Music & Films for
Common People
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L'ATELIER
(The workshop) Dir. Laurent Cantet
50
Laurent Cantet might be one of the best directors at the use of confrontational dialogue, offering us some great moments of socio-political tension, but L'Atelier is frustrating because it could have been an amazing film about the youth in the alt-right if it wasn't because it didn't had a clear goal.
BEONING
(Burning) Dir. Lee Chang-Dong
49
Beoning is beautiful in its paused storytelling, knowing how to create tension, and offering a few observations on class clashes, but it sells the main plot twist very easily before it happens, which break the point of a story where ambiguity should be the leading element.
DARKEST HOUR
Dir. Joe Wright
48
This very traditional biopic has two points that transform it into an outstanding film: the amazing performance and transformation of Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill, who dominates the entire film, and the beautiful cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel.
SUEÑO EN OTRO IDIOMA
(I dream in another language) Dir. Ernesto Contreras
47
Approaching magical realism, Sueño En Otro Idioma explores indigenous culture, myths and language in a smart way, mixing the fantastic elements with a strong story of love, hate and prejudice, that is above all, an exploration of the incapacity to communicate our feelings
LE MONDE EST À TOI
(The world is yours) Dir. Romain Gavras
46
Gavras capitalizes his experience as one of the best music video directors in the world in an explosive visual display of style with a great sense of rhythm that knows how to dose the chaos of the story, and splashes it with a good deal of ironic humor about class and family.
I, TONYA
Dir. Craig Gillespie
45
It takes risks with the stylistic approach, which is praiseworthy even when not all of his experiments work at the same level. Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are phenomenal, but when most of the secondary characters are no more than cartoons, it reaches an unequal tone.
CHEMI BEDNIERI OJAKHI
(My happy family) Dir. Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Groß
44
A strong intimist drama about a woman's right to decide what's best for her and the fights she'll have to endure for this against familiar guilt and social oppression. A very feminist insight towards conservative societies in Eastern Europe told through long shots.
SE ROKH
(Three faces) Dir. Jafar Panahi
43
Panahi offers a solid story that is a direct criticism to the political an cultural repression in Iran, and an open letter for freedom of choice and women's right. A harsh representation of female voices in the past, present and future of Iranian cinema.
A QUIET PLACE
Dir. John Krasinski
42
Offering something different to traditional horror movies, A Quiet Place is smart in how it solves the lack of dialogues to give us a terrifying experience thanks to the good use it makes of cinematic elements. The several loopholes are forgivable thanks to how refreshing it was for the genre.
GRÄNS
(Border) Dir. Ali Abbasi
41
One of the strangest films of the year, part police thriller, part dark fantasy fairytale, and part allegoric romantic drama about discrimination, Gräns stays in your mind long after the movie finishes thanks to the layers of complexity it contains and its daring narrative experiment.
LE SENS DE LA FÊTE
(C'est la vie!) Dir. Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano
40
A delightfully funny comedy of intrigue that circles a wedding planner in one of his most ambitious events, surrounded by an ensemble of hilarious characters and going through many absurd situations. It's not reinventing comedy but it's smart and effective in what it tries to achieve.
PHANTOM THREAD
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
39
Elegant, subtle and exquisitely directed, although it could be a little bit emotionally distant. It is far from being the best Thomas Anderson movie, but his style is very present and the team he makes with Daniel Day Lewis is just a delicacy to watch.
JUSQU'À LA GARDE
(Custody) Dir. Xavier Legrand
38
The best asset of this film is how it twist what it seems to be the initial thesis of "every child needs to have both parents" into almost a horror film about how toxic masculinity is, literally, deadly. It gets lost in some side-stories and takes time to find the focus, but when it explodes, it is brutal.
TODOS LO SABEN
(Everybody knows) Dir. Asghar Farhadi
37
It might be the least accomplished of Farhadi's film in the last decade, but still is a pretty decent exploration of tense family relationships. If the story is not as outstanding, when the director brings his skills to work with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, it becomes explosive.
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Dir. Lynne Ramsay
36
Ramsay approaches an action thriller with the style of a horror movie. Again, she is able to dig in the darkest side of the human psyche and pairing it with dense atmospheres that slowly reveal how twisted and terrifying reality can be.
THE DEATH OF STALIN
Dir. Armando Iannucci
35
A strong political satire about how politics are always more about power and less about ideologies, charged with elegant dark humor, it offers brilliant performances and hilarious pieces of dialogue with a perfect sense of rhythm and a piercing wit that doesn't spare anyone.
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
Dir. Sara Colangelo
34
An unsettling exploration of mid-life crisis and how an obsession can drive us to take one bad decision and then worse ones. Maggie Gyllenhaal offers one of her best performances and is subtle and elegant embodying her complex character.
DEN SKYLDIGE
(The guilty) Dir. Gustav Möller
33
Using a single location, Den Skyldige manages to break the inherent theatrality of the text and uses cinematic devices to create a second film in the mind of the audience that occurs beyond the four walls of that police station. A great use of narrative tension and plot twists.
THE POST
Dir. Steven Spielberg
32
A reminder that Spielberg can also make necessary films, The Post is highly relevant at showing the importance of journalism and the sense of truth in a world (and specially, in his country) on the verge of a new fascist regime. An elegant style, top actors and a tense screenplay for a round film.
BEACH RATS
Dir. Eliza Hittman
31
A study in toxic masculinity, Hittman analyses how social constructs choke our freedom to be who we want and pushes us towards double-standards and a sense of hate towards oneself. It goes to uncomfortable places and gets some good moments of pure cinematic power.
ISLE OF DOGS
Dir. Wes Anderson
30
Anderson keeps showing us how much care he places in every single shot of his films. With a beautiful stop-motion animation and a great sense for composition, Isle of Dogs is another hit of the director in his canon of feel-good movies that are also highly artistic.
PETIT PAYSAN
(Bloody Milk) Dir. Hubert Charuel
29
Takes care constructing a character that takes desperate and irrational actions when everything he has worked for is in danger. A rural drama with a slight hint towards thriller that might be one of the most exciting films about cows ever made.
DAS SCHWEIGENDE KLASSENZIMMER
(The silent revolution) Dir. Lars Kraume
28
Kraume knows how to structure his story to keep you interested as the tension increases. It has a strong message towards the threats that fascism poses to freedom of thought and speech that is smart to don't put the political message over the narrative.
LOVING VINCENT
Dir. Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman
27
With every single frame being hand-painted in the style of Van Gogh's painting, the best achievement of this film is giving a new approach to animation that is beautiful, powerful and mesmerizing, although the narrative could have benefited from a less traditional approach.
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT
Dir. Lars Von Trier
26
While it felt more like an attempt to keep scandalizing, rather than a film that needs to say something concrete, Von Trier managed to offer moments of very dark humor, a few thought-provoking sequences, and some powerful images with a macabre aesthetic.