That's right! You thought we had forgotten these years, eh? No - these are the critical years! Just as we have done over the last few weeks with every year since this blog was conceived in 2009 we are going back and reevaluating which films were TRULY great, which have stood the test of time, and which ones I still care about today. These years are a little more recent in the memory, but here is where we are right now:
2017:
COCO
A Ghost Story
I, Tonya
Colossal
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Ingrid Goes West
mother!
Brawl in Cell Block 99
Good Time
Blade Runner 2049
It was hard dropping a few favourites, especially The Bad Batch. But the said truth is that 2017 is a SUPER over-hyped year. Dunkirk, Get Out, and Baby Driver were all super popular at the time and have great moments but when I sat here distilling the whole, I didn't find any of them to be Top Ten worthy. Yeah, I picked like, Colossal over them. There is a lot of high concept weirdness going on here, but films like A Ghost Story and mother! brilliantly use the media they inhibit to tell their stories, and I have thought about them long LONG after the fact. Blade Runner 2049 is and will likely always be my #1 for this year. Suprisingly, only three from my original list remain, but seven from my 2018 reevaluation. I suppose my tastes haven't changed dramatically since then.
2018:
A Star is Born
Widows
Annihilation
American Animals
The Sisters Brothers
Assassination Nation
Vice
BlacKkKlansman
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Black Panther was pretty close. I know, I know, I try to avoid "Honorable Mentions" because that's such a cop out. I still knock it down points for the ending and villain - don't get me wrong, Michael B. Jordan is amazing, but I hate when superhero films just make the villain the same as the hero and have a big fight where their powers are the same. Loss of points! Infinity War is a tough call - I really don't even think it's a movie, though. I JUST watched A Star is Born, so that is super recent for me, and I think it lived up to a lot of the hype. I converted. Eight films from my 2019 reevaluation - I'm surprised my love for Assassination Nation and American Animals was so high, even then. but only six from my original ranking. Why do I even bother ranking the year things come out? I suppose it is valuable to see what I'm passionate about in the moment, and that surely counts for something. Buster Scruggs fell off because when it hits it hits so well, but when it misses, that's a rough miss. I also disliked Death of Stalin quite a bit on a rewatch, so that sadly dropped. I don't see Spider-Verse going anywhere any time soon.
That's it, folks! It's a tough call with these, I don't have too much reevaluation going on. I still think it's a worthy effort every couple of years. Stay tuned for more self-doubt!
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