Matt St.Clair
Overrated: “The Rider”
I don’t get it. I understand that this movie has its passionate following and I respect that. But sadly, I am just not a part of that following. For what it’s worth, “The Rider” does feature some tremendous cinematography and it even has an impactful third act. But when the third act does hit, I was still wondering where that impact was in the rest of the movie. It’s clear that the film was attempting to demonstrate the hardships of trying to chase your dreams. However, it feels like that message wasn’t translated well until the very end. That’s likely because the first two-thirds are mostly style over substance with its emphasis on capturing the scenic South Dakota setting and an attempt to be as subdued as possible with its near lack of dialogue. Again, this one may have its fans but I still found it to be pretentious, boring drivel.
Underrated: “We The Animals”
“We The Animals,” a coming-of-age story about a young boy living in poverty with his two brothers, received raves out of the Sundance Film Festival. But even with those raves, it still hasn’t become an awards darling in the same vein as other festival discoveries like “Beasts Of The Southern Wild” or “The Florida Project” which is a shame. Maybe it’s because it didn’t really find an audience or because it came out pretty early in the year. But whatever the reason is, it’s still disappointing people slept on this gem. It vividly captures the imagination of Jonah (Evan Rosado) who uses his drawings as a way to both escape his turbulent family life and come to terms with his sexuality. Also, Evan Rosado brilliantly captures the rich interiority of Jonah and does so with the use of his expressive eyes. That being said, the real MVP is Raul Castillo as Jonah’s father who is loving yet frustratingly tries to keep his family’s heads above water. He’s the best part of an already spectacular film that will hopefully find a bigger audience somewhere down the line.
Ryan Oliver
Overrated: Bad Trailers Hurting the Box Office of Good Films
For us who travel in the film media circle, we are constantly inundated with social media reactions, followed by the reviews, then the Metacritic/Rotten Tomatoes score, then the box office prognostication, then the inevitable thinkpieces (and the thinkpieces to the thinkpieces…). That makes it easy to forget that outside of the bubble, it’s a large country and *most* people make their moviegoing choices by what they see in trailers and TV spots. Good buzz can get you far, but in this age of content oversaturation, if you have the goods, you have to sell it. There’s been a troubling trend that’s emerged in 2018, and it’s watching good films fall – or come up short on the money it could have made – by terrible trailers. For example, let’s look at “Game Night” and “Blockers,” two of the year’s most-acclaimed studio comedies. Go back and watch the trailers for these films (I’ll wait). “Game Night” was marketed like a typical Jason Bateman comedy, using action as a crutch to mask for its lack of comedy (a trend that could be its own article), while “Blockers” didn’t even look like a real movie (more like one of the fake trailers that played in front of “Tropic Thunder”). “Game Night” made $69m domestic off a $17m opening (a terrific 4x multiplier), while “Blockers” made $60m off a $20m opening (3x multiplier), but even just four years ago, two comparable titles – “22 Jump Street” and “Neighbors” – made $191.7m and $150.1m domestically, respectively. While it can’t be boiled down to just one thing (like TV comedy overtaking studio comedy. Again, for another day), it isn’t out of the realm of possibility to think that if either of these films have been marketed correctly as the subversive comedies they were in their own right, maybe they would have been rewarded more for their efforts. Moving outside of the comedy world, this problem leads directly to my underrated pick…
Underrated: “Overlord”
Potentially even a worse offender than “Game Night” and “Blockers” in the terrible trailer game, this immensely entertaining genre mash-up of war and horror featured a trailer that cut all of the action to the beat of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.” There was more subtlety in the song choices in my year-end video countdown than there were in this arena rock choice so ubiquitous that it made me wonder if I was watching a movie trailer or if I was about to watch the Oakland Raiders take the field. Audiences weren’t hooked, and it’s hard to blame them. But, it’s also a shame, because the film itself is a tense, tightly-paced thrill ride with an exciting, up-and-coming director (Julius Avery) in complete control of the cinematic language, from the visual storytelling to the aces sound design. “Overlord” tapped out at $21.7 million domestic ($41.2 million worldwide) on a $38 million budget, a shame given that Paramount had a successful year for mid-budget genre fare, after the at-least-break-even of “Annihilation” (thanks to the Netflix deal) and the smash-hit of “A Quiet Place.” It’s hard to say if “Overlord” would have done better if it was going to be released under the “Cloverfield” banner as initially intended (then dropped after “The Cloverfield Paradox” disaster), but it’s a shame that we’re at the point where a film that is this fun, unpretentious in what it’s trying to accomplish, and character-driven in its action and horror would have to rely on the brand of an established property to thrive. It’s further example of voting with your dollars, that if a film looks like the type of film you would enjoy, even if it looks a little spotty in the marketing, take a chance on it. You might be surprised.
Warren Cantrell
Underrated: “Juliet, Naked”
Perhaps the best Nick Hornby film adaptation to date, it’s nothing short of a travesty that “Juliet, Naked” arrived in theaters D.O.A. after a non-existent marketing campaign (if you’ve never heard of this film, and didn’t know it came out, don’t worry: you’re not alone). Ethan Hawke has had a McConaissance-like year with “First Reformed” and his own directorial effort, “Blaze,” yet his strongest, most relatable work in 2018 was “Juliet, Naked.” Playing fictional rock legend recluse Tucker Crowe, Hawke taps into a reservoir of introspection targeted at celebrity-worship and toxic masculinity that define an entire generation of 30- and 40-somethings bros. The movie speaks to the contortions people put themselves through to make peace with who they were, what they’ve become, and what they want to be. Rose Byrne is magnificent in the film as the beleaguered Annie, who is caught between her obsessive Tucker Crowe super-fan boyfriend, and Tucker himself, forming the basis for some (though not all) of the picture’s best sequences. In all, “Juliet, Naked” is a charming, light-on-its-feet comedy with fully formed, arc-rich characters that manages to balance real consequences with a frothy overall composition. The victim of a late-summer release and bare-bones promotional efforts, “Juliet, Naked” deserves full-frontal exposure.
Overrated: “Mandy”
A film that relies too heavily on atmosphere, and too little on substance, “Mandy” is like a cake that’s all frosting. Sure, there are delicious bits, and even some enjoyment one can take from the smothering excess of wide anamorphic shots, top-tier Nicolas Cage work, and superb synth scoring from Jóhann Jóhannsson, yet after consumption, one can’t help but to feel somewhat cheated. A tedious hour-long first act that’s in dire need of an edit throws the pacing of the whole effort off its axis and is exacerbated by lazy world-building that leaves more questions for the audience than answers. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, yet if a film is going to spend a full hour setting all of this up, it should at least connect the dots of its own narrative. Are the demon-bikers human, or supernatural? Does the religious cult have any real power vis a vis summoning these beasts, or are they just the product of one man’s acid-fueled megalomania? Yes, things get weird/fun once Cage gets an ax and starts wild-eye rampaging through the baddies, yet it takes far too long to get to this point, and the world the film lives in seems perpetually in conflict with itself. In all, “Mandy” is standard 21st century Nic Cage B-movie fare with some visual polish and a killer score. It’s okay, sure, but hardly the cinematic masterpiece that can stand alongside some of 2018’s best work.
