That does beg the question though: what films have managed to impress and touch us most, so far this year? We put the question to the editorial staff, and 19 people replied with a top 5, from which we cobbled together a top 10, and a list of 5 runners-up.
Mind, not all titles travel fast, so some films may be from last year, or will be released later but have been screened at festivals already. All in all, every contributor had at least some films on his/her list which were exclusive to that person. In total, we have 67 titles, and I would lie if I said I've seen most of those. Therefore, a complete list of all the titles can be found at the end of our countdown.
And speaking of a countdown: here we go. And what were your favorite films these past six months? Chime in, in the comments below, and HAVE YOUR SAY!!
10: Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Mr. Rogers represents a lot of things to a lot of people, but his endless calm propagating of inclusiveness and tolerance has made him a synonym of sorts for the forces of good. Director Morgan Neville "crafts a gentle and enduring chronicle of one of 20th century America's most compassionate radicals", as our Ben Umstead states in his review here.
9: Incredibles 2
Pixar's latest is quite the ride. As Andrew Mack puts it in his review: "Once again, Brad Bird and Incredibles 2 prove that this franchise is as good as animated classic superhero movies will ever be. Bird simply can do no wrong when it comes to animation."
8: Isle of Dogs
I can remember when The Fantastic Mr. Fox came out and we, at the time a bit more blog-gish than today, posted five unrelated separate reviews of it on the same day. We like ourselves some Wes Anderson puppetry here...
Earlier this year, Thomas Humprey chimed in from Berlin with his review, and I quote: "...as well as being a healthy 101 minutes of absolute nerdy funny, at its heart, Isle of Dogs is actually a very quick-witted and incredibly current response what happens to certain sections of society when deceitful leaders are allowed to manipulate public fears to achieve power."
Wait, what?
7: Paddington 2
If there is one odd-one-out in our top 10, it's this one. I heard people liked it, but THIS much?! Bring out the marmalade sandwiches!
As Jim Tudor puts it, in his review: "If Paddington was a fine surprise of a film, then the biggest surprise of a fully stocked Paddington 2 is that it feels like it could be merely an episode of a Paddington Bear TV series. (“Paddington Goes to Prison”). It would be a terrific episode, very special, in fact. But as it lands, this first sequel is nonetheless an ideal family film experience, colorful, well-rendered, wondrous and enjoyable to both adults and children."
6: The Shape of Water
This one might easily have been number one, but for many people this was last year's news. Still, for the subset of us who caught it late, it is a favorite.
As Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg mentions in her review, "Unabashed in its view of the fantastic as a key to hope and happiness, unafraid to confront (if not fully dive into) the era's difficult politics, with a healthy dose of sex on the side, The Shape of Water is del Toro at his best, with its design, cinematography, story, and performances, all focused on the meaning and importance of acceptance and love.".
5: Black Panther
The MCU has made it into our top 5? What's become of this world?! It's almost as if people would LIKE to see culturally diverse superheroes or something...
Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg says the following about director Ryan Coogler and the film itself: "...Coogler proves himself not only capable of putting together a stellar cast and crew, but steering them while allowing their talents to shine. Black Panther is a feast for the eyes, the ears, the heart and the mind, a film that has action, heart, substance, and soul." Read her full review here.
4: You Were Never Really Here
It's been a while since director Lynne Ramsay's last film, but she made one hell of a comeback with this one. Critical reception for the film has been through the roof!
Our critic Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg had the following to say in her review: "By focusing on the effects of one man's violent actions on his psyche as much as the actions themselves, Ramsay gives us a laser-focused thriller closer to Herman Melville than the usual Hollywood fare, where the character takes centre stage. You Were Never Really Here mines the psychological while presenting violent action as harsh and cruel both for the victim and perpetrator."
3: The Guilty
Danish director Gustav Möller won audience awards with his debut film in Sundance and the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and it's easy to see why: The Guilty is an unbelievably tense rollercoaster ride of a film, which is very impressive given that you basically spend the entire time watching police officer Asger behind a desk, talking into several 911-emergency phones, while he's desperately trying to figure out what's happening on the other side of them.
As Peter Martin says in his review: "Möller doesn't pull any punches dramatically, and the consequences of Asger's decisions are felt fully, in part due to the superb, measured, and extremely empathetic performance by Jakob Cedergren." True words...
2: Annihilation
Alex Garland's first film Ex Machina shook us all up in no small way, delighted that the talented writer turned out to be an intelligent director who used genre tropes to divide-yet-conquer his audiences.
His second film is a bittersweet affair, as it is perfectly suited to be seen on as big a screen as possible, yet was delegated to Netflix for most of the world. Hell, even I finally took a Netflix subscription, just to watch this film!
And what a disturbing delight of a film it is, with a dash of The Thing, a smidgen of Predator, and a whole lot of Stalker.
In his review, Kurt Halfyard rightly says that "...rare is the studio picture allowed to be this abstruse, and engaged viewers will leave with plenty to consider while they decompress over a hypnotic closing credit sequence."
Abtruse or not, this film lost out on leading this list by the merest of margins... almost tied in first place even.
1: Phantom Thread
The number one position this year was very much tied to two titles, and we had to recount several times before we could declare a winner. Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread.
Our Zach Gayne was completely bowled over by it. In his words:
"Less than a riddle, Phantom Thread is a poem to be unraveled. Deciphering which thread in the subtext is capable of wholly undoing the foundation of the film’s norm amounts to why we see P.T. Anderson films nowadays, as the wunderkind only grows older, wiser, and aesthetically stronger. That and, oh, I don’t know, the pristine, brilliantly suggestive cinematography, the performances so clearly arrived at tirelessly, the Kubrickian detail and overall beauty culminating from every morsel of every frame, the intricate compositions of Jonny Greenwood that teeter along a precarious psychological ledge, and, of course, the poetically evocative dialogue that frames the film between the lines."
And THAT concludes our list!
Check out the next slide to see what other films we liked as well...
As stated before, the best film of the year so far may simply not have been seen by enough people yet to properly register in our list. Take Tigers Are Not Afraid (see the picture above), which I'm sure would be high in this list if only it had been seen by a lot more people. Me, I can tear my hair out (what's left of it) for failing to catch a screening of it at the Imagine Festival in Amsterdam earlier this year. Even more embarrassingly, when I joined a group of friends, I failed to recognize the woman I had a brief but fun conversation about the festival with as being the film's director Issa López (facepalm), there to pick up an award.
Ugh. Anyway, to make this article a wee bit more useful and fair, here we show every single list our contributors sent in. Have fun browsing!
In alphabetical order, the contributors were:
Christopher Bourne:
1 - Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?
2 - Claire's Camera
3 - Support the Girls
4 - Angels Wear White
5 - Unsane
Matt Brown:
1 - Phantom Thread 70mm
2 - Black Panther
3 - Paddington 2
4 - Annihilation
5 - The Rider
Dustin Chang:
1 - Zama
2 - 24 Frames
3 - Jeannette: Childhood of Joan of Arc
4 - Bloodlight and Bami
5 - The Taste of Cement
Tristan Daine Zinampan:
1 - Hereditary
2 - Annihilation
3 - Isle of Dogs
4 - You Were Never Really Here
5 - Black Panther
(Too-late entry after the article was already written, but hey... good choices!)
Michelle Galgana:
1 - You Were Never Really Here
2 - Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
3 - Revenge
4 - The Endless
5 - Upgrade
Jaime Grijalba:
1 - Relaxer
2 - John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
3 - Isle of Dogs
4 - Te Quiero Tanto que no Sé
5 - The Waldheim Waltz
Kurt Halfyard:
1 - Phantom Thread 70mm
2 - Loveless
3 - Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts
4 - First Reformed
5 - Annihilation
(Bonus: Best Doc - Dreaming Murakami)
J. Hurtado:
1 - Hereditary
2 - Upgrade
3 - The Breaker Upperers
4 - I am Not a Witch
5 - Tigers are Not Afraid (see screenshot above)
Tom Kiesecoms:
1 - Utøya 22. juli
2 - Thunder Road
3 - Border
4 - Xiao Mei
5 - Mirai
Eric Ortiz Garcia:
1 - The Disaster Artist
2 - Phantom Thread
3 - The Shape of Water
4 - Isle of Dogs
5 - Lucky
Hugo Ozman:
1 - 1987
2 - Operation Red Sea
3 - Tremble All You Want
4 - The Shape of Water
5 - Incredibles 2
James Marsh:
1 - Phantom Thread
2 - You Were Never Really Here
3 - Shoplifters
4 - Hostiles
5 - Annihilation
Peter Martin:
1 - The Guilty
2 - The Housemaid
3 - The Hurricane Heist
4 - Black Panther
5 - Early Man
Stuart Muller:
1 - Incredibles 2
2 - Nommer 37
3 - Tehran Taboo
4 - Red Sparrow
5 - Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey
Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg:
1 - You Were Never Really Here
2 - Black Panther
3 - A Wrinkle in Time
4 - Annihilation
5 - Paddington 2
Jim Tudor:
1 - Won’t You be My Neighbor?
2 - Avengers: Infinity War
3 - Isle of Dogs
4 - First Reformed
5 - Incredibles 2
Loïc Valceschini:
1 - Hanagatami
2 - Luz
3 - The Guilty
4 - Climax
5 - Piercing
Ard Vijn (me):
1 - Annihilation
2 - The Guilty
3 - The Endless
4 - The Death of Stalin
5 - Salyut 7
Ben Umstead:
1 - Paddington 2
2 - Madeline’s Madeline
3 - Bisbee ‘17
4 - Ready Player One
5 - We the Animals
Ernesto Zelaya Miñano:
1 - The Shape of Water
2 - Good Time
3 - Annihilation
4 - Revenge
5 - Avengers: Infinity War