On My Tenth Birthday: The Best 100 of My Life

Ten years? That's how long Mo-View's been around. Me myself ... been available for almost half a century. So maybe this is a good time for the best of the best I've ever seen: a list of films that shouldn't disappoint - or at least considered a comprehensive profile of the person I am.

The main selection criterion here, like always, is entertainment value - and for me, that's dictated by the craving for multiple viewings. I've watched almost all the movies here more than once; except for a few like Million Dollar Baby or A Beautiful Mind, where the ending or a sudden mid-movie revelation, while powerful, hindered the drive for a second attempt. The earliest movie on the list is a 1939 classic about a certain bogus wizard from Oz, and the most recent, a very relevant sci-fi horror from 2017.

And alas, after 10 years of blogging, this may be my last entry. I've posted reviews on nearly 1,600 films, and finally, it may be time to move on. When you sometimes don't even remember whether you've seen a movie, and you have to use your blog's search feature to check if you have ... maybe you've watched way too many.

Any crazy omissions? Fill me in. Maybe it'll be the first (and likely last) time you'll comment on Mo-View.


THE LIST:


Paul Thomas Anderson
Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007)

Luc Besson
Léon: The Professional (1994)

Joon-ho Bong
Snowpiercer (2013)

Tim Burton
Edward Scissorhands (1990)

James Cameron
Aliens (1986), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009)

Frank Capra
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Francis Ford Coppola 
The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974)

David Cronenberg 
Scanners (1981), A History of Violence (2005)

Alfonso Cuarón
Gravity (2013)

Frank Darabont
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999)

Brian De Palma
Scarface (1983), The Untouchables (1987)

Richard Donner
The Omen (1976), Superman (1978)

Clint Eastwood
Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Asghar Farhadi
About Elly (2009), A Separation (2011)

David Fincher
Se7en (1995)

Victor Fleming
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Milos Forman
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), Man on the Moon (1999)

William Friedkin
The Exorcist (1973)

Mel Gibson
Braveheart (1995)

Guy Hamilton
Goldfinger (1964)

Alfred Hitchcock
Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963)

Ron Howard
A Beautiful Mind (2001), Willow (1988)

Peter Jackson
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Irvin Kirshner
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Stanley Kubrick 
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Akira Kurosawa
The Seven Samurai (1954), Rashomon (1950)

John Landis 
An American Werewolf in London (1981)

John Lasseter
Toy Story (1995)

David Lean
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Sergio Leone
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Richard Linklater 
Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013)

George Lucas
Star Wars (1977), Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Sidney Lumet
12 Angry Men (1957), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

David Lynch
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Mulholland Drive (2001)

Richard Marquand
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

John McTiernan
Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988)

Nicholas Meyer
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017)

Jordan Peele
Get Out (2017)

Sam Raimi
Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Rob Reiner
Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992)

Martin Scorsese
Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Gangs of New York (2002)

Ridley Scott
Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Prometheus (2012)

M. Night Shyamalan
The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000)

Steven Spielberg
Jaws  (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Minority Report (2002).

Oliver Stone
JFK (1991)

Quentin Tarantino
Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003),  Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Giuseppe Tornatore
Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
The Lives of Others (2006)

Lars von Trier
Breaking the Waves (1996), Melancholia (2011)

Robert Zemeckis
Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), The Walk (2015)

My Top 10 Films: The 2010 Decade

We're almost at the end of another decade, so here goes my top 10 of 2010-2019, in order of release:

1. Inception (2010)

2. A Separation (2011) (جدايي نادر از سيمين)

3. Prometheus (2012)

4. Her (2013)

5. Gravity (2013)

6. Snowpiercer (2013)

7. Interstellar (2014)

8. Dunkirk (2017)

9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

10. Annihilation (2018)

Of course, like always, the Force is strong in my lists with sci-fi, and 2013 must've been a great year in a long time - but man, did Chris Nolan run the show these past years ...

The Farewell (2019)

Director: Lulu Wang. Cast: Stars: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin. 100 min. Rated PG. Drama/Comedy.

The trailer prepares you for a "West-meets-East" situation: young Asian-American travels to China to visit her dying grandmother, whose cancer diagnosis is kept hidden from. The film barely gets past that notion: in a modernizing China, your life still belongs not to you but to your family, and people decide what's best for you till the very end. The film successfully avoids the slippery pitfall of judging the culture, and shows it as it is. But there isn't enough material here for a feature length film - even though real-life subtitle at the end knocks you off your feet.

Mo says:

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

Director: Quentin Tarantino. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Al Pacino, Lena Dunham, Kurt Russell, Zoë Bell, Michael Madsen. 161 min. Rated R. UK/USA/China. Comedy/Drama.

Tarantino continues his downward trend. He's now boasting the unwelcome confidence of writing an overlong story-less atmospheric movie, reviving Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee, reminiscent of Boogie Nights but lacking that film's charm, devoid of his trademark engaging dialogue or colorful characters, full of scenes that have no role in moving the plot forward (the Brad Pitt-Bruce Dern exchange?) - with an ending to repeat his Inglorious Basterds' twisting of historical facts. No doubt: a Tarantino film is always "cool" - but the auteur's magic is gone. Nevertheless, the uncompromising foot fetish is still there.

Mo says:

Midsommar (2019)

Director: Ari Aster. Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter. 147 min. Rated R. Horror/Mystery.

Similar in structure to Hereditary, but a beast on its own. A group of youngsters join a rural commune in Sweden, and from the get-go you're trying to guess who'll still be alive by the end. The major actor is DP Pawel Pogorzelski, who by eerie lighting, mystifying angles on mind-boggling violence, and tracking shots delivering surprise after surprise, creates a slow-burn climaxing in flaming heights (no pun intended), reminiscent of an iconic 1973 horror movie - so expect a cinematography Oscar nomination (or win). After Hereditary and this, Ari Aster is confirming his position as a titan of horror film-making.

PS: For the first time: three MoMagics in a row.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Director: Jon Watts. Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders. 129 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-fi.

Marvel movies keep trying something new, and every once in a while, they hit the jackpot. Mysterio, the Master of Illusions, is not only a cool Spider-Man adversary, his concept of creating illusions to control the masses rings so close to the idea of fake news, and being suspicious of what you see. We're in Nolan territory here - juxtaposing superhero stories onto the political climate of the day. To round it up, the movie even hands youngsters a guiding light on how to defeat illusions: literally diving deep into their core, and pulling out the truth. Well done, all around.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Yesterday (2019)

Director: Danny Boyle. Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran. 116 min. Rated PG-13. Drama/Musical. UK/USA.

Boy ... this movie works on so many levels. Whether you should live a lie, or stay the course for the common good. Whether stick with the logic, or throw everything away and follow your heart. Whether we could’ve lived without the music of a certain band from Liverpool, or we already lack the genius of a person or people in a parallel world. But all aside, there’s a moment towards the end (you’ll know which one), that I was suddenly disconnected from this world, thinking: what if ... that long lost friend was still alive. The wonders of cinema.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Director: Josh Cooley. Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Keegan-Michael Key, Christina Hendricks, Jordan Peele, Keanu Reeves, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenberger, Carl Weathers, Don Rickles, Laurie Metcalf, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White, Carl Reiner, Bill Hader, Patricia Arquette, Timothy Dalton. 100 min. Rated G. Animation.

Another Pixar animation, almost entirely targeting adults. The whole story of an old band of toys getting together to save another toy made of trash who feels like trash, may have a subliminal message of "you are worthy of love and respect" for kids, but the real message hits you at the end, where our hero must choose between staying and taking care of those who depend on him ... or setting his guilt aside and moving on to do what is best for himself. Must've been the creators' own first-hand dilemma. Not as powerful as Toy Story 3, but powerful.

Mo says:

Pink (2016)

Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Amitabh Bachchan, Kirti Kulhari. 136 min. India. Drama.

In modern day India, a young women may or may not have been assaulted, and the legal proceedings put the country's attitude towards woman to light. But then you think ... is the attitude really just limited to India? Isn't a man's drunkenness by alcohol considered pitiful, but a woman's a sign of her "availability" ... even by U.S. norms? This courtroom drama, boasting some seriously engaging acting headed by the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, will make you think, and doubt your own stance towards the story's social dilemmas. Great discussion-maker.

PS: This movie has one of the best post-credits scenes - putting any Marvel movie to shame.

Mo says:

Men in Black: International (2019)

Director: F. Gary Gray. Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Rebeca Ferguson. 114 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Action/Comedy.

You'd think with a somewhat well-established franchise such as Men in Black, producers (Spielberg at the helm) wouldn't add another episode - unless they had a strong or engaging concept to add (as they did in MIB3). Here, you wait for 2 hours, and other than pairing up Hemsworth and Thompson for a second time around after Thor: Ragnarok (with a cool Mjolnir joke in-between), and the following note-worthy line, there's not much else to see.

- "The universe has a way of leading you to where you are supposed to be at the moment you are supposed to be there."

Mo says:

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Director: Jim Jarmusch. Cast: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, RZA. 104 min. Rated R. Sweden/USA. Comedy/Fantasy.

Excessive polar fracking tilts the Earth on its axis, and as result, the dead rise from their graves. I know ... makes no sense. But that's exactly the point. Bill Murray and Adam Driver deliver this deadpan comedy with such a self-assured aura, the most outrageous moments become entirely plausible - and ever more so funny. And Tilda Swinton's sword-wielding Scotswoman adds to her career collection unforgettable characters. The events here are so unexpected, I defy you to predict what comes up, even in the next scene. One of Jarmusch's best.

Mo says:

Border (Gräns) (2018)

Director: Ali Abbasi. Cast: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jörgen Thorsson. 110 min. Rated R. Sweden/Denmark. Fantasy/Drama.

In this Cannes award winner, a female customs officer who senses, and, ahem, looks like an animal, meets another male of "her kind" - and embarks on a quest to discover why she's able to perceive the world as no other. The story (including the weirdest pedophilia bust subplot) has major sociological implications; mainly, which comes first: ethics, or your tribe? While some moments will make you cringe, this is a movie you'll never forget - even if only for its bizarre but unique makeup (recently nominated for an Oscar).

PS: Watching this, curious how similar the script structure was to Let the Right One In, the child vampire love story. Of course, now I realize were both written by the same writer. 

PPS: Thanks again, Ali S.! Nice surprise.

Mo says:

Khartoum (1966)

Director(s): Basil Dearden, Eliot Elisofon. Cast: Charlton Heston. 128 min. UK. Adventure/War.

Another of the "mad-man-in-the-desert" myriad of movies made in the wake of Lawrence of Arabia's success - including Charlton Heston on a crusade to "save his people", the Egyptians, through the Nile ... again (I kid you not). But when it came to panoramic desert spectacles, David Lean had already set the bar too high. So the only mention-worthy element, is one performance, so brilliant, that even with a mid-movie discovery of the actor’s identity by mere chance, I still couldn’t recognize him. Yes ... that good. See if you can guess without looking at the cast list.

Mo says:

Rocketman (2019)

Director: Dexter Fletcher. Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones. 121 min. Rated R. UK/USA/Canada. Musical/Biography.

Obviously, to be compared with the other recent singer/musician biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. But this is another entity. Rocketman, as opposed to Bohemian, is a musical, and characters breaking into song and dance in the middle of a serious conversation, drains the dramatic pull of Elton John’s life story - already much less colorful than Freddy Mercury's (hello? Elton is still alive). The movie does create transcendental moments of musical glory befitting the songs being sung, but even those aren't as awe-inspiring as Bohemian's rare but mentionable ones. Career-defining act by Taron Egerton.

Mo says:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Director: Michael Dougherty. Cast: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn. 132 min. Rated PG-13. USA/Japan. Action/Fantasy.

An exercise in stupidity. Monster battle after monster battle after monster battle, decimating cities and making the apocalypse look fun, connected by a story-less story. After we learn (spoiler alert yeah sure ha ha ha) except for Godzilla all other monsters came from outer space, as a companion viewer chided, you wonder how aliens always decide to unleash their carnage on none other than the capitals of each country. The saving grace, are a multitude of great actors who deliver insane dialogue while apologizing to us from the bottom of their hearts, that hey ... someone needs to pay the bills.

Mo says:

Christopher Robin (2018)

Director: Marc Forster. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell. Rated PG. UK/USA. Adventure/Comedy.

Comparable to how Spielberg showed us the dilemma of Peter Pan growing up in Hook, Marc Forster illustrates another fictional character's adulthood tragedy, and how elements of the past try to pull him back into the innocence of childhood. The reason Spielberg’s narrative worked and Forster's doesn't, is that the great auteur told a cautionary tale for adults, while this movie is a warning for ... kids? When they haven’t even experienced the complexities growing up entails? There are some funny correlates from Pooh stories in a fictional Christopher Robin's adult life, but overall, this is a misdirected message.

PS: Okay, there are some memorable Winnie the Pooh quotes in there: "I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been."

Mo says:

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)

Director: Alex Gibney. 119 min. Documentary.

The fake-it-to-make-it story of Elizabeth Holmes, the twenty-something entrepreneur who set out to revolutionize medical lab testing, was already told in John Carreyrou's fascinating book, "Bad Blood'. So when prolific documentarian Alex Gibney directs, you expect greater use of the visual tools film offers - not just a first half reveling how Holmes impressed others, and a second half disproving how she failed them. What irked me, was showing how another documentary grand-master, Errol Morris, promoted Holmes by filming some of her ads, and in effect, making him look like an idiot. Trust me - there's much more intrigue to this tale.

Mo says:

Shazam! (2019)

Director: David F. Sandberg. Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Djimon Hounsou. 132 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Comedy.

Any polishing of the currently rusty superhero sub-genre is welcome. Well ... maybe not any. Shazam! is a nice rejuvenation of the 70's TV show, but doesn't keep the material available to kids, as profanity, violence, and themes of killing your own family members keeps it just short of an R rating. So, besides Deadpool, if you're not making a superhero movie for kids, then who are you making it for? We're living in an era where you're prone to cringe and worry, when the POTUS speaks on prime-time TV, or superheroes and super-villains duke it out on the screen.

Mo says:

Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Director: Robert Zemeckis. Cast: Steve Carell, Eiza González, Gwendoline Christie, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Mann. 116 min. Rated PG-13. Japan/USA. Biography.

What I've never been able to wrap my head around, is Robert Zemeckis still being a child - and I don't mean that in a good way. He's determined to show us "cool" ... without substance; always seeking out the most eye-popping glamour or newest movie-making technology. This film continues the trend: based on a true story (documented in the 2010 film Marwencol), he uses CGI animation, shocking imagery, and topless Barbie dolls, to attract our attention to a man's recovery from a brutal hate crime. Strange how you'd train under a mentor like Spielberg, and hardly grasp his film-making maturity.

PS: Another documentary-to-live-action transformation, after Zemeckis turned Man on Wire into The Walk. Enjoyed The Walk immensely better than Welcome to Marwen.

Mo says:

Us (2019)

Director: Jordan Peele. Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss. 116 min. Rated R. USA/Japan. Horror/Thriller.

I know you shouldn't score a movie based on a director's other merits, and I know Peele's Get Out probably created insurmountable expectations. But coming out of Us, I found myself unsatisfied for at least a minimum of logic to the dark science-fiction the film's horror is based on. And when that's missing, you're left with an overlong home invasion movie, supposedly a metaphor for how America destroyed itself. Of course, a nice ending twist suggests Peele is replacing Shyamalan for cool twist endings - but long story short, the director is not in control of his material here ... at all.

PS: You'll find references to The Shining or DePalma's split-diopter shots, but somehow I kept being reminded of It Follows. Lo and behold, I later discover the two films were shot by the same cinematographer.

Mo says:

The Mule (2018)

Director: Clint Eastwood. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Dianne Wiest, Taissa Farmiga, Laurence Fishburne, Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia. 116 min. Rated R. Crime/Drama.

In his "last movie" for the nth time, Eastwood tells the true story of a 90-year-old who became a drug cartel mule. Perfectly cast as a clueless but self-assured nonagenarian, Eastwood once again manages to pull it off, and attract our sympathy as a man who has selfishly ignored his family all his life in pursuit of some trivial dream. And of course, there is a fulfilling ending to the story, but again, Eastwood made me wonder what motivated him here to think: I have to make this movie before I die ...

Mo says:

Creed II (2018)

Director: Steven Caple Jr.. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen. 130 min. Rated PG-13. Sports/Drama.

Amazing how Rocky movies never lose their charm - at least enough to watch the next installment. We've watched Rocky movies all our lives, and even the worst ones remind us of specific life periods; a fact which the franchise makes full use of. Imagine: after Apollo's son is trained by Apollo's trainer's son to go up against the son of Rocky's nemesis in Rocky IV (and predictably, loses), Rocky takes it upon himself to train him, again, to fight, again (wild guess to what ends). And we still watch it. Even Brigitte Nielsen repeats her three-decade-old throwaway role. That charming.

Mo says:

Bumblebee (2018)

Director: Travis Knight. Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena. 114 min. Rated PG-13. USA/China. Action/Sci-fi.

I watched this just because of its insanely high ratings, but then realized it's just another Transformers movie.

Mo says:

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Director(s): Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Evangeline Lilly, Tessa Thompson, Rene Russo, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Tilda Swinton, Jon Favreau, Hayley Atwell, Natalie Portman, Marisa Tomei, Taika Waititi, Angela Bassett, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, William Hurt, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Redford, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Stan Lee. 181 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Fantasy.

Finally, the 3-hour conclusion - to a 10-year, 20-movie journey (just look at the ensemble cast). The Russo Brothers have tied all the loose ends, assured the continuation of Marvel’s money-making process, and even fit the narrative to two of the major actors' ending contracts with the studio. I can feel the sarcasm in my words. But no; this is a decent movie, and takes its time to tell a good story. But at the end of the day, it's just a bookend. After all, how could it have ever met the once-in-a-lifetime peak its predecessor Infinity War achieved?

Mo says:

Apollo 11 (2019)

Director: Todd Douglas Miller. 93 min. Rated G. Documentary.

A 100% Tomatometer winner, which I'd call a "pure" documentary: a compilation of footage (some previously unseen) of man's first lunar mission, and except for a few soundtrack notes ... nothing else. No narrator, no manipulating sound-image juxtaposition, no directorial point-of-view, nothing. And amazingly, it’s still engaging. Similar to last year's dramatized version, First Man, the fascinating historical moment is how they landed the lunar module seconds before exhausting fuel; but also similar to how between another 100% documentary, Man on Wire, and its counterpart, The Walk, I preferred the dramatized version, here again ... I’d go with First Man.

Mo says:

Captain Marvel (2019)

Director(s): Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck. Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Djimon Hounsou. 124 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-fi.

Impressed, by how Marvel has tried to come up with a Wonder Woman equivalent ... and succeeded. After a beautiful opening tribute to the late Stan Lee, the indie directors are in no rush to tell their story - they minimize the number of big-budget action scenes, and replace them with the strong foundation of a good story, slowly developing characters for Carol Danvers, a young Nick Fury, and the multiple complicated villains. By the end, you've seen a Marvel movie that similar to Black Panther, works independently on its own terms. And boy, is that post credits scene awesome.

Mo says:

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Director: Robert Rodriguez. Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Edward Norton. 122 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-fi.

Robert Rodriguez has been making entertaining movies for so many years, but still doesn't get it. He still doesn't know that eye-popping CGI effects never replace (or even undermine) a good story, and females should not become action heroes (with total disregard for what made a female unique for the role) just because it's cool. And then being so self-assured, to actively move the entire plot towards an incomplete ending ... on the very first installment? To show your main villain in the last scene, to prepare for a sequel? Lots of guts.

Mo says:

Suspiria (2018)

Director: Luca Guadagnino. Cast: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Grace Moretz. 152 min. Rated R. Italy/USA. Horror.

Forget the critics: the horror in Dario Argento's giallo movies was all about "the mood" (his stories weren't necessarily scary), and this remake of his 1977 film recreates exactly just that - in updated form. Guadagnino's version does have some discomforting moments, but what I took home were the colors, the costumes, the music, the sounds (or lack thereof). Yes, the ending is corny, but there has rarely been a movie in recent memory where I was so engrossed solely in its haunting atmosphere, I wanted to stay there for a very long time. A must-see for horror lovers.

Mo says:

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Director: Marielle Heller. Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells. 106 min. Rated R. Biography.

True story of an out-of-work author with writer's block in the 90s, who with the help of a loyal friend, forges letters of famous authors, based on her knowledge of their style. McCarthy again proves she's a force to be reckoned with (I dare you not laugh when she's laughing), and Grant comes out of the shadows to make a stance on his own. The film has its moments (is a "rejuvenating" life of crime worth living?), while the noteworthy material (e.g., the collector's mindset, the value of copy versus original) is sourly downgraded. Nominated for 3 Oscars? Really?

Mo says:

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

Director: Peter Jackson. 99 min. Rated R. Documentary. UK/New Zealand.

Why lie? I've always been against colorizing (i.e., popularizing) old films. But if we're in the same league, watch this - it'll change your mind. While not necessarily an attack on classic film sanctity, Peter Jackson's collage of restored, colorized and re-timed old World War I films, with background narrations from deceased veterans, will blow your mind. It provides a new back-drop for what it meant to go to combat one hundred years ago, and still comes to the same conclusion: that in war, the real enemy, is war itself. A nice example where form empowers content.

Mo says:

Free Solo (2018)

Director(s): Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. 100 min. Rated PG-13. Documentary.

Watching films like Everest and Meru, I've always questioned the logic behind such life-threatening sports. Free Solo finally helped me understand. Mountain-climbing, specifically free soloing, without ropes or gear, is about an obsession for perfection - about defying what the universe talks you down and says cannot be done. About knowing when to be scared, and when to move and plow ahead. Alex Honnold's attempt to literally "conquer" Yosemite's El Capitan Wall, is a spectacle that provoked palpitations in me watching a documentary for the first time. This is another film where the larger the screen, the more magnificent the message.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Mirai (2018)

Director: Mamoru Hosoda. 98 min. Rated R. Japan. Animation.

A baby sister is added to a 4 year-old boy's life, and sibling rivalry drives him to imagine himself coming into contact with family members from the past and future - including his own grown-up sister. That plot-line not only makes this animation specifically addressed to adults who may not understand it (let alone kids), it also renders the film too exotic, and therefore, ... boring. I'm assuming if the idea was for children to watch this and be more accepting of new additions to the family, at least the final product could've been made more palatable to them.

Mo says:

Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018)

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda. Cast: Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki. 121 min. Rated R. Japan. Drama.

Last year's Cannes Palm d'Or winner from Japan is about a manufactured family of small-time crooks, who may be good-natured, but justify their methods (".. it's not stealing because in the shop doesn't belong to anybody yet"; "... it's not kidnapping because we didn't ask for ransom"). But the film poses a grander question: can you choose your family - choose who to call brother, sister, or dad? This film, like other Hirokazu Koreeda films, is very slow-paced (even including an opening shoplifting scene). But that may be the point, because the lives of these people is anything but exciting.

Mo says:

A Private War (2018)

Director: Matthew Heineman. Cast: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander, Stanley Tucci. 110 min. Rated R. UK/USA. Biography/War.

Based on the true story of Marie Colvin, the journalist who braved Middle-East conflicts to report under the heaviest gunfire of the 2000s. With Pike playing the trademark eye-patched role in a Golden Globe-nominated performance, especially during a final scene, we understand what made this particular reporter a celebrated one. But at the end of the day, the heroine's death-defying endeavors to give voice to the voiceless people of these regions, fall under the spell of a white savior narrative, as there is no mention of which countries were really the cause of such brutal conflicts in the first place.

Mo says:

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Director: Mike Mitchell. Cast (voices): Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Will Ferrell, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Ralph Fiennes, Will Forte, Bruce Willis. 106 min. Rated PG. Animation.

Rarely remember a sequel ... so despicable! There was always this criticism hanging over the original Lego Movie (or any Lego-based movie that followed), that they were made solely for the purpose of selling Legos. But this one is shameless! Through the dumbest story, the most shallow characters set out to achieve: absolutely nothing palatable. And there's even a plot-line where (yes, I'm spoiling the movie) kids outgrow Legos and box them up ... only to open the boxes and play with them again! Strong candidate for my worst movie of the year - and we're not even past February.

Mo says:

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

Director: Fede Alvarez. Cast: Claire Foy, Beau Gadsdon, Sverrir Gudnason, Lakeith Stanfield. 117 min. Rated R. UK/Germany/Sweden/Canada/USA. Action/Thriller.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films have become afflicted with "franchisitis" - they've become weaker by the sequel. This is primarily due to its switching (and choice) of the actress who plays heroine Lisbeth Salander: Noomi Rapace brought fiery originality to the role, Rooney Mara weakened it by her wooden presence, and now Claire Foy ... with all her acting competence, I'm uncertain what she's brought to it. And the story (not written by the original trilogy's Stieg Larsson) adds an evil sister, numerous impossible situations, and a warning: this franchise is far from over.

Mo says:

Glass (2019)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan. Cast: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark. 129 min. Rated PG-13. Sci-fi.

Imagine the potential: the (super)hero and (super)villain of one of the best sci-fis of the 2000s, together with the villain of the sequel, here to complete a trilogy. Then imagine how that potential falls flat on the face. More than half the movie goes by in preamble, for it to end in a boring anticlimactic final battle ... in an asylum's front yard? And finally a Shyamalan twist at the end which is supposed to lead to more sequels but nobody really cares about. This is "the curse of the threequel" in full force.

Mo says:

My Top 10 Movies of 2018

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I consider 2018 a somewhat boring year for movies. It was good for musicals (Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born), and unbelievable for superheroes (Aquaman, Spider-Man: Spider-verse, Black Panther, Ant-Man 2, Deadpool 2, and of course, Infinity War - to the extent that nobody asked: what's going on with Episode IX?).

And in essence, all this means ... it was a boring year for movies. Like other years, it was full of sequels and prequels and remakes (a major Oscar contender is a third remake!) - but that's nothing new. We rarely got anything new or exciting or thought-provoking like Annihilation.

So as usual, right before the Oscar nominees are announced, let's just cut to the chase. My top 10 movies of 2018, in alphabetical order:

1. Annihilation

2. Avengers: Infinity War

3. BlacKkKlansman

4. Crazy Rich Asians

5. Fahrenheit 11/9

6. First Man

7. Green Book

8. Hereditary

9. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

10. Roma

Best Movie of the Year: I've seen this twice already, and I want to see it again. The layers of meaning this film hurls you into (what was it about anyway?), keeps you thinking for a loooooong time after it's over. I've heard sequels are in the works. I hope that doesn't happen.

MoMagic!

Annihilation

Worst Movie of the Year: Never thought this day would come. Well ... I did, just not this fast. They made a Star Wars movie with a story that made no sense, with flimsy characters that had no logic, and resurrected a dead villain from the past that should've stayed dead. Summarily, they made a spin-off that was never needed in the first place. Other than filling some fat pockets.

MoCrap!

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Discovery of the Year: This will be strange for film aficionados, but I found two classic movies by a French director that blew me away: Les diaboliques (The Devils), and The Wages of Fear. You can't make exciting black-and-white movies that'll grip the audience on the edge of their seat very easily -even by today's standards.

Discovery of the Year: 

Henri-Georges Clouzot