Friday Five: Favourite Films of 2018

Once again the 'rules': I have to have seen the film; It has to have been released in 2018 in the country in which I was living; the films are listed in alphabetical order; I can have more than five if I want to; there will be honourable mentions.

7 Favourite Films of 2018:

1. The Death of Stalin – What a brilliant concept to have all the lead players in a drama about the death of Stalin talk with their natural regional accents. Armando Iannucci is arguably the greatest writer and director of black comedy, and this is a highlight among many of his career. With a plethora of character actors, he turns fear into farce with one of the most sophisticated screenplays likely to grace the screen this year.
2. The Favourite – Acting; direction (Yorgos Lanthimos); screenplay; storytelling; plot; dialogue; cinematography; musical score; costumes; hair & make-up; locations – all superb. The juxtaposition of courtly early-18^th-century speech with more modern vernacular creates moments of great humour, also applicable to manners and that ballroom dance, which is just sublime. The cinematography and camera angles enhance the feeling of disorientation, as does the score which, while a bit unsettling in his previous The Lobster and completely irritating in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, is entirely appropriate here as it ratchets up the tension and highlights the drama. Too often directors patronise audiences, but Lanthimos credits us with enough intelligence not to have to provide tedious backstory or exposition. Everything we need to know about these characters is self-contained within the film, and what characters they are! Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are all excellent, and how refreshing it is to see a film where women for once are front and centre and the men, no matter how good they are (and they are good), are peripheral to the action. My only quibble is that the font used for the end credits is very difficult to read.
3. I, Tonya – This is a gripping ‘based-on-the-true-story’ tale of the famous ice-skating stoush between Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) and Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver). But in director Craig Gillespie’s vision it becomes more of a story of adversity of class and parentage with the forceful character of Tonya’s mother (Allison Janney) pushing her down as much as she hauls her up. There are multiple versions of the same ‘incident’, which makes this more interesting than a straightforward biopic, but also creates a few tonal inconsistencies (domestic violence is never a laughing matter).
4. Lady Bird  – This is a wonderful film directed by Greta Gerwig about a young woman (Saoirse Ronan), wanting to escape the metaphorical maternal straitjacket enforced upon her by mother (Laurie Metcalf). After watching the characters develop individually and into a respectful understanding of how to handle the world around them through art and adventure, relationships and romance, I was saddened to hear comments that this was a woman’s film, with the director only Oscar-nominated due to gender inclusion and that it would not appeal to men at all. And that is why we need more films like this. 
5. Leave No Trace – Moments of tenderness nestle alongside no-nonsense survival techniques in this examination of what it means to care for someone else when you’re struggling to care for yourself. Director Debra Granik mines every nuance from the formidable setting of the forests of Portland, Oregon and the performances of the father (Ben Foster as Will) and daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) duo. Post-traumatic stress disorder has rarely been handled so sensitively.
6. Peterloo – I've wanted to see this film since I first heard about it. Mike Leigh directs a stellar cast of Northerners (including Rory Kinnear and Maxine Peake) in the lead-up to and consequences of this Manchester massacre, saying only they could feel it in their soul. Films like this make me miss Pete Postlethwaite more than ever. It's epic in a good way with well-placed silences and heartfelt speeches. From a time when the desire for universal suffrage seemed radical, the ruling class treated the workers as scum, and rights to habeas corpus were removed at will... haven't we come a long way?
7. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri – I saw this film on New Year’s Day 2018 (release date in Australia) and joked that it was the best film I had seen all year. On New Year’s Eve, it still is. Witty script and dialogue combine with the black humour and subtle acerbic tone we’ve come to expect from Martin McDonagh. Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, and Samara Weaving are excellent (in fact only Abbie Cornish stands out as a weak link). The switches from laugh out loud to bleak tragedy are whip-smart and heart-wrenching. Nothing is expected; nothing is resolved in this superb example of letting an audience make up their own mind without being spoonfed a solution.

Honourable Mentions:

The Happy Prince – Well, I liked it! I found the performances powerful (Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde, Colin Morgan as Lord Alfred, Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross, and Emily Watson as Constance), the direction astute (also Rupert Everett), and the writing sensitive and poignant (once again, our Rupert). My companions found it 'dull', 'annoying' and 'full of people eating food in expensive restaurants and whining about not having any money'. I guess it takes all sorts.

Madame Hyde – If you wanted to make a film about the mind-altering, personality-changing effects of menopause complete with hot flushes and flashes of uncontrollable rage, you could do worse than apply the fantasy elements of the Jekyll and Hyde narrative in a low budget film about a chemistry teacher. Especially if you’re French (director: Serge Bozon) and Isabelle Huppert is your titular character.

Molly's Game – Jessica Chastain can do anything. Here she does gambling for increasingly higher stakes (with clients including actors, sports stars, business tycoons and mobsters) until she is arrested by the FBI. As Molly Bloom, an ex-Olympic skier whose career was cut short in a freakishly bad wipe-out, she relishes competition and she understands risk. Her performance is thoughtful and compelling, no matter what your attitude toward the moralities of betting. She narrates her story in all its flashback detail to her defence lawyer played with similar lack of hyperbole by Idris Elba. It also contains some great dialogue, as one would expect from a film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, including this: ‘This courthouse is located within spitting distance of Wall Street. I know this from my personal experience trying to spit at it. The men and women who work there will commit more serious crimes by lunchtime today than the defendant has committed in this indictment.’

Phantom Thread – Daniel Day Lewis is never anything less than completely imposing. His OCD tailor with control issues, Reynolds Woodcock, is forceful, but so is his imperious sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville). When he invites fresh-faced young model Alma (Vicky Krieps) into their house to become his muse and lover, it appears as though she doesn’t stand a chance. She is, however, able to give as good as she gets, as all the characters prove to be contemptible but compelling. Paul Thomas Anderson directs a silence beautifully – the breakfast table becomes a battlefield – and the break-out from the obedient woman-as-dummy role attests that one size does not fit all.

A Quiet Place – Despite the number of problematic elements (If you know that noise is going to kill you; why would you get pregnant?), this was an enjoyable thriller/ horror, mainly down to the characterisation – the audience gets to care about the individuals (even the children!) – and the acting. Emily Blunt is always exceptional and her on-screen (and real life) husband, John Krasinski also directed and co-wrote the film. Finding moments of tenderness in the midst of tension is difficult but dramatized well here.