Better late than never, I have decided to compile a little list of the best ten movies I saw in UK cinemas last year. This list is based purely on UK cinema (or streaming platform) release dates. It is also not an exhaustive list. I certainly didn’t get round to seeing everything I would have liked to, so certain titles that have featured in other lists of this variety (Widows, Jeunne Femme, Isle Of Dogs) do not feature here.
- First Man (12A)
Ryan Gosling is Neil Armostrong in Damien Chazelle’s biopic of the first man on the moon. Gosling is typicially excellent as the mild-mannered astronaut struggling with tremendous personal tragedy and the weight of a nation’s expectations on his shoulders. However, it is Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong who steals the film with her sensistive and powerful portrayal of a wife and mother holding the family together in the midst of great adversity.
- A Quiet Place (15)
John Krasinski directs, co-writes and co-stars in this high concept horror-thriller where mysterious monsters with ultra sensitive hearing have devastated the US, forcing survivors to live in silence. Emily Blunt is terrific (as always) as the expectant mother fearing for the inevitable issues surrounding keeping a new born quiet. Millicent Simmonds as the hard of hearing daughter is the breakout star, though, balancing fear, bravery and resourcefulness in equal measure.
- 22 July (15)
Released in the UK on Netflix to reach a wider audience, Paul Greengrass’s masterful recreation of the terrible events of July 22nd 2011 in Norway is a powerful and thought-provoking real-life thriller. The unutterable scenes of terror play out discreetly, but no less impactfully. After, the film explores three strands of how the country is effected by the attack focusing on a survivor, the lawyer defending the terrorist, and the politicians attempting to put the country back together. It is a gripping and moving piece of work.
- A Fantastic Woman (15)
When Marina’s (Daniela Vega) older lover unexpectedly dies, her life is thrown into chaos as she is rejected by his family. Being a trans woman, Marina faces discrimination and suspicion at every turn; ignorant family members, unpleasant police officials etc. Daniela Vega’s central performance is astonishing, imbuing Marina with a quiet dignity in the face of relentless persecution. Director Sebastian Lelio offers brief flights of fancy amid increasingly upsetting circumstances, while Nani Garcia’s score lends the whole piece a classical Hollywood feel. However, this is undoubtedly Vega’s picture which was the rightful winner of the Best Foreign Language film at last year’s Academy Awards.
- Three Billboards Outisde Ebbing, Missouri (15)
Martin McDonagh’s first film since 2012’s Seven Psycopaths was well worth the wait. Frances McDormand is on Oscar-winning form as the grieving mother who holds the local police authority responsible for failing to capture her daughter’s murderer. A sensitive subject matter is dealt with adeptly with frequent laugh-out-louder humour, typical of the man behind In Bruges. It could easily be called Three Letters by Woody Harrelson, whose triplicate correspondence punctuate the narrative with a hard-hitting and surprising profundity. Sam Rockwell also picked up an Academy Award for his brilliant portrayal of a man who could so easily have slipped into racist cop cardboard cutout caricature.
- Annihilation (15)
Another Netflix release, Alex Garland follows the brilliant Ex Machina with an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s sci-fi novel starring Natalie Portman. After her husband disappears in the Shimmer, a mysterious environmental disaster zone, Portman’s biologist leads a team of scientists inside to investigate. This is exhilarating science-fiction; baffling, exciting and genuinely unnerving. The final scenes are reminiscent of Jonathan Glazer’s superb sci-fi drama, Under The Skin and Portman delivers another knockout performance.
- Roma (15)
Full review here: https://whymrpink.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/roma-15-dir-alfonso-cuaron/
Alfonso Cuaron’s latest is a deeply personal examination of the maid of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s. Shot gorgeously in monochrome by Cuaron himself (acting as cinematographer for the first time), we follow a year in the life of Cleo – brilliantly played by Yalitza Aparicio and fully deserving her recent Oscar nomination. Cuaron’s typical visual flair never detracts from the main story here. It is a film of quiet emotional power, building as it does to a beautifully simple, yet techinally dazzling, heart-wrenching climax.
- The Shape Of Water (15)
Full review here: https://whymrpink.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/the-shape-of-water-15-dir-guillermo-del-toro-2017/
Guillermo Del Toro’s magical watery fable is a love letter to cinema, disguised as a sumptuous fantasy movie. Sally Hawkins’ mute Eliza falls in love with Doug Jones’ Amphibian Man after he is captured and brought to the secure government facility where Eliza works as a cleaner. It may not be Del Toro’s best film, that will surely forever be Pan’s Labyrinth, but The Shape Of Water is an absolute masterclass in the collision of two distinctly different worlds. Alexandre Desplat’s gorgeous score and top-notch production design and cinematography makes this a joy to both look at and listen to.
- The Breadwinner (12A)
Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon follow the excellent The Secret Of Kells and Song Of The Sea with another profound animated effort. The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey, tells the story of an 11-year-old girl, Parvana, who, after her father is wrongfully imprisoned in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, poses as a boy in order to get work to support her family. The glorious animation style offers a magic realist take on an undoubtedly important and relevant subject. The fantastical flights of fancy provide necessary respite from the horror of Parvana’s real life, the terrific sound design transports us directly on to the bustling Afghan streets, and the film’s final message of love triumphing over adversity is one that will resonate with viewers of all ages.
- They Shall Not Grow Old (15)
Peter Jackson’s phenomenal documentary is not only the best film of 2018, but one of the most astonishing technical achievements in cinema history. Jackson and his team have painstakingly colourised and modernised footage from the Imperial War Museum’s archives of World War 1. The result is simply astounding. Interviews from hundreds of survivors play over these impossibly realisitic images telling the whole story of the Great War from recruitment, through boot camp, to going over the top, taking German soldiers prisoner, and eventually coming home to a terrifyingly non-plussed homeland. The film is harrowing, yet humorous; Jackson never refusing an opportunity to display the relatable humanity of those involved. Essential viewing for absolutely everyone, and no doubt will become a staple of history classes across the country for years to come.
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As with all these kinds of lists, whittling down to just ten is an extremely tough task. On another day it could so easily have been an entirely different line up. Here are a few honourable mentions from last year; some of which should feel very hard done by to not feature in the final list of favourites.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s sumptuously shot, brilliantly acted Phantom Thread is another great entry in Anderson’s impressive body of work with a further terrific score from Johnny Greenwood.
Lynne Ramsey’s stark You Were Never Really Here provides us with another quietly great Joaquin Phoenix performance and an impressive handle on difficult subject matter.
Greta Gerwig’s solo feature debut Lady Bird is a terrific coming-of-age comedy drama capturing the genuine trials and tribulations of Saoirse Ronan’s titular seventeen-year-old.
Bradley Cooper’s updating of A Star Is Born sees Lady Gaga on revelatory form as the pop star whose star rises as Cooper’s ageing rocker’s falls.
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the Halloween franchise in David Gordon Green’s pleasingly satisfying horror sequel that dispenses with the previous, largely forgettable series’ entries.
Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright are on sparkling form sitting round a table, discussing their careers in Roger Michell’s lovely Nothing Like A Dame.
Ari Aster’s full-on horror Hereditary suffers from over-exposition in the final act, but a nail-biting opening means the piece lingers long in the memory.
Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is an incredibly urgent, important and powerful film with great central performances and a hell of a sting in its tail.
Rob Marshall’s sequel to cinema’s all-time favourite nanny is a joyous and heartwarming affair, with Emily Blunt on scintillating form in Mary Poppins Returns.
Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise reteam for another stonking actioner in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
John Francis Daley’s and Jonathan Goldstein’s high-concept comedy Game Night is fresh and funny enough to manoeuvre potential hiccups.
Panos Costamos’ bonkers horror-thriller Mandy sees Nicolas Cage light a cigarette off the decapitated head of a villain and that’s not even the strangest occurrence in the film.
Joe Pearlman’s and David Soutar’s (un)intentionally hilarious documentary on Bros, After The Screaming Stops is the most quotable and accidentally Alan Partridge-esque film of the year.
Why Mr. Pink? 