While 2018 was certainly a great year for both genre and blockbuster films, the same can’t as easily be said for the arthouse scene. There was no Birdman. No Moonlight. Nothing truly able to commandeer the national conversation. Considering this along with the Academy’s tumultuous rollout of the big night’s broadcast (from host issues to idiotic decisions regarding what awards to actually air), tonight’s show is definitely going to be one for the books, for better or worse. As always, few of my favorites of the year are actually represented among the nominees, and so below I present to you my five favorite films of the year, along with my projections of tonight’s winners. I hope you enjoy, find some inspiration, and maybe even discover a film you love that you would have otherwise missed. Oh, and Hail Paimon.
5. MANDY
Starring a completely unhinged Nicolas Cage – who I have always cherished and always will – Mandy was 2018’s ultimate revenge film. Cage plays Red Miller, who lives a quaint life with his wife Mandy until an eccentric cult leader becomes obsessed with her and, with the help of an acid-fueled sadomasochistic biker gang, winds up burning her alive in front of him. That’s how it starts. By the end, Cage is lighting cigarettes with the flaming, decapitated heads of his victims. If that doesn’t sound amazing to you, what does? If you’re familiar with Panos Cosmatos’ films, you’re well aware the Academy would never touch it, regardless of their bullshit rules about VOD premieres. And yet, no director nominated this year even came close to achieving what Cosmatos did. By shooting with an anamorphic lens on 35mm film, Cosmatos was able to distort and manipulate his images to such an extent that you’ll often feel like you’re on acid yourself. Despite all of its gruesome and action-packed moments, the film progresses excruciatingly slowly, forcing your eye to pore over every inch of the screen and lulling you into a sort of fever dream. There are even animated sequences, and the landscape Cage traverses slowly morphs from the recognizable Pacific Northwest into a gnarled, magic-realist hellscape like something out of He-Man. When the credits finally rolled, I realized my mouth had been hanging wide open. Who knows for how long. It’s that hypnotic. While Mandy certainly isn’t for everyone, it still garnered a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and secured a Best Cinematography nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. All this was achieved within a 6 million dollar budget, which I can hardly believe. For reference, A Star is Born cost fucking 40. And it didn’t even have one chainsaw fight.
4. BLACKKKLANSMAN
I am thoroughly ashamed to admit that this was my first Spike Lee film. I didn’t even see that Oldboy remake. I read about Bamboozled in a film history class, but those few textbook paragraphs comprised the sum of my knowledge of Lee’s filmography. I promise to remedy that. For those living under a rock, BlacKkKlansman chronicles the story of Ron Stallworth, the first black officer in the Colorado Spring Police Department, and his Jewish partner Flip Zimmerman as they infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Due to its masterful pacing, deft use of humor, incredible cinematography/editing (the civil rights rally scene being foremost on my mind), and harrowing timeliness, BlacKkKlansman has my vote for Best Picture. It’s just such a great, well-rounded, and impactful film. I also hope Lee wins Best Director. It’s his first nomination, and I do (unpopularly) believe in legacy awards. Ending the film with footage from the despicable Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017 was a particularly inspired and bold decision that left the entire theater speechless. If you haven’t seen BlacKkKlansman yet, it is the most pressing film on this list by far. Get on it.
3. ANNIHILATION
Annihilation is the latest offering from Alex Garland, writer/director of Ex Machina and writer of 28 Days Later. It is, by far, his most polarizing work yet. Based on the book of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, it follows a team of 4 female scientists into a quarantined zone surrounding the site of a meteor crash. Dubbed “The Shimmer,” this iridescent landscape turns out to fragment and refract DNA, yielding terrifying results including a hybrid alligator/shark and a bear with human screams. While the book is the first in a trilogy, Garland designed the film as a stand-alone story and only read the book once, citing his urge to build the film around the feelings and images the book evoked. So he was already guaranteed pissed off fans of the novel. That combined with numbskull marketing that inaccurately presented it as a horror movie yielded quite mixed reviews. But make no mistake – Annihilation was 2018’s boldest and most enrapturing science fiction offering. Its ambiguous ending didn’t help its chances much, but allowed the audience the opportunity to construct their own theories. Mine? Cancer – the Shimmer being the tumor. I’ll leave it at that. And don’t even get me started on the score. Once lead actress Natalie Portman makes it to the lighthouse (the site of the crash), the score makes a complete, other-wordly 180 (you can hear some of it in the trailer below). When this one was over, I had to pick my jaw up from the theater floor.
2. HEREDITARY
It’s hard to write about Hereditary without saying too much, so I’ll do my best to keep this brief. It was inarguably 2018’s “scariest” movie. I am a firm believer in objectivity and this statement is just a fact. It also contained therein 2018’s best performance by way of Toni Collette. Part of what makes it so scary is just how stunning she is. I can tell you that the story follows a family that experiences unimaginable trauma, and that trauma was unavoidable and meticulously orchestrated to such an extent that the film demands repeat viewings. Something happens halfway through that I honestly couldn’t believe. I can tell you that the final scene is so intense that I actually found myself holding my breath. And I can also tell you that if you didn’t think any of these things, it’s because you are an underdeveloped child that probably laughs at nudity like the simpletons in my theater did. Finally, I can tell you that this is writer/director Ari Aster’s first film, and that he already announced his next will be in the same thematic vein. So, in summation, down with the Academy for snubbing Toni Collette, and, as always, Hail Paimon.
1. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT
The House That Jack Built is the latest opus from embattled Danish auteur Lars von Trier (Antichrist, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark). It follows serial killer Jack, played by Matt Dillon, as he narrates “five randomly selected incidents over a 12 year period.” This is the film that caused over 100 walk-outs at Cannes due to its depiction of the mutilation of children. And I loved every goddamn second of it. What many audiences failed to recognize is that Jack is an avatar for von Trier himself, and Jack’s work as a serial killer directly mirrors von Trier’s career. As it turns out, Jack isn’t narrating, but rather attempting to justify his actions to the poet Virgil, who is guiding him through Hell à la Dante’s Inferno. Jack sees his work as art, and believes violence can reach the most divine heights of artistic expression (remember – this is really von Trier talking here). Virgil is us, the audience, who rightfully challenges Jack’s sick compulsions at every turn. It is a film about self-awareness, something I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of. It is rife with the typical von Trier tropes – long allegorical asides and extended metaphors that stand in for narrative progression. When Jack can’t quite explain himself, he will instead wax poetically about the significance of the invention of the pointed arch, or how wine is to be properly stored, and even proper hunting rules when killing a family of deer. It is undoubtedly von Trier’s greatest work, so much so that it even includes flashes from his previous films. It ends with a total and literal self-damnation that is achieved so beautifully that I was brought to tears. I urge you to challenge yourself and experience this film. It’s so good that even Uma came out of virtual hiding to be in it.
Even. Uma.
Oscar Predictions
What/who I WANT to win will be italicized,
What/who I THINK will win will be in bold.
If they coincide, italics + bold.
Not all technical categories are represented – this is not because I find them lesser, I just don’t have a dog in their fight.
P.S. Bohemian Rhapsody was studio garbage.
P.P.S. A lot of money has been filtered into the A Star is Born Oscar campaign. Don’t trust that shit.
P.P.P.S. The Academy only nominated Black Panther for Best Picture to up the broadcast’s viewership. Don’t trust that shit either.
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
CHRISTIAN BALE – Vice
BRADLEY COOPER – A Star Is Born
WILLEM DAFOE – At Eternity’s Gate
RAMI MALEK – Bohemian Rhapsody
VIGGO MORTENSEN – Green Book
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MAHERSHALA ALI – Green Book
ADAM DRIVER – BlacKkKlansman
SAM ELLIOTT – A Star Is Born
RICHARD E. GRANT – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
SAM ROCKWELL – Vice
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
YALITZA APARICIO – Roma
GLENN CLOSE – The Wife
OLIVIA COLMAN – The Favourite
LADY GAGA – A Star Is Born
MELISSA MCCARTHY – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
AMY ADAMS – Vice
MARINA DE TAVIRA – Roma
REGINA KING – If Beale Street Could Talk
EMMA STONE – The Favourite
RACHEL WEISZ – The Favourite
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
INCREDIBLES 2 – Brad Bird, John Walker and Nicole Paradis Grindle
ISLE OF DOGS – Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson
MIRAI – Mamoru Hosoda and Yuichiro Saito
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET – Rich Moore, Phil Johnston and Clark Spencer
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
CINEMATOGRAPHY
COLD WAR – Łukasz Żal
THE FAVOURITE – Robbie Ryan
NEVER LOOK AWAY – Caleb Deschanel
ROMA – Alfonso Cuarón
A STAR IS BORN – Matthew Libatique
DIRECTING
BLACKKKLANSMAN – Spike Lee
COLD WAR – Paweł Pawlikowski
THE FAVOURITE – Yorgos Lanthimos
ROMA – Alfonso Cuarón
VICE – Adam McKay
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
FREE SOLO – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim
MINDING THE GAP – Bing Liu and Diane Quon
OF FATHERS AND SONS – Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert
RBG – Betsy West and Julie Cohen
FILM EDITING
BLACKKKLANSMAN – Barry Alexander Brown
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – John Ottman
THE FAVOURITE – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
GREEN BOOK – Patrick J. Don Vito
VICE – Hank Corwin
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
CAPERNAUM – Lebanon
COLD WAR – Poland
NEVER LOOK AWAY – Germany
ROMA – Mexico
SHOPLIFTERS – Japan
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS – Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
BLACKKKLANSMAN – Written by Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? – Screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK – Written for the screen by Barry Jenkins
A STAR IS BORN – Screenplay by Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
THE FAVOURITE – Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
FIRST REFORMED – Written by Paul Schrader
GREEN BOOK – Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
ROMA – Written by Alfonso Cuarón
VICE – Written by Adam McKay
BEST PICTURE
BLACK PANTHER – Kevin Feige, Producer
BLACKKKLANSMAN – Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee, Producers
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – Graham King, Producer
THE FAVOURITE – Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday and Yorgos Lanthimos, Producers
GREEN BOOK – Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga, Producers
ROMA – Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón, Producers
A STAR IS BORN – Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper and Lynette Howell Taylor, Producers
VICE – Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers
tastebreakers 