To continue my year-end best-of list, I’ll next move to movies that I really enjoyed this year. As usual, this is not a list meant to be what I think had the highest artistic merit of all movies released this year. I watch a lot of movies but I don’t watch nearly enough to be able to make a statement that sweeping. These are movies I liked a lot and I continued to think about for the rest of the year (however long that might be at this point).
#5: Annihilation. I honestly didn’t think this was going to wind up so far down my list (number-wise). I loved the book this movie is loosely based upon by Jeff Vandermeer, and think that in terms of capturing the mood and translating the basic idea of the story for a wider audience this movie does an incredible job. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring cerebral science fiction and damn unsettling to boot. It’s not at the top of this list because ultimately it didn’t seize my imagination or hit me with a hammer blow of feelings like some of the others below did. That said - absolutely one of my favorites this year.
#4: Colette. Do I like this film or the complicated feelings I had watching it because of events in my own life? I can’t be sure and in any case what’s the point in trying to disentangle one’s reaction to a film from its merits. The facts on the ground are simple and compelling enough. Keira Knightley gives quite possibly the performance of her career. This is Dominic West’s best performance since the Wire. The story manages to capture an impressive length of the title character’s development from a talented but naive country girl to an artist in full command of her ambition and career. It is wickedly funny in places and heart-rending in others.
#3: Spider-Man into the Spider-verse. This was the year that I became a fervent MCU fan but there will always be room in my heart for works like this movie that try something different with the superhero genre. Set in an alternate reality from Tom Holland’s version of the Web-slinging Hero (really several alternate realities), Into the Spider-Verse is a very clever exploration of this particular mythology. It leans somewhat on the original Sam Raimi trilogy but doesn’t really rest there either, cutting an exciting, fresh, and inclusive universe all its own. This is clearly Sony’s attempt to get back into the superhero game but if they start making movies like this, I will absolutely pay to watch them.
#2: Mission Impossible: Fallout. Simply the best action film of the year even when stacked up against the film below. I love smart and well-crafted action and this film had that in abundance. Tom Cruise was at the top of his game (did you hear he learned how to fly helicopters for the climatic copter chase?), the plot is fast-moving and complicated without being bewildering, the conflict is at once global and high-stakes but also plausibly personal. At some point they’re not going to be able to make Tom Cruise action films any more, this is one of the most compelling reasons to miss Mr. Cruise’s particular set of talents.
#1: Avengers: Infinity War: Ah, Infinity War. I watched this film many times and loved every single time. I think the best and most accurate thing I can say about the film is that this felt like my reward for sitting through all 20 previous Marvel movies. There are elements to this story that makes everything that came before it better and deeper. There is also the simple fact that this movie is a hell of a lot of fun. While not every character gets a fully realized role in the film (how could they) my multiple rewatches have left me more and more impressed how cleverly the whole project ties together. The editing and pacing are top-notch, giving just enough information and emotional heft to sell its many, many action scenes. I don’t know what Endgame’s going to be like but I cannot wait for it.
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