- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
GMD Social Poll: Top Ten Films of 2018
- Thread starter no country for old wainds
- Start date
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
=10) Upgrade (Dir. Leigh Whannell)
"Tech-noir thriller which adeptly balances serious sci-fi concepts with stylish hyper-violence. Just damn good fun." - @challenge_everything
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#5)
challenge_everything (#5)
Slammed (#7)
TOTAL POINTS: 16
=10) Thunder Road (Dir. Jim Cummings)
"a guy from collegehumor with no wiki page made/starred in one of 2018's most ambitious films. think jody hill but with a big fucking soul." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
no country for old wainds (#2)
Slayed Necros (#4)
TOTAL POINTS: 16
"Tech-noir thriller which adeptly balances serious sci-fi concepts with stylish hyper-violence. Just damn good fun." - @challenge_everything
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#5)
challenge_everything (#5)
Slammed (#7)
TOTAL POINTS: 16
=10) Thunder Road (Dir. Jim Cummings)
"a guy from collegehumor with no wiki page made/starred in one of 2018's most ambitious films. think jody hill but with a big fucking soul." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
no country for old wainds (#2)
Slayed Necros (#4)
TOTAL POINTS: 16
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
=7) The Night Comes For Us (Dir. Timo Tjahjanto)
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#1)
Anom@nder Rake (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
=7) Halloween (Dir. David Gordon Green)
"now the second best in the franchise imo" - @rms
"The new Halloween is good. Certainly worthy of washing away the memory of the Rob Zombie abortions." - @Krow
"Thought it was pretty bad ass. Dare i say the best Halloween since the first one?" - @TechnicalBarbarity
Chosen by:
TechnicalBarbarity (#1)
Krow (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
=7) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
"it was enjoyable but I feel like it also kinda went over my head. I dunno, the Coens doing comedy often doesn't click with me." - @CiG
"Oh yeah seen that. It was pretty lame. None of the stories really had time to develop properly and were disappointing in the end, six is just too many. I liked the one with the girl on the trail with the Indian attack, that one at least had a proper storyline. The rest was underwhelming. It's a shame they wasted having such actors doing a western and all, meh." - @Onder
- @Vegard Pompey
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#3)
Vegard Pompey (#7)
Anom@nder Rake (#8)
no country for old wainds (#8)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#1)
Anom@nder Rake (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
=7) Halloween (Dir. David Gordon Green)
"now the second best in the franchise imo" - @rms
"The new Halloween is good. Certainly worthy of washing away the memory of the Rob Zombie abortions." - @Krow
"Thought it was pretty bad ass. Dare i say the best Halloween since the first one?" - @TechnicalBarbarity
Chosen by:
TechnicalBarbarity (#1)
Krow (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
=7) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
"it was enjoyable but I feel like it also kinda went over my head. I dunno, the Coens doing comedy often doesn't click with me." - @CiG
"Oh yeah seen that. It was pretty lame. None of the stories really had time to develop properly and were disappointing in the end, six is just too many. I liked the one with the girl on the trail with the Indian attack, that one at least had a proper storyline. The rest was underwhelming. It's a shame they wasted having such actors doing a western and all, meh." - @Onder
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Nelson's Scruggs made my skin crawl more and more with every second. This is probably the vignette I most would've liked to see a feature-length version of if only to find out how uneasy I'd feel after 90+ minutes in the central character's company. Loved the gratuitous violence, can't remember laughing this hard at a kill since Riki-Oh. Didn't like the music much.
Near Algodones
This vignette has a lot of dreamlike qualities overall, the gaps in consciousness, the surreal situations and locales, the constant chance encounters like all the west is compressed into a single prairie. It's also pretty damn funny and Stephen Root's character is a riot. But the ending is what puts it over the top for me. There's an episode of Six Feet Under that opens with an infant in a crib watching a mobile overhead and then dying of SIDS. I reflect a lot on that scene and what it must be like to live a life like that. Now I imagine you wouldn't experience much of anything, but let's say hypothetically, that you had a developed consciousness at that age. All you saw were some pretty colors overhead, didn't make any sense of it because you hadn't even figured out basic fucking geometric shapes yet, and you experienced this but it didn't register anywhere, like a camera taking photographs without film. This was life in its entirety and then oblivion followed. The ending of this vignette reminded me of that scene, with Franco's character, being such a cipher he may as well be an infant in a grown man's body, living an incomprehensible life, seeing something pretty and then vanishing into oblivion.
Meal Ticket
A reflection on the relationship between art, artist, manager and audience, timeless and universally applicable. This story didn't need to be set in the west at all, not that the setting hurts it. This is my favorite vignette but I don't have much to say about it because it's mostly just a triumph of acting and atmosphere building.
All Gold Canyon
This is the slightest story in my opinion, and its main ideas feel stretched thin over its runtime. Still, Waits is great and it's a necessary change of palette after the previous vignette.
The Gal Who Got Rattled
A gripping slow-burner with an ending that surprised me with its abruptness; one of the nice things about the anthology format is that you don't know when a story is going to end and this vignette takes full advantage of that. I did find the shootout very unbelievable and it's ill fitting for what is otherwise the most grounded tale in this anthology.
The Mortal Remains
This one I altogether don't understand; it's possible I need to see it again. I just don't see how the gradual reveal that this stagecoach is headed for the underworld follows from, relates to or adds new meaning to the passengers' banter. The ending had me reacting: "So?" It at least works tonally; I liked the way the stagecoach became increasingly dismal over the course of the vignette.
Final ranking:
1. Meal Ticket
2. Near Algodones
3. The Gal Who Got Rattled
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. All Gold Canyon
6. The Mortal Remains
Nelson's Scruggs made my skin crawl more and more with every second. This is probably the vignette I most would've liked to see a feature-length version of if only to find out how uneasy I'd feel after 90+ minutes in the central character's company. Loved the gratuitous violence, can't remember laughing this hard at a kill since Riki-Oh. Didn't like the music much.
Near Algodones
This vignette has a lot of dreamlike qualities overall, the gaps in consciousness, the surreal situations and locales, the constant chance encounters like all the west is compressed into a single prairie. It's also pretty damn funny and Stephen Root's character is a riot. But the ending is what puts it over the top for me. There's an episode of Six Feet Under that opens with an infant in a crib watching a mobile overhead and then dying of SIDS. I reflect a lot on that scene and what it must be like to live a life like that. Now I imagine you wouldn't experience much of anything, but let's say hypothetically, that you had a developed consciousness at that age. All you saw were some pretty colors overhead, didn't make any sense of it because you hadn't even figured out basic fucking geometric shapes yet, and you experienced this but it didn't register anywhere, like a camera taking photographs without film. This was life in its entirety and then oblivion followed. The ending of this vignette reminded me of that scene, with Franco's character, being such a cipher he may as well be an infant in a grown man's body, living an incomprehensible life, seeing something pretty and then vanishing into oblivion.
Meal Ticket
A reflection on the relationship between art, artist, manager and audience, timeless and universally applicable. This story didn't need to be set in the west at all, not that the setting hurts it. This is my favorite vignette but I don't have much to say about it because it's mostly just a triumph of acting and atmosphere building.
All Gold Canyon
This is the slightest story in my opinion, and its main ideas feel stretched thin over its runtime. Still, Waits is great and it's a necessary change of palette after the previous vignette.
The Gal Who Got Rattled
A gripping slow-burner with an ending that surprised me with its abruptness; one of the nice things about the anthology format is that you don't know when a story is going to end and this vignette takes full advantage of that. I did find the shootout very unbelievable and it's ill fitting for what is otherwise the most grounded tale in this anthology.
The Mortal Remains
This one I altogether don't understand; it's possible I need to see it again. I just don't see how the gradual reveal that this stagecoach is headed for the underworld follows from, relates to or adds new meaning to the passengers' banter. The ending had me reacting: "So?" It at least works tonally; I liked the way the stagecoach became increasingly dismal over the course of the vignette.
Final ranking:
1. Meal Ticket
2. Near Algodones
3. The Gal Who Got Rattled
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. All Gold Canyon
6. The Mortal Remains
Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#3)
Vegard Pompey (#7)
Anom@nder Rake (#8)
no country for old wainds (#8)
TOTAL POINTS: 18
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
if anyone knows how to fix the line spacing issues on that last entry let me know, i hate trying to fix formatting on this board
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
6) You Were Never Really Here (Dir. Lynne Ramsay)
"Just got back from You Were Never Really Here, it was amazing. You'd love it @CiG. I can already tell which frame from that movie you're gonna use as your 2998309491th avatar." - @Vegard Pompey
"The entire thing struck me as an unfortunate mix of being both too slow and too hastily contrived (confusing/improbable)." - @Einherjar86
"kind of a mixed bag for me." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Vegard Pompey (#1)
CiG (#3)
Slayed Necros (#6)
TOTAL POINTS: 23
"Just got back from You Were Never Really Here, it was amazing. You'd love it @CiG. I can already tell which frame from that movie you're gonna use as your 2998309491th avatar." - @Vegard Pompey
"The entire thing struck me as an unfortunate mix of being both too slow and too hastily contrived (confusing/improbable)." - @Einherjar86
"kind of a mixed bag for me." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Vegard Pompey (#1)
CiG (#3)
Slayed Necros (#6)
TOTAL POINTS: 23
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
5) The Favourite (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
"The Favorite will be [my] numero uno I think" - @Onder
"The Favourite or Roma should have won best picture." - @Einherjar86
"Razor sharp satire on power and manipulation which plays out as one part Oscar Wilde, one part All About Eve, and one part Blackadder. Standout performances from the 3 female leads." - @challenge_everything
"this is the first lanthimos in which his style seemed a little like schtick to me, not quite in tune with the material (which, of course, he didn't write). the stone bunny scenes are helpful examples: the former is more tender than anything yorgos would dream up, while the latter has his black footprint imprinted onto its back. both of these sensibilities really shine in places and it's such a fun script, hence its spot on the list, but sometimes this push/pull made them seem respectively tame and gratuitous on first viewing and i didn't dig it quite as much as his previous two." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Einherjar86 (#2)
Vegard Pompey (#5)
no country for old wainds (#5)
challenge_everything (#6)
TOTAL POINTS: 26
"The Favorite will be [my] numero uno I think" - @Onder
"The Favourite or Roma should have won best picture." - @Einherjar86
"Razor sharp satire on power and manipulation which plays out as one part Oscar Wilde, one part All About Eve, and one part Blackadder. Standout performances from the 3 female leads." - @challenge_everything
"this is the first lanthimos in which his style seemed a little like schtick to me, not quite in tune with the material (which, of course, he didn't write). the stone bunny scenes are helpful examples: the former is more tender than anything yorgos would dream up, while the latter has his black footprint imprinted onto its back. both of these sensibilities really shine in places and it's such a fun script, hence its spot on the list, but sometimes this push/pull made them seem respectively tame and gratuitous on first viewing and i didn't dig it quite as much as his previous two." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Einherjar86 (#2)
Vegard Pompey (#5)
no country for old wainds (#5)
challenge_everything (#6)
TOTAL POINTS: 26
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
4) Mandy (Dir. Panos Cosmatos)
"beyond the black rainbow ended with venom, its successor kicks off with king crimson, two perfectly appealing sensibilities that i'm not sure cosmatos ever quite reconciles here." - @no country for old wainds
"I watched Mandy yesterday and thought it was decent." - @Bloopy
"it was fucking awesome." - @mutantllama
"The whole thing is the cinematic equivalent of a bedroom black metal band recording an uber lo fi album and thinking the production alone makes it an uncompromising masterpiece, when the music doesn't stack up." - @challenge_everything
"It’s a trashy gorey lsd trip with nic cage in it. Of course that isnt going to go over that well with the snobbish types here." - @Krow
"That was a pretty great experience. The obvious analogy for me is that it plays out like a bad acid trip, or a nightmare. It's heavy on the symbolism and aesthetic, the music is a driving force, Cage is a damn maniac in the film and plays the perfect embodiment of revenge, it was also quite violent when it needed to be but ultimately is subtle and low on the dialogue. It's kind of hard to put it into words but the thing that kept coming to my mind was that it was like a modern adaption of a pagan mythological tale or something, told by way of a comic book formula." - @CiG
"I think Mandy's brilliant in its mashup of trashiness and aesthetic flourishes. I mean, you have a revenge narrative framed by some truly gorgeous and thoughtful visuals, and one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while." - @Einherjar86
Chosen by:
Krow (#1)
CiG (#2)
Einherjar86 (#5)
Anom@nder Rake (#9)
TOTAL POINTS: 27
"beyond the black rainbow ended with venom, its successor kicks off with king crimson, two perfectly appealing sensibilities that i'm not sure cosmatos ever quite reconciles here." - @no country for old wainds
"I watched Mandy yesterday and thought it was decent." - @Bloopy
"it was fucking awesome." - @mutantllama
"The whole thing is the cinematic equivalent of a bedroom black metal band recording an uber lo fi album and thinking the production alone makes it an uncompromising masterpiece, when the music doesn't stack up." - @challenge_everything
"It’s a trashy gorey lsd trip with nic cage in it. Of course that isnt going to go over that well with the snobbish types here." - @Krow
"That was a pretty great experience. The obvious analogy for me is that it plays out like a bad acid trip, or a nightmare. It's heavy on the symbolism and aesthetic, the music is a driving force, Cage is a damn maniac in the film and plays the perfect embodiment of revenge, it was also quite violent when it needed to be but ultimately is subtle and low on the dialogue. It's kind of hard to put it into words but the thing that kept coming to my mind was that it was like a modern adaption of a pagan mythological tale or something, told by way of a comic book formula." - @CiG
"I think Mandy's brilliant in its mashup of trashiness and aesthetic flourishes. I mean, you have a revenge narrative framed by some truly gorgeous and thoughtful visuals, and one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while." - @Einherjar86
Chosen by:
Krow (#1)
CiG (#2)
Einherjar86 (#5)
Anom@nder Rake (#9)
TOTAL POINTS: 27
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
3) Annihilation (Dir. Alex Garland)
"Annihilation was pretty fucked up and awesome" - @arg
"Yeah I liked it as well, I think it was pretty underrated by critics and then I was pleasantly surprised.Y" - @Onder
"Watched Annihilation last night. One of the most lovecraftian high budget movies made lately? I mean it was pretty much exactly a modern version of "The Color Out of Space"." - @Vilden
"I liked Annihilation a lot by the way. Beautiful, bizarre, disturbing visuals." - @CiG
"Saw Annihilation last night. I'm a huge fan of the VanderMeer books, so I was looking forward to this.
Visually speaking, it was spectacular; but it was a bit of a letdown, narratively speaking. It was really different from the book, and some of the changes just didn't make much sense to me. Dragged quite a bit at times, and it skipped past some of the more interesting elements of the plot overall." - @Einherjar86
"Although I was ambivalent when it came out, I've since grown to like it more. In this case I have read the book (all three in the trilogy, actually), and the film makes significant changes, not all of which I was happy with at first. I've come to appreciate them more after rewatching it.
It's a visually stunning movie, and certain shots are absolutely gorgeous. I think the acting is also pretty good, although I wasn't a fan of all the dialogue. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes cerebral sci-fi. It aims to be a sibling of Tarkovsky's work (Stalker and Solaris both come to mind), but its reach exceeds its grasp. That's not necessarily a fault, as Tarkovsky is a high bar. It's worth a watch at least, I'd say." - @Einherjar86
"visually gorgeous Lovecraftian horror" - @Vegard Pompey
"damn, the illuminati initiation ritual is fucking intense" - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Anom@nder Rake (#2)
Krow (#5)
Vegard Pompey (#6)
Einherjar86 (#7)
Slayed Necros (#7)
CiG (#7)
TOTAL POINTS: 32
"Annihilation was pretty fucked up and awesome" - @arg
"Yeah I liked it as well, I think it was pretty underrated by critics and then I was pleasantly surprised.Y" - @Onder
"Watched Annihilation last night. One of the most lovecraftian high budget movies made lately? I mean it was pretty much exactly a modern version of "The Color Out of Space"." - @Vilden
"I liked Annihilation a lot by the way. Beautiful, bizarre, disturbing visuals." - @CiG
"Saw Annihilation last night. I'm a huge fan of the VanderMeer books, so I was looking forward to this.
Visually speaking, it was spectacular; but it was a bit of a letdown, narratively speaking. It was really different from the book, and some of the changes just didn't make much sense to me. Dragged quite a bit at times, and it skipped past some of the more interesting elements of the plot overall." - @Einherjar86
"Although I was ambivalent when it came out, I've since grown to like it more. In this case I have read the book (all three in the trilogy, actually), and the film makes significant changes, not all of which I was happy with at first. I've come to appreciate them more after rewatching it.
It's a visually stunning movie, and certain shots are absolutely gorgeous. I think the acting is also pretty good, although I wasn't a fan of all the dialogue. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes cerebral sci-fi. It aims to be a sibling of Tarkovsky's work (Stalker and Solaris both come to mind), but its reach exceeds its grasp. That's not necessarily a fault, as Tarkovsky is a high bar. It's worth a watch at least, I'd say." - @Einherjar86
"visually gorgeous Lovecraftian horror" - @Vegard Pompey
"damn, the illuminati initiation ritual is fucking intense" - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
Anom@nder Rake (#2)
Krow (#5)
Vegard Pompey (#6)
Einherjar86 (#7)
Slayed Necros (#7)
CiG (#7)
TOTAL POINTS: 32
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
2) First Reformed (Dir. Paul Schrader)
"The comparisons to Taxi Driver are obvious, but in some ways Schrader is even more shrewd here in using a likeable, kindly priest to explore alienation rather than someone who is already an outsider like Travis Bickle. And whereas Taxi Driver really focuses on Bickle’s disillusionment and anger, First Reformed balances things by honing in on Father Ernst’s own sense of guilt, hypocrisy, complacency and self-loathing. Although the Hippocratic Oath doesn’t apply to priests, Schrader seems to be asking us to question the wisdom of “First, do no harm”. Aren’t we doing harm by doing nothing?" - @challenge_everything
"it's as aggressively referential as taxi driver, and overshaped into something dichotomous and thesis-like in totality, but this is nevertheless a quiet, lived-in work by schrader’s standards, trusting in hawke’s ability to evoke spiritual lack without much help beyond the gently imbalanced ways he’s framed against the correspondingly fraudulent church-cum-gift-shop locale. the transcendent flourishes are bold and rapturous, but it’s the despair that's stayed with me; poison leaks from these words and faces, each inadequate to contain or rationalise all the suffering of the earth, let alone do anything about it. a desperate, frightening film." - @no country for old wainds
"Finished First Reformed the other night, surprisingly good." - @rms
"I saw it a couple days ago, it was cool." - @Vegard Pompey
"
Ethan Hawke dominates the screen also, I hung on every word he said, and every silent scene he was in. The cinematography was also very beautiful, comfortable, it didn't mind lingering on a shot longer than the usual film would allow. It really breathes." - @CiG
Chosen by:
CiG (#1)
Slayed Necros (#2)
no country for old wainds (#3)
Vegard Pompey (#3)
challenge_everything (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 43
1) Hereditary (Dir. Ari Aster)
"thought the ending was the only good part..the work with lighting was pretty cool. the storyline seemed to become disjointed at about the hour mark and then never came full circle" - @rms
"I really did enjoy this movie. I liked it a lot more than The Witch." - @Funerary_Doom
"Hereditary is the only one out of this "top 10" that I'd want to watch again." - @Anom@nder Rake
"I can’t recall too many films that deal with grief and guilt in such a devastating way. It’s unbearable watching Toni Collette (who is just extraordinary) wrestle her trauma and almost equally so watching the corrosive effect on the other family members. A sense of imminent destruction pervades every moment of the story. Gets even better on repeat viewings, notwithstanding the slightly goofy ending." - @challenge_everything
"Hands down my favorite, I loved what the film did in with the miniaturist imagery. Exploring issues of how we really know what's inside someone/thing, and some nice meta-cinematic synecdoche going on (i.e. the miniature as metonymic stand-in for the film set)." - @Einherjar86
"that was a pretty wild trip." - @CiG
"I'm avoiding Midsommar anyway because of how bad I thought Hereditary was (watched it recently). Just can't see what people see in it. I guess it's mainly the supernatural thing - when that gets piled on more and more throughout, it starts to resemble a dream and I'm no longer invested. But even before that I couldn't suspend disbelief of what I was seeing in Hereditary, especially that death. Toni Collette was better than expected, but I found it hard to take that family of characters seriously. Seemed unintentionally goofy almost from the beginning." - @Bloopy
"i had a good time with this, but lots of people are purring over it as some devastating bergman-esque family drama and i'm over here like gabriel byrne throwing up his hands and drawling "you mean there's more than your mother's headless body. of course there is." the real tragedy here is in his desperate attempts to get his wife to come down for dinner ("I ALREADY MADE IT") or his son to stop spazzing out/hailing satan/grieving the sister he murdered and just finish his damned SAT revision." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
challenge_everything (#1)
Anom@nder Rake (#1)
Einherjar86 (#1)
Krow (#2)
Vegard Pompey (#4)
CiG (#5)
TOTAL POINTS: 52
"The comparisons to Taxi Driver are obvious, but in some ways Schrader is even more shrewd here in using a likeable, kindly priest to explore alienation rather than someone who is already an outsider like Travis Bickle. And whereas Taxi Driver really focuses on Bickle’s disillusionment and anger, First Reformed balances things by honing in on Father Ernst’s own sense of guilt, hypocrisy, complacency and self-loathing. Although the Hippocratic Oath doesn’t apply to priests, Schrader seems to be asking us to question the wisdom of “First, do no harm”. Aren’t we doing harm by doing nothing?" - @challenge_everything
"it's as aggressively referential as taxi driver, and overshaped into something dichotomous and thesis-like in totality, but this is nevertheless a quiet, lived-in work by schrader’s standards, trusting in hawke’s ability to evoke spiritual lack without much help beyond the gently imbalanced ways he’s framed against the correspondingly fraudulent church-cum-gift-shop locale. the transcendent flourishes are bold and rapturous, but it’s the despair that's stayed with me; poison leaks from these words and faces, each inadequate to contain or rationalise all the suffering of the earth, let alone do anything about it. a desperate, frightening film." - @no country for old wainds
"Finished First Reformed the other night, surprisingly good." - @rms
"I saw it a couple days ago, it was cool." - @Vegard Pompey
"
It was very layered, the contrast of a man slowly destroying his body and ignoring everybody around him trying to get him to start taking care of it, while feeling deep disgust over the way we as people are slowly destroying the planet in the face of endless warnings from activists and the scientific community reminds me of the conflict I see in Taxi Driver where a man feels deep hatred for society all the while slowly destroying himself and sinking deeper and deeper into degeneracy, becoming a microcosm of the rest of the world that he so viscerally lobs criticism at.
Still trying to figure out many things though, like the way it ended and why, what was that ending's significance if it even has any? Also, I'm surprised that the notion that First Reformed is a political film was so readily dismissed here. To me this was a film steeped in politics, a direct rebuttal to the convenience and laziness inherent in local politics that allows the average person to live in ignorance of the larger impacts of politics itself. This film was actually quite ballsy in the way it directly points the finger at the marriage of religion and corporatism that demands religious people choose money and politics over religious conviction and philosophical beliefs.
To me this film was more political than any classic political film that deals with cover-ups, elections or whatever other on-the-nose themes usually make up the political content of a film. I might get some opposition for this but First Reformed is more politically poignant than anything I've seen in awhile, because it challenges all sides of politics with no side coming out as the clear winner. It doesn't wrap up nicely and neatly, there's no conclusion or justice, instead we're just forced to think about our beliefs and ideals and for me, it forced me to actually consider why I was so disappointed that he didn't end up suicide bombing the whole church.
This is a film about an American patriot and former-military bishop who loses his son in the Iraq War (which he feels guilty about because it's a family tradition to join the military and serve) and thus he loses all meaning in his life, loses his wife, leaving himself vulnerable to radicalization which an environmentalist inadvertently does during the process of Hawke counseling him, with a new worldview which he then frames in his religious beliefs and slowly descends into a mindstate where he's willing to cause massive harm to people.
It basically plays out in the exact same way in which we're told moderate Muslims become jihadists in the middle east, after war takes their loved ones from them. First Reformed is an American-Christian jihad film, directly referencing this with a literal suicide vest as the catalyst for the events of the film.
Still trying to figure out many things though, like the way it ended and why, what was that ending's significance if it even has any? Also, I'm surprised that the notion that First Reformed is a political film was so readily dismissed here. To me this was a film steeped in politics, a direct rebuttal to the convenience and laziness inherent in local politics that allows the average person to live in ignorance of the larger impacts of politics itself. This film was actually quite ballsy in the way it directly points the finger at the marriage of religion and corporatism that demands religious people choose money and politics over religious conviction and philosophical beliefs.
To me this film was more political than any classic political film that deals with cover-ups, elections or whatever other on-the-nose themes usually make up the political content of a film. I might get some opposition for this but First Reformed is more politically poignant than anything I've seen in awhile, because it challenges all sides of politics with no side coming out as the clear winner. It doesn't wrap up nicely and neatly, there's no conclusion or justice, instead we're just forced to think about our beliefs and ideals and for me, it forced me to actually consider why I was so disappointed that he didn't end up suicide bombing the whole church.
This is a film about an American patriot and former-military bishop who loses his son in the Iraq War (which he feels guilty about because it's a family tradition to join the military and serve) and thus he loses all meaning in his life, loses his wife, leaving himself vulnerable to radicalization which an environmentalist inadvertently does during the process of Hawke counseling him, with a new worldview which he then frames in his religious beliefs and slowly descends into a mindstate where he's willing to cause massive harm to people.
It basically plays out in the exact same way in which we're told moderate Muslims become jihadists in the middle east, after war takes their loved ones from them. First Reformed is an American-Christian jihad film, directly referencing this with a literal suicide vest as the catalyst for the events of the film.
Ethan Hawke dominates the screen also, I hung on every word he said, and every silent scene he was in. The cinematography was also very beautiful, comfortable, it didn't mind lingering on a shot longer than the usual film would allow. It really breathes." - @CiG
Chosen by:
CiG (#1)
Slayed Necros (#2)
no country for old wainds (#3)
Vegard Pompey (#3)
challenge_everything (#3)
TOTAL POINTS: 43
1) Hereditary (Dir. Ari Aster)
"thought the ending was the only good part..the work with lighting was pretty cool. the storyline seemed to become disjointed at about the hour mark and then never came full circle" - @rms
"I really did enjoy this movie. I liked it a lot more than The Witch." - @Funerary_Doom
"Hereditary is the only one out of this "top 10" that I'd want to watch again." - @Anom@nder Rake
"I can’t recall too many films that deal with grief and guilt in such a devastating way. It’s unbearable watching Toni Collette (who is just extraordinary) wrestle her trauma and almost equally so watching the corrosive effect on the other family members. A sense of imminent destruction pervades every moment of the story. Gets even better on repeat viewings, notwithstanding the slightly goofy ending." - @challenge_everything
"Hands down my favorite, I loved what the film did in with the miniaturist imagery. Exploring issues of how we really know what's inside someone/thing, and some nice meta-cinematic synecdoche going on (i.e. the miniature as metonymic stand-in for the film set)." - @Einherjar86
"that was a pretty wild trip." - @CiG
"I'm avoiding Midsommar anyway because of how bad I thought Hereditary was (watched it recently). Just can't see what people see in it. I guess it's mainly the supernatural thing - when that gets piled on more and more throughout, it starts to resemble a dream and I'm no longer invested. But even before that I couldn't suspend disbelief of what I was seeing in Hereditary, especially that death. Toni Collette was better than expected, but I found it hard to take that family of characters seriously. Seemed unintentionally goofy almost from the beginning." - @Bloopy
"i had a good time with this, but lots of people are purring over it as some devastating bergman-esque family drama and i'm over here like gabriel byrne throwing up his hands and drawling "you mean there's more than your mother's headless body. of course there is." the real tragedy here is in his desperate attempts to get his wife to come down for dinner ("I ALREADY MADE IT") or his son to stop spazzing out/hailing satan/grieving the sister he murdered and just finish his damned SAT revision." - @no country for old wainds
Chosen by:
challenge_everything (#1)
Anom@nder Rake (#1)
Einherjar86 (#1)
Krow (#2)
Vegard Pompey (#4)
CiG (#5)
TOTAL POINTS: 52
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
i thought this year kinda sucked compared to most, but that's a pretty solid list overall, not a single thing i dislike. was pleased and surprised to see thunder road making it, albeit due to the lack of voters haha. the halloween remake is the only one i haven't seen, i'll have to give it a whirl.
oh yeah, sorry for being like 200 days late, @EspaDa's sister gets through husbands like fruit drops.
oh yeah, sorry for being like 200 days late, @EspaDa's sister gets through husbands like fruit drops.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
Judging by the movies I've seen so far, 2019 will blow this year out of the water. (And I haven't even seen Parasite yet!)
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
my top ten most anticipated of 2019 that i haven't seen yet, in no particular order:
parasite
deadwood: the movie
uncut gems
dragged across concrete
once upon a time in hollywood
her smell
the lighthouse
the beach bum
the irishman
fourteen (if this even gets a 2019 release)
not to mention: glass (i can't bring myself to put a shyamalan in the top ten but your rave has me hyped lol), under the silver lake (you gonna see this one pompey? it's the whiplash guy), new petzold, john wick 3, toy story 4, ad astra, midsommar, multiple hongs, new sono, new rian johnson, new denis, new almodovar, new malick, that tim heidecker thing, the casey affleck post-apocalyptic thing, new baumbach, new potrykus, the souvenir, new fessenden, new strickland, new farhadi, new bi gan, new jarmusch, new panahi, new soderbergh, new reygadas, new de palma, new bonello, new ferrara, richard stanley's color out of space, new tsukamoto, new palmason, new k. kurosawa.
my "early" number one is knife + heart, i'd recommend it to @Oblivious Maximus in particular as it's a hallucinatory, mystical, erotic giallo by way of almodovar camp.
parasite
deadwood: the movie
uncut gems
dragged across concrete
once upon a time in hollywood
her smell
the lighthouse
the beach bum
the irishman
fourteen (if this even gets a 2019 release)
not to mention: glass (i can't bring myself to put a shyamalan in the top ten but your rave has me hyped lol), under the silver lake (you gonna see this one pompey? it's the whiplash guy), new petzold, john wick 3, toy story 4, ad astra, midsommar, multiple hongs, new sono, new rian johnson, new denis, new almodovar, new malick, that tim heidecker thing, the casey affleck post-apocalyptic thing, new baumbach, new potrykus, the souvenir, new fessenden, new strickland, new farhadi, new bi gan, new jarmusch, new panahi, new soderbergh, new reygadas, new de palma, new bonello, new ferrara, richard stanley's color out of space, new tsukamoto, new palmason, new k. kurosawa.
my "early" number one is knife + heart, i'd recommend it to @Oblivious Maximus in particular as it's a hallucinatory, mystical, erotic giallo by way of almodovar camp.
Einherjar86
Active Member
I'm guessing that Parasite will be my top choice for 2019. Definitely beats out The Lighthouse, which was a high bar.
CiG
Relaxer
For 2020 I'm looking forward to the new Mann with Hugh Jackman and that new Park Chan-wook that was written by Zahler called The Brigands of Rattlecreek. Still a bazillion things I need to see from this year though, I'll be playing catch up most of next year at this rate.
Regarding this year's strength, I feel very passionately about my top 3 films, they offer a lot in terms of rewatching, and each is visually stunning. Sometimes a year will only give me a single film that makes me feel like that, so I can't complain.
Regarding this year's strength, I feel very passionately about my top 3 films, they offer a lot in terms of rewatching, and each is visually stunning. Sometimes a year will only give me a single film that makes me feel like that, so I can't complain.
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
just having a look at some 2020 most anticipated lists. new armando iannucci movie will always pique my interest. a todd haynes movie with ruffalo, pullman, robbins and hathaway, that's a pretty powerhouse cast, that'll win some oscars lol. the upgrade guy is doing an invisible man movie starring elizabeth moss, that's pretty nuts. jordan peele is writing a candyman remake/sequel for some reason. lmao a bob's burgers movie? a psychological horror from edgar wright sounds fun. there's gonna be another david gordon green halloween movie as well apparently. zemeckis is doing an adaptation of dahl's the witches?! let's hope he ends it better than roeg did. oh and there's villeneuve's dune of course. lol at steven spielberg's west side story. an 'alien at the bottom of the sea' movie starring kristen stewart is something i will absolutely watch, and there's another turn of the screw adaptation which is a story i like a lot.
CiG
Relaxer
Will you do a 2019 thread? This one was very helpful for me actually, helps to narrow down the field of films to prioritise if they sit at the top of a lot of lists.
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,556
- 9,575
- 113
CiG
Relaxer
Oblivious Maximus
I am the worm
It actually doesn't look half-bad but the abusive ex angle is very reminiscent of a movie called 100 Feet with Famke Janssen. And there's an effect in that trailer that's very Hollow Man. Hopefully this new Invisible Man will remind more people to watch Hollow Man. Verhoeven's nun movie should be out next year.
Oh, I've seen other people recommend Knife + Heart. All about seeing Color Out of Space, Pain and Glory and hopefully Lux Æterna gets some kind of distribution next year.
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