10 films prove surprising — in a good way
In an art form that thrives on sequels, any film, actor or director who still retains the capacity to surprise is an anomaly.
Here are 10 movies from 2018 about which I can honestly say, “I did not see that coming.”
‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’
Melissa Mccarthy’s performance in this acerbic little gem — directed by Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”) and cowritten by Nicole Holofcener (“Enough Said”) — comes on the heels of “The Happytime Murders” and “Life of the Party,” just the latest two crushing disappointments in a string of lousy movies starring the actress.
Playing the real-life Lee Israel, a celebrity biographer who turned to forgery when her writing career dried up, Mccarthy delivers the performance we’ve been waiting for — a lowkey, Oscar-worthy turn as a bitter and unvarnished misanthrope. The actress goes someplace she hadn’t been before.
‘Science Fair’
In a year when the highest-grossing documentary was the uplifting profile of Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — outperforming even Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11⁄9”
— viewers might have grown tired of polemical nonfiction.
“Science Fair,” an absolute charmer akin to the 2011 doc “Spellbound,” profiles a group of teenage contestants at the 2017 International Science and Engineering Fair. The film, a prizewinner at festivals from Sundance to SXSW, includes traditional surprises (including the identity of the ISEF winner, which is unexpected for at least two reasons).
But most surprising is the film’s political bent, with its implicit critique of an anti-science White House. Or rather, that it is both the political and the feel-good film of the year.
‘Tully’
The year’s best plot twist, hands down, is best not described, even with a spoiler alert.
The perfectly constructed magic trick of a movie — the third collaboration between director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody — introduces a story about the relationship between a frazzled new mother (Charlize Theron) and the hyper-confident “night nanny” she hires to help (Mackenzie Davis, in the title role), only to pull the rug out from underneath her.
That it does so without disturbing a single piece of plot “furniture” makes for an impressive feat of writing, directing and acting.
‘First Reformed’
Paul Schrader — whose resume includes the screenplays for “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “The Last Temptation of Christ” — has a spottier track record behind the camera than in front of the keyboard. (Has anyone seen “Forever Mine” or “The Canyons”? Ugh.)
But the writer-director’s latest film, a somber and sometimes-surreal drama about a pastor (Ethan Hawke) who experiences a spiritual crisis after the death of a man he was counseling, marks a return to peak form for the filmmaker.
(Both the screenplay and Hawke’s performance just received prizes at the Gotham Awards.)
‘Bad Times at the El Royale’
The premise of seven random strangers — including a priest (Jeff Bridges), a traveling salesman (Jon Hamm) and a soul singer (Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, in an astonishing turn) — meeting at a Nevada motel on a stormy night sounds like a recipe for cliche. But the noir-ish lark from writer-director Drew Goddard never goes where you expect.
‘Suspira’
Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has called this remake of the 1977 giallohorror cult classic the polar opposite of his multi-oscarnominated gay love story from last year, “Call Me by Your Name.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Guadagnino described that 2017 film as a look at the importance of family and “Suspiria” as an investigation of the “terminal consequences of a terrible mother.”
In the space of 12 months, no other director has made such an extreme aboutface. Guadagnino’s latest film is the stuff of Freudian nightmares.
‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’
There are many surprises delivered in the Coen brothers’ existential Western anthology, whose six separate stories — unrelated except for a shared theme of human mortality — include two with twist endings worthy of O. Henry.
The fact that its chapters were gathered from material written (and shelved) by the Coens during the course of 25 years suggests that it’s a wonder the film ever got made. And finding a home on Netflix is, for filmmakers of their caliber, something new.
But the performance of Bill Heck — who? — in the installment titled “The Gal Who Got Rattled” feels like the biggest revelation. The actor, who is probably better known in the New York theater world, is absolutely sensational in the role of a love-struck but laconic cowboy.
‘Border’
I defy you to watch the trailer for this strange — and strangely haunting — film (Sweden’s official submission in the 2018 Oscar competition) and tell me what it’s about.
The story, which takes on ancient Scandinavian myth as a metaphor for immigration and the sense of being an outsider, will be less mysterious once you actually sit down and watch the thing.
But it’s still an original experience: part fairy tale and part gritty contemporary police drama.
It includes two things you can’t possibly see coming: a sex scene that springs something startling and a love story that is stunning in its power to move.
‘Hereditary’
What’s the big deal: that the feature debut of writerdirector Ari Aster, with an 89 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is as good as it is? Or that the art-house horror film — which mixes family drama and frights better than “The Haunting of Hill House” — includes a character whose fate is even more disturbing than that featured in the Netflix hit? Neither.
It’s the fact that the film’s central performance (by Toni Collette, as an artist and mother who is losing her grip on her loved ones and her sanity) is being talked about (rightly so) as Oscar-worthy.
‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’
The first film directed by Andy Serkis, an actor known for his motion-capture performances, is a re-imagining of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.” Yes, Serkis’ “Breathe” came out before it but only because “Mowgli” was held back so it wouldn’t have to go head to head with the recent Disney version.
Regardless, do not make the mistake of thinking that the adaptations are at all similar. The Pg-13-rated “Mowgli” — blending live action and motion-capture performances by Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Benedict Cumberbatch — is far darker than any previous version of Kipling’s classic about a boy raised by wolves.
And it’s not just the shocking violence and intensity that make it a grown-up movie; it’s also the moral complexity of its human and nonhuman characters.