We’ve had a wild year at the box office. We got the first ever Star Wars bomb (nooooooo!). A surprise giant hit that had half its audience debating whether it was possible for a family to never fart. We had two huge diversity-focused films, Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians, that became mega-hits, as well as a couple others, A Wrinkle in Time and The Happytime Murders, which proved social message films still need a good story. Puppets, people. The Happytime Murders because of the lack of puppet representation.
We had a movie, Hereditary, that only became a thing due to a single scene. We had another, Venom, that proved critics don’t matter as much as they think they do. We got to see what many believe was the best Mission Impossible movie yet. We had Michael Myers introduce himself to millennials. We got a film, Ready Player One, that had many asking the question, has Steven Spielberg lost his touch? We had another entry that made us remember the power of marmalade (Paddington 2).
We had a documentary about Mr. Rogers (Mr. Freaking Rogers) rack up 20 million bucks at the box office. We had two of the most anticipated movies of the year, Deadpool 2 and Ant-Man 2, turn out to be only okay (sad face emoji). We found out Bradley Cooper could direct and The Rock should limit himself to less than 70 movies per calendar year. We learned that the suburbs aren’t the best setting for one of the most iconic alien creatures ever. We learned that shooting Ryan Gosling on 16mm with no professional lighting scares audiences away.
We learned all Kurt Russel needed was an impromptu chimney sweeping role to give his best performance in years. We learned that even in ocean super-hero movies, you will get the ubiquitous trailer shot of two giant armies racing towards each other. We learned that Fred Savage is awesome. But not awesome enough to get people to think a movie they already saw is new. And we learned, most importantly, that with over 500 movies produced this year, that it’s easier than ever to turn your screenplay into a movie. Why is everyone waiting for permission from someone else to make their movie? Go make it yourself, dammit!
Here are the movies I have not seen this year: I still haven’t seen A Star Is Born (tried to a million times but still hasn’t happened). I haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody (but want to). I haven’t seen Blackkklansman (been burned too many times by Spike to make another mistake), Vice (why did they make this movie?), The Favourite (anyone who’s read my Lobster script review knows why I won’t see this), Green Book (might as well have subtitled their film, “For Your Consideration”), Mary Poppins Returns (they should’ve titled it Mary Poppins Returns to Where She Returned from and never made the movie), Can You Ever Forgive Me (I really want to see this), or Roma (I will watch this at some point. I’m just not in a hurry).
Of the above, I suspect that A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Can You Ever Forgive Me had a chance of making my Top 10. And now, without further ado, let’s see the movies that DID make it!
NUMBER TEN – “A QUIET PLACE”
Writers: Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, and John Krasinski
Why: Oh yeah, baby. It’s one of the most controversial films of the year. If you liked it, you’re an insane person who doesn’t understand how stupid the premise is. If you hated it, you don’t appreciate the cinematic genius of the first silent horror film of this century. There’s a screenwriting lesson to be learned here, my friends. Every idea will have weaknesses that people point out. “It’s impossible that they’ve never made a noise.” “Why didn’t they just move to the waterfall so they didn’t have to worry about making noise?” “Audiences aren’t going to see a silent film in this day and age.” There is no such thing as the perfect concept. They all have weaknesses. But if you believe in your idea, commit to it. Don’t doubt it. You’re going to need that confidence to ride it out to a sale.
NUMBER NINE – “THE DEATH OF STALIN”
Writers: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin, and Peter Fellows (comic book created by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin)
Why: I never would’ve checked this out if it wasn’t advertised for 99 cents on Itunes. But once I started the film, I couldn’t stop laughing. The opening scene, when a Russian concert director gets a call from an assassination-obsessed Stalin saying he wants a recording made of that night’s performance, AND THE PERFORMANCE IS ALREADY OVER, you know you’re in for a fun ride. Everything about this was so zany. The characters, including Steve Buschemi, all spoke with their given accents. They were supposed to be Russian! I don’t know how to categorize this other than to say it was the biggest surprise of the year.
NUMBER EIGHT – “THE RITUAL”
Writers: Joe Barton (based on the novel by Adam Nevill)
Why: Along with A Quiet Place, The Ritual is one of the best representations of how to approach spec screenwriting. You’ve got a character-piece built around four friends who are thrust into a terrifying situation that can be easily marketed. The big lesson with The Ritual is that when you write a premise that places your characters in a redundant situation (in this case, a forest), you need a strong character conflict to keep coming back to. Without the exploration of that character’s inner dimension, the plot will become stale.
NUMBER SEVEN – “THELMA”
Writers: Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier
Why: I didn’t see a movie all year that haunted me as much as this one. As someone who promotes structure and traditional storytelling, you’re probably confused as to why this flowy thought-experiment made my list. I don’t know, to be honest. I know I was drawn to this girl’s brokenness. I wanted to know how she became this way. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Is an interesting character with a big question mark hanging above their head. Tread lightly, though. Thelma has one hell of a disturbing ending.
NUMBER SIX – “AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR”
Writers: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Why: I can give this one high marks solely due to the amazing job the writers did of keeping a movie with so many characters focused. While I certainly had better experiences at the theater this year, I didn’t see a better MOVIE than Infinity War. This is what happens when you get all the best people at their respective jobs together to make a film. Pure spectacle. And it’s not like the script didn’t take chances either. To, essentially, make its big bad villain the protagonist gave this comic book movie a flavor unlike any other. Can’t wait to see part 2!
NUMBER FIVE – “REVENGE”
Writer: Carolie Fargeat
Why: This movie will wow you. It will tantalize you. It will make you feel uncomfortable. And it all exists inside the most efficient screenplay package there is – the revenge film. Revenge films are both deceptively easy and difficult to execute. The clear goal and even clearer motivation means zero exposition. Just pure story. But that simplicity can make the format boring unless you know how to keep evolving your plot. Look no further than Bruce Willis’s Death Wish to see how to screw this up. However, Revenge is so cool and so stylistic, it makes you forget your story gripes as you focus on one singular thing: Kill the asshole that left our heroine to die.
NUMBER FOUR – “ANNIHILATION”
Writers: Alex Garland (based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer)
Why: It’s easy to see why this didn’t kill at the box office. It targeted the mind over the eyes. That eliminated anybody under 25. But those who were left were treated to a trippy dream (some might say nightmare) of a group of women taking on an unknown entity that was re-working the biochemistry of the planet. The best thing about Annihilation is that it provided that rare treat for seasoned moviegoers of us having no idea where it was headed. If you’d told me that the climax would be a dance-off with a biological robot, I would’ve told you you were nuts. Alex Garland remains one of my favorite five screenwriters working today.
NUMBER THREE – “THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS”
Writers: Ethan and Joel Coen
Why: I can’t stop thinking about this movie. What’s so great about it is that each time I look back at it, my favorite segment changes. The one I love best now is the Oregon Trail. I still can’t believe how much the Coens made me fall in love with Alice Longabaugh. I want to spend an entire day watching that episode to learn what devices they implemented to pull it off. Cause if you could learn to write characters like that (that lovable), you’d be unstoppable.
NUMBER TWO – “SEARCHING”
Writers: Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian
Why: This script embodies my philosophy on screenwriting: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! There isn’t a single wasted moment in this entire film. The writers do an amazing job setting up our two main characters so we care about them. They then use a fresh package for the “missing girl” story. That’s the biggest lesson here. I read tons of missing girls stories. But nobody bothers to find a new way to tell them. So we keep getting the same story told over and over, just with a different voice. This format allows a well-worn concept to feel new.
NUMBER ONE – “EIGHTH GRADE”
Writer: Bo Burnham
Why: Notice a theme in this Top 10? Eighth Grade, Searching, Revenge, The Ritual, A Quiet Place. All of these are SIMPLE stories TOLD WELL. You want to become a great storyteller? Learn how to do that. Doesn’t mean you can’t grow your unique voice and experiment on future screenplays. But learn how to tell a simple story first. — I loved hearing how Bo Burnham wrote his dialogue for this movie. He watched endless Youtube videos of preteens talking. I don’t think writers realize how important this is. When you are writing a person so outside of the realm of your everyday existence and you believe that you can riff out their dialogue? You’re crazy. Just like you have to do research for world-building, you gotta do research for dialogue as well. Listen to it. Tune your ears to it. Write down what you think is right then listen to what actual eighth graders say and chart the differences. Use that to keep improving the dialogue. Every movie is going to have its own dialogue challenges. You need to spend the time necessary to overcome those challenges. Because there’s nothing worse than reading dialogue you know that character would never say in the real world.
