2018 | Joy Reviews Movies

Top Ten of 2018

30/12/2018 · by Joy

Well, this is it – tomorrow is the last day of 2018! It’s that weird time between Christmas and New Years when everyone is just sort of floating around, unsure where they are or what day it is… or maybe that’s just me, I don’t know. This year, I don’t want to write about the top ten new movies of 2018, though maybe a lot of this list will be comprised of new movies from this year… I want to go with the top ten movies I watched for the first time in 2018. There are some that just blew me away and have been sitting on a list of “to-watch”es for literally years and I want to acknowledge them! So, here goes nothing…

10. Don’t Talk to Irene (2017)

I saw Don’t Talk to Irene at the North of Superior Film Association’s film festival this past April. I didn’t get a chance to see nearly as many films as I’d have liked to (as I work a lot and can’t necessarily dedicate an entire weekend to seeing films – unfortunately!) but I did manage to catch this one and, man, I enjoyed it. It was quirky, it was fun, and Geena Davis was Irene’s idol – what more can you ask for? While not without flaws, it is so much fun and you can’t help but fall in love with it and Irene.

9. Tully (2018)

I did not expect to enjoy Tully as much as I did. I went in blind, and so should you. Apparently it was pretty controversial amongst, I don’t know, film sticklers and mommy bloggers. I thought it was really well done and… well, I can’t say much else without giving it all away. Give it a watch if you like movies that drop little hints and then blow the doors wide open.

8. The Endless (2017)

Here’s another one I went into totally blind and kind of left with only partial vision, honestly. It was a weirdo, sci-fi, fantasy, bizarro… thing that I really liked. It’s a low-budget film and that is definitely evident, but it plays to the film’s advantage. It’s out there and it’s something totally different. More Primer than Alien, but more culty than Primer. It was a pleasant surprise that kept me on my toes constantly and I had to Google what I had watched afterwards, which I get a sick sort of high from because it’s so “out there” that my little brain can’t quite comprehend it.

7. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Okay, now let’s jump back a decade to a film that has been on my ‘list,’ my ‘official’ list, for probably that same amount of time. A French film originally entitled Le scaphandre et le papillon, I entered into this tunnel with only the knowledge that it had something to do with a quadriplegic man. It was so aesthetically interesting and the story was revealed in such an interesting, multiphasic way that piqued my interest.

6. BlacKkKlansman (2018)

BlacKkKlansman was a disturbingly eye-opening look at black vs white race relations in the United States that applies even still today. It jumps all around the emotional spectrum – comedy, tension, ending on the unfortunately realistic note of ‘nothing has changed.’ It challenges current society, triggers feelings of anger and hopelessness, and it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.

5. Loving Vincent (2017)

Loving Vincent was easily the most beautifully done film I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a Van Gogh fan, so when I saw the teaser trailer for this one, I knew I’d see it and love it. I went in with high expectations that were not at all disappointed. It’s entirely animated using rotoscoping (think Waking Life crossed with Starry Night, which was obviously the intention). I thought the story was wonderfully written and I loved seeing familiar faces all… art-y. Would definitely recommend!

4. A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place is a film I loved so much that I paid full price for the Blu-ray for my collection. You heard that right. I paid full price. It was so well-shot, well-written, and the concept was original (yeah, yeah, Bird Box, blah blah blah, whatever – A Quiet Place was so far superior, there was no contest). It created an environment where you cared about each and every character, even though they were dumb enough to have a baby in this weird post-apocalyptic environment where you can’t make a sound… it’s fine Emily & John, I still love you, but damn… that was not an intelligent decision. This film physically pained me at the end, but I would watch it again and again and I will until the day I die because it was so good. I hope ~~Jim Halpert~~, er… John Krasinski never stops directing.

3. A Star is Born (2018)

I love this movie so much that I hate it. I don’t know that it’s the best movie on this list or that it’s not without it’s own universe of flaws, but there is something about the way it tells its story that sucks me in and I can’t stay away from that soundtrack. Bradley Cooper did an excellent job with this one and Barbra Streisand is probably rolling in her grave* with how much BETTER it is than the 1976 version. So much raw emotion, and the dog, guys, the DOG!

*Yes, I know that Barbra Streisand is still alive.

2. I, Tonya (2017)

I already reviewed this one and I do not care. I loved I, Tonya, I thought Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Tonya Harding was exceptional, I loved everything about Allison Janney, as always. This movie is a joy and a blessing.

1. Coco (2017)

Coco is the best thing Disney has done in a long time. It is enjoyable for everyone – young and old (except maybe my dog because man, he hates Dante the alebrije). I absolutely love this movie. I’ve watched it at least 5 times since I saw it for the first time this year (though, to be fair, I didn’t pay full price for it) and it only gets better the more you watch it. Pixar usually has a ‘thing’ they focus on with each movie – with Brave, it was Merida’s hair and with Coco, it was lighting. The things they did with lighting were downright amazing.

Runner ups:

Eighth Grade (2018) – so painfully and realistically awkward, I felt guilty enjoying it.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) – that wedding scene – incredible.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) – Rami Malek makes you fall in love with Freddie Mercury all over again.

To All the Boy I’ve Loved Before (2018) – the cutest movie I saw all year.

6 Balloons (2018) – heartwrenching.

Halloween (2018)

21/10/2018 · by Joy

WARNING: Not a spoiler-free review.

This was an unexpected, long-awaited occurrence which surprised me in many ways and swooped in like a miracle and fixed and erased everything I hated about the Halloween saga. I had pretty high expectations but not too high, because after all, it’s still a slasher and it’s still Halloween and the concept is… pretty easy to capture.

He’s back – Michael. She’s back – Laurie. She has a daughter who is annoying and doesn’t understand how trauma influences its victims and that when your friends are murdered by who is called the ’embodiment of pure evil,’ and you are pursued by said ’embodiment of pure evil,’ you don’t just get over it. She also has a granddaughter who conveniently loses her cell phone to a bowl of either slush or polenta, I’m not entirely sure. But really, the only two people that matter are Michael and Laurie, so it’s all good.

I was impressed with most things and there were things I was less than impressed with. For instance, the beginning scenes with the investigative journalists seemed pretty irrelevant and I mostly forgot about it by the time they left my screen. They never appeared again. It seemed like a hokey way to reintroduce Laurie Strode and to clear up “misconceptions” about the backstory (i.e., plot points that were created by the pre-existing sequels). It also seemed like a hokey way to demonstrate Michael’s existence in the asylum with the “New Loomis” (which is basically what he was). I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either.

We meet Laurie Strode once again and we find out that she has spent the last 40 years creating a home where she can feel safe – multiple locks on her front door and a kitchen island that is a powered secret entrance to her basement where she keeps an impressive collection of guns and weapons presumably for her protection. Bafflingly enough though, her house has a great number of large windows with little to no protection. Seems strange that when you’ve fought with Michael, you don’t think that one of his favourite things to do is smash through windows and grab you from behind… but okay, I’ll suspend my disbelief.

It’s evident throughout the whole film that this movie was created by a group of passionate individuals. Jamie Lee Curtis slips back into her role as seamlessly as one can. Judy Greer seemed entirely out of place and I wasn’t thrilled with anything her character did. Yes, I get it, her character is supposed to be resentful that her mother spent her entire childhood training her to protect herself against the serial killer that murdered several of her friends in 1978 – that sucks, but it’s also understandable. That’s a traumatic event, lady. The constant repetition coming out of Judy Greer’s mouth – “Get over it” – just makes her play as a callous, insensitive and unlikeable individual.

So anyway, when Laurie’s granddaughter’s graduation or whatever it was supposed to be takes place and Laurie meets them for dinner on October 30th after watching the bus depart from the cushy existence Michael has known to transfer him to a maximum security facility (why they chose to transfer him on this particular date is so beyond me…), and Laurie is understandably upset and distraught, it really grinds my gears to see her treated the way she is – with disdain and “I told you so”‘s. I mean, come on, (a) in the original Halloween, Michael is being transported to court and MICHAEL LITERALLY ESCAPES on the same date 40 years earlier in the exact same manner, thus being the incident that started it all, (b) Michael is obsessed with Laurie and will most definitely track her down if he escapes again, (c) this woman clearly has PTSD from coming face to face with a ruthless killer!!!

Anyway, so Michael escapes from the bus (obviously) and Laurie gets the cops to escort her to her daughter’s house to pick up her daughter and her family, but lo and behold, her granddaughter is not there and is totally unreachable because COINCIDENTALLY her weird, drunk, cheating boyfriend threw her phone into a strange substance and it is no longer working and she didn’t even seem to try to fish it out and save it??? But anyway, that’s a convenient plot point.

At this same time in the story, we see Michael steal his Shatner mask back from the stupid journalists, kill them, and move on to start a killing spree, sparing no one but the children. He kills Laurie’s granddaughter’s best friend and her boyfriend, he kills numerous other people – I lost count at 15 – and eventually faces off with Laurie. I won’t spoil the ending (not that this has been a spoiler-free review at all), but it’s pretty satisfying.

All in all, I had a lot of fun watching this one. There was comic relief, there were brutal murders, there was a slow-moving Michael, there were fun lighting effects, there was Jamie Lee Curtis who is obviously the highlight of the film. I really enjoyed it. I think it was a solid sequel and I think it was effective. Slashers aren’t meant to be scary, they’re meant to be fun and with that, Halloween accomplishes just that.

Searching (2018)

15/09/2018 · by Joy

When Unfriended came out in 2014, I watched it and I wasn’t like, “oh, that was a great/horrible movie” but I was very intrigued by the style of the movie. “Filmed” entirely on a computer screen (or I guess, multiple computer screens), it was something new and different that, at the time, I thought hadn’t been done before. I’ve since watched The Den (2013) and again, I was kind of thrilled by this new methodology. Searching is a lot like that.

Searching branches out a little bit and includes news footage shots and CCTV shots, but everything is via ‘screen’ – nothing is overtly filmed in the traditional sense. To be honest, Searching was a breath of fresh air. John Cho was absolutely fantastic in every way and I am now blessed with a weird thing where I wish John Cho was MY dad. The film starts out with an emotional gunshot and keeps you thinking right until the very end. You’re never entirely sure what to believe and you’re never entirely sure what’s around the corner. I was kind of thrown off my game a little when Debra Messing was suddenly a cop because the whole movie, in the back of my mind, all I could think was there is no way that Grace Adler can pull off this detective thing.

Searching was packed full of red herrings and twists. It was exceptionally well thought out and while normally I leave a movie like this with plot holes forever emerging in my mind as I recount and process what I’ve watched, so far I can’t find any. This is a welcome surprise for me having just watched Hereditary last night and finding a very different result (more on that experience in a separate review). I can’t say that I was exceptionally surprised by the end result as there was an inkling there, but I was never at any point before it was revealed, fully aware that I had the right notion.

It was realistic, it was touching, and it really made a statement about what our lives our with the Internet dominating so much of our time and holding so many of our “secrets,” ready to be exposed if someone just… takes the time to look for them. I was thoroughly impressed and this is one I think I’ll add to my personal collection. Recommending you see this ASAP!