BanterFlix’s Movies of 2018

We asked members of the BanterFlix team and some of our regular contributors to pick out their favourite films of the past 12 months and here’s what they came up with.

Mission Impossible: Fallout (Jim McClean)

As I sit down to write this piece, I’m fully aware that by the time I’ve finished it I’ll probably have changed my mind several times on what’s been my favourite film of the past 12 months because lets be honest this has been a great year for movie lovers and those who want more than just superhero movies from their trip to the multiplex.

2018 has been the year when Netflix really moved up a gear with their output, no longer just a dumping ground for studios to ditch their cinematic stinkers, okay we’ll forget about  The Cloverfield Paradox (I know I have), but everyone’s favourite streaming service has released some truly fantastic movies this year, films like Alex Garland’s Annihilation, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (although I was lucky enough to see the film on the big screen during this year’s London Film Festival) and the latest film from the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Moving away from merely streaming movies online, other crackers this year include Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, a thankful return to form for the director after his underwhelming puesdo-musical Chi-Raq and John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, who’d have thought a film produced by Michael Bay would feature on my end of year honours list. There’s also been some great films screened during this year’s Belfast Film Festival like Issa Lopez’s Tigers are Not Afraid and Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion.

These are all films I’ve simply adored this year, but if you put a gun to my head and forced me to pick (but please don’t), I’d probably have to say Mission Impossible: Fallout and I’m as surprised as anyone to say that when this year also saw the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning feature, The Shape of Water. Just like Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, this was a film that demanded to be seen within a cinematic environment, on the biggest screen with the best sound system possible.

Watching Ethan Hunt save the world yet again, perfectly summed up the escapism cinema offers viewers for the mere cost of admission. In no way did I feel short-changed as I sat back and watched Tom Cruise jump from one ovrly elaborate set-piece to another:  hell the man broke his leg and learnt how to fly a helicopter all in the name of our popcorn-munching entertainment.

But it’s not all down to Cruise; in the year of the #TimesUp Fallout managed to give us a strong female character in Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust. Improving upon her breakout within the previous instalment Ilsa is a woman who’s more than capable of holding her own and doesn’t need any man to save her. When you compare Faust’s character to Claire Foy’s turn as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web the difference is night and day and we need more roles like Ilsa Faust for women in 2019.

More importantly (and frustratingly) Fallout also managed to show what a great onscreen presence Henry Cavill can be when given the right material. McQuarrie’s film will probably be remembered for Moustachegate and all the headaches it caused DC with their Justice League movie after Cruise’s onset injury delayed production; but if we look beyound that Fallout managed to show yet again that Cavill has bags of charisma and it’s such a shame that he’s been wasted within DC’s cinematic universe as the Man of Steel.

In comparison to some of the other films I’ve mentioned I’m well aware that Fallout might seem like a lightweight choice for my film of the year, but if 2018 was the year of Netflix, Mission Impossible: Fallout was a film I paid to see not once, not twice, but three times to see at my local multiplex and each time I loved it.

The bar has been raised and let’s sees how 007 reacts in 2019…

Widows (Gavin Moriarty)

So what can you say about Steve McQueen’s superlative heist/thriller/political drama that hasn’t already been said? That not nearly enough people went to see it at the cinema for one; In a changing landscape for filmmakers and audience alike, we see big hitters like Alfonso Cuarón, The Coen Brothers and Guillermo del Toro leaving the multiplexes and heading for Netflix whilst the movie stars are flocking to TV where the best writing appears to be.

But all of that is really just an excuse for what was a shoddy marketing campaign for a film that should have been a blockbuster (at least in R-rated terms – adults still go to the movies, not just teens and pre-teens!). It had all the right ingredients, a stellar cast that included Viola Davis, Brian Tyree Henry (star of TV’s hottest show Atlanta) Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson and the great Robert Duvall and a screenplay that was written by one of the hottest properties in the biz right now, Gillian Flynn.

To top it all off, the film was directed by Steve McQueen who, much like Christopher Nolan, made the jump from the arthouse to the multiplex without losing the things that made him special. In McQueen’s case, he lost none of the flair for audacious single take shots and subversive commentary that propelled Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave to more than just films, they were experiences to be had, to be fully felt in your soul.

Lest you think this is going to be some sort of lecture on America and capitalism, it’s a thoroughly entertaining joyride but one that isn’t afraid to have substance and something to say.

Gender, race, class and politics clash within a film about women plotting and executing a heist that thrills, twists and turns but never forgets to keep the characters real and grounded. Widows is simply a stunning film with stunning performances from everyone but particularly the three female leads, Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki.

That subversive nature was on show early on during which we essentially have a scene where Colin Farrell’s slippery Jack Mulligan chats to his campaign manager about his disillusionment with politics in a limo. The camera doesn’t film the characters talking though as it’s positioned outside the limo as we see the terrain move from run down and poverty stricken to big houses and affluence.

If the movie has a flaw, it’s that it could easily have been a mini-series or a HBO show. You’re eager to learn and know more about almost every single character, they feel so real. You could have made a film about Colin Farrell’s Jack Mulligan or Brian Tyree Henry’s Jamal Manning and they would have been equally intriguing.

When Widows hits Blu-Ray and DVD, don’t miss it. I can’t wait to see it again.

Mandy (Joe Mc Elroy)

In a year where half of the universe was wiped out with a click of the finger and a story of interspecies romance won the Oscar for best film, one film stood out amongst them all.  From the shadows of Panos Cosmatos imagination, a nightmarish vision of revenge spawned from the seventh circle of hell emerged in the form of Mandy.

Set in 1980’s Northwest America, the story follows one man’s quest for vengeance against a fanatical cult after they destroy his peaceful existence.  Whilst this plot may seem like a simplistic variation of something that has been done to death, it is Panos Cosmatos’ approach that makes Mandy something special.

Cosmatos establishes the film with a slow-burning opening half immersing the viewer in the world he creates with a strange atmosphere of romantic dread (through Jóhann Jóhannsson’s exceptional final score) before plunging them into a heavy metal infused path of bloody violence complete with chainsaw duels and hellish LSD trips.

Benjamin Loeb’s wonderful cinematography creates some incredible hallucinatory visuals steeped in a crimson hue that gave the film a dark, otherworldly feel.  In the lead, Nicolas Cage pushes himself to the extreme with one of his finest and most over the top performances since Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. 

In the past this has been viewed as joke but here it fits perfectly within the tone of the film. Opposite, Andrea Riseborough is magnetic as the titular character Mandy, carrying an off kilt aura of mystery with her piercing yet warm stare.

Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film Roma might have been hailed as a masterpiece, partly because of how immersive it was: but Mandy also achieves this by being much more cerebral in nature as it pierces the soul, making it a mind-altering experience and my film of 2018.

Widows (Sarah Firby)

Director Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the 1980s ITV series, co-scripted by Gillian Flynn starring Viola Davis and Colin Farrell’ is a sentence so exquisitely haphazard it sounds a bit like one of the ‘I forced a bot’ memes we’ll hopefully be leaving behind in 2018. And while it stays true to the heist genre in all the ways that matter, McQueen’s Widows is a montage of moods, genres and collaborators somehow herded together and crafted into a slick, heartbreaking, and entertaining revenge thriller.

Viola Davis is Veronica, the widow of renowned thief Harry Rawlings, struggling to come up with the $2 million her late husband has stolen from crime boss-turned-candidate Jamal Manning. Together with two fellow widows of Harry’s crew (and a getaway driver/runner) Veronica plots a robbery that will, if it works, allow her and co-conspirators to get back to the task of re-assembling their shattered lives.

In a cultural moment defined by ‘hot takes’ and ephemeral viral platitudes, Widows takes its time to construct, out of South Side Chicago’s red brick and concrete, the decaying power structures whose rubble each of the ensemble cast struggles to escape from. Rather than beat you over the head with simple solutions, or soothe the heart with comforting antidotes, Widows distils in the stomach a simmering brew of injustice and quiet intoxicating fury.

Some reviewers have pointed to this slow pace as one of the film’s small flaws, and I’m inclined to agree, but without the time to really sit with some of the ensemble’s ‘smaller’ characters, what are glimpses of complex lives and souls would risk becoming vacuous, one-note backstories.

There’s a very long shortlist for standout supporting performance here, but Daniel Kaluyaa and Elizabeth Debicki deliver some of the movie’s most mesmerising tangential moments. In similar fashion, car chases are heightened by slower tableau, one of my personal favourites being the moment a woman wandering into the gang’s sauna-based plot meeting is effectively steamed out by Veronica.

In bringing together gritty polemic and heart-racing popcorn action McQueen sticks to another golden heist rule – keep the plan simple, and you can have as many nuanced, complex side narratives as you like. Cast someone with the force and charisma of Viola Davis as your centre of gravity, and your embittered, charismatic ringleader stands strong against a background of varied and intriguing ensemble players.

Perhaps unsurprisingly from a director who made his name with a 17-minute long single shot, moments of unblinking tension abound – see if you can get through Daniel Kaluuya’s school gym scene without your shoulders swallowing up your neck.

It’s important to underline, at this point, the fact that Widows is by far one of the most entertaining action films of the year. It’s a point that, to me, also seemed to have been absent from pre-release marketing. Together with a couple of month’s distance from Oscars-buzz, it perhaps explains why Widows didn’t follow 12 Years a Slave to the same box office success.

It’s a pity in some ways, but Widows was well enough received that McQueen will likely be given the same freedom and time for his next project – a double success for a film that presents a masterclass in #Time’s Up era production.

Oh, and did I mention there’s a very good dog?

Suspiria (2018) (Michael Campbell)

When I sat down to ponder my favourite film of the year, I instinctively thought of the remarkable Roma, courtesy of the extraordinary Alfonso Cuarón. Beautifully filmed, it’s a movie that I’ve seen in recent weeks, and been astounded by its beauty.

Cuarón’s ability to extract maximum emotion from a fairly straightforward (if epic) family drama, is something to behold. Some maybe won’t immediately warm to a black-and-white, Spanish language picture, particularly one revolving around a turbulent period in a family’s life.

Those who are willing to take a break from CGI and spandex, will find much to appreciate within though, not least the stark photography, that finds beauty and empathy in the most-bleak of terrain at times.

However, as much as I believe Roma to be an outstanding picture, it is not my favourite. That unique honour, perhaps surprisingly, lies with Suspiria, the Luca Guadagnino remake of Dario Argento’s seminal 1977 supernatural masterpiece. Suspiria has stuck with me over the past few months like few horror films do.

Several sequences are genuinely repulsive, but it’s the overall, suffocating sense of discomfort that I’ve found to be most impressive. While Argento’s original was a kinetic blast, Guadagnino’s recreation is an irritating crackle, which really gets underneath the skin.

It’s been a divisive entry for sure, with naysayers being particularly frustrated by the two-and-a-half hour running time. Part Von Trier, part Noe, it’s certainly art-house rather than exploitation cinema. For me, that’s the beauty of it. If it isn’t your bag, that’s absolutely fine, but some of the notices and criticisms of it have been ludicrous.

Being an entirely different film from Argento’s astonishing original is a positive, rather than a negative. Had this effort been a retread, attempting to replicate the lurid thrills, the change-ringing unrealistic blood spilling, and the otherworldly behaviour of the original, it would have found itself competing with its own inspiration.

Instead, the director has provided something that stands apart, complimenting the original in it’s determination to fashion something new (and succeeding), while not detracting from Argento by proving a pale imitation.

Elsewhere, I should also note that 2018 continued to be a fine year for horror films all-round. A Quiet Place and Hereditary are both tremendous efforts, that captured the mainstream’s imagination. That they’re both pretty inventive and at times, frightening, marks that success as much more positive than that of yet another Halloween re-think.

A Quiet Place especially, is a terrific horror film that manages to overcome the problem of creating sympathetic characters. It’s a gut-wrenching experience watching the family unit attempt to survive their ordeal throughout.

Recently, Netflix’s Bird Box also attempted to replicate the combination of a likeable family unit, with a plight centering around the loss of a specific sense, in this case, sight. It’s less successful overall, but it’s still a worthy, serious entry, certainly in the upper echelons of Netflix’s output. I expect 2019 will bring only more of the platform’s high-concept genre pictures in this vein.