Julian Antos
I wasn't going to post anything, but I had a really great time seeing the following four films at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT today (ed note.: Sunday, December 23) - all presented in 70mm IMAX:
POLAR EXPRESS (Robert Zemeckis, 2004)
OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET (Mark Brownlow, Rachel Butler, 2018)
BACKYARD WILDERNESS (Susan Todd, Andrew Young, 2018)
PANDAS (David Douglas, Drew Fellman, 2018)
Yes, I watched all four films in a row. I was pleased to have snuck in a coffee from Dunkin Donuts.
Rob Christopher
2018 was the year I learned that when you're making a film, you don't go to theaters very often. Or at least I didn't. As a result, there are lots of 2018 heavyweights missing from my list. For me, watching movies at home, for better or worse, fosters a sense of intimacy that I don't feel in the same way when I watch a movie on the big screen. And because I'm in the midst of making my own, more than usual I found myself really wrapped up in the nuts-and-bolts craft of filmmaking. It can be kind of drag when I'd rather just suspend my disbelief and lose myself in a film, but que sera sera.
BLACKKKLANSMAN (2018, Spike Lee)
DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (2016, Bill Morrison)
THE DEATH OF STALIN (2017, Armando Iannucci)
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017, Sean Baker)
THE INQUIRING NUNS (1968, Kartemquin Films)
LADY BIRD (2017, Greta Gerwig)
MERCURY IN RETROGRADE (2017, Michael Glover Smith)
99 RIVER STREET (1953, Phil Karlson)
PORTO (2016, Gabe Klinger)
WIDOWS (2018, Steve McQueen)
WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (2018, Morgan Neville)
ZAMA (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
Kyle Cubr
10 Movies I Liked A Lot This Year in No Particular Order
THE DEATH OF STALIN (Armando Iannucci)
THE GREEN FOG (Guy Maddin)
HEREDITARY (Ari Aster)
MANDY (Panos Cosmatos)
ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Zhangke Jia)
ROMA (Alfonso Cuaron)
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles)
BURNING (Chang-dong Lee)
MINDING THE GAP (Bing Liu)
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Boots Riley)
John Dickson
1. ZAMA (Lucrecia Martel)
2. THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (Joel & Ethan Coen)
3. FIRST REFORMED (Paul Schrader)
4. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (Lars von Trier)
5. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles)
6. THE MULE (Clint Eastwood)
7. 24 FRAMES (Abbas Kiarostami)
8. ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Jia Zhangke)
9. THE WILD BOYS (Bertrand Mandico)
10. READY PLAYER ONE (Steven Spielberg)
Marilyn Ferdinand
Best New Features I Saw in 2018 (in no particular order)
1. THE MINER (Hanna Antonina Wojcik Slak, 2017)
2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Christos Georgiou, 2017)
3. CATCH THE WIND (Gaël Morel, 2017)
4. OUTSIDE IN (Lynn Shelton, 2017)
5. SUMMER 1993 (Carla Simón, 2017)
6. THE TALE (Jennifer Fox, 2018)
7. NANCY (Christiana Choe, 2018)
8. MEMOIR OF WAR (Emmanuel Finkiel, 2017)
9. NIGHT COMES ON (Jordana Spiro, 2018)
10. I AM NOT A WITCH (Rungano Nyoni, 2017)
11. TRANSIT (Christian Petzold, 2018)
12. THE GOOD GIRLS (Alejandra Márquez Abella, 2018)
13. CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (Marielle Heller, 2018)
14. ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
15. BURNING (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)
Best Documentaries I Saw in 2018 (in no particular order)
1. UNREST (Jennifer Brea, 2017)
2. SONG OF GRANITE (Pat Collins, 2017)
3. IN THE LAND OF POMEGRANATES (Hava Kohav Beller, 2018)
4. ELIAN (Tim Golden, Ross McDonnell, 2017)
5. SHOULDER THE LION (Erinnisse Heuer, Patryk Rebisz, 2015)
6. 93QUEEN (Paula Eiselt, 2018)
7. REEL INJUNS (Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, Jeremiah Hayes, 2009)
8. LIYANA (Amanda and Aaron Kopp, 2017)
9. HALF THE PICTURE (Amy Adrion, 2018)
10. HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING (RaMell Ross, 2018)
Best Older Films I First Saw in 2018 (in no particular order)
1. THE EMPEROR’S NIGHTINGALE (Jiri Trnka, 1949)
2. LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS (Jean Gremillion, 1929)
3. VOICE OF THE NIGHTINGALE (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1925)
4. BLIND SPOT (Robert Gordon, 1947)
5. THE BIG COMBO (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
6. THE CHASE (Arthur D. Ripley, 1946)
7. SAFE IN HELL (William Wellman, 1931)
8. ECSTASY (Gustav Machaty, 1933)
9. WINTER SLEEP (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
10. THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (Joseph Losey, 1948)
11. THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE (Jean Renoir, 1936)
2018 Hall of Fame
Director Radu Jude for two fascinating films released in the year, SCARRED HEARTS (2016) and I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (2018)
Kino-Lorber for releasing PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS 6-DVD/BD set
Film historian and archivist Eric Grayson for completing his long odyssey to restore and release LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE (Colin Campbell, 1918)
Flicker Alley for restoring and releasing THE ANCIENT LAW (E. A. Dupont, 1923)
Max Frank
Max's Happiest Moment of 2018:
The only time this year when I forgot that we live in a demented, computer-simulated and Alien-scripted hellscape in which everything is horrible and the Yield Curve is inverting was the 114 minutes comprising MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN, which I saw at the world-famous Loews Cinema on 42nd Street in Times Square. I don't understand why this film is absent from literally every film publication's year-end lists, as its virtues and pleasures are as boundless as they are vast. From Robert Yeoman's crisp, swirling cinematography; to Amanda Seyfried and Lily James' heartstringing performances; to a veritable feast of ABBA's greatest D-list songs; and above all, to an unyielding feeling of overwhelming optimism, because in this film, the world isn't a demented computer-simulated and Alien-scripted hellscape in which everything is horrible and the Yield Curve is inverting.
A viewer might further realize during the film's climax - when Andy Garcia sings "Fernando" to Cher - that they are watching a Cuban actor singing a Swedish pop song about the Mexican Revolution in a British-American film set on a Greek island but shot in Croatia. And that astute viewer may exclaim with delight - "there was something in the air that night... the stars were bright... Fernando!"
And that viewer may realize, with greater delight, that the stars are indeed shining down - for you and me, for Liberty.
JB Mabe
Favorites seen in a theater in Chicago:
1. UN BEAU SOLEIL INTÉRIEUR (LET THE SUNSHINE IN, Claire Denis, 2017)
2. NEW SUN BREATHING IN (Chloe Reyes, 2017)
3. STRANGE IMPERSONATION (Anthony Mann, 1946)
4. JEANNETTE, L'ENFANCE DE JEANNE D'ARC (JEANNETTE: THE CHILDHOOD OFJOAN OF ARC, Bruno Dumont, 2017)
5. REMEMBRANCE: A PORTRAIT STUDY (Edward Owens, 1967)
6. DRAGONS & SERAPHIM (Sasha Waters Freyer, 2017)
7. RETURN TO FORMS (Zachary Epcar, 2016)
8. THE SHAPE OF WATER (Guillermo del Toro, 2017)
9. CHRONICLES OF A LYING SPIRIT (BY KELLY GABRON) (Cauleen Smith, 1992)
10. AS WATER IS IN WATER (Madison Brookshire & Tashi Wada, 2017)
Michael Metzger
Favorite newish features seen in 2018:
1. HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING (RaMell Ross)
2. HIGH LIFE (Claire Denis)
3. A BREAD FACTORY (Patrick Wang)
4. A HOUSE IN THE FIELDS (Tala Hadid)
5. THE TASK (Leigh Ledare)
6. DISTANT CONSTELLATION (Shevaun Mizrahi)
7. TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG (Dominga Sotomayor)
8. SUPPORT THE GIRLS (Andrew Bujalski)
9. FIRST REFORMED (Paul Schrader)
10. ZAMA (Lucrecia Martel)
Honorable mention: ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Jia Zhang-Ke), THE IMAGE YOU MISSED (Donal Foreman), THE GREEN FOG (Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin), FUTURE LANGUAGE (THE DIMENSIONS OF VON LMO) (Lori Felker), SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Boots Riley)
Favorite newish shorts and experimental films seen in 2018:
1. STRANGELY ORDINARY, THIS DEVOTION (Sheilah and Dani Restack)
2. THE ARBORETUM CYCLE and COLOPHON (FOR THE ARBORETUM CYCLE) (Nathaniel Dorsky)
3. VIOLENCE OF A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT SECRETS (Adam Khalil, Zach Khalil & Jackson Polys)
4. WATCHING THE DETECTIVES (Chris Kennedy)
5. DECOY (Alee Peoples)
6. HELIOPOLIS, HELIOPOLIS and THE SKIN IS GOOD (Ojoboca)
7. BETWEEN RELATING AND USE (Nazlı Dinçel)
8. BLUE (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. BLUE MOVIE (Michael A. Morris)
10. HONANE (Takuya Dairiki and Takashi Miura)
Honorable mentions: TARPAULINS (Lisa Truttmann), ARE YOU TIRED OF FOREVER? (Caitlin Craggs), 350 MYA (Terra Long), STAR FERRY (Simon Liu), FAINTING SPELLS (Sky Hopinka), TEMPLE OF TRUTH (Giuseppe Boccassini, Alex Inglizian), THE WATCHMEN (Fern Silva), CREATURE COMPANION (Melika Bass), AN EMPTY THREAT (Josh Lewis), AS WATER IS IN WATER (Madison Brookshire), ON THE RINK (Benjamin Buxton), FRAGMENTS 83 (Richard Millen, Corentin Koskas), THE SOURCE IS A HOLE (Madsen Minax), NOTHING A LITTLE SOAP AND WATER CAN'T FIX (Jennifer Proctor), CPS CLOSINGS AND DELAYS (Kristin Reeves), WALLED / UNWALLED (Lawrence Abu Hamdan), THE WORDS ARE NOT WHAT YOU MEANT (Jiayi Chen)
Favorite older films seen for the first time on Chicago screens in 2018:
1. PERSONAL PROBLEMS (Bill Gunn & Ishmael Reed)
2. THE LUSTY MEN (Nick Ray)
3. TWO FRIENDS (Jane Campion)
4. THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS (Jean Grémillon)
5. BALLAST (Lance Hammer)
6. JE TU IL ELLE (Chantal Akerman)
7. SANKOFA (Haile Gerima)
8. A SCENE AT THE SEA (Takeshi Kitano)
9. THE FRONTIER EXPERIENCE and THE BOY WHO LIKED DEER (Barbara Loden)
10. L'ENFANT SECRET (Philippe Garrel)
Scott Pfeiffer
(This omits the windy introduction I usually do for these on my blog, said intro typically not having all that much to do with film at all, as well as my comments on the entries. If you'd like to read all that, it's here.)
Top 10 Features
10. AT ETERNITY'S GATE (Julian Schnabel)
9. THE GREAT BUDDHA + (Huang Hsin-yao)
8. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Boots Riley)
7. ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Jia Zhangke)
6. PRIVATE LIFE (Tamara Jenkins)
5. ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón)
4. FIRST REFORMED (Paul Schrader)
3. BURNING (Lee Chang-dong)
2. IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY (Tamer El Said)
1. SHOPLIFTERS (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Top 10 Documentaries
10. FREE SOLO (Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
9. SHIRKERS (Sandi Tan)
8. UNITED SKATES (Tina Brown & Dyana Winkler)
7. SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (Margarethe Von Trotta)
6. THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (Tim Wardle)
5. MINDING THE GAP (Bing Liu)
4. MISS KIET'S CHILDREN(Peter Lataster & Petra Lataster-Czisch)
3. WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?(Morgan Neville)
2. THAT SUMMER (Göran Hugo Olsson)
1. THE KING (Eugene Jarecki)
Kathleen Sachs
Favorite New(-ish) Releases I Saw for the First Time in 2018
1. THE REST I MAKE UP (Michelle Memran, 2018)
2. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT Trailer
3. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Lynne Ramsay, 2018)
4. BITTER MONEY (Wang Bing, 2016)/DEAD SOULS (Wang Bing, 2018)/PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE (Hao Wu, 2018)
5. CLAIRE’S CAMERA/THE DAY AFTER (Hong Sang-soo, 2017)
6. THE ARBORETUM CYCLE (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017)
7. ZAMA (Lucrecia Martel, 2018)
8. TRANSIT (Christian Petzold, 2019)/THE COMMUTER (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2018)
9. PRIVATE LIFE (Tamara Jenkins, 2018)
10. PADDINGTON 2 (Paul King, 2018)/SHOPLIFTERS (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018)
Special Mentions: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (Ethan and Joel Coen, 2018), BURNING (Lee Chang-dong, 2018), THE FAVOURITE (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018), LET THE SUNSHINE IN (Claire Denis, 2018), MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (Josie Rourke, 2018), MINDING THE GAP (Bing Liu, 2018), VOX LUX (Brady Corbet, 2018)
Best Repertory in 2018
1. THE HEARTBREAK KID (Elaine May, 1972)/MIKEY AND NICKY (Elaine May, 1976) - Both on 35mm at the Music Box Theatre
2. TWO FRIENDS (Jane Campion, 1986, 16mm at Chicago Filmmakers)/CALIFORNIA SPLIT (Robert Altman, 1974, 35mm at the Music Box Theatre)/DETOUR (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945, 4K DCP Digital Restoration at the Siskel Film Center) - For Rebecca Lyon
3. WANDA (Barbara Loden, 1970, 2K DCP Digital Restoration at the Siskel Film Center) + THE FRONTIER EXPERIENCE/THE BOY WHO LIKED DEER (Barbara Loden, 1975, 16mm at Chicago Filmmakers)
4. MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE (Sarah Jacobson, 1996, 16mm at Chicago Filmmakers)
5. ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN'T (Agnès Varda, 1977, 2k DCP digital restoration at the Siskel Film Center)
6. “From the Other Side: The Films of Chantal Akerman ” at Doc Films (16mm, 35mm, DCP)
7. Barbara Hammer: VITAL SIGNS at the Nightingale Cinema (Various shorts on 16mm; full disclosure: I co-programmed this with Cine-File contributor Michael Phillips)
8. San Francisco Silent Film Festival - Special thanks to Marilyn Ferdinand
9. TIE XI QU: WEST OF THE TRACKS (Wang Bing, 2003, DCP at the Film Society at Lincoln Center) - For Ben Sachs, the only person with whom I’d travel to see a nine-hour movie
10. RIO BRAVO (Howard Hawks, 1959, 35mm at the Music Box Theatre)
11. The “Deep Seijun: Rare Films of Suzuki Seijun” series at Doc Films (Mostly 35mm)
12. THE SACRIFICE (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986, 4K DCP digital restoration at the Siskel Film Center)/THE BURBS (Joe Dante, 1989, 35mm at the Music Box Theatre)
13. Music Box of Horrors at the Music Box Theatre (Mostly 35mm) - For Heather Nichols
Dmitry Samarov
Best Movies I Saw in a Movie Theater in 2018
AT ETERNITY’S GATE
ZAMA
THE FAVOURITE
THE AREA
PHANTOM THREAD
MONROVIA, INDIANA
FIRST REFORMED
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
LOVELESS
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND
YI YI
CHARLEY VARICK
MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE
Ingmar Bergman and Jiri Trnka retrospectives
Harrison Sherrod
11 films that more or less came out in 2018 that I more or less enjoyed
11. THE ROAD MOVIE, dir. Dmitrii Kalashnikov
10. ZAMA, dir. Lucrecia Martel
9. THE GUILTY, dir. Gustav Möller
8. HAVE A NICE DAY, dir. Liu Jian
7. THE YOUNG KARL MARX, dir. Raoul Peck
6. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, dir. Boots Riley
5. AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2, dirs. The Film Group
4. SHAKEDOWN, dir. Leilah Weinraub
3. BURNING, dir. Lee Chang-dong
2. FIRST REFORMED, dir. Paul Schrader
1. THE GREAT BUDDHA+, dir. Huang Hsin-yao
Michael Smith
My 10 favorite new feature films to receive a Chicago theatrical premiere in 2018:
10. THE WOMAN WHO LEFT (Diaz)
9. FIRST REFORMED (Schrader)
8. ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Jia)
7. MADELINE'S MADELINE (Decker)
6. 24 FRAMES (Kiarostami)
5. BURNING (Hong)
4. PHANTOM THREAD (Anderson)
3. THE MULE (Eastwood)
2. ZAMA (Martel)
1. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Welles)
K.A. Westphal
Best Films I Saw for the First Time in 2018
FAT CITY (John Huston, 1972)
FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE (Fridrikh Ermler, 1929)
THE FRONTIER EXPERIENCE (Barbara Loden, 1975)
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS (Jean Grémillon, 1929)
MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE (Sarah Jacobson, 1996)
MOTHER KRAUSE’S JOURNEY TO HAPPINESS (Phil Jutzi, 1929)
PHANTOM THREAD (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017) - 70mm Presentation
PHOENIX (Christian Petzold, 2014)
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (James Ivory, 1993) - 70mm Presentation
UFORIA (John Binder, 1985)
Best Films of 2018
UN BEAU SOLEIL INTÉRIEUR (Claire Denis)
BELMONTE (Federico Veiroj) §
BELL & HOWELL (Julian Antos) §
THE CAPTAIN (Robert Schwentke) ^
EIGHTH GRADE (Bo Burnham)
“I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS” (Radu Jude) §
MADELINE’S MADELINE(Josephine Decker)
NON-FICTION (Olivier Assayas) *
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN (David Lowery)
OLD WORLD (Robert Todd)
SHOPLIFTERS (Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo) *
TRANSIT (Christian Petzold) ^ *
VAZANTE (Daniela Thomas) ^
ZAMA (Lucrecia Martel)
^ Disclosure: Distributed by my employer, Music Box Films
* 2019 Theatrical Release
§ No US distributor