TrustMovies' BEST OF 2018

This year, at the top my my list, are three narrative films and two documentaries that are as different from each in style and content as would seem possible. What unites them, in my mind at least, is that they are, in their own way, "progressive" -- politically, socially and/or sexually. And while they may not be the "best" movies in terms of their embrace by other critics, they tackle themes and ideas that need to be explored and do this in a way that I think justifies their inclusion.

The five sheer and outright comedies on the list (including one comedic anti-superhero blockbuster) -- two from major Hollywood studios, two independents, and the other from Spain -- are there because first-rate comic entertainment is not all that easy to come by these days. So here are my top five, with the rest of list appearing further below. (Click on the title link to see my earlier, longer review of each film.)

THE CAKEMAKER is that rare thing: a movie about spirituality that takes in physicality, sexuality and our five senses as necessary contingents.

Everyone I know who has seen the film has liked it -- but each for a different reason. It's that inclusive. And rich. All about love, lust, baking and acceptance, that the movie also delivers its own wonderful "take" on Jewish-German history and possibilities is just, well, the proverbial icing on the cake.


BEL CANTO moved and surprised me more than any narrative film this year. Granted, I knew next to nothing about it going it (I read little if any press material prior to viewing), but I came out of the film shaken and sad yet filled with a renewed sense of humanity's possibilities (yeah, even in this age of the idiocy of Donald Trump). And though the movie deals with freedom fighters and hostages, its other great theme is how art can affect life. Together, these make for a movie that must be seen and considered.

ARABY is a genuine "art" film -- at least so far as its form is concerned. The narrative twists around and into itself, making the character you imagine to be the hero little more than subsidiary. Yet the movie slowly but completely builds into one of the most progressive I've yet seen in terms of its skill in fusing character and theme with economics, politics, sociology and so much else. By the finale, it is as fine and moving a narrative depiction of society and the individual reduced to near economic slavery as any you'll have seen.


THE CHINA HUSTLE came and went this past spring with little fanfare. Yet it is a model of investigative reporting, as well as a remarkable look at how to make some very complicated financial scamming both understandable and anger-provoking.

The documentary indicts not only China (for, oh, so many reasons) but especially our very own usual suspects: the Wall Street and banking hustlers who manage to come out far ahead, even as their little-folk investors lose their shirts (and all else). The movie also asks that seemingly eternal question: When will we finally rein in and really regulate our fucking disgusting financial industry?

MOYNIHAN is also a model documentary, even if its focus is simply the life and times of one man -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- whose career spanned most of the mid-20th Century into our current one. The film is so astute psychologically that it captures character in a wonderfully full fashion, while giving us a look at a politician and man who well understood the virtues of knowing what a "fact" actually is, along with the need for "working together" (which is not, by the way, the same thing as compromise) to achieve a necessary objective. In these current and seemingly end-of-times, we certainly could use more of this kind of proactive thinking and behavior.

Below is TrustMovies' "best" list (38 this year) which includes only the films I've seen this past year -- starting with the earliest date that each was released, through to the end of the year. (More may be added as I catch up.)

Click on the title of any film link to read my entire review.


IN THE LAND OF POMEGRANATES

IN BETWEEN

VAZANTE

THE INSULT*

KANGAROO

BEFORE WE VANISH

FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL *

SUBMISSION

GAME NIGHT

12 DAYS

THE LAST SUIT

THE DEATH OF STALIN

THE CHINA HUSTLE

NANA

ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM**

CAPITALISM **

EVERYTHING ELSE

FILMWORKER

DEADPOOL 2

SUMMER 1993

ARABY

THE CAKEMAKER

EXTINCTION

TOC  TOC**

STRANGE VICTORY**

MEMOIR OF WAR

CIELO

LEAVE NO TRACE

RAZZIA**

TAINTED SOULS**

GOOD MANNERS

BEL CANTO

MOYNIHAN

DESTINATION WEDDING

THE OATH

DEFAULT

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

THE FAVOURITE

ROMA

*An asterisk after the title means that the movie in question, though officially opening on either coast by the end of 2017 (or was a last-year Best Foreign Language Film contender), did not open here in Florida until 2018.

**A double asterisk means that the item did not receive a theatrical release -- but is available in DVD form or via streaming as, in one case, the French-Canadian television series Capitalism that is simply too important and exceptional not to include.