REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2018

It's that time of the year again (the start of a new one) when I look back at the films I saw between Jan 1st 2018 and December 31st 2018 and award my honours for the year ended. For newcomers to these 'prizes' I will explain that the films may have been released in 2017 or sometimes even a year or so earlier but which I am seeing for the first time in the last calendar year so please no comebacks saying these are 'old' films. Let me have my place in the sun and humour an old man. When I combined films released this year and those from 2017 that I saw for the first time it turned out to be a pretty nifty 12 months of movie-watching, thanks in no small measure to the likes of Netflix and especially Mubi. 

It was a particularly good year for international cinema, (i.e. movies in a 'foreign' language), as well as independent American cinema but a poor one for indigenous British cinema. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was only British by a margin over the other countries involved in its making, ("The Wife" also fell into this category). Probably the best actual totally British film was Sally Potter's "The Party". Ireland, however, gave us "Black '47" and the magnificent documentary "A Cambodian Spring" directed by fellow Derryman Christopher Kelly.


There were some superb performances but overall this was not really an actor's year.  I chose Nahuel Perez Biscayart as my best actor for his fearless work in "120 BPM" with Rupert Everett running a close second in "The Happy Prince". I was also very impressed with the work of Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread", Jonathan Pryce in "The Wife", Ben Foster in "Leave No Trace" and Robert Pattinson in the remarkable "Good Time". My best actress choice was a no-brainer; Glenn Close did what is almost certainly her best ever work in "The Wife" though those old stalwarts Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Kate Winslett and Sally Hawkins, (in both "Maudie" and "The Shape of Water") were all outstanding.

It was also nice to see new directors come to the fore; Chloe Zhao and Valeska Grisebach shared my most promising director award though the Safdie brothers, Greta Gerwig or Ari Aster could just as easily have taken this one.  Good comedies, thrillers and musicals were thin on the ground and apart from "Isle of Dogs" I didn't see any animated films that impressed me. It was also a very disappointing year for LGBT cinema. I found "A Fantastic Woman" to be overrated while neither "The Wound" nor "Beach Rats" did anything new while "B&B" was truly dreadful. However, it was a great year for westerns, whether they came from Australia, ("Sweet Country"), Ireland, ("Black '47") or America, ("Hostiles" and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"). It was also good finally to see Demy's "The Bay of Angels" and Forman's "A Blonde in Love". As for the biggest turkey? What was Eastwood thinking of when he made "The 15:17 to Paris"?

Here now is the full list of my honours for 2018 as well as ten turkeys.


 Best Film from any source: ROMA (Mexico, Cuaron)
Best American Film: PHANTOM THREAD (Anderson)
Best British Film: THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (Lanthimos)

Best Director: Pawel Pawlikowski for COLD WAR (Poland)
Best Actor: Nahuel Perez Biscayart for 120 BPM (Campillo, France) (Runner-up Rupert Everett for THE HAPPY PRINCE)
Best Actress: Glenn Close for THE WIFE (Runge, GB) (Runner-up Kate Winslett for WONDER WHEEL)
Best Supporting Actor: Adam Driver for BLACKKKLANSMAN (Lee, USA) (Runner-up Sam Rockwell for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE OF EPPING, MISSOURI)
Best Supporting Actress: Lesley Manville for PHANTOM THREAD. (Runner-up Patricia Clarkson for THE PARTY)

Best Original Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for GOOD TIME, (Safdie, USA) (Runner-up Joel and Ethan Coen for THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee for BLACKKKLANSMAN. (Runner-Up Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for LEAVE NO TRACE)

Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel for THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (Coen, USA) (Runners-Up Lukasz Zal for COLD WAR; Alfonso Cuaron for ROMA and Vittorio Storaro for WONDER WHEEL)
Best Art Direction: Paul D Austerberry and Nigel Churcher for THE SHAPE OF WATER (Del Toro, USA)
Best Costume Design: Mark Bridges for PHANTOM THREAD.

Best Film Editing: Ronald Bronstien and Benny Safdie for GOOD TIME.
Best Sound Recording: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY (Howard, USA)
Best Special Effects: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY.
Best Score: Jonny Greenwood for PHANTOM THREAD.

Most Promising Director: (tie) Chloe Zhao for THE RIDER (USA) and Valeska Grisebach for WESTERN (Germany)
Most Promising Actor: Barry Keoghan for AMERICAN ANIMALS (Layton, USA), BLACK '47 (Daly, Ireland) and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER.
Most Promising Actress: (tie) Thomasin McKenzie for LEAVE NO TRACE and Vicky Krieps for PHANTOM THREAD.

Best Comedy: GAME NIGHT (Daley and Goldstein, USA)
Best Thriller: AMERICAN ANIMALS.
Best Musical: MAMA MIA; HERE WE GO AGAIN (Parker, GB)
Best Horror Film: HEREDITARY (Aster, USA)
Best Western: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS
Best Documentary: A CAMBODIAN SPRING (Kelly, Ireland)
Best Animation: ISLE OF DOGS (Anderson, USA)
Best Action/Adventure: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY.
Best War Film: N/A

Most Overrated Films: A STAR IS BORN (Cooper, USA) and ZAMA (Martel, Argentina)
Most Underrated Films: THE WIFE and WONDER WHEEL.
Most Neglected Films: HOUNDS OF LOVE (Young, Australia) and SWEET COUNTRY (Thornton, Australia)
Most Imaginative Film: THE NOTHING FACTORY (Pinho, Portugal)
Most Disappointing Film: THE DEATH OF STALIN (Iannucci, UK)
Most Distasteful Film: PATRIOT'S DAY (Berg, USA)

Best Classics Seen for the First Time: THE BAY OF ANGELS, (Demy, France), A BLONDE IN LOVE (Forman, Czecholovakia) and CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER (Morin and Rouch, France)
Best Rediscovery: MAGNIFICENT DOLL (Borzage, USA)

and finally 10 Turkeys: 1) 15:17 TO PARIS (Eastwood, USA) 2) LE FORT DES FOUS (Mari, France) 3) LOST RIVER (2014) (Gosling, USA), 4) MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Branagh, GB), 5) PAPILLION (Noer, Spain), 6) B&B (Aherene, GB) 7) BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (Cox, USA) 8) THE GREEN ROOM (2015) (Saulnier, USA) 9) THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (Gracey, USA) and 10) AVENGERS; INFINITY WAR (Russo, USA)