2018 Capsule Reviews

Isle of Dogs

rating: *****

review: The movie that definitively made me appreciate Wes Anderson, his second stop-motion animated flick, about a nightmare scenario striking a Japanese city which exiles all its dogs to "Trash Island," and the courageous dogs (and humans!) who struggle to save the day.  Packed with Anderson's trademark ability to collect great stars to his projects, including what's now my favorite Bryan Cranston performance as Chief, the unlikely leader of this pack.  The whole film is amazing, including a perfect soundtrack.

The Death of Stalin

rating: *****

review: What do you get when filmmakers take the Monty Python approach to Soviet Russia?  I think the answer ought to be obvious: an instant classic.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

rating: *****

review: The media found a perfect storm of scandals to break the appeal of this series, whether it was J.K. Rowling, Ezra Miller, or Johnny Depp, who took center stage in this middle installment as Grindelwald, with Jude Law debuting as the young Dumbledore.  Competes with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as the definitive cinematic installment in the franchise, for me anyway.  Completely brilliant.

The Old Man & the Gun

rating: *****

review: For nearly everyone else David Lowery is still trying really hard to impress them, but for me he's very easily one of today's best filmmakers.  I really thought he'd reach that point with this latter-day starring role for Robert Redford, but 2018 in general was kind of a black hole, a transition, a singularity leading to the present day, in which the old rules simply no longer apply.  

Solo: A Star Wars Story

rating: ****

review: For most Star Wars fans, my opinions are the exact opposite of mainstream opinion.  Just recently, I thought Rogue One was basically an abomination, and the sequels were brilliant.  And I loved Solo, exactly what the character Han Solo needed to solidify his legacy, including an extremely clever interpretation of the old Kessel run record he bragged about in his first appearance.  If ever Star Wars truly became more than just the Skywalker saga (sorry, Mandalorian fans), this is what it looks like when Han takes center stage, and exactly how it ought.

Damsel

rating: ****

review: The Robert Pattinson career revival that led to his successfully starring in The Batman last year continued, quietly, with this oddball western, with Pattinson thoroughly embracing his inner Brad Pitt in a gonzo performance thoroughly worth experiencing.

Super Troopers 2

rating: ****

review: I didn't really get into the Broken Lizard boys until Club Dread, so the first Super Troopers had for a long time been a comedy milestone for other movie fans.  I was more than ready for this late sequel, however, especially thanks to all the Canadian humor infused into the shenanigans.

The Favourite

rating: ****

review: Director Yorgos Lanthimos first landed on my radar with his previous standout collaborations with Colin Farrell, including the classic The Lobster.  He had me without Farrell thanks to his including Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone in this one.  Dude knows how to pick, and showcase, his stars.

Dark Crimes

rating: ****

review: Jim Carrey's brief comeback began with this obscure thriller in which he commits to a serious character role, which he nails.  In career overviews, hopefully it'll garner more attention later.

Gringo

rating: ****

review: A classic ensemble farce lampooning corporate nonsense.  Another movie that demands a much wider and acclaimed reputation.  This year was full of 'em.

Tag

rating: ****

review: Famously the movie that broke Jeremy Renner's arms (he's had some terrible luck, okay?) and limiting his resulting chances to be featured heavily in the later Avengers movies (but was that really ever going to happen?), but well worth it.  A classic comedy.

Holmes and Watson

rating: ****

review: Ferrell and Reilly team together for another classic.  Reputation certainly suggests otherwise.  But...people developed increasingly poor taste.  Keep reading the list, okay?

The Yellow Birds

rating: ****

review: A who's who of great young actors (Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston) power this war drama.

Woman Walks Ahead

rating: ****

review: Jessica Chastain's whole career kind of falls into the black hole of this era, and so this movie certainly was completely overlooked.  With a voice likes hers you'd think she'd only have so much range, but she always surprises.  If she's somehow not enough for you, there's also Sam Rockwell.

Operation: Finale

rating: ****

review: Sometimes it really seems that what people are telling you and what they possibly really believe are in fact two different things.  Here's another movie that should have been a huge deal, as Oscar Isaac goes Nazi hunting in South America.  Riveting, with a signature turn from Ben Kingsley to push things along.

Sorry to Bother You

rating: ****

review: LaKeith Stanfield had a breakthrough year (he also had a small but striking supporting role in The Girl in Spider's Web), headlined by this wicked satire.

Peppermint

rating: ****

review: If you'd asked me twenty years ago if it was at all possible to completely take Jennifer Garner for granted, I would never have believed you.  She attempts a comeback that strongly evokes Alias (or at least her acting in it), and that's how it's greeted.  Figures.

Paul, Apostle of Christ

rating: ****

review: Jim Caviezel's second biblical epic drew considerably less attention (here he's only Luke, alas, and by the end of the film really just a supporting player), but a pretty impactful experience, once you let it sink into you.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

rating: ***

review: The opening scene is so mesmerizing, I really haven't been able to make it through the rest of the movie even now.  Seems more of a spotlight for Benicio del Toro than Josh Brolin.  I'm okay with that.  Will eventually experience the whole thing!

The Girl in the Spider's Web

rating: ***

review: Once I got into Lisbeth Salander, I saw her as a true modern icon.  Book buyers bought and then abandoned her, and this second of her two American movies didn't make much of an impact, and yet she remains compelling, for me.

Can You Ever Really Forgive Me?

rating: ***

review: The downslope of Melissa McCarthy's sudden wave of massive popularity was precipitous; this excellent dramatic spotlight was paired in 2018 by the movie that finally did it in, which you'll find later on in this list.

Vice

rating: ***

review: Adam McKay's biting political bio wasn't bold enough for the viewers who wanted him to really savage Cheney (and/or Bush), but I figure it did its job well enough.

Widows

rating: ***

review: I think ultimately its sprawling cast of standout performances overwhelms the overall experience.  But what a cast!

Stan & Ollie

rating: ***

review: Y'know, Laurel & Hardy.  This biopic is perhaps a little too depressing in its spotlight of their declining years.  But well worth experiencing as a tribute to their enduring appeal.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

rating: ***

review: Paul Rudd is such a great hand, it's easy to forget why he's generally not really considered a leading man.  This is even more obvious in the recent third installment, but in this second one, there's plenty of assisting parts, including an upgrade so Marvel could claim it used its female characters better than its record had really stated by this point. 

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

rating: ***

review: Ah!  Right!  The infamous Henry Cavill role that produced the mustache!  Tom Cruise had developed a nasty habit in this series to curb the wider appeal of any potential usurpers (Jeremy Renner, previous victim, Ghost Protocol), and Cavill's best scene, preparing for a fight in a restroom, showcased in the trailers, is relegated to much less impressive results in the film itself, and of course a reveal as one of the bad guys.  But I really do love this series.

Avengers: Infinity War

rating: ***

review: Elsewhere on this blog you can see where my original thoughts were considerably more positive, but hindsight places the best sequence, and the only one I really think fondly about, in Steve Rogers' dramatic comeback.  Otherwise, dramatically underscores all the failings of the MCU to be anything more than throwaway entertainment.  

Venom

rating: ***

review: Hey, I'll follow Tom Hardy anywhere!  Typically great performance.  Rest of the film around him...well, it's there, anyway.

Aquaman

rating: ***

review: I just haven't really gotten around to revisiting it.  I love Jason Momoa's Aquaman.  But he doesn't feel as electric as he does in (either cut of) Justice League, here.  Role of a lifetime all the same.

Deadpool 2/Once Upon a Deadpool

rating: ***

review: The novelty of Ryan Reynolds getting to have the first one made overlooks that the results are seriously obnoxious, without anything around the performance remotely capable of or interested in balancing it out.  This second one has Zazie Beetz as Domino.  It's pretty much enough.

Ocean's 8

rating: ***

review: Well worth revisiting the formula with an all-female all star cast.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

rating: ***

review: Cate Blanchett and Jack Black as wizards in this kind of alternate take on Harry Potter (based on a book that predates Harry Potter, to be clear).  Well worth the look.

Tom Raider

rating: ***

review: Goodness, Alicia Vikander deserves a far larger legacy than she ended up getting.  This take on Lara Croft is far more credible than its two cinematic predecessors, and not just because it's based on later entries in the game series that grounded our hero more in the real world.  Last year's Uncharted shows where this one really fell short of the mark: besides Vikander, there's not much else to see.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

rating: **

review: Endure the stuff happening around it if you want to see Nic Cage officially as Superman!

Early Man

rating: **

review: A kind of disappointing creative follow-up from the genius creator of Wallace & Gromit.

Black Panther

rating: **

review: I still don't get why the character of Black Panther itself isn't considered hugely embarrassing, but it seems a sizable portion of both black and white audiences prefer a fantastical vision of Africa, and an African hero, to represent the best hopes of black people in America, than anything else.  In any other setting, this would work much better.  As the most famous and successful black superhero (at least at the movies), I just don't get it.  Might still end up the most enduring artifact of the MCU era.  If so, its legacy should grow accordingly.  As part of the MCU, it's just ridiculous.

Crazy Rich Asians

rating: **

review: Credited with raising the profile of Asians in American film (but somehow it took until last year's Everything Everywhere All at Once to have any kind of follow-up), but really just another fever dream of obscene wealth.

Robin Hood

rating: **

review: A fun update but decidedly a lower register than the Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe versions that preceded it.  I mean, is Taron Egerton ever going to be considered to portray a father figure to Superman???

Skyscraper

rating: **

review: The movie all those recent critics of Dwayne Johnson doing the same thing every movie most ignore (from his recent output), a decent effort at making him more human, but kind of focusing too much on the dramatic heroics to really qualify.

Death Wish

rating: **

review: Bruce Willis's last shot at a mainstream hit is a remake that doesn't really know how to spotlight him.

The Sisters Brothers

rating: **

review: A screwball buddy western that looks too grim to really soak in its comedic potential.  Or I just need to watch it again.

Mary Queen of Scots

rating: **

review: I probably really, really need to revisit this one, as it seems to waste both Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan.  How is that even possible???

Annihilation

rating: **

review: Much buzzed about, but mostly a wasted cast in a movie of total nonsense.

You Were Never Really Here

rating: **

review: Basically the exact experience of Joaquin Phoenix's Joker.  But worse.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

rating: **

review: Great animation (of the kind later put to equally stellar work in The Mitchells vs. the Machines), but otherwise lost in spastic storytelling.

A Star is Born

rating: **

review: The zenith of Bradley Cooper's star power from the unexpected huge success of American Sniper boils down to one really great song ("Shallow") and a spotlight for Lady Gaga, eating up with all her insecurities any decent chance for Cooper himself to stand out.  Well, she fits in House of Gucci much, much better.

BlacKkKlansman

rating: **

review: Spike Lee's comeback is by most rights a seminal experience with a number of great performances, from John David Washington and Adam Driver, but the results, at least for me, are completely sabotaged by the horrendous afro Washington sports throughout, which looks more like a turban than hair.  I mean...unless there was somehow a point being made, did nobody notice that?  At all?

Mary Poppins Returns

rating: **

review: Did no one notice in this one that the songs in it are not even remotely reminiscent of the ones in the original?  And if they're not...what is even the point???

Bumblebee

rating: **

review: A lot of viewers thought this one corrected the mistakes of the Michael Bay era.  But the results are basically exactly the same as the Michael Bay era.  But without the Michael Bay magic.  So...

The Happytime Murders

rating: **

review: I really, really wanted to like this.  But the absence of a truly sympathetic, comedic lead pseudo Muppet robs this Melissa McCarthy vehicle of rewatch appeal.  A fine thing for what it is, but in this case, probably rightly roundly rejected on release.

Ready Player One

rating: **

review: Modern Spielberg is desperate to please, and here's his shot at adapting a popular book.  It's not Harry Potter.

The Hurricane Heist

rating: *

review: My first viewing suggested a surprisingly amateurish experience.  Wanted to be kind of like the Fast & Furious films.  Fell well short of the mark.