2018 is nearly done. It’s been a long, long year and I’m so ready for it to be over. Well, that’s not entirely true. To be honest, I just want this week of exams to be over (which it probably will be when this goes out). At this time of year, most people who have a blog or YouTube channel publish a list of their favourite things from the year related to their blog/channel, and I’m going to be equally creative and do exactly the same. I love films, but I’m terrible at actually getting around to watching them, so at the start of 2018 I promised myself that I would try and watch at least one film a week. I’ve pretty much managed to do that. What I’m going to do here is list my favourite film that I watched each month. Before I get to that I’ll include a list of every single film I’ve watched this year, so that know what I’m choosing from.

The list (titles in italics are films that I had seen before 2018)

06-01 Logan

06-01 Hidden Figures

03-02 La Vague

04-02 White God

12-02 Moana

14-02 Ghostbusters (2016)

16-02 Table 19

16-03 L’étudiant et Monsieur Henri

17-03 The Death of Stalin

18-03 Captain Fantastic

19-03 Guardians

23-03 Delicatessen

24-03 Thor: Ragnarok

31-03 Paddington 2

31-03 Fanarcists

07-04 Spider-Man: Homecoming

13-04 Ready Player One

14-04 Once

20-04 Amelie

27-04 Avengers: Infinity War

29-04 La Belle et la Bête

18-05 Le 400 coups

27-05 La La Land

28-05 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

29-05 Deadpool 2

09-06 It’s Only the End of the World

16-06 Good Bye Lenin

23-06 The Hunger Games

26-06 Black Panther

27-06 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

29-06 The Greatest Showman

29-06 The Eagle Huntress

15-07 Incredibles 2

21-07 Happy Death Day

27-07 Baby Driver

28-07 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

29-07 Ingrid Goes West

01-08 A Man Called Ove

4-08 My Life as a Courgette

10-08 The Theory of Everything

15-08 The Big Sick

17-08 Christopher Robin

18-08 Blues Brothers

20-08 Lady Bird

21-08 Hunt for the Wilderpeople

25-08 What We Do In the Shadows

05-09 Slender Man

12-09 Rocky Horror Picture Show

15-09 The Grand Budapest Hotel

16-09 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

17-09 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

19-09 Look Who’s Back

23-09 Pitch Perfect 3

24-09 Blackkklansman

01-10 Crazy Rich Asians

03-10 Bad Moms – A Bad Moms Christmas

07-10 The Disaster Artist

08-10 A Simple Favour

15-10 A Star is Born

22-10 The Hate U Give

24-10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World

28-10 Blind Date

31-10 Outlaw: thé Saga of Gisli

05-11 Peterloo

10-11 Life of Brian

11-11 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

17-11 Outlaw King

19-11 Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald

24-11 High School Musical 2

24-11 Early Man

25-11 Rosa Luxemburg

26-11 Bohemian Rhapsody

30-11 La La Land

06-12 Anna and the Apocalypse

20-12 Monty Python and the Holy Grail

23-12 I, Tonya

24-12 The Muppets Christmas Carol

28-12 The Hateful Eight

January –Logan

Okay, so I didn’t exactly get of to a great start, considering that I only watched two films in January. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I watched both of these films on the same day. Even though I only watched two films this month, it was still hard to choose between the two. They are both really enjoyable films for different reasons, and in the end I just went for the one I enjoyed more.

Considering the number of superhero films I cover here it might come as a bit of a surprise to find out that I don’t actually like them that much. Most of them, especially MCU films, are the exact same film with different characters (I feel like I say this in most posts now, but please don’t crucify me). Logan feels like a much more grown-up superhero film, with the focus of the film being on character instead of set pieces. The characters, particularly Logan and Professor Xavier, are really compelling and truly tragic to watch. Even though these characters are going to come back hundreds of times played by different actors, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stuart’s performances make it feel like this is the last time that we are ever going to see them (which it kinda is). I absolutely love the sense of finality in this film, which I even found to be lacking in Infinity War.

February – Moana

You only need to look at my list from this month to see that I watched an interesting bunch of films this month. The first two are both artsy European films, which is a genre that I usually like, but these two weren’t really my cup of tea. Equally, the last two films that I watched were both really mediocre, and a I didn’t care for either of them. Sandwiched between the disappointment was something slightly different though.

I absolutely love Moana, for so many reasons. When I started watching this film I knew approximately one thing about it: that one character is played by Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson. This didn’t exactly fill me with confidence about the film. Despite my lack of expectations (or perhaps because of it) I really enjoyed the film. One of the things that I didn’t realise is that a load of people I really admire are in this film: Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote most of the film’s soundtrack, Taika Waititi wrote the initial draft of the script, and Jemaine Clement voices Tamatoa. Whilst I absolutely love the animation in this film (in my opinion, it’s one of the prettiest Disney films yet), my favourite part has to be the songs. Since February I must have listened to the soundtrack a few hundred times and I have no plan to stop anytime soon. Possibly the best part of Moana‘s soundtrack is that I’ve been using it in my language learning. In most European languages it’s called Vaiana, and I’ve used it for both French and Swedish. Disney songs are written to be easy to sing along to, so they are not usually too hard to understand. As is becoming normal on my posts, I’ll leave links to everything that I talk about at the end.

March – Please don’t make me choose

Five of the films that I watched in March are really close to my heart. The work of art that is Guardians has previously been talked about here, so I’ll just leave a link to my post about that. Fanarchists is a slightly odd, yet endearing, documentary about fan films, which is something I knew nothing about before I watched it. Delicatessen is fucking weird. To the extent where I don’t feel like I can convey it’s weirdness (maybe the trailer can, who knows?).

Now that those three are out of the way, I’ll briefly talk about the five films. L’étudient et Monsieur Henri is a really cute film, telling the classic story of grumpy old man is brought out of his shell by a young newcomer. It’s hard to describe in such a short space why I love this film, but the soundtrack is probably the main reason. The Death of Stalin is just hilarious, there’s not much else to say. Captain Fantastic is an absolutely beautiful film in absolutely every single way, from the cinematography to the soundtrack. I think that it might possibly be my favourite film of the year, but I’m not sure. Potentially, I’ll revisit Captain Fantastic in the New Year and go into more detail about why it is that I love it. Thor: Ragnarok is one the only superhero films that I really like, mostly due to its really funny sense of humour. Paddington 2 is an absolute delightful film. I will fight anyone who disagrees (although Paddington probably wouldn’t approve of me doing that).

April – Amélie

This month’s selection of films is interesting because it’s a fifty-fifty split between what I would called spectacles and much more intimate films. Of the spectacles, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the only one which I liked. Ready Player One just isn’t very good, and I’ve already explained my feelings on Infinity War. La Belle et la Bête is an interesting watch, purely for a different, pre-Disney take on the original French story. It’s a darker take on the story (both plot-wise and visually) which I quite enjoyed. Once is my favourite film of all time. If I hadn’t already seen it, it would definitely be my favourite film of May.

Most people have probably heard of Amélie by this point. It’s one of the highest grossing French films of all time, and if you’ve ever studied French then it will have been brought up at some point. Amélie is one of the most charming films that I’ve ever seen. The camerawork is absolutely beautiful, and every single is interesting in one way or another. As with a lot of these films, Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack absolutely makes the film for me. To be honest, I don’t really feel like I’m doing the film justice, so I would advise you to watch Mikey Neuwmann’s video on the film.

May – La La Land

Blockbuster films dominated my May. Le 400 coups was the only exception to this, and it was an interesting watch. In the run up to my French A-level exams I tried to watch more French films, which is why there are quite a few French films in the few months leading up to June. Le 400 coups is a French classic that was brought up quite a bit during the cinema topic of French A-level, so I kinda felt obliged to watch it. Fantastic Beasts and Deadpool 2 were both fine, but not great. The best moment of Deadpool 2 for me was, as far as I know, not meant to be a joke.

There are a million and one reasons why I love La La Land, which definitely won’t fit into a paragraph. Musicals are one of my passions (does that sound too pretentious?), so it’s not a surprise that I enjoyed this film. Following the continued theme of this list, my favourite part of La La Land is probably the music. The audition song is probably my favourite, partially because I want to make it in a creative industry so the song is basically aimed at me. Anyway, watch La La Land, it’s good.

June – The Eagle Huntress

Much like in May, I began June by watching a French film, which I honestly can’t remember much about. Good Bye Lenin occupies the same position as Once for me. I love it, but I can’t choose it because I had seen it before 2018. Black Panther is another one of the few superhero films which I like. Unlike most people, I had a great time watching Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, but not because it’s a good film. JPFK has been added to my hallowed list of so-bad-they’re-good films, alongside such masterpieces as Mall Cop 2 and Guardians. Continuing the theme, I like the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman, but the rest of the film (most notably the subject matter) is not so great.

My reasoning for choosing The Eagle Huntress is mostly based on the cinematography. This film is so so fucking beautiful. Watching it has made me want to go to Mongolia purely based on how pretty this film makes it look. I love more than just the pretty shots of Mongolia though. The world of eagle hunting is really interesting, and some of the stuff they do is absolutely crazy. Aisholpan’s story is also really compelling.

July – Mamma Mia: Here I Go Again

I feel so bad not choosing Happy Death Day or Baby Driver for this month. Objectively, they are probably better films than Mamma Mia, but I still preferred it (for reasons I’ll get into in a minute). Incredibles 2 is a good film, but for me there are a few things holding it back from being a great film. Ingrid Goes West is really interesting. I’m not sure what exactly to say about it, but Aubrey Plaza was really good in it (high quality analysis, I know).

Mamma Mia: Here I Go Again is just pure joy. I like the first film, and as a student studying Swedish I think I’m obliged to like ABBA. For me, the sequel is the better film (add it to the list) for so many reasons. I went back and watched the original after I’d watched Here I Go Again, and it really seems bad compared to the second film. To be fair the second film had a budget 25 million dollars larger than the original, and it really shows. Everything is bigger and better in Here I Go Again, from the choreography to the plot itself. I also prefer the soundtrack to the second film, mostly because Waterloo isn’t just a post-credit song this time around.

August -Please don’t make me choose 2: electric boogaloo

I had a lot of free time in August, so I watched quite a lot of films (at least compared to other months). The month started out with two foreign language films (although I watched one of them dubbed). A Man Called Ove is very similar to L’étudient et Monsieur Henri. My Life as a Courgette is cute, and at the same time really heartbreaking. When I watched the Big Sick I was hella drunk, so honestly I can’t really remember it. Christopher Robin is really cute, but its messages are kinda mixed and the tone is slightly confused. Blues Brothers wasn’t really my sort of thing, but it was fine.

Now we’re left with four films, and I love each and every one of them. The Theory of Everything is an absolutely beautiful biopic about the late Stephan Hawking. Watching his his body slowly decay is truly heartbreaking, but moments of light shine through the darkness. Eddie Redmayne does a superb job portraying Hawking at so many different stages in his life. The soundtrack by Jóhann Jóhannsson is, much like the film, beautiful. I think that Lady Bird came at the right time in my life, just before I left for uni, so resonated with me. The final two films on this list: The Hunt for the Wilderpeople and What We Do in the Shadows are both films by Taika Waititi, who became my favourite director after I watched these two films. They are both hilarious, but at the same time have a lot of heart. I prefer Wilderpeople, mostly because the relationship between Ricky and Hec is amazing, and the film is much more grounded.

September – Slender Man

Don’t worry, I’m joking. I’ve already spent much too much time talking about the work of art that is Slender Man, so I won’t talk about it here. A lot of the films that I watched in September didn’t land for me, to the point where Slender Man genuinely wasn’t my least favourite film of the month. I really didn’t like Rocky Horror Picture Show, for too many reasons to go into here, and Pitch Perfect 3 also kinda sucked (I didn’t expect much, yet it still disappointed me). Mamma Mia: Here we Go Again was just as good the second and third times as the first. Look Whose Back is based on a book which I really like, but the film added some supernatural elements which I wasn’t too keen on.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is possibly the most charming film that I have ever seen. As far as I know, it’s the first Wes Anderson film that I’ve ever seen, but I really want to see more of them after this. It’s fast-paced, but not in a way which makes the plot hard to follow, and has a really pretty colour pallet. I like BlackkKlansman for different reasons, mostly because it tells an extremely compelling true story. Honestly, I wish that this film had come out in May, when I was revising for an exam on civil rights in the US, but the fact that I had learnt about the African American civil rights made the film much more engaging. The film brilliantly manages to balance humour with the hard truth about white nationalist groups, with footage of Charlottesville at the end of the film reminding the audience that the Klan and it’s ideology remain today.

October – A Star is Born

My film watching sort of peaked during October. After this month, I was in revision mode, so didn’t have a huge amount of time for film watching. This month began with Crazy Rich Asians, which I enjoyed despite having a few major problems with it. For some reason, I decided that the start of October was the perfect time for a Christmas film, so watched A Bad Moms Christmas. The Bad Moms franchise is one of my guilty pleasure franchises: I know that they’re objectively bad films, but I still enjoy them. The Disaster Artist came next. It was enjoyable, but the experience was slightly ruined by the fact that I’ve never seen The Room. The only reason why I saw A Simple Favour was because there wasn’t really anything else on that week, but I had a really good time watching it. It’s not the sort of thing that I would usually watch, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Hate U Give was great, but just didn’t reach the same level for me as some of the other films. Blind Date is a really cute French rom-com, but it lacked something which made it stand out. If you want to be confused by a film, I would highly recommend Outlaw: the Saga of Gisli. The only reason why I was able to follow the plot was because I had already read the saga, and even then it was difficult in places.

Before I start talking about A Star is Born, I should probably make it clear that I’ve never seen any of the other versions of this film, so my opinion wasn’t influenced by any form of nostalgia for one of the previous films. Before watching A Star is Born, I had seen and heard a lot of good things about it so was worried that it wouldn’t reach my elevated expectations. Happily it did. The soundtrack is one of my favourites of the year, which is saying a lot considering I cite it as a reason why I like most of these films. Shallow particularly stands out, and I won’t be surprised if it wins Best Song at the Oscars. Lady Gaga’s acting was one of the things that really surprised me, as I’d never seen her in anything before. She really impressed me, as did Bradley Cooper’s singing. There’s not much to say about the story, as it’s not what shines about the film, but pretty much everything else is great.

November – Peterloo

If I could, I would probably choose High School Musical 2 as my film of the month. It’s unironically one of my favourite films, for so many reasons. I’m not going to talk about every single film which I’ve watched this month, because I’ve realised that doing that is making this list stupidly long, so I’ll only talk about highlights. It’s somewhat ironic, perhaps, that I’m going to talk about Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald, a film which can honestly be described as the opposite of a highlight (a lowlight?). I despise this film so much, for so many reasons. There’s probably a post in the works about my opinions of this trainwreck, but I’m not too sure how much I can add to the conversation about this film that hasn’t already been said. An actual highlight of November was Rosa Luxemburg, which I saw as a part of a German film festival in Edinburgh. It’s a very human look at a figure who is often forgotten or boiled down exclusively to her politics (which I won’t discuss here). Bohemian Rhapsody also stood out. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from it, but I ended up loving it (not that it was perfect, I have a few issues with it).

Peterloo tells the story of the Peterloo massacre, a moment in British history which was never once mentioned during history lessons at school. It’s not exactly a light film, but I still really enjoyed it. One of my favourite aspects of the film is that the working class characters speak in the local Mancunian dialect of the era, a brave decision considering that it’s not exactly the easiest accent in the world to understand. There were instances when the film got too brutal for me, but I guess that’s to be expected in a film about a massacre. The film defiantly doesn’t shy away from showing the most horrific parts of the massacre (like a baby being crushed by a horse), but if you can get past that then I think that you’ll probably enjoy Peterloo.

December – I’m realising that this format doesn’t really work if I have to choose a single film each month

We’ve made it. 2018 has felt hella long, but it’s almost over now. Filmwise, the year ended on somewhat of a low note. I don’t mean that I watched bad films this month, what I mean is that I didn’t watch many films during December; a fact which kinda disappoints me. My lack of film consumption couldn’t really be helped, considering the fact that my exams didn’t finish until more than halfway through the month. Even though I have only watched a few films this month, the ones I did watch were really good. There are three films which I really loved this month.

I covered Anna and the Apocalypse in my previous post, so I’ll only say one thing about it here: zombie apocalypse musical! I, Tonya is about as far away from Anna and the Apocalypse that you could possibly get. I’m too young and not enough into figure skating to know anything about Tonya Harding, so I didn’t go into the film with any preconceptions about Tonya’s story. I feel like this might have made my viewing experience better, but who knows. The third film, The Hateful Eight, was a completely different thing again. It was my first Tarantino film, and I hadn’t realised how bloody his films can get, but I got over my squeamishness quite quickly.

This has got way too long, and I’ve pretty much run out of steam at this point. As with most of my posts, this was meant to be a short, easy thing that I could quickly bosh out, but turned into a piece of writing longer than one of the essays I have to write for uni. I literally started writing this two weeks ago whilst I was still revising for exams, and am writing this conclusion/outro thing on the 29th. Anyway, I’ll just finish by saying thank you to everyone who has read any of my posts this year. I hope that y’all have enjoyed them, and if you’re new I hope you stick around. I’ve got some fun stuff planned for 2019, so follow me on WordPress or Twitter for that.

See you in 2019!!!!

Links (in the order I referenced them)

Moana soundtrack (English)

Vaiana soundtrack (French)

Vaiana sountrack (Swedish)

My post about Guardians

Delicatessen trailer

L’étudient et Monsieur Henri soundtrack

Captain Fantastic soundtrack

Avengers: Infinity War review

Movies with Mikey Amélie

La La Land soundtrack

Jenny Nicholson’s video on the Greatest Showman

Mamma Mia: Here I Go Again soundtrack

The Theory of Everything soundtrack

Slender Man review

A Star is Born soundtrack

Anna and the Apocalypse review