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| "American Animals" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
5) American Animals - A movie with a story that’s too crazy to be true is an enticing offer, and writer-director Bart Layton’s crime drama will provide it for you. It follows four Kentucky college students (Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, and Jared Abrahamson) who decide to steal a collection of rare books from their school’s library. While that might not seem like much, it’s a lot more thrilling than it sounds. Although the four main performances are great, Peters and Keoghan are the standouts, with the two of them displaying the excitement and apprehension of the heist, respectively. Layton does well in building up the characters as the film leads up to the heist, allowing you to see how this event will impact them. And, the use of interview segments throughout the film with the four real-life perpetrators offer multiple perspectives as they tell you what was going on in their minds during this life-changing period. This is an in-depth look at an unusual crime that shows you the characters’ plans that were made, the regrets that were felt, and the lessons that were learned.
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| "Hereditary" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
4) Hereditary - I don't think there’s been a horror movie that had the physical impact on me that was accomplished by writer-director Ari Astor's supernatural-horror drama. The film tells the story of Annie Graham (Toni Collette) and her family as their lives begin to fall apart when she discover unsettling family secrets after the death of her mother. "Intense" isn't even the best word to describe Collette's performance. What she does in this movie is something that's much more raw, something that goes to the darkest of places in order to bring out the grief, frustration, and confusion that plagues her character, and her work is the main reason why this movie's the emotional and grueling experience that it is. Although this is Astor’s directorial debut, he proves to have a masterful command of cinematography, set design, and music, using it all to create unique and unforgettable atmospherics. With a story that mixes these elements to examine a family that’s disintegrating, Astor gives you a horror film whose effects will be engraved in your bones by the time that it's over.
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| "You Were Never Really Here" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
3) You Were Never Really Here - One of the most-visceral experiences that I've had the movies this year was with writer-director Lynne Ramsay's thriller. The story follows a veteran named Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) who works as a hired gun in New York City. He's soon recruited by a senator to help rescue his daughter from a trafficking ring, and Joe soon realizes that there’s a larger conspiracy at play. Based on the novella by Jonathan Ames, Ramsay offers a disturbing view into the life of a man whose existence seems to have been taken over by violence, and you see how it has impacted his mentality, reducing Joe to a shell of his former self. However, you don’t get to see who that former self was. The heartbreak is that it’s lost to him, so it’s lost to you, as well. However, Ramsay manages to offer some glimpses of light here and there to get you through the events of the movie, allowing you to believe that Joe might come out all right. This is a dark journey to take, but it’s one worth taking.
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| "Annihilation" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
2) Annihilation - After sci-fi screenwriter Alex Garland made his directorial debut in 2015 with "Ex Machina,” he became a new visionary in sci-fi filmmaking. He continued to win us over with his latest film, which focuses on a group of scientists who set out to investigate a biological anomaly known as "the shimmer." Natalie Portman provides a low-key, yet deep-cutting lead performance, while the rest of supporting cast (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Tuva Novotny) all provide fine work as the other members of the team. Based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, Garland provides a screenplay that’s mysterious and ripe for discussion, and it's all enhanced by beautiful and haunting imagery of the environment within "the shimmer." This is a film that immerses you in its setting and encourages you to absorb every detail as you wonder what the team will find on their journey. Let me tell you, it leads to an ending that will leave you wide-eyed and speculating.
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| "First Reformed" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
1) First Reformed - I don't think that any other movie so far this year has surprised me more than writer-director Paul Schrader's drama thriller, which is about a reverend (Ethan Hawke) who begins experiencing a crisis of faith after a young woman in his parish (Amanda Seyfried) asks him to consult her husband (Philip Ettinger), a radical environmentalist whom she believes could be a danger to himself and others. Hawke provides the best performance of his career, a searing portrait of a man who's uncertainty of his life is on heartbreaking display. Schrader's screenplay keeps you engrossed throughout as you're given a deep insight into the reverend's thoughts as he pours them into his journal, letting you see the world through his eyes as it begins to break apart around him. The sharp turn that the story takes at the start of the third act doesn't feel jarring at all, but is rather a natural progression of the main character's arc, all of which leads to a finale that will keep you rigid with anxiety. If you want a film that subverts your expectations at every turn, here it is.
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