18) Troy’s Pick – Roma
Roma is such a beautiful film. However, the film walks that line between female independence movie and emotional torture porn. But, it makes excellent use of the film Marooned. Read Troy’s review here.
18) Daniel’s Pick – First Reformed
After duds likes The Canyons and The Dying of the Light, no one really expected Paul Schrader to pull a great movie out of his ass. Least of all me and I say that as someone who enjoyed Dog Eat Dog. I didn’t think he had it in him and it feels good to be proven wrong.
I don’t find First Reformed to be the slice of perfection that many others do. Schrader has a bit too many subplots rolling around, resulting in the muddying of the themes he is playing around with, but Ethan Hawke is so good that it matters not. This is easily among the best roles Hawke has ever been handed and he knocks it out of the park. I doubt this will end up being Schrader’s last film, but if it is, it’s the perfect coda to a still-impressive career.
18) Mike Flynn’s Pick – Hotel Artemis
- Hotel Artemis, a character-driven sleeper that represents a bygone era of genre films, with sly turns from Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, and a half-dozen others.
18) Jamie’s Pick – Eighth Grade
Jamie initially had reservations about watching a movie about 13 year old girls. Then, he put gaffer’s tape over his webcam.
