Films of 2018 - Part Two and Winner

Here we go

3. American Animals

A fabulous surprise at one of Odeon’s Screen Unseen screenings (they charge £5 for you to watch a film but you don’t know what it will be. It promises to be a film as yet unreleased so you definitely haven’t seen it.)

Based on a true story surrounding a group of young whippersnappers who plan a heist of one of the world’s most valuable books from their college library. As ever, the heist is only half the story.

The fantastic thing about what sets this apart from a standard heist movie is in its method of storytelling. It combines dramatised scenes with interview footage from the actual students who pulled it off. The same filmmaker used a similar technique on his documentary ‘The Imposter.’ The story device is genius and how they interact the real people with their fictional counterparts was a blast and genuinely funny. At times it can become quite dark as with The Old Man and the Gun, at the end of the day, they are thieves and people are at risk from being hurt but their charm and amateurish characteristics do soften the edges. Well acted (even with the real thieves) and originally structured. 

2. Coco

One of the first films I saw in 2018 and nothing else compared (until the summer). Pixar follows a certain story pattern in most of its films which can be boiled down if need be where only the location and setting is markedly different than the last. I don’t think about that too much however because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Pitching an expensive animated movie about a Mexican child who learns about grief and family whilst in the afterlife would normally be impossible for a studio to accept but as we know Pixar is no ordinary studio and Disney have learnt to just leave them to it and watch the accolades and dollars roll in.

Coco has many things in its wheelhouse. Amazingly catchy songs.

Tugging the appropriate heartstrings.

But above all else is stunning animation that brings Day of the Dead back to life. This is what eyes were invented for. 

Your kids (find some if you don’t have any) will love the songs and subconsciously understand more about death in a controlled environment. Granted it’s not as funny as a Toy Story and there is not as much action as The Incredibles but it has the heart of Wall-e and Inside Out.

Pop Coco in your player now!

1. 

Mission Impossible : Fallout

Aside from it’s humble 1995 beginnings, I’ve seen every other instalment in the theatre and the franchise has never reached the echelons of comic book adaptations or Will Smith summer tentpoles. Mainly because of the polarising star wattage of Tom Cruise. Yes he’s Tom Cruise but in reality his box office power isn’t as shit hot as you think. In his career he’s had four movies that have made over $200 million at the US box office. Vin Diesel already has eight mostly thanks to his petrol head familia. Most people don’t give Mission Impossible another chance since they saw Tom perform motorcycle ballet in MI:2 in 2000 but what they would have missed is a system not too dissimilar to running Doctor Who. Get a new director each time to give their take on the genre and it’s slowly become a new entity that is almost unrecognisable from 1995 Ethan Hunt. More comedy, more teamwork.

Of course the final aspect is the stunts and it’s this aspect thats unique in that the star himself takes them on and the studio is only too happy to promote this fact. Tom hangs off the mountain, he hangs off the plane, he hangs off the building. He loves hanging but because we know he actually is hanging, it takes on a meta-feel that we know it’s a film but we also know it’s a mad man who gets a hard on from putting his life in peril.

Now that I’ve bored you on the history, let me tell you. 

This film is the fucking bomb!

And the first thing is did was break it’s tradition of hiring new directors. Chris McQuarrie (writer of The Usual Suspects) returns from his stint on Rogue Nation to helm once more and the sense is that he perfected anything he didn’t like with Rogue and knew exactly what to ramp up on Fallout. Also it’s fairly simple for newcoming audiences to join in the fun. You don’t need to know what Ethan Hunt hung off or ran away from 5 years ago.

It’s a perfect action blockbuster. That’s why it’s top of my list, it could never match the uniqueness of Sorry to Bother You or the dramatic intensity of Widows or the heart of Coco but what it is designed to do it did flawlessly and that’s all it can aspire to do. 

The action scenes in Fallout can leave you breathless because for the most part they’re genuine. Tom drove around the Arc De Triomphe the wrong way, he actually jumped out that plane, he actually hung on that helicopter and yes he actually broke his ankle on THAT jump, which they kept in the movie. They also perfected the team aspect which has always been tinkered with with each film, they just let them get on with it.

Its that good I saw it twice in the cinema and once more at home for good measure. It’s that good that I listened to a 4 hour podcast about it and it’s that good that it’s my film of the year 2018. Light the fuse. 

2018 in full

5* Mission Impossible Fallout

Coco

4* American Animals (HG)

Sorry to Bother You

Phantom Thread

The Old Man and the Gun

Ready Player One

Black Panther

A Star is Born

Mollys Game

Widows

Avengers Infinity War

First Man

Sicario 2 : Soldado

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Journeyman (HG)

Three Identical Strangers (HG)

Thoroughbreds (HG)

Blockers (HG)

The Package (HG)

Creed 2

3* A Quiet Place

Unfriended : Dark Web

Deadpool 2

The Ballad of Buster Scraggs 

The Foreigner

Ant-man & the Wasp

Incredibles 2

Downsizing

They shall not grow old

Blackkklansman

Isle of Dogs

The Shape of Water

A Simple Favour

Game Night

The Disaster Artist

Head full of Dreams

Red Sparrow

Smallfoot 

Gringo

Hostiles 

2* Solo

The Post

You were never really here

All the Money in the World

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

Tag

The Greatest Showman

Equalizer 2

Hurricane Heist

The Cloverfield Paradox

The Predator

Mile 22

Den of Thieves

I, Tonya

Hotel Artemis

Skyscraper

Annihilation

Darkest Hour

Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle

I Feel Pretty

Rampage

1* The Commuter

Venom

Fifty Shades Freed

Films seen

2015 - 71

2016 - 67

2017 - 56

2018 - 66