I know that I’ve already spoken at length about some of the best movies Summer 2018 had to offer, but gosh darn it, this year has just been an amazing year for movies (and certainly one of the best ever for summer blockbusters). There have been outstanding movies from every genre, from body horror to romantic comedies, and a lot of surprises that came straight out of nowhere. It’s just too good to leave to five flicks that were only marginally better than the rest.
That’s why I’m back with another 5 can’t-miss features that came out at some point over the Summer months. These are the kinds of movies that people will be talking about for years to come, many from new and exciting filmmakers who will certainly be around for many more years to come after that. If you missed any of these in theaters, it would behoove you to check them out from the comfort of your living room.
5 . Upgrade — Do you wish that Tom Hardy’s upcoming “turd in the wind,” Venom, actually looked good? Do you wish that somebody would run with the premise of a man at war with his own, out-of-control body whose superhuman abilities allow him to take on criminals and lowlifes in his own backyard? Do you want all of that with a hard R rating and all the reckless abandon of an old-school horror movie?
Thankfully, Blumhouse is here to cater to that very need. Complete with its own discount Tom Hardy in the leading role (Logan Marshall-Green), this movie follows a freshly crippled mechanic work through his wife’s murder with the help of an artificially intelligent neural implant that now only enables him to walk again, but gives him superhuman strength and fighting abilities. Essentially Robocop (1987) by way of The Fly (1986), it’s visceral revenge flick that feels like a cult classic in the making.
4 . Eighth Grade — Coming of age stories are a dime a dozen, and for good reason. The graduation into adulthood from adolescence is rife with dramatic potential and is one of the most relatable subjects that a filmmaker can commit to the big screen. Plus the specific age of the characters usually lends itself to them getting into all sorts of crazy situations that more experienced (ie, adult) characters simply wouldn’t, because they haven’t yet learned that these sorts of things are bad ideas waiting to happen and are game for just about anything as long as it validates them among their peers.
But debut director Bo Burnham (of YouTube fame) created something truly special here: a coming of age story for a young girl growing up amidst social media, YouTube and the internet. It offers a seemingly stark view into the life of a young teen on the cusp of maturity, compete with how she negotiates everything from family, friends, school and sex. It’s a sometimes touching, sometimes difficult to watch epic of myopic proportions that feels as viscerally real and important as anything by many more accomplished filmmakers (such as Richard Linklater and Diablo Cody).
3 . Crazy Rich Asians — By rights, I really shouldn’t like this movie. I’ve never been a particularly big fan of comedies, romantic comedies especially so. It’s a big, bombastic, larger-than-life wedding movie, the likes of which my now-wife inundated me with as we planned our wedding. It’s based on a series of novels I haven’t read (and likely wouldn’t care for).
And yet, everything about this movie is greater than the sum of its parts. Its familiar characters are elevated by its largely legendary, all-Asian cast. Rather than being the same bog-standard situational comedy we’ve seen time and time again, the script is rife with poignant things to say about the intersections of race, class, gender and nationality. And while it is “yet another wedding movie,” it is so sumptuously shot that it’s hard to think of a more beautiful film to hit theaters this year. Don’t be scared off by either its genre or premise: Crazy Rich Asians is the real deal and deserves every scrap of respect that comes its way.
2 . The First Purge — From humble beginnings, the Purge movies have grown into one of the most exciting and socially conscious action-horror franchises to ever grace the silver screen. From its sweeping horror set-pieces to its fascinating array of subplots, the films have grown into increasingly terrifying reflections of the contentious world we live in.
The latest Purge movie, the first not to be helmed by James DeMonaco, takes place on the holiday’s very beginning: documenting the events of the first, fateful Purge night and the lengths to which the nascent, conservative-led government will go to in order to ensure its success. Featuring an almost entirely Black cast (save for the lilywhite Neo-Nazis running things) and helmed by an exciting new Black director (Gerald McMurray), it tells the gripping, against-all-odds story of a disparate family trying to survive amidst a night of total anarchy.
1 . Teen Titans Go! to the Movies — Listen, I’m as surprised as anybody else that this movie was any good whatsoever. As a fan of the OG Teen Titans animated series, I wasn’t won over by its exceedingly silly replacement, and was happy enough just ignoring it as it rapidly took over the airwaves with its waffle jokes and nonsense digressions. I was content with the series that I had enjoyed for years, and nothing was going to take that away from me.
Yet I took a chance on this big screen continuation of that very same series I decidedly didn’t care about because I was hearing some rather interesting things about it from those who got a chance to check it out ahead of its general release. And, I have to admit, I loved every second of my time in the theater when I did get around to seeing it. It’s light-hearted, action-packed and insatiably funny. And, sure, it wasn’t MY Teen Titans, but, taken on its own terms, it was more than good enough at being what it was for me to let bygones be bygones between us.
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