stroke, slowly building and building in quiet suspenseful dread until you know something has to break. It elevates the premise beyond semi-inventive B-movie to something so much greater and the atmosphere that it's clearly trying to create perfectly matches that.

 

Back when I talked about Ghost Stories, I mentioned that a good measure of a horror movie for me is how often I spend watching it pretending not to have my ears plugged and my eyes averted from the screen. And while I there was certainly a fair amount of that when I watched this, I also spend a significant amount of time biting on my own fist in sheer tension. And when a movie makes you very nearly selfharm in tension, you know you've got a good one.

 

In conclusion, this really was a fantastic horror movie. In fact it's the highest ranking horror movie on this list. It's tense, well-acted, well-directed and it's an honest tragedy that it didn't do better at the Oscars, because it definitely deserved it.

[rukaio101]

8. Penguin Highway

 

This is another movie that I already wrote a review for back in October, but needless to say it's easily the most unexpected movie to reach my Top 10 by a long shot. I'd never even heard of it before I chose to watch it and I'm usually generally on top of anime movie releases.

 

The movie itself is about a very very precocious kid, who styles himself as a would-be genius, and his attempts to scientifically solve the multiple mysteries of strangely appearing penguins everywhere, a hole in space/time and why boobs are so appealing (because Japan and/or puberty). Weirdly enough, if I had to put any kind of genre label on this movie, it’s technically kind of a Mystery. (That is to say a movie in the Mystery Genre, not that the genre is a… you get the idea.) There are no dead bodies, but there is a strange mysterious problem, clues are slowly gathered about it over the course of the movie and the protagonist eventually brings it all together in a big eureka moment. But while it has kind of a mystery template to it, it doesn’t really feel like it sums up everything this movie is. But I covered that more in my initial review

 

Anyway, needless to say, I loved the hell out of it. It was weird, quirky, funny but with a real sense of intelligence and profoundness beneath the surface. The characters were lovable, the mysteries mysterious and overall just a really pleasant surprise that I didn't expect in the slightest. It was written by the same person who wrote 'The Night is Short, Walk on Girl' (aka my favourite movie of 2017) and while this movie doesn't quite have Yuasa's beautifully vivid directorial style to compliment it, it's still a damn strong story that made for a damn unexpectedly enjoyable movie.

 

I'll admit it might not be for everyone (and, unlike Funan, I don't have any expectations for it at the Oscars next year), but as my obligatory obscure unexpected animated favourite for the year, I've still got to recommend to anyone who's interested. If you get a chance this year, give it a try, especially if you enjoyed Night is Short. You might be pleasantly surprised.

[rukaio101]

7. One Cut of the Dead

 

Fun Fact: This movie was actually the very last film I saw in 2018. And oh my God, what a magnificent note to go out on. I laughed harder at this than any other movie I saw this year and it's not even close. Deadpool 2? Blockers? The Favourite? Robin Hood? Not even in the same league. This movie is fucking hilarious and will have you choking on your own goddamn spit once it gets going.

 

Now, I will admit, it's actually kind of difficult to talk about what really makes this movie so incredibly funny here and now. Not because I don't have much to say about it, on the contrary, I have plenty, but because it's really difficult to talk about without giving away the big twist of what the movie is ultimately about. And trust me, I don't want to spoil that surprise for you.

 

I will say though that, while the movie does take a while to properly get going, especially since most of the really big laughs don't come about until the final third of the film, it's entirely worth the wait. The first third or so will likely have you scratching your head a little, while the second third, immediately after the big twist, will have you curious but wondering where exactly they're planning on taking this. But once the first third gets going and you realise what's happening, the laughs come thick and heavy and magnificent and the two acts that came before suddenly slot perfectly into place. 

 

Like I said, I really adore this movie and, as shitty as the year otherwise was, it made the perfect top-off to 2018. If you get a chance to see a screening of it, don't even hesitate because I guarantee you'll get a laugh. This is the sort of movie I really hope gets a reputation as a Shaun of the Dead-esque cult classic because it really deserves every inch of it.

[rukaio101]

6. Black Panther

 

Do I even need to explain this one?

 

...Well, okay, apparently I do because I tend to hear a lot of people whining about this film nowadays, especially as it goes from incredible success to incredible success. You all know the sorts. 'Wah, it only got so much attention because of the black cast.' 'Wah, critics only pretend to like it because of race.' 'Wah, it only got a Best Picture nomination because the Academy wants to pander to populist audiences.'

 

But hey, how about this? Maybe the reason it broke so many box office records, made so much money domestically and worldwide, scored so incredibly highly among critics, made its mark upon popular culture and was ultimately nominated for Best Picture is because... shock of all shocks, it's really damn good!

 

Seriously, I saw this at a midnight screening when it came out and my first thought upon leaving the cinema was that this was going to be a fucking phenomenon. The movie just struck me on every single level. As a film critic, as a progressive, as someone who loves worldbuilding, as someone who loves superhero movies, hell as someone who loves movies period! I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the rich textured writing filled with oceans of subtext and deeper meaning. It was fantastic.

 

Really, it would've been so easy for Ryan Coogler to play it safe with this one. To sit back, do a basic origin story and watch the Marvel bucks roll in. But instead he went further than I think anyone ever expected him to, using the format as a way to explore deep-seated racial issues, to create a unique afro-centric sci-fi culture, to fill his characters with so much nuance and meaning and to have just as many amazing female characters take central stage as the male ones. While I legitimately love 2017's Wonder Woman (even the controversial third act) I couldn't help but feel it shied away a little from any really deep exploration of feminist ideas (which isn't necessarily a flaw) but Black Panther embraced the racial questions and implications at the heart of its premise and used it to create a narrative that was both strong and meaningful.

 

Honestly, I could (and occasionally have) write entire fucking essays about just how much I love the storytelling in this movie. Because I really really do. Even if it slips a little in the third act (much like Wonder Woman) it's just so filled with interesting ideas and deeper meaning and the sorts of things I never realised I wanted to see in a superhero movie. And even if it isn't ultimately my favourite superhero movie of the year (or even my second), I still think it's entirely deserving of every accomplishment that goes its way.

 

 

 

Okay, gonna take a brief break before the Top 5 starts. Be back in a mo.

[Morieris]

1 minute ago, rukaio101 said:

Really, it would've been so easy for Ryan Coogler to play it safe with this one. To sit back, do a basic origin story and watch the Marvel bucks roll in. But instead he went further than I think anyone ever expected him to, using the format as a way to explore deep-seated racial issues, to create a unique afro-centric sci-fi culture, to fill his characters with so much nuance and meaning and to have just as many amazing female characters take central stage as the male ones. While I legitimately love 2017's Wonder Woman (even the controversial third act) I couldn't help but feel it shied away a little from any really deep exploration of feminist ideas (which isn't necessarily a flaw) but Black Panther embraced the racial questions and implications at the heart of its premise and used it to create a narrative that was both strong and meaningful.

 

 

 

There are some legit criticisms to be had of it (That final battle is still so bad), but I do find that a lot of the vitriol comes because it's a movie with 99% black people and they don't want to acknowledge that it's good on it's on merits and not because of "PC culture".

[rukaio101]

And now for the Top 5...

 

5. Maquia: The Promised Flower Blooms

 

Sometimes a GIF can convey thoughts more about a movie than mere words ever could. And in that regard, behold an accurate summation of my initial reaction to Maquia: The Promised Flower Blooms.

 

 

Seriously though, I don't think it's unfair to say this movie got me somewhat emotional. In fact, I would go so far to say that this movie was a like a fucking nuclear warhead blast fired directly into each and every one of my feels. It somehow managed to push on every single emotional spot for me, parenthood, growing up, the inevitability of time and death, each one delivered with emotion-punishing force. This movie was fairly renowned anime screenwriter Mari Okada’s directorial debut and heavily based on her real-life estranged relationship with her mother, who raised her as a young single working parent, and trust me when I say you can feel it. Each emotional beat feels like it has real passion and meaning behind it, even behind all the fantasy flair and drama.

 

The movie itself follows Maquia, a shy young member of a secluded tribe of Iorphs, immortal blond child-like waifs, who is constantly overshadowed by her two friends and lacks self-confidence. However, when her homeland is attacked by dragon-riding humans, looking to capture a female Iorph to bring immortal blood to their royal bloodline, Maquia is left to stumble lost and alone. Shortly after, she comes across a baby, whose parents were slaughtered by bandits and chooses to adopt him rather than leave him to die, naming him Ariel. Of course, the fact that Ariel ages and grow and she doesn't causes a lot of difficulty, especially when she's caught up in an attempted rescue of one of her friends that gets... emotionally complicated. Naturally, it all leads to, well not exactly 'tragedy' but a lot of emotional things that stomp on my feels with a severe lack of disregard for my heartstrings.

 

Also, the movie looks absolutely gorgeous.

 

Seriously, this is arguably the most beautiful looking animation of 2018. The fantasy landscapes and cities are just swimming with gorgeous artwork, looking like something out of a painting in almost every shot. It really adds a lot to the beautifully-melancholic atmosphere of the movie as the characters move from location to location in search of work or a place to live. The sole thing I will say is that the CGI dragons don’t look great though, but they’re thankfully not in the movie all that much.

 

I will say though, out of all the movies in the Top 5… hell, arguably the entire Top 10, this is probably the one that feels the most openly flawed. The fact that it’s trying to contain an entire lifespan within a 2 hour movie means that a lot of scenes and moments do get jumped over very fast and there are a lot of scenes, particularly in the middle, that feel like they lacked the appropriate emotional build-up to really make sense (although said scenes also felt like, in my mind, the ones most likely to be drawn from Okada’s actual life, so make of that what you will). But overall I’m willing to forgive it for that for just how high it reached and for just how effective and emotional the entire story was. From Maquia’s lonely early days to how her world changes again and again to the tragic and tear-jerking but inevitable conclusion, it all just worked for me.

 

Even the secondary side plot (which funnily enough seemed to be the significantly more epic plot compared to Maquia’s more simple down-to-earth drama) I thought was excellent with several minor stories that seemed to happening and developing on their own in the background. It takes what could’ve been a simple ‘Rescue the princess from the tower’ storyline and adds its share of dark and heartbreaking turns and twists, some of which even mirror Maquia’s own journey.

 

Overall, this movie isn’t perfect, but I’m willing to give it a pass because of just how much goddamn emotion it contained. I didn’t cry at any movies in 2018, but this came closest by far to getting me to do so and it left me in an emotional funk for most of the next day. And trust me when I say that’s rare. So yeah, I don’t know for certain if anyone else will get the same kind of experience I had during this (I already know a few friends who weren’t amazingly fond of it) but I’d still highly recommend it. It looks gorgeous and has a ton of emotion behind it.