So, let's get on with it then...
A Quiet Place
Smaller horror films with simple yet clever premises have been having a renaissance of sorts in the last few years and this was 2018's first offering in that category. Who would have expected The Office's John Krasinski, who wrote, directed, and starred, to craft such a masterfully tense monster movie? But it worked by clearly establishing the rules of its story and playing fair with them, meaning all it took was a few stray noises to snap the audience's awareness into focus and coil their spine with terror. Good performances helped, with Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and the two child actors giving their A-game. Especially impressive because all the roles are effectively silent for the complete runtime. My only real complaint is that when the monsters' weakness is revealed, it stretched believability that no one figured it out before they wiped out humanity. But even that doesn't detract from the quality of A Quiet Place.
Annihilation
Director Alex Garland followed up his excellent 2014 film Ex Machina with this sci-fi thriller(?) and if he didn't top himself, he at least got close. Though a bit too slow and meditative for some, Annihilation made up for it with some astonishing visuals as Natalie Portman and her team of scientists delve deeper into the affected zone. It's a movie that's always keeping you guessing, never sure of where it's going to go, what the characters' true motivations are, or even what the truth of what we're experiencing is, and I mean that as a compliment. It's a kaleidoscope of a movie, drawing you deeper in as it goes along. But even if its trippiness isn't to your taste, there's some good horror here too. The incredible tense scene with the bear with a human voice is remarkably unsettling. Not for everybody, but if you can handle its weird vibe I think you'll really dig it.
Avengers: Infinity War
I'll be honest, I'm still kind of dealing with the impact of Infinity War. Marvel Studios celebrated its 10th anniversary and its domination of blockbuster tentpoles by releasing its biggest and ballsiest movie to date. Of course the action scenes are just as good as we've come to expect from Marvel, with a ton of cool set pieces and cheer-worthy moments, but it's still the character interactions where these movies really shine. And with a cast this big, we get a lot of unexpected pairings that work well together and a great deal of depth explored thanks to how these characters have grown and changed over the last decade. Thor and Rocket Raccoon is probably my favorite. But this is really Josh Brolin's show and he absolutely kills it as Thanos, creating a nuanced and understandable (not sympathetic, big difference) antagonist for the collected heroes. It's almost like Marvel decided to celebrate their anniversary by finally putting their "flat, boring villains" criticism to bed once and for all. And that ending... Oomph.
Black Panther
Infinity War may have been a birthday blowout, but Black Panther was a goddamn cultural phenomenon. Everybody saw it and for once it lived up to the hype. As for why, it was because Black Panther took everything strong about the Marvel formula developed over the last ten years, polished it to a diamond sheen and reflected it through a strong and specific cultural lens that is almost never seen in big tentpole blockbusters. The action was great, the production design for Wakanda was all on point, all the characters felt like well-rounded, three dimensional people that were understandable in their motivations even when they were at odds. The cast bringing those characters to life were just as good, with Michael B. Jordan as the villain Killmonger probably being the MVP. If Josh Brolin put the "flat, boring villain" criticism to bed, Jordan beat the crap out of it and tossed it off a waterfall first. I'd tell you to see Black Panther, but you probably already did.
The Death of Stalin
Who would think there was so much comedy in the transfer of power in a totalitarian state? Armando Iannucci apparently. The Veep creator's pitch-black political comedy is a riot and I think what makes it work is that it plays all the absurdity completely straight. Stalinist Russia is never presented as a nice place to live and none of the cast are presented as any kind of moral exemplar or even a decent person, so it ends up becoming hilarious to watch this collection of psychopaths and bootlickers scheme to one up and outwit each other for ultimate power. All of this is presented through the dialogue, which is as razor-sharp and profanity-laden as one would expect from Iannucci, and there are so many funny lines you'll probably end up laughing over some of them. The cast are all clearly relishing the opportunity to play such horrible people as well, especially Jason Isaacs as Marshal Zhukov. Dictatorships have never been as funny.
Isle of Dogs
While some of its use of Japanese culture may be questionable, for me at least Isle of Dogs was a real winner. Only his second stop-animation film, Director Wes Anderson used all his skill at creating one of a kind visuals and strong characterization to tell what is really just a story about a boy and his dog. Oddly enough, the movie Isle of Dogs reminded me most of was Lord of the Rings, focusing as it does on a small band of adventurers on a quest across a fantastical land, its just those adventurers are dogs and a 12-year old Japanese kid. The film even uses the quest narrative in a similar way, as the journey forces the characters to work through their emotional baggage and become better people (or dogs, I suppose) when they reach their destination. That may not sound like much, but Wes Anderson filters it through his own unique sensibilities and creates something familiar yet new. Still for all its visual flair, adventure story plotting, and high-minded influence, this is still a story about the relationship between people and pets and that part works like gang busters.
Honorable Mentions:
A Wrinkle in Time: Visually and thematically, I thought this adaptation of the classic kid's novel worked great. Narratively however, it was somewhat weak. The pacing was a bit too fast to let anything sink in and I thought it needed more time to establish a status quo for the characters between set pieces. A solid B+ effort.
Mary and the Witch's Flower: With Studio Ghibli's future somewhat unclear, it's cool that a bunch of alums from there have formed Studio Ponoc to carry on that spirit. This was their debut effort and it worked very well, though it felt like they played it safe and didn't quite leave the Ghibli wheelhouse. The quality of animation and imagination was there, but it felt like they could have taken it further. Par for the course when compared to most Ghibli films, but that's still a hell of a lot better than most.
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