Taking On 2018 - Top Films

Look at that, another year in the books. And that means that films came out, a lot of them, actually, and even though there were plenty I still wanted to check out, I did have a chance to get out to plenty of them. A lot of has changed since the last time I checked in on the world of cinema to name my best of the year so far. Not sure that I'd label it an amazing year for film, but also when I was whittling down this thing to the Top Ten it was pretty difficult, so in the end I guess it was pretty solid. As always, I logged everything that I counted as a 2018 film on Letterboxd in a list that isn't ranked, and some even have words if that's your thing. Just like the ones below the cut, or below these words if you've already clicked in to the post proper. There will be some pictures here too though, just the posters or something. Some numbers as well, ones that aren't even spelled out, so in that sense you ought to call this Mr. Toad because it's about to be closed and never to be heard from again a wild ride.

Taking On 2013: Top Performances

It's time to move things along, we have been living in the past for far too long! Even though we have taken the time to go through the best supporting performances, it's now time to get on to the leads, those figures who are asked to shoulder the entire load of a film. So who ended up being the best of the best? I guess it's time to take a look and find out.

I Know Your Anger. I Know Your Dreams.

The Master (Anderson, 2012)

Growing up I remember that every so often in English class we would do a unit on speeches. Generally it was tied in with Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream Speech," though there were others that tended to be used as well. Actually when I was student teaching and even when I was co-teaching I used speeches as a focal point of lessons. These master orators have, even before the technology existed to record what was being said, had their words preserved for generations to heed. Somewhere, buried beneath these moments in time, is a theoretical common spring of humanity that allows them to remain relevant. But is this timelessness locatable? Is it even true?

If you read my most recent Top 97, you would notice that sitting atop that list is Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood. As such, it was with great anticipation that I approached The Master, a fictional re-imagining of the Scientology movement coupled with the journey of a returned WWII veteran who finds himself wrapped up in this movement's early days. But, as tends to be the case with Paul Thomas Anderson's films, it's rarely just about what's on the surface.