Films that rose above the fray in 2018

This was a particularly good year for films. At first I didn’t think so but after I reviewed the films I watched and wrote about this past year, I was pleasantly surprised. I was entertained by outstanding acting, strong and poignant films about racism, and out loud laughs. My next post will be about the Oscar nominations.

Game Night: This film was funny from the get go and I laughed out loud all the way through.

Leaning Into the Wind: Andrew Goldsworthy: If you liked the film River and Tides, you’ll love Leaning....

The Death of Stalin: There are very funny moments, but I couldn’t help but wonder was his regime filled with that much personal corruptness? Probably.

Flower: The acting lifts this bizarre storyline to funny, engaging and entertaining levels.

Red Sparrow: Although long at 2h 19min, it had enough twists, turns, and detail to keep me fully engaged.

You Were Never Really Here: Beautifully shot scenes, dynamic soundtrack, but this oddly paced film tells a story of redemption, salvation or deeper despair.

Beirut: I really liked the way this film was put together and came to fruition.

A Quiet Place: Well done film and the silence of the actors made all the difference in the world.

Deadpool 2: First Hit: This film is fun, irreverent and filled with out-loud laughs.

RBG: Excellent film about a woman who lives within her strength and defined and changed U.S. law.

Disobedience: Extremely well-acted film about how antiquated thinking can split families and a loving relationship.

Hotel Artemis: Who says Hollywood cannot create a unique and well-acted film.

Blindspotting: Extremely powerful and pointed film and raises the bar for Best Picture of the Year. In my view this unnominated film is by far and away the best film of 2018.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot: A unhurried film revealing the power of how forgiveness of others and self, can make one’s life different.

Three Identical Strangers: A truly amazing story about how sciences’ curiosity didn't take into account the effects on human beings.

Sorry to Bother You: What I liked about this film is that it is funny, unique, and unlike any other film I’ve seen.

Leave No Trace: Sublimely acted and evenly paced film about a man and his daughter living in a public forest.

Puzzle: I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant film about a woman finding herself through a passion.

BlacKkKlansman: Fantastic film about race relations in the United States while reminding the audience about how far we have to go.

Eighth Grade: Outstanding acting and script gives us an insightful view of what it is like to be in the Eighth Grade today.

Fahrenheit 11/9: Covers a lot of stuff but I think it was mostly about Presidents and people in power managing and acting poorly.

Pick of the Litter: It was an fantastic and interesting way to learn about how guide dogs are taught to be amazing caretakers for the blind.

First Man: Compelling reenactment of an audaciously brave time in the 1960’s where we were challenged by President Kennedy to go to the moon.

The Hate U Give: A fantastic film about the existence of racism and, as indicated here, in our police departments as well.

Green Book: Excellent acting, engaging story, and both funny and thought-provoking make this film fun to sit through.

Boy Erased: Outstanding cast delivers sublime performances in a powerful story about LGBT conversion programs.

A Private War: Rosamund Pike (as Marie Colvin) gives a deeply complex performance of a war correspondent who brought personal stories of war victims to the forefront.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Accurate or not, this film was fun, well-acted, engaging, and joyful.

Can You Ever Forgive Me: Excellent acting about a caustic, friendless author that finally finds her voice.

Mary Queen of Scots: Saoirse Ronan (Mary Stuart) and Margot Robbie (Queen Elizabeth 1) give powerful performances in this adaptation of how Mary Queen of Scots tried to claim her title to the throne of England and Scotland.

Vice: I liked this oddly created film about a powerful yet enigmatic man who really ran our country for a period of time.

Ben is Back: Extremely well-acted story based on 24 hours of a mother and her addicted son’s return for the holidays.

Roma: Outside of the beautiful black and white photography and languid movement of the story, I left the theater with little.

The Favourite: A stark, intense musical score underscores the bizarre and tension filled interrelationships between the queen and her court.

Shoplifters: Wonderfully engaging film about a Japanese family who chose each other while fighting to stay nourished and together.

The OSCARS and Other Notes

It is that time of season again and although this year wasn't an especially great year for films, a couple of interesting and outstanding "out of the box films" caught my eye: "The Artist", The Tree of Life" and "Melancholia".

On the other side of the coin, I'm grateful that the Harry Potter series has ended as they became painful to watch. And the Sherlock Holmes film was also very bad.

Some performances I would have like to have been honored but weren't would include: Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia", Charlize Theron in "Young Adult", Carey Mulligan  in "Shame" (cannot give enough credit for her singing "New York, New York" as though she was standing on the edge of a cliff ready to fall at any moment), Christoph Waltz in "Carnage", and Albert Brooks in "Drive". 

Given the selected honorees by the academy, here are my picks for some of the categories:

• Best Picture: "The Artist"

• Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in "The Beginners"

• Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

• Cinematography: "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

• Directing: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

• Film Editing: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

• Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants" Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

• Original Screenplay: "Margin Call" J.C. Chandor

To all of you: Thank you for coming to my site and reading my reviews. The number of views has grown tremendously over this past year. There are now over 550 reviewed films and it is fun for me to post and read your comments.

May this new year bring on better films with new ideas tested and old ones enhanced. I know I'll be there in the 5th or 6th row center ready to suspend belief into someone else's story.

May you

Be Well...

Michael

Black Swan

First Hit: Natalie Portman captures the character and is mesmerizing although the film is a bit excessive in its representation.

I really left the theater with two main thoughts: Portman was outstanding as Nina Sayers (Swan Queen) and is my pick for Best Actress for this year. Secondly, why did the director (Darren Aronofsky) over do the visualizations. Why did he feel he needed an overtly hammer the audience in expressing the internal pain of an obsessed ballerina?

Portman brought everything that was needed to this part. An example of this overt visualization was when Nina was getting ready to dance she removes one shoe. Her toes are stuck together because she spends so much time in her tight ballet slippers. With some pain she pulls her toes apart. Then she takes off the other shoe and Aronofsky shows us a fully webbed foot.

I didn’t need that overkill because I got the point with the first foot. This is the downside of the film; overkilling points. The amount of blood (real and perceived) in this film along with an Exorcist kind of leg breaking in one bedroom scene was also excessive. However I’m clear that the journey we take with Nina from living the life of an obsessed ballerina trying to please everyone but herself, was extraordinary.

I’ve enjoyed ballet as a season ticket holder to both the American Ballet Theater and the San Francisco Ballet. I’ve seen all forms of dance from Joe Goode to Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project. The practice it takes to perform at these levels borders on being fanatically possessed at times. The result when a performer lets the feeling and the art of the story come through them with their technical abilities can be phenomenal.

Portman captures all this but to her overall demise. She is living with her fanatical mother Erica Sayers (played by Barbara Hershey – The Queen) who wants and doesn’t want her daughter to succeed. Erica was also a dancer and at age 28 got pregnant with Nina which ended her dancing career.

Resentful yet supportive, Erica is living through, for and against her daughter’s success. She has created such an insulated world for Nina that this 20 year old girl lives in a room full of stuff animals and ballet musical boxes. But because of her relentless devotion, Artistic Director Thomas Leroy (played by Vincent Cassel – The Gentleman) selects Nina to dance his new version of Swan Lake.

The Swan Queen will dance both the white swan and black swan parts. Thomas sees Nina as the perfect white swan but says she must let go of everything inside that she uses to control her life so that she can also become the Black Swan.

Lily (played by Mila Kunis – Black Swan) a young dancer from San Francisco joins this company is the prime competition for the part because she dances the Black Swan part perfectly. She is an intuitive dancer who seduces and is not seduced.

With all the players in place we have the ballet being danced in real life as real characters while also in the performance of Swan Lake.

Portman is the best woman actress on the screen this year. The brief moments that she breaks out of her afraid obsessed filled life and gives us the Black Swan within her is perfect. It is believable, powerful and the type of range one rarely sees in a single part for an actress in a single film. There are just a few glimpses of this extraordinary movement, but sitting in the audience, I felt it. That is the mark of this performance – I felt her fully. Hershey was equally great to watch as the mother who wanted her daughter to both fail and succeed where she herself didn’t. Kunis is wonderful to watch as the free spirited Lily. Cassel was perfect Artistic Director pushing things to the limit with his cast. Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz wrote a very good screen play. Director Darren Aronofsky over did his job in some aspects of the film as previously explained, however he was masterful at getting strong performances from his cast and the mood of the film, dark, not slick, and glaring at times was very good.

Overall: I cannot forget Portman’s performance and that makes it worthwhile.

Bug

First Hit: Ashley Judd puts on an Oscar performance in this outstanding psychological thriller. It is not a horror film.

I don’t know who didn’t do their job: The person who named the film or the person in charge of promoting it.

Whoever did these things missed the boat. This was a first rate psychological thriller. To watch Ashley make the slow slide into the dark abyss of the mind was outstanding. I don’t think many people saw this film. I think the few people who were in the theater with me were expecting a horror film.

Why would I say this? Because I heard nervous laughs during the critical junctures when the film was making yet another step into the abyss. Believe me; this film reaches out and touches the effects of paranoia.

If any of you have ever spent time with someone who is deeply paranoid you will see the truths of this film.

Overall: As noted on my Web Page I like films that allow me to enter their world and this one invites you to do just this. Take a leap of faith and try it, I did and I am glad I did.