{"id":9712,"date":"2019-01-01T15:05:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T15:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9712"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T14:19:13","slug":"roma-cold-war-lead-my-top-10-film-picks-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9712","title":{"rendered":"‘Roma’, ‘Cold War’ lead my Top 10 film picks of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 One of the great advantages of being a member of the Critics\u2019 Circle and BAFTA is that distributors send out dozens of screeners of films\u00a0<\/span>for which they seek consideration in the annual awards. It means that sometimes months after seeing a movie, we have the chance to view it again and perhaps again. As a result, opinions can and do change.<\/p>\n

As it happens, I was able to see the two best films of the year twice on the big screen as well as at home and I appreciate them both even more after further views. The best film of 2018, and possibly the best film of the 21st century so far, is Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s \u2018Roma\u2019 (above) and not far behind it is Pawel Pawlikowski\u2019s \u2018Cold War\u2019 (below).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018Roma\u2019 is set in 1970s Mexico City and runs 135 minutes. \u2018Cold War\u2019 is set in Poland, Italy and France in the 1940s and Fifties and runs 88 minutes. Both are subtitled in English with ravishing black-and-white cinematography, extraordinary performances and stunning images.<\/p>\n

In my reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival, I said they were each a masterpiece: \u201c\u2018Roma\u2019 is a film that is at once intimate and epic, a close-up look at ordinary folk and a sweeping tale on a grand scale \u2026 it is touching, funny and thrilling and it deserves every accolade and award coming its way.\u2019 \u201c\u2018Cold War\u2019 evokes the complexities of life in Poland following World War II as the richness, beauty and contradictions of Polish culture clash with the cold, harsh and unforgiving force of Soviet rule\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Third in my Top 10 is Damien Chazelle\u2019s \u2018First Man\u2019 (above). A film I did not expect to like, it is a seriously intense and involving look at the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong. Peter Farrelly\u2019s warm and engaging \u2018Green Book\u2019 (below) is my fourth pick. Both films gained on second viewings.<\/p>\n

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For the Oscars, I would place\u00a0 <\/span>Armando Iannucci\u2019s wickedly funny \u2018The Death of Stalin\u2019 \u00a0in fifth spot but as far as the U.K. is concerned, it was from last year. Therefore, Yorkos Lanthimos\u2019s filthy and amusing costume romp \u2018The Favourite\u2019 (below) is number five. It is very funny although it\u2019s a shame the director did not know how to end it.<\/p>\n

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Wes Anderson\u2019s colourfully eccentric stop-motion animation \u2018Isle of Dogs\u2019 is sixth followed in seventh by John Krasinski\u2019s scarifying \u2018A Quiet Place\u2019. Adam McKay\u2019s biting depiction of Dick Cheney, \u2018Vice\u2019, in eighth, diminished a bit on second viewing but it is good. Paul Greengrass\u2019s \u201922 July\u2019, a deeply involving examination of mass-murder and its after-effects is in ninth spot and Wash Westmoreland\u2019s unexpectedly vivid and enjoyable \u2018Colette\u2019, the story of a female writer flouting fin de si\u00e8cle Parisian society is tenth.<\/p>\n

Other films I enjoyed include Spike Lee\u2019s incisive \u2018BlacKkKlansman\u2019, Steve McQueen\u2019s complex and thrilling caper picture \u2018Widows\u2019, Drew Goddard\u2019s enjoyable noir \u2018Bad Times at the El Royale\u2019, Jake Scott\u2019s ‘American Woman’ for its fine performance by Sienna Miller, \u00a0 Sebasti\u00e1n Lelio’s story of two women breaking the rules, ‘Disobedience’, Mimi Leder’s inspiring Ruth Bader Ginsberg biopic ‘On the Basis of Sex’ and David Mackenzie’s breezy ‘Outlaw\/King’<\/p>\n

Robert Redford’s farewell, ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ is so light it hardly registers apart from a lovely performance by Sissy Spacek, Jason Reitman\u2019s naive \u2018The Front Runner\u2019 and Karyn Kusama\u2019s incoherent ‘Destroyer’ starring Nicole Kidman are both disappointing. \u00a0Bj\u00f6rn Runge\u2019s \u2018The Wife\u2019 boasts fine performances from Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce and ‘Leave No Trace’ has excellent work by Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie but the stories in each case are highly implausible. Just as \u2018Wonder Woman\u2019 showed that a film about a female superhero can be just as much drivel as the other Marvel vehicles, \u2018Black Panther\u2019 did the same for black superheroes. Of course, I am not their target audience.<\/p>\n

As I am not paid to review films these days, I get to choose those I really don\u2019t want to see such as \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019, as I couldn\u2019t suffer the music, and \u2018Mary Poppins Returns\u2019, as I was no fan of the original \u2013 I was 19 when it came out; it wasn\u2019t meant for me. Both films have their fans, and they are welcome to them. I probably would feel a lot better about \u2018A Star is Born\u2019 if I hadn\u2019t seen it but such is life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 One of the great advantages of being a member of the Critics\u2019 Circle and BAFTA is that distributors send out dozens of screeners of films\u00a0for which they seek consideration in the annual awards. It means … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,1770],"tags":[4976,4974,4873,4977,4959,4937,4966,4727,4885,4975,4973,4972],"class_list":["post-9712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-film","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-22-july","tag-a-quiet-place","tag-cold-war","tag-colette","tag-first-man","tag-green-book","tag-roma","tag-the-death-of-stalin","tag-the-favourite","tag-vice","tag-films-2018","tag-top-10-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9712"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10092,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9712\/revisions\/10092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}