Best Movies of 2018

There are almost too many interesting movies I still haven't seen from 2018 to count. And yet, I think this is one of the most solid lists of movies I've ever had in a post. A great year for movies.

Best of 2018

10. First Reformed


My familiarity with Paul Schrader prior to this is kind of weird. He wrote several great Martin Scorsese-directed movies from the 70's to 90's, and more recently he's made a couple of smaller movies I didn't really like at all. But First Reformed feels like the work of someone who's been at the top of their game their whole career. Ethan Hawke is quasi-secretly one of the best actors of his generation, and he is great once again as a reverend of a small but extremely old church who deals with a drinking problem, declining health, and a spiritual crisis in the face of climate change as he's expected to handle his duties at an important moment. For the most part it's very straightforward, which makes the few moments that depart in an unreal way hit a lot harder. One of the most interesting movies about religion that I have seen.

9. Roma


Alfonso Cuaron is one of my favorite directors, and in Roma he revisits his own childhood as he tells the story of a maid and nanny to a fairly well off family living in Mexico City in the 70's. I believe this is Cuaron's first movie that he actually shot himself (it's also the first he wrote by himself), and he's clearly learned a lot from cinematographers he's worked with in the past, because Roma looks absolutely stunning. The black and white photography is beautiful and he continues to be the modern master of the long take. In the past it sometimes seems like showing off, but in Roma it's more understated and always for a clear purpose. I wish I had connected with the characters a bit more, but Roma is still an impressive movie.

8. Black Panther


I hope that the huge success of Black Panther means we can see more movies with huge budgets that can have unique perspectives and settings that aren't just the same old thing as always. Black Panther is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it's also an afrofuturist science fiction movie, and that departure and focus was maybe my favorite part of it. The cast was also very good, especially Michael B. Jordan as perhaps the MCU's best, and certainly its most sympathetic villain. The action was a bit underwhelming at times, but I'd still love to see Ryan Coogler make a sequel with these characters and this world.

7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The reliable Coen brothers gave Netflix what is essentially a collection of six short Western films, and all of them have something to recommend. They range in tone from delightful to depressing, but each explores the theme of death and its sometimes arbitrary nature. I could say something about each of them, but I think it suffices to say that Buster Scruggs gives you a little bit of all the different things the brothers like to do, and the parts you like or don't like probably won't surprise you if you have any history with them.

6. Hereditary


First-time director Ari Aster is surprisingly assured in this film that is part family drama, part satanic horror. By the end the former fully gives way to the latter, but both elements work, and work together very well. Tony Collette plays a woman grieving the loss of her mother along with her family, and the things that happen from there are unexpected and develop into an intriguing mystery before they start spiraling completely out of control. Her performance could be over the top, but I think it works for where things eventually go. And I love where they go, because it's pretty damn wild.

5. Eighth Grade


First-time director Bo Burnham is surprisingly assured in this coming of age film. Most movies of this type focus on high schoolers, but Eighth Grade (obviously) goes a bit younger, telling the story of Kayla, a girl who struggles to make friends in a world of ubiquitous internet use and self promotion, but constantly strives to improve her situation. I could easily see this moving being sadder and harder to watch, but I found myself rooting for Kayla rather than feeling sorry for her, feeling bad about her setbacks but elated for her moments of progress and clarity. Elsie Fisher gives a remarkable performance, and Burnham's depiction of young adulthood is spot on.

4. Sorry to Bother You

First-time director Boots Riley is surprisingly assured in this bizarre satire of modern labor politics. There are basically two parts to this movie. There's the part where the main character, Cash Green, starts working for a telemarketing company at the same that some of its employees decide to start organizing and eventually strike, clashing with the police at the picket line. There's also the part where Cash learns to use a "white voice" to get ahead in the company and eventually becomes involved with the corporation that essentially found a loophole in modern anti-slavery laws and is dominating the global market. One of these aspects is very serious, the other is very silly, but they work together to the film's overall message, that companies and government will do anything they can in the name of profit and workers have to stick together and protect each other. It's a very funny and surreal movie with a real point.

3. Annihilation


People need to keep giving Alex Garland money to make science fiction and horror movies. Annihilation, based on a popular novel I have not read, does a great job mixing both. Natalie Portman plays a scientist who joins an expedition into a strange alien phenomenon that is constantly growing, and into which several previous expeditions have gone and not returned. Inside they find strange plant and animal mutations, some of which are beautiful, and some of which are terrifying. They begin to lose their grip on reality, and it's hard to say what exactly is real and what is not. There's enough ambiguity to keep an otherwise straightforward story mysterious, and the climax is exactly what it needs to be. Even if you don't get it, the movie is a lot of fun to look at.

2. Avengers: Infinity War


Yes, I am a Marvel fan. This is a damn good Marvel movie. Despite having dozens of characters the central story has room to breathe and develop, and pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine. The visuals are great and the action scenes are inventive and exciting. Thanos is a genuinely menacing villain, and while reports of his plan's viability have been exaggerated, I felt like I still understood his motivation in a way that his goals were clear and helped drive the story. And I appreciate any movie with this much money behind it going with that ending. We all know that what happens in comic books might not matter in the long term, but what does matter is what it means to the characters in the moment. And based on the showing I went to, this movie worked on people.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse


On the one hand, Into the Spider-Verse is a stunningly gorgeous animated film that combines the strengths of computer generated and traditional cel animation along with the history of comic book art to create something unlike anything I've seen before. On the other hand, it tells a beautiful, heart felt story about how anyone given the opportunity can be a hero. And on the third hand, it's a comic book movie filled with so much love for these characters and their histories that as a Spider-Man fan it was just absolute delight to watch from start to finish. So you can see how difficult it is for me to find a single way to recommend this movie. I loved it. Oh, also it's laugh out loud hilarious the entire time. And the villains were all interesting and great! And the cast!

Delayed Entry

This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2018 but I didn't see until then.

Spotlight

Is it cool to like any movie that wins Best Picture? There are definitely things you can criticize about the Oscars, but their last few big winners haven't been bad choices. Spotlight tells the story of the newspaper that helped break the story of the Catholic Church molestation scandal, and while you can see how a movie about Serious Journalists Reporting Important Stories is easy award bait, it's really just an extremely well made film, with an exceptional screenplay and a cast that delivers from top to bottom. It balances the tension of a political thriller with the heartbreaking trauma of the subject matter. It's kind of amazing that Tom McCarthy made this and The Cobbler back to back.

Best Movies of 2016

My theater-going was as pathetic as it's ever been in 2016. I can only think of one movie I saw that wasn't a comic book adaptation or Star War. Luckily though, a lot of great looking movies were available for rental or streaming before I had to put this together. There's still plenty of stuff that released late in the year I need to see, but this is a darn good selection of movies.

Best of 2016

10. Rogue One


Gareth Edwards seems to be a divisive director; opinions were split on Godzilla, and they're similarly all over the place on the first Star Wars spin-off. I liked it quite a bit though. Beyond the frequent unnecessary callbacks and cameos of characters and bits from earlier movies and obvious seams from what seems like quite a lot of rewriting and reshooting, it's a well-made sci-fi war movie that takes the series in a different direction. It's designed to fit into a small gap in the story, to answer a question that didn't really need answering. There's so many things that could have been handled differently, and it's easy to question if the movie should even exist. But hell if I didn't like the characters and feel for their plight. It's interesting and daring and goes places you would never expect a billion dollar franchise to go. I felt strongly about it in a way that I didn't about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was slickly entertaining but just missing a little something.

9. Hail, Caesar!


It seems like this will come to be known as a minor film in the Coen brothers canon, but for the most part even their mild successes are really good movies. It's easy to watch it and come away wondering whether it really had a point, but I think what the plot lacks in aim it makes up for in how it gets to the conclusion. It's the Coens' homage to and satire of golden age Hollywood, and it's packed with great performances by an amazing cast of both Coen veterans and newcomers, with several hilarious scenes that belong in any discussion of the brothers' comic brilliance. It also has an interesting central question about the value of doing what you love balanced against the value of getting paid fairly for your work. Also, the new Han Solo is in it.

8. The Nice Guys


It seems crazy to me that this is only the third movie Shane Black has had the opportunity to direct. He wrote several action movies in the late 80s and early 90s that helped revitalize the buddy cop genre, and since then has only made two excellent crime/action movies starring Robert Downey Jr. and this. Luckily he has a few more projects on the horizon. The Nice Guys is the ultimate homage to L.A. crime fiction, taking place in the smog-and-porn fueled 1970s and pitting its two main characters in a wonderfully mundane life-or-death struggle against the auto industry and federal bureaucracy. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are both outstanding, the script is tight, clever, and funny, and the action is smartly low-key and punchy. They really don't make them like this anymore.

7. Sing Street


I didn't see this until the day before I'm posting this, and I'm glad I did, because it's nice to have something so happy breaking up the general misery of this list. Sing Street is about a teenage boy in 1980s Dublin who goes to a new Catholic school and starts a band to impress a girl. Some of the characters seemed kind of thinly drawn, but the primary relationships between the boy and the girl and between him and his older brother are handled extremely well and drive the whole story. It's funny and sweet while not ignoring some of the hardships that come with being a teenager, and not being sure who you are, and not being able to fix the things that the grownups around you have broken. Also, the original songs are generally really good and the editing and direction of the musical sequences is really clever.

6. Swiss Army Man


Paul Dano, having been trapped on a desert island for weeks, is about to hang himself. Daniel Radcliffe washes up on the beach. Thrilled by the chance for human contact, Dano rushes over and examines him, but he appears to be dead. The corpse farts. It continues farting, with increasing intensity. It won't stop. With a stroke of inspiration, Dano pushes Radcliffe's body into the water and mounts him. The farting propels them forward in the water, and Dano smiles with joy as he rides Radcliffe like a jet ski off into the sea as triumphant music swells. So begins one of the most charming and unusual movies I've ever seen. Its tangible weirdness and humor help sell a story that at its core questions why we don't speak honestly about the simple, stupid things that make us all the same.

5. The Invitation


The Invitation is a classic sort of thriller that maintains a high level of tension throughout, though we don't know if anything's really going on until the final act. It's largely about grief and how people find different ways to deal with it. The main character goes to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new husband, a wife he lost after their son's death pulled them apart. Going back to the house they shared and seeing her, and not understanding how she is able to process her grief in a way that seems foreign to him, helps sell his suspicions, and keeps the ambiguity going until it finally breaks and you see what it's really all about. I was already enjoying the movie a lot, but the final scene elevates it even higher. I don't want to oversell it, but I think it's honestly one of the best endings to a movie of all time.

4. The Witch


It seems crazy that this is anyone's first film. A bit less crazy when Robert Eggers worked in theater before making this, but still he has such a command of images and sound and how they work together. It's like he was born to do it. The Witch is a colonial horror story about a family that moves to an isolated spot in New England after a disagreement with their church (how hardcore do you have to be to be kicked out by the Puritans?) and finds themselves terrorized by supernatural forces living in the woods. The movie is extremely dedicated to its period setting, with natural lighting, severe accents, and archaic dialogue straight out of primary sources. Fans of more explosive horror movies might not find it to their liking, but it does an incredible job of building dread and terror out of small gestures and quiet moments that just aren't quite right. And the movie doesn't shy away from the real shit; if you're afraid that it's just psychological horror where nothing really happens, rest assured: the title isn't lying.

3. Captain America: Civil War


Yeah, guess what, I liked a Marvel movie. What can I say though? The studio knows how to do big budget crowd-pleasers better than anyone else. If you're interested in story, I think it has a lot to say about the importance of accountability versus the value of being able to get things done in a complex modern society. The fact that I was witness to or participated in several real world conversations where people disagreed vehemently on that central topic tells me they did a good job. And they justify having characters who've known each other for years become divided enough to come to blows without the whole thing falling apart. On a more surface level, Marvel's casting continues to be excellent, the movie's funny when it wants to be, and the action is top notch. I'm impressed with how the Russo brothers can balance the violence with the other stuff, and how they can have so much variety within the fights themselves. The tense apartment/stairwell scuffle where Cap's desperate to prevent Bucky and a squad of riot police from killing each other is very different from the airport brawl, which is the most direct expression of comic books at their indulgent and entertaining best ever committed to screen. I'm confident the next Avengers movie is in good hands.

2. Green Room


Between this and Blue Ruin, which I also saw last year and loved, I think Jeremy Saulnier knows how to use violence for shock and impact without diluting its value or meaning better than almost anyone. Green Room is about a punk rock band that gets trapped in the green room of a neo-Nazi club after accidentally witnessing a crime, and that sounds like it could be really cheesy, but it's fucking brutal. It works because of the great economy and attention to detail on display. Every character has a purpose, every knife or bullet or cell phone is important, every death hurts or is a triumph. At times it's hard to watch, but it's also hard to look away in case you miss something. There are several great recognizable actors in the cast, but thankfully their fully on board with what the movie is and just do their jobs instead of being distractions. It's one of the decade's great horror films.

1. Hell or High Water


David Mackenzie has made several movies in the past, but I haven't seen any and don't know much about him. That just made it more fun when I watched this and loved just about every minute of it. Chris Pine and Ben Foster are a pair of mismatched bank robbers, targeting a specific chain in rural Texas and working towards some specific goal. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger in charge of the investigation and who is, of course, very close to retirement. The three performances are great, Bridges' in particular, and the movie's a blast to watch, frequently laugh-out-loud funny and featuring several solid, tense robbery/chase scenes. At the same time, the movie has a lot on its mind, particularly the slow wasting away of small town America as the country becomes more corporatized and wealth is redistributed from the many to the few. It's never very blatant about it, but this is the backbone that makes the whole story work and makes every enjoyable movie moment seem more real and important. This is a problem we'll be dealing with for a long time, probably for the rest of my life. I expect there's only going to be more movies like this.

Delayed Entry

This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2016 but I didn't see until then.

Close-Up

I had a bunch of really good candidates for this, so I decided to highlight the one that it's least likely anyone reading has seen. Close-Up is from Iran, and is a very strange production that combines authentic footage of a real fraud trial with narrative scenes recreating the story, starring the actual people involved with the case. The result is a hybrid of documentary and traditional film, and the layers get even deeper with the fraud involving a man impersonating a well-known Iranian filmmaker. Pulling apart the truths from the lies is fascinating, and it's always interesting to look at movies made in parts of the world you're less familiar with, and see how they're often very different from and very similar to your own at the same time.

Movie Update 37

You know what's up.

Crimewave


This is the only produced Coen brothers script that the brothers didn't direct themselves, though the duties were taken by their friend Sam Raimi. It combines elements of both of their careers in film, and combines them to create what might be best described as a live action Looney Tunes movie. The subject matter is darker, but the actual content of the film really isn't. When a man hires a couple of goons with silly voices to kill his business partner after finding out about his betrayal, they end up going on a rampage through the city, with one of the man's employees and a girl he meets getting caught up in it. It's a very strange and silly movie, with some very elaborate comedic setups, surprisingly exciting moments of action, and an entertaining appearance by Bruce Campbell. A bizarre film that you'll probably like if you're a fan of the filmmakers involved.

Dracula


It's always interesting to me how sterile and stately the horror films of the 20s and 30s are. Genre icon Bela Lugosi stars in his signature role, instilling Dracula with charm and menace as he moves from Transylvania to London in order suck a lot of blood. It's of course pretty toothless in comparison to modern vampire stories, but I mostly enjoyed the slow discovery by the other characters of what Dracula really is and their calm attempts to prevent him from killing or enslaving any more women. Heh, toothless.

One from the Heart


Post-70s Francis Ford Coppola continues to make absolutely no sense to me. One from the Heart tells the story of a couple in Las Vegas that finds their relationship falling apart, and their struggles to either resolve their differences and move on with their lives. What makes the movie different is its musical quality - the characters don't really sing, but the original music by Tom Waits pervades the whole thing, it frequently dabbles in an unreal sense of space, and the film is entirely and totally obviously filmed on elaborate sets at a soundstage. The movie's budget problems and failure at the box office cost Coppola a ton of money, and a lot of his career from then on can be attributed to continued financial problems. Was it worth it? Uh, not really. The movie is okay.

Witness for the Prosecution


A courtroom drama directed by Billy Wilder, based on a play, based on a story by Agatha Christie. Other actors get higher billing, but the star of the show is definitely Charles Laughton, an aging English lawyer who was recently released from the hospital and decides to take on the defense of a man accused of murder, against his doctors' wishes. The trial itself is pretty straightforward, until the characters start making unexpected choices and Laughton has to stay on his feet to deal with the changes and continue the defense to his best ability. The ending is so twisty that a voice actually advises the audience to avoid spoiling it to their friends so they can enjoy it too. It's a well-made and wonderfully acted legal drama that wraps up satisfyingly without letting anything come too easily.

Best Movies of 2010

As far as prestige films go, I really didn't see anything this year. The Coen brothers' latest work would almost count, but it's actually probably their most accessible film since O Brother, Where Art Thou? a decade ago. But that's okay. I watch movies to be entertained, and I had plenty of fun with a number of mainstream releases this year, including a couple of the best blockbusters I've ever seen.

Best of 2010

7. Let Me In


If I had never seen the film that this one is based on, I probably would have given it a lot more credit. As it is, it's still a more than competent remake of one of my favorite horror films ever, with at least a few things it does better or on its own that are almost as impressive. Some of the technical aspects are problematic, but what's important is that it's a well shot version of a creepy, interesting story.

6. Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 isn't as good as its predecessor, but it's still one of the most enjoyable non-Batman comic book movies in a long time. The cast is absolutely overflowing with talent, and they all contribute to a really fun, comedic atmosphere that compliments the series' tendency to go for the bombastic when it comes to action scenes. Far from a subtly told tale, but it was a lot of fun for a couple hours.

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World


Few movies can match Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim in terms of just pure visual style and creativity, and he did a great job faithfully adapting the crazy setting and plot of the comic while massaging it to make sense in two hours. In addition to being very funny, it also had possibly the best action all year - well choreographed fights that you could actually see what's going on in. Another huge cast, and almost everyone fits their parts.

4. True Grit


I guess it's not that surprising that this is now the Coens' biggest box office success ever, and it's nice to to see them make a film that audiences at large actually like. True Grit is not really one of my favorite films by them, but as a simple exercise in pure genre filmmaking, it works out really well. I'm not even sure if I want to see the first film based on the same work, lest it dilute my memories of what they did here.

3. Shutter Island


It wasn't that long ago that I despised Leonardo DiCaprio as a pretty boy actor, and here we are with this as only my second favorite movie he starred in this year. Martin Scorsese's creepy thriller wasn't his most nuanced work, but it was remarkably sure of itself and marvelous to look at, with some of the most purely haunting imagery I saw all last year. The ending managed to be effectively moving despite its predictably, and the care with which it was made elevates it above what it could have easily been.

2. Toy Story 3


If I was a hack, I'd write something using the words "Pixar" and "'Nuff said", and then move on. But yeah, Pixar makes consistently excellent family-friendly (not kid-friendly) animated films, and this might be my favorite of them all. Hilarious, visually brilliant, and disarmingly emotional in places, it's impressive that they managed to not only meet the success of the first two movies over a decade later, but totally surpass them.

1. Inception

Probably my favorite action movie since The Matrix, and for many of the same reasons. The characters are well cast and likable, the story is heady and exciting to think about, the action itself is genuinely exciting, and it could turn out to be extremely important when it comes to effects in big movies. Whereas The Matrix sort of helped bring along a tidal wave of heavily computer-aided action movies, Christopher Nolan did as much of Inception as possible in camera, and it was all the more effective because of it. Hopefully filmmakers realize they can dazzle audiences without spending millions on animation, and put that money into things that our brains aren't all hardwired to immediately detect as fake these days. Hopefully.

Intolerable Cruelty

Cruelty has a reputation as one of the Coen brothers' weaker films, and the early scenes seemed to signal that, with a generally unfunny and too-silly opening scene featuring Geoffrey Rush as a cuckolded TV producer. Luckily things got better once the lead characters played by George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are introduced, and while it is one of my least favorite movies by the Coens, that's only because their catalogue as a whole is so damn good, while Cruelty is merely mostly enjoyable. It's also the last movie of theirs I haven't seen, and it was nice to finally plug up all those gaps.

So the movie is a romantic comedy, but it definitely doesn't play like a romantic comedy of the era. It's more of a classic screwball comedy that's been run through a Coen filter, and while it results in a movie with a low bar to jump, they vault it with a fair amount of grace and style. In some ways it's a very typical movie with obvious and less-than-inspired romantic story beats, but I think it's intentional how standard those scenes are, as they're included merely to acknowledge the fact that that's the kind of movie they're making. It's one of only two films where they shared screenwriting credit with others and was followed by their only direct remake, which leads me to believe it was maybe something of a slow period for them creatively. While the work isn't their most original, it's still distinctly theirs with things like the brief snippets with the head of Clooney's firm and the Wheezy Joe character that you would never see if one of the other directors who was previously attached to the story had ended up making it.

So while it is something of a cliche story, it still works because the Coens have such a distinct style and the cast is pretty outstanding. George Clooney manages to make an asshole divorce lawyer into a charming protagonist, and Zeta-Jones is alluring and likable despite her motivations for most of the movie. Billy Bob Thornton pops in in a great dual role that he knocks out of the park, Cedric the Entertainer is amusing with somewhat limited material, and Freddy might be the best character Richard Jenkins ever played in a Coen movie. The dialogue is sharp and rapid-fire in that old style, and the way the movie blends that classic kind of comedy with more modern developments like pre-nup agreement shenanigans just worked for me. When the movie actually wants the sentimental side to work it does, and before that there's a great tension when you know things aren't going the way they should and you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not everything worked out, but I had a good time watching it. And the music choices were good too. Not a bad movie at all.

It's the last day of the year, so here's some housekeeping work I have to do:

In case you haven't noticed, I've started writing for a website called Player Affinity. I am in charge of the PS3 section and I also contribute to the TV side, and here's the reviews and features I wrote or contributed to that I haven't already linked to here:

PS3
The PS3 Awards
The Other Games of 2010
This Year's Best PS3 Games So Far
The PS3 Team's Favorite Controversial Games
The PS3 Team's Favorite Horror Games
Is It Okay to Play as the Taliban in Medal of Honor?
Why I Like Single Player Games

TV
The Office episode reviews
Costume Contest
Christening
Viewing Party
WUPHF.com
China
Classy Christmas

Also, along with the PA.com responsibilities, I've actually just started a new full time job that actually makes me money, so I simply don't have the time anymore to post on this blog as often as I have this year. I'm not going to stop, but I'm doing a few things to limit the workload. The first is probably no more baseball posts. When I first started the blog, I intended to use this section more, but the truth is I don't have that much to add to the discussion with all of the great dedicated sites and blogs there are out there, and it's fairly incongruous to talk about sports like once a month when this is otherwise basically all entertainment reviews. Another thing is no more music reviews. I actually expect the amount of music I listen to to increase with a hopefully stable income, but the fact is I've never gotten comfortable writing about the subject. I just don't know how to say what I like or don't like about songs the way other people do, and I don't enjoy having to do it. I'll still make lists, but I doubt there will be anymore full reviews.

When it comes to TV and comics, I'm going to stop posting about individual seasons or trade paperbacks of older titles. If they're still running, I'll write a single post about what was already released after I've caught up, and if they ended before I got to them, I'll sum up the whole thing in one go. Posts about current things will continue as usual. I'll see how this all goes at first, but hopefully cutting out some of the stuff that I've traditionally done as filler will help out a lot. Before the blog was almost a job, but going forward it will be more of a hobby. Who knows, maybe the writing will be better when I don't try to make myself do it every day.

True Grit

True Grit is yet another very good film by Joel and Ethan Coen, though it might be the least distinctly-Coen movie to date. It's not a remake of the John Wayne movie, but much like No Country for Old Men, it appears to be a very faithful adaptation of a novel, and one that ties even less into their existing style. The trademarks of distinctive, playful dialogue and stark, sudden violence are still there, but putting the story in the 1800s removes it even farther from what we're used to seeing, and in fact I think besides a couple scenes at the end it's their only work not to take place in the 20th century or later. But while I wouldn't have minded seeing a bit more of my favorite filmmakers' flair shine through, the film doesn't need it to succeed. It's already a story that they know how to do, and it's filled with actors that knew what they were going for.

Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn, the Wayne character, and he's unsurprisingly excellent as a cantankerous drunk of a US Marshall who'd just as soon shoot a man down as take him in to custody. He's far from the nicest guy, but you still end up loving him because of his unique attitude and competence when it really matters. Though his name is the biggest on the marquee, the protagonist of the story is really Mattie Ross, played almost shockingly well by the teenage Hailee Steinfeld. I believe the first film to adapt this story reduced Mattie's role in the story so they wouldn't have to worry about a young girl carrying the story, but the Coens confronted the problem directly and found the perfect person for the part. The character is at times stubborn, vengeful, and vulnerable, and Steinfeld does everything better than could be expected. Matt Damon plays Texas Ranger La Boeuf (La Beef as he pronounces it), and manages to make the character likable while still conveying his somewhat bumbling nature. Josh Brolin's role as Tom Chaney is surprisingly small, but he pulls it off well, and Barry Pepper is a good mix of scary and laughable as Lucky Ned. The rest of the characters are mostly minor, but well cast, and pretty much everyone seems to nail their old fashioned Southern accents.

So the story is about Mattie hiring Cogburn to track down Chaney, who killed her father and is also being tracked by La Boeuf for crimes in Texas. The three all butt heads and part ways at various points, but generally stay on Chaney's trail while having various unusual encounters in unsettled territory. Some of what they run across is quite grim, while other things are played more for laughs, with the general tone being fairly dark but not without a lining of lightheartedness. Eventually things start to get more violent as they get closer to their goal, and I was a bit surprised by the bloodiness and savagery of some of what happened considering the PG-13 rating. There wasn't anything in particular that was graphic enough on its own to bump it up, but the amount and unpredictable nature of it was notable. I enjoyed the movie a lot, but in what have might have been an artifact of the sometimes unusual structure of a novel, the pace of the plot seemed a bit off. A lot of time is spent establishing the characters before they really set off, and the climax and end of the story seemed to sneak up unexpectedly. We don't really get to know any of the bad guys before they're killed, and while that can work when done right, it felt sort of strange when the whole story was based around pursuing a man who only gets a few minutes on screen before the end. There's something to the antagonist being just another guy that gets built up when he evades capture for a long time, but it made for a less than perfectly told story in my mind. I liked pretty much every individual scene, they just didn't all come together quite as well as the Coen brothers usually manage.

As I mentioned though, it was still a good film, and the production quality certainly didn't hurt. The locations they used for the story were perfect, and the whole thing was gorgeous from beginning to end. Great cinematography, framing, and lighting combined with the right natural beauty make for a movie that's just great to look at the whole time, and the sets they built felt right too. The score was also fantastic, a lot of it was based on old hymns which disqualified the film for the Oscar, but it helped set the right mood in every scene, especially when bad things were happening. If everyone could just adapt a story and put it on screen as well as the Coens do pretty much every time, then the film world would be a much better place. Not my favorite movie of the year, but it certainly has a spot pretty high on my list.

The Man Who Wasn't There

The Man Who Wasn't There is the Coen brothers' take on film noir, but like all of their work, it takes its inspiration in odd new directions. Because of its dedication to the filming style of older movies, matching the same sense of pace and a lot of the standards of where to point and focus the camera, it looks very old fashioned. You can still tell it's a more recent film though, even without the recognizable collection of excellent actors and Coen veterans that make up the cast, because there's just something weird about it. They're well known for the frequent nihilism of their plots, and Billy Bob Thornton's Ed Crane is so far into this mode that the film's been compared to The Stranger by Albert Camus, the ultimate existentialist novel.

The story starts like a lot of noir plots that go wrong in a hurry, with a relatively benign criminal scam. Crane is a barber, and he suspects that his wife, played by Frances McDormand, is sleeping with her boss, performed by James Gandolfini. After a customer tells him about his scheme to get rich with a new idea known as dry cleaning, Crane decides to make some money, and maybe get even while he's at it (although he really seems like he doesn't care that much about the affair), so he anonymously blackmails Gandolfini into leaving him the money to keep quiet. As expected though, things go very wrong, and people start dropping dead. Some bits are more predictable than others, but they do a good job of keeping things interesting, and things get a lot weirder after a certain point, eventually culminating in an ending that sort of feels like a fever dream that's actually happening.

It's an interesting story propped up further by the stellar look of the film (it was actually filmed in color and converted later to a beautiful black and white) and the outstanding performances by everyone involved. A lot of actors doing disaffected can just come off bored, but Thornton has mastered the art form. You really get inside his head and see what he does and doesn't care about (mostly he doesn't, you get the feeling that he truly doesn't mind the adultery and just tries the blackmail because he thinks it will work) with him having to say very little outside the narration. Gandolfini has to convey a lot of moods in not very many scenes and does it well, McDormand is just right for what the Coens are doing as usual, and Tony Shalhoub's lawyer is the perfect scumbag opportunist. Richard Jenkins and Scarlett Johannson are a father and daughter that don't have a lot of screen time, but Jenkins is excellent as a weary drunk and Johannson plays well off Thornton as the one thing he seriously seems concerned with. There are a lot of Coen trademarks, such as sudden and shocking bursts of violence and using similar imagery for scene transitions, but in some ways it's also unique for them, more restrained than usual and dedicated to matching the style they were after. They're still my favorite filmmakers, and this is one of their most intriguing projects.

A Serious Man

The Coen brothers have been making movies for a while, though this is the first time they've really dug into their Jewish heritage. I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in, with the mostly unknown cast and not a ton of hype, but I ended up enjoying it a ton, and I'd say it's one of my five favorite films by them. I can easily see why someone wouldn't enjoy it, as it seems to feature every weird and potentially annoying technique the Coens use, and honestly I'm a bit surprised it was nominated for Best Picture over some of their more accessible stuff, although the expansion to ten nominees helps. It's quirky, it has unnecessary violence, it has dead end plot points, it ends abruptly, and it's really only funny if you get their unique sense of humor. But these are all reasons that I enjoyed it. As a longtime fan of their work, it almost felt like a reward for years of watching and appreciating their style.

An easy problem to have with the movie I guess is wondering what it's actually about. It begins with a vignette in an European village some time in the past, where a Jewish couple has an unusual encounter, and the movie doesn't make a terribly strenuous attempt to connect it to the rest of the story. It stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a physics teacher and family man in the late 60s or early 70s, and shows what is probably the worst period of his life. There's no single tumultuous event that changes everything, stuff just starts to go wrong and doesn't stop. Some problems are more mundane than others, but they all keep piling on. He has several misleading dreams that go nowhere, and as previously mentioned, the film ends right before anything truly significant actually happens, although more bad news is on the horizon. For some reason this sort of ending seems to be in vogue right now, and as much as it bothers other people, I kind of love it when done properly, and this was one of my favorite examples.

The question of the point of it still exists, and I'm not sure there is one. The Coen brothers love their allusions, and comparisons can be pretty easily drawn to various stories from the Bible (or Torah, I guess), where the wrath of god rains down on a poor soul for no real reason. Larry has something of a crisis of faith throughout the movie, turning to various rabbis for help and questioning his beliefs, in ways both obvious and hidden under tricky dialogue with double meanings. The Coen brothers' movies lately have tended to be pretty bleak even when they're being funny, and A Serious Man is no different. But it still is really funny, one of their most humorous if you're in the right mood. Characters are bizarre without being silly, and there's just the right balance of absurdity with the darker elements to keep it entertaining the whole time. It's hard to pick just one thing to highlight the comedic aspect, though I will say that Sy Ableman is definitely one of my favorite Coen characters. What an asshole.

The Big Lebowski

I was watching this again with friends last night, for the first time in too long. While there are films I would name as superior artistic achievements, I really can't think of any that I love more. Few movies hold up to repeated viewings as well as this one, and there are only a small handful of flaws that keep it from being perfect. There's something special about it, like you could try to replicate its success with the same amount of talent both behind and in front of the camera and never find the same magic in a hundred years. Instead of pontificating on why it works, I'll just start listing little details you might not notice the first couple times but help show why it's such a cult favorite. It really is the epitome of that sort of thing, failing when it was in theaters, but it's hard to find someone in my age group who hasn't seen it at this point.

- There's a lot of stuff with shirts that's fun. Most people have noticed that Donnie's bowling shirts never actually have his name on them, but fewer know that between their first and second scenes, Jackie Treehorn's two thugs decided to switch what they were wearing.
- It's fun to think about how people became friends. Walter and the Dude get along but really don't have much in common, leading us to think they were put in a situation where they were forced to find common ground, like they went to college together and were roommates or something. Neither one seems to care much for Donnie, but you can see how they saw his bowling talent and befriended him so they could use him on the team, and him being so weird accepted the only friends he could get.
- A bit more mysterious is how the Jesus and Liam became bowling buddies. The best theory I've heard is that the latter is the former's parole officer.
- Not really a fun fact, but Philip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic in this movie. And it's the only time I've ever seen something make Tara Reid useful.
- When he's discussing the toe with Walter in the diner, the Dude gets angry and dumps some change on the counter to pay for his coffee. It's easy to miss that he picks up a joint he accidentally grabbed with the money before he shuffles out of the place a bit too quickly.
- Walter's inappropriate references to Vietnam are great, but I might like his flashbacks even more. It only happens a couple times, but he'll forget where he is for a minute.
- Have you ever made note of how many times the movie could have ended if the Dude just stayed out of things? Eventually he gets in too deep, but if Walter never told him to go see the other Lebowski, or if he didn't take that specific rug from the place, and so on.
- It's gotta be common knowledge for fans at this point, but it's great how much of the Dude's dialogue is taken from what he's heard other people say and how all the elements of his dreams come from somewhere else in the film. Perhaps the best instance of this is when he tells Larry he's going to castrate him.
- How sad is it that Donnie's bowling buddies are the only ones at his funeral. Does he really have no family at all? I assume they knew him well enough to contact them if he did.
- The entire arc of Jackie's pornographic doodle is great. For one thing, it's a great drawing. For another, why is he drawing that while he's on the phone? What the Dude does is one of his smartest moments, but he gets nothing out of it, and of course it's the only thing in his pockets after he's arrested besides his Ralph's card.

I'm running out of steam here, so I'll wrap it up. Like I said, there are some issues with the movie and I'll touch on those. When the Dude gets thrown out of the cab and Bunny zooms by, the shot lasts too long and the Dude's expression of bewildered dismay ends up looking artificial. It's a very small problem, but again, we're talking about one of my favorite movies ever. Another thing is that I think there's only one scene in the movie that doesn't feature the Dude, the very brief snippet where we see the nihilists ordering breakfast. It's not really necessary because the other scene shows Bunny's toes intact, and it would have been nice if you could say there is no scene in the film without its protagonist. It's a stylistic thing, and when you're that close, you might as well go for it. These are both minor quibbles of course, small bumps in what is still one of cinema's most enjoyable experiences. I don't doubt that I like the movie just a bit too much, but I'm okay with that.

Barton Fink

Barton Fink is perhaps the Coen brothers' oddest film, and that's saying something. It's not the silliest, but there's a strange, symbolic thing going on through the whole movie, and by the end it takes over the actual story. It's about a playwright from New York played by John Turturro who is brought to Hollywood to write for motion pictures, and who struggles when brought out of his comfort zone and forced to write in a genre he doesn't understand. The movie is very slow to get started, and doesn't really get entertaining until about half an hour in. The fun comes from the people Turturro meets in the new city, who provide the sort of dialogue we've grown used to from the Coens - crisp, clever, and unique. The acting is quite strong all around, as everyone besides Turturro gets two or three good scenes to show off their chops, and they're all up the task.

Before the Coen brothers were winning Oscars, this movie took home a hat trick at Cannes, including the Palme d'Or. It's definitely the sort of thing voters at film festivals would go for, the most of any of their work. There's an unusual structure to the film, and as it goes on the viewer's comprehension can only drop as strange things being happening without a ton of resolution, culminating in the climax which brings a metaphor completely to the forefront and a final scene which recalls a repeated image throughout the story, without actually saying anything obviously meaningful. There's a strange mystery to the whole thing, and I'm not sure how much of what happened was supposed to be real. The movie's definitely enjoyable whenever people are speaking, from Buscemi's chipper bellhop, to Goodman's ambiguous salesman, to the fast talking detectives investigating something, and everyone else. Still, I might not recommend the movie to anyone who doesn't already like their work or appreciate more unusual films, because it would be easy to be left unsatisfied by how it all ends. Definitely an odd film.

Best Movies of 2008

Some people also said this wasn't a great year of movies either, but when I compiled a list of what I saw it easily featured the most solid titles of any of the three times I've done this. I feel comfortable going all the way to ten this time. Not making the cut included such films as Cloverfield, which I thought succeeded at doing exactly what it wanted, Tropic Thunder, a fun collaboration by a bunch of funny guys, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, another likable film in the Apatow repertoire.

Best of 2008

10. Hellboy II: The Golden Army


More here for being so amazing visually than a great film. I can't quite tell whether del Toro is a great filmmaker or just has an uncanny knack for neat effects, although I can't say I'm not terrible excited about what he could do with The Hobbit.

9. Valkyrie

I guess in the end I did quite like it. Wonderfully filmed, takes the subject matter very seriously, and it's a sad story that people should know about. A good tribute to the men who tried to stop the world's greatest evil.

8. Pineapple Express

Rogen and Franco are great together in the perfect fusion of buddy stoner comedies with an action film, albeit a mostly grounded one. Although I kind of wish the whole thing lived up to the opening scene with Bill Hader and Dexter's dad a bit better.

7. Burn After Reading


Far from the best Coen film, but far from the worst too. Not quite what I hoped for but a nice entry in their kookier milieu. Am I even using that word right? I can't believe I used that word. What the hell.

6. The Wrestler


I haven't blogged about it yet, but I watched it yesterday so give me a break. Mickey Rourke's performance, which won a Golden Globe (haha) on Sunday, is the most notable aspect, but I thought it was a very good film in general.

5. Quantum of Solace


A lot of people complained about the editing in the action scenes, but they're all a bunch of dopes. There, I said it. I'd be fine with it if every violent film for the next ten years was styled exactly like this one.

4. Iron Man


The runner-up for best comic book-based super hero movie about a man with a heritage to live up to who fights crime by using his vast wealth to create a special suit instead of an extraordinary power of his own. I love Robert Downey Jr.

3. In Bruges


I was a bit surprised to see Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe for this, not because he wasn't good, but because it wasn't really a "Comedic" performance. Really good movie, funny but still with a strong emotional depth.

2. The Dark Knight

The best comic book-based super hero movie about a man with a heritage to live up to who fights crime by using his vast wealth to create a special suit instead of an extraordinary power of his own. All three films featuring a Golden Globe-winning male performance appear on this list. What does that tell you? Nothing, really.

1. Wall-E


And the best movie of the year's only dialogue from the two leads consists basically of "Wally!" and "Eva!" over and over again. It really did touch me though, with a strong message, gorgeous visuals, and heartfelt story. One of the best family films ever.

Burn After Reading

As far as movies by the Coen brothers go, Burn After Reading is merely in the middle of the road. Fortunately, it's such a damn good road that saying it's in the middle is hardly a knock. I didn't love it as much as their best work, but I've only come to appreciate it more since I've watched it, and it's not nearly as close to bad as say, The Ladykillers. It's a unique addition to their body of work, mixing the humor of their sillier movies with the very frank violence of their serious films. It's sort of a satire of espionage thrillers, but also not really. It's pretty short, but also takes a while to really get going. The plot's a pretty tightly coiled knot by the end, although I kind of wished there was some more convolutions to really take it all the way. I feel like it could have been great with a tighter script, but as it is, it's still pretty good.

Production-wise, it's as good as the Coens have ever been. The score is bombastic and completely over the top for the content, adding to the satirical vibe. It's their first film without their usual cinematographer in a long time, but they don't miss a beat, with plenty of wonderfully shot moments, especially the ones at the CIA headquarters. There's some really cool zoom shots that show the location, and I love the way the camera follows people's feet as they walk from room to room. The CIA scenes in general are great, with JK Simmons hilarious as usual as the man in charge of the incident, and the coda where they talk about what happened sums up the movie perfectly. The cast is their biggest yet, with Oscar winners George Clooney, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton, and nominees Brad Pitt and John Malkovich. They all play their roles very well. Swinton's character seemed more pointless than the others, and Malkovich's dialogue wasn't as funny as it tried to be, but they still fit appropriately into the story. Pitt was great as a moronic gym instructor, and I ended up wishing the movie had more of him. McDormand and Clooney are in a lot of their movies, which makes sense for Frances since she's married to Joel, and they're great again in parts written for them.

After a good amount of time introducing the characters and how they know each other, the story begins when Pitt and McDormand find what they believe is Malkovich's "secret CIA shit" and try to ransom it back to him, and then a bunch of crazy things happen that result in some characters dead, some on the run, and some intact. The CIA is paying attention, but even they're not sure what's happening and don't seem to care too much. They're pretty much in the same position as the audience, wondering what the point is. It's kinda gutsy to make a movie with no point, but in a way that IS the point, and the way they go about showing it is pretty great. It's pretty funny too, and I'm looking forward to watching it again more than No Country for Old Men, so take that for it's worth. They're already filming their next movie, which has a cast of unknowns instead of one of stars, so we'll see what happens.

PS: I just noticed that this is the second review of a Coen movie in a row that I've derided The Ladykillers, which I didn't intend to do. It's really not a terrible movie, it's just definitely not what you should watch if you want to see what they're about.

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing is just the Coen brothers' third film, but by that time they were already showing incredible maturity and skill within the medium. It's not as funny as most of their other work, but it has one of the better stories. In general, they're known for quirky films with a focus on dialogue and dark humor, but sometimes they veer farther into that dark territory, and Miller's Crossing is one of those times. It's a modern version of film noir. The dialogue, especially from the protagonist played by Gabriel Byrne, is usually pretty snappy, but making you laugh is not the general goal.

The story takes elements from other works, and is a familiar tale of the hero using his smarts to play two sides against each other instead of confronting them himself. It takes place during prohibition and the two sides are an Irish gang that's been running the city and an Italian one that wants to take over. Circumstances cause Byrne to cut ties and interact with a shady character played enjoyably by John Turturro, who's the lynchpin of the whole conflict. Byrne is very good as Tommy, as he carries the movie in almost every scene. He's not a violent guy, and in fact gets beaten up probably more than any main character I've ever seen. He uses his wits instead of brute force to make it through, and gets a little help from luck too. The plot is pretty complicated, and a bit tough to follow if you can't keep up with all the different names that the fast talking characters drop. Even if you don't get every detail though, you can still appreciate the main thrust of the story. If I hadn't seen The Ladykillers, I'd say the Coen brothers could do no wrong.

Best Movies of 2007

It was a decent year for movies, with plenty of good ones, if maybe none that truly astounded me. In particular, it was a good year for Judd Apatow. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Hot Fuzz were both very humorous pokes at certain genres of film. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters and Futurama: Bender's Big Score were both enjoyable extensions of good cartoon series. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the second out of the five Potter films I actually considered good. Instead of mixing in normal images I'll add DVD covers as they come out.

Best of 2007

8. Grindhouse


Grindhouse turned out to be a flop, which is a shame, as it was a very entertaining diversion from the normal theater experience. Its two parts were different yet the same, capitalizing on the ridiculousness and sleaziness of a certain kind of movie that you don't see as much anymore. I liked Planet Terror a bit more, but had fun throughout.

7. 300

This is mostly a special achievement award for its awesome visual style, but 300 was a good time. As an actual film, it wasn't as great as most people seem to think, but it was still very entertaining, with tremendous action scenes (even if that was mostly just interesting use of slow motion) and a simple story that's still pretty effective. Best use of burly, bearded men in 2007.

6. I Am Legend

The way the ending was changed to better fit the Hollywood mold is a bit lame, but I still thought it was an underrated, unique sort of blockbuster, with a tremendous performance by Will Smith and and atmosphere that stuck with me longer than most movies of the sort. Still annoyed by the rampant CG and some plot holes, but I can't help liking it a lot.

4. Knocked Up/Superbad (tie)


In the end, I couldn't choose between Judd Apatow's two comedy giants. They're really two sides of the same coin, both vulgar and hilarious, both about different aspects of growing up. Gun to my head, I probably pick Knocked Up since it was a little more consistent, but there's too much good stuff in Superbad to go against it when I don't have to. It's my stupid blog that no one reads, I can do what I want.

3. The Bourne Ultimatum


Best action movie I've seen in a while. The fact they were able to keep the tension so absurdly high without resorting to the typical tropes of the genre is impressive, as Damon continues to solidify as one of the best actors of his generation. The climax of the movie wraps up the trilogy in a neat bow, but there's still an opportunity to keep it going, and I hope they do.

2. No Country for Old Men


Funny, exciting, but ultimately bleak and depressing, I appreciate it more than I actually like it. I love the Coen brothers, and this is perhaps their best made film, but I can't quite say I want to see it again anytime soon. It might just be a subconscious mental backlash, because I know I enjoyed it while I was watching it. It takes some strange turns at the end, which could have also had an effect. In any case, if you haven't seen it, you should, even if it's just because Javier Bardem is one of the best villains ever.

1. Juno


I'm glad I saw Juno, because as good as No Country was, I didn't really want to call it my movie of the year. Juno is about as funny as anything else this year, and has a huge heart as well. Sometimes, you can't quite describe why you thought a movie was great, you just get a nice feeling in your chest that doesn't go away until long after you've left the theater. Juno was like that. The music still annoys me, but everything else was pitch perfect.