THE DEATH OF STALIN dir. Armando Iannucci (2018)

We need Iannucci to retell all our history.

True Top Forty 2017 (Update)

Justice comes in fractals or not at all.

ISLE OF DOGS dir. Wes Anderson (2018)

Loving, lovely tribute to the relationship between children and dogs-and maybe how dogs keep us in contact with our inner child; simple, loyal and true.



Well-meaning if clumsy love letter to Japanese culture as well. Intensity, attention to detail, devotion to aesthetics, quality and discretion, deft and elegant--I really think to throw around a word like racism is irresponsible, but discourse has become a fever dream.

I don't really see how it is some severe downgrade in craft, spirit or imagination from his other work as the detractors will say, but then I was always just an appreciative enthusiast, never a gushing adorer of the work.  I think he may be the only director whose work I've seen in totality though, so for context this is my personal attachment to them, in descending order:

The Royal Tenebaums
Moonrise Kingdom
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Rushmore
Isle of Dogs
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Bottle Rocket
The Darjeeling Limited
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

THOROUGHBREDS dir. Cory Finley (2018)

An art-school-noir version of Scott's indie genre "we have access to a huge house." St. Louis' own Finley (went to Jon Hamm's high school) wordlessly makes incisive generational and class observations--impressive for a playwright's debut film-- and gets delicate performances from his two faux sociopath leads and a humble, funny and earnest performance from his only star, late great Anton Yelchin.

THE DISASTER ARTIST dir. James Franco (2017)

The funniest parts for me were prior to the film being made, just the elder Franco delight in being a goof with nothing to lose.  Meanwhile, Dave is the superior actor; I wonder if he'll get a shot to do anything but play the sidekick.  It was fun to see the gang of comics-cum-character actors who round out the cast, but the script constrains the whole affair to a genial middle-ground, the opposite of its go-for-broke inspiration.