These go to eleven. Nigel Tufnell - This is Spinal Tap
'So when are you finally going to give your first 10?' a friend recently asked, concerning my reserved attitude to top-scoring on this very blog.
Last year I rated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water as 9/10, while going so far as to present Isle of Dogs, First Man and Roma with a 9.5 apiece. Newly released The Favourite gained that latter score last week. Is begs the question 'Come on, Ed, what do you actually consider deserving of a 10?' closely followed by 'Are there actual criteria by which you're judging, or are you just winging it?' and 'Who the hell are you to pass judgement anyway sitting there typing your crap while proper creatives have devoted maybe years of their lives to producing a complex piece of cinematic art/entertainment only to have some self-appointed critic casually fling a number at it and besides when did you ever make a film, jackass?'
The response to the final one is 'Bit harsh, pal - I'm simply providing a personal viewpoint on something I love - cinema - and my ratings are precisely that, 'personal', so - you know - don't shoot me. And no, I've never made a film, I only wish I had.'
(To be honest I've never been expected to answer the third question or anything like it. That's just me being unnecessarily defensive.)
As for the first two questions, I think there are many films deserving of my 10, including in retrospect - that being a key phrase - several from last year. As for the criteria, they're not scientific, but they go something like this:
1. Level of technical accomplishment, i.e. how well the film is directed, acted, etc (obvs).
2. How I respond to it at the time, i.e. my gut reaction.
3. How well it sticks, i.e. its rewatchability/retrospect factor.
The third one is particularly important in finalising a top score. I'm instinctively reluctant to slap a 10/10 on any film after a first watch - it seems such a big statement and leaves only one direction to go on subsequent viewings. If I've scored 8 or upwards, however, it's perfectly possible that second time around the movie's merits will impress me even more. Example - I rewatched A Quiet Place over New Year with friends and it struck me how fine this thriller is in multiple regards - tense, beautiful and moving. Maybe deserving of higher than 8.5 and a place in my 2018 Top Ten list. Oh the agonies of the conscientious reviewer...
Point is, if either First Man or The Favourite for example hold up and reveal even more second time around (as I strongly suspect they will), then I will very gladly stamp them with a big fat 10/10. It won't mean much in the grand scheme, but it'll feel satisfying to me.
With all that in mind, here are six random films out of many possible choices, and the reasons why they get the Filmic Forays Not-Necessarily-Perfect 10.
1. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Oh this one is perfection. Rob Reiner's template mockumentary gets funnier on every viewing. The first time you watch this story of a Brit rock-band trying to relive former glories on an ill-fated American tour, you laugh at the obvious stuff - the band's response to their rubbish matt-black album cover, the inappropriate name of Nigel Tufnall's Mozart/Bach-inspired piano piece, the onstage Stonehenge debacle. On subsequent revisitings every throwaway line, every stumble, every bemused reaction shot becomes hilarious. The whole film heightens reality just enough to keep the humour exquisite, while the edit ensures that absolutely nothing is wasted, in what becomes a strangely touching bromance (between idiots). It's a mine of comedy gold that just keeps on delivering.
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
There's a reason that Shawshank is at the top of imdb.com's Top Rated Movies. It's not necessarily 'the greatest film ever made', but it does hit the spot for a broad demographic of viewers. How good is it? Well I recall wondering, two thirds of the way through my initial watching of the movie, whether something that promised so much could actually deliver a climax to match. It did, twice. Two bravura payoffs - one air-punchingly dramatic, the other profoundly moving, combined to create one of the most satisfying film endings in the history of film endings. And all due to the painstaking craft of every scene that had gone before. This film is a paean to the best kind of hope and a love-letter to friendship. There are scores of people who claim it saved their life, for heaven's sake. Shawshank has earned its top score.
3. Magnolia (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia is a great example of what I'm going to refer to from now on as an 'Imperfect 10'. It's one of my two favourite film projects of all time (The Lord of the Rings is the other one, thank you for asking) and it's a thing of magnificence, charting as it does the trials of ten disparate Los Angelenos over a single day. This three-hour epic of human emotion grapples with a clutch of big questions in an intense and imaginative way. Thing is, in its ambition one whole subplot gets dropped along the way and with all the drama brewing the opening half hour can become oppressively sweary-shouty, but as a whole this movie gets so much right, draws out such blistering performances and pulls off such jaw-droppingly audacious moments of drama that to give it anything less than the full compliment of points would be - frankly - wrong. (This phenomenon could also be referred to as the Apocalypse Now factor.)
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Ah Shaun. Now here's a film that I'd probably have given a good solid 8/10 on first viewing. But then you watch it again (and again, and again...) and like This is Spinal Tap you begin to relish all the tiny little visual and verbal touches that you missed first time around. How intricately structured the whole thing is, how it sustains humour and menace without compromising either, how it achieves actual emotional depth amid all the comedy-zombie mayhem. Every moment is thoughtful and creative, it's a masterclass in storytelling technique and it rises above pure genre parody to become a wonderful (and uniquely British) creation in its own right. Shaun is one of those films I'll watch if I stumble upon it on TV, even though I own the DVD. 'It's on the telly right now, so what else am I going to do? It's Edgar Wright's masterpiece!'
5. Children of Men (2006)
I include this one partly because it's my favourite Alfonso Cuaron film and a damn fine dystopian thriller, and partly to point out that where film appreciation is concerned, it's horses for courses. I once recommended Children of Men to a friend and his wife as my 2006 film of the year (a slam-dunk - one of those choices I didn't even have to think about) and they both - quote - 'hated it'. Maybe its vision of future Britain was just too bleak, but whatever had impressed me simply didn't work its dark magic for them. I recommend it undeterred, especially if you loved Cuaron's recent Roma. It bears all those same marks of cinematic craft, but used in a more dynamic way, albeit in a world where the entire human race has been rendered infertile and is staring at oblivion's slow approach. A movie of colossal technical ambition with a profound story at its centre - one that's not as hopeless as I've made it sound. But I'll let you decide between my love and my friends' hate.
6. The Babadook (2014)
I've already explained why I admire this film both here and here, so there's little more to be said. Like Shaun of the Dead this little Australian gem demonstrates shot-by-shot mastery of film-making craft, only this time used to much more serious effect. The Babadook turns limited budget into a virtue, reminding us that vast scale is not a prerequisite for creating great cinema. It's a horror pic, yes, but (again like Shaun) it transcends genre, the sheer ingenuity of the storytelling becoming more apparent every time you return to it. So I'm properly perplexed that director Jennifer Kent's 2018 follow-up film The Nightingale hasn't been given a UK release date yet. Just saying.
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As those choices probably shows, there's no hard and fast technical rule as to why any one film makes it onto my unofficial 'favourites' list. Basically if I love a movie enough to revisit it for the sheer joy of its craft along with whatever emotion it inspires in me, it's earned that ultimate rating, And that's regardless of nitpicks or the possibility that it's aimed stratospherically high without hitting the mark in every regard (I return you again to my 'Imperfect 10' concept).
You'll forgive me if I hold off on slapping the big One-Zero on any title after a first screening (including those on my Films of 2018 Top List), however much I appreciate it at the time. If a movie is that good, it'll more than withstand multiple viewings. Plus this system gives me an excuse to go back to some thrilling filmic places in the near future.
Isle of Dogs, First Man, The Favourite, I'm not done with you yet...
It's that time again! The time when I berate myself for all the films I failed to see over the past twelve months, and which therefore can't be considered for this list. Last year, for example, I missed out on Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project, either of which, it turned out, might well have made my Top Ten list, thus preventing all the flack I took for including Mother!.
As for this year's list, it won't (because it can't) include American Animals, Cold War, Shoplifters or Sorry to Bother You, each of which has received glowing praise from people whose filmic opinions I respect. And I'm a total Netflix newb as well, so most of the movies released on that esteemed platform passed me by this time around - with one notable exception that has made my Top Ten below. I shall do better in 2019.
Okay - one or two ground rules for my choices. All films in the list were given a UK release in 2018, hence one or two inclusions that may strike readers in some regions as a bit late-to-the-party. My criteria, roughly speaking, are as follows: the movie's strength in technical terms, my gut reaction on watching it and the way it's settled with me since the watching. So if a film falls short technically but it still smacked me soundly in my emotional centre, it might well still find a place. And before the TEN, here are my purely-for-fun Honourable Mention Awards:
Best Mad Adrenalin Rush With Added 'He Does His Own Stunts, Y'know' Factor: Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Best Fantasy World-Building: The totally groovy Afro-fururism of Black Panther
Most Misunderstood and Underrated Film of the Year: Runner-Up - Gringo (it was funny!); Winner - Downsizing (it was deep)
Most Uncomfortable-Yet-Undeniably-Touching On-Screen Relationship: Emma Thompson and Fionn Whitehead in The Children Act
Best Sequel That Could Have Gone So Horribly Wrong But Thanks Be To God It Didn't: Mary Poppins Returns
Biggest Blub-Fest: Mary Poppins Returns
Happiest Film of the Year: Mary Poppins Returns
Scene of Greatest Hitchcock-Style Intensity: Emily Blunt uses a bathtub but not to take a bath in A Quiet Place (likewise in Mary Poppins Returns, oddly enough)
Film That Most Effectively and Frustratingly Derailed Itself En Route to Horror Brilliance: Hereditary
Film That While Not Perfect Genuinely Shook Me Up: Unfriended: Dark Web
Most Spine-Tingling Moment: Lady Gaga hits the chorus of the song 'Shallows' while unexpectedly performing on stage with Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born
Most Rewarding Moment of Character Development: Elizabeth Debicki hits Viola Davis back in Widows
Film the Ending of Which Almost Made Me Hate It Before Actually Making Me Love It: You Were Never Really Here
Slick-Smart-Classy-Ballsy-Epic Jessica Chastain-ness Award: Molly's Game
Saoirse Ronan Being Brilliant Because She's Saoirse Ronan Award: Lady Bird (starring Saoirse Ronan)
Most Impressive Film That I Simply Haven't Had Time to Review (So Don't Go Looking for a Link 'Cos It Ain't There): Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Filmic Forays Low Expectations Award for a Film that was Massively Better Than I'd Expected (this award is now officially a 'forays thing'): Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (if you're not a lifelong ABBA fan, you won't get it)
It caused me a little bit of pain to reject each of those films from my top ten, particularly Poppins and Mamma Mia! (yes, I'm serious about the ABBA pic), and the following list is purely what I'm feeling right now. So before I undermine its value completely, here in ascending order are my Top Ten favourite films of 2018:
10. Leave No Trace
Respect for independent cinema! No gloss, no histrionics, no crazy special effects - Leave No Trace thrives on heart and humanity alone, both delivered with beautiful understatement. Ben Foster conveys PTSD despite ever alluding to said trauma and teenage Thomasin McKenzie radiates pride and devotion as his daughter, even when her loyalty is tested, the authorities having put an end to their migrant wilderness lifestyle. A very pure and focused piece of storytelling that will warm your heart while breaking it.
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Twisted humanity is still humanity - and no one reminds us of it better than Irish playwright-turned-film-maker Martin McDonagh. Give him Frances McDormand as his lead as a bereaved and vengeful mother in rural America and let one truly unforgettable tale unfold in a manner that's as shambling and unpredictable as real life. Beauty in the landscape is at odds with ugliness of human nature - but there's also compassion, regret and the occasional glimmer of hope. It's also scabrously funny throughout, with a host of memorable performances, not least Sam Rockwell's inept (and racist) police deputy.
8. Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs is my favourite animation of the year, Coco and Incredibles 2 notwithstanding. Maverick film-maker Wes Anderson matches the quality of his sublime The Grand Budapest Hotel, only this time he uses stop-motion to tell a rescue story involving disease-ridden dogs on a Japanese junk-heap archipelago. The straight-faced character humour, the exquisite framing of each shot, the obsessive attention to visual detail - everything that makes Anderson's work great is here in shovelfuls. Dogs, animation, tall tales - if you love any or all of those, watch this film now. It's a wonder.
7. First Reformed
Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver, brings us Reverend Ernst Toller, a church minister who has lost his faith - not in God, but in all of humanity, not least representatives of his own faith community. Ethan Hawke is superb as the compassionate but angst-ridden priest, who like cabbie Travis Bickle before him is spiralling towards violence and disaster. First Reformed is a shot-by-shot masterclass in narrative cinema, telling a story that's apocalyptic in feel, and resonant with the environmental concerns of our time. This is my kind of religious movie - challenging, shocking and complex, with a sympathetic but flawed man of faith at its centre.
6. BlacKkKlansman
Speaking of films for our time - BlacKkKlansman may be set in the 1970s, but it tackles the racism of Trump-era America with angry gusto. Spike Lee's latest joint, inspired by the real-life infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan by black police officer Ron Stallworth (with a little help from a white surrogate), is a unique brew. Outrageously funny satire, nail-chewing tension and in-your-face agitprop - they're all here and they all work, to searing effect. It's jostling with terrific performances too - John David Washington and Adam Driver both excel.
5. Roma
Oh the humanity! I only saw Roma a week ago and it raced its way to the top half of my chart. Why? Because it's intimate and vast, specific and universal, period-based and contemporary. It's bravura film-making from one of the greats working today (Gravity's Alfonso Cuaron) and it's an emotional roller-coaster initially disguised as a stately scenic ride - beautiful but with a seemingly meandering quality. Only when it plunges into trauma do you realise the kind of ride to which you're committed. Stick with it. It's gorgeous in a heart-wringing kind of way, and its central performance is quietly extraordinary.
4. The Shape of Water
Also known as Beauty and the Cat-Eating Fish-Beast, and with a Cold-War B-movie setting that also manages to remind you of both French fantasy Amelie and classic Hollywood musicals. It would probably be a mess, were it made by anyone other than Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro. As it works out, The Shape of Water is a stunning adult fairytale - sometimes dark and violent, sometimes beautiful, life-affirming and erotic. Ultimately it's about difference - and whether to fear it or embrace it. And as the poster suggests, Sally Hopkins opts for the embracing. This is one defiantly weird film, so just go with it.
3. Bad Times at the El Royale
I had no clue what to expect going in, and I'm so glad that was the case. Part of what I loved was the cunning of Bad Times' puzzle-box construction, particularly when it clicked piece by piece into place, forming a complex whole. More of what I loved was the multiple levels on which it worked, the cleverly drawn and immaculately performed characters, the sweetly judged musical score, the striking set design and the gorgeous warmth of the late-60s period visuals. But what boosted it into my top three was the story's unexpected emotional core and equally unexpected central relationship. Plus it introduced us (with a little help from Widows) to shining new cinema star Cynthia Erivo.
2. Avengers: Infinity War
Infinity War isn't so much a film in its own right as a grand explosive culmination of eighteen other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, in which all the heroes we've embraced (or not, if you avoid this kind of movie like a rash) face off against their ultimate nemesis. He's purple and he has a point, but he's still an abusive bullying bastard. By the way, I wrote all about it at length for those who give a damn HERE. I love all cinema from niche arthouse stuff to mainstream popcorn extravaganzas as long as it's done well. And Avengers: Infinity War is done supremely well. I hadn't felt that level of bubbling expectation since the final Lord of the Rings movie and this film proved worth all that excitement and then some. It also ended with a gobsmacking plot-twist that demands addressing, but that's a whole other movie in a whole other year...
1. First Man
It occurred to me as I was watching it that First Man might end up as my favourite film of the year. Some have found it too slow and its lead performance too contained, but every last thing about this space drama fascinated and enthralled me, not least Ryan Gosling's anti-heroic, deeply human depiction of Neil Armstrong. The film's superior writing, its beauty, its sense of time and place, its subtly drawn character dynamics, its simultaneous journeys into space and the depths of the human soul... There was genuine scene-after-scene relish at what was unfolding before me. I'm not saying it's the year's best movie, I'd have trouble saying that about any single piece of cinema in any given year. But it was the one I found the most personally satisfying - dramatic, spectacular, meditative and profound.
And those, my Filmic Friends, are my favourite UK-released films of 2018 (until around April of next year by which time I've rematched some of the titles that didn't make it and caught up with the various titles I missed, thereby completely recalibrated my list, sticking Show Dogs at the top - that's not going to happen, I'm never going to watch Show Dogs, not while there are any other films in existence). Ultimately I'm making no great statements about the above choices beyond my own enjoyment, so feel free to tell me all about your own picks - particularly those I've still to experience. You may introduce me to an alternative 'top film of 2018'. No film list should be set in stone.
See you in 2019 for a whole new year of Filmic Forays. I can't wait - can you?
