It’s still the start of January, so I’m going to say I’m still allowed to publish this. If my notes are to be believed (and they are), I saw 129 movies in 2018. I caught almost all of them on various streaming services. In keeping with my usual custom, reflecting the catch-as-catch-can way that modern people actually consume films, I’m once again not confining myself to flicks released in 2018. Instead, I throw the doors open to any film I saw for the first time last year, regardless of release date. Also, since this isn’t about ranking things or saying which of these is “better” than another, I’m simply listing them in alphabetical order. I already reviewed most of them as part of my exhaustive Movie Diary, but a couple of late watches made the list. And so here we go: the ten best movies I saw for the first time in 2018.
Children of Men (2006) – I tend to go for gritty dystopian visions, so it’s kind of surprising that I hadn’t caught this gem until 2018. I’ve always heard good things about it, but something in the back of my mind wondered how good a movie starring Clive Owen could really be. Well, pretty damn good, it turns out. Now I get why Owen keeps getting roles: casting directors keep thinking back to this movie and convincing themselves that he’ll somehow be that engaged again. He turns in a rock-solid performance here as a grief-damaged, cynical former activist who gets pulled into a radical underground scheme. The film takes place in a grim future world in which humans have become sterile – no babies have been born for eighteen years. As you might expect, once humanity finds out it has no future, it leans into the nihilism and mutually destructive chaos. Countries go on total lockdown, embracing anti-immigration tactics that make Trump’s border policies seem like the Welcome Wagon. In the midst of this maelstrom of despair, Owen finds himself enlisted as the de facto bodyguard of a young, mysteriously pregnant woman. He is charged with helping guide her to a rebel group that’s based on a constantly moving ship at sea. This is unlike any road trip movie you’ve seen, I guarantee it. Director Anfonso Cuaron creates an utterly believable world in the midst of a complete societal breakdown, anchored by some truly fantastic cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for his work behind the camera here, full of memorable images and some jaw-dropping one-shot action sequences. An early attempted hijacking in the woods ranks with some of the most incredible action filmmaking I’ve seen, as the camera stays inside a car as it’s attacked by a cadre of guerrilas. The innovative use of long takes for scenes like this has had quite an influence – watch any gunfight from a John Wick movie and you’ll see echoes of Lubezki’s impressive achievements here. Children of Men is a really great flick, filled with unforgettable images and packed with ideas about humanity, redemption, and how to maintain hope in the face of fate’s often relentlessly cruel twists.
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) – “Found poetry” is a kind of literary collage, taking words and phrases from other (often non-literary) sources and reframing them as poetry due to their new setting. Dawson City: Frozen Time is the cinematic equivalent of found poetry – with the emphasis on “found.” Writer/director Bill Morrison has constructed a poetic gem of a film that tells the story of Dawson City, Canada, a gold rush boomtown deep in the Yukon. Well, he’s actually telling two stories at once, because the film is constructed from bits and pieces of old silent films that were dug out of Dawson City’s frozen tundra. It seems that while preparing the ground for a new Dawson City civic center, workers discovered a treasure trove of previously lost silent movies buried underground. During Dawson City’s days as a gold-fueled boomtown, movie theaters had done thriving business. The town was the last stop on the distribution trail, though, so by the time the film reels finally made their way up there, it cost too much to ship them back to Hollywood. Film studios told the theater owners to simply dispose of the films. And while most were burned or tossed in the river (!), hundreds of them were buried in the tundra to serve as backfill for a construction project. Preserved in the frozen ground for over 50 years, many of the reels were still watchable when they emerged in 1978. Just about every one of the films had been written off as completely lost to history. Morrison has taken the footage from these rediscovered silent films and edited them together to tell the story of the town in which they were found. With just the help of some brief interviews and helpful captions, Morrison brings the era strangely to life. He weaves together newsreel and fictional footage, creating a gripping narrative against the backdrop of a moody, minimalist soundtrack. The city’s history is plenty interesting on its own: Donald Trump’s grandfather started his fortune by running the brothel that catered to Dawson City’s gold rush miners, it might (not) surprise you to find out! But it’s Morrison’s inventive use of the found footage that really makes this film special. He uses plenty of bits of film that have sustained environmental damage from being in the ground so long, but the weather damage gives the clips a weird beauty unto themselves, a kind of accidental psychedelia that’s really hypnotic. This is an outstanding documentary and an even greater technical achievement. Plus, it really made me wish that more than one reel of Tod Browning’s evidently ahead of its time, proto-noir “The Exquisite Thief” had survived…
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2012) — I caught this flick on Amazon Prime after reading an obituary about its subject, magician Ricky Jay. I vaguely knew of him, having watched him do his thing a few times on TV and in a handful of movie cameos. Until I read his obit and watched this documentary, I didn’t appreciate what the world of magic lost when he died late last year. Ricky Jay was among the best slight-of-hand artists in the world, a man who could manipulate a deck of cards in pretty much any way you could ask. He could do everything from secretly bottom deal winning poker hands to throwing cards so hard that they could stick in a watermelon. On top of being a world-class up-close magician, though, Jay was also among the world’s foremost scholars and authorities on the history of magic and card manipulation. He scoured rare texts and manuscripts for nuggets of magical inspiration, and published a series of books celebrating the unknown magicians and carnival tricksters of the past. This fascinating documentary chronicles Jay’s life in magic, as well as a handful of legendary slight of hand artists he studied under. It’s a really interesting flick, and Jay makes for an intriguing central character. He was really an amazing, erudite guy who clearly led a life as a dodgy card mechanic at some point in his past, although he’s very cagey about admitting it. There’s some great footage of Jay and his mentors in action here, but the best parts might just be a couple of segments in which people relate crazy stories of impossible, impromptu tricks that Jay performed for them in private. As the people describe the tricks they witnessed, you can see that they’re still affected by what they’ve seen decades later. They carry the memories of Jay’s skills so closely that you can still see the wonder in their eyes today. Anyone who’s got a soft spot for up-close card tricks and manipulation owes it to themselves to catch this riveting look at a man whose importance in the magic world can’t be overstated.
Dunkirk (2017) – Christopher Nolan’s masterful war movie tells the story of Dunkirk by interweaving three separate stories that take place in three distinct timelines. One story follows a soldier over the course of a week as he tries to find a way off of the doomed beach. The second takes place during the span of one day, telling the tale of one of the privately owned civilian boats that set off from England to shuttle trapped soldiers off that same beach. Finally, Tom Hardy plays an RAF pilot trying to stave off Nazi bombers in a story that only spans one hour. All three storylines eventually intersect, with the result being that the audience gets a truly multi-faceted understanding of the events. Trying to intercut three stories moving at three speeds might seem crazy, but Nolan pulls it off beautifully. He doesn’t make hard cuts from one timeline to the next, but blends them together by maintaining the same ominous score through the transitions. It really pulls the three stories together into one, and gives the film a scope it couldn’t have achieved otherwise. It’s pretty incredible the way Nolan builds each of the stories toward (and through) the same moment in time, with the momentum of each timeline working in perfect sync with the other two. Way back in Memento, Nolan pulled off one of the most audacious timeline stunts in film, telling his story backwards in order to trap viewers in the mindset of its memory-challenged protagonist. What he’s done here, though, is even more impressive. Dunkirk‘s three storylines present the real historical events from a variety of perspectives, seamlessly blending points of view into something that feels like the truth. I know, it’s a movie, but I don’t think it would actually be possible to tell a fictionalized version of the story of Dunkirk any better than Nolan has here. This is without a doubt one of the best war movies I’ve ever seen.
Face/Off (1997) – Wow, is this flick crazy! Face/Off could perhaps more accurately be called Monsters of Ham, since it stars two of the scene-chewingest actors in Hollywood history: Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. I’d put off seeing this flick until 2018, largely due to my rather tepid feelings toward the two John Woo-in-Hollywood flicks I had seen: Broken Arrow and Hard Target. Neither of those was worth watching, but boy, is Face/Off something else. Kudos to Woo for not just casting such a pair of kooks in his film, but for clearly encouraging them to just go for it. The insane plot involves FBI agent Travolta trying to track down a terrorist group headed by flamboyant hitman Cage. He’s already got Cage under wraps, having shot him and put him into a coma. In order to thwart his plot, though, Travolta has to infiltrate the terrorist group—by swapping faces with Cage! Of course, Cage wakes up from his coma and forces the surgeon to put Travolta’s face on his body, then proceeds to stake his claim to Travolta’s FBI identity. The fact that the central plot point is so ludicrous on its face should clue you in to what kind of flick this is. Not a single scene makes any sense under the slightest scrutiny, but watching Cage pretend to be Travolta and vice-versa is a uniquely wild experience. For my money, Travolta’s never been more fun to watch, as he leans into his Cage impression with an eye-rolling, manic intensity that’s truly hilarious. Cage’s take on Travolta is also quite a bit of fun, as he tries to rein in his more oddball impulses and filter them through Travolta-esque facial contortions. Absolutely everything about this movie is preposterous, fun, and completely over the top. Like every John Woo flick, it would run about twenty minutes shorter without all the slo-mo, and he does manage to find room to fit his fluttering doves into another gunfight. This is the only Hollywood flick that Woo made that really allowed him the space to indulge his craziest impulses, and the result is one of the strangest, silliest action films ever made. Anyone interested in watching two giants of overacting slug it out for two hours of ridiculous mayhem will love this.
Hardcore Henry (2016) – Having seen previews of this “first-person action movie,” I wasn’t exactly excited about Hardcore Henry. It felt like it was probably a one-gimmick flick that would wear out its welcome pretty fast. Based on a glowing recommendation from Popwell’s Dash Rabbit, though, I decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did! Hardcore Henry is a riveting, unique acheivement in action filmmaking. It uses its first-person viewpoint to create a memorable series of wild action set-pieces, and even manages to weave a crazy backstory about cyborgs and memory manipulation into the mix. Basically, the film is a first-person shooter video game come to vivid life, as the camera shows all of the action from the protagonist’s point of view. What could come across as a deperate gimmick instead becomes a way to revisit classic action tropes from another angle. Every action film fan has seen car chases with characters leaping from one vehicle to another, but seeing this done from the stuntman’s point of view makes for a very different experience. Ditto for the gunfights, foot chases, and other mayhem on display here. There’s nothing wildly original going on, but the way that Hardcore Henry depicts the action gives the whole thing an eye-opening new spin. Writer/director Ilya Naishuller shows some pretty heavy Neveldine/Taylor influences throughout, using some of the first-person/video game tricks the duo used in the Crank films and pushing them to their baroque extremes. There’s also a brief but bizarre musical interlude that plays like an homage to Michael C. Hall’s insane take on “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” from Gamer. If they can make it through the stomach-churning slow-motion violence of the opening credits (I almost bailed), action film fans are sure to find plenty to love about the high-pitched craziness of Hardcore Henry.
Milano Calibro 9 (aka Caliber 9) (1972) — I’m a big spaghetti western fan, but have long since seen pretty much every Italian western worth watching. So this year, I decided to turn my attention to the genre that took over in Italy after westerns had run their course: poliziotteschi or “Eurocrime” flicks. These are basically Italian takes on American gangster and crime films, but filtered through a distinctly Italian, low-budget sensibility. I caught a decent number here and there, but by far the best Eurocrime flick I saw was Milano Calibro 9. The story concerns ex-con Ugo Piazza, played by Gastone Moschin, who comes across as a weatherbeaten Jason Statham. Upon his release from jail, he’s pegged for stealing a bunch of money from a local mob, an accusation he denies. Basically, a series of thugs and mobsters try and get the money from him, resulting in a spate of violent run-ins. It’s always good to stumble on something else that Quentin Tarantino bit off of, and he certainly got plenty of inspiration from this flick. Each character’s apartment is a masterpiece of 70’s European hipster design, color-coordinated to the extreme. Director Fernando Di Leo channels French gangster auteur Jean-Pierre Melville in the film’s semi-flat look and spatial design, but festooned with colorful Italian flair. The film’s use of music and ambient sound were clearly a big influence on Tarantino, and there’s one beautifully-shot assassination scene that could come straight out of Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill. As Hugo navigates the treacherous urban landscape of 70’s Milan, we’re also treated to arguments about the philosophy of policing and the causes of crime, among other notions. It all builds to an awesomely nihilistic conclusion and a brilliant, lingering final image. This is a flick that should be seen by anyone with a passing interest in gangster flicks, as it’s certainly among the best such movies of the 70’s.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) — I am no Tom Cruise fan, but the Mission: Impossible series has slowly worked its way into being one of my favorite on-going movie series. I didn’t care for the first few, but the last several have been rock-solid action fare. The latest installment is simply one of the best big-budget action films ever made. The story concerns Cruise’s group of international super-spies as they try to acquire a trio of plutonium samples from some dodgy international terrorists, zooming around the globe and careening from one insane action scene to the next. The film’s pace never really lets up once it gets rolling, giving the audience just enough time to catch their breath before plunging them into another wild chase or brawl. Fallout has a handful of the best action scenes you’ll ever see, and an impressive CGI team that manages to make it seem as if Cruise is actually in the middle of all these car chases, fights, and helicopter hijackings. Whether he’s racing a motorcycle through the crowded Paris streets or dangling from the struts of a helicopter, Cruise looks like he’s right there performing some of the most dangerous-looking stunts imaginable. As with all these movies, you have to suspend your disbelief enough to accept that Cruise’s team has technological capacities about 20 years ahead of their time (and that a 60 year old man has any business in this racket). But believe me, about 5 minutes into Fallout you’ll be hooked enough to stop worrying about such quibbles. Then you can sit back and enjoy one of the great popcorn action flicks that Hollywood has produced in some time.
Unbreakable (2000) – It took me a long, long time to get around to seeing this one, despite rave reviews from several of my friends. My general M. Night Shyamalan skepticism steered me wrong in this case, though. Unbreakable is a really good movie, a vision of what a superhero origin story would look like if it actually happened in the real world. Bruce Willis turns in a solid, understated performance as David Dunn, a man who emerges without a scratch as the only survivor from a disastrous train wreck. That’s strange enough, but things escalate into true weirdness soon enough, when comic book uber-geek and art gallery owner Elijah Price gets in contact with him. Price is convinced that Dunn is the person he’s been looking for his whole life: a real-life superhero. For those few lost souls out there who still haven’t seen the flick, I don’t want to give too much away, because the twists and turns the story takes are really the most fun part of the movie. Suffice it to say that even though I thought I saw it coming a mile away, the ending still surprised me in a way that few films have. Samuel L. Jackson’s turn as Elijah Price ranks with the very best of his career, bringing pathos and nuance to a character who could have easily emerged as a cut-out cliché. I think it’s also one of the last times he didn’t just show up on set and play “Samuel L. Jackson.” Good stuff.
XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2017) – When I sat down to watch this flick, I did not expect to be including it on any sort of “Best of” list. Frankly, the original XXX was not good. Its attempt to kick off a new action series were hampered by some terrible plotting, worse acting, and forgettable fight scenes. So here’s something I really did not expect to be writing: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage is actually really fun. The filmmakers breathe new life into the series by basically turning it into that other wildly popular Vin Diesel series. The Furious formula of exotic locales, multi-racial and gender-equitable cast, hip-hop soundtrack, and wild stuntwork is on full display here, with the minor twist that the stunts are based on extreme sports rather than cars. The story begins when Diesel’s Xander Cage is pulled out of retirement to help find a MacGuffin called Pandora’s Box. It seems that this glorified cable box is capable of bypassing any security system in the world, launching missles or dropping satellites out of orbit. It’s up to Cage to assemble a team of rebellious ne’er-do-wells who can unite to get the bad guys and save the world. Sound familiar? It’s all just an excuse for wild action scenes, and Cage delivers the goods on that front, for sure. Donnie Yen steals every scene he’s in, clearly having a blast playing Xander’s rival for the Box. It’s about time someone gave Yen a decent role in an English-language flick! As anyone who reads my reviews knows, I’m a big Fast and Furious fan, and I’m shocked to say that I found this flick to be every bit as entertaining as the last few entries in that series. There’s probably a bit too much ogling of some of the female stars, and Diesel should stop trying to convince us that he’s an irresistible ladies’ man (especially when he’s wearing his ridiculous fur coat). Still, I liked the movie quite a bit more than I expected to, and I’m glad that it was a monster hit everywhere else in the world. We’ll be seeing the XXX crew again before too long, I’m sure. Surprisingly, I’ll be looking forward to it.
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