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.

The Oscars – Who Will Win, Who Ought To Win and Those Who Were Simply Screwed – Part 1: Who Were Left Out, Proving that Justice is Only an Abstract theoretical idea

We've already gone through which films will win and which ones ought to. So all the fanfare I can muscle from my PC, please enjoy – 

Which Films and Performances Were Criminally Overlooked 

Best Picture – Sorry to Bother You

Yes, this has been a great year for black movies and black filmmakers. We had "The Hate U Give," "Black Panther," and "BlacKkKlansman."
"The Hate U Give" gives us a visceral picture of what is happening right now on our streets, in this world, shown to us through the eyes of an innocent."
"Black Panther" came out and transformed the shallow messages in comic-book films to a legitimate tool for social change.

But one offering this year by Boots Riley, a first-time filmmaker was superior to the aforementioned films in every way. "Sorry to Bother You" is the film that shows us what America is becoming with wit, a scathing scream out to grab our attention and dares his audience to choose a side – those who ignore the way Americans are changing for the worse and those who can see our country's true face. 

Sebastian Lellio's "Disobedience"

Sebastian earned the attention of the world film community with 2017's "A Fantastic Woman." "Disobedience" builds on the themes he'd already established. The story of a rekindled love affair put away for years shines as a powerfully emotional drama where everything is at stake for each of those caught in this love triangle. Watch this film and I dare you not to cry. Go ahead, just try it.

Best Director – Anne Ramsay

Ramsey should've been recognized.for her taut, unsettling thriller "You Were Never Really Here," a frantic and disturbing film about the relationship justice has with violence. I want to proclaim Boots Riley the greatest filmmaker alive right now, but he needs to start a body of work and make sure he makes it clear to the wind that he's more than a true artist, he's also a force to be reckoned with. Ramsay has given us one masterpiece – "We Need to Talk About Kevin." With "You Were Never Really Here," she cements her place among great filmmakers.

Best Supporting Actor – Allesandro Nivola 

Allesandro Nivola shows us true heartbreak looks and feels like. Rabbi Dovid the tortured man when his wife's former lover, a woman from their past comes to town. He's forced to helplessly stand there, caught between lovers, his wife, and their childhood friend, in Sebastian Lellio's "Disobedience." The one thing we're sure of when watching the film is that no matter how this all shakes out, somebody's going to be left alone with a broken heart. 

So here's the trailer for "Disobedience," the film I've been raving about, the one that's not getting the love it deserves.

The Ten Best Films of 2017

Now that the Oscars are behind us, we can stop focusing on what the Academy thinks and discuss a wider scope of 2017's movies. It's a relief after weeks of tunnel vision.

They've awarded who they thought were the best films, performances, etc. But what were actually the best films of 2017?

The internet is now a gluttonous strawberry-patch for anyone who posts and blogs on the subject, so without further ado:

Resident Film Snob's list of the top 10 films of 2017.

10) Rian Johnson's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

If you're familiar with this blog, you'll have noticed that for the most part, I like to talk about artsy types of movies. You generally won't find me talking much about big blockbusters or franchises. But "The Last Jedi" is one of the most impressive entries in this series I've loved all my life. I saw "Jedi" four times and am waiting until I can watch it again. And again, and again...

9) Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird"

My God, how much do I adore Greta Gerwig? She's been expanding her storytelling kills for years and now she brings us "Lady Bird," a coming-of-age film like no other. Her greatest achievement to date had been her co-writing credit with Noah Baumbach on Baumbach's 2012 film "Frances Ha." I've said before that leading lady Saoirse Ronan is this generation's Molly Ringwald, but it's not that simple. Ringwald and Ronan have different pallets. They show us their range of emotions very distinctly.

8) Sebastián Lelio's "A Fantastic Woman"

"A Fantastic Woman" bites off a lot, but not so much that it can't chew. It argues with anti-Trans sentiment with no subtlety, but it's just not that kind of film. It stands its ground and does so impressively.

7) Armando Iannucci's "The Death of Stalin"

"The Death of Stalin" is an historical movie about death camps, summary executions, and casual assassinations. And it's the single funniest film of the year. It belongs right up at the top with the greatest dark comedies of all time ( a.k.a. Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting" or the Cohen Brothers' "Fargo").

6) Dee Rees' "Mudbound"

From the vast scope of WWII to a smaller story about a simple friendship, "Mudbound" is an epic that strongly sweeps through the story of racism in America. Two families, one black and one white, live on the same stretch of land. The way they settle their disagreements is a picture of the pre-civil-rights era in Mississippi and how far we've come. But most importantly, how far we have to go.

5) Darren Aronofsky's "mother!"

Spiritually speaking, "mother!" is one of the most important films of all time. The allegory, by turns sweet and brutal, is a start of a conversation long overdue about the nature of God. People worship Him, others discard Him, but in the end, what does our devotion matter to the universe?

4) Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water"

All of the wonderful things I have to say about "The Shape of Water," you've already heard from others. It's an adult fairy tale. More than that, it's one of the most intimate love stories to come out in a while.

3) Joachim Trier's "Thelma"

"Thelma" is not just a film about true love. It's also about first attraction, first lust. It centers around a young woman from a very conservative family. Trier handles the social discussions of the film with subtlety and treats all of his characters with respect. 

2) William Olroyd's "Lady Macbeth"

"Lady Macbeth" takes on the style of storytelling Shakespeare was famous for and nails it. We follow a woman forced to live with an abusive husband and father and how she forces a change of power. She turns toward the darkness as she liberates herself from persecution.

1) Jordan Peele's "Get Out"

I've said so damn much about "Get Out" on this blog, there's nothing really left to discuss. It's the single most terrifying film in years. It's important. It's a vigorous response to the institutionalized racism from US leaders.

Honorable Mentions:

"Atomic Blonde" brings us back to the days when sex and violence ruled in the action-movie genre. We've suffered for years under the oppression of lame, PG-13 mediocre films. This film feels like home. God effing bless Charlize Theron.

Ildikó Enyedi's "On Body on Soul" is a lovely, charming film about how love manifests itself both in reality and in our minds. It reminds us that just because something is in our minds doesn't mean it's not real.

George Clooney's "Suburbicon" will have you laughing until you burst or cry or pee. It's so dark and gruesome, but there is so much physical humor, slapstick if you like, that it doesn't leave itself down in the sludge, but soars happily through the dark sky.

Todd Haynes' "Wonderstruck" bonds two characters so close to each other, you may find yourself envying them. Though they don't cross paths because they're divided by decades, still they find each other.

Miguel Arteta's "Beatriz at Dinner" is a beautiful ode to those who oppose our current leaders. It surely isn't subtle, but it's nice to see John Lithgow hamming it up as a real estate mogul, cynical and high on the food-chain. And Selma Hayek is charming as hell, representing our disgust, our dismay, and our resistance. Not nearly enough people saw this film and that's a shame.

A Fantastic Woman - Sebastián Lelio (2017)

Since the beginning of cinema, there have been countless films about bigotry, prejudice, and hate. Some are political and others more personal and intimate. Sometimes, we see stories of men and women who struggle just for their basic right to love and be loved. And when tragedy hits, everyone mourns and grieve just like anybody else.

Marina Vidal (Daniala Vega), is a young, transgender woman in a relationship with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), a man thirty-years her elder. The two of them are taking a giant step together. She is moving in with him.

At Marina's birthday celebration, with the Chilean nightlife as its backdrop, Orlando and Marina share an intimate dinner, complete with just the right gift. As one would expect, dancing and love-making follow.



Then, for no apparent reason, Orlando suffers some sort of attack. Panicked, Marina helps him into the car as best as she can, though, at one point, he fell down some stairs, in spite of Marina's help.

He dies in the hospital from an aneurysm. Marina is told about an abrasion on Orlando's head he'd sustained when he fell. They connect it and its possible connection with Orlando's death.

Immediately, the police show up to question Marina. The investigator (Amparo Noguera) wants to know what Orlando was paying Marina. The assumption that Marina's a prostitute is already established in her mind.

The so-called investigation would better be referred to as an exercise in cruelty when the investigator decides that Marina's sex is relevant. It leads up to one of the most crushingly humiliating experiences of her life. It's very hard to watch. Of course, Orlando's family were the ones to call the cops in the first place.

That's just the start of Marina's world crashing down on her head. First, she's alone in the world, she's lost her lover. Now, she's a target, a punching bag meant to absorb the grief of other people.

When Orlando's ex-wife Sonja, (Aline Kuppenheim), comes to claim his car, she gives Marina harsh instructions. She is not to come to the wake or the burial. Why? Sonja answers with honesty and sincerity. Sonja believes Marina is a perversion. Sonja's offended at the thought of someone she cares about being with the girl. Marina's very existence seems to offend her. She tells her that she's a perversion.

When Marina shows up at the wake anyway, Sonja stands up and shouts. Marina is shamed in public and reluctantly leaves. Orlando's family, his son, ex-wife, granddaughter, all except his brother persist in mistreating her.

All of this is happening to her while she's still in the throes of grief. She is stunned with mourning and still being told she doesn't have the basic right to grieve.
"A Fantastic Woman" brings up an interesting question. Does a family in mourning have the right to tell somebody who loved him deeply that they will not allow her to say goodbye? The film explores the answers delicately and with care.

Yes, the film is muted and maddening at the same time. Lelio manages to find the intimate and very human side of grief.  It's this year's entry from Chile for Best Foreign Language Film. It's already been celebrated around the world on the Festival Circuit.

Now, "A Fantastic Woman" is getting some recognition in the States because of the Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. "A Fantastic Woman" is a treasure and is fittingly getting the attention it deserves.