oscars | At The Movies

2018 has been an interesting year for film, not quite up to the standards of 2017, which featured some of the most impressive films of the last ten years. However, there have been some superb films that are unique, emotional and challenging, and a great testament to the film industry. Making a top ten list is always difficult and is likely to change as soon as this is posted, but as of writing this is my top ten films of 2018.

10 – A Quiet Place

Released: April 6th 2018 Director: John Krasinski Starring: Emily Blunt and John Krasinski

In John Krasinski’s debut directing role he showcased that he was somebody to be taken seriously. A post apocalyptic horror that’s key element is silence. A family’s survival is at stake as they try to find a way to live in a world where they cannot speak. The film’s best feature is its ability to take something that we take so much for granted, and strip it away from us. It is a smart thriller that has a human touch, as John Krasinski and Emily Blunt try to raise a young child alongside two other children in a world where they have to be silent at all times, and what they would do to protect one another. The real-life couple’s chemistry helps to make the family feel real in an entertaining horror film that was more than a pleasant suprise.

Best Moment: Emily Blunt giving birth amongst the attack by the creatures. It is the most tense moment of the film, leaving a cinema silent as the audience watch on as the split apart family try to save each other.

9 – Mission Impossible: Fallout

From Left to Right: Henry Cavill, Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson in Mission Impossible: Fallout

Released: July 27th 2018 Director: Christopher McQaurrie Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames

Mission Impossible: Fallout proves just how great hollywood cinema can be. Not all blockbuster films are simplistic and lacking a plot. Christopher McQuarrie has directed one of the great action movies, with Tom Cruise continuously proving himself to be the best there is at what he does. Thrilling from the moment it starts, MI:F goes into new territory for this hugely successful franchise, producing some of the best visual sequences this year in film. An ensemble cast provide compelling performances alongside a genuine threat, and dark themes of corruption and betrayal to create an iconic film in the blockbuster era.

Best Moment: The mission to recover Solomon Lane from the government by Hunt and Walker, undercover working with an arms dealer. The scene unfolds creating uncertainty, distrust and a series of spectacular visuals, with some superb directing and acting.

8 – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Tim Blake Nelson in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Released: November 9th 2018 Director: Joel and Ethan Coen Starring: Liam Neeson, James Franco, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Tim Blake Nelson

The Coen Brothers new film is one of two Netflix releases on this list. A western split into six story, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs takes on different tales of criminals, entertainers and gold miners in a unique and interesting way. With Tarantino style dialogue in parts, the film is new territory for the Coen Brothers who have created many classics over the years. A fun film, with deep rooted messages about greed and crime in America, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs is another success story for the Coen brothers, as they venture into new horizons working with Netflix, who’s track record is consistently improving. With free reign over the film they have created an entertaining film that explores a range of ideas about America and it’s identity.

Best Moment: The final story explores three people on a coach ride with a driver unwilling to stop, as they all look back on their lives as they face the uncertainty of death they come together in their joint fear of dying. A poignant end that explores, in detail, the fear of death and people’s differences and similarities.

7 – Annihilation

Released: March 12th 2018 Director: Sam Garland Starring: Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Tess Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez

Alex Garland’s follow up to Ex Machina is a thought-provoking science-fiction film that will leave you deep in thought for hours after the credits roll. An equally experimental film as Ex Machina, Garland creates an aesthetically pleasing world in which he, and the audience, can explore. Ranging from beautiful to frightening, Annihilation explores ‘the shimmer’, a toxic area spreading through the coast of America, and Lena – Natalie Portman – and her husband Kane – Oscar Isaac – are the only people to have survived entering it. The film explores the ideas of grief, mental health and humanity’s tendency to self-destruct. Each character, in the Shimmer goes through different challenges with their own mental health, and struggle to cooperate with one another. The stark contrasts between the beauty of the shimmer and the horror that lies within it create a harrowing and challenging film that leaves the audience with an abundance of questions.

Best Moment: The reveal of what happened to Kane is dark and challenging but is a pivotal moment in the film and is incredibly shocking and thought-provoking, making you question everything that came before.

6 – Burning

Released: May 17th 2018 Director: Lee Chang-dong Starring: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo

Burning is a sensual and mysterious film that moves from a love story with two love rivals to a crime filled film exploring the disappearance of the love interest – Shin Hae-mi. The film’s focus is the exploration of human relations and psychology, with the disappearance taking a backseat as the film continues, with Lee Jong-su becoming obsessed with his love rival Ben. Their paths become ever more intriguing until the inevitable climax that leaves questions in the air, with mysteries not revealing themselves, rather growing as the two men become obsessed with each other and finding out who each other really are. A film about class, with two characters coming from different worlds, helps to feel the lust and pain that Jong-su feels. It is a film that will leave you questioning human relations and our relations with one another.

Best Moment: Ben’s dream of burning the greenhouses, a hallucinatory scene that creates the sense of fear and danger in a film that was before a simple tale of two love rivals.

5 – Shoplifters

Released: 8th June 2018 Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda Starring: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 20 years in Japanese film are clear in this extraordinary tale of a make shift family who steal to get by. The family end up literally stealing a young girl named Yuri, who is visibly abused by her family. The film is full of poignant moments as this ‘family’ grow closer, with husband and wife becoming intimate for the first time in years, and a shop assistant helping Shota as long as he doesn’t teach Yuri how to steal. It is a film that asks questions of the rights and wrongs and explores how united a group of people can become. It is the story of damaged people joined together in a common cause, until they realise that they may not be doing the right things. The family’s split and Yuri’s return to her family epitomise the agony of society with people who are broken and struggling to cope.

Best Moment: Noboyu telling Osamu that Shota is too good for them is a heartbreaking moment that epitomises the human, emotional feel that resonates throughout the entirety of the film, and sums up why it is so special.

4 – Sorry To Bother You

Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry To Bother You

Released: 13 July 2018 Director: Boots Riley Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tess Thompson, Steven Yeun, Forest Whitaker

Boots Riley’s directorial debut is as daring as it could possibly have been. A politically charged, socially aware film that explores the issues of modern society, with capitalism being the focal point. As absurd as it is poignant, it explores the basics of modern life, and the possibilities of what could be hidden in the richest of society. Lakeith Stanfield provides a portrayal of modern society, caught between wanting to make change and needing to improve their situation in a money driven world. It is a unique film that successfully manages to blur the line between our own reality and the extraordinary world that Riley creates, and creates both laughter and discomfort as the characters are dragged into this awful world, that has alarming similarities to our own.

Best Moment: The meeting between Cassius Green (Lakieth Stanfield) and Steve Lift (Armie Hammer). An extraordinary portrayal of the difference between the working people of society, and the people that control their lives, it is a scene that moves from funny to tense in a matter of moments, and is one of the most pivotal moments of the film.

3 – You Were Never Really Here

Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here

Released: 9th March 2018 Director: Lynne Ramsay Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekatarina Samsonov

Lynne Ramsay continues to produce outstanding films, after 1999’s Ratcatcher and 2011’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, she has stepped it up another notch. Ramsey uses the short ninety minute run time perfectly to create a film that wastes no time in exploring Joe – Joaquin Phoenix – and his backstory, and his violent journey to rescue young Nina. The film efficiently explores Joe’s mental health and struggles with the life he has been given, whilst also providing a thrilling crime film, that unveils questions of corruption, paedophilia and family. Phoenix provides the performance of a lifetime as he struggles between life and death, with a chilling part of the film being him suffocating himself regularly in a plastic sheet as a form of relief. A chilling film that proves Ramsey to be one of the master filmmakers, and evermore shows the talent that Joaquin Phoenix is.

Best Moment: Joe finding Nina for the final time in Governor Williams’ house, a quietly hopeful scene. After believing he had failed to save her and breaking down in the Governor’s bedroom, Joe finds Nina. He seems finally at peace, and at the same time empty, as he has no purpose now to continue living. Phoenix’s stunning performance makes the audience feel all the pain that Joe is feeling and provide a fitting end to a haunting film.

2 – Widows

Daniel Kaluuya and Brian Tyree Henry in Widows

Released: 6th November 2018 Director: Steve McQueen Starring: Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Daniel Kaluuya, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Liam Neeson

If not for the sheer brilliance of the number one spot, Widows would easily have been my number one film of the year. Steve McQueen’s follow up to 2013’s Oscar winning 12 Years A Slave, a heist film with an all-star ensemble cast, Widows is an exciting, challenging and entirely brilliant film. Stellar performances from Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki and especially Daniel Kaluuya made the already excellent screenplay transform into a tense film about the dark side of politics, and the criminal underworld in Chicago. None of the characters in the film are likeable, interestingly, throughout the film they all grow more and more morally ambiguous, and you begin to wonder whether any of them deserve to survive or succeed. McQueen has created a dark film that more than lives up to the expectations of a follow up to 12 Years A Slave, and showcases an entirely new side to his film-making capabilities, he is a man in total control of his craft.

Best Moment: Daniel Kaluuya’s key scene on the basketball court listening to the rapper. A riveting performance from Kaluuya is capped by this chilling moment that begins to set the mood for the rest of the film.

1 – Roma

Released: 27th October 2018 Director: Alfonso Cuarón Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira

The number one spot was only ever going to be held by Roma. Netflix’s original film, produced, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón is a masterpiece. Cuarón’s personal film, inspired by his own childhood, is a beautiful portrayal of life in Mexico in the 1970’s. Shot in black and white, it is a subtle film that explores the beauty and the pain of life. With masterful directing Cuarón demands the attention of the audience to watch each scene, at the helm of the cinematography he made sure every single shot counts and every moment feels important. If any film could be more different to the film that won him his first directing Oscar – Gravity (2013) – then it is this. Yet, both showcase a man with an amazing ability behind a camera, not only to tell a great story through the writing, but through every single choice of shot. Roma is a masterpiece of cinema on the most human level possible.

Best Moment: The final scene on the beach. One of the most beautiful scenes in recent cinema, with an incredible piece of directing, a continuous shot through the beach and ocean following the family that ends the movie in the most incredible way.

Every year the Oscar nominations are filled with controversy and complaints. One person’s favourite actor wasn’t nominated, and another’s favourite film failed to be nominated. Often the nominations do not provide too many surprises, but it seems this year that quite a few poorchoices were made in the process of nominations. The best picture nominations are filled with strange choices and unfair admissions, and it seems apparent that a few of the choices were made on popularity and possibly an attempt for the Academy to ensure relevancy and improve falling ratings over recent years.Not only that, but it also seems as if the Academy failed to see or realise thequality of other films and performances during the year, which raises the question also of the Academy’s ability to properly nominate the correct films and performances.

The Best Picture nominations for this year are some of the weakest in recent years. Admittedly, the Academy doesn’t always reward the best films with the actual award, but they have nominated some brilliant films over recent years. Last years nominees; Dunkirk, Get Out, Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were all highlights, although the eventual winner, The Shape of Water was, yet another, indication of the Academy’s failings to reward the best films and performances. This year’s nominees are not up to the standards of the last four years, that included a mass of incredible films. However, despite some of the lack of quality, Roma, The Favourite and BlacKkKlansman are undeniable high points of the year, with Roma being one of the best films of the last decade, with Alfonso Cuarón proving to be an early favourite to earn his second Oscar for Best Directing. It is on the other end of the scale that things do not live up to these standards. Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born show the lack of quality or films this year, or, the Academy’s ignorance towards the quality films released this year. Both Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born are not Best Picture films, somehow, they have found themselves on this list at the expense of some incredible films this year, such as First Reformed and You Were Never Really Here, the latter being one of the biggest snubs of the year. Black Panther’s selection seems to be the culturally relevant pick of the bunch. The nomination for Black Panther just adds to the whole Best Popular Movie controversy, with the nomination seeming to be, alongside Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born, the popular choice of the nominations, in an attempt to improve ratings and relevance.
Although it was a solid film, it was not a best picture film, and only because of its cultural importance on social media was it selected, for the Academy to choose a film that promotes diversity. Yet, their diversity seemed to run out here with their massive exclusions of films such as If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows and Sorry To Bother You, all of which deserved to be on the list for best picture, and were, in fact, snubbed in almost every category that they should have been nominated in. It is not a surprise, however disappointing it may be to see them miss out. One film that missed out, also, is Burning, which did not even get a nomination in the Foreign Film category, despite being one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

Another area with major snubs was the actor categories, with both Timothée Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya missing out on nominations in supporting roles, the former being hugely overlooked. In a category with nominations for Sam Elliot and Sam Rockwell, it seems odd that these two actors missed out on nominations for stellar performance. Sam Rockwell was not in Vice for long enough and did not have enough impact on the film to warrant a nomination. Both Timothée and Daniel were superb in both their films, and, just like last year, with their unrewarded performances in Call Me By Your Name and Get Out, they have been overlooked by the academy. Not only that, but in the leading actor category Ethan Hawke was severely overlooked for his role in First Reformed, one of the films that was disappointingly overlooked by the Academy in several categories. Although none of these mentioned would have won anyway, it does not affect the fact that they have been overlooked for roles that do not deserve nominations, as the Academy continues to ignore newer performers, in favour of older actors who could have won Oscars previously. In my personal opinion, this exact thing happened last year with Gary Oldman winning best actor over Timothée Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya, who definitely deserved it more.

The female acting categories are one, which, surprisingly, does not have a major snub or disappointment, aside from Toni Collette in Hereditary, which was a major shock, but there are several actresses who could win the awards, making it the most interesting of the categories in this year’s awards as Olivia Colman and Glenn Close both battle it out for Best Actress for their performances in The Favourite and The Wife respectively. The supporting actress category is one that could go either way, although Regina King is the most likely, and deserving to win. Any of them could win, however, and deservedly so.

In the technical categories, there are, as always, several poor choices, with the biggest snub of all being the huge lack of nominations for First Man, which seemed an obvious choice for the majority of technical categories in categories such as Film Editing. Bohemian Rhapsody’s nomination in Film Editing makes you wonder if the academy even watched some films as this was, by far, one of the films weakest points.

Marielle Heller and Melissa McCarthy on the set of Can You Ever Forgive Me?

The directing category is lacking a single woman this year, which is, of course, a major disappointment.However, it must be noted that there were not many films directed by women that were outstanding moments of directing. Suggestions of Marielle Heller for Can You Ever Forgive Me do not seemed warranted, with it not being an outstanding film this year. However, Lynne Ramsey’s work on You Were Never Really Here was completely overlooked, however, it seemed the case that the film itself was never in contention for any awards due to a lack of a promotional push and campaigning, as it was not just Ramsey that was not rewarded, but the film as a whole. It seems not to raise on issue that women were not rewarded this year, but more that women are not provided the opportunity to direct the best films, and that more opportunities are needed for women. It is no surprise that when given the chance, they shine, with examples such as Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, proving the quality of women directors, and their ability to provide a different perspective in films, in a male dominated industry we need to provide more opportunities for women in directing and producing roles. However, the Oscar Nominees this year in directing are less of an actual issue.

La La Land is mistakenly awarded best picture at the 89th Academy Awards.

This year does not seem to be a year for ground breaking winners, or anything spectacular, but hopefully the Academy can make the right decisions with the actual awards and avoid any drama, such as the La La Land debacle, which massively undersold the importance of Moonlight’s Best Picture victory. Although the Academy, as always, is caught up in picking Oscar bait films and not rewarding the quality films out there that are deserving of nominations, we can hope that they can simply pick the right winners, and move on to next year’s awards. There will be no historic moments, but as long as the right nominees are rewarded it can be classed as a solid year, for the Academy that is.

At The Movies

Student. Writing about film.

Tag / oscars

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