The Movies of 2018

     

      If I had to describe this year's movies, I would go with Sensory Realism. While I was thinking back to some of the best movies I saw this year, all of them had this sort of physical quality, like you could reach in and touch it. Gone are the days of soft lighting and turning movies into dream worlds. They all had an eerie outline that made it a little gritty, but not too much so. An example of this is in Eighth Grade, her acne is clearly visible, and it's not tried to smooth over in any way. In Hereditary, every set has the feeling of an enlarged dollhouse, with the edges of the paint being easy to see.
    There are a few movies this year that I expected to be blown away by but I just wasn't. These include Crazy Rich Asians, A Star is Born, and Black Panther. In Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther, I loved the characters, but I just couldn't get myself to feel the full extent of their problems, and therefore the climax didn't have the big payoff that it should. With A Star is Born, I did not sympathize with Jackson Maine, and the heart of the movie depends on the fact that you do. I was just mad at Burnt Chicken Nugget Bradley Cooper for continuously ruining Lady Gaga's life.
       I'm not going to rank them, as there are many that I have not seen that I would really like to, and feel it would be unfair to leave them out. This is to summarize the zeitgeist of this years' films, and how it connects to the overall feeling of the real world.
       I would summarize 2017 as one of storytelling. It saw innovative original screenplays such as The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, and Get Out. 2017 was a hurricane year with a lot going on, so the movies were a source of escape, and the fantastical stories provided that. 2016 was grounded in emotion, which makes sense, as that was the year that we said goodbye to countless celebrities, and learned the true divides of this country. Manchester by the Sea tore the heart of anyone who watched it to shreds.  Moonlight was gorgeous poetry that was driven by feeling. La La Land lured you in with bright colors and singing, but betrayed you before the end credits.
      So, in 2018, a year where there was so much that it hardly felt real, where every week (or every day) there was a new scandal, it would make sense that the films would be so harshly outlined, so you could reach in and feel it. That doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'll try to clarify with a few examples.
      One of my favorites this year was BlacKKKlansman. Though it has stylish visuals and an interesting story, the thing that makes it wonderful is that the characters are so likable. I just wanted to love and protect them the whole time. Though the opposite can have its merits, there is something about a movie that doesn't make you think about who or not to like. There are Such Good Goodguys and Very Bad Badguys. The lines are clear and sometimes that's just what we need.
       Another favorite, that I just watched recently on Netflix was Roma, Alfonso Cuaron's love letter to Mexico. It is black and white and in Spanish, so that can be an immediate turn-off for some people, but I cannot recommend it enough. The black and white sets it in a different time period, and knowing that it is drawn from Cuaron's own story makes it so endearingly human. Though it is one continuous story, it feels like little vignettes, which gives the sensation of being able to quantitively separate each chapter into handhold pieces.
        With Eighth Grade, my all-time favorite for this year (so far), it was so real that I cried, nonstop, from beginning to end. I felt like someone was projecting my personal diary onto the screen, and it made me feel vulnerable. It takes place in the summer, which allows for harsh sun-lighting that is allowed to highlight every imperfection. Also: You can see the makeup on these little girls' faces. It's not "effortless beauty" but it's Real.
       A Quiet Place depended on it's realism with the almost complete lack of score in order to be effective, and it was very successful. Infinity War, the most far from Earth movie of this year, was grounded in the concrete relations the audience had with the characters, otherwise it would not have worked. A Star is Born's concert scenes were shot from the point of view of the stage and never the audience in order to break down the idolized veil between viewer and performer and show the harsh reality of the gig.
       Even in Bohemian Rhapsody, which feels so fantastical it can't possibly be real, adheres to this motif. Not only did they do their research in perfecting every body movement, but all of the high energy scenes were so immersive that I felt exhausted after.
       There are a few that I have yet to see, such as If Beale Street Could Talk, Beautiful Boy, At Eternity's Gate, Green Book, and countless others, but based on what I know about them, they seem to fit the feeling as well.