The Final Entry THE TOP TEN films of 2018!

Here we are! I won't pontificate as I usually do before an entry like this since the suspense is killing you. So here they are.

10) "Ms. Hyde" - Serge Bozon

Wow, the study of the duality of the human mind can be so...Damn, I'm actually making myself yawn. Most of the additions into the whole Jeckle and Hyde concept are insipid and obvious, aren't they? Tripe. But "Ms. Hyde" bursts out of the model and shoves its revolutionary ideas on the story right down your throat. The rare film of this series of stories that has just a bit of profundity.

9) "Disobedience" - Sebastian Lelio

Sebastian Lelio's follow-up to 2017's Oscar-winning "A Fantastic Woman" is every inch as good as its predecessor, maybe even better. When her father dies, Ronit (Rachel Weisz) is called back to her Orthodox Jewish home. She gets there only to be confronted by Esti (Rachel McAdams,) the love of her youth. With their affair reignited, they are once again faced with the question of how to respond to their conservative community. The real drama is between the two women and Esti's husband Dovid (Alessandro Nivola.) What pulls your heartstrings most in this film is the contrast between Esti and Ronit's joyous homecoming and watching this good man's heartbreak in real time as he slowly realizes what's going on.

8) "Beautiful Boy" - Felix van Groeningen

"Beautiful Boy" follows David (Steve Carell,) a father desperately trying to save his son Jasper (Timothée Chamalet) who is struggling with an addiction to crystal-meth. We follow the duo in the present and back to when Jasper was young, juxtaposing the effed-up junkie with the adorable, loving son David raised. In the end, "Beautiful Boy" is a film about the intimate and heart-rending between father and son. When a boy suffers, the father feels the pain. He matches his son's pain, blow for blow and hurt for hurt. Groningen, director of 2012's "The Broken Circle Breakdown," a film about a man struggling with finding a way to break through the grief of losing his daughter, is no rookie when it comes to telling stories of heartbreak and fatherhood. So just a warning, if you are a father this film will make you cry.

7) "The Favourite" - Yorgos Lanthimos

"The Favourite" demonstrates plainly that sexual politics are the most efficient to manipulate. They're also the most malicious. I don't know what I enjoyed watching more, the two vindictive-to-the-point-of-sadistic women vying for power and the queen's affections or just how delighted Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman) seems to watch it all play out in front of her. It's a very dark comedy that gleefully celebrates what it really means to be cruel.

6) "Hereditary" - Ari Aster

Oh my God, did this movie throw the template for horror films into a bonfire! "Hereditary" has no rules. Every character is vulnerable and the evil has no restraints and that's what makes it so horrifying. The film is so terrifying that you want to turn away but feels forced to face it just to see where the hell it goes.

5) "Hotel Artemis" - Drew Pearce

Bizarre for the sake of itself can be entertaining, but in the end, it's not a solid foundation for a film. Lucky "Hotel Artemis" earns the right, through strong stories and well-written characters, to be bizarre as it wants to be. A healer known as "the Nurse" (Jodie Foster) runs an underground makeshift hospital at a former hotel. The characters who come to her are desperate, naturally. But there are strict rules for anybody needing to be stitched-up. Writer/director Drew Pearce takes us on a ridiculously fun ride through a single night at the Armetis when the rules are for shit.

4) "Cold War" Pawel Pawlikowski

If you disagree with me that "Cold War" is one of the best films of the year, you have to concede that it's certainly the most beautiful. Director Pawel Pawlikowski and Cinematographer Lukasz Zal were nominated for Oscars for their work on this film. But good looks can only get you so far if you don't have a good story with solid characters. "Cold War" has both. We follow Zula (Joanna Kulig) and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) chasing each other through the fifties both behind the Iron Curtain and on this one. They're first separated in a self-sabotaged escape from occupied Poland. After that, they come across each other every once in a while, longing to be reunited. "Cold War" is more than a celebration of impossible love though. There's the simple joy of life in every frame.

3) "Border" - Ali Abbasi

Most years, "Border" would easily take the top spot as the best film of the year. The fact that it's only number three is just a testament to how brilliant Boots Riley's and Anne Ramsay's offerings were. Tina (Eva Melander) is a Swedish customs officer with an aptitude for sniffing out all sorts of smugglers and criminals. She also has a physical deformity that makes her feel less than human. Then Vore ( Eero Milonof,) someone with the same deformity but incomparably high confidence comes along, questioning everything Tina had come to assume over her life. The film is really about monsters and how they are defined. We learn along with Tina that a deformity does not define a devil.

2) "You Were Never Really Here" - Anne Ramsay

If "We Need to Talk About Kevin" was Ramsay's "Reservoir Dogs" then "You Were Never Really Here" is her "Pulp Fiction." Lynne Ramsay's follow up to her disturbing 2011 masterpiece "We Need to Talk About Kevin" became iconic instantly when the film was released. She attempts to study and submit the psyche of a self-loathing, violent revenge-seeker and she nails it to the wall. She understands that the source of Joe's (Joaquin Phoenix) compulsion to rescue innocents and murder wrong-doers is an underlying sense of helplessness he's had beaten into him since he was a child. "YouWere Never Really Here" is basically a celebration of righteous violence and boy, is it glorious!

And here we are – the greatest film of 2018!

1) "Sorry to Bother You" - Boots Riley

With "Sorry to Bother You," Boots Riley delivers what is most likely the greatest dark comedy so far this century. Aside from the morbidity that glues the whole thing together, we're also looking at rare, biting and important satires you'll ever see. Desperate for money and employment, Cassius Green, a.k.a Cash (LaKieth Stanfield,) takes a job as a telemarketer. He quickly learns that the key to doing the job well, to pull down those fat commission checks, is to put on his white voice. His numbers skyrocket and get the attention of corporate. After that, Cash slowly sells off his soul, piece by piece as he repeatedly compromises his sense of ethics. In the end, Cash finds himself essentially, a slave trader. Finally, the powderkeg explodes as we see the truly sadistic underside of corporate America, our citizens' lackadaisical response to true evil and just how far a grassroots revolution can go.

Quote of the Day - Let's Go Mid-Nineties Insane

Don't you love the power of positive thinking? That was David Fincher's gospel in the nineties.

Dr. Beardsley: "He's experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I've encountered, give or take, and he still has Hell to look forward to."

 

The Beguiled - Sofia Coppola (2017)

Remember earlier last year, right around Cannes time, when Sophia Coppola's "The Beguiled" was all anybody could talk about? We were all so sure the film would be renowned and celebrated come award season?

Surprisingly, Coppola's newest masterpiece, based on the novel by Thomas Cullinan, and the screenplay for the picture of the same name from 1971, has been overlooked, forgotten in just a few short months. 

Who knows why, but it's clearly a mistake most in the film community are making. They have a penchant for tunnel vision and short memories.

At any rate, we'll move on, knowing we're smarter than they are.

The plot of Coppola's latest offering looks, on its face, to be a pretty typical period romance. And it is. For the first hour, "Beguiled" paints us an emotional and typical love triangle. You can almost see the cover of the cheap romance novel with Colin Ferrell flashing his muscles under a white shirt that, for some reason, is torn open. 

Coppola starts the film out as a parable about showing simple kindness to all mankind, even one's enemies. 

A girl finds a wounded soldier Corporal John McBurney, (Colin Farrell), in the woods one day and brings him to a small school for girls. The girls are reticent about allowing a Yankee to recuperate in their proper southern school.

They reluctantly agree to let him stay with them because it's "the Christian thing to do." Soon, there's a spark, a small one at first, of romance between the Corporal and the school's Headmistress, Miss Martha, (Nicole Kidman in an chilling, muting, intense performance).

Then, Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) decides she'd like the Corporal for herself. 

Next, as we are just realizing another girl, Alicia, (Elle Fanning in turns a performance from pure into a vapid temptress), squeezes herself into the love triangle, Coppola takes a dark turn at the start of the third act. It's surreal watching the story unravel the true hostility that had been boiling under their skins all this time. 

The Corporal changes from a possible love interest to a villain on a dime. Coppola manages to make the change subtle and disruptive at the same time. Farrell gives the performance of the film as the third act makes the whole story the embodiment of what Southern Gothic really is.

Every character, each of the girls at the school, loses some innocence. The girls' virtue turns violent and that is the tragedy behind "The Beguiled." 

That is what  makes this film so dark.

That is what makes this film so lovely.

I, Tonya - Craig Gillespie (2017)

Some people are deserving of a celebration of their life. Whether revolutionary (Spike Lee's "Malcolm X"), controversial (Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Downfall"), or bizarre ("Milos Forman's "The People vs. Larry Flynt"), biographical films don't always work.

There are three such films: educational, boring as hell and the odd ducks. (And when I say "odd duck," I do so with loving affection. People who think "odd" is wrong are fascists.)

Craig Gillespie's film "I, Tonya," which follows Figure Skater Tonya Harding, from her abusive childhood right through her boxing career is among the oddest of the odd ducks.

From the start of her earliest years, Harding (Margot Robbie), has never had anything or any companion save ice-skating. It's the standard life of a young figure skater. Practicing eight hours a day, having been forbade from eating anything delicious and stuck with her mother (Allison Janney).

In this film, Harding's upraising with her terrifying mother is given priority over her skating career, her troubled relationship with Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), or even "the incident."

Harding's mom is definitely one of the mothers who decided to raise an athlete instead of a daughter. Janney plays the role of a controlling mother openly, controlling to the point of abuse, I felt like picking up the phone and calling social services. You can actually feel the venom spitting from her lips anytime she's anywhere near Tonya. She is brought to vivid life by Janney who makes her performance. Allison Janney is really the revelation of this film. She has popped up in my nightmares these past few days.

Aside from the way Tonya is, and isn't, nurtured, the film takes us through her relationship with Jeff Gillooly. We can see she falls back on funicular, when Gillooly starts beating her just like her mother has always done.

She struggles, with more than her figure skating. She also has to a great deal of energy with her mother's derision and Gillooly's twisted distortion of what support looks like.

"I, Tonya" has earned all of the accolades it's getting right now. It's gritty and honest. It stands among some of the darkest comedies I've seen.

Quote of the Day: Fight Club - David Fincher (1999) Maybe More Like the Monologue of the Day

"I see all this potential and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need."
- Brad Pitt as Tyler Durdin

Filth - Jon S. Baird (2013) Does "Filth" Stand Up To "Trainspotting's" innovation?

Along with films like "Pulp Fiction," "Trainspotting" revolutionized the way all of us watch movies today. "Trainspotting" naturally wove between true life and fantasy. Finally, we were starting to hear our heros' inner-monologue. These films, along with others, unlocked a fifth wall.

The films also created a new height for dark comedies.

When "Filth" opens, Bruce, (James McAvoy), a detective, is focused on the race in his department over who will get a much envied promotion. It may not sound like much power, but Bruce covets it. It's a jump from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector and Bruce's lust for power has no threshold.

Bruce goes to great lengths to undermine the others trying for the job. Bruce is so amoral, he outstrips Harvey Keitel's LT in Abel Ferrara's 1992's "Bad Lieutenant," one of the most hedonistic and vomitous roles of the '90's, and probably any other decade, I guess.

Meanwhile, Bruce's lonely wife, (Shauna McDonald), has an insatiable lust for sex exceeded only by her lust for power. Power is her aphrodisiac. She loves power above all, even more than sex. Though it's power for her husband she wants, not for herself. Her sexual fantasy is to have Bruce to come home from work and call out, "Honey, I'm home! I'm a Detective Inspector!"

It does not take long before filmmaker Jon S. Baird establishes that Bruce is a bastard. He is the worst kind of cop and he belongs in prison. He is also the nastiest kind of man and deserves to be abandoned by everybody who loves him.

As this is based on the works of Irvine Welsh, it's no surprise to find that much of the story is wrapped around Bruce's so-called medication. These drugs collude with his natural fiendish disposition. The only brights spots of what you might call hope in his life are his consultations with his brilliant but rambling psychiatrist, Dr. Rossi (Jim Broadbent.)

Bruce's manipulations are masterful. He systematically ruins each contender for this promotion, both personally or professionally, friend or not. This changes a murder investigation that just so happens to be going on, into a minor backdrop.

As "Filth" continues, it becomes clear that the real, actual Bruce is only a cool guy in his own mind. But in reality, he's not suave or in any way impressive.



Much of the visual imagery in "Filth" is not as much fun as intended. It's hard to tell if these cheap cinematic tricks are inspirations of Welsh's book or "Trainspotting."

A pathetic attempt at a shocking twist at the start of act three is not enough to save this mess.

Baird is clearly trying to revisit the style, tone and fashion of "Trainspotting" and he falls tragically short.

The first part of the film is quick, funny and hard to criticize. Unfortunately, it falls tragically short due to sloppy character structure and plot development.

Not only does the "twist" fall short, but the entire third act is a contrived wreck. The only part of the film that really works is the deconstruction of Bruce's brain by the mad Dr. Rossi.

And not for nothing, but "Filth" is overtly homophobic and trans-phobic.

"Trainspotting" was innovative in style and tone, but it didn't exist just for the sake of itself. It had so much more to give. It had life and hope and joy to offer. We intensely cared about those characters, even Begbie.

I'm afraid that we just don't give a damn for Bruce.

Quote of the Day: Trainspotting - Danny Boyle (1996) Hell, This Movie is Chock-Full of Quotes.

"Choose life. But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"

So many backdrops and intricacies and poetry and quotes. I swear to God, this movie, and the book, will be somewhere in my head when I die.

And that makes this movie precious.

Colossal - Nacho Vigalondo (2017)

Gloria, played by Anne Hathaway with, (and I have to say this), horrendous bangs, is a loser. She sleeps all day, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. She has no drive and has not worked in a year. She is also a blackout drunk and her boyfriend has tossed her out on the street.

She has no other choice than to go home, so she moves back into her parents' empty house. She runs into Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), an old friend from back in the day who owns a bar.

Then, twenty minutes into the film, it takes a sharp turn. The day after she gets back in town, she finds out that the city of Seoul has been devastated by a giant monster.

The creature appeared and then vanished out of thin air above the city.

Soon, Gloria starts to obsess about the monster. She makes maps, graphs and pictures and she hangs them on a wall in the empty house. We start to wonder why Gloria is so fascinated by the whole story while other characters seem more blasé about the situation.

Is there some kind of connection between Gloria and the monster? She certainly thinks there is. 

And it soon becomes obvious that she's right. At a specific place in her hometown, at a designated time, it seems Gloria is somehow controlling the creature. It mimics every movement. Each gesture, each step.

Then a giant robot appears with the monster like they are a comedy duo, part of a bit. The robot appears to be controlled by Oscar. Think Optimus Prime meets Godzilla. 

Sadly, before too long, Oscar understandably decides controlling a giant robot can actually be a jolly good time. This transforms him from the warm, compassionate hometown friend into a dangerous scoundrel.

This puts Gloria and Oscar at odds. That is to say Oscar starts being a real dick, alienating Gloria and his friends.

It is worth noting that Sudeikis makes a surprisingly convincing villain.

"Colossal" makes a clear statement about the raw nature of power. It can turn you evil and it will drive you mad. Sometimes to the point of murderous. You need only look at the world, and our country, to understand how vital it is that people understand this truth.

The film has a Joe Dante (Gremlins, Matinee) vibe to it. It is mischievous, sarcastic, darkly funny and violent.

What "Colossal" gives us is 105 minutes of a damn good time. It might not be the best horror film I have seen this year, but it certainly is the most entertaining.

Hounds of Love - Ben Young (2017)

Have you ever noticed that fine-art horror movies are much more vicious than what you'll find on the mainstream track?

Filmmaker Ben Young's feature debut, "Hounds of Love" is either a brilliant, terrifying film, clearly influenced by movies like John McNaughton's 1986 masterpiece, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" or it's a complete, unnecessary mess.

I haven't quite decided yet which it is, but I'm leaning toward the former. 

Like "Henry," "Hounds" can be a very hard film to watch. It's certainly not for the squeamish.

If you're itching for a standard horror or serial killer flick, you'd better as hell look somewhere else because "Hounds" does not fit any kind of mold you're used to.

The story follows John and Evelyn White, a couple who passes their time abducting, torturing and killing teenage girls.

Evie looks like the lovechild of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Aunt Lydia from The Handmaid's Tale. That's not really a crucial detail, but I felt the need to point it out, nonetheless. 
Our protagonist is Vicki Maloney, a young lady, pissed off at her mother for not letting her go to a party. Naturally, just like any teenager would, she sneaks out of the house.

As she walks to the party, a car pulls up, offering weed and a ride. Unfortunately, even though the weed seems up to par, the couple in the car are John and Evelyn, the killer duo.

The saga continues over the next few days as John and Evelyn torture, terrorize and sexually assault this poor girl.

I'm not going to tell you whether Vicki lives or dies. I'm just going to say that at first, the ending feels psychologically implausible. 

But Young sells it nevertheless.

In the end, what we're left with an empty pit in our stomach and an uneasy feeling that very much is wrong in the world.

Beatriz at Dinner - Miguel Arteta (2017)

"Beatriz at Dinner" is easily the most important film to come out since Jordan Peele's "Get Out" from earlier this year.

It tells the story about one rare evening where a member of the working class is put in a position where she has to socialize with the bourgeoisie.

Beatriz, played with beautiful subtlety by Salma Hayek, is a masseuse who finds herself stranded at a wealthy clients' house. 

The mistress of the house, Cathy, invites her to stay for a dinner party starting very soon and involving some very "important" people. 

It's important throughout the film to remember that at the start, Cathy really is a likable person.

The most crucial of the guests Beatriz will be spending the evening with is Doug Strutt, a pig of a real estate mogul, played masterfully by John Lithgow. The strength of Lithgow's performance lies in his refusal to simply paint this man as a villain. He never lets us forget the wickedness in his heart for a second, nevertheless showing us glimpses of humanity in his eyes. 

He even betrays a slight, peculiar fondness for bizarre but intriguing woman, Beatriz.

The bulk of the film shows Beatriz arguing with these characters, especially Strutt, about all manner of moral issues while handling condescension and racial slurs through the night.

Narcissism is the best word to sum up the nature of these ladies and gentlemen.

One telling sequence involves lighting up "wish lanterns" and letting them go over the canyon. One of them jokes that they'll be put in jail if he set fire to the area. Another says their lawyer friend will just get them off. That's goes right to the center of who these people are. Whether or not a fire is set and people are endangered is really of no consequence. It's only about the possible penalties for them.

Courage is really Beatriz' most prominent character quality. You can tell she would be more comfortable letting some of these heinous comments and attitudes slide, but she won't. She is meek by nature, but willing to be bold when she needs to be.

I kept waiting for that moment when these characters would realize how appalling they were behaving and that Beatriz was right more often than not through the evening.

If the ending feels unsatisfying, it's meant to be. The film refuses to tie everything with a trite, happy ending, instead of leaving us with a solid, bleak picture of the shameful way things really are right now in this country.

The Dinner - Oren Moverman (2017)

For the first act of "The Dinner," you will have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on.

 At the start of "The Dinner," Paul, (Steve Coogan) his wife, Claire, (Laura Linney) are getting ready to have dinner with Paul's brother and U.S. Congressman, Stan (Richard Gere) and his wife, Katelyn (Rebecca Hall.)

Coogan gives the most memorable performance of the film. He plays Paul as a neurotic, like a subdued Woody Allen.

Paul stubbornly insists on staying home and skipping the dinner. There's history aside from this crisis and Paul clearly wants to avoid it.

The get-together is the stage for a confrontation. This is urgent business that pulls Stan away from the demands of his office and forces to focus, just for one evening, on his family.

Filmmaker Oren Moverman takes us back and forth between our quaint table of four and to sequences of events past.

Paul and Claire's son, Michael, as well as his cousin Rick, Stan and Katelyn's son, are in trouble. There is a recording of the boys viciously attacking a homeless women who was trying to sleep in an ATM vestibule.

Not only is there surveillance footage, but the boys recorded the event on their phones. 

Now, the depraved recording may be released and the boys will be exposed.

The third act, when the cards slowly lay themselves down on the table, is as intense as any suspense film.

As we learn more about the perverse attack, expect your sympathies to switch from one character to another. 

One thing Moverman does masterfully is surprise us through the film, changing our perspectives of the different characters.
The one member of the quartet who seems like a rational adult, the one who keeps the family at peace at first, is revealed as a cold monster in one scene toward the end.

"The Dinner" wears many hats. It's a mystery and a thriller. It's about inter-family antagonism and racial hostility. It's about thriving and failing marriages. It's a rare look inside the head of a mentally ill man. And it's a story of unshakable, if misplaced, love.

The character, who comes off as busy, stand-offish and shallow in the first act, turns out to be the one in the group who has a conscience.

The imagery of the film is heavy-handed to say the least. The brothers' conflict is illustrated through Paul's obsession with the Civil War. And there's a shot of Paul's reflection in a broken mirror, and overused and obvious picture of mental illness.

But these are minor complaints.

"The Dinner" has been marketed as a drama, but it's as unsettling as most horror film I've seen and more suspenseful than most thrillers.

Prepare yourself to be ashamed to be a human being. then, for the love of God, watch this film.