Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of all 2018 movies was Dan Fogelman’s (Danny Collins) little-seen gutwrenching Life Itself. Not to be confused with the Roger Ebert documentary of the same name, this chapter-style movie is best viewed if you know as little about it as possible going in. I read this in the first paragraph of a review site I respect, and it was enough to get me to stop reading the review. I didn’t research anything more until I finished watching the movie and was completely shocked to see that it had just a 13% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes (78% fresh with audiences based on 981 ratings at the time of this review). While the drama was thick and all of the tie-ins between the stories a little too coincidental and convenient to believe that all of the connections truly happened by chance, I was able to suspend that portion of the movie because A) I didn’t see everything coming ahead of time (naively perhaps) and B) because the raw emotions of this film felt so thick and real to me that I couldn’t help but be wrapped in the folds of each character.
Category Archives: 2018
Black Panther (2018)
2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded on a tradition that had existed since 1927. It increased the number of potential Best Picture nominations from the usual five to a potential maximum of 10. It was a move to inject more blockbusters into the Oscar mix and to give movies like Avatar, Inception, and Toy Story 3 the recognition of Best Picture that they deserved. But in essence, this was The Dark Knight rule. This 2008 film, the most incredible superhero movie ever made, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two (Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger, Best Achievement in Sound Editing).
Roma (2018)
Not all Best Picture winners are the best movies of the year. Unlike a team competition like the Super Bowl or World Series or an individual competition like a Spelling Bee or a marathon, awards in the arts are very subjective. Some sports, such as gymnastics, diving, boxing, and many reality shows (American Idol, America’s Got Talent), are also based on judge’s scores. Still, for the most part, I don’t think there is much of a difference between who the judges feel the best is and who the public believes the best is. Of the big Awards shows (Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Country Music Awards, Golden Globes, etc.) The most diverse are music and television shows. I say music shows because there is no more significant distinction in personal taste in any art than there is when it comes to music. I say television because there is no way that every critic can watch every show nominated for awards, especially in 2018, when most of the shows that get nominated in the seemingly dozens upon dozens of unique categories are shows that the average person has never heard of. And for those shows, the voters usually watch just a single episode that gets nominated. This means that it is somewhat impossible to get to know these characters, nor is it possible to see the arc of where the show was or where it is going. Movie award shows are simpler, especially feature-length films (the types of films I review), because there are usually no more than 15-20 movies that get nominated.
Eighth Grade (2018)
Director Bo Burnham’s full-length feature debut, Eighth Grade, is a movie that feels very real in the time and age it was filmed. For a movie to feel this authentic, the individual writing the story and the person behind the camera must be entuned to the nuances and have experienced first-hand what his protagonist has experienced. Burham, at age 28 at the time of this film, isn’t so far removed from the experience that he can give his characters full life and meaning. Still, he is skilled enough to tell a story that is presented in a way that can successfully capture those emotions, progress a storyline, and make an end product that feels both rewarding and entertaining. While I didn’t love this film (I much more preferred the similar Mid90s, which was also about a character around or near 8th grade and released at around the same time as this film), it is an essential watch for persons in the age of 12 to 15 range and also caregivers of children of that age, or even slightly younger and slightly older.
Operation Finale (2018)
Operation Finale, a film that chronicles the 1961 top-secret raid to capture the notorious Adolf Eichmann, the highest-ranking living Nazi official from World War II, is probably the best movie of 2018 that you’ll never hear about. Under-publicized and just a little north of neutral on Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregate film rating site, Operation Finale was released during a period (late August) when quieter movies don’t do so well at the box office. Plus, this movie doesn’t have an A-list headliner. While it is true that Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year), who, in 2018, is one of our finest working actors, is not quite a household name. At least not yet. Sure, he plays the recognizable Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy (episodes VII, VIII, IX), but a respectable actor must be more than that. And Isaac is in the actor circles but isn’t well-known enough to the public. And while he stars opposite a widely respectable actor in Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog, Gandhi), his elder counterpart’s best years are far behind him. At 74, who knows how much longer his career will continue? If this is Kingsley’s final role, it’s a good one.
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