Best Films of 2018

Also available on Letterboxd here: https://letterboxd.com/jwdmeow/list/best-of-2018/

Past Years: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 (aww. Debra Granik topped my list that year, too!), 2009

1. Leave No Trace

2. The Favourite

3. First Reformed

4. You Were Never Really Here

5. Beast

6. I Am Not a Witch

7. Madeline's Madeline

8. Burning

9. Suspiria

10. The Rider

11. Blindspotting

12. Free Solo

13. Paddington 2

14. Support the Girls

15. Mission Impossible: Fallout

16. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

17. Roma

18. Vox Lux

19. Annihilation

20. Blackkklansman

21. The Guardians (Les Gardiennes)

22. Revenge

23. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

24. If Beale Street Could Talk

25. Won't You Be My Neighbor?

26. The Miseducation of Cameron Post

27. A Quiet Place

28. Hereditary

29. Purge This Land

30. Black Panther

31. Sweet Country

32. Angels Wear White

33. Minding the Gap

34. Matangi/Maya/MIA

35. Eighth Grade

36. Ravenous (Les Affames)

37. Ant Man & the Wasp

38. Suleiman Mountain

39. The Sower (Le Semeur)

40. Bad Times at the El Royale

52 Films by Women

I half-heartedly tried to do 52 films by women in 2018. I saw 42. I'm not going to post a lot on these, since quite a few were covered in my SFFilm Fest wrap up, and quite a few more will be on my best of '18 list.

35 Shots of Rum - Claire Denis; 4.5 stars. The first of several Denis films, thanks to SFFilm/SFMOMA's Modern Cinema series. It turns out I really love her work. I'm excited to see more.
You Were Never Really Here - Lynne Ramsey; 4.5 stars. One of the best of the year. The unfinished version won awards at Cannes, it was up for a ton at the Brit Indies and the Indies; of course it got no mainstream recognition.
I Can't Sleep - Claire Denis; 4.5 stars.
Madeline's Madeline - Josephine Decker; 4.5 stars. Another best of the year; up for Gothams and Indies.
Leave No Trace - Debra Granik; 4.5 stars. Why this didn't get the same reception Winter's Bone did; I'll never know. I love it so much. A top 10 Indie and breakthrough win at the National Board of Review, best director from the LA Critics, noms from the Gothams, Critics' Choice, Satellites, and Indies.
I Am Not A Witch - Rungano Nyoni; 4.5 stars. Such an incredibly assured debut. It won best debut at the BAFTAs and had a bunch of Brit Indie noms last year, but it barely got a release here this year.
Skywards - Eva Weber; 4.5 stars (short). Pretty pigeons!
Revenge - Coralie Fargeat; 4.5 stars. So much blood!
73 Questions - Leah Nichols; 4.5 stars (short). Getting to know our neighbors here in SF.
Seine's Breath - Beathanie Montano; 4.5 stars (short). Wow - I do not remember thinking so highly of this one! An animated short about a famous Jane Doe.
Free Solo - Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; Jimmy Chin; 4.5 stars. I still need to see Hale County, but so far, I'm rooting for this one at the Oscars.
White Material - Claire Denis; 4 stars
The Rider - Chloe Zhao; 4 stars. I love this film so much.
The Intruder - Claire Denis; 4 stars.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Desiree Akhavan; 4 stars. (Apparently) the better of the two films this year exploring gay conversion therapy.
Angels Wear White - Vivian Qu; 4 stars. A heartbreaking film of corruption and sexual abuse in China as experienced by two young girls.
Purge This Land - Lee Anne Schmitt; 4 stars. A fascinating experimental film about the history of John Brown race riots in the US. Winner of the LA Film Critics Experimental award last year. (Excerpt)
Suleiman Mountain - Elizaveta Stishova; 4 stars. A family of con artists traveling through Kyrgyzstan.
Crisanto Street - Paloma Martinez; 4 stars. (short) A look at the housing crisis in the bay area, focusing on eight-year-old Geovany.
Graven Image - Sierra Pettengill; 4 stars. (short) The history of the largest confederate monument, Stone Mountain.
Pariah - Dee Rees; 3.5 stars. A sweet coming of age story about an African-American lesbian.
Shirkers - Sandi Tan; 3.5 stars. In documentary contention this year; the story of an early Singaporean indie film that was never finished and the mystery of what happened.
The Sower - Marine Francen; 3.5 stars. Sweet period romance.
The Other Side of Everything - Mila Turajlić; 3.5 stars. A really interesting family portrait of the director's mother, Srbijanka Turajlić, a pre-democracy activist in Serbia. Does a really good job of blending the personal with the historic.
While I Yet Live - Maris Curran; 3.5 stars. (short) A look at African-American quilters in Alabama.
Yes, God, Yes - Karen Maine; 3.5 stars (short).
Mahogany Too - Akosua Adoma Owusu; 3.5 stars. (short) A riff on the 1975 film Mahogany.
Duck, Death and the Tulip - Ella Yoon; Jorge Sandoval; 3 stars (short). I like the animation style.
Lucia, Before and After - Anu Valia; 3 stars (short). This won the short film competition at Sundance, but I didn't quite love it. I like Sarah Goldberg in Barry.
Come Swim - Kristen Stewart; 3 stars (short). Some nice images, but does feel like a debut. She might make a good music video director.
Set It Up - Claire Scanlon; 3 stars. Rom coms aren't really my thing, but Zoey Deutch is very charming in this. Glen Powell was better in Everybody Wants Some!!
Mary, Queen of Scots - Josie Rourke; 2.5 stars. Josie! You're such a brilliant theatre director! What happened here?! (James McArdle's hair is, however, *hilarious*)
The Inland Road - Jackie Van Beek; 2.5 stars. An indie film from NZ that fell victim to some tropes.
La Nuit je Mens - Aurélia Morali; 2.5 stars (short)
Marty - Kate McLean; Mario Furloni; 2.5 stars (short)
Drop by Drop - Laura Gonçalves, Alexandra Ramires; 2.5 stars (short)
Pussy - Renata Gąsiorowska; 2.5 stars (short). This was up for a ton of festival awards. To each their own.
Le Petit Mort - Elizabeth Jaeleigh Davis; 2 stars (short)
Kiss Kiss Fingerbang - Gillian Wallace Horvat; 2 stars (short)
Freedom - Kathrin Steinbacher; 2 stars (short)
Meeting MacGuffin - Catya Plate; 2 stars (short). This might be good on drugs. Just gonna leave the description here; "In a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has fallen apart, a group of scientists and an animated sign complete the construction of a new human race and meet a groundhog climatologist who prepares them for their mission to restore balance to the decimated Earth."
Oh Hi Anne - Anne McGuire; 1.5 stars (short). An ode to the underground filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar; illustrating voicemails with MS Paint. Not my cup of tea.

Oscar Nominee Predictions

I need to preface this; in what was maybe the best year for films in 20 years, we are likely to have an absolutely terrible group of oscar nominees. Also, for every Weinstein or Spacey, there's an overcorrection to continue supporting a Singer or Farrelly. Depressing, but true.

Last year, I did pretty well, with 90/122 outright, or 118/122 if you count spoilers. Let's see if we can do better this year...

[Edit 1/22: Actual picks in bold. 91/121 outright, and 113/121 counting spoilers. So better outright, but a more fun/unexpected year overall.  Perfect categories: Best Picture (in order!), original screenplay, and production design. Left field non-spoiler nominees; Marina de Tavira, Pawel Pawlikowski, Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Screenplay, Green Book for Editing (also: what.), Never Look Away for Cinematography, Border for makeup (yay!), One Small Step and Late Afternoon for animated short.]

Best Picture

Locks:
A Star is Born
BlacKkKlansman
Roma
The Favourite
Vice
Bohemian Rhapsody
Green Book

Up to 10 nominees:
Black Panther
A Quiet Place
If Beale Street Could Talk

Spoilers
First Man
Crazy Rich Asians
Mary Poppins Returns
First Reformed
Hereditary
Ballad of Buster Scruggs (SUPER unlikely, but it was in the NBR top 10, and the Coens are often well received by the Academy)

Ughhhhhh what a year. The Favourite is the only lock I really love. (And, my same caveat as always; 117 films were mentioned as "best picture" or "top 25" by various voting bodies. The Oscar nominees look like they are going to be particularly far from critical consensus or my own tastes this year (please see this, this, or this for some alternates. Personally, I'm giving myself till the 31st to catch up on a couple more things before making my own 2018 picks. (After that, we get into Noir City, Modern Cinema, Mostly British, and Fritz Lang at BAMPFA, and I'm not going to have time to catch up on much more.))) I'd love to say Spider-Man or Mission Impossible, since the trend this year seems to *really* be box office (which is why Crazy Rich Asians and Mary Poppins are in for spoilers) and those two are really great films on top of being successful.

[Ed: Perfectly as predicted. Ughhhhhhh.]

Best Actress

Badger.

Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me
Glenn Close, The Wife

Those 4 are locks. Normally I'd look to the SAGs for my last choice, but will the Oscars really go for Mary Poppins?? It seems unlikely to me, but since things are terrible, I'll put it in for my last choice:
Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins

Spoilers:
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma. I would doubt this one (she's been up for almost no precursors aside from the CCAs), but apparently Netflix is spending ALL THE MONEY, so I don't feel comfortable counting her out.
Toni Collette, Hereditary
Nicole Kidman, Destroyer
Rosamund Pike, A Private War
Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians
Viola Davis, Widows (I think she only got the BAFTA nom for Steve McQueen being British (and, you know being VIOLA DAVIS), but she is loved by the academy.)

Sadly, no Charlize Theron, even though I thought she was quite good in Tully. Really sad: no Regina Hall from Support the Girls.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book. UGH
Christian Bale, Vice
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
John David Washington, BlackKkKlansman

Spoilers:
I'll put Ethan Hawke for First Reformed here, since a lot of folks are pinning hopes there, and he seems like the biggest maybe (trading for John David Washington, who I think has the edge, given I expect BlacKkKlansman to pick up several other nods).
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate
I mean, I suppose Robert Redford (Old Man & The Gun). I doubt Ryan Gosling and John C. Reilly, but those are probably the only others in play.

Personally, I'd want Ben Foster in Leave No Trace, but 2018 does not give good things.

Best Supporting Actress

Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Amy Adams, Vice
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emily Blunt, A Quiet Place

Spoilers
Claire Foy, First Man
Margot Robbie, Mary Queen of Scots

Marina de Tavira, Roma

Generally good. I don't think Thomasin McKenzie should have been submitted for supporting, but I do think she's brilliant. I also thought Elizabeth Debicki was great in Widows.

[I'm somewhat surprised - money talks, I guess. That seems mean - I actually think she was great in Roma, and I'm pleased she's in here, but she wasn't up for a single precursor.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star is Born

Spoilers
Sam Rockwell, Vice
Steven Yuen, Burning
Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther

If only: Hugh Grant, Paddington 2. Or Josh Hamilton in Eighth Grade.

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Peter Farrelly, Green Book UGH
Adam McKay, Vice

Spoilers
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk

Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

NOMINATE DEBRA GRANIK YOU COWARDS
(Or Zhao, Ramsay, Heller, Kuasama, Jenkins, Etc etc)

[YAY NO PETER FARRELLY. BOO NO WOMEN. YAY YORGOS! I was considering putting Pawel Pawlikowski in after his BAFTA nom, but I thought.... nooo.... there's no way the Oscars will nominated two foreign directors in one year. And then they did! (The last time two foreign language directors were nominated was 1976; Lina Wertmuller & Ingmar Bergman.) Also on the Bradley Cooper front - the man was still nominated for 3 Oscars this morning. He was hardly snubbed.]

Best Screenplay - Original

Roma
Green Book UGH UGH
Vice
First Reformed
The Favourite

Spoilers
A Quiet Place
Eighth Grade
Sorry to Bother You

Screenplays are trickier this year! A couple of big ineligibilities for the WGAs.

Best Screenplay - Adapted

Can You Ever Forgive Me
BlacKkKlansman
A Star is Born
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace (I have to have hope. And it WAS nominated for a USC Scripter, which is a pretty good bellwether)

Spoilers
Black Panther
Death of Stalin

Ballad of Buster Scruggs [totally unexpected (0 precursors), but as I mentioned under best picture, the Coens are fairly beloved.]

Best Animated Film

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Ralph Breaks the Internet
The Grinch
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Spoilers
Mirai

Best Documentary

Free Solo
RBG
Three Identical Strangers
Won't You Be My Neighbor
Minding the Gap

Spoilers
Hale County This Morning This Evening
Shirkers
Of Fathers and Sons

YAY! A GOOD CATEGORY!

[WHOA. It's like Jane all over again! Won't You Be My Neighbor won the PGA, CCA, was up for the DGA, ACE Eddie, and had noms from CinemaEye, AWFJ, Indies, Gothams, DocNY, and NBR top 5. It was not up for the IDA, and I wonder if that was the forecaster. Also yay Hale County! I haven't seen it yet, but it is at the top of my catch-up list]

Best Foreign Film
Roma (Mexico)
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Burning (South Korea)
Shoplifters (Japan)

Spoilers
Birds of Passage (Colombia)
The Guilty (Denmark)
Never Look Away (Germany)

[Whoa no Burning.]

Best Editing
A Star is Born
Roma
Vice
The Favourite
First Man (I don't see it getting Best Picture, so I'll be surprised to see it here, but it was nominated by both the ACE Eddies and BAFTAs, and won the CCAs)

Spoilers
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody UGH

Green Book. [That... does not bode well for anything.]

Best Cinematography

The Favourite
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Cold War

Spoilers

The Rider (unlikely but a GIRL CAN DREAM. And he did get the Spotlight award from the guild.)
If Beale Street Could Talk
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody UGH BAFTAS WHAT

Never Look Away. I have NEVER HEARD OF THIS. Oh.... wait. Yes I have. It's the German foreign film. I was not expecting a non-Roma foreign film in the craft categories.

Best Costumes

Black Panther
The Favourite
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Poppins Returns
Bohemian Rhapsody (ARE YOU KIDDING ME)

Spoilers
Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Mamma Mia
Crazy Rich Asians
BlacKkKlansman

I will say I am chuffed the guild recognized Oceans 8, because Cate Blanchett's wardrobe was the best part of that film.

Best Makeup

...what. You thought I'd go with a picture of Dick Cheney?

Vice
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody UGH

Spoilers
Mary Queen of Scots
Suspiria

I'd REALLY love a Suspiria nomination, but I'd be happy for Black Panther to get it over Bohemian Rhapsody. I don't think Stan & Ollie will get in, since Vice will (and does the padding/real person/aging thing). And you'd think I'd remember by now why makeup only gets 3 nominees, but I don't.

Border! [I'm so pleased! This seemed super deserving, but unlikely to make it in. It is also in my catchup list.]

Best Production Design

Black Panther
Mary Poppins
The Favourite
Roma
First Man

Spoilers
Crazy Rich Asians
Fantastic Beasts
If Bohemian Rhapsody really sweeps things, then it could get in here as well.

Best Visual Effects
Avengers Infinity War
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Black Panther
First Man

Spoilers
Welcome to Marwen
Christopher Robin
Mary Poppins Returns

Best Score
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins
Black Panther
First Man

Spoilers
A Quiet Place
Ballad of Buster Scruggs
BlacKkKlansman
I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for an (unlikely) Annihilation nom


[WHOA NO JUSTIN HURWITZ. I mean, I'm personally glad, because I thought La La Land was a travesty, but that seemed like a lock!]

Best Song
Shallow, A Star is Born.





Oh, I'm sorry. Other songs will be nominated? Okay then:
All the Stars, Black Panther
Girl in the Movies, Dumplin'
Trip a Little Light Fantastic, Mary Poppins (It is BIZARRE to me that this and The Place Where the Lost Things Go were submitted over A Cover is Not the Book which was WAY better. (Although, I can't tell if the rap was mixed poorly, or just didn't project well in the Castro's not quite Dolby speaker system.))
When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings, Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Spoilers
Revelation, Boy Erased
I'll Fight, RBG
The Place Where the Lost Things Go, Mary Poppins
I would LOVE to see Suspirium here, but it seems very unlikely.

Best Sound Editing
Roma
A Quiet Place
First Man
Black Panther
A Star is Born

Spoilers
Mary Poppins
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mission Impossible Fallout

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE SHOULD BE A CONTENDER FOR THIS IF NOTHING ELSE. BUT REALLY IT SHOULD BE A CONTENDER FOR EVERYTHING.

Best Sound Mixing
A Quiet Place
First Man
Black Panther
A Star is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody

Spoilers
Mary Poppins
Roma
Avengers
Mission Impossible Fallout

Best Short Documentary
My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes
A Night at the Garden
Zion (I actually quite like this one (it's the one in the shortlist I've seen before (I only just found the link above)), but it did win the IDA and end up on the DocNY shortlist. You can go watch it now!)
Lifeboat
Black Sheep

Spoilers
Women of the Gulag
End Game
Period. End of Sentence.

[Noooo. I liked Zion.]

Best Live Action Short
Icare
Caroline
Detainment
Marguerite
Skin

Spoilers
Mother
Wale
Fauve

[Aww man! I had Fauve and Mother in category and then second guessed myself.]

Best Animated Short
Weekends (I LOVE this one. Go watch it!)
Lost & Found (There was another short this year (last?) called Lost Property Office, that I was TOTALLY confusing for this one until today. Not to mention Lou, from last year, which was Pixar's short about Lost & Found items.)
Bao
Bilby (I really want to see this one. Bilbys!)
Animal Behavior

Spoilers
Pepe le Morse/Grandpa Walrus (this is up for the Annies)
Age of Sail
Bird Karma

(I don't think these are likely to be up, but you can also watch the short-listed One Small Step and Late Afternoon)

[YAY WEEKENDS. Also!! I wonder if those last two being available online made a difference???]

General Thoughts:
How many craft nominations do we think First Man is going to pick up without a Best Picture nod? And how few for Green Book? [VERY FEW for First Man! Seriously; who did Damien Chazelle piss off? (It's 4 for the record.) And none for Green Book, but that editing nod is out of left field and bad.]
I have not checked Gold Derby, and don't have the time tonight, but I do wonder how my picks stack up.
I really need to see First Reformed. [Still true.]

[As always, I love Deadline's scorecards. (Disney's 17 noms is kind of scary, but I'm pleased to see Fox Searchlight and Annapurna doing well.). Here's the breakdown by film. I'm SO THRILLED the Favourite leads. Not thrilled with Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book (obvs.) This doesn't really change my catch-up list (First Reformed, Burning, Lean on Pete all still have priority), but I might add Never Look Away to the list.... And I suppose I'm going to have to see Vice.
The Favourite — 10
Roma — 10
A Star Is Born — 8
Vice — 8
Black Panther — 7
BlacKkKlansman — 6
Bohemian Rhapsody — 5
Green Book – 5
First Man — 4
Mary Poppins Returns — 4
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs — 3
Can You Ever Forgive Me? — 3
Cold War — 3
If Beale Street Could Talk — 3
Isle of Dogs — 2
Mary Queen of Scots — 2
Never Look Away — 2
RBG — 2]

2018 mixes

Past mixes: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

So much music this year! So much to enjoy! I was quite obviously obsessed with Dirty Computer, High as Hope, Be the Cowboy, and The Kids are Alright. Outside Lands was great, and well represented here. I only just got the two Blindspotting albums and the Spider-verse soundtrack, so look for those next year...


Disc 1
1. Crazy, Classic, Life - Janelle Monae. ✌


2. Washing Machine Heart - Mitski


3. South London Forever - Florence + The Machine


4. Miracle - Chvrches (I saw them at OL this year, and they were surprisingly excellent live)


5. This is America - Childish Gambino. Obviously the video of the year:


6. Lemon - N.E.R.D. & Rihanna. I think I heard this at the end of last year, but I only got it in February. They were also at OL, and with this dancer, who is so incredible:


7. Majesty - Nicki Minaj ft. Eminem


8. Worship - Lizzo. Lizzo was easily the discovery of OL for me this year. She put on an incredible show.


9. Pressure - Muse


10. You Should See Me in a Crown - Billie Eilish


11. The Kids Are Alright - Chloe x Halle


12. Patricia - Florence + The Machine


13. Geyser - Mitski


14. The Draw - Bastille. Not sure how I missed this years ago, but I like it:


15. Screwed - Janelle Monae ft. Zoe Kravitz. (Below is the audio, but this is the segment of the film with Screwed in it - not available as a separate video that I could see: https://youtu.be/jdH2Sy-BlNE?t=894)


16. Burn It Down - Fitz and the Tantrums. Another one I missed:


17. Hunger - Florence + The Machine


18. Dirty Water - Foo Fighters


19. Would You Fight for My Love - Jack White. Continuing to play catchup


20. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues. My favorite holiday song! I got to go up on stage to sing it with Taylor Mac this year, which was lots of fun. (A good tip I heard recently, replace *that line* with "You've taped over Taggart!")

October Challenge

Once upon this blog, lo these many moons ago, I actually tried to track my annual halloween challenge;

"Speaking of which, stick around for the next month. I'm going to see how many I get through. I've got all sorts lined up - classics, film noir, creature features, black humor, foreign masters, ones of questionable taste with cute boys. Should be fun."

Of course, pretty much every year, I find I have overbooked myself wildly, and I get through 4-6 films within the month. Not that that's terrible. I've slowly worked my way through such classics as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead, and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil: 

This year, though, I started the challenge in mid-September, and I actually tried to block off times for watching things, so that even if some of those were dropped for other obligations, I would still make it through a bunch. Additionally, I've started another film challenge: watching all of the movies in my 100-year watchlist. And before starting this challenge, I flagged which of those counted as horror/thrillers (29; with a further 18 alternates). And that's before considering what's coming out this time of year, what with fall festivals premiering the new Halloween and Suspiria (sadly not out till November), as well as things like Border and In Fabric. Plus I needed to catch up on earlier films from the year like Hereditary, Unsane, and a Quiet Place. So I had lots to get to, and an actual schedule. 

Day 1: The 39 Steps. This was very enjoyable! Mostly because Robert Donat is charming, but also because as an early Hitchcock, there are some very brilliant shots, and some that were totally perplexing in their 'you still have things to learn' sort of way. Also, an early film exemplar of some very tried and true tropes: the bickering couple being handcuffed together, the villain reveal, the stranger drawing another in on a spy plot and immediately kicking the bucket. 4/5 stars; lots of fun. 

Day 2: I binged the Brooklyn 99 Halloween episodes. Because. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3: Opera tickets to Roberto Devereux. (So good! I really loved it. I hope they do the other two in the trilogy.)
Day 4: Castro double feature of Battleship Potemkin/Battle of Algiers. 
I *thought* day 4 was the Castro double feature and went all the way down there only to discover I had the date wrong. Yay for losing 90 minutes during a busy week! So what I actually ended up watching was Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves and Denis Villeneuve's Enemy. The Company of Wolves might have worked better as just straight up vignettes/anthology, but the creature effects are pretty great, and there are lots of good doggos in the film. 3.5 stars.

Enemy is fab. Great cast, wonderfully directed, lots of spiders. 4 stars. 

Day 5: Not part of the challenge: Castro double feature of Battleship Potemkin/Battle of Algiers. Holy fuck y'all. Battle of Algiers is so good! Highly recommended. Battleship Potemkin has a few too many montages of the inner workings of a ship for me, but I guess if you're inventing montage editing, you're going to really go for it. The steps scene is totally brilliant. 
Potemkin: 4.5 stars
Algiers: 5 stars

Day 6: A Simple Favor. This was pulpy, soapy fun. Which is what I needed at the end of the Kavanaugh hearings week. Blake Lively swanning around in tuxes. Yes please. 4 stars.

Day 7: Caught up on American Horror Story: Apocalypse. I was three episodes behind and, yay! This is shaping up to be the best season since hotel, and clearly (hopefully) a return to form. 

 

 

I cannot adequately express how much I cackled at Evan Peters and Rubberman. *mwah* Perfecto.

Day 8: The Sisters Brothers & the Kennel Murder Case. The Sisters Brothers because it was on one early prognosticator's potential oscars list. I think that's unlikely. I can see why John C. Reilly was so interested in adapting this; it's a great showcase for him. Jake Gyllenhaal commits real hard to an accent that does not entirely work. Still, the four leads are good, and it's a melancholy take on the western. I really disliked the cinematography, though. And I think it'll be too French of a western to get enough buzz for the oscars. 3 stars (and that's mostly because they did stick the ending well.)

The Kennel Murder Case: Powell with a puppy! Just snappy and fun and silly. Three and a half stars.

Look Sherlock; a clue

Day 9: A Quiet Place. So good! I had always meant to see this and missed it in theaters. Such a great premise and then just pretty perfectly executed. Four and a half stars.

Days 10 & 11: So here's where things get a little tricky, because SFFilm and SFMoma's Modern Cinema fall series is in October. Great for classic cinema, not so great for horror films. So the fall series kicked off with Pather Panchali and Aparajito, which I had yet to see (I had seen the World of Apu several years ago). These are brilliant. I really love them. Pather Panchali: 5 stars Aparajito: 4.5 stars

Day 12: Oof. This was tough. Still at Modern Cinema; saw The Bicycle Thief and The Middleman. Skipped out on Ikiru, because those first two were so bleak. I really loved the Middleman, as dark as it was (corruption in India in the 60s/70s). I thought it was very well done. I hated watching The Bicycle Thief, as much as I understand why it is considered a classic, and as glad as I am that it inspired Pather Panchali. 4 stars for Bicycle Thief, 4.5 stars for the Middleman.

If you think about it, Neorealism is just a different kind of even scarier horror.

Day 13: A Star is Born: Welp, it was never going to live up to the trailer. 3 stars
The Thing: So great! Such wonderful creature effects! Doggos! 4.5 stars

Day 14: Hereditary. Really good. I had been spoiled on *the thing* that happens, so I can only imaging what it was like for audiences who had a bit of a Scream moment. Some really good atmospheric moments, tiny jump scares, and then just really great acting. Part of why I wanted to see this (other than Toni Collette, obvs.) was that I was impressed with some of what Alex Wolff did in My Friend Dahmer and House of Tomorrow. The car scene in this convinced me (well and probably everyone else, given what a hit this was) that he's definitely one to watch. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I understand A. O. Scott's gripes, but the film had also been building to a lot more style than resolution anyways (or perhaps that was what I had been expecting based on director's breakout short; The Strange Thing About the Johnsons.) 4 stars.

Day 15: An American Werewolf in London. Despite terrible screening circumstances (two moronic girls thought it would be a great idea to get high, come to the Castro and talk through the ENTIRE FILM), I just really enjoyed the set pieces in this. It's so weirdly 80s, the creature effects are fab and, oh man, the corpse in the porno theater is perfect. 4 stars

Day 16: The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell. I got sucked into this weird little series on Netflix. The pilot is rough, and it's such a weird concept for a show, because she's not really demonstrating how to actually do any of the crafts or baking. She's showing that she's an artist who will spend several days icing a gingerbread house. But the Henson muppet sensibility won me over and it was a silly little thing to watch while I was tired. I am super impressed with her edible brown recluses, though...  

 

 

 

 

Day 17: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog and Bad Times at the El Royale. 
I was a little out of it watching The Lodger, so I'm going to blame that on totally not seeing the ending coming. I liked the atmosphere of the film (although hard to play up the fog in silent film cinematography), and Ivor Novello is brilliant. 

As for Bad Times, bless Drew Goddard and Chris Hemsworth for bringing us joy in these dark times. It could've used a tighter edit, but it has lots of Cynthia Erivo singing, and it turns out *THE GIF* is to one of my all time favorite songs (the whole soundtrack is aces):

After this, life got very busy between work, halloween baking, taking headshots, and halloween parties, so I didn't see anything else remotely in genre.
Day 18: Tosca at the SF Opera. Meh.
Day 19: San Francisco Girls Chorus concert (a weird repertoire for this concert, but they did a surprise pre-concert performance in the lobby with amazing acoustics.) 
Day 20: Roma (with Alfonso Cuaron and the actresses in attendance.) This is incredibly well done, and the lead actress is stunning. I'm sure it will be in the running for best picture. (I didn't *looove* it, but much like CMBYN last year, I recognize how incredibly well-done it is.)

And that's it! I didn't get to nearly as many as hoped (once again), but I got a couple crossed off my various lists, and saw the two big horror hits for this year. I may see a few more, but I'll be concentrating on anything on Filmstruck through the end of November (Dead Ringers, looking at you)