GMD Social Poll: Top Ten Films of 2018

[no country for old wainds]

you know the rules by now. probably won't close this 'til may sometime so take your time. think the plan is that CiG's game will keep running alongside, unless The People object to that.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

1. You Were Never Really Here
2. Leave No Trace
3. First Reformed
4. Hereditary
5. The Favorite
6. Annihilation
7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
8. Avengers: Infinity War
9. Burning
10. Black Panther

 

[Slammed]

1. Deadpool 2
2. Christopher Robin
3. Bad Samaritan
4. Brothers' Nest
5. Bohemian Rhapsody
6. Bumblebee
7. Upgrade
8. The Christmas Chronicles
9. Rampage
10. The Hurricane Heist

HM
Ready Player One
Hotel Artemis
Pacific Rim: Uprising

 

[no country for old wainds]

Literally every 2018 movie I've seen, not counting Aniara:

1. You Were Never Really Here
2. First Reformed
3. Hereditary
4. The Favorite
5. Annihilation
6. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
7. Avengers: Infinity War
8. Burning
9. Black Panther
10. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

counting aniara as 2019 i take it? i would too, just checkin'

i guess i should state that my personal eligibility rules are gonna be: when did it first premiere to the public in either the US or UK (whichever's earliest)? so if something got a festival release in 2018 but couldn't realistically be seen until 2019 it isn't eligible for me, whereas i'm definitely counting some stuff with festival releases in 2017.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Yeah I'm counting Aniara as 2019 by the same token that YWNRH is 2018.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen a single bad 2018 film because I like everything in my list. (Burning grew on me in hindsight, but I still think you could trim like 40 minutes of nothing happening from it.) And the whole top 5 is pretty killer. I remember seeing YWNRH and Hereditary in theater the same evening, that was a great day.

 

[Burkhard]

Since foreign movies in Germany usually are shown several months later than in their country of origin (because of the dubbing), I might still update my list at a later point. When I went through the movies I watched at the cinema last year, I noticed that two French movies I otherwise would have included in my list, were originally released in 2017. Therefore, I appreciate if this poll will be kept open for a longer period of time.

1. Hevi reissu
2. Early Man
3. Womit haben wir das verdient?
4. Aquaman
5. Tout le monde debout
6. Swimming with Men
7. The Crimes of Grindelwald
8. La Chute de l'empire américain
9. Book Club
10. La Ch'tite Famille

 

[no country for old wainds]

yeah i'm definitely in no rush to end this one, especially if CiG is carrying on with his game. what were the french movies, out of interest?

Yeah I'm counting Aniara as 2019 by the same token that YWNRH is 2018.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen a single bad 2018 film because I like everything in my list. (Burning grew on me in hindsight, but I still think you could trim like 40 minutes of nothing happening from it.) And the whole top 5 is pretty killer. I remember seeing YWNRH and Hereditary in theater the same evening, that was a great day.

to be honest if i pick and choose ten movies to watch from 2018 i bet i'll like all or most of them too. unfortunately i'm probs gonna be an anal completist and watch a bunch of garbage, woohoo!

 

[CiG]

yeah i'm definitely in no rush to end this one, especially if CiG is carrying on with his game.

Definitely carrying on, and I haven't seen anywhere near enough from 2018 to do this yet so hopefully this is a slower game lol.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'll get in on this one, have to think about order though.

Aniara

I so want to see this. It was good, I take it?

 

[challenge_everything]

I shouldn't be far off, just a couple more I want to see like Burning, Dogman and the Orson Welles one.

Gonna be some very good films missing my top 10, as I've said before it's been a brilliant year for film.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

to be honest if i pick and choose ten movies to watch from 2018 i bet i'll like all or most of them too. unfortunately i'm probs gonna be an anal completist and watch a bunch of garbage, woohoo!

Enjoy Green Book

I so want to see this. It was good, I take it?

It's great. Can't estimate if you'll like or not because any viewer's experience of that movie will probably vary greatly depending on two factors; (1) whether you've read the poem or not (doesn't have a good translation AFAIK) and (2) whether you've lived in Sweden or not. And I'm not saying those are prerequisites, if anything you may well enjoy the movie more for not having read the poem.

For me one of the most eerie things about the film was just how much the spaceflight reminded me of existing public transportation in Sweden, and public spaces in general, in the sense that I recognized the props and the decor, and the uniformed officials, and the gentle voices on the intercom informing you that everything is fine, and the passengers sheepishly waiting for directions and all that. It had an immediacy for me that post-apoc movies never otherwise do - but maybe for Americans, all post-apoc movies are like this?

But it is more than just a post-apoc movie and I would recommend it. Although your experience of it will surely be different than mine, I am certain you will find it a very distinctive sci-fi film, for better or worse. It is my second favorite film of 2019 so far - after Shyamalan's Glass.

 

[Einherjar86]

It's great. Can't estimate if you'll like or not because any viewer's experience of that movie will probably vary greatly depending on two factors; (1) whether you've read the poem or not (doesn't have a good translation AFAIK) and (2) whether you've lived in Sweden or not. And I'm not saying those are prerequisites, if anything you may well enjoy the movie more for not having read the poem.

For me one of the most eerie things about the film was just how much the spaceflight reminded me of existing public transportation in Sweden, and public spaces in general, in the sense that I recognized the props and the decor, and the uniformed officials, and the gentle voices on the intercom informing you that everything is fine, and the passengers sheepishly waiting for directions and all that. It had an immediacy for me that post-apoc movies never otherwise do - but maybe for Americans, all post-apoc movies are like this?

But it is more than just a post-apoc movie and I would recommend it. Although your experience of it will surely be different than mine, I am certain you will find it a very distinctive sci-fi film, for better or worse. It is my second favorite film of 2019 so far - after Shyamalan's Glass.

Awesome, thanks.

I haven't read the entire poem, but I've read the first few parts or so. Honestly, I've been looking for a hard copy of it for a while now, but it's out of print in English and all the copies I've found are ~$140. I'm hoping some press releases an anniversary edition sometime soon.

I'd have to see the film to see what you mean by immediacy (maybe also intimacy?). I think there are some post-apocalypse films that achieve this, but I agree that the post-apocalypse genre in America, generally speaking, finds its voice in big-budget Hollywood cinema--so, a lack of intimacy/immediacy, a focus on the scale of destruction, etc.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Awesome, thanks.

I haven't read the entire poem, but I've read the first few parts or so. Honestly, I've been looking for a hard copy of it for a while now, but it's out of print in English and all the copies I've found are ~$140. I'm hoping some press releases an anniversary edition sometime soon.

I didn't know you had some familiarity with the poem. That's interesting. I am curious to know how well it works in translation, I only know of the one English translation that is old and not readily available. One of the distinctive things about the poem is that it is full of neologisms that are never defined, but still often make some kind of sense to a Swedish speaker not just because of context but because of the way it "rings" and maybe because of passing resemblance to existing words. Since you are slightly familiar with the poem I will explain briefly how I thought the film fared as an adaptation.

While the poem has the bones of a narrative, it lacks much in the way of characterization and uses the passengers of Aniara as props for mostly self-contained reflections on the various themes of the work. The film invents a lot to make a more character-driven story out of the poem. It does a pretty good job of this, but rather muddies the waters thematically in the process. Some of the things they added, a week of reflection later I cannot figure out what they were trying to say with. Bill Chambers called it "an inkblot" in his review and I think that's accurate. I don't feel that way about the source material though; maybe I am just very strongly attuned to it, but its message seems spelled out in all caps to me.

I'd have to see the film to see what you mean by immediacy (maybe also intimacy?). I think there are some post-apocalypse films that achieve this, but I agree that the post-apocalypse genre in America, generally speaking, finds its voice in big-budget Hollywood cinema--so, a lack of intimacy/immediacy, a focus on the scale of destruction, etc.

What I meant was, to paraphrase something I wrote elsewhere, that I felt as if, if the end came in my lifetime, it might look exactly like this. Because I was seeing the breakdown of the institutions that surround me every day. But it does also have, I suppose, a greater sense of intimacy than the average American post-apoc production since it doesn't focus on the scale of destruction, but rather on the psychological state of refugees in the aftermath of it.

 

[Einherjar86]

I didn't know you had some familiarity with the poem. That's interesting. I am curious to know how well it works in translation, I only know of the one English translation that is old and not readily available. One of the distinctive things about the poem is that it is full of neologisms that are never defined, but still often make some kind of sense to a Swedish speaker not just because of context but because of the way it "rings" and maybe because of passing resemblance to existing words. Since you are slightly familiar with the poem I will explain briefly how I thought the film fared as an adaptation.

While the poem has the bones of a narrative, it lacks much in the way of characterization and uses the passengers of Aniara as props for mostly self-contained reflections on the various themes of the work. The film invents a lot to make a more character-driven story out of the poem. It does a pretty good job of this, but rather muddies the waters thematically in the process. Some of the things they added, a week of reflection later I cannot figure out what they were trying to say with. Bill Chambers called it "an inkblot" in his review and I think that's accurate. I don't feel that way about the source material though; maybe I am just very strongly attuned to it, but its message seems spelled out in all caps to me.

Thank you for this.

The reason I'm familiar with it is because it's been moderately influential for American sci-fi writers. I've been able to find this helpful website, which includes the poem and some reference material:

https://gsproject.edublogs.org/gs-texts/texts-used-in-2017/aniara-by-harry-martinson-3/

What I meant was, to paraphrase something I wrote elsewhere, that I felt as if, if the end came in my lifetime, it might look exactly like this. Because I was seeing the breakdown of the institutions that surround me every day. But it does also have, I suppose, a greater sense of intimacy than the average American post-apoc production since it doesn't focus on the scale of destruction, but rather on the psychological state of refugees in the aftermath of it.

Ah okay, I understand.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Thank you for this.

The reason I'm familiar with it is because it's been moderately influential for American sci-fi writers. I've been able to find this helpful website, which includes the poem and some reference material:

https://gsproject.edublogs.org/gs-texts/texts-used-in-2017/aniara-by-harry-martinson-3/

Thanks. I am enjoying reading these notes.

your Isthmus jar: Presumably her breast, though no satisfactory explanation for “Isthmus” has yet been found.

I should start using some of these expressions in everyday conversation.

I had no idea it was an influence on American sci-fi writers, though. Do you know any examples of this? EDIT: I see that this site cites Poul Anderson and Le Guin as writers that have been influenced by Aniara. Actually this whole site is super interesting, I had no idea that "Generational Spaceships" was an established subgenre of sci-fi.

 

[Burkhard]

yeah i'm definitely in no rush to end this one, especially if CiG is carrying on with his game. what were the french movies, out of interest?

Coexister, which I would have put at least at no. 2 - or, considering how much fun I had watching it, together with Hevi reissu at no. 1 -, and Le Sens de la fête, which I might have put at no. 10.

By the way, I hope it's OK that I use the original titles also for movies in other languages than English. If I should use only English titles, let me know.

 

[Einherjar86]

I had no idea it was an influence on American sci-fi writers, though. Do you know any examples of this? EDIT: I see that this site cites Poul Anderson and Le Guin as writers that have been influenced by Aniara. Actually this whole site is super interesting, I had no idea that "Generational Spaceships" was an established subgenre of sci-fi.

Poul and Le Guin are the ones I'm familiar with. I know Ted Sturgeon was quite fond of it as well (as per his quote on its Wiki page).

The generational spaceship trope is big in sci-fi, from Tau Zero to Pandorum. Peter Watts also just revamped it in his recent novel, The Freeze-Frame Revolution.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

The only movie I saw from 2018 was Annihilation so let's just go with that for now.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Coexister, which I would have put at least at no. 2 - or, considering how much fun I had watching it, together with Hevi reissu at no. 1 -, and Le Sens de la fête, which I might have put at no. 10.

By the way, I hope it's OK that I use the original titles also for movies in other languages than English. If I should use only English titles, let me know.

no problem. i'm not consistent about that myself, i tend to use whatever title most people seem to be using. and yeah i've never heard of either of those lol

 

[zabu of nΩd]

No way I'm gonna fill a list, but I'm tempted to make a 1-item list just for Bandersnatch, cause it's probably the goat.