Ten Best Films of 2020

2020. The year we all found out who our friends are. It was just last January when CNN asked So Man-fung Peter, "Geomancy Consultant and Globetrotter," for his thoughts on the coming year, and he said, "You should be able to accumulate some wealth, especially if you're self-employed or an entrepreneur." and "To alleviate the impact of negative thoughts, you should travel more." Ah, so quaint.

I don't know about you, but here at Panther Pictures, LLC, we lost a lucrative contract to Covid-19, and scuttled a long-awaited production that we'd finally greenlit and had already spent four months ramping up. Right after casting the leads. But in the same year, we successfully tackled a production that had been abandoned 15 years earlier, and paid off several old debts. All in all a no gain/no loss situation, and considering that as of January 2021 the average tenant owes 4 months in back rent, we were luckier than most.

Like most of the entertainment industry, we experienced several delays in our plans--including a delay in this, our list of the Best Films of 2020. But with the 2021 Oscar ceremony not happening until April 25, and qualifying film releases stretched to February 28, 2021 (instead of being cut off on Dec. 31st 2020), a late January release of our choices doesn't seem so far off. After all, our 2015 picks didn't drop until February 13, 2016.

So, with all the usual disclaimers and rules and attitude, here is the Panther Pictures, LLC, list of the #TenBest Films (those things that come in sequels instead of episodes) of 2020. #PPLLCTenBest2020 #TenBest2020

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The Banker, Romulus Entertainment, Directed by George Nolfi

There seems to be an entire subgenre of independent films, or more properly "prestige films," that are made with stars from large $100 million productions, showing their acting chops in quiet $10 million movies. The thinking being, I suppose, it will be easier to notice their talent without all the distracting CGI explosions. The Banker stars three such actors, whom you may not recognize (*eyeroll) without the Marvel logo. Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson play black entrepreneurs who want to invest in property in white neighborhoods in the 50's and 60's, and who find a way to go from being jacked around by The Man to pulling the strings behind the scenes when they enlist Nicholas Hoult to, "be us, to the rest of the world." The story of how they pull it off, go on to purchase 3 banks, and still remain friends during the subsequent Congressional hearings, is one for the ages, and a great example to rest of us about how to encourage one another (or how not to) in the pursuit of our American dreams.

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The Midnight Sky, Anonymous Content, Directed by George Clooney

There were a lot of people looking forward to this, and then a lot of those same people panning it when it finally came out in streaming rather than in theaters. From the moment I heard about this production in the trade papers, I knew what it was going to be like, and I was interested in it anyway. George Clooney plays Depressed George Clooney (as seen in ER and The Descendants) playing a bearded man playing scientist. The last member of a scientific outpost, keeping the lights on after a vague global catastrophe. Incidentally, vague catastrophes are the best kind; this is one of those stories where it isn't important *what* happened as long as we understand that *something* happened. His only companions are a HAM radio and a little girl whom he tells not to trust him and maybe find someone else to rely on (which of course she can't). His feelings for her are wrapped up in his feelings about an old relationship, and so on and so on. All of this must take a back burner, however, when he realizes that a deep space mission is on its way back with what may be the last of humanity on board, and if he doesn't warn them to steer clear of earth the probe that's looking for whales will destroy them, too. Wait...let me re-read that... So anyway he has a journey to make to the top of a mountain where a long-range transmitter resides. You get the idea. It may be predictable but it is also sad and hopeful in the face of crushing despair. So, you know, perfect for this year.

Also the best use of "Sweet Caroline" this decade.

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Mank, Netflix Studios, Directed by David Fincher

A movie about the writing of Citizen Kane, structured much like Citizen Kane. But whereas Citizen Kane tells the story of a man as seen through the eyes of his friends, Mank is the story of a man seeing his friends through the eyes of his script for Citizen Kane. Herman Mankiewicz, the "mank" in question, both realizes this connection and stubbornly refuses to acknowledge it honestly to those friends. And that's really all I have to say about it, except that it proves, like Some Like It Hot before it, that female exploitation scenes are somehow more palpable in black and white. And I really have no idea what that says about myself and my relationship with cinema. Well, I have some idea. But I'm saving it for when I write the next Citizen Kane.

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Love and Monsters, Paramount Pictures, Directed by Michael Matthews

A movie about massive monsters that feels paradoxically small and charming. There is a lot that this film has going for it: clever mutations of familiar animals, an examination of how we all respond to the survival instinct, Giant crabs, Puppy Love, and a puppy. Well, a grown up dog that is emotionally stunted. Dylan O'Bryan plays Joel Dawson who, along with the rest of humanity, has been living underground ever since giant creatures took control of the land. His brightest comfort is his high school girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick), who is now 80 miles away at a coastal colony. Joel realizes that there's nothing left for him to do but head out to find Aimee, despite all the dangerous monsters that stand in his way. It's real Romeo and Juliet stuff. Best Monster Love Story since Swamp Thing.

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Pressure Point (1997), Edgewood Studios, Rifftrax Version

Released in 1997, but added just this year to the new-for-2020 "Rifftrax Friends" subscription streaming service--which is exactly the streaming service the world needs right now. When an assassination attempt fails in a part of Chile that looks suspiciously like Vermont (I stole that line), government operative Sebastian Dellacourt (Don Mogavero) is blamed and thrown in prison. Engineering an escape, Sebastian soon discovers that his freedom was only won in order to frame him in a plot to blow up Congress...I think. It's kind of unclear what the phrase "the congressional building" really means, given that most of the helicopters land in open fields. There are some impressively squandered explosions and a fake Magnum PI Ferrari, but everything, every moment, is treated by director David Giancola as if Mogavero is on a trip to the hardware store. Maybe it was the bad directing, or the bad acting, or the bad writing; I couldn't tell. It was too beautiful to understand. Take that, HBO Max!

Starring Don Mogavero, written by Don Mogavero, in order to give us a world where male pattern baldness is just another CIA gadget.

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The Trial of the Chicago 7, Dreamworks Pictures, Directed by Aaron Sorkin

I have a hard and fast rule against reviewing or giving any sort of props to Aaron Sorkin's work, for deeply personal reasons. He knows what he did to my family. That's not an exaggeration or a joke. He knows what he did, and it was to my family. (Hollywood is, in its way, like a small town.) But this is a story that needed to be told and re-examined, and he did it very well. He knows courtroom drama. (Another reason my personal issue with him is so raw.) Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago turn violent (we've all seen the footage) and one of the most famous trials in history results--but what led up to it and how it was conducted feel brand new. I find myself examining it from the perspective of an observer in 2021, rather than 1968. Partly because I was born in 1973, and mostly because I watched it in the weeks after January 6, 2021. When is protest justified? Where does our free speech stop and where does incitement to violence begin? How much responsibility do we hold for our rhetoric, and what is the responsibility of those tasked with seeking justice? When does a trial stop being legal and when has it become political? Is any speech free anymore? Are our thoughts only ours to own? You better believe these are questions that resonate in 2021.

Dangit, Aaron we could have made beautiful music together!

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Rebuilding Paradise, Imagine Documentaries, Directed by Ron Howard

I watched Paradise, California burn down from afar, but it was just up the road (by California standards) from my own home. We saw and smelled the smoke. We see and smell it every year, 2020 was not the only year places burned. So it was with more than curiosity that I settled in to watch this one, at 2AM in my office when I should have been asleep--the overall emotion I felt was empathy. Ron Howard is a wonderful director (who knew?) and he unfolded the events in Paradise first in an immersive, social-media-drenched way (the way anyone who wasn't there experienced it), and then with a quiet desperation that went from anger, to denial, to bargaining, to depression. The final stage of grief may be acceptance, but Mr. Howard did not go there, because the citizens of Paradise have not gone there. They accept nothing but their faith in each other, and so they build again.

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2020 (A 1917 Parody), The Ascender Channel, Directed by Stephen Ford

I'm adding the first short film ever to my "Best of" list, because of the sheer talent it represents. The talent of the oppressed California filmmaker. This film's existence highlights the idea that 2020 was a year in which everyone found their circle of people to struggle with, laugh with, and rely on. In the run that these characters make for TP, the viewer is immersed in the oldest of feel-good movie cliché's--everything and everyone we need and love are the friends and neighbors who were there all along. I think I have something in my eye. Oh, wait, it's an ember from the fires.

Plus, as an homage to the movie 1917, this little film becomes a symbol of what we have lost, and what we know we will have again. Hopefully that doesn't include Murder Hornets.

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News of the World, Perfect World Pictures, Directed by Paul Greengrass

Like nominating Meryl Streep as best actress, Tom Hanks having a movie on a Ten Best list is a national tradition. This year, there were at least two choices, and Paul Greengrass' Western was the better one. Westerns are an American Passion Play, capable of reflecting whatever society has to reflect at the time they are made, and a grand mirror of the past's place in our present as well. That very generic statement means....what? Well, I don't know, because all that is for film historians to figure out in no less than 5 and not more than 15 years from the release of any given Western. But I can say that Greengrass directs as effectively as he ever directed any Jason Borne film, and that Hanks emotes as well as he ever has in any of his previous Ten Best-ers. Plus he has a beard, and is caring for an orphan. So it's pretty much the same movie as Midnight Sky. Yes, I think this movie is better than that one, but just as an aside I think both films would be better with their leading men reversed.

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The Outpost, Millennium Media, Directed by Rod Lurie

I'm well known for my distaste for exploitative nudity, vulgarity and foul language. I once wrote a prison movie with no cuss words in it. I believe most stories that are told in an R-rated manner never needed to be. I feel that way about the other two R-rated movies on my list. I do not feel that way about The Outpost. What the men who fought the Battle of Kamdesh went through, was told unsparingly, as it should have been. My best friend, two of my own brothers, and half a dozen of my cousins could have been there. Enough politics are attached to nearly every military engagement of the United States in the last hundred years, so as to micromanage every story arc ever told about every single one of them. But the most important statement to be made about all of those soldiers (in my view) is this: They were there. They believed what they were doing was the right thing to do. And they survived.

Anything else is just embellishment. Also, stay and watch the end credits.

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No honorable mentions this year, but I will list two massive disappointments. My own personal Razzies:

1) Wonder Woman 1984, Warner Brothers Studios, Directed by Patty Jenkins. Available on HBOMax.

We all understand the principle of the Spoiler Trailer, and the long-expressed lament that too many movies have too many reveals in their ads, to the point that there is no point in watching the movie. Why spend twenty bucks when those three minutes have already told you everything you need to know or could ever gain from the experience? "Oh, Rampage is like that? Well, okay nevermind; I'm off to watch Kong: Skull Island again."

The far superior trailer is the one that tells you nothing about what happens, while simultaneously milking your emotional need for the experience. "Looking for a good story? THIS is a good story. How good? Oh no you don't! You'll just have to wait." You know, like the new trailer for Little Things.

But there is a darker side to the Emotional Trailer. I call it the Emotional Manipulation Trailer. Where the flaming bag of an entertainment product is disguised as something shiny and new. Something rare and beautiful and jazzy and snappy. Something you cannot live without--which makes it all the more devastating when you bite into that ash sandwich.

Such was the trailer for Star Wars Episode 1, and such was the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984. New Order on the violin made me think I could dream again. New Order lied to me.

2) Mulan, Walt Disney Studios, Directed by Niki Caro, Available on Disney Plus

[Harrison Ford Voice] How dare you, sir? How dare you!

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So those are my pics for the best (American) movies of 2020. There are others being listed and liked out there, but in the world of today, this was all I could get within six feet of.

Eric C. Player is an independently poor filmmaker, and the president of Panther Pictures, LLC, incorporated in Salt Lake City, Utah, and operating in Fargo, North Dakota. He is a father, fan, storyteller, "Picker," Corvair driver and a graduate of BYU & Chapman University film schools. His films have played in theaters all across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and movies to which he was a contributing writer or producer are available on Netflix and Amazon. He has written and produced film and video content for over twenty-five years, and has been writing Chapter-Fiction since the sixth grade. His 2007 production, Nothing But The Best, was an Official Selection of the Newport Beach Film Festival. His 2016 short, Moment of Anger, received multiple honors including Best Short and Best Director at the Road House International Short Film Festival 2016 in Santa Monica, California. his 2019 short The Fruit was an Official Selection at the Los Angeles Cinefest. Eric C. Player on Imdb.

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Panther Pictures' Ten Best Films of 2019

Ah, 2019. The Year of the Pig on the Chinese Zodiac, and the year Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself. Things were a lot more exciting out there in the world than they were in my little town. Oh, Panther Pictures did things, but we were sure a boring corner of Hollywood Land. Nevertheless, it was a massively productive year in entertainment. I'm glad I only really try to keep up with actual feature films.

Speaking of that, coming back around to Awards Season has been sort of sudden. I mean, I just did this, right? I have more important things to attend to, like pre-production on the latest short film on the docket. But I still love the movies, and I still love the validation of strangers, so Eric Player the award-winning filmmaker is here again with his favorite flavors of ice cream. Read the 2016 disclaimer on these, if you must.

So--until the other guys say theirs longer and louder than Panther Pictures ever could--here are my pics for the #TenBest films of 2019. #PPLLCTenBest2019 #TenBest2019

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Ford vs. Ferrari

Conscious or not, much of how we react to others has to do with how we feel about our parents. “Don’t you talk about my mama!” … and so on. Ford vs. Ferrari is the story of a friendship between two very talented car guys, the relationship of one of those men to himself, his son, and his own demons, and—obviously—super cool race cars. Finally, the entire movie is pushed through based upon Henry Ford's relationship to his father and grandfather, both dead. When Ford makes a bid to buy Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari rejects him with comments about his cars, his employees, and a comparison of Henry Ford The 2nd to his father. Guess what bothered him the most? With that one insult, Ford authorized an entire “money is no object” program with car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles. The object? To make a better race car than Ferrari, and beat him at the Le Mans race in France. When Shelby takes Ford out in the GT 40 he has built, Ford breaks down and cries. At first the audience thinks he is crying because he’s been scared shirtless, but in fact he is crying because his father never lived to experience what he just did. It’s a profound, and moving, quiet moment. In a film full of fast cars, fantastic loud noises and very cool crashes, the nuts and bolts are the relationships.

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Toy Story 4

In 2016, I listed The Angry Birds Movie as one of my Ten Best Films of the year. It’s true. I must have been the only guy who did, because Jason Sudeikis retweeted the list. This year, I wanted to add Angry Birds Movie 2, I really did. Well, I watched it, and what is also true is that it was NOT as good a sequel as the Toy Story franchise makes. Toy Story 4 just might be the last film in the series (*snicker*), but—of the sequels—it is definitely the best. Every time a Toy Story film closes, it feels like all the plotlines have been strapped down and there is nothing more to say. And every time, the team at Pixar find something more. This time, it could be just as over as it ever was, and that is extremely okay. Woody’s journey about who he is as a toy—the through-line of each movie—feels complete now, and not a moment in all four of them was wasted space. Bravo Woody and Bo, Bravo Buzz and Jesse. Bravo Sporky. See you all next time.

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Dark Waters (2019)

Dark Waters shares its name with at least three horror movies, and a paperback about the Titanic. Honestly that was the first thing I noticed about it when watching the trailer, I really didn't think about the subject matter. But the more time went on the more I wanted to see it. However, since it was limited to a mostly arthouse run, I didn't think I'd get to. Then a little ritual known as Thanksgiving came around and I found myself in a city that was actually showing it. It establishes a point of view right away, engaging you on a personal level in the way this kind of story needs to, through the eyes of the main character. After living in the chemicals industry as sort of an abstraction, Robert Bilott starts caring when members of his family become involved. Through him we latch onto the story, and for the same reasons: this could happen any of us, and if the science behind the film is sound (appears to be), then in a way, it has.

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The Red Sea Diving Resort

Basically an Israeli Argo. Except this time it's Ethiopian Jewish refugees, and the agents sneaking them out are Israeli, not (just) the CIA. Captain America plays an Israeli agent. Roll that around in your tongue a few times. Considering our foreign policy it seems like the perfect fit. The movie tells the true story of the evacuation of native Jews during civil unrest in Ethiopia in 1979. Civil unrest is putting it mildly. These are real people and real suffering, faithfully told. I won't give the details here because it is intense and kind of disturbing, but it's a great film. Perhaps a few too many F words in it--honestly I can't believe that Israeli agents are that fluent in American cursing--but if the movie had any real problems, they were technical ones. Problems of the sort that a lot of low budget films have these days: Being shot on a digital camera, it basically looks like a car commercial. It's always frustrating seeing any film that could have looked 20 times better if the cinematographer had only applied a simple Adobe Camera Filter to the whole thing. But the distraction didn't last and I enjoyed rooting for the good guys. In large part because this all really happened. It's the kind of thing we should reflect on now and then: How good we have it, how bleak the world often is beyond us, and how maybe life would be a little bit better if the comfortable ones reached out to those in need.

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Knives Out

There's an old documentary from the 70s where they interview Alfred Hitchcock and cover his career. It's mostly him sitting in front of his desk and drawling about his films, and his inspirations for making them. It's a good movie. In it, he talks about his theory of suspense. He calls it the Bomb Theory. Essentially, it is that real suspense is achieved by knowing what's going on, rather than by not knowing. Nobody cares about a bomb threat they haven't heard. Knives Out understands this. Writer and Director Rian Johnson really internalized that theory, and came up with a cracking good yarn. This is a movie that interviews and squirms and flashes back with the best of them. However, we know exactly what happened within the first 20 minutes. Most of today's police detectives have the answer to who did what in the last 10, but this approach is way is better. And considering where the story is going, it is also more interesting. I love the performances in this. The actors that I knew, and there are a lot of them, but also and especially the few I didn't know. Particularly Ana de Arma, playing the nurse at the center of it all. It is nice to watch a guileless character that isn't stomped on. Also, mainly as a side note, I get the feeling that Daniel Craig has been doing these American movies in the last few years simply for the fun of exercising his accents. He's getting very good. Just ask Chris Evans.

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1917

It's been over a hundred years since The Great War, and many films are starting to reflect on it again. Yet while today's audience may expect (at best) a rehash of All Quiet on the Western Front, the movie to really compare it to is Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory. Both that and this film are vivid enough to make you smell the mud. 1917 is a story of trying to get a vital message from headquarters to the field. In doing so, it has an impressive ability to relate small stories and small deeds to the greater madness of World War I. In the straightforward story, Sam Mendez finds hope in a piece of history that was a crucible of despair. I'm sure it comes from his connection to this particular tale. The actions of one person make a difference, in ways that surprise no one as much as they do the person making the difference.

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The Last Black Man In San Francisco

"I should have told you the truth, but it just felt so good." Joe Talbot has made a film that is essentially about nostalgia for something that we never had in the first place. We are all familiar with the theme of looking back on our lives with roses coloring our eyes, and all of us do it. I'm pretty sure high school was not the way I remember it. For Jimmie Fails (played by a young actor named Jimmie Fails) that past is represented by a house he is restoring; a restoration taking place against the will of the current owners. But to paraphrase a character in the story, "Nobody ever owns anything." As Jimmie tells it, the house he is fixated on was built by his grandfather; taking care of it is just what he does. When the current residents catch him painting their window trims, he leaves, but tells them, "Water those plants in the backyard, or I'll do it myself." The image of an actor being booed off the stage with produce is terribly fitting, for Jimmie is living through a stage play of his own that he doesn't want to close. And when those current residents move out, his best friend Montgomery supports him in all his projects regarding the "family home." Eventually, they too collide over the history of the home, during an ACTUAL stage play, and Jimmie has to finally come to terms with why he does what he does. "People aren't only one thing," he says to Montgomery, and the past isn't either.

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Marriage Story

That was me up there. I've been through a divorce. I'm also happily married. The pain of Charlie in trying to salvage something of his child during a process he couldn't understand and couldn't control, was definitely the roughest moment for me. And all the platitudes he was told, the same ones I once heard, about "time is on your side" and "it will get better" and "your son will have his own opinions someday," only amounted to society getting him used to the idea of skipping his son's life between 8 and 18. That stung. All in all, it moved me in a way a movie hasn't in a long time. A couple of the true pieces were the lawyer working out her own issues through Nicole, and the milquetoast lawyer for Charlie who was really nice but ineffective. I cried four times, but probably not the same four times as you will.

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JoJo Rabbit

Nazis and comedy may not seem like the right combination unless you're Mel Brooks, but that's the genius of who Taika Waititi is. He takes a subject that hasn't been tackled like this in 20, possibly 50, years (or you know since the last Tarantino movie) and fills it with heart, humor, and just a pinch of serious drama. What else would you expect from the man who made Hunt For The Wilderpeople, which is about a foster child getting lost, and Thor Ragnarok, which took a property that was extremely self-serious (in its own pseudo-Shakespearean way, not a Nazi way) and found the fun in it. I'm more than tickled to put a movie directed by such a man on my 10 best list three years running. I'm sure a zillion critics and wannabe filmmakers feel this way, but he makes the kind of movies I'd like to think I would make if I had his canvas. He communicates the ideas in his stories so profoundly and universally and ridiculously. JoJo is a scared little boy who finds out the world he's in is not as simple as he thought it was. So JoJo is all of us.

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Apollo 11

I thought I'd seen everything there was to see, or at least understood everything there was to understand, about America's moon landing. I've seen all the Tom Hanks stuff, read most of the speculative fiction, seen all of the news reel documentaries. My dad had an old LaserDisc of archival footage from the final trip, Apollo 17. In those days you watched one show over and over, and I watched that one a lot. Heck, I even have an old 45rpm vinyl record with astronaut radio transmissions on it. So I wasn't expecting to be captivated by such an old subject. But of course I should have expected nothing less; the trip to the moon is the most spectacular thing human beings have done, ever. When it comes to technological achievements anyway. This was a full-scale movie, with special effects and gripping dialogue, only pieced together in documentary form. I've been sort of disenchanted or shall I say disinterested in space travel for a few years now. A bunch of robots are interesting but not emotionally captivating. I'm captivated again. We should go back to the moon as soon as we can, and I'd like to come.

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Honorable Mentions:

Avengers: Endgame

You gotta give props to the capper on a 20-something-movies franchise.

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

It doesn't come out for three more weeks, but I mean, you gotta right? You just gotta. Besides, it will probably be good.

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And there they are. my pics for the best (American) movies of 2019. I'll probably change my mind, but what's done is done.

As always, Eric C. Player is an independently poor filmmaker, and the president of Panther Pictures, LLC, which he is shuttering in 2020 thanks to California's lovely new Uber laws. He is a father, fan, storyteller, "Picker," substitute teacher* and a graduate of BYU & Chapman University film schools. His films have played in theaters all across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and movies to which he was a contributing writer or producer are available on Netflix and Amazon. He has written and produced film and video content for nearly twenty-five years, and has been writing Chapter-Fiction since the sixth grade. His 2016 short, Moment of Anger, received multiple honors including Best Short and Best Director at the Road House International Short Film Festival 2016 in Santa Monica, California. his 2018 short UndercoverUp garnered a "Best Ensemble" nod from the Top Shorts Film Festival. Eric C. Player on Imdb.

*High School and Elementary School. No interest in Middle School.
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Ten Best Films of 2018

2018 was a busy year over here at Panther Pictures, LLC. There weren't many published posts (at least on this blog; feel free to scroll our Instagram), but our production company accomplished a lot in 2018. Two new Shorts were released and put into Post-Production, UndercoverUp and The Fruit. We're staying busy enough to stave off the "I wish I had an Oscar" malaise.

Speaking of, the Golden Globes are coming up soon, but I have deliberately stayed away from knowing the nominees as I finish this article. So--as long as we still have time until the Globes really make whatever Panther Pictures has to say irrelevant--here are my pics for the #TenBest films of 2018. #PPLLCTenBest2018 #TenBest2018

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I've had less Daddy Issues this year than last year. But this year I've been all about the whole Midlife Crisis thing. The American movies that get to me lately aren't so much about parenting as they are about life experiences. And, you know, cars.

"See The Standard Disclaimer about my choices that I make every year."

As always, my list is my own. As subjective as everything else in this business is. Like who's in and who is out, and where the hippest french fries are sold. (Portillos, BTW.)

2018 went by like a blur. Several projects distracted me more than usual. Because of that it seemed like the movies really piled up. But I was able to figure out exactly which movies I wanted to take time out for, cross referenced with which titles would make me seem most relevant. You know, like every other critic this time of year.

The movies you should tell your friends you liked are:

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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was, as always with the Coen brothers, both disturbing, a lot of fun, and soaked in meaning. I can't recall if they've ever made a straight out Western before, though many of their past offerings, Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men, and Hail Caesar! for example, took place in the West. The vignettes presented here were unpredictable--when you consider the story of Buster Scruggs himself--and highly entertaining. The stories of The Girl Who Got Rattled and The Meal Ticket especially came across thus, in that we became very attached to the point of view of our leading actors before the end of their tales. It's a toss-up between which of those stories I found the most....subversive (I believe that word is the least spoilery) but considering my hopes for her I would say the title goes to The Girl Who Got Rattled. It was hands down the most emotionally resonant of the tales. All Gold Canyon, based as it was on an earlier story which the Coens did not write, clearly had the happiest ending. I don't think I'd want to be a player in any of the vignettes, but I would have liked to participate in the lively stagecoach conversation of The Mortal Remains.

The combination of the Coens and Netflix is something I would definitely like to see again.

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Won't You Be My Neighbor
As a child, I watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood religiously. As an adult, I find the Fred Rogers of Won't You Be My Neighbor to be exactly the kind of man my young mind unconsciously expected was under that sweater. Not that this was only a gab session about how great and revolutionary in the field of children's programming he was (and he was), it was mainly an emotionally resonant plea for more people in the public eye to be like him. People who genuinely want for others to be their best selves, and who live their lives trying to give their best in return. Praise Be for Fred Rogers.

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BlacKkKlansman
A striking thing about BlackkkKlansman was that while most people in the world of the film were insensitive to the point of cluelessness, few of them were actively racist. There were a lot of passive racists--almost Trader Horn-level passive racism (think King Kong, but with more patronizing and infantalizing of women. And racism)--but few truly active ones. This was the simple world of a Colorado police department--some good people, some bad people, and a whole lot of neither hot nor cold ones.

Except for the KKK. That organization was lousy with overt racists. (Someone should do something about that.) Of course, that makes them even easier to skewer, and doing so becomes a lot more fun. And even though director Spike Lee re-used his opening hook from Malcolm X, he knew just how to set the tone for what was to come. I have never seen anyone else tow the line between serious, awful, and ridiculous the way he can. It's that swing between them that the laughs usually come from. Also, I was personally touched by the depiction of Adam Driver's Jewish Cop. His line, about never really thinking deeply concerning his heritage until the events of the film, really resonated with this Alaskan Mormon.

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Out of all the movies made about genetically engineered dinosaurs, this was one of them. Bonus: If you like this film, you really stand out as an oddball.

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Lean on Pete
Usually when a coming-of-age story is built around an external support like an animal or event, you expect some sort of lesson or moral. Triumphant music, and a conclusion. Really good ones like The Black Stallion can do it without words or an awareness of the lessons learned. The first time I saw it, pretty much the only thing I learned from The Black Stallion was how effective luxurious photography of a horse can be. It is with subsequent viewings that the power of that film comes across. That seems to be the way most horse racing stories go actually.

And then there is Lean On Pete. The simplest way to describe it is as a coming of age story crossed with the depressing realism of what The Electric Horseman would be if the plot played out in real life. It is worth it.

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The Death of Stalin
There are certain events in history that make me believe that the only way to understand them is to see them through the lens of a cinematic eye. Just reading a history may get you inside the events, but seeing them gets you into their world. The Death of Stalin is horrible, foul, full of cursing, and makes light of an atrocity larger than the one perpetrated by Hitler. A line that Armando Iannucci, like Spike Lee, was able to walk deftly. I didn't find it funny, so much as strangely compelling. Pretty much as I imagine it was. And probably will be at the death of Putin.

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Isle of Dogs
A big belly-rub of a movie; full of red, gold, loyalty and Taiko drums. It even made me sympathetic to Yoko Ono, no small feat. Several of the dog arcs, including Duke's, were easy to predict (if I'm being honest, only in retrospect), but the characters themselves were so great that I didn't care. And I challenge any dog owner who enjoys a good scratch session with their canine to not get choked up during Young Master Atari's first introduction to his bodyguard Spots. Recommended.

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Mission Impossible: Fallout
Someday, Tom Cruise is going to kill himself making one of these films. But that is not this day. The wildly uneven MI series remains on my list because the photography and stunts are unabashedly and stubbornly and breathtakingly real, and in this day of digital superheroes that is as scarce as a Common-Sense-O-Matic in a spy movie.

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Black Panther
Marvel always seems to make its way into my list, and this year they had three offerings, but my definite favorite was Black Panther. Black Panther wasn't just a movie, It was a statement about what we want our movies to be. I have to admit, I stood in line for the first screening in my area, and you know what? It was okay. I thought it was a little slow in parts. But I was only the incidental audience. It arrived under a huge payload of expectation, and spoke to the community of viewers who where always there, but without a positive reflection of themselves in the movies. Give the people what they want, and they'll show up. It's one of those movies like 1950's No Way Out--more of a milestone for what it sets out to do as a film than for what it accomplishes as entertainment. And besides, there's nothing wrong with making a movie that reflects what people want to see, what people need to see, now and then.

It was awesome and I want to see it again and again.

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Adrift
I was all set to watch this film with a sneer. Yet another story of pretty people enduring massive hardship in a situation they pretty much caused themselves. (Nobody goes on a boat by accident, unless they are pillaged by pirates.) But in the end I was drawn in by the flashback-heavy (or was it flash-forward?) script and the theme: The people we are closest to can and do continue to affect the course of our lives, no matter where we are, or where they are. We are each other.

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Honorable Mentions:

Eighth Grade
I haven't seen it. I hear it's good. Most likely because everyone hates eighth grade.

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Bohemian Rhapsody
I haven't seen either of my Honorable Mentions. A man I trust said he liked this one. Plus, if I help raise its reputation we'll all get a bunch more Queen recordings remastered.

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And there they are. my pics for the best (American) movies of 2018.

Eric C. Player is an independently poor filmmaker, and the president of Panther Pictures, LLC. He is a father, fan, storyteller, "Picker," Car Guy* and a graduate of BYU & Chapman University film schools. His films have played in theaters all across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and movies to which he was a contributing writer or producer are available on Netflix and Amazon. He has written and produced film and video content for more than twenty years. His 2016 short, Moment of Anger, received multiple honors including Best Short and Best Director at the Road House International Short Film Festival 2016 in Santa Monica, California. Eric C. Player on Imdb.

*Meaning 1965-69 Chevrolet Corvairs. No interest in working on any others.
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Ten Best Films of 2017

With the #NationalBoardOfReview doing their own list, the time has come again for our founder, Eric Player, talk about his #TenBest favorite movies. The ol' #TenBest2017.

EDIT 2:58 PM - The National Board of Review announced their slate about an hour and a half after we published ours on this site, and it is gratifying to find that they took so much that we had to say into consideration. Where we differ will simply have to be viewed as an acknowledgement that the #NBR is, after all, only human.

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This has certainly been a year. I hear some time has passed. You know, since last year. And some stuff has happened since then. Yeah. So--

"The Best From Hollywood" will always be my broad statement to mean the American Film Industry. It is what I have been a fan of my entire life; No disrespect to the movies coming out of other nations, or the endless spider web of television production that streams in an unending wave you will never catch (go ahead, try to catch it all), but that just isn't what I study or follow. As diverse as I get is 'Movies in English,' so if you film in Germany but speak so I can hear, maybe I'll catch you.

Like usual, my list is my own. Everything in this business is, as always, subjective. Subject to who hasn't been booted out for being a wanker, mostly.

2017 wasn't a bad year; for movies, anyway. I did need to seek out about half of what I watched (legally) online this year, and half in the traditional theater. That was more about my own availability from work and personal influences, though.

Now then, in no order except what I think makes for a nice dramatic reveal, here again are the movies you should tell your friends you liked.

'I Am Not Your Negro' - "Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced." I haven't been this affected by a documentary in a long time. A powerful film that reminds you that everything that you try to put neatly in the past is still splattered all around you right in the here and now. Naturally a lot of the Civil Rights and racial tensions of 2015 onward enter into my interest in this film, and no doubt into the interests of the filmmakers in making it, but I have always had a certain fascination with the 1960s and with the Civil Rights era. And like ‘The Silmarillion,’ ‘A.I.,’ and ‘A Film Unfinished’ before it, the unfinished masterpiece aspect of this film, drew me to it.

Also, I love how the poster looks like an old 1960s nonfiction paperback.

Wind River - This film works on more levels than a Wes Anderson Establishing Shot. First off, it’s sort of a modern, Revisionist Western retelling of The Searchers, being that it is the third script in Taylor Sheridan’s trilogy about the American Frontier, and the first he has directed. Second, it is an Avengers side-story (for the casting, only). Thirdly, it is a powerful indictment of life without a cell tower nearby. Last, seriously, and most topically it is a stand-in for all the sexual assault and harassment claims that are going through business and government today, between its plotline on celluloid and the behind-the-scenes negotiations that went forward on behalf of the native tribes who funded the film to get Harvey Weinstein away from it. Also it destroyed me emotionally as a father.

Logan Lucky - So much to recommend this film. How “Ocean’s 11” might have looked if Danny Ocean had a seven year old daughter. And was robbing NASCAR. With the help of a hillbilly James Bond. While being pursued by a boxing champ FBI agent who was herself a million-dollar baby. And dagnabbit it destroyed me too as a father.

Thor Ragnarok - I’m kinda tickled that a director from a film I had on my list last year, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, is back directing a Marvel movie this year. Taika Waititi apparently got the gig on this one even before 2016 (makes sense), but I didn’t know who he was then and I’m happy to see the arc of my instincts, as it were. Thor’s exploits under Waititi remind me of 1980’s Flash Gordon, and I want to be very clear of the kind of compliment that is. DIIIIIIIVE into this raging fire. Fun is alive! It's a friend from work!

Baby Driver - Violence as music. Nice to see some of my adolescent fanboy music considered obscure and hip now. As for the violence, I would say maybe it is even a little too gory for what it is. But some folks like that sort of thing. And their requisite F-bombs, though this one made sure they only threw in just enough to get over the ‘legal limit,’ such as it is in the States, or on Kevin Spacey films. Also, I noticed the UPMs and Second Unit Directors got top billing in the end credits above anyone else. As it should be; those people did wonders in this movie.

Kong: Skull Island - A Monster Movie as Vietnam War Commentary, and that's why the helicopters kept attacking the monkey, in case you were wondering. I also loved the way the whole film played with the legend and the assumptions of the first film--because even in the 1930s the heroes were getting Kong's motivations all wrong, back then they were less immediately aware of it, however. In fact, you could say the entire film has a “USA Hubris” subtext. Men and nations are still throwing helicopters at monkeys that just want a banana and a nap.

Storks - Released last September (2016) but originally meant to come out in Feb. 2017, the same weekend as Get Out, essentially as counterprogramming to the Jordan Peele thriller. Instead, Warner Brothers, which also owned LEGO Batman, decided to go with that film. But releases early in the year being so fluid, and this being my list, I'm still counting it. It's better than any other animated theatrical release this year, yes I even liked it better than DM3, Cars3, or LEGOs Batman/Ninjago. It teaches the value of friendship, family, safe driving, and there's even a bit of magic and anti-consumerism thrown in for good measure. Also it seems pretty clear that as a dad, I am easy to reach and destroy emotionally. Do you agree? I agree.

Prevenge - A better Girl Power movie than that other 2017 release, and maybe I’m just being belligerent, because we all know the one I mean, but having 5 kids (and so seeing 5 pregnancies from the outside) and having sympathized if not empathized with 5 (and actually, with my cousins and sisters, many more) different losses of agency over the mother's body, I am picking this one instead. Though I must say, in regards to the ending, and the ultimate reveal regarding the nature of her condition: Yeah, that's something I occasionally thought to myself regarding my own significant other about her attitude/stresses, not that I'd ever say it out loud. I ain't got no death wish.

Get Out - Of all the choices on this list, it's of course been the longest since I sat down and watched this one, but what stayed with me about this movie was the way it communicated a sense of feeling completely out of place in the most ordinary of surroundings. I don't pretend to be able to relate on a racial level to the experiences of the main character, but having lived my entire life in a religious minority, one that I find outsiders alternately indifferent, hostile, or fascinated by, I could definitely relate to those elements where a day goes from ordinary to comical to uncomfortable, such as the "being paraded for the neighbors" scene.

Hostiles - I’m picking this one on faith, since it won’t be out for 3 more weeks. On the one hand, it looks like Unforgiven meets Silverado meets 3:10 to Yuma meets The Revenant. On the other, it has a Bond Girl (Rosamund Pike), a Batman (Christian Bale), guns, and hair!

Honorable Mentions:

Dunkirk - For the record, the only reason I didn't include Dunkirk on my main list was that I didn't see it in the theater, and haven't seen it yet. Both huge strikes against any man producing a personal Ten Best List, wouldn't you say? Not for lack of interest--I planned entire vacations around the release schedule of Nolan's World War 2 epic. I wanted to see it very badly, but properly. In the end, as has been mentioned, I could not swing it because, first and foremost, I'm a daddy.

The Post - The Kings and Queens of Hollywood and their teams signed on, rewrote, shot, and edited this for release in under eight months. It only misses my top ten tier for two reasons:
(1) It looks incredibly boring, and acted/edited with all the luster of a Golden Globes skit.
(2) See point #1*

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So that's it. Seriously. Those are the best movies Hollywood put out, or will, this year. 2017.

In my opinion, of course.

Eric C. Player is an independently poor filmmaker, and the president of Panther Pictures, LLC. He is a father, fan, storyteller, "Picker," and a graduate of BYU & Chapman University film schools. His films have played in theaters all across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and movies to which he was a contributing writer or producer are available on Netflix and Amazon. He has written and produced film and video content for more than twenty years. His 2016 short, Moment of Anger, received multiple honors including Best Short and Best Director at the Road House International Short Film Festival 2016 in Santa Monica, California. Eric C. Player on Imdb.

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*If any of the very powerful people who moved heaven and earth to make The Post read this, understand that I am riffing, and you DID make the list, after all. ;)