I do my top ten by year of release in Australia - so if it hasn't got a regular release here, it won't be included. And there isn't really any ranking here beyond "here's a set of ten films I think are worth watching".
Moonlight - Yeah, I know. It feels an incredibly obvious pick, and even, perhaps, a somewhat "worthy" choice - it's the "black gay son of a junkie" movie. But what works about this film is the little things - the establishment of the world through the eyes of a kid, the middle section as the teenaged version of that kid builds in tension to an unstoppable explosion of rage, and the closing section as the adult version sits down for a conversation so completely overflowing with subtext that I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what could happen, only to be delighted that humanity and compassion and warmth won out. It's about growth and pain and damage and the smal ways that we get through. And it's absolutely that good.
Lady Macbeth - I am a sucker for any film that can bring a touch of grand guignol into the mix, and this one delivers in spades. It's a somewhat grim tale about an isolated woman who kicks back hard against the people who attempt to entrap and restrain her, but I loved seeing Florence Pugh as someone so determined not to be limited by what anybody else expected of her, and laser focussed on her revenges.
Logan Lucky - This is absolutely a light, fun diversion, and it's perfect as that. It's a caper film that realises the trick to the genre is that you've got to love the characters pulling off the caper as much or more so than the plot twists and turns of the caper itself, and in the mix of figures, whether it be the smart and disciplined Channing Tatum and sadsack Adam Driver as the central Logan brothers, or Daniel Craig's pure fun performance as demented explosives experts Joe Bang, or the multiple peripheral characters, you have people you like watching doing interesting things in a caper film that plays the game somewhat differently to how you might expect it.
Brigsby Bear - This is a loving film about fandom and devotion to childhood pop culture, for an era where that fandom and devotion seems to so often be the target either for mockery or for exploitation of that devotion for a quick buck and a marketing tie in. A story about discover the thing that's central to your life to is something no one else knows or understands, and about sharing his love with a gentle fervour that brings other people in and gives them their own space to be surprised and delighted, it's funny and delightful and, while being aware of the tinges of darkness that life has, suggests that they can be transcended. Beautiful.
The Florida Project - Another film with a child's eye view (I obviously have a weakeness for these when they're done well) about marginalised people in desperate straits and about how they try to live through them, flailing and flawed as they go through them. In the first ten minutes I thought I'd find these people genuinely hateful - an irresponsible kid who casually spits on other people's cars and her mother, a low-level scam artist who's barely getting by and has no impulse control whatsoever. But by the end of the film I found them full and real and fully dimensional - they have good and bad within them and they are so much more than just a set of defined circumstances. Sean Baker, between this and "Tangerine", is on my list of directors to watch like a hawk - he has that peculiar gift of making films about people on the margins that are living life on their own terms, and he takes them in fully, loving them warts and all. It's gripping and painful and warm and heartbreaking all at once.
The Last Jedi - This is a film that plays things very much its own way, which ... yes, is weird for a film that's also the 8th in a series made fully expecting a 9th to come along. But it takes a fresh look at a mythology 40 years in the making, including questioning some of the basic assumptions, to come up with a story that feels both eternal and spectacularly right for this moment in time. It's about coming to terms with the past, about looking to the future, about the world outside of the perpetual good-and-evil fights we've been watching for the last four decades, about desperate circumstances and dire acts. And yes, it's about hope. And it made my heart soar. I know it made other people's hearts crash, and I'm sorry they don't feel how I do. But it absolutely worked for me.
mother! - I will absolutely admit that this film is probably the most self-indulgent thing I saw all year in the theatre. When your film is simultaneously a metaphor for the creative process AND a metaphor for all of religion, pretension is not only unavoidable, its kinda the entire point. And I kinda loved it. It poked me, it prodded me, it made me feel uncomfortable, and as the world-in-a-house slipped into anarchy and apocalypse, I got more and more enthralled in the whole "I don't know what the hell this movie is going to do next"-ness. If you're going for this to see anything conventional - well, you shouldn't. But if you want to see something entirely nuts, this is indeed very good at going completely nuts.
Hounds of Love - This is a brutal little story about a girl kidnapped and kept by a couple in surburban Perth. What makes this interesting, and makes it work, is the emphasis on keeping all three characters human - the victim is not just a simpering piece of meat ready for destruction, she's a smart girl who made one wrong decision and works hard to get herself free, the husband of the couple may be a monster inside the house but it's achingly obvious how much of a mouse he is in the outside world, and the wife of the couple is shown as a participant with her own bitterness and broken needs. It's tense and gritty and plays what could be a deeply unpleasantly exploitative experience as something achingly human and sad and illuminating instead.
Colossal - A great example of taking what should be a ludicrous concept (woman discovers that when she walks through a particular playground near her childhood home, a giant monster imitates her movements in downtown Seoul), and making it both funny and surprisingly high stakes and emotional. Anne Hathaway plays our befuddled heroine at just the right point of confusion, and Jason Sudekis as the local bartender plays a role that develops angles and levels as the film moves from simple oddball comedy to something a lot more interesting. It's a weird example of the kind of film where talking about what it's about somewhat removes the pleasure in discovering what the film's got going on inside. But take it on trust, there's a very smart movie under a very silly premise.
Logan - This is not a perfect movie. In particular, the actual superhero plot, with Richard E. Grant as a nasty scientist, is a bit of a shemozzle. But there's such rich character work here in showing a pair of aged and broken men on the run in what both kinda know is going to probably be the last good thing they ever do, with both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart taking characters they've been playing for fifteen years and pushing them to breaking point and beyond. It's a film that understands better than most that, while an ever-evolving narrative is a wonderful thing for box office, what audiences ultimately crave is a strong and definitive ending. And this is most definitely that ending, a superhero story that smartly understands that character and soul is ultimately what matters.
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