fbpx

Year in ReView: Vanyaland’s favorite films of 2018

2018 was a lot of things: A ceaseless reminder that the never-ending hellscape we've crafted for ourselves in the weeks following the 2016 election will not abate without a seemingly herculean effort, a great baseball season for Red Sox fans, and perhaps best of all, a pretty damn good year at the movies. What follows is a year-end list of accolades and the films that received them, not in any particular order, in which I've pulled review samples from our archives over the past year. Because, if the holidays are about reflection and whatnot, what better way to ring in the season than by looking at the work you've done over the past year? There are a few listed that I never got the chance to review, and those will be accompanied by some hastily-written blurbs telling you to Go See The Thing I Liked. And you should! Each of these movies -- including those on the honor roll -- are worth your time and effort. Thanks for reading.

Honor Roll: A Prayer Before Dawn, Border, Widows, Halloween, I Think We're Alone Now, The House That Jack Built, BlackkKlansman, The Death of Stalin, Black Panther, Cam, Leave No Trace, Wildlife, The Sisters Brothers, Mid90s, Thoroughbreds, A Quiet Place, Unfriended: Dark Web, The Legacy of Whitetail Deer Hunter, The Captain, Clara's Ghost, The Devil's Doorway, Nico 1988, Ready Player One, Cold War, Shoplifters, The Mule

Prev2 of 15Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys

Best-Ever Haruki Murakami Adaptation

Burning

Has an adaptation of a famous author’s relatively minor work managed to be this comprehensive a summary of his style? I’m not totally sure, but Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning,” feels about as close as one could come to doing the master Japanese author justice on the big screen. A deliberately-paced thriller about a young wannabe-writer (Ah-in Yoo), the seemingly-mystical woman (Jong-seo Jun) that he loves, and her obscenely wealthy boyfriend (an all-time great performance by Steven Yuen), Chang-dong’s work here is methodical and major, the standout scene being a mid-film dance performed by Jun in silhouette as the sun sets. It’s an utterly gorgeous and transcendent moment, perhaps the single-greatest individual scene released this year. Seek this out as soon as you can.

Prev2 of 15Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys