Review by Rilwan Balogun
At the close of this movie, you don’t leave warm and fuzzy because they got him out of jail. But you sit with feeling uncomfortable and sad. This is the point.
Read MoreReview by Rilwan Balogun
At the close of this movie, you don’t leave warm and fuzzy because they got him out of jail. But you sit with feeling uncomfortable and sad. This is the point.
Read MoreBy Zach Dennis, Logan Kenny, Andrew Swafford, Malcolm Baum, Jessica Carr, Reid Ramsey, Michael O’Malley, Robyn C., and Lydia Creech
**NOTE** This is not in ranked order
Read MoreBy Zach Dennis, Logan Kenny, Andrew Swafford, Malcolm Baum, Jessica Carr, Reid Ramsey, Michael O’Malley, Lydia Creech, Jordan Smith and Nathan Smith
**NOTE** This is not in ranked order
Read MoreIn all actuality, making a list of the best movies of 2018 to cap off 2018 is misguided. We should really be looking back three years later to gauge the cultural impact that films have made on a grander level rather than compiling some group together to feed an insatiable need to fit into what qualifies as film criticism today.
That being said, here are 25 films that the group here at Cinematary have come up with.
Read MoreThis is not merely a list of movie recommendations.
This list includes video essays that took months to construct, festival coverage that required dozens of hours and thousands of words, powerful essays about writers’ personal identities and societal oppression, formalist analysis working out how movies are crafted visually, sharp critiques of the capitalist superstructure that the movie industry works within, a whole article structured around homemade .gifs, and much more. We hope you take some time to explore this list and catch up on some of the writing you may have missed this year. It would mean the world to us.
Read MoreReview by Logan Kenny
Is The House That Jack Built the cinematic form of the manipulation that follows abuse? A work with the pretense of self-examination that is actually just another reminder of the pain that many women have went through? Or is it a genuine apology, a work of intense self loathing, an abuser longing with existential suffering and a desire for death because he can’t achieve the catharsis in this life anymore?
Read MoreReview by Zach Dennis
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse shows not only the endless visual prospects of the comic-book genre, but also the natural inclusion of diversity and representation that felt less like a business plot and more of a reminder that the hero’s identity is fluid because anyone can be behind the mask.
Read MoreReview by Andrew Swafford
Knight seems to be bringing Laika’s humanistic sensibility to a franchise heretofore so concerned with militaristic hardware and mechanics.
Read MoreReview by Courtney Anderson
To me, watching Widows felt like I was watching the outline of a potentially fantastic script.
Read MoreReview by Michael O’Malley
For Disney, self-critique is only useful for the extent to which it makes Disney look good. And a sequel is only as good as the value it adds to the company stock.
Read MoreReview by Zach Dennis
Creed was so aspiring not only because of the impeccable directing by Ryan Coogler (who returns to this movie in a producing role only) but by Coogler’s incredible focus on the nuances of modern masculinity. The frustrating part of this second Creed is that it picks up this beat again, but lacks the subversion that its predecessor possessed.
Read MoreReview by Courtney Anderson
Green Book uses vital pieces of Black history as plot devices to tell the story of a loud-mouthed racist who learns to be less racist because of that time he became friends with a cool Black guy.
Read MoreReview by Lydia Creech
The Coens are obviously fascinated with the genre, and they’ve gotten the chance to do feature-length treatments several times in the past. Here in the short format, they get a chance to really flex their storytelling skills to quickly get the audience invested and then wrongfoot them.
Read MoreReview by Reid Ramsey
“Caustic wit. That’s my religion,” sighs Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) during an early conversation in the new movie Can You Ever Forgive Me?. This one line sums up, perhaps too simplistically, the overall attitude of the movie.
Read MoreReview from Festival du Nouveau Cinéma at Montreal by Clément Hosseart
Season one lured some of his viewers with a pastiche of procedurals, where the detective and his partner are your average local cops. Like Broadchurch, but with less of a Scottish accent, and with more cows. Season two mixes things up with some of the most literally down to earth science-fiction you will find.
Read MoreRetro Review by Nadine Smith
Though its iconography may have been appropriated by the alt-right, They Live remains one of the most radical and unapologetically leftist films ever produced in the shade of Hollywood’s superstructure. In a world plagued by centrism and civility, They Live is still a much-needed reminder that debates don’t win revolutions. When literal Nazis are in the streets, appealing to both sides or “reaching across the aisle” is, to quote from the film, like pouring perfume on a pig.
Read MoreA conversation between Nadine Smith and Mike Thorn
Rob Zombie’s two films work together to form a very complex and thoughtful exegesis on American serial killer mythologies, with the first film primarily exploring social, familial and institutional systems while the sequel delves into the intricate and vexing connections between violence and un- (or sub) consciousness.
Read MoreReview by Clément Hossaert
Built on the foundations of the book written by Shirley Jackson, this new edifice gives each of its characters a wing, a corridor and a past to live on, and a burden of trauma to deal with.
Read MoreFestival Coverage by Andrew Swafford and Jordan Collier
For four days in October, the 10th annual Knoxville Horror Film Fest screened 14 feature films (and dozens of shorts) spanning indie horror, documentaries, and cult classics from around the world. Coming on the heels of the programmers opening their own independent theater in Knoxville (Central Cinema), this was the biggest year ever for the Knoxville Horror Film Fest. Andrew and Jordan were able to catch 12 of the features during their time at the fest, including KHFF’s first-ever world premiere.
Read MoreRetro Review by Zach Dennis
Jaws 2 does neither and as a follow-up to Jaws feels out of its depths and floundering, but I’m not sure it ever had a chance to swim.
Read More