If life was fair, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would reward experimental, fresh filmmaking and genre pictures with the same gusto as it does stuffy period pieces and contrived biopics. But life isn’t fair – and that’s why “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a Best Picture nominee.
Take a look at some amazing films from 2018 that didn’t make the Academy’s cut!
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Hereditary: There’s a reason that Ari Aster’s debut feature “Hereditary” is the most commercially successful film that A24 has ever released. Blending chilly family drama with sharply constructed scares, “Hereditary” toils in the murk of familial trauma and never stops ratcheting up tension until the film’s final moments. It’s scary as hell, thanks especially to a masterful Toni Collette, who navigates the various cleaves in lead character Annie’s psyche with a jagged vulnerability up to par with any of the Best Actress nominees at the Oscars this year.
Mission Impossible – Fallout: How many times must Tom Cruise get in front of a camera and catapult himself into Death’s clutches before the Mission: Impossible series wins an Oscar? This film should be a shoo-in for Best Cinematography and Best Directing based on the Halo jump sequence alone – not to mention the exquisitely choreographed bathroom brawl and that insane helicopter chase. Director Christopher McQuarrie helmed one of the best action films in recent memory – too bad the Academy nominated “Green Book” instead.
- Sorry to Bother You: “Sorry to Bother You” is like Marxist theory on acid – and that’s a good thing. First-time director Boots Riley’s satirical take on modern day capitalism and white privilege is colorful, confrontational, and unlike anything else that came out this year. It also features some truly outstanding earrings, modeled by the incomparable Tessa Thompson – Best Costume Design, anyone?
- Paddington 2: Hugh Grant dressed up as a nun! Paddington turning all the prisoners’ clothes pink! That tear-jerker of an ending! Marmalade! “Paddington 2” was the most joyful film of 2018, and its complete lack of nominations is proof that we live in the worst possible timeline.
- Annihilation: “Annihilation” is art-house-meets-science-fiction: a meditation on self-destruction and mutation told through the lens of an ill-fated science expedition. Unsettling all the way until it goes for broke in its final scene, this film is one that will leave you thinking long after you’ve left the theater