The Long Road Out

I have a preference for complex characters who are not dressed up Hollywood style, in narratives that offer surprises or challenge genres.   If you agree, you'll love these movies as much as I do. Rolling ranking of top films of 2018, including two that start with "I am Not..." BlackkKlansmen-- there's so much to love about this film.   First, Spike Lee has once again done something wonderful after a period of what appeared to be intentionally amateurish efforts (OK, some would argue that he went off a cliff after the Original Kings of Comedy in 2000.  Anyway, it's been a long time.)   Then there's Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, who acts as well as, and dances better than, his dad.  And there's the politics--in this happy story, the 1972 versions of the Charlottesville supremicists actually blow themselves up while trying to assassinate the black student leader at Colorado College.  And Adam Driver at his most wonderful--"I...

All in all, it's been a decent year for films, commercial or otherwise, though we suffered through unusually thin gruel for the first six months of 2015.   My favorite films of the year, in descending order... 1001 Grams --Bent Hamer, of Kitchen Stories  fame, does it again--a loving look at characters literally trying to find the weight and balance of life as they lose parents and partners.  Hamer should really be on the list of smartest directors--with Mark Duplass, Lars van Trier, and a handful of others who actually care about their stories and characters.   Your soul does, in fact, weigh 21 grams--and you'll value every dust particle after watching this one. Embrace of the Serpent-- this is actually a 2015 release but no one saw it in the US until 2016--when it lost the Best Foreign Film award.  It shouldn't have (no comments about the surprise that a  holocaust film won out over a true original gem with radical environmental and racial politics). ...