The Films of 2018

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
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swo17
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The Films of 2018

#1 Post by swo17 » Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:00 am

Movies amirite

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knives
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Re: The Films of 2018

#2 Post by knives » Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:59 am


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Big Ben
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Re: The Films of 2018

#3 Post by Big Ben » Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:02 am

knives wrote:Or are you wrong
This is not my beautiful forum!

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Re: The Films of 2018

#4 Post by Ribs » Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:44 pm

This year's Purge film will be The First Purge, and will be taking a hopefully pretty interesting approach.

Image

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Re: The Films of 2018

#5 Post by Big Ben » Tue Jan 30, 2018 6:18 pm

"I had the best purges. We hired the best people. The BEST!"

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Re: The Films of 2018

#6 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:15 pm


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Re: The Films of 2018

#7 Post by davoarid » Sat Feb 03, 2018 4:04 pm

Ribs wrote:This year's Purge film will be The First Purge, and will be taking a hopefully pretty interesting approach.
Subtlety is soooooooo 2015.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#8 Post by sir_luke » Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:08 pm


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Re: The Films of 2018

#9 Post by Big Ben » Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:11 pm


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Re: The Films of 2018

#10 Post by bearcuborg » Sun Feb 04, 2018 7:25 pm

3RA1N1AC

One of the coolest, least known 90's bands.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#11 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:39 am

bearcuborg wrote:3RA1N1AC

One of the coolest, least known 90's bands.
That's a great promo - I definitely want to check this documentary out. I was able to experience Brainiac at a small bar in Detroit where the stage was so tiny I felt like I was on the stage as the band performed. At one point, Tim Taylor's wild gyrations caused his sunglasses to fly off and land at my feet; I handed the glasses back to him in a very un-rock-and-roll moment, but, you know, it was the polite thing to do.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#12 Post by bearcuborg » Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:48 am

Haha. I love that story.

I feel like the first time I saw them - they open for The Breeders - but maybe it was someone else... Anyway, my friend and looked at each other and said, “what the hell is this?”

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Re: The Films of 2018

#13 Post by domino harvey » Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:35 am

This movie seemingly came out of nowhere but I won't pretend the opening line of the Village Voice's Basmati Blues review doesn't pique my interest:
Look, whatever you’re tempted to say about Basmati Blues, here’s one thing that’s true: There’s no way your satiric screwball Ameri-indie Bollywood-inflected Brie Larson romantic musical comedy about agribusiness in India would work better.
EDIT: Having now read the entire review, I'm convinced this movie is amazing

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Re: The Films of 2018

#14 Post by Big Ben » Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:22 pm

You missed one of the best parts!
Larson gamely sparkles, though she can’t quite make Linda comprehensible. (The film was shot in 2013 and is now seeing release thanks to Larson’s higher profile.)

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Re: The Films of 2018

#15 Post by theflirtydozen » Wed Feb 21, 2018 9:07 pm

Was at the Prague premier of Jan Švankmajer's Insect (Hmyz) the other night and have just found the time to write something up about it...

I think this is his funniest film, for reasons that I will discuss below. I feel like Lunacy is its closest relative in his filmography, as this also blatantly blends literary sources: the brothers Čapek, Shakespeare, and Kafka. I guess the way Shakespeare is employed here is in the same vein as the versions of Faust for Lekce Faust. Gonna spoilertag most of the rest of this since it's best to see the film before knowing one of the major decisions it made in its editing. I'll point out that if you contributed to the crowdfunding campaign, you most likely received an email today where you can watch Insect on Vimeo and join the discussion :D
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I was mostly surprised by the structure of the film. Since Lunacy, his films have been accompanied by a short Švankmajer introduction and I expected the same here. However, the introduction is not the only bit like this as the whole movie is a blend of making-of documentary (!) and his typical narrative style. I think this is an inspired decision as it expertly parallels and seeps into the narrative portion with another director herding his own reluctant "insects" to perform on the stage, rather than the camera! I liked that certain scenes had punch-lines that would not exist without the accompanying behind-the-scenes footage right before/after. I'm specifically thinking of him directing Norbert Lichy to eye up Ivana Uhlírová with a cannibal desire as she's pulling at her stomach fat! This played to riotous laughter and is what I meant by this being his funniest film, as it unexpectedly utilizes his humor in a different way. Not sure how much seeing it in a full theater of people understanding it in its native language plays into my perception here but would love to hear other's thoughts!
Other candid moments, like Švankmajer herding insects and being bitten by a roach or yelling at his dog to get out of the shot were a pure delight to see. In this regard, it reminded me a lot of Faces Places from last year as another swan song from a cinematic great that focuses on the creation of their respective author's art (Švankmajer is also an adorable senior and so enjoyable to see in action, just like Varda). I'm not sure how much the decision to include significant amounts of making-of footage was necessitated by the rush in production (it notably finished production several months ahead of schedule), or the relatively short amount of material for the narrative portion of the film. As for the latter point, I thought I had read somewhere that Švankmajer had a draft of this written up before - I think it was in that one huge coffee table-esque book - but he mentions in this film that he recently wrote the script as he was imagining it on the fly.
In the end, I'm really glad this got made as Švankmajer himself was amazed that people out of the film industry helped him fund this, the only of his features to be completely funded before production. I wonder if this could have influenced the direction he chose for the film (optimist ending vs pessimist ending) and in hindsight it's really shocking that he goes for the former given the darkly comic ending of most of his films/short films. If it reflects his current mental state, it's all the more welcome, as I think I recall he was depressed from the passing of his wife before the production of Surviving Life
Apologies if this was a little rambling as I'm not going off much sleep and wanted to jump on here and get some buzz going. That final line is so good!

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Re: The Films of 2018

#16 Post by domino harvey » Fri Feb 23, 2018 6:04 am

...and Duncan Jones' Mute is yet another Netflix original to be on the receiving end of terrible reviews

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Re: The Films of 2018

#17 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:25 am

Starting to look like Moon was a fluke and not a promising first step.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#18 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:49 pm

In keeping with my 2018 resolution to write something about every new release I see this year, I need to catch up on a cluster of minor C+ to C- releases I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks (and one from two months ago):

*The Commuter (Jaume Collet-Serra) - A middling entry in the Liam Neeson action sub-genre, Collet-Serra stages the action capably but can’t overcome the absurdity of the plot mechanics, in particular the omnipotence of the villains that conveniently evaporates when required by the script. The film also tries way too hard to infuse the proceedings with a class resentment element that stops feeling earned about 20 minutes in and starts feeling groan-worthy around the time Neeson aggressively flips off a guy for working on Wall Street who was probably still in high school during the financial crisis. There’s enough depth in the cast and Collet-Serra has the technical skills to make the proceedings go down smoothly enough in the moment, but the whole thing ultimately evaporates shortly after contact with one’s brain cells.

*Den of Thieves (Christian Gudegast) - You might have heard that this was a low-rent Heat rip-off, but you won’t believe either how low-rent it is or how much of a rip-off of Heat it is until you see it (which I can’t quite recommend). Tripling the testosterone and halving the IQ of Mann’s crime epic, Gudegast actually does an OK job in the heist/shootout sequences, but what falls almost totally flat are the attempts to fill in the side characters and personal lives of the cops and robbers gunning for each other across an LA that looks suspiciously like Atlanta in every scene not involving a slow, glittering skyline shot. Gerard Butler surprisingly doesn’t entirely fill Al Pacino’s shoes as the bombastic lead investigator with an imploding personal life, while the stand-out of the main cast is probably Straight Outta Compton’s O’Shea Jackson right up until the film takes an unfortunate turn into
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Usual Suspects territory, as if trying to ape one beloved ‘90s crime thriller wasn’t enough.
*Game Night (John Francis Daley; Jonathan Goldstein) - As advertised, this is better than your average plot-heavy R-rated comedy; Jason Bateman hits the right ratio of insecurity/superiority (which isn’t always the case lately), and Rachel McAdams reaffirms and builds upon the hardcore crush I’ve had on her since Red Eye with a deeply charming turn as an overcompetitive type-A pixie dream girl. The film balances a somewhat darker tone without ever feeling mean, and features some fun staging and cinematography (in particular the use of Social Network-style diorama effect shots for scene transitions, making the characters look like pieces on a game board). Nothing that belongs in a time capsule, but won’t make you feel cheated either.

*Nostalgia (Mark Pellington) - I caught this oddity - without knowing anything about it other than having seen the ambiguous poster in a theater lobby - because Alex Ross Perry co-wrote along with former music video director Mark Pellington, who I remembered from the two better-than-expected genre films he pumped out around the turn of the century, Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies (the only features of his I've seen). While I have a feeling a two-hour investigation of things and why we keep them might appeal to at least some members of a forum devoted to collecting stuff, the assemblage of barely connected character actors pontificating at length about their possessions while the camera pushes in slowly on their faces wasn’t enough to justify this being a film instead of a collection of short stories. Warning: There’s one scene in particular in which a middle-aged character laments a teenager’s lack of non-digital possessions (not the first time this happens, but the most egregious) that will probably cause involuntary shouts at the screen from some viewers.

*Red Sparrow (Francis Lawrence) - I had heard that there were walkouts when this premiered because of its harshness, and went in ready to look down condescendingly at the delicate souls who couldn't handle some gritty violence and sex in their spy thrillers, because really: how rough could a vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence from the director of the Hunger Games franchise be? So imagine my surprise when I walked out thinking, "That was too harsh." Not because the violence, sex, and sexual violence is breaking any Noe-esque barriers, but because Lawrence (the director) leans into the brutality but fails to invest enough in the characters and their ultimately cliched and/or superficial motivations to make the sadism feel impactfully shocking rather than calculatedly lurid. If you’re making a spy thriller in which the cast can’t be bothered to speak actual Russian, you can’t also insist that you’re bravely investigating the darkest underbelly of international espionage. Lawrence and Edgerton are fine given the limitations they’re working within, but some of the supporting cast is wasted - particularly Jeremy Irons - aside from Charlotte Rampling’s “Matron”, who should have had another 15-20 minutes of screen time.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#19 Post by Ribs » Sat Mar 10, 2018 3:01 pm

I actually had a post that was talking about three of those that I deleted because I didn't feel I had enough worthwhile to say! Anyway, the only of those I haven't seen is Den of Thieves, but the three movies that are bigger, wider releases are all wonderful and worth the time for anyone. This is in many ways actually the most exciting time of year for blockbusters, because it's the only time of the year where the studios seem interested in putting out original product that seems different in any real way: The Commuter's opening sequence is possibly the most inspired, kind of genuinely moving scene I can recall? Game Night is a great comic take on The Game with an absolutely dynamite lead performance by Rachel McAdams. And Red Sparrow was summed up best in the Atlantic's review: Like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy if done by Verhoeven.

Don't have much to say at all about Nostalgia! I enjoyed the incredibly low stakes of the first episode, as we don't see many films centered around a guy just going around collecting insurance claims with seemingly no emotions.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#20 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Mar 10, 2018 3:17 pm

Ribs wrote:I actually had a post that was talking about three of those that I deleted because I didn't feel I had enough worthwhile to say!
Never stops me!

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Re: The Films of 2018

#21 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:54 pm

Sally Potter's The Party, her first feature since 2012, is a very stagey, very acidic look at the exposure of secrets, lies, and violence between a half-dozen of the worst people you'd likely ever meet, all concentrated in a London apartment to celebrate Kristin Scott Thomas' recent appointment as a government minister. Filmed in black and white for no particular reason (though it looks quite nice), the film marches through a series of revelations that slice at the ties binding a group of old friends played by a collection of high quality actors - including Timothy Spall, Cillian Murphy, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Bruno Ganz - who compete throughout to be the most obnoxious purveyor of cutting insults, vapid political insights, and/or overbearing academic declarations (spoiler alert: Clarkson wins, saddled by Potter's script with one of the more unlikable characters I've seen in some time). Cillian Murphy and Bruno Ganz have some fun as the proceedings devolve, and the pacing of the 71-minute feature keeps things rolling along quickly, but with the final twist telegraphed from maybe 20 minutes in and no one to root for, there's not too much more to recommend here.

I think I'm sounding more negative on it than I originally intended when I started writing this - there is plenty of talent involved, so it's not The 15:17 to Paris or anything - but something about the lack of relatable human beings on screen rubs me the wrong way the more I think about it; how many times can you hear the same character self-righteously declare their lack of belief in parliamentary democracy before you give up on a script? I didn't know either going in, but it turns out my limit was three.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#22 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Apr 10, 2018 7:38 pm

Coming out of its successful SXSW premiere, the discussion around Kay Cannon's Blockers has been that its a standard gross-out teen sex comedy with a progressive, sex-positive heart of gold, but each of those assertions are only half true. Cannon seems only tepidly committed to the overly contrived gags the script subjects the adult characters to - like
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John Cena's character being tricked into butt-chugging a 40, or Ike Barinholtz accidentally getting his balls squeezed by a kinky blindfolded woman whose house he breaks into, or Leslie Mann being trapped under the bed her daughter is about to lose her virginity on
- and instead seems far more invested in the teary payoffs that the underwritten teens and adults can't quite earn, splitting the difference between something wacky and transgressive enough to consistently draw laughs and something character-driven enough to earn the audience's emotional investment. Even if one or the other element works better for other viewers than for me, it certainly doesn't come close to making both work in the way other Apatovian comedies like Superbad or Knocked Up have.

As for the undermining of the regressive attitudes about sex generally and especially the sexuality of young women in these kinds of comedies, it is true that Blockers gives a lot of lip service to treating teenage sexuality with some respect and at least not terror, regardless of whether the teen in question is male or female. Still, the member of the main trio who gives the most credence to that idea drops that attitude under the weakest of pretenses, and neither that character's behavior nor, for example,
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John Cena putting a teenager he finds in bed with his daughter through a wall
are given much scrutiny, and are instead leveraged immediately for emotional returns that fail to varying degrees to grapple with the immediately preceding behavior.

Depending on how much leeway you tend to give these sorts of comedies, you might not feel cheated by Blockers' modest positive qualities but if you bought into the overly enthusiastic word out of Austin a few weeks ago, you probably can't help but be disappointed. Between this and Ready Player One, it seems prudent to take praise from SXSW with the same-size grains of salt reserved for the reactions from carefully selected nerd-friendly screenings of the latest Marvel movie.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#23 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:43 pm

I was quite taken with Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, so I made sure to make time to catch his latest, Lean on Pete, at last year's Telluride*, and it fell pretty far short of the expectations Haigh's previous film built up, despite a remarkable lead performance and some solid supporting roles for veteran character actors. Charlie Plummer is the real takeaway here, as he imbues the story's simple protagonist with both naivete and reserves of will that propel him away from a relatively normal teenage life with his single father into a Homeric odyssey in search of something resembling a home through a hard, largely indifferent world. That he's the film's strong point is what makes it as mildly successful as it is, since the structure of the narrative consistently allows each of the supporting characters Plummer comes across to make just enough of an impression to be disappointed when they're left behind without much resolution (with at least one major exception: Steve Zahn's against-type performance is quite memorable, and is given exactly as much screen time as you'd want and no more). With a story that sprawls over the American West and veers back and forth across the line separating bleak drama from poverty porn miserablism, Pete often leads the audience to people and places worth exploring in more depth, but never lingers long enough on them to do so, and despite the quality of Plummer's performance, the character isn't quite given enough of an interior arc to make the journey feel totally worth it by the film's conclusion.

*Since this was the last film I saw at the festival, it's entirely possible that I was too worn out (and by that point, allergy-stricken) to give it a literally and figuratively clear-eyed evaluation; I'll catch it again when A24 expands it to my part of the country and see if my opinion substantially shifts.

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Re: The Films of 2018

#24 Post by gauravmanral » Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:06 am

Indian cinema history is very old here many big cinema industry works like as Bollywood and Tollywood. The first silent Indian film Raja Harish chandra has released in 1913 and in 1931 first sound based film Alam Ara has released. That time Indian movie making technology was not so good according to Hollywood cinema but many big Indian actors gave his best to Bollywood for reach to Bollywood in a new cinema level. Now day's Bollywood is one of the biggest Indian cinema industry. Bollywood actors/actress also very famous in all over the world for his/her look and acting. These day's many Bollywood actors working in other cinema industry like as Hollywood. These day's Bollywood cinema industry going to better from last some past years and we can compare to Bollywood cinema with Hollywood cinema. Many fans always wait for Bollywood movies. In 2016 most Aamir Khan Dangal movie has released and this movie were very successful. This is one of the Bollywood film which crossed 1000 cr in world wide. Still in 2018 box office list Dangal movie is on the top position in highest grossing Bollywood box office collection. We can say in these some years big buster Indian movies is releasing. In 2017 starting most awaiting Tollywood film Bahubali 2 has released and this film were top Indian film of 2017 also this film braked mostly all Indian cinema record. Bahubali 2 crossed 1500 cr in world wide. Last month of 2017 Salman Khan Tiger Jinda Hai movie has released and this film were block buster. Tiger Jinda Hai reached top three position in top Indian movies of 2017. Now 2018 is running and some most awaiting Bollywood movies already has been released like as Padmaavat, Padman, Sonu ke titu ki sweety, Raid, Baaghi 2. These film were so successful and many movie fans impressed to watch these film but some films like KalaKaandi, Mukkabaaz could not impress to fans.
Here is list of highest Bollywood box office collection 2018:-
1- Padmaavat Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor Sanjay Leela Bhansali 190 300.95
2- Baaghi 2 Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani Ahmed Khan 70-80 148.45*
3- Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety Kartik Aaryan, Nusrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh Luv Ranjan 20 108.15
4- Raid Ajay Devgn, Ileana, Saurabh Shukla Rajkumar Gupta 35 102*
5- Padman Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte R Balki 20 81.61
6- Hichki Rani Mukherji Siddharth Malhotra 12-15 42.55*
7- Pari Anushka Sharma Prosit Roy 2041.01 25
8- Hate Story 4 Urvashi Rautela vishal Pandya 18 21
9- Aiyaary Sidharth Malhotra, Rakul Preet, Manoj Bajpayee Neeraj Pandey 25 18
10- 1921 Zareen Khan, Karan Kundra Vikram Bhatt -- 15.92

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Re: The Films of 2018

#25 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:43 pm

I'm not a huge tennis fan, but I do have a weak spot for for decent sports movies, and Janus Metz Pedersen's Borg vs. McEnroe is better than decent: Sverrir Gudnason and Shia LaBeouf are quite solid as the respective titular rivals, the film centers on maybe the greatest Wimbledon finals ever, and Ronnie Sandahl's script spends a fair amount of time on the pathological psychology driving elite athletes in a way that covers familiar ground but feels fresh enough in showing how fundamentally similar two men with diametrically opposite public personas actually were.

I wouldn't have seen this if not for having randomly caught the trailer in front of Flower a couple of weeks ago, which made it look good enough to catch but also puts more emphasis on McEnroe's outbursts and antihero persona, making Borg look like the archetypal robotic Nordic villain McEnroe will have to tame his rebel attitude in order to surpass. In fact, if anything the film doesn't give LaBeouf enough screen time, while Borg and his struggle to contain and channel the immense pressure he feels is the primary focus of the script; making him the more sympathetic character while making neither lead a villain was a pleasant surprise, and keeps things from getting too stuck in well-traveled sports movie ruts.

Stellan Skarsgaard is excellent as usual as Borg's coach and father figure (and apparently won the Swedish equivalent of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role), while Tuva Novotny (who was also good in a brief Annihilation role) avoids the pitfalls of the put-upon fiancee, but the movie really rests on LaBeouf and Gudnason, and they both deliver, while Metz Pedersen manages to make the tennis itself more compelling than in last year's Battle of the Sexes. Nothing world-changing, but if you're similarly inclined to give a sports movie a fair shot, this one will probably exceed expectations.

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