It’s hard to believe another year’s passed by! 2018 certainly was a stand-out year for Cinema and Team Mr. Will true to tradition, share with you their best of 2018. If you haven’t seen some of these, it’s time to start adding to your Must-See Lists this winter!
AMANDA GILMORE (@gilmoreamanda)
It was such a great year for Film that it’s near impossible for me to choose the Top Ten. I could have easily made a Top 30 list (if it was allowed). However, I managed to squeeze in ten films, which are in alphabetical order rather than being ranked. I’ve included films from a range of genres and narratives that I’ve thought about since my first viewing.
A Star Is Born
A Quiet Place
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Black Panther
Eighth Grade
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Roma
Shoplifters
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse
The Favourite
JONATHAN GODFREY (@Skot_Somers)
Annihilation
First Man
Ready Player One
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
A Quiet Place
Green Book
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Legend of the Demon Cat
Mary Poppins Returns
As usual, my list consists of movies I saw on the Silver Screen within the calendar year. They’re organized according to release date, and are thus relieved of any hierarchy. Annihilation is the dark Sci-Fi wizardry I live for; Ready Player One is my kind of Spielberg cinema; and A Quiet Place is my top scare of 2018. Solo gave me more Star Wars; Demon Cat made this year’s TIFF magical; and First Man is the brand of brooding Drama I adore. Fantastic Beasts 2 is dope AF; Green Book is a beautiful performance piece; and Spider-Man is the Comic Movie I’ve been waiting forever for. To wrap it all up… Mary Poppins Returns! She has, and it warms my heart.
DAVID BALDWIN (@DaveMABaldwin)
2018 was an incredible year for Cinema. Full stop. If anyone tells you otherwise, they did not see enough movies. Every genre fired on all cylinders, and the mid-budget and independent scenes were filled with positively exquisite Filmmaking that will go down as some of the best of the decade. And even better than that, 2018 proved the power and importance of diversity and gender in Cinema. The number of movies I genuinely liked and loved that missed my Top Ten can attest to how outstanding a year this was. But I can say with confidence that the list of films below shook me right through to my bones whether through fear, laughter, wonder, charm, thrills, or genuine emotion. And yes, I know I cheated with including a tie — but it would be a disservice to not include all of these titles on my list.
Hereditary
Assassination Nation
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Incredibles 2
Blindspotting
Paddington 2
Eighth Grade
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
The Hate U Give
[tie] Can You Ever Forgive Me? / Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
GEORGE KOZERA (@PartyG)
I saw 164 movies this year. It took a long time to whittle the list down to 26 movies that I considered to be the best of 2018. This was a year that brought fantastic highs that had me gasping with wonder and admiration or so bad that they had me rolling my eyes in disbelief! Whether it was one of the most original Horror movies in a long time (A Quiet Place) or a Superhero, Comic Book movie so innovative and supremely well-acted that it validated a genre many were hoping would just go away (Black Panther). It was a banner year for documentary features, musicals and an LGBTQ movie was released for the first time ever by a major Hollywood studio (Love, Simon). Dramas were rampant with stories that touched one’s soul, though there was a lack of Comedies that were consistently funny throughout (with the exception of “Game Night”). All that said, I submit my pick for the best film of the year and the next nine movies (in alphabetical order) that moved, enthralled and will stay with me for years to come.
Roma
BlacKkKlansman
Cold War
The Favourite
Green Book
If Beale Street Could Talk
Lean on Pete
Leave No Trace
Mary Poppins Returns
Three Identical Strangers
JUSTIN WALDMAN (@DubsReviews)
It is time for the annual Top Ten movies I saw that I absolutely adored and loved this year. Some are best of the year, while others are the movies I had the most fun watching this year. There have been some truly incredible movies this year, and dare I say the ‘blockbusters’ for the most part have been fine, nothing really spectacular outside of a few gems. If you haven’t seen something on this list, go out and see it. Most of these movies will appeal to the masses, enjoy yourselves. Here’s to a 2019 with some hot titles coming out over the next few weeks, Glass anyone, and next few months, US am I right? 2019 is sure to be a stellar year
Anna and the Apocalypse
A Quiet Place
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Eighth Grade
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
The Favourite
Widows
Click here to read Mr. Will’s Best of 2018.
(Photo credit: Elevation Pictures/Warner Bros. Canada/VVS Films/Fox Searchlight)
Nothing short of ‘incredible’! INCREDIBLES 2 debuts atop the Box Office in its bow this weekend taking $175.3 million from 4,410 theatres for Disney/Pixar. Not only does it get a rare A+ CinemaScore from Audiences, it gets also a 94% on the Tomatometer. By comparison to its 2014 Predecessor, it more than doubles the intake of that one’s $70 million debut.
In second is last week’s champ OCEAN’S 8, with $20.5 million for Warner Bros. from 4,145 theatres, a two-week tally of $80 million domestically.
TAG opens in third with $13.7 million from 3,382 theatres for Warner Bros. The star-studded Comedy starring Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms and more, is based on a true story, and gets 57% on the Tomatometer and a B+ CinemaScore.
HEREDITARY in its second week out makes $6.5 million for A24 Films/Elevation Pictures, a total $26.6 million.
SUPERFLY debuts in seventh spot for Sony Pictures with $5.6 million from 2,220 theatres. The Cult Classic Reboot gets 54% on the Tomatometer and a B+ CinemaScore.
BOOK CLUB rounds-out the Top Ten with $2.2 million for Paramount Pictures. It has made $62.2 million in its domestic run.
It’s girls’ night out at the Box Office with OCEAN’S 8 stealing the top spot at the Box Office with $42 million from 4,145 theatres for Warner Bros. This bests 2004’s OCEAN’S 12 which previously was the top opening in the Franchise with $39.1 million. Critics gave it a passable 69% on the Tomatometer while audiences gave the star-studded Heist Flick a resounding A CinemaScore.
A distant second is SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY with $14.3 million in week three, a total $176 million grossed domestically.
In third is the well-reviewed Horror HEREDITARY with $13.7 million from 2,964 theatres for A24 Films/Elevation Pictures. It gets a stellar 94% on the Tomatometer and an D+ CinemaScore.
DEADPOOL 2 takes fourth spot with $12.8 million for 20th Century Fox in its fourth week out, a total $277.4 million earned thus far in North America.
HOTEL ARTEMIS debuts in 8th spot with $3 million for Global Road Entertainment/Cineplex Pictures. The Film starring Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown and Jeff Goldblum gets a 59% on the Tomatometer.
Rounding-out the Top Ten is LIFE OF THE PARTY with $1.7 million for Warner Bros., putting it just shy of the $50 million-mark over five weeks.
By David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong
“I wanted the Film to feel evil.”
It is a rather innocuous quote, but one that perfectly describes the aura around Ari Aster’s critically-acclaimed Film Hereditary. The first-time feature Writer/Director has received unanimous praise out of both Sundance and SXSW for his Tale of a grieving family who, in the wake of their matriarch’s death, discover nightmarish secrets relating to their ancestry. Aster presented the Film at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Wednesday evening – the first Canadian public screening – and followed with a Q&A with the George Stroumboulopoulos.
And when your Film is being touted on posters as the “scariest Film since The Exorcist”, you know the audience is in for something special.
The less said about the shocks and surprises found within Hereditary, the better. For Aster, he just wanted to “make a Movie about grief and trauma.” But having watched various Oscar-type movies during his schooling at AFI and Sundance, he knew he had to make something more unique and outside the box: “It’s in me to see [those kinds of movies] and think, what’s the worst thing I can do here?” He doubled down by suggesting the whole point of Hereditary was to “make a Film that didn’t let people off the hook” for what they were involved with, suggesting not so-subtly that “everything that’s coming is inevitable.”
Another important element of Aster’s discussion with Strombo was regarding the Film’s Sound Design. Much of the sounds came directly off the pages of Aster’s Script, but his Sound Team was determined to use them in radically different ways. “We played a lot with using different speakers,” Aster says, using them to express not just the sounds on-screen, but the different emotions and feelings of the characters. He stressed that some effects – including mouth clicking that becomes progressively more horrifying – were designed to be “played in different parts of the room” at all times. As Aster recalled, listening on a conventional stereo system completely ruined the terrifying effects he was going for (and in turn, Colin Stetson’s enigmatic Score), remarking that he “wanted this sub base thing that you feel in your guts more than you hear it.”
But no matter where the conversation went (including a brief mention of how proud he was of Lead Actress Toni Collette’s “kamikaze” performance), Aster kept circling back to the feeling he was trying to evoke through every twisted frame of Hereditary. “I wanted to test your patience,” he told the packed audience, noting that “As the [characters] were suffering, the Movie is smiling.” And while he describes the Film as “sinister” and “mean-spirited”, he continues to be both shocked and delighted at the acclaim the Film keeps receiving – he just assumed he was “making a really alienating movie that made people feel bad.”
I will save my full thoughts on Hereditary for my upcoming Review but will note that I do not remember the last time I was so unsettled and unnerved watching a Movie. So skip the Trailers and start mentally preparing yourself – you will not want to miss out on this future Horror classic.
Elevation Pictures release HEREDITARY on June 8, 2018.
(Photo credit: David Baldwin)
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