BEST MOVIES of 2018

[Chris Knipp]

Favorite short trailer of the year:
FOXTROT




This belongs in a supplemental Best List for the year, which I am working on.

[Chris Knipp]

The Indiewire Poll
is completed. You can find it all HERE

BEST FILM
ROMA(1,086 points, 26% of first-place votes)
FIRST REFORMED (599, 6.7%)
BURNING (548, 7.1%)
THE FAVOURITE (520, 2.9%)
COLD WAR (493, 2.9%)
SHOPLIFTERS (401, 1%)
BLACKKKLANSMAN (391, 2.9%)
ZAMA (333, 4.2%)
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (329, 2.5%)
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (316, 1.7%%)

Note: “First Reformed” ultimately placed higher in this ranking, even though it received fewer first place votes than “Burning,” because it had more second, third, fourth, and fifth place votes. The same math applies to why “Zama” received more first-place votes than “The Favourite,” “Cold War,” “Shoplifters” and “BlacKkKlansman.”
-Indiewire

[Chris Knipp]

Those people are dutiful or, I don't know what, but Guy Lodge started a list on Twitter of worst or most unsatisfactory "prestige" films of the year and it included for some, ROMA, Shoplifters, BlackKKlansman and Zama. I can understand these, though I admired them, and liked BKKK too. Some question about what is or insn't a "prestige" film. Widows, Beautiful Boy included.

See the Twitter feed HERE.

VICE was frequently mentioned, which is ominous. I'm waiting to see it.

[Chris Knipp]

BARACK OBAMA'S BEST MOVIES OF 2018.

Barack Obama has published his fourth annual set of personal best lists including books, film, and music (see the Guardian article). Here is his (alphabetical) best movie list. It's a good and very savvy list, including four of the key African-American-related titles, BlacKKKlansman, Black Panther, Blindspotting and If Beale Street Could Talk - but omitting the most politically radical of those, Sorry to Bother You. He includes my favorite, Lee Chang-dong's Burning.

Annihilation
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Minding the Gap
The Rider
Roma
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

[Chris Knipp]

Mark Kermode's best of 2018 (veteran Guardian film critic)
(Some films come out earlier or later in England than the USA.)

The 10 best films of 2018

1. Leave No Trace
Debra Granik’s low-key gem is a textbook example of show-don’t-tell film-making; perfect.

2. The Breadwinner
A young girl battles the Taliban in Nora Twomey’s superb animated adaptation of Deborah Ellis’s bestseller.

3. Widows
Davis heads up an ensemble cast to die for in Steve McQueen’s ultra-stylish update of Lynda La Plante’s 80s TV thriller.

4. Cold War
Paweł Pawlikowski’s tale of star-crossed lovers falling together and apart through the iron curtain of postwar Europe.

5. You Were Never Really Here
Lynne Ramsay’s psychological anti-thriller, starring Joaquin Phoenix, reconfirms her position as a unique visual poet.

6. A Fantastic Woman
Daniela Vega shines in Sebastián Lelio’s deserving winner of the Oscar for foreign language film.

7. The Shape of Water
Splash meets Creature from the Black Lagoon in Guillermo del Toro’s magical fantasy.

8. Jeune Femme
One of the real surprise treats of the year – an invigorating and unvarnished character study from Léonor Serraille.

9. BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee’s stranger-than-fiction tale may be set in the 1970s but it felt urgently relevant and contemporary in 2018.

10. They Shall Not Grow Old
Peter Jackson breathes new life into 100-year-old footage of the first world war with awe-inspiring results.

Turkey
Show Dogs
The most misjudged comedy of the year. Remember: no dogs is better than Show Dogs!

[Chris Knipp]

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw's 2018 Movie Best Lists.

Tireless at festivals, he's thorough in his list-making.
Remember, these are UK 2018 releases.

Best film
Roma (dir Alfonso Cuarón)
A Star Is Born (dir Bradley Cooper)
Cold War (dir Paweł Pawlikowski)
Leave No Trace (dir Debra Granik)
Western (dir Valeska Grisebach)
Zama (dir Lucrecia Martel)
Hereditary (dir Ari Aster)
Coco (dirs Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina)
Widows (dir Steve McQueen)
Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

Best director
Alfonso Cuarón for Roma
Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born
Mike Leigh for Peterloo
Bart Layton for American Animals
Andrey Zvyagintsev for Loveless
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Ryan Coogler for Black Panther
Nuri Bilge Ceylan for The Wild Pear Tree
Hirokazu Kore-eda for Shoplifters
Chloé Zhao for The Rider

Best actor
Rupert Everett for The Happy Prince (dir Rupert Everett)
Marcello Fonte for Dogman (dir Matteo Garrone)
Justin Salinger for Crowhurst (dir Simon Rumley)
Daniel Day Lewis for Phantom Thread (dir Paul Thomas Anderson)
Joaquin Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here (dir Lynne Ramsay)
Ethan Hawke for First Reformed (dir Paul Schrader)
John David Washington for BlacKkKlansman (dir Spike Lee)
Lakeith Stanfield for Sorry to Bother You (dir Boots Riley)
Steve Coogan for Stan & Ollie (dir Jon S Baird)
John C Reilly for Stan & Ollie (dir Jon S Baird)
Tim Blake Nelson as the title character in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Best supporting actor
Tim Blake Nelson for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (dirs Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart for BPM: 120 Beats Per Minute (dir Robin Campillo)
Sam Elliott for A Star Is Born (dir Bradley Cooper)
Craig Robinson for An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin (dir Jim Hosking)
Brian Tyree Henry for Widows (dir Steve McQueen)
Daniel Kaluuya for Widows (dir Steve McQueen)
Gérard Depardieu for Let the Sunshine In (dir Claire Denis)
Jonathan Pryce for The Wife (dir Björn Runge)
Paul Bettany for Journey’s End (dir Saul Dibb)
Benicio Del Toro for Sicario 2: Soldado (dir Stefano Sollima)

Best actress
Yalitza Aparicio for Roma (dir Alfonso Cuarón)
Toni Collette for Hereditary (dir Ari Aster)
Glenn Close for The Wife (dir Björn Junge)
Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born (dir Bradley Cooper)
Viola Davis for Widows (dir Steve McQueen)
Carey Mulligan for Wildlife (dir Paul Dano)
Daniela Vega for A Fantastic Woman (dir Sebastián Lelio)
Joanna Scanlan for Pin Cushion (dir Deborah Haywood)
Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (dir Martin McDonagh)
Juliette Binoche for Let the Sunshine In (dir Claire Denis)
Michelle Yeoh in Crazy Rich Asians.

Best supporting actress
Cynthia Erivo for Widows (dir Steve McQueen) and Bad Times at the El Royale (dir. Drew Goddard)
Allison Janney for I, Tonya (dir Craig Gillespie)
Elisabeth Moss for The Square (dir Ruben Östlund)
Michelle Yeoh for Crazy Rich Asians (dir Jon M Chu)
Siobhan Finneran for Apostasy (dir Daniel Kokotajlo)
Michelle Pfeiffer for Ant-Man and the Wasp (dir Peyton Reed)
Ana Ivanova for The Heiresses (dir Marcelo Martinessi)
Kirin Kiki for Shoplifters (dir Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Adele Haenel for BPM: 120 Beats Per Minute (dir Robin Campillo)
Zoe Kazan for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (dirs Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)

Best screenplay
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (dirs Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Hirokazu Kore-eda for Shoplifters (dir Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Nick Park, Mark Burton and James Higginson for Early Man (dir Nick Park)
Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe for Blockers (dir Kay Cannon)
Liz Hannah for The Post (dir Steven Spielberg)
Carla Simón for Summer 1993 (dir Carla Simón)
Lucinda Coxon for The Little Stranger (dir Lenny Abrahamson)
Lucrecia Martel for Zama (dir Lucrecia Martel)
Jim Hosking and David Wike for An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin (dir Jim Hosking)
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (dir Greta Gerwig)

Best documentary
The Shall Not Grow Old (dir Peter Jackson)
Faces Places (dirs Agnès Varda, JR)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (dir Alexandra Dean)
The Rape of Recy Taylor (dir Nancy Buirski)
The Eyes of Orson Welles (dir Mark Cousins)
A Northern Soul (dir Sean McAllister)
Nothing Like a Dame (dir Roger Michell)
That Summer (dir Göran Hugo Olsson)
Arcadia (dir. Paul Wright)
Voyageuse (dir May Miles Thomas)

Best cinematography
Alfonso Cuarón for Roma (dir Alfonso Cuarón)
Benjamin Loeb for Mandy (dir. Panos Cosmatos)
Benoît Debie for Climax (dir Gaspar Noé)
Laurie Rose for The Escape (dir Dominic Savage) and Journey’s End (dir Saul Dibb)
Rachel Morrison for Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler)
Agnès Godard for Let the Sunshine In (dir. Claire Denis)
Charlotte Bruus Christensen for A Quiet Place (dir John Krasinski)
Linus Sandgren for First Man (dir Damien Chazelle)
Rui Poças for Zama (dir Lucrecia Martel)
Andrew Dunn for The Children Act (dir Richard Eyre)

Best directorial debut
Paul Dano for Wildlife
Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias for Cocote
Marcelo Martinessi for The Heiresses
Michael Pearce for Beast
John Trengove for The Wound
Coralie Fargeat for Revenge
Léonor Serraille for Jeune Femme
Carla Simón for Summer 1993
Daniel Kokotajlo for Apostasy
Kogonada for Columbus

Special Braddie award
… for the quirky film overlooked by the complacent MSM gatekeeper-establishment which might be a future cult classic:
Every Day (dir Michael Sucsy)

[Chris Knipp]

Best Documentary Features - 2019 Oscar contenders

The 2019 documentary Oscar shortlist is now being presented (as the short films and animations are) in around 15 urban areas nation-wide. Previous Filmleaf reviews of 9 of the 15 are linked below. Several were omitted earlier in this tread because they weren't really theatrical releases, and some, which are unlinked, have not been seen by yours truly. (Jan. 4, 2019):

CHARM CITY - Marilyn Ness [about Baltimore's three recent most violent years]

COMMUNION/KOMOUNIA - Anna Zamecka [children taking on adult family burdens, in Poland]

CRIME + PUNISHMENT - Stephen Maing [NYPD cops reveal illegal quota practices]

DARK MONEY - Kimberly Read

THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS - Simon Lereng Wilmont (SFIFF)

FREE SOLO - (Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

HALE COUNTY, THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING - (ND/NF)

MINDING THE GAP - Bing Liu (SFIFF)

OF FATHERS AND SONS/KINDER DES KALIFATS (2017) - Talal Derki [Following a radical Islamist family in Syria]

ON HER SHOULDERS - Alexandra Bombach

RBG - Julie Cohn, Betsy West

SHIRKERS - Sandi Tan - [Available on Netflix] [A lost feature film found]

THE SILENCE OF OTHERS/EL SILENCIO DE OTROS/ Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar [About the Franco regime in Spain]

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS - Tim Wardle

WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR - Morgan Neville