What was your favourite movie last year?
It’s a question I hate but get asked all the time. Especially during Oscar season.
For starters, contrary to what the Internet may claim, people can have more than one favourite movie (or favourite anything for that matter). Liking things in not mutually exclusive. And secondly, different movies can evoke different responses or touch different heartstrings but still be liked just as much.
Hollywood is essentially the world’s biggest entertainment farm growing apples and oranges. Asking someone to pick just one fruit out of such a lush and expansive orchard is utterly stupid. You can’t compare a super hero movie with a production budget of 200 million dollars to a period piece with a fraction of the budget but loads of storytelling and moving performances. But you can like both for very different reasons.
Which is why I break my favourite movies of the year into categories. I’m not necessarily saying these were the best movies in their respective fields (some of them were outright bombs), but they either made me feel something powerful or brought a much needed smile to my face. And in the end, isn’t that why we fork over the price of admission?
So welcome to the 2018 Shaynies. Hope you enjoy.
Favourite Action Movie: I didn’t think I was going to enjoy Mission Impossible Fallout as much as I did. I didn’t think director Chris McQuarrie or (perhaps more importantly) star Tom Cruise would be able to keep things fresh in the sixth title of twenty plus year old film franchise. But not only was Fallout the franchise’s best box office earner, it was arguably the most entertaining entry in the series. A solid, more than occasionally pulse pounding action flick with its fair share of blow you away stunts and impressive fisticuffs, Fallout could very well prove to be the franchise’s apex. If so, here’s hoping it the MI films go out on a high note and don’t descend into dollar chasing mediocrity.
Favourite Animated Movie: I know what you’re thinking, listing Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a grade A case of band wagon jumping. Spider-Verse won just about every award for animated excellence (including the Oscar for best Animated Picture), so it’s perhaps the safest bet for this list. But it deserved every accolade it earned and was criminally under appreciated at the box office.
The truth is I had no idea what to expect from Spider-Verse going in. The trailers looked interesting, but I’ve never been the biggest Spider-Man fan and I wasn’t even sure I liked the animation style. And how could I take a movie that included Spider-Ham seriously? But in the end, everything just worked. The story made just enough sense to prevent hijacking the film, the animation was fresh and unique and grew on me, the humour was the perfect ratio to the action and the performances hit all the right notes. Everything was just right and it all clicked with masterful precision.
Favourite Comedy: Everyone else would probably lump Deadpool 2 in with 2018’s fantastic crop of comic book movies (see the next category), but if you don’t like my choice you can go get your own website. Because the Merc with a Mouth’s second outing was by far the most hilarious movie I saw last year. While not for everyone (and definitely not for the kids), Deadpool’s blend of inside comic book jokes, self depreciating humour, assault on the fourth wall, relentless obscenity and depraved self awareness had me rolling every time I saw it. I’m still discovering jokes and sight gags I missed the first time around. Even the trailers were gold (including this priceless one starring Celine Dion and this parody of Bob Ross). The obscenity and absurdity perfectly captured the character’s irreverent spirit and if you were able to shut off your interior content filters for a couple of hours, Deadpool 2 was pure, guilty fun.
Favourite Comic Book Movie: For last year’s Shaynies, I wrote that 2017 spoiled movie goers with some awesome comic book movies. After reading that, 2018 pretty much said “hold my beer.” Because damn. For the second year in a row, this was easily the toughest category to choose, ultimately coming down to Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War (which also starred the King of Wakanda). In the end, Avengers took it by a hair, though you’ll see Panther on this list a little later.
Infinity War wasn’t just a movie-it was an experience. The culmination of a decade of story telling that included dozens of characters from 20 films (almost all of them blockbusters). And it was still only half the story. Like it or not, the MCU is an unparalleled cinematic achievement (with billions of box office dollars to back it up) and until Avengers: Endgame comes out in a few months, Infinity War is Marvel’s current crown jewel. And If the final scene didn’t bring a tear to your eye or at least prompt you to whisper “aww, not Petey,” you need to check for a pulse. Or a heart.
Favourite Drama: Sometimes a movie earns its weight through the sheer weight of its performances. And goddamn if Vice didn’t do that this year. For a political junkie like myself, a biographical look at Dick Cheney was irresistible, but the performances easily outweighed everything else. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the movie ranged from adequate to good, but this was an actor’s movie with genuine grade A (and underrated) talent sinking their collective teeth into some fine writing. And all of it was capped off by Christian Bale’s fantastic, near flawless performance of Cheney himself. Watching the man who brought Batman to life disappear into one of the most pivotal figures of one of the most pivotal ages of Western history was worth the price of admission alone.
Favourite Horror Movie: Some movies can do other things so well that it blinds you to any obvious plot holes. A Quiet Place was that movie of 2018. It used silence so effectively, creating an almost claustrophobic tension that I was too captivated to think about the story’s shortcomings and plot holes until after leaving the theatre (how could creatures that hunt by sound, and could hear a whisper miles away, not hear the thundering heartbeats of potential prey just inches away? How did the militaries of the world not use the creatures dependance on sound against them the way the movie’s survivors wound up doing? Why was there still electricity after the collapse of civilization?). Everything from the performances to the writing to the direction and character development more than made up for the movie’s warts and made this one of the most enjoyable movies I saw last year.
Favourite Popcorn Movie: I’ve never made a secret of my love for the Transformers. Nor have I ever concealed the fact that that nostalgic love allowed me to (often reluctantly) put up with the Michael Bay movies. Until The Last Knight that is, when even I couldn’t defend the franchise any longer and was prepared to throw the cinematic towel in on all things Transformers. My disappointment ran so deep I was even planing to ignore the Bumblebee solo movie entirely. But a funny thing happened on my way to quitting; the trailers didn’t just strum what remained of my Transformer heartstrings, they played them like a master pianist. Seeing Optimus Prime, Soundwave, Ravage and others in their pure, unadulterated 80’s glory not only got my butt in a seat, but it had me smiling ear to ear for the movie’s entire duration.
Bumblebee was both a love letter and an apology to long time fans like myself, a shameless celebration of why an entire generation fell in love with this franchise. With Hasbro and Paramount recently confirming what we all suspected-that Bumblebee was a soft reboot of the Robots In Disguise-well here’s just hoping ‘Bee planted a seed that will continue to grow and blossom into something that will continue to make a bunch of us remember what it was like to be wide eyed, over imaginative ten year olds again.
Favourite Science Fiction Movie: I had just about given up on 2018 for science fiction movies until I caught Upgrade at the very last minute. This movie flew completely under everyone’s radar but was one of the slickest stories I saw all year. While it may not be the smartest or even cleverest movie you see, Upgrade isn’t lacking for new ideas. It asks old questions in new ways and it puts fresh twists on previous answers. And after seeing this movie, you’ll never look at a cyborg with a cold the same way ever again. There’s plenty of violence and gore to keep you from losing interest and if you aren’t paying attention, the last ten minutes will have you saying “Huh, I didn’t see that coming” at least three times.
Most Important Movie: I’m not gonna lie, I was chewing my nails down to the bone in the weeks leading up to Black Panther. The King of Wakanda has long been one of my favourite Marvel characters, I was thrilled when it was announced they were bringing him to the big screen and loved his debut in Captain America: Civil War. I desperately wanted this movie to be good, but more importantly I wanted it to be a success. But as the release grew closer, you didn’t have to look too far find hit jobs trying to drag the movie down for mostly political reasons (not to mention some vengeful DC fans bent on sabotaging Panther’s Rotten Tomatoes score to avenge the “dishonour” they insisted Justice League suffered at the hands some Hollywood conspiracy). It felt like Ghostbusters 2016 all over again.
But Black Panther defied everyone’s expectations, becoming the highest grossing movie on North American shores last year (King T’Challa rewrote plenty of records, becoming the fourth highest grossing movie in domestic history and raking in over 1.3 billion worldwide along the way). There’s a big debate raging in both Hollywood and the world at large regarding diversity these days, and there are a scary lot of people planning and plotting and praying for movies not centred around white heterosexual men to fail. Having a super hero movie starring a black super hero and a predominantly black cast set in Arica being such a tremendous hit cleared a huge cultural hurdle. Crazy Rich Asians and Love, Simon were also very important titles, but neither came anywhere close to the mind blowing success of Black Panther. Hopefully studios now won’t be so eager to whitewash big roles or back away from non-white material. And diversity and representation aren’t the four letter words they were before.
Overlooked Gem: The first clue that the new Tomb Raider was going to be a pleasant little surprise was how hard star Alicia Vikander worked to get into shape to portray Lara Croft. Her effort reflected the whole production’s attention to detail. The new Tomb Raider wasn’t a glamorous, CGI effort the way the Angelina Jolie films were. Rather it was a dirty, scrappy movie that depended on sweat and stunts. It’s a shame it didn’t find a larger audience (I personally thought it might have been a perfect jumping off point for a streaming series) but fans of both the video game franchise and action movies should check it out if they haven’t already
Guilty Pleasure: The House With A Clock In Its Walls really isn’t a guilty pleasure in the traditional sense; it wasn’t a critically reviled movie or a box office failure (it was a modest little success in both respects). But it isn’t the big budget tent pole release or award bait many of the other movies on this list are. It was a harmless, almost charming little fairy tale like Hocus Pocus and the first Goosebumps movie were. The kind that ferret out a nostalgic corner of your heart and set up shop there. Jack Black looks like he has finally found his niche anchoring amusing yet family friendly fantasy fare and it was a nice change of pace for screen veteran Cate Blanchette. Perhaps its biggest advantage was that it reminded me of all the reasons I loved Halloween as a kid, and of all the things I wished Halloween could still be as an adult.
Favourite Performance: This category is easily a tie, and for two very different performances in two very different movies. First up is Toni Collette for her performance in Hereditary. Collette was the only redeeming quality in a movie that had little else going for it (in my humble opinion of course. No offences meant or directed at Hereditary’s fans and passionate defenders). Collette depicted an emotionally damaged, almost schizophrenic woman desperately trying to fend off the forces of darkness with frightening efficiency. Whether it was unbearable despair, painful indifference or terrified clarity, Collette sold her character and then some.
And I’ve already mentioned Christian Bale’s performance in Vice. Not to take anything away from any other performers last year, but not since I saw Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of Abraham Lincoln have I seen an actor disappear so completely into a role. Bale adopted Cheney’s mannerisms, his cadence and even his body language at differing periods of his life and career. Regardless of what you thought of the movie and its politics, Bale turned out to be a chameleon who assumed the skin of his character with perfect ease.
Breakout Star: Logan Marshall-Green is in his early forties and has actually been kicking around Hollywood for years (mostly as a supporting character in numerous TV shows). But raise your hands if you heard of him before. That didn’t take long to count. Having said all that, his turn as the main character in Upgrade should have written him a blank cheque for future roles. Green convincingly adapted his body language and facial expressions from a regular old human, to one sharing a body with an artificial intelligence to a puppet trying to emulate how it thought human beings moved and behaved. Few other scenes reflected his mastery of the role more than the ones where his face and words conveyed messages starkly contrasting violent actions which were not his own. It’s a genuine shame more people didn’t see Upgrade, if for no other reason than to appreciate Green’s work. But hopefully a few casting agents took notice and give the unheralded, little known veteran some roles befitting his talent.
Image Paramount Pictures
