Always difficult to create this list but after a few sleepless nights I've whittled it down to my 10 best films of 2018!
10. Isle of Dogs
The story is a great little adventure that sees a Japanese boy, 'Atari' in a quest to find his long-lost pet, Spots. This takes him to a rubbish tip island where he teams up with the resident exiled dogs who sympathise with his plight.
Anderson's quirky style is everpresent in this film and the stop-motion work is super precise and very endearing. With the voices of Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton (to name a few) behind the characters, you can't help but be charmed. Awesome fun.
9. A Quiet Place
My honourary horror flick for 2018 was a little cracker of a film and was one that won a lot of fans besides myself. Starring Emily Blunt, I'm of course talking about A Quiet Place.
Creating original work in this oversaturated genre is more than a little challenging but that's exactly what they achieve here. This is largely thanks to the film's near silent script, a result of the premise which sees a world filled with scary monsters who hunt by virtue of their ultra-sensitive hearing.
Surviving in this world is all about the tiptoeing, sign language and non-crying newborn babies. Everything else is basically your ass in a monster sandwich. You can probably tell I enjoyed this quite a bit, as will all horror fans out there, guaranteed.
8. The Square
I couldn't recall having laughed so much during the first half of a film as I did during Ruben Östlund's The Square.
This was partly due to the film's great setup about a curator who hires a misfit PR team to publicise his high-profile museum. Being a juvenile misfit himself he gets into even more subplot tangles which I actually enjoyed even more than the main storyline.
At 2 1/2 hours, it's quite a lengthy watch, which was fine for me but may stretch the stamina of others. Best to maybe watch his earlier film, Force Majeure, first to see if his humour is your cup of tea before diving into this one.
7. First Man
I wasn't sure what to expect from First Man because I thought I knew all there was to know about the moon landing which, from what I previously thought, all went swimmingly. Boy was I wrong.
This was evident from the outset as Director Damien Chazelle (also responsible for Whiplash and La La Land), starts it off with an exhilarating bang and then goes to great lengths to show us just how calamitous it all was and the toll it took on those involved and connected.
Thought the film was put together in a very accomplished way and to me was done so in the right hands, in the right way, at the right time.
6. Rafiki
Rafiki got a lot of publicity after the somewhat unusual circumstances around its celebration and subsequent ban by the Kenyan government after the film's success at Cannes. That was easily enough to get me to go and see it and so I did and was pleased to do so.
Set in Kenya, the film is a coming of age love story revolving around two girls from Nairobi. As you can tell by the government's reaction, it's a relationship that has its fair share of challenges in Kenya. The film takes you through this in a manner which feels very authentic and is very effective.
Given the context, it was a risky film to make and such risks should be applauded, always.
5. Shoplifters
The most successful Japanese filmmaker since Kurosawa (think I say this every year), Hirokazu Kore-eda, keeps making better and better films.
Shoplifters, winner of the top prize at Cannes, is another great addition to his catalogue with a unique story about a borderline impoverished family in Tokyo who make ends meet, in part, by shoplifting. Without spoiling too much, they share a secret among themselves which plays as an undercurrent as the film plays out.
I don't know what Kore-eda's family background is, but all his films are about different family situations and dynamics and he nails it every time. He could probably be the next Japanese Donahue if he wanted to be but if he chooses to stick to filmmaking that's fine by me.
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A big award winner at the start of the year, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is about a grieving mother who hires three billboards to make a point to the local sheriff about her daughter's unsolved murder.
The trailer this film made it out to be a bit of a romp with the hard-knuckled Frances McDormand, beating townfolk in order to solve the crime herself. That was my impression from it at least, but the film definitely offered much more than that and had a real resonance about it.
McDormand is a legend, as is Harrelson with Rockwell, Dinklage and Hawkes not far behind contributing to a great ensemble and a great film.
3. I, Tonya
With all the style, technique and swagger of a Scorcese film, I, Tonya was one of the most enjoyable films I saw at the movies all year.
Another multiple award winner, many of which went deservingly to its two female leads, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, who play Tonya Harding and her mother respectively. They are a powerhouse duo that face-off against each other in what seems more like a boxing match than figure skating... though as you quickly learn through the film, figure skating is no cakewalk.
The black comedy retelling of this saga was also the perfect fit, amplifying a story that was already so sensational and infamous. As much of a laugh as it is, there's still room for sympathy (for Harding at least) in this version amongst the hysteria and mayhem.
They perhaps took a few creative liberties but do so in the name of fun which I think makes it ok yes? A very good film irrespective.
2. Three Identical Strangers
A lot of people wouldn't have heard of this because it's a documentary film but it's one that's stranger than fiction by a long shot.
The doco is about three identical triplets in the US who randomly found each other in the 80's (during their teens) without previously knowing each other ever existed. As incredible a story as that is in itself, the tale gets even more extraordinary and quite dark (without giving too much away).
It totally blew my mind in the way that only docos can and kept doing so the deeper it went. In a fictitious setting, you'd be laughed out the room if you tried to sell it as a story. Here it's all real.
Very well crafted and very well paced the film is honest, humorous at times and does a proper investigation to uncovering some unnerving truths. Three Identical Strangers was so very close to being my number one film of 2018.
1. Birds of Passage
So here it is! My number one recommended film of 2018 is Birds of Passage.
"Birds of what now?" I hear you say?
Birds of Passage, a not-as-obscure-as-you-might-think film from Colombia that opened one of the events at the Cannes Film Festival.
The poetically titled film is in fact, a crime/mob thriller (just when you thought my taste had evolved) about a man and his family who find riches exporting marijuana to the Americans before it all comes tumbling down on them.
What's especially unique about this film is that it's set in an arid tribal area of Colombia, a setting I'd never seen depicted on screen. For people that were previously goat/cattle crop farmers, it makes for a dramatic contrast when they become gripped by the vices of drugs and money and things take several turns for the worst.
It has the same epic feel as the Coppola and De Palma films of the 70's and 80's, especially when it comes to the family/tribal aspects and the inability to compromise around their codes and values.
While those ideas are tried and tested, the context and authentic portrayal made this feel very fresh. This was especially true with the cast, who scarcely feel like actors (in a good way), particularly in the establishing scenes of the film. The filmmaking isn't stylised, which again strengthens its credibility and contributes to some really big scenes throughout.
The filmmakers don't pull their punches at all with this one, though not in an especially gratuitous way, rather by way of skilful storytelling.
It's strange because after seeing this film, I didn't necessarily think it would be my number one pick of the year but when putting the list together, I kept drawing myself to it. I think, at its core, the story about excess and greed getting the better of people who otherwise had it good, feels particularly pertinent at the moment.
That's about as deep as my thoughts can get so I'll quit while I'm ahead and hope you all get the chance to see Birds of Passage, my No.1 pick and the rest of these great films from 2018!
