Best of the Year

One of the most unique movie experiences of the year is this sci-fi drama which has no dialogue for a good chunk of the running time.  To want strangers to sit quietly and keeping fidgeting, interruptions and talking to a minimum may not seem like a big ask, but it’s more trouble than you think.  I remember two moviegoers arriving 10 minutes late and their entrance was very much noticed and not appreciated.  The movie itself is a an exciting, well directed and acted smallish story about a family trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world where making noise gets you killed. The plot is sparse but that’s okay, because it draws you into the characters more fully and makes the inevitable jumps and scares more compelling.

Ostensibly about talking rabbits who just want to eat in peace, Peter Rabbit is really about the importance no taking things for granted, and sharing the people you love with others to allow them to live fuller lives.  Heavy stuff, I know, but it’s packaged in an engaging and funny comedy with plenty of pratfalls for the kids, and clever jokes for the not-kids.  This movie also had one of the most inventive soundtracks of the years covering well known classics and punning around with the words to make it about rabbits.  Yes, I know that sounds stupid but I swear it works here.

Movies with a message can come off very much like a ‘very special episode’ of a 90s sitcom but that’s not the case here. Based on the director’s true life experiences, Instant Family has an agenda, for sure, it encourages viewers to open their minds, hearts and even homes, to children in the foster system who are often in very unfortunate circumstances.  But if that’s the heart of the movie the fact that it exists at all is a step up above some comedies which are often too focused on being outrageous and ironic for fear of coming off as corny.  The great thing is that Instant Family doesn’t feel corny.  It’s funny and heartwarming yes but not to the point of making you want to puke. It feels real too, with some of the messier parts of fostering kids there on full display. The movie has problems (some over-the-top secondary performances, too little laughs in the first 20 minutes), but, much like the director’s experience, just because it isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not rewarding.

A welcomed trend in the last few years are comedies from the female perspective.  Teen comedies in particular have for too long been dominated by stories about guys trying to ‘score’ or get drunk or both.  The girls in those films are usually an afterthought, a mcguffin that rarely gets more character development than being hot and unattainable. Enter Blockers, which is Superbad with a twist. It’s from the female point of view as a group of friends make a pact to lose their virginities during senior prom.  That in itself would be worth watching but the ‘twist’ is that we don’t just follow their escapades but that of their sometime clueless but well-meaning parents, who learn of their plan and try to do everything to stop it.  The point isn’t who does or does not but rather the journey the main teen characters take as they discover truths about themselves and discover what want in life; are they doing this just because it feels like they ‘should?’ what does that mean for other aspects of their post-high school existence?  The parents learn how to parent young women, and refreshingly that takes different forms for the different characters. Some have to let go, others have to learn to hang out and be more present. But enough of talk of themes, the movies is freakin’ hilarious.  There are plenty of gross out gags and hilarious dialogue as well as a healthy dose of physical comedy.  I don’t think I went more than a couple of minutes before laughing out loud and actually that’s hard for a movie to do.

The internet decided this movie sucked long before it came out. The best I can tell this was because it was somehow took every movie /tv/show/pop culture event from the 80s and rehashed back to the audience without saying anything original. This, to be blunt, is horsecrap.  Ready Player One has a highly original premise (yes, based on a book but the book is original), and creates a rich world where people flee to a virtual reality to escape their everyday lives.  It’s basically like the matrix if the people were knowingly plugging in. That commentary on our current existence, where we are glued to our devices as a way to escape from being in the moment.  Add to this subtext rich, lively, exhilarating and inventive sequences inside the Oasis and you have one of the most original movies of the year. Yes, it was a celebration of 80s culture and if the movie felt like a clip show from an 80s retrospective that would be a problem, but it doesn’t. It feels fresh with familiar elements interweaved throughout.  Bottom line, ignore the internet haters. This is a great film.

This is Mission Impossible 6. Yes, we’ve had five previous installment sof this spy series and the biggest surprise of the year is that it’s never felt fresher.  I think some of the earlier installments suffered from some whiplash as directors changed from film to film, but ever since #4, Christopher McQuarrie has been at the helm and boy does he have a knack for this stuff. His new trilogy has managed to evolve Ethan Hunt’s character, while creating a core group of supporting characters you want to revisit. The result is that even though every MI kind of sneaks up on you, because you forget that the franchise is still pumping out movies, byou fall right back into the rhythm like an old friend you haven’t seen in years.  Fallout has some of the best action sequences on MI and probably ever on film. They’re exhilarating, and Tom Cruise puts his all into it.  The franchise in great shape and I’m in for another.

Death of Stalin is basically Veep set in the Soviet Union.  Enough said.

I always wonder how true those ‘based on a true story’ movies are and usually do a little research afterwards.  As you might expect, it’s always a mixed bag with some films going to great lengths to get the bold strokes of a true tale correctly, and other abandoning truth completely. Generally, however, the viewer is trained that what they’re seeing is probably not exactly what happened. American Animals plays with those expectations by inserting the true figures behind the story of college kids stealing art from their school and having them narrate what happened and at times, comment on what we’ve seen. But can their recollection be trusted? The answer isn’t clear but this isn’t a film about an unreliable narrator. Rather, it’s about a story told from different perspectives, and how that perspective influences what they remember.  There are other themes here too, about bored college kids looking for something exciting to fulfill their baser (animal) instincts more than their structured and repetitive college and post undergrad lives provide, redirecting toward a thrilling but foolhardy escapade into crime.  The end result is more than a crime film and one of the best of the year. 

Eighth Grade is like the Office set in middle school, but no the American version.  Rather, it takes after the British iteration where people are a lot less TV pretty and the situations are even more cringeworthy  What I love about this movie is that it seems completely genuine, showing the middle school life of a young girl, zits and awkwardness and all.  Being far removed from middle school and being the opposite sex, I felt like I was taken into a foreign world, the Youtube generation of kids who must balance the expectation that they share and post every detail of their life with the fear that it’s not as good as their classmates.  Eighth Grade is small movie but it leaves a tremendous impression

It’s impossible to talk about Avengers: Infinity War without mentioning that it’s a culmination of 10 years and 20 movies.  Rather than give that an ‘edge,’ I consider that a bit of a liability because it has to live up too so  much. In that sense, the fact that the film is able to meet and EXCEED expectations is kind of a miracle. But why does it succeed? There’s plenty of reasons but I think the real key is that the anchor of the movie is actually the villain.  Rather than attempt to give 20+ characters equal screen time, it zeroes in on Thanos, fleshing him out as a character, making him both ruthless and sympathetic.  Throw in action sequences that are visual eye candy and a cast playing iconic characters who and are clearing having a blast  and you have the most spectacular movie of the year, in every sense of that word.  And that end. Wow. This cliffhanger is this generation’s Empire Strikes Back and there’s not one fan who left the theatre without their jaw dropped in awe.