Film of the Week: The Zone of Interest

What does it take for one to become desensitized to some of the worst horrors mankind can inflict upon others? Can someone become so utterly tuned out of them that the screams of the dying become simple background noise? As we see on our own news every day as a genocide is committed with our support and funding, it is far easier than one would hope.

It's this conflict that drives The Zone of Interest, the Academy Award-winning latest from Jonathan Glazer, director of Under the Skin and Sexy Beast. In classic Glazer fashion, Zone of Interest is another new turn from him, an almost minimalist domestic drama against the backdrop of the Holocaust. The film focuses on Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, and his family as they go about their lives in apparent domestic bliss in a home that is directly next to the camp itself. Revealed almost immediately with a cut to the smokestacks towering over the walls surrounding the family's home, the camp hangs like a sword over every moment of the film. It's this contrast of idyllic family life against the backdrop of atrocity that serves as the film's driving force. Rather than attempt to moralize or exploit the suffering for visual horror, Glazer repeatedly and actively keeps the Holocaust in the background to an unnerving, spine-chilling effect, a clear effort to show the dehumanization that made it all possible in the first place. The screams and sobs of the prisoners quietly echo through the background, architects explain the operation of gas chambers the way one would explain the operation of a cash register to a new employee, and in one particularly grim moment, Höss fishes a jawbone from the river, his immediate concern becoming the health of his children playing upstream rather than the thought of how many had to perish for the river to become that polluted in the first place.

Zone of Interest's sound design pulled an upset win over Oppenheimer at the Oscars, and it's hard not to see why. Glazer wields sound incredibly carefully, almost entirely doing away with a score while keeping the background noise at just the right level to unnerve but not distract. It sells the idea of a Höss family as people who have attuned themselves to horror, content to profit off it with stolen clothes and pilfered gold teeth while pushing the emotional weight of it to the back of their minds. But, try as they might, their complicity is inescapable, and their attempts to avoid it simply rot their souls. Höss fights to stop himself from vomiting as he prepares to oversee an operation that will kill 700,000 Hungarian Jews, while his wife, Hedwig, fights against any attempt to take away her newfound luxury, from urging Hoss to keep their family at Auschwitz while he leaves for a promotion to angrily burning a letter left by her horrified mother, who left in the dead of night after visiting the family.

This cold detachment is perfectly played by both Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller, who, respectively, play Rudolf and Hedwig. Friedel plays Hoss with a sense of bueracratic pride and stoicism, his workmanlike management of the camp contrasting against the acts committed within it, from his calm oversight of a line of desperate prisoners being led off a train to his address of violent rapes of prisoners by guards being framed as a warning not to "damage the flowers", while Hüller is monstrous in her portrayal of Hedwig. Hedwig is immensely stubborn and demanding, lashing out at anyone who would attempt to pierce the picture-perfect world she has crafted in an effort to escape from the guilt of her knowledge of what that world is built off of.

But the guilt is inescapable, and the film's final moments, a jarring vision of the future (our present) of Auchwitz, seem to show both Rudolf and us, the audience, that history is the ultimate judge. While Rudolf and Hedwig are both assigned to the dustbin of history, their legacies little more than obscure accomplices to mass murder, that leaves us. As the credits roll, The Zone of Interest sits with you, leaving you to wonder how we will be looked back upon, even as we assure ourselves that we would never act as they did.

 

Film of the Week: Daddy Longlegs

The career of the Safdie brothers, the auteur duo behind Good Time and Uncut Gems, is often focused on getting their audience to root for characters that are largely undeserving of sympathy. From sociopathic criminals to degenerate gamblers, the brothers (and the very talented actors portraying these parts) manage to make their antiheroes often feel like real, living people, enabling them to walk a tightrope when it comes to capturing the audience's attention and empathy.

Daddy Longlegs, the first film in which the duo worked together as directors, is no different. Even with lower stakes, a slice-of-life depiction of a single dad enjoying his two weeks of custody with his kids rather than the nerve-wracking crime thrillers that make up the Safdies later work, the film bears much of their trademark tactics for building tension, from the grainy, shaky camerawork to the often overwhelming (complimentary) sound design employed throughout it's chaotic conversations. It gives Daddy Longlegs the energy of the audience stumbling upon a particularly upsetting home movie, one where the happy memories are instead a series of agonizingly poor decisions that play out like a car crash in slow motion. 

This is aided by the excellent performance of Ronald Bronstein, better known as the duo's cinematographer, as Lenny. Lenny is twitchy, ill-tempered, and increasingly shortsighted, struggling to find some level of meaning for himself outside of his sons, only to repeatedly realize he has little else. Even at his nastiest and most bumbling, Lenny never feels like a caricature, and it makes his screw-ups often agonizing to witness.

In a particularly standout sequence, Lenny drugs his sons to ensure they sleep through his shift as a projectionist, only to realize he wildly overdosed them, effectively putting them into a days-long sleep. His reaction? To halfheartedly check in on them while he dicks around in the city, too self-centered to directly face the consequences of his actions but not sociopathic enough to completely ignore them. Bronstein plays Lenny as a man on the cusp of self-realization, but unable to go through with it, leaving someone who lashes out at the world to make up for it. From his awkward, flailing lies to everyone around him to his treatment of his on-off girlfriend Leni (Elenore Hendricks), much of Lenny's arc is him realizing his mistakes mere moments after making them. It's frustratingly relatable, and it makes Lenny's actions in the film's final moments feel like a natural conclusion to his selfish nature rather than a cartoonish turn that a lesser story could've turned it into.

And good god, the ending. In a twist clearly inspired by the works of Abel Ferrera, the duo's self-admitted inspiration to the point that he has a particularly "fun" cameo as a foul-mouthed scalper turned armed robber, Lenny chooses to simply take the boys for himself, abruptly packing his things and taking them to parts unknown, a kidnapping committed out of a selfish desire for happiness. Rather than pull the punch, having Lenny's plan thwarted or some horrible karmic fate befall him, the film instead ends on an uncertain note, a static shot of a tram pulling away as Lenny and his sons seemingly get away, their ultimate fates uncertain. It's a fitting end for a work that treats its audience as observers. Our glimpse into Lenny's life is over, and we can only watch and hope for the best as he leaves us behind.

Top 10 TV Shows of 2018

In what many consider it's "Golden Age", TV continues to astonish, with each broadcast season effectively becoming an embarrassment of riches for viewers. There's a little something for everyone, and entirely too much for any one person to catch up on all of it, so if your favorite isn't on here, assume I missed it. Or just assume I hated it. Whichever works for you.

10. Barry

• Network: HBO
• Showrunners: Alec Berg and Bill Hader

What started as a goofy comedy about a hitman trying to make it as an actor evolved in it's final episodes into something much more tragic, a story of a damaged man trying, and largely failing, to separate his two lives. Make no mistake, Barry, even at it's darkest, is still very funny, due largely to the engaging, career-best performances of Bill Hader and Henry Winkler, who both won a well-deserved Emmy for it last year, but the show is at it's best when it gives us small peaks into the mindset of Barry, who simply wants a greater purpose than to just be a killing tool and finds himself being used by pretty much everyone. It's funny, dark, and ends on one of the most compelling cliffhangers of the year, never overstaying it's welcome and leaving you on the edge of your seat for season 2.

Best Episode: Chapter 7: Loud, Fast, and Keep Going is the episode that cements the show as a tragicomedy, as Barry's actions (or lack thereof) blow up in his face, ending in him committing a despicable act before managing to give the performance of a lifetime.

9. The Shivering Truth

• Network: Adult Swim
• Showrunner: Vernon Chatman

From the guy whose given us such weirdo hits as Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel comes yet another animated series that's thoroughly out there. The Shivering Truth is an anthology series that often floats from story to story with no logic or reason, but rather than become irritating, the over-serious narration and increasingly unpredictable narrative becomes largely entertaining and occasionally profound, telling stories of love, loss, and terror over the course of an air-tight eleven minutes. It certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but those into horror, surreal humor, or gorgeous claymation will probably enjoy it.

Best Episode: Fowl Flow features series-best animation as it tells a series of stories about the patrons of a bar, including a man trying to sell a hand, a man who steals the stars, and an oddly sweet love story that ends in a moment of quiet redemption.

8. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

• Network: Netflix
• Showrunner: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

A dark, gritty reboot of Sabrina from the same people that brought us Riverdale shouldn't be as good as it is, but somehow, it totally works. A spiritual successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina commits to a full gothic horror tone, with cinematography, music, and production design that evokes both Vertigo comics and the drive-in horror movies of the 50's. A starmaking turn from Kiernan Shipka also makes Sabrina, a character who could've become someone annoying or indecisive, a genuinely charming hero caught between two worlds and her final choice feels like a sad inevitability.

Best Episode: Feast of Feasts is the show's most impressive balancing act, a darkly funny odd couple pairing as Sabrina must prepare her worst enemy, Prudence, to be sacrificed in a dark ritual. It's funny, unexpectedly gruesome, and ends on a killer cliffhanger.

7. Legends of Tomorrow

• Network: CW
• Showrunners: Phil Klemmer and Keto Shimizu

The black sheep of the DCTV family, Legends of Tomorrow continues to thrive by reinventing itself from a more serious superhero dramedy to a wacky "monster of the week" time-travel romp. New additions to the crew (including Matt Ryan's John Constantine, which is the definitive take on the character that was nearly squandered by NBC) add to the cast's lively chemistry without ever bogging it down, and the new status quo (Demons! Bureaucrats!) manages to keep things fresh. While Arrow and The Flash are solid, they can never quite match the hilarious highs of the little spin-off that could.

Best Episode: The Good, The Bad, and the Cuddly is a satisfying conclusion to the third season, perfectly paying off the various threads set up throughout it and bringing back one of the best running gags in TV history in an immensely surprising fashion.

6. Legion

• Network: FX
• Showrunner: Noah Hawley

While the sophomore season, based largely around the decision to slow the story down and expand upon Legion's supporting cast, didn't always pay off, the show never stopped being as compelling and visually dazzling as it's first season. It also gave Amahl Farouk, a villain that's a perfect mixture of devilish charm and chilling sadism, who often left you on the edge of your seat with each appearance, culminating in a rousing, gripping final battle in the mind that pulls the rug out from under you and leaves you entirely uncertain of who to root for.

Best Episode: Chapter 14, a sad anthology of the many possible lives of David had he not gone to Clockworks, is an emotional rollercoaster that ends with a heartfelt moral ("Don't worry about what might have been. Focus on now.") and kickstarts the season into the endgame.

5. Homecoming

• Network: Amazon Prime
• Showrunners: Eli Horowtiz and Micah Bloomberg 

Homecoming was something of an oddity. A tightly-paced Hitchcockian thriller compacted into 10 half-hour episodes, all directed by Mr. Robot helmer Sam Esmail, and it ended up being excellent. The show's visual style was a rare example of style matching substance, as it alternated between two different aspect ratios as we slowly watched the mysteries of the "Homecoming" program unravel in both flashbacks and the modern day before coming together in one of the most satisfying shots in any medium this year. It's anchored by great work from some serious heavy-hitters, led by Julia Roberts in her best performance in years and supported by the likes of Bobby Cannavale as a sleazy mastermind that's never quite what he seems to be, a reflection of a narrative that does the same: keep you guessing until everything comes together, then take it all apart again.

Best Episode: Protocol, the episode where it all comes together, is a masterwork in tension, as we see two separate investigations in two different come closer and closer together in agonizing detail.

4. Luke Cage

• Network: Netflix
• Showrunner: Cheo Hodari Coker

Luke Cage's second season was a clear case of a showrunner taking the criticisms of the first season to heart and working to improve them, and it showed. Season 2 was a darker, better paced, and more emotionally complex follow-up, and it solved it's villain problem by introducing Bushmaster, a shadow archetype to Luke who proved an intimidating but ultimately sympathetic foe, and expanding on Mariah Dillard as she slowly decayed into everything she hated. More importantly, we got to return to Harlem, one of the most fleshed-out and charming locales in the MCU, and see the show's staple of characters again, which makes the cancellation, and the realization that we'll likely never see most of these characters again, an immensely bitter experience.

Best Episode: For Pete's Sake, where Danny Rand comes to town and we all get to see just how great a Heroes for Hire series could have been.

3. BoJack Horseman

• Network: Netflix
• Showrunner: Raphael Bob-Waksberg

It's the often year-long absences between seasons that makes one forget that BoJack Horseman's take on Hollywood and our culture as a whole are increasingly on-point, as this season tackled MeToo, addiction, and the way our society often buries uncomfortable abuse for it's short-term benefit. Even at it's grimmest, the show was still brilliantly written, full of well-planned jokes (Mr. Peanutbutter's reference to Dazed and Confused hit me like a ton of bricks and made me laugh so hard I had to pause the show) and continued development for it's likable (often in spite of themselves) cast of Hollywoo oddballs. Some were critical of the season, arguing the central arc of BoJack descending into addiction after seemingly getting things together last season was a massive step backwards, but I feel it's meant to be frustrating. Going clean isn't an easy process, and the show's willingness to tackle and portray it as a slippery slope makes it feel real, even if it also includes a sex robot named Henry Fondle.

Best Episode: A couple of all-time great episodes scattered throughout here, but the winner has to be Free Churro, a 23-minute monologue on death, love, and struggling with recognizing flawed parents as people that grabs you immediately and never lets go until the credits roll.

2. Daredevil

• Network: Netflix
• Showrunner: Erik Oleson

Like most of Marvel's Netflix roster, Daredevil was cut down in it's prime, but new showrunner Erik Oleson managed to restore it to it's former glory, free of the complicated mystical mumbo-jumbo that dragged down the second season, and end it on a cathartic, arguably definitive note. Returned to it's gritty noir roots, Daredevil gave the oft-criticized Karen Page and Foggy Nelson much more to do rather than simply bog Matt down, while the newcomers of Agent Ray Nadeem, the show's moral center, and Benjamin Pointdexter, a terrifying, yet inexplicably sympathetic new baddie, prevented the plot from ever slogging as much of Marvel's Netflix output tended to do when confronted with 13 episodes, while the always great fight scenes (That prison fight! The bulletin brawl!) left the adrenaline pumping.

And of course, we got to see the glorious return of Wilson Fisk, the definitive big bad brought to life by Vincent D'Onofrio in one of the greatest performances on television, for a final showdown with Matt Murdock, played with such scrappy charm by Charlie Cox that it makes me hope this isn't the last we see of him, in a winding, complex story that builds to a conclusion that, outside of a loose thread here and there, brings the story of Hell's Kitchen to a nice conclusion.

Best Episode: Karen, focused almost entirely on the backstory of love interest Karen Page, takes one of the show's most inconsistent characters and turns her into one of it's best before ending with one of the best fight's in the series, a vicious, take no prisoners scrape between Matt and Bullseye that takes one of the most iconic scenes in the comics and turns it on it's head.

Honorable Mentions:

• Happy! (SyFy)
• Last Week Tonight (HBO)
• This is Us (NBC)

1. Atlanta: Robbin' Season

 

• Network: FX
• Showrunner: Donald Glover

After an almost unbearably long hiatus, Atlanta returned with a new season, titled "Robbin' Season", that managed to outdo it's predecessor by going to a much darker, more thought-provoking place and being unafraid to experiment. On top of the usual awkward, often bizarre humor, the show dabbled in outright horror at points, as jack of all trades Donald Glover used the genre to give his thoughts on the nature of celebrity, culture and being caught between two worlds. Every episode felt like a bizarre trip and was always the highlight of the week, and the finale, which came too soon, was both a good conclusion and left me excited to see where these characters, seemingly on the brink of superstardom, go from here. Here's hoping I won't have to wait until 2020 to see it.

Best Episode: Teddy Perkins, a 40 minute horror movie that was shown without commercial interruption, is the show at it's strangest, but also it's deepest, as we see the tragic tale of Perkins, a clear analogue for Micheal Jackson played to chilling perfection by Glover himself, as he leads Darius through his mansion for a piano before the story crashes to a violent conclusion. It takes a page from Get Out's notebook and uses horror as a set-up for social commentary before ending on an utterly haunting note.

Top 20 Best Films of 2018

I saw a lot of movies this year. A lot. So much, in fact, that attempting to list them by just 10 felt like a disservice to the other great films of this year. So what did I do? I blew it up to 20! So, without further ado, let's dive into it! (And yes, I'm aware there's great movies from this year I missed out on. If the film is not here, assume that I didn't see it, or just hated it. Especially if it's your favorite film, then I definitely hated it.)

20. Cargo 

Directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke

Written by Yolanda Ramke

It's hard to make zombie films, a genre that is effectively beaten into the ground, interesting, but it says a lot about this year in film that not one, but two, zombie films made this list. First up, Cargo, which answered the zombie dilemma by moving the crisis into an area often underrepresented by media: the Australian outback. Led by a brilliantly understated performance from Martin Freeman, Cargo chooses to focus less on the zombies themselves and more on the human struggles of an apocalypse like this. The setting of Australia is a breath of fresh air from the usual settings of urban or rural America, and the various characters encountered along the trip make the most of their limited screentime to remain truly memorable, and the film's ending turns what was ultimately a foregone conclusion into something a lot more moving. 

Best Scene: The confrontation between Andy and Vic on the train tracks goes from a tense struggle to a somber reminder that everyone, even the most apparently vile people, are simply trying to survive, and it's done in an almost dialogue-free exchange. 

19. Apostle 

Directed by Gareth Evans 

Written by Gareth Evans 

As The Raid helmer Gareth Evans's first non-Indonesian film, there was a lot of interest to see if Apostle, a Netflix-produced horror mashup, could be as big a success as his previous works despite being so far out of his wheelhouse. And with little effort, it lived up to expectations. Swapping the frenetic action for creeping horror and focusing on vivid imagery and strong performances from an excellent cast, with special standouts being a broody but likable Dan Stevens and a charismatic Micheal Sheen, Apostle isn't a film for the squeamish, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with a creepy film experience like few this year. 

Best Scene: The tunnel chase, a masterwork in combining the nerve-wracking thrill of a cat and mouse chase with the scares of a haunted house that somehow manages to add in dark humor as well. 

18. Upgrade 

Directed by: Leigh Whannell 

Written by: Leigh Whannell 

A slick, smart throwback to the revenge fantasies of the 70s and 80s, Upgrade adds a fun twist to the concept by moving it to the future and telling the story of Grey Trace, a crippled mechanic who works to avenge the murder of his wife with the help of STEM, a seemingly benevolent AI that gives him not just the ability to walk, but substantial fighting skills as well. What ensues is a fun, pulpy sci-fi thriller bolstered by a charming performance from Logan Marshall-Green that ends with a climax straight out of Black Mirror. If nothing else, this film deserves props for being a better Venom movie than the actual Venom movie, and for about a tenth of the budget. 

Best Scene: What else could this be but the ending? A brilliant gut-punch that gets better on a rewatch. 

17. Overlord

Directed by: Julius Avery 

Written by: Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith

Rumored to be another installment of the Cloverfield franchise, Overlord proved to be both unrelated and largely stronger for it. The other great zombie movie of 2018, Overlord brought together war movies and horror into one wildly enjoyable package. It's a film that knows exactly what it is, and it's filled with scares, shootouts, and just the right amount of character work to make you care about these scrappy underdogs as they find themselves wildly in over their heads. 

Best Scene: The injection scene is a rollercoaster of emotion, culminating in maybe the most disturbing use of makeup effects of the year. 

16. Mandy

Directed by: Panos Cosmatos 

Written by: Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn

As someone whose never done drugs, I can say with relative confidence that Mandy is the cinematic equivalent of a bad trip. Aided by the stunning camera work of Benjamin Loeb and a chilling, synth-filled score from the late Johan Johansson, Mandy has an initial dreamlike quality to it that hides a more nightmarish, brutal edge, punctuated with moments of surreal horror or over-the-top violence. The anchor of this is Nicholas Cage, who gives career-best work as an everyman who descends into madness in a rampage of bloodshed against evils ranging from demonic bikers to ominous cultists, led by Linus Roache in a mesmerizing turn. While not the year's best film, it's perhaps it's best experience. 

Best Scene: The "seduction" of the titular Mandy, which takes a refreshing turn away from what could've been a clear cliche. 

15. Black Panther 

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Written by: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole 

An ignored aspect of Black Panther's cultural importance and smash hit success is that it's a damn good film in it's own right. This owes to the vision of Ryan Coogler, who turns the idea of Wakanda, an afrofuturistic hidden utopia, into one of the most spectacular and realized worlds since Pandora, and revamps the supporting cast of T'Challa into a variety of memorable characters, from the snarky tech guru Shuri to the boisterous M'Baku to Killmonger, a contender for the MCU's best villain. A powerhouse performance from Micheal B Jordan, Erik Killmonger is a radical with clear, somewhat reasonable goals and tragic motivation, making the ideological clash between him and T'Challa one much more fascinating than a simple battle over a blue light in the sky. 

Best Scene: Killmonger's spirit trip, which removes all the bombast of Wakanda in favor of an emotional moment between father and son, featuring two Oscar-worthy performances from Jordan and Sterling K. Brown. 

14. Deadpool 2

Directed by: David Leitch 

Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds

After the surprise success of the first film, it was uncertain if they could recapture that magic again with Deadpool 2, especially following the departure of director Tim Miller. But with a bigger budget and the direction of John Wick helmer David Leitch, it turns out they made a film that not only matches the original, but surpasses it. With more money and a bigger toybox to play around with, the sequel is often funnier, with much more exciting action sequences and even a fair amount of heart for something so crass. This is helped by a game cast, with the always great Ryan Reynolds joined by uber-stoic Josh Brolin as Cable and a charming Zazie Beetz as Domino, alongside the true scene-stealer of Julian Dennison, whose Firefist is a consistent source of both laughs and emotion. The rare superhero sequel that outdoes it's predecessor in almost every regard. 

Best Scene: X-Force getting lost in the high winds is one of the most unexpected twists in a film this year, and it's a gruesome subversion of what could've been something fun on it's own. 

13. BlacKKKlansman 

Directed by: Spike Lee

Written by: Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Watchel, and Kevin Willmot

Man, it's nice to have Spike Lee making great films again, isn't it? His strongest work in years, BlacKKKlansman is both a grim dissection of race in America and an excellent buddy cop dramedy, helped by the strong chemistry and career-best performances of John David Washington and Adam Driver. It's a film that feels frustratingly on-point from beginning to it's shocking end, which will leave even the most jaded viewers stunned. 

Best Scene: The contrasting scenes of Klansman watching Birth of A Nation and a black activist group being told of the lynching of Jesse Washington is a tough, immensely chilling watch. 

12. Annihilation

Directed by: Alex Garland 

Written by: Alex Garland

Annihilation is an increasing rarity in film these days: a smart, moderately budgeted sci-fi thriller that leaves the audience pondering it long after the credits roll. Partly a road movie of an expedition to the center of the mysterious "Shimmer", the film is also a quiet contemplation of grief, loss, and humanity's connection to nature and the planet as a whole. It's also a compelling horror film, full of deeply unsettling special effects from body horror to some of the most iconic monsters (Who can forget the bear?) in recent memory that ends with one of the best third acts in years. What's not to love? 

Best Scene: The bear's attack on the house, a showdown that escalates before finally snapping in a desperate fight for survival. 

11. Isle of Dogs

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Written by: Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson's second animated feature after Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs is him applying his eye for detail to create a world bursting with details and affection for the culture being represented. It's a film so visually stunning you sometimes forget it's stop-motion, as it's easy to get lost in the sheer scale of it. It's also got a great cast of both Anderson mainstays and newbies, with an excellently gruff performance from Bryan Cranston, a tough as nails antihero that just so happens to be a dog. In other words: it's a classic Anderson film, a fully-realized film with charming, quirky characters that somehow still feel all too real. 

Best Scene: The gang's captivity at the hands of the cannibal dogs seems like a harrowing moment, but it quickly shifts into a deeply depressing, tragic tale that sheds some light on characters that could've been throwaway baddies. 

10. Hereditary 

Directed by: Ari Aster 

Written by: Ari Aster

In a year of great horror films, it takes a lot to emerge as the true best of the bunch, but Hereditary won that particular title by being the complete package: a twisty, shocking, and well-acted nightmare of anxiety and dread that never resorts to gore or jump scares. In a strong cast, Toni Collette gives one of the best performances of the year as the mother of the family who slowly, violently unravels after a series of tragedies, while Alex Wolff gives a surprisingly effective turn as a brother who lives with unspeakable guilt, while Aster's script keeps you guessing and speculating long after the final moments. It's old school horror done right. 

Best Scene: What else but the car accident? 

9. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie 

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie 

As someone who thought Rogue Nation was just okay, I was a little bit hesitant when they announced Christopher McQuarrie would be returning for another installment in the franchise. After all, wasn't the appeal of these films that each had a different directorial vision behind it? After Fallout, I've decided that maybe I should have a bit more trust in film studios, because I was horribly wrong. A direct continuation of the plotline set up in Rogue Nation, Fallout is one of the best action films of the last twenty years. Led by Tom Cruise, who continues to flaunt his apparent immortality with increasingly insane stunts, Fallout often feels like a "greatest hits" of the action movies of this generation. It's got breakneck car chases, brutal fist fights, and death-defying aerial shootouts. What more could an action junkie want? 

Best Scene: Every action scene in this film is a solid contender for the best scene, but the bathroom fight is a knock-down, drag-out, intense brawl unlike anything the franchise had done until that point. 

8. Bad Times at the El Royale 

Directed by: Drew Goddard

Written by: Drew Goddard 

With a body of work that includes Daredevil, The Cabin in the Woods, and Cloverfield, a decent case could be made that Drew Goddard is one of the most underrated writers/filmmakers working today. And, lo and behold, he's handed his own vehicle and uses it to build a wildly entertaining Tarantino homage with an all-star cast. From Hamm's sleazy vacuum salesman to Bridges's rugged "priest" to breakout turns from Lewis Pullman and Cynthia Erivo and a terrifying turn from Chris Hemsworth, it's a solid contender for the best ensemble of the year, and they're given a stellar script to work with. It's truly a film that leaves you guessing, even as you appreciate the skill and craftsmanship at work both behind and in front of the camera. 

Best Scene: The one take scene of Jon Hamm's Sullivan as he learns that the El Royale is more than just an ordinary hotel is breathtaking in it's skill and quiet tension and the quiet performance of Hamm, who becomes the audience stand-in with a mix of confusion and horror. 

7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 

Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen

Written by: Joel and Ethan Coen

Absolutely bizarre that we got two great westerns (this and Red Dead Redemption 2) within the space of two weeks of each other, but here we are. Ballad of Buster Scruggs is the western for someone looking for something a bit more odd, with the classic Coen brothers wit and quirkiness to see it through, and it's the strength of the Coens that makes this the rare anthology film to be largely consistent in quality. Even the most meandering of the six stories, Meal Ticket, is still a dark oddball trip with a gutpunch ending, while the Mortal Remains (a horror movie masquerading as a one-scene play) and Gal Who Got Rattled (an honest to god love story) show that they've still got some tricks up their sleeves. Frankly, it's worth it just for the titular hero, who ranks as an all-time great Coens character, played with eccentric, intimidating charm by Tim Blake Nelson. 

Best Scene: "Surly Joe" is not only a genuine toe-tapper of a song, but a darkly hilarious setpiece as Buster Scruggs celebrates victory over yet another victim. 

6. Avengers: Infinity War

Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo

Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely 

The ability to meet the anticipation for it seemed impossible, but Infinity War somehow managed to bring ten years worth of characters together and weave an epic, immensely satisfying tale that spans the galaxy. It also gave us Thanos, an immediately iconic film villain, as not a giant CGI brute, but a genuinely intimidating and sympathetic figure with a fascinating, if reprehensible, agenda thanks to both a strong script and an incredible performance from Josh Brolin. There's time where you can doubt the Marvel formula, but if it can make something like this not just work, but come out as one of the best films of the year, perhaps it's truly unstoppable.  

Best Scene: The snap, the definitive moment of 2018 in film, without question. 

5. Roma 

Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron 

Written by: Alfonso Cuaron

Speaking of cinematic achievement, Roma is another masterwork, somehow managing to be both an intimate story of a maid in 70's Mexico and a greater tale of class struggle. Cuaron continues to prove himself as an undisputed master behind the camera, using long, beautifully shot takes that capture both small details of characters and the greater ones of the setting. It's also Cuaron's most personal work, as you come to love and care for the family on the brink of falling apart through the eyes of the maid who serves as an honorary mother figure. It's never a film that beats you over the head with emotion, choosing to let you come around instead, and it's a stronger film for it. 

Best Scene: The forest fire, which perfectly encapsulates what Cuaron is trying to say with something as simple as humans coming together to combat tragedy while the one in the foreground drunkenly sings, not a care in the world. 

4. First Reformed

Directed by: Paul Schrader

Written by: Paul Schrader 

What starts as a tale of a reverend on the edge of a nervous break quickly evolves into so much more, from a critique of Corporate christianity to an ominous warning about climate change and man's seeming powerlessness in the face of it. It's all anchored by a career-best turn from Ethan Hawke, whose Reverend Toller slowly crumbles into an immensely compelling misanthrope. Schrader's script plays the tragedy for all it's worth, often feeling a wreck in agonizing slow motion before culminating in an climax that's as grim as it is frustratingly open-ended. 

Best Scene: Toller's first meeting with Micheal is a masterwork in both establishing the struggles of the character and instilling the audience with an intense sense of dread, planting the first seeds of the greater struggle that has turned Micheal into a cynic in both the heads of the viewer and Toller. 

3. A Star is Born 

Directed by: Bradley Cooper

Written by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, and Will Fetters

Bradley Cooper's directorial debut is one that operates with such skill and ease that it feels like it was brought to you by an industry vet. A Star is Born is the kind of brilliant, sweeping, beautiful, and emotionally love story that we very rarely get nowadays, and it contains two wonderful turns from it's leads, as Lady Gaga showcases a mixture of fragility and strength while Cooper channels his very reals struggles with alcoholism to give a performance that feels almost painfully raw without ever overacting for sympathy. The two have an easy chemistry that makes both their regular interactions and the film's many musical scenes a joy to watch , while the later descent into tragedy feels both brutal and entirely inevitable. Somehow, the remake of the remake managed to be the best one. 

Best Scene: "The Shallows" is the film's best musical scene, if solely for the slow building of confidence from Gaga before she finally belts out that now iconic tune and totally enraptures the audience, both in the film and out.

2. Sorry to Bother You

Directed by: Boots Riley 

Written by: Boots Riley

It's impossible to really sing the praises of Sorry to Bother You without spoiling something about it. Rapper and community organizer Boots Riley's directorial debut is the cinematic equivalent of a kid in a toy store, running from genre to genre to show you this cool trick it learned. While it may not always work, it's always immensely entertaining to watch, and it's helped by an absolutely on-point cast of both up and comers like Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson and established stars like Armie Hammer (who steals the show as a sleazy, charismatic Jeff Bezos expy) and Danny Glover. It's a strong, confident debut and it leaves me immensely excited to see where Riley goes next. 

Best Scene: The party at Steve Lift's house is an incredible mixture of cringe comedy, shock humor, and outright surreal horror, and probably the best summary of what the film is going for, alongside having one of the definitive "Oh shit!" moments of the year. 

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Directed by: Bob Perisichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Written by: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman 

It's amazing that in the space of two years I went from largely tired of Spider-Man to being unable to get enough of him. While he played a major supporting role in Infinity War and had his own video-game, the strongest Spider-Man media this year was none other than Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, which is not only the best film of the year, it's the best animated film in years and easily the best superhero film of this year. A jaw-dropping animation style that looks ripped from the page is matched with a script that's full of both humor and heart that will satisfy both fans and newcomers to the characters alike, while top-notch voice acting makes characters that could've come off as flat instead feel entirely realized. Watching Spiderverse felt like witnessing a gamechanger in cinematic history, as we witnessed the birth of an absolutely stunning new style be brought to the big screen.  

Best Scene: Miles's final fight with Prowler is both physically and emotionally draining, leaving you on the edge of your seat before nearly bringing you to tears. 

The Best Film Scenes of 2018

2018 was a massive year for film, giving us everything from crowd-pleasing blockbusters to revolutionary new horror to excellent indie work. But, this isn't a list about films, this is a list about great scenes from films, some good and some bad. Naturally, since many of these scenes are often crucial to the plot, be warned that there are spoilers abound.

15. "Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life" - Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Remember how dreaded this film was upon announcement, and it turned out to be one of most vibrant and silly films of the year? A great showcase of ''Teen Titans Go! To the Movies'' eager-to-please enthusiasm is ''Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life'', a song simply about trying to feel happy when you're feeling down, clearly meant to satirize the usual songs that populate kids movies such as these as the Titans are transformed into cutesy versions of themselves and accompanied by a singing tiger voiced by Micheal Bolton. It's hilarious, colorful, and accompanied by one of the darkest jokes of the year, as the distracted heroes accidentally run over the singer and resolve to simply, as Cyborg puts it, "Run! I think his dad's a cop!"

14. "The Shining" - Ready Player One

While ''Ready Player One'' proved to be a fun, if largely forgettable, nostalgia romp, the sheer depth of pop culture the film proved willing to pull from was often a nice surprise, with the highlight easily being the second Key challenge, which traps our heroes in a pitch-perfect recreation of ''The Shining'', which looks as though it was ripped straight from the 80s. The film's smartest trick is putting the audience focus on Aech, the one character who hasn't seen the film and is left stumbling through iconic scene after iconic scene, culminating with them riding a wave of blood directly into the bathroom, where he is nearly killed by the woman in the tub. Even when the scene loses it's initial idea, transitioning back to it's adventure movie DNA, it never quite loses the charm that makes it such a stand-out.

13. "Surly Joe" - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Disarmed, scrappy antihero Buster Scruggs has improvised a table plank to murder feared outlaw Curly Joe, shocking an entire saloon to silence. So what does he do? Strike up a song, of course. "Surly Joe" is a catchy, toe-tapping tune, and Tim Blake Nelson sings it with such a triumphant aplomb you almost forget the eponymous cowboy is lying dead on the floor as his brother weeps over his corpse. Not only does it match the tone of the story, which is easily the highlight of the film. but it matches the uncertain nature of the character. Is it a song about a well-meaning gunslinger bringing down an uncouth baddie, or a sociopath bragging about his victory? That, viewer, is up to you.

12. "White Power/Black Power" - BlacKKKlansman

The greatest weakness and strength of Spike Lee is his unabashed lack of subtlety, preferring to hit you over the head with the message to ensure you truly get it, and no scene puts that on display quite like the intercutting of scenes in his strongest film in years, BlacKKKlansman. The scene cuts between a horrifying recount of the lynching of Jesse Washington, delivered with chilling gravitas and stoicism by Harry Belafonte, and that of newly initiated Klansmen watching DW Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'', practically cackling to themselves, culminating with both sides chanting, almost in unison, support for white/black power, leaving audiences with the message that no matter how the discourse portrays it, these sides are not the same.

11. "Watching the Sunset" - Christopher Robin

Anyone that grew up with Winnie the Pooh will certainly find ''Christopher Robin'', a movie about the bittersweet adventure of growing up and losing the innocence you once had, something that tugs at the heartstrings, and it's helped by the performance of Ewan McGregor, who plays the grown up Christopher as an uptight skeptic who slowly regains his sense of joy, culminating when he and his childhood best friend Pooh sit down on a log after finding the other inhabitants of Hundred Acre Wood. In a matter of seconds, years of lost childhood, disappointment, and frustration boil to the surface and Christopher breaks down, hugging the bear and quietly crying. McGregor plays it masterfully, catching the audience off-guard with the emotion of it all as the scene, wisely, cuts away to the next morning, where he, and hopefully the audience, have regained composure, ready to return to adulthood.

10. "Bear in the House" - Annihilation

Annihilation deserves credit for being a satisfying, out of the box science fiction/horror hybrid, alongside introducing a new horror icon: the mutated cow/bear monster that can imitate the voices of it's victims, which represents the closest thing the film has to an antagonist. The beast's pursuit of the protagonists climaxes at the worst possible moment, as all of the research team have been tied up by a paranoid Anya, who is lured away by the scream of her friend, the bear's first target, and brutally mauled. A masterpiece of tension ensues as the bear circles the helpless team, emulating their friends's cries in an attempt to get a reaction, before finally exploding into a desperate scrap for survival that leaves the characters (and audience) totally breathless.

9. "The Brothel Raid" - You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay's directorial follow-up to ''We Need to Talk About Kevin'' lacked the emotion and character work that made the first film so effective, but almost makes up for it in style, specifically with a scene so ingenious, it's surprising that it's never been done before. Framed only through CCTV cameras, we watch as Joaquin Pheonix's Joe, a gun for hire who specializes in rescuing kidnapped girls, fights his way through a child brothel, killing guards and patrons alike to reach the daughter of a state senator.

The raid is quick, brutal, and entirely silent, the only sound being the usage of "Angel Baby" juxtaposed over scenes of him savagely bashing people with a hammer. When it's over, you don't feel satisfied, but simply uneasy, as though you witnessed something you weren't supposed to. And, given what happens to everyone else aware of these crimes, that feels intentional.

8. "The "Seduction" of Mandy" - Mandy

The end of the first act of ''Mandy'' is a grim one as we witness the idyllic existence of the titular character and her boyfriend Red come crashing down around them, with Red tied-up outside of his own home while a drugged and bound Mandy is left in the clutches of Jeremiah Sands, a charismatic, short-tempered cult leader. As he plays her his music and the drugs make the scene an odd mix of both dreamlike and uncomfortable, we can all see where it's going: he'll seduce the poor girl, take her as a bride, and leave Red to go on a violent spree to get her back.

The twist comes from the sudden swerve as Mandy, confronted with the now nude Sands, simply laughs, at first a giggle that evolves into something much more spiteful, leaving Sands to show his true colors as an enraged, shrieking manchild. While it presumably plays a hand in what comes next, her brutal death by burning in front of a helpless Red, it's such a satisfying moment to witness an apparent damsel in distress instead flummox and prevail over her captor in a moral victory.

7. "Live Aid" - Bohemian Rhapsody

While Bohemian Rhapsody was a letdown for some, it's impossible to deny how simply electrifying the film's final scene, a recreation of Queen's 1985 performance at Live Aid, was. Entirely dialogue-free, the camera focuses entirely on Rami Malek's pitch-perfect Freddie Mercury as he moves across the stage, a fireball of charisma and passion, performing each iconic song as the audience sings along, with the sound mixing around you to make you feel like you're truly there. While the film may slog through the cliches of any rock biopic, the ending makes it feel truly epic in a way few music films do.

6. "The Shallows" - A Star Is Born

It may sound like a cliche and a lame pun, but Lady Gaga's performance of the "The Shallows" is truly watching the birth of a movie star. Dragged on stage by boyfriend Jackson Maine, we watch as she slowly overcomes anxiety and stagefright to finally sing her out, her voice rising in confidence as the song escalates before crashing into a duet with Bradley Cooper. It's a scene that perfectly captures the showstopping glamour of the music star life, and the ensuing tragedy can't distract from how incredibly triumphant that scene is.

5. "Killmonger's Spirit Trip" - Black Panther

Killmonger was one of the best film villains in recent memory not just because of his interesting motivations or even Micheal B Jordan's towering performance, but because of the effort that went into making a would-be dictator a tragic figure, a simple child who witnessed the murder of his revolutionary father and grew to hate the world that took him away.

The scene that best exemplifies this is Erik's spirit trip after his ascension to the throne, where rather than traveling to the astral plane, he journeys to his childhood home in Oakland and sees the spirit of his father. It's riveting, powerful work from both Jordan and Sterling K. Brown, who tugs at the heartstrings with a simple line of, "No tears for me, then?", a simple question that's both one of concern and a reflection on the monster that he has created, making one wonder just what might have been if things had been different.

4. "The Car Accident" - Hereditary

This was a year of great sounds in films, from the snap of a finger to the shred of a guitar, but no sound has left an effect on me quite like the sickening clunk of young Charlie's head impacting a lightpost as her brother tries to get her to the hospital. It's a brutal, shocking moment that leaves Alex Wolff's Peter sitting silently, unable to speak or even look at his sister's body, for an unbearably long amount of time, and you can feel any semblance of normality the film would've had drop away the moment he silently drives away from the scene.

3. "The Bathroom Fight" - Mission Impossible: Fallout

Every action scene in ''Fallout'' deserves praise and could've easily taken this spot, but the bathroom fight is the most impressive for going small in scale and still feeling like an absolutely brutal life-or-death struggle. As agents Ethan Hunt and August Walker attempt to capture the mysterious John Lark before an arms deal can occur, Lark proves to be a dangerous combatant up-close, and the two-on-one fight that ensues is exhilarating and excellently choreographed, with all three fighters having their own style, from Lark's agility to Hunt's scrappiness to Walker's lumbering power. It's a fight where the punches hurt and you're genuinely unsure if everyone will come out of it alive, until the surprise reappearance of Ilsa Faust turns the tide in a dramatic fashion.

2. "The Party Scene" - Sorry to Bother You

''Sorry to Bother You'' is a lot of things, a hyperstylized mashing of genres that dares you to put a label on it knowing you can't, and the film's energy is perfectly captured in it's party scene, where Cassius Green, having finally worked his way up the corporate ladder, is invited to a party at billionaire Steve Lift's (played with a perfect mix of sleaze and friendly charm) house. What ensues is an employee's worst nightmare, as Cassius, one of the only black men at the party, is used as amusement by the obnoxious guests, forced to perform a rap in a moment of painful cringe comedy that turns into outright shock humor before being invited into a private meeting with Lift that diverges into almost surreal horror. The entire film is rapidly turned on it's head, and leaves you wondering, to quote several audience members at my screenings, "What the fuck is this movie?"

Honorable Mentions:

*"Goodbye." - Upgrade

*"The Trench" - Aquaman

*"The Forest Fire" - Roma 

*"Toller Meets Micheal" - First Reformed 

*"X-Force's First Mission" - Deadpool 2

1. "The Snap" - Avengers: Infinity War

It was a moment that simply wasn't supposed to happen. The good guys lost and the bad guy won, as Thanos assembled the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped his fingers, wiping out half of all life in the universe. But rather than make it instant, the audience gets to watch as hero after hero succumbs to ash, from Bucky Barnes to Groot to Black Panther, before we finally watch as Peter Parker, whose Spider-Sense warns him of his own death, dies panicking and pleading in his mentor Tony Stark's arms, a final devastating kick to the gut in the film's final moments. While it's unlikely to stick, it's no less powerful, and it leaves any viewer who thought they knew how things would go totally blindsided and endlessly speculating about where we can even go from here.