The Sanity Clause

Another film blog; sharing shots, thoughts and other things I like Visit brianwelk.com for more

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The Best Movies of 2018

Read my list of The Best Movies of 2018 at The Sanity Clause, and listen to The News Reel for more thoughts on all these:

The films released in 2018 are all firmly in the Trump era. If the best movies of last yearwere the ones that were either shockingly relevant to the times (“Get Out”) or were enough pure adrenaline escapism (“Baby Driver”) to provide a distraction from the barrage of noise and conflict going on in the real world, then the most effective movies of this year were the ones that managed to do both.…

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The Best Albums of 2018

Finally, my list of The Best Albums of 2018:

“I’m so glad I came but I can’t wait to leave,” St. Vincent sings on “Slow Disco.” In two different remixed versions of her ghostly, neon-tinged anthem originally heard on last year’s “Masseduction,” she reveals both the rousing elation and haunting melancholy of the same line. My favorite version though is this year’s “Fast Slow Disco,” along with the accompanying music video. Annie Clark moshes…

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BlacKkKlansman

My review of "BlacKkKlansman," one of this year's best and another classic Spike Lee joint:

A member of the Ku Klux Klan is nestled with his wife in their bed. As they spoon, a soothing love song adorns their pillow talk. They whisper sweet nothings about killing n—ers and dreaming of a better tomorrow.

This is one of several unsettling scenes in Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” And it’s not just because of the language. The scene isn’t staged as a laughable parody, but as the genuine…

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Eighth Grade

My review of Bo Burnham's "Eighth Grade." I found well made and thought provoking, but also depressing and hard to watch:

Kayla Day, who is about to graduate eighth grade, spends what feels like an eternity to apply make up and get dressed just so she can roll back into bed and take a selfie with the caption “Just woke up like this!” She will get exactly zero likes on that Instagram post, the same number that she has on her YouTube channel where she regularly posts self-help tips about how to not be phony. And as…

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Christopher Robin

My "Christopher Robin" review. Marc Forster's Winnie the Pooh story doesn't feel like it's for kids or nostalgic adults and would be delightful at 75 minutes long. More here:

Disney

Oh bother. Get out the sad bastard meter. Do I really have to say something negative about “Christopher Robin,” a Winnie the Pooh movie of all things? How miserable of a human being do I have to be to not see Marc Forster’s film as precious, cute and adorable?

It is those things, but it’s also maudlin and looks like a parody of a Terence Malick movie and would’ve been delightful if it was…

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Every Mission: Impossible Movie Ranked, From Worst to Best

Did anyone ever expect the “Mission: Impossible” franchise to have this much longevity? In every movie, Tom Cruise dons a ridiculous prosthetic mask, pulls off an impossible heist and even ends up forking over the thing he just stole to the very person he’s trying to keep it from in the first place. But across 22 years, six films and five directors, each “Mission: Impossible” movie has varied…

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Ocean's 8

This should've been a great, gender-swapped reboot. Instead, "Ocean's 8" is a hollow retread of Soderbergh's "Ocean's 11." My review:

The real heist of “Ocean’s 8” is how they managed to fool us into thinking this was something new. Gary Ross’s film is effectively a remake of Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s 11,” but with a gender-flipped cast. And instead of a radical experiment, a fresh point of view on a spectacularly male franchise, “Ocean’s 8” is an incredibly safe, unassuming, if amusing, retread with some slightly different…

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Ant-Man and the Wasp

'Ant-Man and the Wasp' feels mighty skippable and almost like a 2-hour commercial for "Avengers 4," despite what it does well. My review:

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe is basically an epic TV show, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” shows Marvel has no qualms about making a throwaway episode. You make two of the biggest cultural events of the year, and then you follow it up with a breezy family comedy with Paul Rudd?

Does anyone else feel like they’ve been cheated into watching a two-hour commercial for “Avengers 4?” And I’ll say upfront,…

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Avengers: Infinity War

Here's my Spoiler-Free Review of 'Avengers: Infinity War.' It was hard to be this vague yet still feel like I was saying something:

I’m starting to be less cynical about Marvel. 2017 was a good year for the MCU, and “Black Panther” might be the best movie of the year so far. So in the case of “Avengers: Infinity War,” I’m willing to accept that this is a movie of teases, surprises, punch lines and cliffhangers all stuffed into a giant package.

It’s designed to make you cheer, applaud and gasp. It’s supposed to be catnip for…

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Blockers

A good studio comedy? Can't go wrong with "Blockers." John Cena is a standout as well. My review:

Here’s the formula for a successful studio comedy in 2018: A diverse group of people and personalities making fools of themselves, getting real about stuff, and telling a lot of dick jokes. Here’s a great one from Blockers: “I’d rather eat 10 dicks than one Mounds.” This is an accurate statement, and it would’ve still been funny if Paul Rudd told it. But instead it’s more appropriately told by a…

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The Death of Stalin

My review of Armando Iannucci's wickedly funny "The Death of Stalin:"

If Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin is about Trump’s America in any way, it’s that sheer incompetence looks really funny right up until the point that things get scary quickly. No one is doing better fictional political satire on TV or film than Iannucci. And while Veep nor The Death of Stalin are direct portraits of today’s political climate, they find clever and often profane parallels in…

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Isle of Dogs

My review of Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs," where Anderson makes the bleak beautiful:

If anything, Wes Anderson is very consistent. His films all share his brisk pacing, deadpan humor, diorama creativity and color, and precise attention to detail. And they’re all good. This is even though each of his nine films is wildly different and ambitious in ways unique to each project. He’s put his quirky, fantastical stamp on coming-of-age romances, family dysfunction dramas, children’s…

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Ready Player One

To go along with our podcast discussion this week, I finally put pen to paper to review READY PLAYER ONE:

I feel like one of those angry male fanboys complaining about “accuracy” and being “faithful” to source material. While Ready Player One maintains most of the plot points of Ernest Cline’s novel, it often feels like a completely different story. Masturbatory and overwritten though it may be, the book Ready Player One at least took its fandom seriously. Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation is a…

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A Quiet Place

My review of "A Quiet Place." Krasinski's film is well made studio horror and goes beyond its gimmick:

Director John Krasinski does an excellent job in the opening moments of A Quiet Place establishing the unfortunate predicament of these doomed protagonists. It’s your typical end of the world scenario, the camera scours some deserted pharmacy, but no one is making a noise. The scavenging family speaks only through sign language, and when the mother picks up a bottle of pills from a shelf, she…

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Thoroughbreds

Go see THOROUGHBREDS. With any luck, it'll be a cult classic. My review:

“It means I just have to try a little harder to be good.” That’s Amanda in an early line in Thoroughbreds plainly explaining her mental affliction to her old friend Lily. Amanda is without feeling and emotion, though she’s not quite a “sociopath.” She blankly stares into a mirror, tilts her head and flashes a smile. She can turn on a sunny demeanor in an instant, but there’s nothing behind that…

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Red Sparrow

My review of the at first interesting, then disappointing and forgettable, "Red Sparrow:"

Fox The most interesting scene of Red Sparrow could also be its most problematic. Jennifer Lawrence has just stripped off all her clothes and hopped onto a desk in front of a classroom of people. A day earlier, one of her classmates attempted to rape her in the shower, and now he’s standing before her. This is an invitation. But he can’t get it up. “Power, that’s what he wants,” she says. It’s a…

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Loveless

My review of the Russian drama "Loveless," nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar this year:

The Russian drama Loveless, nominated for 2018’s Best Foreign Language Oscar, wouldn’t be the first to show how a deteriorating marriage destroys other lives in its wake. But Loveless isn’t just bleak, it’s bitter, with contempt for how the culture that still lingers from the Soviet Union breeds hatred and distrust across generations. Zhenya and Boris (Maryana Spivak and Aleksey Rozin) are long…

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