2018 superlatives are almost done, though again, you’ll have to excuse some of us who are late and get our assignments done in the New Year. Indiewire, as you may have seen in the list of Edgar Wright and Guillermo del Toro’s Best Films of 2018 Top 10 lists, has amassed an impressive list of 52 filmmakers putting together their picks of the best movies of 2018, which we covered yesterday. But as the year is coming to a close and some of us are so delirious we’re writing about the retconned character motivation of a made-up superhero villain, we thought it’d be fun to parse the “worst,” most surprising, or hottest takes on the list.
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2018
The first pick that comes to mind is Joe Cornish, the director of “Attack The Block,” co-writer of “Ant-Man” and “Tintin” with his pal Edgar Wright and the filmmaker behind the upcoming “The Kid Who Would Be King” movie. Cornish gives some love to two unexpected films that haven’t seen a lot of love on the top 10 best of circuit including Sony’s “Venom” and Lucasfilm’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” The Han Solo movie is not particularly beloved and was a box office flop, but Cornish says, “ “Solo’ has to be one of the most tightly written and cleverly plotted of the new ‘Star Wars’ movies” and about “Venom” he says it “features an eccentric, always interesting lead performance by Tom Hardy, some truly byzantine special effects and at least one stunning chase sequence,” he also goes on to defend “The Predator,” another genre sequel that didn’t receive much critical or commercial love this year (and that we put on our Worst list along with “Venom”). Controversial? Thoughts?
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
David Lowery, the indie, but eclectic, filmmaker behind this year’s “The Old Man And The Gun” with Robert Redford also put ‘Solo’ on his list writing, “Maybe, like most of the world, I didn’t need more STAR WARS just yet – but several months later, whilst on a long flight, I guess I definitely did because I randomly decided to rewatch the opening scene and before I knew it the credits were rolling. Freed of expectations, scaled down to an 8 inch Lufthansa screen, SOLO was a delight.”
READ MORE: ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ & The Inherent Problem With Prequels
Perhaps the boldest, hottest, but perhaps most on-brand take was Nicolas Pesce placing Lars Von Trier’s mostly detested “The House That Jack Built” as his #1 film of the year, though to be fair, the movie, divisive, obviously, haa crawled up to a 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes and isn’t as loathed as it was when it debuted at Cannes. “ I totally understand why Von Trier’s movie is problematic and also kind of offensive,” Pesce writes, a director of provocative horrors like the upcoming “Piercing,” and “The Eyes of My Mother.” “But wow, that movie has stuck with me like not many have, and my jaw was dropped the entire time I was watching it – half because I was shocked by what Von Trier was trying to get away with and half because I was in awe of it.” Audiences have seemed to have rejected the film wholesale at the theaters—it’s made all of $233,142 in limited release, but that said, perhaps Von Trier’s latest will make most of its money on VOD.
READ MORE: Lars Von Trier’s ‘The House That Jack Built’ Is Repulsive, Toxic Trash [Cannes Review]
Of course, there are no “wrong” answers here, but some of the unusual, unexpected choices are interesting to highlight.
What else? Alex Ross Perry gave some unlikely love to a superhero property, “I am referring, of course, to the 11-minute single take prison-escape sequence in “Daredevil” Season 3 Episode 4: “Blindsided” directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. While I am unsure how to rank a single moment from one episode of a television show, this deserves renown, and I am happy to cite it here,”; Those who loved the divisively received “Vox Lux” by Brady Corbet starring Natalie Portman with a strange Staten Island accent will admire Jonah Hill for placing the film on his top 10 list (Sophia Takal did too), as well as the stand-up special “Adam Sandler: 100% fresh”; Daniel Scheinert’s (“Swiss Army Man”) shout out to Boots Riley’s tweet taking down the historical accuracy of Spike Lee’s “BlackKklansman”; Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry,” “Stop-Loss,” “Carrie”) gave a “Dont @ me” about Justin Simien which is interesting because isn’t “Dear White People” kind of loved?; Leslye Headland’s (“Sleeping with Other People,” “Russian Doll”) take on “Ready Player One” is succinct and worth a read “Spielberg’s recreation of Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ in ‘Ready Player One’: The rest of the movie is bad. These few minutes were absolutely sublime.”
READ MORE: The Worst Films of 2018
Ps, I’ve settled the controversy of Adam McKay’s “Vice” which cleaved Film Twitter in half and caused all kinds of hurt feelings; many loved, many despised, no one had a mild take on it. Debra Granik (“Leave No Trace”) is absolutely never wrong, and it’s on her top 10 list. See you in 2019.
