Top 10s and honorable mentions aren't enough. I simply have to write *something* about every new thing I saw this year. Split into categories, as usual.
FOR EVERY ACTION … THERE IS A JACKSON
Lots of wildly different action films this year — from sword fights to car chases to shootouts to outer space shenanigans.
Jailbreak - Cambodia’s first action flick and it shows, but there’s a lot to like here, especially all the kickass ladies (something that is apparently a revolutionary idea in Cambodia).
The Great Wall - Not great, but not bad at all, and not the “white savior” narrative you might think it is. It is strange to see Matt Damon in this kind of movie, though.
Blade of the Immortal - Brutal and bloody and just what you’d expect from Takashi Miike. Lovely relationship between the immortal samurai and his charge. I still prefer 13 Assassins.
The Fate of the Furious - I think the series peaked with 4 and 5, but this is still a highly enjoyable entry in the Toretto saga. I love how these movies take antagonists and just absorb them into the big family.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - This is visually stunning and worth watching for the market scene alone. It gets less great toward the end, but I still liked it a lot.
Atomic Blonde - I had a couple of problems with it (guys, we can’t use “Putting Out the Fire” anymore because Tarantino already immortalized it), but it’s still pretty great. Another Charlize Theron Will Destroy You role.
John Wick: Chapter 2 - I love love LOVE this universe, and I was beyond happy that this movie expanded it beyond what we see in the first movie. The ending is the perfect cliffhanger to make audiences (well, certainly ME) want to see more IMMEDIATELY.
AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS
This was a banner year for horror and horror-adjacent movies. You will see more of them in my honorable mentions and top 10.
Applecart - Barbara Crampton is great in this, as she is in pretty much everything, but she’s not quite enough to save the rest of the movie.
Life - This is a straight-up Alien ripoff, but it mostly works. The ending still makes me mad.
It Comes at Night - This reminds me a lot of It Follows or Messiah of Evil — a psychological horror movie that gets its juice from a creeping dread that eats into every corner of the film’s world. It’s sad a lot of people expected something else and blamed the movie for not being that.
The Wall - This looks like a war movie, and it is also that, but it is definitely a horror movie. It’s like if the first 10 minutes of Scream were stretched out over a full movie. Couldn't help thinking of Return of the Living Dead and "send more cops."
Split - A welcome return to form for M. Night Shyamalan, but without the obligatory “big twist.” Okay, there’s a little twist, but the Big Moment comes much earlier, when the girls realize all those people are actually one person.
It - I never saw the original miniseries, but I feel like I don’t need to now. This movie has a great cast with excellent chemistry, the new Pennywise is *deeply* terrifying, and it means something to me that I’m exactly the same age as these characters (or I *was* in the year it’s set). This movie also made me want to listen to NKOTB again.
Super Dark Times - Wonderful, character-driven horror movie (some people might call it a thriller, I guess, but I think it’s horror). It reminded me a lot of Chronicle in its character dynamics. The first 10 minutes should be taught in every screenwriting class.
Prevenge - Funny but also effectively scary. Compelled by what she believes to be the commands of her fetus, a pregnant woman seeks revenge on those she blames for her husband’s death. Alice Lowe directed and starred in this while she was actually pregnant. And filmed most of it in about two weeks.
Gerald’s Game - This is EXCELLENT, and it’s a shame it never saw a real theatrical release (though it did get some festival play). Carla Gugino is amazing, and I will remember the “de-gloving” scene for a very long time. Last few minutes nearly ruins it, but it’s still great.
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
True stories are one of the four food groups of movies, and there were some good ones (also some ehh ones) this year.
Rebel in the Rye - Fairly by-the-numbers biopic about J.D. Salinger writing (and dealing with the success of) Catcher in the Rye.
The Greatest Showman - Highly (wildly, even) fictionalized version of the rise of P.T. Barnum. Musical numbers feel anachronistic and often awkward, but “This Is Me” is a genuinely great moment.
Detroit - Accurate or not, this movie was incredibly painful to watch. And not necessarily in a good way. Goes well past the point of too far and almost feels irresponsible.
My Friend Dahmer - Jeffrey Dahmer: The Teenage Years. Works well as a teen drama, even without the true story element. Man, those kids had no idea who they were dealing with.
Battle of the Sexes - Emma Stone is wonderful. Steve Carell is over-the-top, but that’s the idea. I loved how the Billie vs. Bobby story was framed by the fight for better compensation for women tennis players across the board.
Darkest Hour - Gary Oldman chewing every bit of scenery he can find, and it’s great. I fear this will turn out to be a movie for our times. If so, Churchill’s example is a good one — there is no negotiation with men like Hitler.
All the Money in the World - All most people will talk about with this movie is the reshoot with Plummer, but that’s a disservice to the excellent work by Michelle Williams (this is *her* movie), Mark Wahlberg, and the movie’s MVP in my opinion, Romain Duris. Another great example of creating tension when most people already know the ending.
Molly’s Game - Aaron Sorkin becomes a director with this movie, though he’s always written like one. Jessica Chastain is phenomenal and Kevin Costner reminds us why he’s a star. A bit like The Big Short in how it addresses the audience and uses visuals and graphics to help people understand what’s going on.
The Disaster Artist - This was in my top 10 for a while, but it’s faded a lot as time has worn on. It’s very entertaining, but I’m afraid people are learning the wrong lesson about The Room with this movie. An entertaining bad movie is still a bad movie. The thing that sticks with me the most is the scene where Wiseau humiliates the actress and the script supervisor and DP stand up for her. I couldn’t help thinking how many movie sets there must have been where no one ever did that.
DOCS
I did not get to many documentaries this year. I never do, but TWO?? I’m ashamed of myself. I should have seen Jane, at least.
Haunters: The Art of the Scare - Takes a brief dip into the history of haunted houses and how it used to be such a Thing for churches to put them on. But the character studies of the people who do these and spend enormous amounts of their own money to construct these scare factories is the fascinating part. Screw that McKamey guy, though.
Step - This was really, really good. You get so invested in these girls and their successes both on the stage and in real life as they struggle to get into their desired college or find a place in post-high school programs. This is such a make-or-break time for all of them and you feel that through the whole movie.
REMAKES
None of these were really necessary or broke new ground, but they all have their virtues.
Beauty and the Beast - Emma Watson is seriously miscast here. Belle is not the same person as Hermione. Loved Gaston and Lefou. Loved “Evermore.”
The Beguiled (2017) - Beautifully made, but not as compelling as the original (to me, anyway). And I *hate* that they cut the Hallie character.
Murder on the Orient Express - Lovely. Great opening sequence establishing who Poirot is. Excellent cast. Love that Branagh manages to make it suspenseful, when surely most people have seen the original or read the novel.
FRANCHISES/SEQUELS/REBOOTS
Some movies that would go here also fit other categories, but here’s “the rest” of them.
Cars 3 - I actually kind of liked this (more than Cars 2, anyway) and like several franchise movies this year, it had good things to say about passing the torch to a new generation.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - I love these movies, including this one. I just wish they had paid a bit more attention to the series mythology. Great to see Will and Elizabeth again; they were sorely missed in On Stranger Tides.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Not quite as good as the first one, but still highly enjoyable. I love it when a villain kind of has a point. And I *loved* that they took what a lot of people saw as a crass “butt stuff” joke from the first movie and turned it into an actual relationship.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 - Not quite at the heady heights of the first one, but Kurt Russell and his epic hair are unforgettable. And let’s not forget the true hero of this movie — Mary Poppins, y’all.
Kong: Skull Island - Loved the nod to Hell in the Pacific. Loved how flippin’ enormous Kong is. As always, I wish Brie Larson had more to do.
Lego Batman Movie - Favorite Batman movie since the Burton days.
War for the Planet of the Apes - Epic, emotional conclusion to this prequel trilogy. It’s criminal that Andy Serkis’s work doesn’t get more love from awards bodies.
GOOD HEAVENS, DON’T MAKE ME GIVE THIS A NUMBER
One of these I’m too emotionally attached to to give a proper ranking. The other is so WTF that I can’t possibly stack it against any of the other films. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which. :P
mother! - This was insane and beautiful and amazing. Aronofsky was given a ton of money and just went balls to the wall, riffing on creation and inspiration and how we’re destroying the planet. Bless him. If I learned one lesson from this movie, though, it is to never, EVER sit on an unbraced sink.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Haters, please familiarize yourself with the left-hand evacuation procedure. You had to know, if they were going to be making more Star Wars movies, that this would HAVE to happen eventually. We have our trilogy with Luke and Leia and Han. Now it’s time for a new generation of heroes, and I could not be more excited. (Also, I don’t care what anyone says, I LOVE the casino sequence!)
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