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Since 2011, I have been pulling together a list of the best movies of the year according to the Brisbane-based critics who I run into regularly at preview screenings.  Those films to have topped prior year lists have been Drive in 2011, Argo in 2012, Gravity in 2013, Boyhood in 2014, Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015La La Land in 2016 and Get Out in 2017.

To come up with an overall top 10, I’ve used a simple points system and applied it to the list of each critic. It is as follows:
 - 3 points for the top film on each list.
 - 2 points for the films ranked between 2nd and 5th on each list.
 - 1 point for the films ranked between 6th and 10th on each list.

If two films finished on the same score, the film that appeared on the most number of top 10 lists is ranked higher (as an indication of wider approval).

The #1 film of 2018 was The Favourite from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.  More than half of the critics surveyed had it in their top 10 and two critics (David Edwards and Adam Roboczi) had it as their best for the year.  The film will be a serious contender at the Oscars next month.

A close second was Steve McQueen’s Widows which featured on 5 of the top 10 lists.  Rounding out the placings in third was Shoplifters, the Japanese film which won both the Palme d’Or and the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature Film.

As always, there was an interesting mix of films in this year’s overall top 10.  Horror-thrillers were well represented with Suspiria, A Quiet Place and Hereditary all getting a mention.  It’s rare for a sequel to make the list but Mission: Impossible – Fallout had plenty of fans. 

Three films from female directors made the cut – Lynne Ramsay with You Were Never Really Here, Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird and Marielle Heller with Can You Ever Forgive Me? 

Rounding out the list were two films which are also looking to make a run at this year’s Academy Awards – Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma.

On that note, here are the top 10 movies of 2018 according to Brisbane critics…

Brisbane Film Critics - Top 10 of 2018
1.  The Favourite
2.  Widows
3.  Shoplifters
4.  BlacKkKlansman
5.  Roma
6.  Suspiria
7.  You Were Never Really Here
8 (tie).  Can You Ever Forgive Me?
8 (tie).  Mission: Impossible - Fallout
10 (tie).  A Quiet Place
10 (tie).  Hereditary
10 (tie).  Lady Bird

You can view a table of all the votes and final scores by clicking here.

A big thanks to all the critics who were able to contribute. Hopefully we'll do it again next year!

You can check out information on all the Brisbane critics (along with their choices for the best and worst of 2018) below.
 


 

Matthew ToomeyMatthew Toomey

Born in Brisbane, Matt Toomey was introduced to the world of cinema when he landed a job at a video store fresh out of high school in 1995. A few years later, he started his own website and reviewed movies regularly on a community radio station. In 2005, he joined the team at 612ABC and can be heard reviewing the latest releases every Thursday morning. He can also be heard weekly on regional ABC throughout Queensland.

Website: www.thefilmpie.com
Twitter: @ToomeyMatt

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Phantom Thread
2. Lady Bird
3. Back to Burgundy
4. A Quiet Place
5. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
6. The Favourite
7. Custody
8. C'est La Vie!
9. Unsane
10. McQueen
 
Best Australian Film:
Ladies in Black
Best Animated Film:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary:
McQueen
Best Performance:
Olivia Coleman (The Favourite)
Worst Film:
Holmes and Watson
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Ideal Home
Phantom Thread

 

Sarah WardSarah Ward

Sarah Ward is a freelance film critic, arts and culture writer, and film festival organiser. She is the Australia-based critic for Screen International, a film reviewer and writer for ArtsHub, the weekend editor and a senior writer for Concrete Playground, a writer for the Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz, and a contributor to SBS, SBS Movies, Flicks Australia and ScreenHub. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Junkee, FilmInk, Birth.Movies.Death, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine, Screen Education and the World Film Locations book series. She is also the editor of Trespass Magazine, a film and TV critic for ABC radio Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and has worked with the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival.

Websites: www.artshub.com.au
www.concreteplayground.com
www.screendaily.com/sarah-ward/1100859.contributor
www.goethe.de/ins/au/en/kul/sup/kio.html
www.flicks.com.au/author/sarah-ward/
www.sbs.com.au/guide/person/sarah-ward
www.sbs.com.au/movies/person/sarah-ward
www.trespassmag.com
Twitter: @swardplay

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. You Were Never Really Here
2. Cold War
3. Roma
4. Sweet Country
5. Custody
6. Suspiria
7. Sorry to Bother You
8. Hereditary
9. Widows
10. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. High Life
2. Burning
3. The Nightingale
4. Vox Lux
5. Annihilation
 
Best Australian Film:
Sweet Country
Best Animated Film:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary:
Gurrumul
Best Performance:
Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here)
Worst Film:
That's Not My Dog!
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
A Simple Favour
You Were Never Really Here

 

Garry WilliamsGarry Williams

Garry Williams is a reviewer for Film Club, a radio program broadcast on 4ZZZ-FM (102.1FM) each Thursday from 6-7pm.

Website: www.4zzz.org.au/program/film-club
Twitter: @thegeegenie

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. See You Up There (Au Revour La Haut)
2. Vice
3. The Favourite
4. Molly's Game
5. First Man
6. Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot
7. The Shape of Water
8. BlacKkKlansman
9. A Simple Favour
10. Black Panther
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. Woman at War
2. Peterloo
3. Leave No Trace
4. The Mist and the Maiden
5. The House That Jack Built
 
Best Australian Film:
The Merger
Best Animated Film:
Mirai
Best Documentary:
Three Identical Strangers
Best Performance:
Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
Worst Film:
The Nun
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
A Star is Born
See You Up There

 

Peter GrayPeter Gray

Peter Gray is a Brisbane based freelance entertainment writer specialising in film. Currently the entertainment reporter/film reviewer for QNews, Queensland’s largest LGBT publication, and regular contributor to Brisbanista, The AU Reviews and This is Film.

Website: launch.theaureview.com
qnews.com.au
thisisfilm.com
brisbanista.com.au
Twitter: @ratedPDG

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Widows
2. Hereditary
3. Suspiria
4. The Favourite
5. Roma
6. You Were Never Really Here
7. A Simple Favour
8. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
9. A Quiet Place
10. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. Where is Kyra?
2. Mary Poppins Returns
3. Annihiliation
4. Cam
5. Terminal
 
Best Australian Film:
Sweet Country
Best Animated Film:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary:
Whitney
Best Performance:
Michelle Pfeiffer (Where is Kyra?)
Worst Film:
Overboard
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Game Night
Widows

 

Ella DonaldElla Donald

Ella is a journalist, university educator, and writer. She specialises in interviews, features, profiles, and commentary, regularly contributing to GQ magazine, and has also been published by outlets including Vanity Fair, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Saturday Paper.

Website: elladonaldwriter.wordpress.com
Twitter: @ellafdonald

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Widows
2. The Favourite
3. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
4. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
5. Foxtrot
6. In the Fade
7. Shoplifters
8. Love, Simon
9. Wildlife
10. A Star is Born
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. First Reformed
2. The Tale
3. Vox Lux
4. Jane Fonda in Five Acts
5. Thoroughbreds
 
Best Australian Film:
Abstained
Best Animated Film:
Incredibles 2
Best Documentary:
Shirkers
Best Performance:
Laia Artigas (Summer 1993)
Worst Film:
The Cloverfield Paradox
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Assassination Nation
Widows

 

David EdwardsDavid Edwards

David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb Magazine and writes about film and television.

Website: www.theblurb.com.au
Twitter: @TheBlurbMag

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. The Favourite
2. Cold War
3. BlacKkKlansman
4. I, Tonya
5. Widows
6. Lady Bird
7. The Death of Stalin
8. Tully
9. A Simple Favour
10. Isle of Dogs
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. Columbus
2. I Am Not Your Negro
3. Ismael's Ghosts
4. Annihilation
 
Best Australian Film:
Sweet Country
Best Animated Film:
Isle of Dogs
Best Performance:
Charlize Theron (Tully)
Worst Film:
Pitch Perfect 3
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Game Night
The Favourite

 

Dave CreweDave Crewe

Freelance film critic with a fondness for arthouse and grindhouse films in roughly equal measure. Obsessed with David Lynch. Founding editor of ccpopculture, and freelances for SBS Movies, Junkee, The Brag, Metro Magazine and Screen Education, amongst others.

Website: ccpopculture.com
Twitter: @dacrewe

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Roma
2. Widows
3. Shoplifters
4. Lady Bird
5. Love, Simon
6. Sorry to Bother You
7. A Simple Favour
8. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
9. Climax
10. The Shape of Water
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. Leave No Trace
2. Ex Libris: New York Public Library
3. The Wild Boys
4. First Reformed
5. Burning
 
Best Australian Film:
Sweet Country
Best Animated Film:
Incredibles 2
Best Documentary:
Ex Libris: New York Public Library
Best Performance:
Steven Yeun (Burning)
Worst Film:
Wildling
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Love, Simon
Roma

 

Michael DaltonMichael Dalton

Former “screens” editor for m/c reviews, now contributor at TOM.

Websites: http://www.tommagazine.com.au/

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Shoplifters
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. BlacKkKlansman
4. Hereditary
5. Phantom Thread
6. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
7. Vice
8. Three Identical Strangers
9. Custody
10. Suspiria
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. First Reformed
2. Leave No Trace
3. The Happy Prince
4. Summer of 84
5. Mary Queen of Scots
 
Best Animated Film:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary:
Three Identical Strangers
Best Performance:
Sakura Ando (Shoplifters)
Worst Film:
Ideal Home
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Searching
Shoplifters

 

Baz McAlisterBaz McAlister

Walkley Award finalist Baz McAlister is a writer and deputy night editor at The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail, and co-hosts 'Force Material', a podcast about the secrets, history and influences of Star Wars.

Website: bazmcalister.wordpress.com
www.forcematerial.com
Twitter: @bazmcalister

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. Solo: A Star Wars Story
2. A Quiet Place
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. BlacKkKlansman
6. Isle of Dogs
7. The Death of Stalin
8. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
9. Black Panther
10. Bumblebee
 
Best Australian Film:
Winchester
Best Animated Film:
Isle of Dogs
Best Documentary:
Three Identical Strangers
Best Performance:
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Worst Film:
Aquaman
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Bumblebee
Solo: A Star Wars Story

 

Adam RabocziAdam Roboczi

Adam Raboczi is a reviewer for 4ZZZ’s Film Club (Thursdays @ 6pm) and manages the show’s Facebook page.  He occasionally makes overcomplicated music videos.

Website: 4zzzfm.org.au/program/film-club
facebook.com/4zzzFilmClub/
Twitter: n/a

 
Top 10 Released Films:
1. The Favourite
2. You Were Never Really Here
3. Suspiria
4. Shoplifters
5. Sorry to Bother You
6. The Endless
7. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
8. Vice
9. Mandy
10. I, Tonya
 
Top Unreleased Films:
1. Annihiliation
2. The House That Jack Built
3. First Reformed
4. Burning
5. Cam
 
Best Australian Film:
Upgrade
Best Animated Film:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary:
Won't You Be My Neighbour?
Best Performance:
Olivia Coleman (The Favourite)
Worst Film:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Most Surprised To Enjoy:
Meal Tickets
The Favourite

Jay Baruchel Interview

It’s been a very successful franchise and more big things are expected from the third instalment, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.  I recently had the chance to speak with star Jay Baruchel about the film and the series as a whole…

Matt:  I’m guessing with an animated film you’re spending all your time in a recording studio.  Do you get to meet or interact with any of the other cast members at all?

Jay:  I used to but that’s kind of changed now.  We’ve been doing these movies for a while and we know the lay of the land but more than anything, our cast is exceedingly internationally based.  I’m in Toronto but others are in Los Angeles, New York, London and Sydney.  It’s hard to get everyone in the same place so it’s usually just me at a microphone and sometimes I’ll be with the director on Skype.

Matt:  So how does your relationship work with director Dean Deblois?  What sort of instruction does he provide?

Jay:  Yeah, often he’s in California when I’m in Canada.  I would say the relationship is as strong as it’s ever been.  He and I have a type of shorthand that we’ve developed over a decade of working together.  We take pride and ownership in this character and he’s always afforded me a great deal of trust and respect.  I’ve treated him the same way and as a result, there’s a lot less that has to be said.  We don’t need to be in the same room to “rock and roll” together because we’ve been through it so many times.

Matt:  Is it tough getting into the emotion of the role when do you have other actors to work alongside as you would in a live-action movie?

Jay:  Obviously, if I was in period piece Viking clothing with stuff burning around me then it’d inevitably help your performance.  I don’t mean to sound coy but the gig is the same whether you’re in front of a camera or a microphone or whether you’re being funny or serious.  The job is always to be compelling and truthful.  It sounds like a cliché but you just need to keep it simple and remember what you’re there for.

Matt:  How long does it take to record all your speaking lines?

Jay:  It translates to 1.5 to 2 hours for 3 to 5 times a year over the course of 3 years.  That’s me recording a How to Train Your Dragon movie.

Matt:  Wow!  So why is it spread across such a long period?  Is it to tie into the work of the animation team?

Jay:  Yeah.  These films are significant endeavours and there are armies of artists and animators involved.  It takes time to be the movie that sets the gold standard which the How to Train Your Dragon movies have consistently been.  I admit that I have no background in animation as a technician but I know that it’s a piecemeal, back-and-forth process that isn’t fully done until the film comes out.

They’ll record me saying stuff and they’ll realise after doing the animation that they need more lines and so I go back and give them more.  It’s not like a movie you shoot and put it together in the editing room.  This is a thing that is constantly evolving and is fluid.

Matt:  Was it like seeing the finished product for the first time?  Is it anything like what you imagine?

Jay:  It’s hard to imagine how special it ends up being.  Even having done two of these and also eight seasons of the TV shows, it’s still amazing to see it for the first time.  It’s such a stark transition from sitting in a soundproof booth with script pages at my feet that smells like McDonalds.  That compared with the majesty, awe, wonder and beauty of these movies is a million miles away from how it starts.

It’s like an assembly line in that I work on my piece of the car.  I take care of my lines and my guy and that’s it.  I assume that if you only handle the spark plugs on a Ferrari assembly line and then you see a Ferrari come out of the assembly line, that must look pretty cool.

Matt:  You’ve been involved with this franchise for a while now and it’s been a tremendous success in terms of box-office and critical acclaim.  What do you think the secret has been?  Why are audiences so engrossed by these characters?

Jay:  The answer is going to sound hokey but it comes down to sincerity.  The movies start from a place of truth.  A cursory glance of today’s news headlines may imply otherwise but people, by and large, have pretty good bullshit detectors.  People don’t suffer nonsense and I think they can tell these movies have the “ring of truth” to them and that’s because there’s a heart and an earnestness that they have.

They’re also damn good stories.  You can be transported into this immersive universe with colours and you could never see here.  They’re entertaining stories with really solid characters.  It’s a funny thing because everyone knows what a good movie is supposed to be and yet they’re such a miracle.

Matt:  The original was released back in 2010.  Can you remember how you were first cast?  Do you know what it was about your voice that stood out to Dean Deblois?

Jay:  I was lucky enough to be making a film called Tropic Thunder in Hawaii.  One day on set, I got word that they wanted me to audition for this new cartoon they were trying.  On an off day, I went to a little studio on the island of Kauai and read a bunch of lines.  A few weeks later they asked me to come in to do the next session and I realised I had the job.

It’s funny that you ask about the quality of my voice.  In my first version, I was trying to age my voice down by going with a higher pitch.  I was very thankfully that version of Hiccup never saw the light of day.

Matt:  What are you working on at the moment?  What will we see from you next?

Jay:  I wrote a book called Born into It: A Fan’s Life which came out in Canada a month ago and I’ve just finishing going around the country and talking about that.  I also directed a film called Random Acts of Violence which we are currently editing in my basement.  We just finished for the day 20 minutes ago.  It stars Jesse Williams and Jordana Brewster and hopefully it’ll be out in late summer or the fall in 2019. 

Tony McNamara Interview

It’s one of my top 10 films of 2018 and so it was great to speak with Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara about his involvement with The Favourite…

Matt:  I believe the original script was written by Deborah Davis so can you tell us how you become involved in the project?

Tony:  Yorgos Lanthimos, the director, read Deborah’s script and he liked the historical story of it.  He’s a very particular director and he wanted it be different.  He was looking for a tragic kind of comedy.  He had liked a couple of things I’d written and so he rang me up and we then spent the next 7 years turning it into what he wanted it to be.

Matt:  Yorgos Lanthimos is seems to make such wonderfully messed up films.  Can you tell us about your interaction with him?  Do you guys have a similar sense of humour?

Tony:  Yeah, we’re different but we have a similar sensibility which is what he looks for in everyone he works with.  We hit it off immediately and became good friends.  I’m writing another movie for him at the moment.  He’s a director I admire and I think he’s really funny.

Matt:  I think is the first time he’s made a film where he’s not the writer and so handing that control over to you is a big step for him.

Tony:  It was.  He’s very involved and we spent a lot of time together.  At the time, he’d just moved to London and I think we wasn’t comfortable writing a script in English because usually he writes in Greek and then it’s translated.

Matt:  Without giving too much away, one of the most striking elements in the profanity and sexual references.  Not exactly something you’d expect from British royalty in the 18th century.  Is there poetic license being used here or is that actually how they dealt with each other?

Tony:  Deborah’s original script was very historical but when Yorgos and I got involved, we decided to be a bit “fast and loose” with it.  We wanted a period movie that was more fun than usual.  They did swear a lot.  In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales there’s a lot of bad language which was the sort of language they used.  I thought to myself “we use it, they use it so let’s use it.”

Matt:  And what were you able to draw on historically in trying to make these characters as authentic as possible?  I admit that I found them so wonderfully complex.

Tony:  There wasn’t heaps about them.  We understood the basics of what happened but there was no real detail about why the story happened or what their individual desires were.  We tried to come up with the most interesting version of this story.

Matt:  The film is very careful in how it divides up its time between the three leading ladies.  How easy did you find it giving the balance to each of their particular storylines?

Tony:  It wasn’t easy.  The trick of the movie was how to create this triangle, go back and forth with their respective stories, and give them all enough weight.  That took a few years to get right.  It wasn’t like we were doing it all the time though.  Yorgos was off making movies and I was here making TV shows.

Matt:  Perhaps the thing I love most about the film is the dark humour and the way it’s delivered by these characters.  How easy was it taking this rather serious narrative about war and conflict and weaving in such wonderful comedy?

Tony:  It wasn’t that difficult because it’s how Yorgos and I think about things.  It wasn’t possile for us to make a straight, serious movie.  In our first conversations, we knew it should be funny.

Matt:  You’ve been in the industry for a while now.  This film has received such incredible critical acclaim.  Did it come as a surprised to you or was there always something about this project that felt special and different from the rest?

Tony:  It has come as a surprise.  Once you’re in the industry for a long time, you don’t know what’s going to go and what’s not going to go.  I knew we had a chance once we got Emma, Olivia and Rachel on board.  Yorgos had also become a bigger director.  He hadn’t made The Lobster when I first met him.  Even once it was made, we didn’t know if people would like it and so that too came as a relief when we found out.

Matt:  You’ve earned your first Golden Globe nomination and the ceremony will be in a couple of weeks in Los Angeles.  Booked your flights and ready to head over?

Tony:  Yes, I’m heading over for it.  Absolutely.

Matt:  And I’ve got to say, you’d be a strong chance at an Oscar nomination.  What would that mean to you?

Tony:  It’s be great so fingers are crossed.  The people who worked on this film are all great.  There’s another Australian, Fiona Crombie, who did the production design and we’ve known each other for 20 years.  The actors were also super lovely people and we spent a lot of time with them.

Matt:  As the writer, did you get a chance to speak a lot with the actors?

Tony:  Yeah, we did three weeks of rehearsal and I was then on set for a couple of weeks in case Yorgos needed me.  I then got to spend more time with them during the film festivals in Venice and London and New York.  They’re all really great.

Matt:  Are you working on anything at the moment?  Could this film open a few more doors for you?

Tony:  I guess so.  People have liked The Favourite and so of course they’re more interested in hiring me.  I’m working on Yorgos’s new film and I’m also making a show for Hulu in America with Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning.

As I do each year, I always like to finish up by revealing my top 10 movies of the year.  It’s a tradition I’ve had since 1996 and you can see all of my old lists here – http://www.thefilmpie.com/index.php/special?id=174.

Honourable mentions this year go to Roma, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Blank Panther, Sweet Country, In The Fade, Avengers: Infinity War, A Star is Born, Love Simon, RBG, The Other Side of Hope, Isle of Dogs, First Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Bad Times at the El Royale, Hearts Beat Loud, Hereditary and Ladies in Black.  As you can see, there were a lot of great movies in 2018.

All of that said, I’ve been able to whittle down my top 10 and here they are in reverse order…

10. McQueen (out Sep 6) is a terrific documentary that looks at the life of British fashion designer Alexander McQueen. It finds the right balance between celebrating his beautiful creations while also exploring his troubled mindset. It's made even better by Michael Nyman's film score.

9. Unsane (out Apr 25) is the latest from director Steven Soderbergh and was shot entirely using three iPhone 7 Plus phones! It's a tense thriller about a young woman who is unwillingly incarcerated in a psychiatric ward and has to battle both capitalism (they're locking up sane people for profit) and a creepy stalker who has been following her for 2 years. Clare Foy is amazing in the lead role and the way she reacts is how I’d see myself if placed in the same position.

8. C'est La Vie! (out Aug 16) is a riotous French comedy about a wedding caterer trying to keep everything on track behind the scenes at a lavish wedding organised by a needy client. The characters are all fantastically memorable and it's one laugh after the other.

7. Custody (out Sep 27) is a French drama that delves into the complexities of a relationship breakdown when children get caught in the middle. Director Xavier Legrand uses a number of techniques to create a tense, uneasy experience for the viewer. The unrelenting narrative and flawless performances make this a powerful piece of cinema.

6. The Favourite (out Dec 26) is a rich, dark comedy filled with great one-liners and unexpected twists. For an 18th century period piece centered on British royalty, there are a wonderfully surprising number of sexual references and “c-bombs”. The most riveting element is the interplay between the three lead actors - Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. A fascinating tale of power. Grade: A.

5. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (out Dec 6) is based on the true story of Lee Israel, a struggling writer who forged personal letters from deceased authors in the 1990s to help pay the rent. Melissa McCarthy and co-star Richard E. Grant deserve praise for creating rich, complex, interesting characters. Audiences will form different opinions of them but hopefully most will agree this is one of the year's best films.

4. A Quiet Place (out Apr 5) is a terrific horror-thriller that should hook audiences from the opening scene. The world has been attacked by giant grasshopper-like creatures which devour any living thing that makes a sound. Could you go the rest of your life without making a noise if your life depended on it? Lacking in dialogue, sound and music, you may feel very uncomfortable watching this!

3. Back to Burgundy (out Jul 5) is a wonderful drama from French director Cédric Klapisch. It's the tale of three siblings who inherent their father's vineyard and must decide whether to sell or carry on the family legacy. It's a nicely balanced film that takes into account multiple perspectives while also exploring the wine making process.

2. Lady Bird (out Feb 15) is about a restless high school senior from Sacramento who isn’t sure what she wants out of life. There are storylines that we've seen before in other teen flicks but what separates this from the pack is the way in delves into the relationship between mother and daughter. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf deserve all the praise they have received.

1. Phantom Thread (out Feb 1) is the latest from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson and dissects the power struggles between a renowned fashion designer, his sister, and his latest lover in 1950s London. The less you know going in the better. These are fascinating characters who are part of an unorthodox love story.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!