Well, not wholly unfavorable

A SIMPLE FAVOR

2018

Directed by Paul Feig

Written by Jessica Sharzer

Spoilers: moderate (maybe high although I presume you could get at least that far ahead of it)

The clown is down: Is there any kindness in you—somewhere in your heart?

TERRIFIER

2018

Written and directed by Damien Leone

Spoilers: moderate

This story has never ended

MIND GAME

Still Yuasa's masterpiece, after all these years.

2004 (Japan)/2018 (seriously?) (USA)

Written and directed by Masaaki Yuasa (based on the comic by Robin Nishi)

Spoiler alert: kind of N/A, really, but I guess let's say moderately highish

The little mermaid

LU OVER THE WALL

"Oh, boy, it's one of these animes, huh?" is exactly what I said, but as it happens, it is, and it's pretty great anyway.

2017 Japan/2018 USA

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

Written by Reiko Yoshida and Masaaki Yuasa

Spoiler alert: moderate

In other Godzilla news, this weird crap

GODZILLA: CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE and

GODZILLA: THE PLANET EATER

Possibly the wrongest Godzilla has ever been, at the very least Gen Urobuchi's trilogy has proven itself admirably crazy—and outright insanity in pursuit of heavy-handed allegory is no vice. I think that's how the saying goes, right?

2018 and 2019, respectively

Directed by Kobun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita

Written by Gen Urobuchi

Spoiler alert: moderate

Predator Week, part IV: The day the Earth stood up, walked out of the theater, and asked for its money back

THE PREDATOR

So now I can see why I might have dragged my feet on finishing this particular retrospective—it must have been a premonition of utter shit.  Not only the worst film in its series, The Predator is quite probably the worst film of its whole year, and damned if I didn't expect much, much better from this franchise and from these creators than that.

2018

Directed by Shane Black

Written by Fred Dekker and Shane Black

Spoiler alert: high

Reviews from gulag: My family's slave

ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)

I am not happy that Green Book won Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards.  I can't be unhappy about it, at least not honestly—I'm pretty sure I would be unhappy, but I have not seen Green Book, and have no particular desire to, outside of the possibility that watching Aragorn getting fat and eating fried chicken for two straight hours might be amusing.  Even so, I can't imagine it was anywhere close to 2018's best picture.

Nevertheless, Green Book winning does have one nice silver lining: it means Alfonso Cuarón's Netflix-distributed Roma did not.  I did watch Roma; I can hate it.  I don't hate it for the reasons Steven Spielberg apparently hates it—helping push Green Book to its Oscar win and presently trying his level best to have Netflix banned from Academy Award consideration—for the great filmmaker has never been more petty and out-of-touch in his motivations, nor, I'm sad to say, more on the wrong side of history, even if "Netflix" and "movie" in the same sentence don't conjure the most pleasant cinematic expectations, and even if there are many valid reasons to be suspicious of Netflix that don't involve giving a shit about movie theaters.

Yo' mama so old I told her to act her age, so she died

MAQUIA: WHEN THE PROMISED FLOWER BLOOMS

Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazarō

Conceptually rich, yet insubstantial and entirely unsatisfying, Maquia takes a great idea and runs it into the ground, then under the ground, then it ends, too short to make any sense out of the world it's created, too long and too repetitive to not get really, painfully dull.

2018

Written and directed by Mari Okada

Spoiler alert: moderate

A mother is a woman who can take the place of anyone, but whose place no one else can take

BRAID

Like a game of Operation where someone keeps touching the sides on purpose.

2018

Written and directed by Mitzi Peirone

Spoiler alert: pretty much N/A, but let's say "moderate"

Dirty Harriet

DESTROYER

What we have is a movie essentially broken at its very core, depending on what you think its core is: its story (the broken part), or its lead performance (the pretty good part), but either way not exactly demanding that you spend your time on it.

2018

Directed by Karyn Kusama

Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi

Spoiler alert: moderate

Things shaped like bananas

EIGHTH GRADE

Either 2018's funniest comedy, one of its most heart-rending coming-of-age stories, or both.

2018

Written and directed by Bo Burnham

Spoiler alert: moderate

Robert Zemeckis, part XXI: I like wearing women's shoes, somehow it connects me to the essence of dames

WELCOME TO MARWEN

Robert Zemeckis' most interesting effort in eighteen years is also his easiest to dislike and misunderstand, which is why the director's first grab toward real greatness in just as long has become branded his worst film, and has, accordingly, failed miserably.  Thing is, I'd usually blame you, but in this instance, I don't think there's anyone else to blame but Bob himself.

2018

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Caroline Thompson and Robert Zemeckis

Spoiler alert: mild

And then there were nun

THE NUN

Finally, the Marilyn Manson biopic the world's been waiting for.

2018

Directed by Corin Hardy

Written by Gary Dauberman

Spoiler alert: mild

Naughty and nice

POOKA!

Shabby in a lot of ways, Pooka! is still leaps and bounds better than the phrase "made-for-streaming Christmas horror film" makes it sound.

2018

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo

Written by Gerald T. Olson

Spoiler alert: moderate

Four rooms

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

Not as bad as some folks say, but not nearly as good as it it ought to have been, Bad Times does enough right (despite doing what seems like even more wrong) that I'm willing to call it "good."  It's got atmosphere, and that'll do.

2018

Written and directed by Drew Goddard

Spoiler alert: mild

Hearts in Atlantis

AQUAMAN

The DCEU comes roaring back to life with superheroes the way they were meant to be, and this time I think we can actually all agree on that.

2018

Directed by James Wan

Written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Will Beall, Geoff Johns, and James Wan

Spoiler alert: moderate

It's shite being Scottish

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

In case Wikipedia goes down, there's still Mary Queen of Scots.

2018

Directed by Josie Rourke

Written by Beau Willimon (based on the book Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy)

Spoiler alert: a Stuart and their head are often soon parted

Does whatever a multiverse can

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Basically a piece of experimental animation they spent 90 million dollars on, believe the hype—Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is amazing, spectacular, and every other adjective you may have heard about it.

2018

Directed by Bob Perschietti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman

Spoiler alert: moderate

I'm saying she was "the Mistress of the Robes," yeah? "Keeper of the Privy Purse," "Groom of the Stole," "Lady of the Bedchamber"... if you know what I mean

THE FAVOURITE

Our reminder that it is not only power that corrupts, but lack of power, too, The Favourite wallows in the sickness of humankind.  But (importantly) always in an amusing way.

2018

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara

With Olivia Colman (Anne Stuart, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland), Rachel Weisz (Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough), Emma Stone (Abigail Hill), James Smith (Sidney Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin), and Nicholas Hoult (Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Sure, but the CGI on the kid is amazing

MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE

Even with the anti-hype machine in full swing, I held fast to my faith in Andy Serkis' Mowgli as the better of the two Jungle Books we were going to get this decade.  Unfortunately, I can't say my faith was wholly justified, even if Mowgli does offer a fair amount to enjoy.

2018

Directed by Andy Serkis

Written by Callie Kloves (based on stories by Joseph Rudyard Kipling)

With Rohan Chand (Mowgli), Christian Bale (Bagheera), Andy Serkis (Baloo), Peter Mullan (Akela), Naomie Harris (Nisha), Louis Ashborne Serkis (Bhoot), Cate Blanchett (Kaa), Freida Pinto (Messua), Matthew Rhys (John Lockwood), Tom Hollander (Tabaqui), and Benedict Kumberbatch (Shere Khan)

Spoiler alert: moderate