My Top Ten Movies of 2018

Another year has come and gone and quite frankly I am happy to see 2018 go. I spent the first half of the year wrapping up my cancer treatments and the latter half dealing with the emotional aftermath. If you ever end up knowing someone who goes through the big C or have to go through it yourself, prepare for the fact that the post-treatment is often worse than the actual treatment. My doctors warned me and I didn’t believe them until I began to live it.

That being such, I didn’t go to see that many movies this year. I missed a lot of big (and not so big) releases. In fact, most of last year’s Oscar contenders are still on my to-watch-list, but I did see enough movies that I feel like a list is still manageable. And fuck it, I want to write one, so I will. In fact, what I did see was actually rather interesting and this list is rather eclectic.

So, let’s lay some ground rules:
1. I am going after the American release date for the picks that have had premiers in that market. That means that many of last years Oscar favorites such as Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, Wind River or The Shape of Water aren’t eligible for this year (and that last one wouldn’t be anywhere near this list either way), even though they came out in my market this year. If there isn’t an American release (or it was so limited I couldn’t find out what it was) I will go after country’s domestic release.

2. Umm… Actually, I think there is only one rule and that was number one.

Before we get to the Top Ten, some various other awards. Let’s start with the dubious awards:

Most Disappointing Film:

Halloween (Dir. David Gordon Green, U.S.A., 106 mins.)

Wow… Just wow. I was excited for this ever since it was first announced. A new Halloween movie? Produced by John Carpenter? Written by Danny McBride? With Jamie Lee Curtis back? That sounded like a recipe for greatness!
Then the reviews came out and they varied from fair to truly great. I got even more excited.

Then I saw the film and suffered through it. And the worst part? I can see what other people see in the movie. I really can. It pays tribute to the franchise’s legacy well enough portrays Michael Myers as a monster of high caliber, but something is missing and I attribute it to two points.
Firstly, when I was 14, I was obsessed with the Halloween-franchise. I watched the first movie probably at least 50 times and the others dozens of times. Those movies are burned into my memory till the day I die. I can’t escape them. Hell, I don’t want to. But when I saw the new movie, it was clear that the whole movie was essentially a giant love letter to the films that came before it. That sounds great, but considering the fact that it is a reboot that ignores every single one of the sequels, picking up directly after the first one, it doesn’t even make sense that it dedicates so much time to paying homage to movies that the movie canonically claims aren’t worth acknowledging. And more obviously; if your whole movie is a giant tribute to other movies, it prevents you from creating your own identity and that’s exactly what happened with this movie. I sat there throughout every movie thinking about how “that’s just like that time in Halloween___ when he___,” and after the fifth one of those thoughts it stopped being fun.
Secondly, throughout the series, there has always been these moments where Michael Myers for one reason or another doesn’t kill a person he comes across. Be it someone he bumps into, a woman who’s knife he steals or just someone who’s window he lurks outside of, sees them and then continues. It added suspense to the proceedings. Michael doesn’t kill everything he sees. There is a logic here. It may not make sense to anyone but him, but there is a logic.
Here there is no such thing. After about 30 minutes it became clear that if 2018 Michael Myers sees you, he kills you. There are no exceptions. All right, there is one, but it is such an awful moment that it is a lose-lose scenario no matter how it goes and the only way it would have worked is by simply cutting it from the film.
I thought this would be a triumphant return of the series. Instead it made me re-evaluate the worst movies in the series before this. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a true disappointment.

BEST SURPRISE

Peter Rabbit (Dir. Will Gluck, U.S.A., 95 mins.)

I grew up with the works of Beatrix Potter. I loved her illustrations, the simple, yet relatable stories of her tales and to this day have a week spot for the animated series it spawned. So, when the trailer for the new Peter Rabbit movie was released, I almost flew into a rage. The trailer was horrible. It wasn’t funny, didn’t even remotely look like the original and seemed to actively be trying to desecrate Potter’s creation. But when it came out, people I trust said they enjoyed the film for what it was. So, I went to see it and… I really liked it.
It’s not really a Peter Rabbit movie. It’s a traditional rom-com that just so happens to take place in the world of Beatrix Potter and has Peter Rabbit as a half of a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner-esque whole and the Looney Tunes-like relationship between James Corden’s Peter Rabbit and Domhnall Gleeson’s Thomas McGregor is where the movie shines. Domhnall Gleeson is one of my favorite actors and this movie is a perfect example of why. His over-worked, nitpicky Thomas steals the show as he tries to restore a house in the woods while keeping all the wildlife out, whilst simultaneously trying to court the beautiful next-door neighbor, Bea (Rose Byrne).

It doesn’t deserve a place on my list, but for somehow taking Peter Rabbit and mixing him with Home Alone and Notting Hill and making it work, it deserves a mention as a damn good surprise.

Bumblebee (Dir. Travis Knight, U.S.A., 114 mins.)

I’ve hated every single Transformers-movie besides the first one. I left the first Michael Bay-helmed film thinking that if only they fixed the sophomoric and racist humor and made some of the designs less busy, they had a pretty solid formula going. Then Revenge of the Fallen came out and I realized that all the things I disliked must have been what Michael Bay liked about the movie, because now the whole movie was basically nothing but racism, sexism and incoherent action with robots that were so bland and over-designed they were basically impossible to distinguish from one another. The three sequels beyond that didn’t do much to improve that, even though I still maintain that Revenge of the Fallen is the worst of the bunch.

So, when they announced that they were giving series star Bumblebee is own spinoff, I gave a disgusted scoff. These people couldn’t give us a decent mainline Transformers-movie and now I was supposed to believe that they could handle spinoffs.
Well, once they announced that it would be set in the 80’s and Hailee Steinfeld would star I kind of just went “shit,” and accepted that I would have to at least give the movie a chance. I like both of those things enough for that. And… I really liked Bumblebee. Its robot designs are more in line with the 80’s cartoon, it never dips too far into the nostalgia-barrel and Hailee Steinfeld is a breath of fresh air so strong it makes me hope that Hasbro and Paramount take this chance of simply ignoring the main series and continuing forward with a new continuity that involves Hailee Steinfeld.

Because there is no way that would make this series go anywhere but up.

 Worst Movie

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (J.A. Bayona, U.S.A. 128 mins.)

*SPOILER WARNING*

I have to admit, I didn’t like Jurassic World much at all. I tried to convince myself that it was as good as everyone was saying and that truth be told, it probably is the best movie in the franchise besides the original. Too bad that doesn’t mean much too much. The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a boring overly long mess of a film filled with unlikable characters that tries to redeem itself with an awesome final half hour, but the slog to get there drags the whole film down too much to care. On top of that, I hate the color the stock gives the forest in that film. The first film is so lush and green, but The Lost World: Jurassic Park is just… flat. It feels like they exchanged Hawaii for the forests of Oregon.

Jurassic Park III is a 90-minute joke. A joke I actually sort of appreciate, but still just a joke.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does not have me in on the joke. It is God Awful.

It takes Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s characters Owen and Claire and puts them into a plot involving relocating and preserving the dinosaurs (a plot that worked so well the last time you used it) and adds a ton of characters that have no reason to be here except to act as comic relief. BAD comic relief. On top of that the movie’s villainous characters are so cartoonish in their villainy that it stops being funny and just becomes frustrating.

When Isla Nublar, the island of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World begins to blow up, it leads into a giant cacophony of idiocy with dinosaurs who would never be interested in eating trying to feed on our “heroes” and once the island succumbs to the lava swallowing it, there is this sad moment where a Diplodocus is swallowed by ash and screams. I cried in the theater. Not because the film had an effective moment, but because I was so angry. I just thought “Colin Trevorrow, you are not even near a good enough writer to have earned this moment. You don’t deserve to destroy an island that has meant so much to me.”

And that is the heart of the issue. This movie wants to, much like its predecessor, live off the legacy of the series it is cribbed from whilst working toward the next movie. The movie that Jurassic World director and Fallen Kingdom-screenwriter Colin Trevorrow has said is the movie he’s “always wanted to see”. Despite setting up so many batshit and idiotic concepts the movie feels bizarrely like it’s on auto-pilot most of the time. Existing as a justification for Trevorrow to get the world in a place where he wants to see it be so he can tell a story he really cares about.

If his current work is any indication of his talent, then I am so glad that he got fired from directing Star Wars for Disney.

I’ll end this with two final thoughts: firstly, the movie would have been more interesting if they placed the relationship between Owen and Blue more center stage, because the few scenes between them are the only ones that truly work for me.

Secondly, the one thing the movie improves is the character of Claire. It doesn’t really make sense how she is basically an entirely different character now, with none of the same mannerisms, style or anything, really, but the first movie seemed so determined to make her unlikable the having her not be that is a definite improvement.

It still doesn’t mean you should pay to see this trash, though.  

MY TOP TEN MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Honorable Mentions:

Ready Player One (Dir. Steven Spielberg, U.S.A. 140 mins.)
A movie that I surprisingly enjoyed enough to have seen it seven times as of writing this. Funny, fast and its pop culture references aren’t as annoying and hindering as those in the book it is based on.

A Quiet Place (Dir. John Krasinski, U.S.A. 90 mins.)

John Krasinski impresses with this horror/thriller set in a world where hyper sensitive aliens have killed most of humanity and those left live in constant silence. Tense as all hell, well-acted by Krasinski, his real-life wife Emily Blunt and child actors Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds it makes for a great 90 minutes that has you on the edge of your seat, as you creep toward an incredibly satisfying conclusion.

Isle of Dogs (Dir. Wes Anderson, U.S.A., Germany, 97 mins.)

We Anderson’s second stop motion outing isn’t as good as the masterpiece that is Fantastic Mr. Fox, but it is still a pretty great film about abandoned dogs on a Japanese island and the insane adventure that they embark on. Had it not been for it feeling a little too simplified a version of Japanese culture and history and for a certain character being a little too white-savior-y, it might have made the list.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Dir. Peyton Reed, U.S.A., 118 mins.)

A sequel on par with the original, we are reacquainted with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang as he is under house arrest for having aided Captain America in Captain America: Civil War. Soon, however he is swept away by Evangeline Lily’s Hope Van Dyne and Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym and a new adventure starts. Just as funny as the first one, the likeable cast and the addition of Evangeline Lily’s Wasp to the action gives this movie a great pacing that I have found myself returning to several times. If I were to rank these honorable mentions, this is definitely the one I would put as number 11 on the actual list. I loved this movie and I am not ashamed about that.

Aquaman (Dir. James Wan, U.S.A., 143 mins.)

It’s like diet Black Panther. Which isn’t a bad thing. Aquaman is charming, pretty exciting film which I must admit maybe got a clear advantage from being shown in 4DX Screen X here in Seoul, where I currently reside. Which meant that whilst the movie was playing, wind and water effects whirled around me and my seat shook like crazy and whenever something really awesome happened the movie expanded out on the theater wall’s, immersing you entirely.

If this movie holds up at home on Blu-ray remains to be seen, but for now I feel comfortable saying that Aquaman belongs with Wonder Woman as the DCEU movies which are straight up enjoyable.

Border (Original Title: Gräns, Dir. Ali Abbas, Sweden, 108 mins.)

Based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the same author who wrote Let the Right One In, this story of a troll working as a border agent is both dramatic, horrifying and beautiful. Doing what Swedish cinema does so well, it shows the dull realism of life and infuses it with a bit of Nordic folklore for a truly unique experience. It’s the first Swedish film I have thoroughly enjoyed since… well, Let the Right One In to be honest.

And now to the actual top ten list.

10. TWICELAND (Dir. Park Jin-young, South Korea, 110 mins.)

I honestly can’t believe that I am putting this on the list, but I can’t bring myself not to. My love of K-pop has been a known quantity between me and my friends for half a decade now, but I’ve always tried to sort of make peace with what I honestly felt I was too old for by trying to view it from an ironic perspective. 2018 was the year when I threw that stupid concept out of the window. I love K-pop (or at least certain groups in the genre) more passionately than I do any Western acts in the current pop music climate and that’s where Korea’s currently biggest girl group TWICE comes in.

Last time I lived in Korea, three years ago, TWICE debuted with their single Ooh-Aah하게, an inescapable earworm I only managed to escape through embracing and buying their first mini-album. And ever since then I have picked up every single Korean album they have released in one form or another. It sounds insane even to me that TWICE has sort of become the soundtrack of my life, but it is true. I remember vividly that in October 2016 they released their single TT and how I immediately got addicted to listening to it. At the time, my grandfather was unbeknownst to us, dying from a cancerous tumor in his intestines and on Halloween afternoon he had gotten stuck at home and couldn’t get back to bed. I was forced to run over to my grandparent’s house to help the only father I have ever known back to his bed. I remember running there, TT blaring in my headphones, me singing along, fighting back tears in the darkness.

It was also the song I listened to when I walked up the hill to the hospital to visit him the last time I would see him alive. Till this day, when I hear TT I think of him.

And when I began working again after my own cancer bout their 2017 single Heartshaker was the song I would use to get prepared to pretend that I was all right.

My point is, my love for TWICE, or indeed any of the K-pop groups I follow is ironic and the final straw of irony was immediately incinerated when I went to see the 4DX Screen X experience TWICELAND. It’s a concert movie which uses the gimmick format to the greatest effect I have ever seen. Mostly because unlike Aquaman or Bumbleebee which added effects onto the sides of the theaters as a bonus for people paying for the format, TWICELAND was filmed fully intended to be seen with the whole theater acting as the screen and the result is beautiful to behold. The concert projects all around you, the nine members of the girl group signing their biggest songs as the camera allows you to be immersed in the concert and the various interactions the members have with the crowd.

Before seeing TWICELAND I tried to only view the members as pieces in a machine. They were cogs bringing me happy, corporately manufactured pop music. But after having seen the movie I have gained a profound respect for them as performers and the insanely hard work that they clearly put into what they do. On top of that, when the concert comes to an end and tears start to run down members’ faces, it is hard not to feel a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

And the funny thing is, that feeling kind of hasn’t vanished for me. It’s still there when I hear any of my favorite TWICE songs, which you do a lot here as you walk down the streets. 2018 was a hard year for me, but one of the easiest things I did all year was pulling off the irony-suit and fully admitting that I love K-pop and that more importantly; I love TWICE.

9. Be with You (Original Title: 지금 만나러 갑니다, Dir. Lee Jang-hoon, South Korea, 132 mins.)

A remake of the 2004 Japanese film of the same name (or the book by Takuji Ichikawa) Be with You tells the story Woo-jin, a widower busy raising his son Ji-ho. Before passing away, Woo-jin’s wife Soo-ah promised her husband and son that she would “return when the rain season starts” and Ji-ho eagerly awaits when he’ll be able to see his mother again.

When the rainy season starts, much to Woo-jin’s surprise, they find a woman who looks just like Soo-ah in the woods, but she can’t remember either of them at all. Despite this, she comes with them home and over the next couple of days begins to care for the two deeply and that care reflects positively on the Woo-jin and Ji-ho’s lives.

But how is any of this possible and what will happen when the rainy season ends? Will Soo-ah vanish once again?

The story of Be with You captivated me when I saw the Japanese version back in 2014. It was simple and slow-paced, which allowed the quiet country atmosphere to envelop you fully and it is a rare thing for a remake manage to recapture that kind of magic, but this slick Korean production does really well at doing so.

So Ji-sub is good as the stoic Woo-jin who struggles with being able to communicate with and control his son while also dealing with his own health issues. However, for me, the heart of the movie belongs to Son Ye-jin’s Soo-ah, who has to play essentially two different characters as we see her a mother and then as a blank slate, confused and slightly frightened by the claims her would-be husband and son make about her life.

On top of all of this, the movie shows flashbacks throughout, telling us the story of how a teenage Woo-jin tries to win the heart of the girl he’s always loved and how despite all the obstacles they somehow end up together.

Be with You is a simple but effective romance movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s calming, dreamlike atmosphere makes it into a movie I know I will return to often and a movie I will recommend to friends and family as often as opportunity allows. Consider yourselves recommended.

8. Black Panther (Dir. Ryan Coogler, U.S.A. 143 mins.)

I cried as the credits rolled on Black Panther. Not only because it is certainly one of Marvel’s most engaging films to date, but because unless you have reason to think about it, it is still so rare to see movies with predominantly black actors that isn’t about race. Say what you want about the fact that the society portrayed in the film still operating on antiquated tribalism, it still is one of few movies where the entire main cast is black and race isn’t driving the narrative.

But that isn’t the only reason why I really loved Black Panther. It wraps itself up in an intrigue based in monarchical conflicts and regicide that give the proceedings a Shakespearean flavor with some really refreshing hip-hop-swagger infused with it. On top of that, the film has really good characters portrayed by great actors and you almost have to feel a little for Chadwick Boseman, who despite doing an excellent job playing T’Challa gets overshadowed by a supporting cast that not only sees him going up against Michael B. Jordan’s truly despicable Killmonger, but sees him standing next to Letitia Wright’s Shuri, T’Challa’s genius little sister and Danai Gurira’s Okoye as the head of the king’s guard.

I don’t really feel like much more needs to be said about this one. It’s well-acted, well-directed and shot coherently. It added some much-needed change in setting and tone to the MCU and really proved that there is a future here beyond the current cycle of characters and actors.

On top of that, one of its action set-pieces is set in South Korea, which is always a plus for me.

7. Mission Impossible: Fallout (Dir. Christopher McQuarrie, U.S.A., 148 mins.)

It’s almost inconceivable that the Mission Impossible-series continues to impress as much as it does. The first was good, the second bad, taking one of Asia’s most prolific action directors and clearly only caring about having his name on the marquee rather than his actual strong suits as a director and the third was a step up, beginning J.J. Abrams trend of pulling struggling franchises out of the mud. But it was with the fourth, directed by veteran animation director Brad Bird that the series found a new voice and direction and truly took a step up in quality. Suddenly, this relatively serious action series began to develop something special; a repour between its audience and its characters. And when Christopher McQuarrie took the director’s chair the fifth film in the series; Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation the pattern was cemented: these movies, are the odd series that has the sequels getting better with very iteration and the sixth entry, Mission Impossible: Fallout is no exception. It is the best of the lot so far.

After an arms deal goes wrong, Tom Cruise’s Ethan, Simon Pegg’s Benji and Ving Rhames’ Luther find themselves in front of the CIA’s gun barrel. Having to once again justify the IMF’s existence as well as finding themselves tasked with finding three stolen plutonium cores that could cause unthinkable devastation on the world should they be utilized.

For me, the main reason why the Mission Impossible continues to engage me isn’t the well-crafted spy plots or Tom Cruise’s willingness to do death-defying stunts. No, it’s the fact that unlike any other action series that has lasted this long, the fact that the characters are clearly so invested in each other’s survival is such an important detail. Mission Impossible: Fallout’s entire story only plays out the way it does because Ethan Hunt refuses to sacrifice one of his friends in order to secure a weapon of mass destruction. James Bond for instance would make the difficult choice with little hardship, but that is where this franchise differs. Ethan Hunt isn’t 007, he is a human being. A Human being with connections, affection for his colleagues and fear of what lies. When fear spreads across Ethan’s face it creates investment in the audience and doesn’t let go of that investment until the credits roll.

Mission Impossible: Fallout is the miraculous best in its series, taking characters we already love and setting them up against new foes and obstacles. I don’t want to elaborate too much about the plot of this well-directed and choreographed action-thriller, but rest assured that if a seventh entry rears its head in a few years, I will be there on day one. Because at this point, this is my favorite action franchise. A mission I’ll choose to accept, every time.

6. Mirai (Original Title: Mirai no Mirai, Dir. Hosoda Mamoru, Japan, 98 mins.)

Hosoda Mamoru is one of animation’s grat visionaries. Not just within animation, but through all of animation as a whole. And with films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children and The Boy and the Beast under his belt, it should say something about the quality of Mirai that only Wolf Children can compete with it.

Mirai tells the story of Kun, a toddler who is suddenly has to share his parents’ and grandparents’ love and attention when his parent’s come home from the hospital with his infant sister Mirai (the Japanese word for future). Kun is angry, frustrated and sometimes even violent as he tries to understand how this new world, no longer revolving around him functions.

Soon, however, Kun begins to experience weird visions. He meets Mirai as a high schooler, who berates him for how he treats her as a child and takes him on adventures, a creature that claims to be the human embodiment of the family dog and several other figures across the films’ running time, all of which help Kun on his journey to grow out of toddler-hood.

And that is what Mirai is really about. Developing into a more complex mind. If Pixar’s Inside Out was the embodiment of the human mind beginning its journey into adulthood, Mirai is its journey from toddler into proper childhood. Kun starts the movie entirely unaware that a situation can exist where he isn’t the focus of every single moment, only to receive a heavy slap across the face that makes him realize that his world has forever changed, but through his meetings with these characters (who can’t be simple figments of his imagination for several reasons) Kun becomes a more independent, understanding and mature child.

Mirai is a visually stunning, heart-warming experience that like many of the best animé films out there is so well-crafted and relatable that it manages to make every day moments emotionally impactful. Without saying too much, there is a moment in the film where Kun is learning how to ride a bicycle that was, due to what had come before along with the presentation, so powerful that it actually made me teary-eyed and proud of a character I had known for less than 90 minutes.

Hosoda Mamoru continues to impress and prove why he is one of animation’s greatest living directors and deserves to be more well-known than he is. Mirai is living proof of why.

5. Shoplifters (Original Title: Manbiki Kazoku, Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan, 121 mins.)

I was studying film theory when Kore-eda Hirokazu fist came to my attention. We had to watch his 1998 film After Life during one of the courses and I knew immediately that I was a fan. In fact, when I took a course in Japanese Film History, I was overjoyed to see it again. Most movies I had copies of at home or had seen recently enough to remember the gist of, I would skip and sleep in on (this was before I realized that life was basically movies and nothing else), but not with After Life.

When I was studying acting a few years later, whilst concurrently dipping into the Asian cinema-well for the first time I came across it again in a box set bearing his name and started delving deeper into his filmography. To this day Still Walking, his Ozu-esque family drama is my favorite of the films of his I have seen, but Shoplifters, his 2018 film stands alongside After Life on the number 2 spot.

Kore-eda has a very great ability to create films with relatable characters, no matter if your own life experiences line up with their own or not. This was true for After Life and Still Walking and remains true with Shoplifters.

The movie revolves around a “family” of misfits who live in poverty in a small house in Tokyo. The owner of the house, the elderly Hatsue allows the married couple Osamu and Nobuyo, teenage runaway Aki and pre-teen orphan Shota to live in her house because despite her limited pension, she would rather be poor than lonely. To compensate for the lack of funds, the family provides for itself through both low-paying jobs and through getting their food via shoplifting, an activity they all excel at.

Things get more complicated however, when Osamu and Shota find a little girl locked out of her apartment in the winter night. They bring her home and one thing leads to another and soon she is inducted into the family. It isn’t long before the police are looking for the child and the group’s already complicated living situation begins to unravel.

Shoplifters is a great introduction to Japanese dramas, but is an equally good choice for the already experienced. Its cast, made up of some of Japan’s greats and the final performance of Kirin Kiki as Hatsue make you forget that you’re just watching actors and the smaller moments Kore-eda injects into his story makes for a movie I can’t wait to see again, and to introduce to others I know would appreciate. If you want something more realistic, then Shoplifters is a good bet. Hell, it’s a fantastic one.

4. Burning (Original Title: 버닝, Dir. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 148 mins.)

Lee Chang-dong is one of South Korea’s most prolific directors. He’s also one I actually don’t have that much experience with, to be honest. Because unlike his peers Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden), Kim Jee-won (A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil) and Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Okja) he specializes on more down-to-earth stories that usually tackle incredibly heavy subject matters, such as rape, murder, kidnapping and overall existential fatigue. The others tackle these subjects too, but unlike Park Chan-wook, who for instance, with his film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance made a movie so bleak that every single second you watch it feels like a lump of led settling in your stomach with a story that includes murder, torture, kidnapping among other atrocities, Lee Chang-dong usually chooses to portray these things as realistically as possible and it leads to some of his movies being very hard to watch. Hard to watch in a way that differs from what I am accustomed to.

However, when Burning was first announced, I was incredibly excited for it for not only being a new movie from a major Korean filmmaker, but because it hit the creative hat-trick. Not only was Lee directing it, but it was based on a novella by famed Japanese author Murakami Haruki and starred Yoo Ah-in, an actor I have come to really like over the years. It also features The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun in his proper Korean movie debut. It also happens to be a more twisted narrative than Lee usually engages with.

Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is a 20-something from the country town of Paju, just south of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. Due to some legal trouble, he is left taking care of his family’s farm house, earning money from various odd jobs. One day he meets an old classmate, Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-so) and it isn’t long before feelings begin to develop between the two. Hae-mi leaves on a trip to Africa she was set to go on before the two met, but when she comes back, she has Ben (Steven Yeun) in to. A rich, charming Gangnam-man with everything Jong-su doesn’t. Hae-mi leaves the lines blurred where her relationship with either of the two men stands, but continues to rope a reluctant Jong-su to spend time with not only her, but with Ben as well.

But one day Hae-mi vanishes and Jong-su is left with no clue of where or why and no matter who he seeks out or asks, no one seems to know where she is, nor do they seem particularly bothered by her disappearance either. It is up to Jong-su to try and find her, and to figure out if maybe Ben knows more about all of it than he is letting on.

Burning is in a class of its own. It might just seem like I told you the entirety of the plot of this movie, but in all honesty, Burning lives off of its moments and details. I saw this movie with a friend and it was one of those movies that was worth it enough just for the talk the movie inspired in us afterwards. The film doesn’t set its tone right away, so you could very much throw it on for someone who knows nothing about it and let the story unravel. Burning’s story is like a rotten fruit, from one angle you might almost assume it is edible, but when you peel away the skin it turns out that there is something incredibly unpleasant underneath. In some cases that is the opposite of an endorsement, but with Burning it is a definite recommendation. It’s acting is fantastic from not just Yoo Ah-in and Steven Yeun, but also Jeon Jong-so, who as far as I can tell is debuting in this film, the story is subversive and unsettling in a way that has only seen the film grow on me over time and the direction is tight as all hell.

Burning is a damn good time to be had and a strong mark on the resumé of all the people involved with its production.

3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rotham, U.S.A., 117 mins.)

Spider-Man has been my favorite superhero as long as I can remember. As a kid, newly arrived in Sweden I would watch the Spider-Woman cartoon, not because I cared particularly about Jessica Drew (even though she was cool), but because there was that one episode of the show where Spider-MAN showed up!
That was when I was four. Before I knew Peter Parker. But as I grew older, and truly began to know what it was like to be alone, a bullied kid with an interest in science and books. After this evolution, Peter Parker became a vessel to put my frustration into. I read too many comics to count, bought as many toys from the animated series as I could and once the movies began coming out, I bought all of their tie-in games, soundtracks and saw the first trilogy three times each in the theater. I’m not telling you this to brag, I’m doing it to make a point. I love Spider-Man. I will probably always love Spider-Man. But as the years went on, I sort of fell off. I stopped reading the comics when his marriage to Mary Jane was undone, but I had basically stopped even before that, too. Choosing instead to focus on the already published classics. I still went to see the movies, but my enthusiasm began to wain even for these. In fact, I had basically switched to DC comics and had started idolizing Superman.

Then came Captain America: Civil War and things began to look up. This Peter Parker was a good portrayal of the character and his own movie Spider-Man: Homecoming was certainly a step up from Sony’s previous reboot attempt. However, ever since Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed, people had been rumbling about maybe giving the newer Spider-Man from the comics, Miles Morales a chance instead of Peter Parker again. All that came of this was some rumbling from people at Sony about there being some plans for him.

Fast forward to 2018. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man takes part in the penultimate Avengers-movie Avengers: Infinity War, we get a truly excellent game from Ratchet and Clank-makers Insomniac Games and Miles Morales finally gets his own movie in the form of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated film from Sony Animation Studios and… it’s my favorite of all of them.

Miles Morales is a kid from Brooklyn who struggles to fit in at his new school, an elite private school for the gifted. The pressures of his classes, fitting in and overall just being a teenager begin taking their toll on Miles. Things don’t get any easier when he finds himself bitten by a spider that ends up giving him the same powers as Spider-Man.

When a convoluted plot from The Kingpin results in a tear between universes, Miles finds himself in the middle of a fight not just for our world, but all worlds everywhere. And along for the ride are crew of other Spider-characters from across the multiverse. The only problem is that Miles has been Spider-Man for less than 24 hours, is he really ready to be a hero?

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse managed to do something I thought would never happen again; it made every single hair on my body stand up, just like it did when Tobey McGuire first donned the suit back in 2002. I attribute this mostly to the fact that by choosing to make this movie an animated movie, it is given a more comic book-like feel, which along with its remix of familiar characters and plots and quick humor both visual and verbal make it so easy to get swept away by. It also has a terrific soundtrack, which has been soundtracking my life for the last few weeks.

2018 will always be the year we lost Stan Lee. But I choose to see it as a beautiful thing that he left us in what is the best year his most famous creation has probably ever seen. The wait for Miles Morales was worth it. I just hope enough people choose to give their money to see it so we get to see where this journey can take us.

2. Paddington 2 (Dir. Paul King, United Kingdom/France, 104 mins.)

This is essentially the movie I chose to define my rule of “American release date” for. I couldn’t not have Paddington 2 on my list. That’s how much this movie resonated with me. The first movie took me and a lot of people by surprise by just how sincere and heart-warming it was. It saw Paddington (voiced perfectly by Ben Whishaw), the South American bear moving to London, only to find a place far less welcoming than he first believed, but over the course of his adventure his infectious kindness, curiosity and love of marmalade ended up getting him a home and family in the form of the Browns. And that is essentially what Paddington was all about: a person so loving and helpful that he turned everyone he came into contact with into better people just by being himself.

And Paddington 2 takes what the first movie did so well and somehow manages to improve on it even further. Paddington Bear is still living with the Brown family. Father Henry (Hugh Bonneville), mother Mary (Sally Hawkins), children Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) and housekeeper Mrs. Bird are all colorful personalities, who despite their different quirks never lose sight of the fact of how much they love and appreciate each other, or the newest member of their family.

Paddington doesn’t crave much out of life besides marmalade, but when Paddington’s aunt Lucy’s 100^th birthday approaches, the bear finds himself in need of a present. He settles on a pop-up-book of London, since aunt Lucy never got to visit the city herself. However, it isn’t long before the book is stolen and Paddington finds himself as the primary suspect.

Paddington 2 amps up everything that made the first movie so damn loveable. It’s laugh-out-loud-funny, emotionally impactful when it needs to be (there is a moment toward the end that makes me cry without fail every time I see it) and the whole movie is so sincere that I can’t even imagine what kind of person you have to be to not get swept up in it.

Much like Mission Impossible: Fallout (Gee, I wonder how many people have compared these two movies) the heart of the movie lies in the love the characters share with each other. In the first movie, Mr. Brown was the one who fought loving Paddington for the longest time and it is such a genuine joy to see him here, still the stiff, British office worker he was last time, but whenever something goes wrong or there is reason to be concerned for Paddington, he is always the one to react the most extremely. As if the idea of anything bad happening to Paddington being the worst possible thing in the world.

On top of the old cast, the film sees an amazing upgrade in the form of Hugh Grant as the flamboyant, self-obsessed actor Phoenix Buchanan, who wants the book for his own nefarious reasons.

Paddington 2 is one of the best sequels of all time and one of the best family films of all time as well. If you have a beating heart behind your ribs you owe it to yourself to go on this adventure, because in a world as rough as this one, it might just give you a little more hope.

1. One Cut of the Dead (Original Title: Kamera o Tomeru na!, Dir: Ueda Shinichiro, Japan, 97 mins.)

Where in the hell did this… thing come from? I honestly don’t even really know how to describe One Cut of the Dead. Because this really is a case where I feel that knowing as little as possible about it is the best way to enjoy it. So, what can I tell you?

Well, it’s a Japanese independent movie with a super low budget. It was filmed in only 8 days and has currently made over 1000 times its budget back after its reputation has spread and has made people go check it out.

The film starts with a 37-minute-long single take (yes, really) as a zombie invasion grabs hold of a movie set on the Japanese countryside. It’s rough, cheap and clichéd, but the fact that it actually works is impressive as all hell. What happens after that? I won’t tell you. Not a word. Because you need to see it for yourself.

The same friend that I saw Burning with saw this at a different screening than me, but I remember meeting him the day after at another movie and sort of trying to lead in to telling him that I saw a movie that was so good it had me wondering if I had somehow lost my mind. But when I told him the title, his eyes lit up and he pointed at me energetically and said “I SAW IT, TOO!”

It was confirmation that I wasn’t crazy. Or maybe I am, but in that case, I don’t want to be sane. Because my movie of 2018 is a minimal budget Japanese zombie movie (and I can’t emphasize enough that this description doesn’t do the movie justice) called One Cut of the Dead of all things.

It embodied not just everything I love about film, but what I love about filmmaking. And I think that if you see it, you’ll understand why.

My Top 15 Movies of 2017

At first, I wasn't going to do a top ten-movie list of 2017, since I spent the second half of the year digging into the past and missing a lot of important movie releases. I can usually get a fair deal of Award contenders out of the way at the Stockholm International Film Festival in November, which is always nice since most big Oscar-movies save their release here for Awards-season, as to have a stronger opening.

However, due to my surgical wound not having healed, and the festival opening literally the day after I started chemo, it became an impossibility for me to attend it. Which means that movies such as Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water and a bunch of other movies I was looking forward to can’t make the list. I usually try to avoid movies that had a wide release in their home market the previous year, even if they had a Swedish release in 2017, but few years will see as many potentially great movies off the docket. It also means that a lot of movies that came out around this year’s Oscars, such as Moonlight (which would probably be number one if it was eligible), La La Land, Hidden Figures and I Am Not Your Negro are not going to appear on this list. However, I decided to compensate by writing another entry dedicated to movies that I was introduced to this year that I just feel like recommending. Movies that became highlights of an otherwise miserable year. This will be posted at a future date.

Oh, and also, the reason why the list is 15 movies instead of ten is that I had already started writing this entry, then finding an opportunity to see a few extra movies that I felt needed to be on the list. And instead of wasting my writing I decided to give a few extra movies some love instead! However, before we get into the good, I want to acknowledge the bad by crowning the “most disappointing” and “worst movie I happened to see”. With that in mind, let’s get started.

Most Disappointing

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Dir: Matthew Vaughn, 141 mins.)

The last movie I saw before my hiatus due to surgery and chemo, and what a way to take a 2 ½ month break on! I loved the original Kingsman, and have as of writing it watched it at least upward of twenty times (it used to be one of my go-to study-movies in Korea), so the prospect of seeing what more awaited Eggsy and Roxy as actual Kingsman agents was an exciting one.
Literally everything about this sequel takes it in the wrong direction. Characters are killed off without reason or purpose, others are brought back no only without reason beyond fan service, but in ways so ludicrous they actually weaken the very concept of dying within the franchise in ways so awful you actually stop taking death seriously.
The plot is dumb, the pacing bloated and despite the amount of new characters in the film, portrayed by actors like Jeff Bridges, Halley Berry and Channing Tatum, they end up having virtually nothing to do in favor of a returning villain I doubt anyone ever wanted to see again, along with a main villain played by Julianne Moore, who is wasted both in concept and in acting ability due to a story that gives her nothing to do.
I actually turned to my friend during the third act and asked him “why are they doing this?” as in reference to the filmmakers seemingly actively trying to murder all the potential this franchise still possessed.
The Golden Circle actually manages to make me like the first movie less, and if that isn’t disappointing, I don’t know what is.

Worst Movie That I Saw

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Dir: Paul W.S. Anderson, 106 mins.)

An awful ending to an awful series that I for some reason have seen all but the first entry to in the theater. It is baffling how despite every entry of this franchise being written by the same man, it seems that every single one of them past the second one retcons the ending of the previous entry, as if Anderson is so devoid of intelligence, he can’t figure out that if the studio has greenlit four of these atrocities that maybe they’ll allow him to make a fifth one, and that he should possibly try and come up with an ending that he can see himself expanding upon if said sequel gets made.
This movie is no exception. It retcons, revisits old location (that look basically nothing like they did in previous films), brings back characters, kills off new characters without as much as giving them a single scene for us to get to know them first, and violates the viewer’s eyes with incoherent, headache-inducing editing.
The only good things about this movie is that it does actually sort of tie some aspects together better than I expected, mostly because I expected nothing, and that it is finally over. These movies are no more, and hopefully whatever reboot rises from their ashes, glances at the games and says “I want to be more like you”.

My Top 15 Movies of 2017

15. Wonder Woman (Dir: Patty Jenkins, 141 mins.)

It is unacceptable that it took us 15 years from the birth of the comic book movie boom with Spider-Man (X-Men sort of started it in 200, but it was Spider-Man that truly started it) to finally give the biggest female superhero on the face of the planet her own movie. On top of the time it took, I was near certain that I would loathe this movie, since it grew out of Warner Bros. continuous attempts to make a cinematic universe stick. However, once the day came to see it I was pleasantly surprised that not only was it leagues above the putrid garbage that is Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice or Suicide Squad, but it was a genuinely good, fun and heartfelt interpretation of Wonder Woman’s first time on Earth.
Gal Gadot proved me wrong once and for all, that she can indeed wield the Lasso of Truth, and whilst the movie has been held up higher than it should by many, it is a good comic book movie that does for Wonder Woman what the first Captain America movie did for that character.
On top of that, the movie actually made me start picking up Wonder Woman’s ongoing comic book, which has gotten me further into comic books again, and that is something that deserves to be recognized.

14. Okja (Dir: Bong Joon-ho, 120 mins.)

Bong Joon-ho is one of my favorite directors working today. His movie The Host was one of the first Korean movies I ever saw, and has not made a single bad movie to date. With his last movie Snowpiercer, he proved that he was able to make English language films without losing his unique voice, unlike most other Asian directors who have tried to extend their lens to Hollywood, and whilst his follow-up Okja ends up toward the bottom of his filmography, it is still a good film with plenty of moments and performances that make it an enjoyable watch.
The movie centers around Mija, a Korean farmgirl who lives with her grandfather on a country mountainside. When an international mega corporation develops a new breed of “super pig”, they are given one of them to raise and soon the pig, named Okja is as integral a part of the family as Mija or her grandfather. However, one day the company comes calling, as the super pig program is about to be unveiled to the public and the production about to go into full swing. With a world standing in between them, Mija must fight to get Okja back, no matter what, or who gets in the way.
With a cast that includes the like of Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Lily Collins and Steven Yuen, Okja is exciting, funny and surprisingly emotional, and is funded by Netflix so that’s where you’ll find it. 

13. The Villainess (Dir: Jung Byung-gil, 129 mins.)

I heard a lot about this Korean action-thriller before finally being able to see it. In fact, not being able to go to the film festival this year, of all the movies I was saddened to the most not being able to see was this one. Luckily for me, a copy of it fell into my mail slot the day of the festival’s opening and I was able to see it.
The movie tells the story of Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin), a woman forced into the life of a secret government assassin after an attempted revenge plot against the men who murdered her lover goes wrong. When Sook-hee turns out to be pregnant, however, she finds herself sandwiched between emotionally cold life of an assassin, and the warm, loving world of motherhood.
The Villainess is stylish, fun, creative and well-shot, which only potential weakness is that its plot is melodramatic in ways that those not accustomed to may find off-putting, but if you are a fan of Asian cinema or open-minded, it is a real special experience.

12. John Wick: Chapter 2 (Dir: Chad Stahelski, 122 mins.)

The first John Wick was a real surprise, and was in my opinion, the movie the first Taken should have been. A hardcore action film with white-knuckle choreography and a gritty, yet engaging plot. It proved that Keanu Reeves still has plenty to offer, and let us peek into a world of assassins that hinted at a lore and code of conduct that was genuinely intriguing.
So along comes Chapter 2, which picks up just days after the first film and John finds himself forced back into the life he has fought to renounce as an old debt comes back to haunt him. John Wick Chapter 2 does what any sequel should set out to do. It furthers John’s personal story, while giving us more understanding of his past as well as elaborating on how this world and its characters work. The action scenes continue to be intense, mostly well-shot and fun, as well. If anything about the movie is worth critiquing, it is that John himself does have a little too much of a “main character shield” (meaning that since he’s the main character he is out of serious harm’s way) and that some of the shootouts last just a little too long. Except for these points, if you liked the first John Wick, you most certainly will like this follow-up, which did well enough to spawn a third movie, which is currently being developed.  

11. The Big Sick (Dir: Michael Showalter, 117 mins.)

Horror movies and romantic comedies have very few things in common, but I maintain that one of the few things is that only a few good of each genre come out per year. I traditionally only find one good romantic comedy, and this year’s entry is a good one indeed.
Kumail Nanjiani stars as himself in this comedic retelling of how he in his early days as a struggling comedian, doing standup shows in-between Uber-fares, whilst dreaming of making it big and getting to do a one-man show based on his childhood in Pakistan. One day, after a show he meets Emily and a complicated relationship starts to form. Especially because Kumail’s family is dead-set on arranging a marriage to a Pakistani girl, and make it clear that under no circumstances will a relationship with a white, American girl be accepted.
When Emily ends up falling ill, he soon finds himself having to answer some pretty serious questions and having to deal with a pair of would-be-in-laws.
I should probably admit that I went to see this movie mere days after finding out I had cancer, which may have had some level of impact on my investment in this movie, especially when it comes to the hospital scenes in the second half of the film, but despite this I am sure that The Big Sick is a fun, engaging and genuine film, that clearly benefits from its based-on-real-events story.

10. Split (Dir: M. Night Shyamalan, 117 mins.)

M. Night Shyamalan made a good movie again. Need I say more? It doesn’t matter, because I will. Casey (played by the great Anya Taylor-Joy) is the awkward girl at school, always alone, quiet and uninvited. However, when she, for once, is invited to fellow classmate Claire’s (Haley Lu Richardson) birthday party, she along with the birthday girl and fellow classmate Marcia (Jessica Sula) find themselves drugged, abducted and locked up in a bunker by a mysterious man (James McAvoy), who seems to have multiple personalities living within him.
It soon becomes clear that the clock is ticking and the girls are going to have to figure out how to escape before it’s too late.
Split benefits from lowered ambition by M. Night Shyamalan, who here takes a more basic approach to his story and characters. Casey is a likeable lead, who uses intelligence and composure under pressure to adapt to the situations the man keeping them locked up puts her in. On top of this, James McAvoy is truly excellent as the man, being able to switch between menacing, funny and even somewhat sympathetic with effectiveness that few actors can.
All I can hope is that this film’s sequel, which is already filmed, continues down the same path of quality and that this is more than just a flash in the pan for Shyamalan.

9. Lego Batman (Dir: Chris McKay, 104 mins.)

A spinoff to a movie that never should have been good to begin with. How could that possibly be worth watching? Well, it may not be as finetuned as 2014’s The Lego Movie, but it is as surprising. In this film we once again make the acquaintance of Will Arnett’s Batman, an egotistical man-child who spends his nights fighting crime and basking in his own glory. All seems fine until he, by accident, adopts Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) at the same time as Gotham gets a new police chief and Joker, in an attempt to make Batman realize how much he needs him, ends all crime in Gotham.
What follows is a ridiculously funny tribute to Batman’s history that I have seen four times so far and it keeps making me laugh. It never slips over into parody, and no matter how much it makes fun of the Dark Knight’s legacy, it never becomes disrespectful and in fact, in my opinion, becomes the best Batman movie we have seen since The Dark Knight, and that means something.

8. Dunkirk (Dir: Christopher Nolan, 106 mins.)

I have to admit, I am not a Nolan-fanboy. I like the man’s work, but both The Dark Knight Rises and especially Interstellar are movies that have leveled my expectations of his movies moving forward. So, when it was announced that he would be making a World War II film, I shrugged and went about my day, knowing I would obviously see it, but probably not reflect on it beyond that. Thankfully, this is my favorite Nolan film since The Dark Knight, and most of the reason behind that is, much like M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, that it has a lowered scope. There is no advanced theoretical science or immense plot twist, but instead just a really well told story separated into three different segments: soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk, civilians in Dorset setting out to collect the soldiers and pilots above it all.
We cut between the three as the tension, violence and hopelessness rises.
Well-performed, shot, edited and directed, on paper it isn’t surprising, since the same could be said about any Nolan-production, but what sets it apart is the simplicity and the length, which is a comfortable hour-forty-five. Meaning you don’t have to set an entire afternoon aside to enjoy this film.

   

7. Blade Runner 2049 (Dir: Denis Villeneuve, 163 mins.)

In an era where we get reboots, remakes and late sequels to classic films, I have been skeptical of Blade Runner 2049 ever since it was announced. I love the original film, but have reservations concerning certain things director Ridley Scott has stated about the nature of certain elements of the film I feel best left unexplored and even more importantly; unanswered. However, when it was announced that the sequel was being handled by star-director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies, Sicario, Arrival), my spirits lifted.
As things would have it, this film came out a week after my surgery, and as of writing this I wasn’t able to get out to see it until a few days ago, but the wait was worth it, because Blade Runner 2049 is the rare film that manages to take its predecessor and pick up 35 years later without losing the soul, intelligence or cohesion of what the original was.
We follow Ryan Gosling’s K, a Replicant Blade Runner tasked with tracking down a threat to the human dominance of the planet, and the further he goes, the deeper a hole he seems to dig for himself in this gorgeously designed neo noir, filled with great performances (an elderly Harrison Ford for once seems to actually care about his performance), music and intrigue. In fact, the film is so interesting, it easily warrants its long runtime and engages so thoroughly that the 163 minutes might as well be a standard two-hour fare. The fact that this movie failed miserably at the box office is downright criminal.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (Dir: James Gunn, 137 mins.)

Guardians of the Galaxy was a movie that grew on me the more times I saw it, and the further from the zeitgeist it got. It is a fun, heartwarming film about family and togetherness born in loneliness. Its plot was nothing special, but it compensated for it with delightful characters and humor, along with great visuals and a world that expanded the Marvel Universe significantly.
So, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the same can be said about the sequel. Volume 2, once again centers on our heroes Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Drax the Destroyer as they find themselves battling armies, monsters and space pirates, all while Peter finally gets to meet his long absent father.
It is hard to truly emphasize just how much of this film’s appeal comes from its cast of characters, who you grow to feel for, and even when someone does or says something you disagree with, the characters are three-dimensional enough that you can see why they did it. On top of our gang of misfits we also get more of Nebula and Yondu, along with a new addition in the form of Pom Klementieff’s adorably naïve Mantis.
A joy to behold, I only hope James Gunn can wrap up his trilogy as well as he has started and continued it. However, before we get answers to that question, there is a huge war on the horizon…

5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (Dir: Martin McDonagh, 115 mins.)

On paper a movie about a woman who, fed up with the stalled investigation into the rape/murder of her daughter, decides to rent three billboards outside of her small hometown, sounds like a very bleak and heart-wrenching affair. To a certain extent it is, also, but what is so surprising and fantastic about Martin McDonagh’s latest film is just how much humor is injected into this story. Tragedy and comedy co-exist in this film, which throws both at the viewer as if it is a yo-yo hurled by the screenwriter. You’ll find yourself laughing and tearing up in equal measure and one of the best things about the film is not just how the script allows the fantastic cast led by Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell to really show how good they are, but how it also doesn’t subscribe to villainization. The characters have different viewpoints, and you won’t agree with them all, but you see where they are coming from and why they feel the way they feel, which is something far too few movies choose to do.
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri is the kind of movie I wish we would see more often, but also kind of hope we don’t, because it would make the few we get feel far less special.

4. Baby Driver (Dir: Edgar Wright, 113 mins.)  

Like Bong Joon-ho, Edgar Wright is one of those directors who’s work I am guaranteed to see. The kind of creators that I don’t just admire, but who’s next movie I am eagerly anticipating before details are even announced.
So, with this in mind it probably isn’t a surprise that Baby Driver is near the top of my list. Because on top of being a movie made by a reliable filmmaker, it also centers on a character who uses music to drown out his tinnitus, and anyone who knows me knows that I am always listening to music to drown out the constant ringing in my head.
Baby Driver is a modern day car-movie that pays tribute to everything from Bullitt to Walter Hill’s classic The Driver (the same movie Drive was cribbed from), taking the best parts of the era where such films thrived and injecting it with modern aesthetics and camerawork. However, what sets Baby Driver apart from those films more than anything is the fact that Baby’s addiction to music means that much like a Tarantino-movie Wright uses the licensed soundtrack, which features everything from Beck to T-Rex to Barry White to sculpt an experience that is more musical than most actual musicals. Cars swerve to guitar strings, bullets impact to beat drops and footsteps land with drumbeats in a movie that, much like Wright’s previous North American film Scott Pilgrim VS. The World, revels in style over substance.
Not the deepest of experiences, but with performances from the likes of Ansel Elgort, Lily James, John Hamm, Jamie Foxx and the last Kevin Spacey performance I was able to fully enjoy, it is the best type of genre movie, and one of my absolute favorites of the year.

3. Get Out (Dir: Jordan Peele, 103 mins.)

White people am I right? I seriously did not see this one coming. Comedian Jordan Peele, or comedy duo Key & Peele-fame apparently spent his summer vacation 2016 filming this movie, which delves into basic human trauma, prejudice and fear in ways that most horror movies could only dream of doing.
Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris, a twenty-something professional photographer who is driving up with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams of Girls-fame), to meet her parents over the weekend. Chris has reservations over the idea, considering that he is apparently Rose’s first black boyfriend and she hasn’t told her family that.
Once at the house, awkward moments and weird, creepy things begin to happen, and soon Chris doesn’t know what is real or what is false, as well as who he can trust. Or is it all in his head?
Jordan Peele blends humor with fear here in ways that I haven’t seen tackled in a long time (if ever, to be honest) and once the credits rolled for this movie I knew I would be returning to it, and returned I have.
Get Out is the type of movie that isn’t just fun to watch, it is fun to revisit and introduce other people to. Unfortunately, I can’t say much more about this film, since the very nature of what makes it so great is everything that shouldn’t be told in advance, but rather experienced. So, watch it yourself, because it is absolutely worth it.

2. A Silent Voice (Dir: Naoko Yamada, 130 mins.)

I have to admit; this movie is technically a 2016 release. However, since it was only released in Japan in 2016 and I really want to highlight it, I am going to cheat with this one.
Shoya Ishida is a late-teen in Japan, who at the story’s beginning is putting his affairs in order. He has grown tired of the isolation and bullying he is experiencing in school and has decided to end his life. However, before he can do so, he wishes to find Shoko, a girl he used to go to school with, and apologize for the way he tormented her during their time knowing each other.
Once the two are reunited, however, something begins to happen, and they find their lives more intertwined than either of them ever could have anticipated. Can the past be forgotten? And can friendship, or even love, blossom in soil fertilized by tragedy and tears?
A Silent Voice struck me extremely hard, because as a victim of bullying myself, it is always a powerful experience to see bullying portrayed with layers, which it definitely is here. Shoya may only be able to see what he did was wrong through the lens of someone who has himself been put through it, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t matter as much as his attempts to make it right with Shoko.
The movie is beautifully animated, scored and acted by its cast, and in a year where the international release of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name dominated the anime discussion, A Silent Voice flew under many people’s radar, which is really sad. And despite of what it may sound like, you don’t need to have a relationship with severe bullying, or be a fan of anime to appreciate and enjoy A Silent Voice. Its beauty transcends its genre, and I hope more people give it a chance. 

1. War for the Planet of the Apes (Dir: Matt Reeves, 140 mins.)

I still remember the day Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ reviews started to appear. A reboot I had written off as a guaranteed watering down of a franchise I love, it soon dawned on me when all the reviews I read were positive that there was hope, and I went to see it twice in the theater. That is how much I liked it.
Then came the sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. A film that somehow took the first movie’s formula, refined it and made a truly dark, serious and intelligent film about the conflict between human and apes, and was better for it. Now all that remained was to see if returning director Matt Reeves could stick the landing to this series, taking the character of Caesar, whom we had met as a baby and give us a satisfying and logical conclusion to what we had seen so far. To say that I was worried, yet excited would be an understatement.
My worry was unfounded. Because War for the Planet of the Apes is a triumph in every way. The already mind-blowing special effects are somehow even better, creating a cast of apes so realistic that if you were to take it back in time and show it to the cast and crew of the 1969 original, they would assume that we one day would have developed the technology to train apes to act, shoot weapons, ride horses and speak.
On top of this, Reeves and his crew have enough confidence in their product to allow long periods of time to pass with nearly all dialogue being performed using sign language along with visual storytelling in a way that makes this already believable dystopia feel even more real.
Andy Serkis and his fellow ape performers are accompanied by a menacing Woody Harrelson, who plays a Kurtz-esque colonel out to exterminate the apes for good, and newcomer Amiah Miller as the mute little girl Nova, who joins Caesar, Maurice and company on their journey of revenge.
War for the Planet of the Apes is a triumph, that earns it top spot not just by being a fantastic, emotional journey, but also by concluding what has become one of the best trilogies ever made within the Hollywood Studio system, and I can’t recommend it, or it’s previous two entries, enough.

Well, that's my list. Hopefully I get a chance to make one next year as well. Here's to a year full of writing, filmmaking and good movies!