Last post , I had a look at numbers twenty to eleven of my favourite films of 2018. Therefore, it stands to reason that in this post I shall take a look at numbers ten to one of my favourite films of 2018. So, let's do that. 10. Avengers: Infinity War The premise of Avengers: Infinity War is so inherently ambitious that you can forgive any of its flaws due to the fact that they pulled it off at all. Superhero films have a storied history of collapsing under the weight of an overstuffed cast; just look back at the infamous Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 2 or even the Avengers’ own Age of Ultron . Infinity War succeeds where those films have failed thanks to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s remarkably efficient screenplay and the Russo brothers’ emotionally detailed direction. The character development is embedded ingeniously into the narrative, as the situations the heroes (and the villains) are placed in directly challenge them and flesh them out. All of...

If I were to continue the 'years as sequels’ conceit I began in 2017 (“the messier, uglier sequel to 2016”) then 2018 fits quite snugly into the mould of the 'terrible third instalment’. Like The Matrix Revolutions or Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? 2018 took what you thought couldn't get any worse and somehow proved you resoundingly wrong. 2018 was just a miserably aimless year, as the distance from the dreadful decisions made in 2016 increased further and the reasons for making them became even less clear. Fortunately, whilst the real world repeatedly let us down, the film world did not. I mean, we even got a good Transformers film! Hopefully, much like Bumblebee , 2019 will be the much-needed reboot that reverses our seemingly perpetual descent into despair, but right now I can't think of anything better to do than to look back on some of the best films 2018 had to offer. According to me.  Honourable Mentions  Firstly, here are a handful of films I ...

The decision to forgo a Christmas special in favour of a New Year's Day special has been met with predictable controversy. I understand, especially for those whose Christmas routine has always involved Doctor Who , but at the same time, I think it's probably for the best. The Christmas Special was becoming increasingly restrictive and, whilst none of Capaldi's Christmas episodes were completely rubbish, not all of them were the most memorable. Plus, as much as I enjoyed Nick Frost's Santa, bringing in Father Christmas himself was a sign that perhaps they were struggling for ideas. So, moving the special to the New Year seems like a good idea to me. It opens up many new narrative and thematic possibilities. Plus, the iconography surrounding New Year's is a lot vaguer than Christmas, so they can probably justify most ideas as being somewhat related.  So, how does Resolution utilise the festival? Well, for a lot of the episode it's largely just set dressing. ...

Sorry to Bother You , the directorial debut of The Coup frontman Boots Riley, is part of a growing trend of Afro-surrealism in film and television. Donald Glover's brilliant Atlanta series has dabbled in surreal comedy and last year's Get Out saw Jordan Peele take advantage of the style's horror potential. Whilst this could be seen as an effort to escape reality, most of these artists have actually utilised surrealism as a means of better understanding it. Let's face it, it's futile trying to understand the current state of the world through logic and rationalism. Sorry to Bother You is easily the most absurd yet, blending both comedy and horror to evoke the unsettling mixture of hilarity and dread regularly brought on by a glance at the day's news. It's also a brutal and uncompromising evisceration of capitalism and its insidious ability to corrupt those rewarded by it. Lakeith Stanfield's protagonist Cassius Green ('cash is green’) is present...

Computer animation is a wonderful art form and many of the most enduring and universally loved films come from the medium. The trouble is, ever since Pixar established its feature film potential with Toy Story , computer animation has looked rather… same-y. Most of the artistic variation has been confined to 2D and stop-motion animation, whilst the majority of 3D animation has played it disappointingly safe. 2014’s The Lego Movie - directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller - is really the only notable animated feature that's deviated from the standard look and that was only to imitate stop-motion. Oddly, it's also a style that has been largely untouched by the comic book genre. Aside from The Incredibles  -  which doesn't really count as it's an original idea and not an adaptation - animated superheroes have mainly found themselves in 2D, straight-to-DVD films. Once again, the Lego films are the only major exception with The Lego Batman Movie , which you could ...

As I've mentioned in my review of Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born , there are a number of films I tragically didn't get the opportunity to review whilst Doctor Who was on. There are still a couple more I want to give full reviews to (hopefully before the end of the year) but right now I'm going to catch up on the majority of the films I missed with another collection of capsule reviews. It's a Christmas miracle! The Post I somehow forgot to write about this one when I did my last catch-up, but that doesn’t matter, because I can write about it now! The Post is a Spielberg film in a similar vein to 2015’s surprisingly brilliant Bridge of Spies . With the content itself not being as fantastical as what Spielberg is known for, his brilliant filmmaking skills are given extra space to shine. This is most noticeable in the incredible way the cinematography reflects the discomfort Meryl Streep’s Kay Graham feels when entering a room filled with stuffy ...

Whilst writing my Doctor Who reviews, I unfortunately overlooked a number of films that I didn't have the time to take a look at. To make up for that, I'm intending to do another collection of capsule reviews to catch up on everything I missed. However, there are also a few films I want to give full reviews to. Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born are the first two I want to tackle and I've decided to review them together. As always, laziness (I mean, uh, efficiency) certainly plays a part in combining their reviews. However, I also think these two work very well alongside each other. Both of them are massively successful sort-of-musicals following the career trajectory of a lavish rock star. However, they both go about it in intriguingly different ways and the reception each film has received has been noticeably different. In other words, it's the perfect mix of similarities and contrasts for a side-by-side review! The most notable contrast between Bohemian...