Ranking the Movies of 2018: Week 9

Our classic on the Everyone's a Critic movie podcast this week was His Girl Friday, one of my favorite comedies of all time, and my mom's favorite of all time. Despite horrible rumors spread by other members of my family that claim Pretty Woman was my mother's favorite film, I can tell you, it was His Girl Friday and her all-time crush Cary Grant.

Cary Grant is one of the great movie stars of all time. He created the suave, debonair movie star persona that people now associate with George Clooney. In His Girl Friday, his charm is the gas that drives the engine of the movie and while Rosalind Russell is clearly the lead role, Grant driving her up walls is what makes the movie hum.

You don't see wit at this speed in any other movie. Russell and Grant make it hard for the rest of the cast to keep up, speaking and spiking each other at a clip that few actors could possibly match. Their chemistry and Ralph Bellamy's complete lack of chemistry is a perfect concoction, comic and yet pressing this unusual plot forward.

The top debuting new release of the week is A Wrinkle in Time, Ava Duvernay's imaginative take on Madeleine L'Engel's 1960s novel, a staple of many kids' school years. The film has divided critics who are mixed on the film's earnest, simplistic message of light over dark. The film is simple, the film is very earnest, and that can make people uncomfortable.

I'm not saying that the critics who didn't like it don't have legitimate gripes, I'm sure they feel strongly about their criticisms. That said, I do believe that because the film is so positive that it invites a level of cynicism that is above what the film deserves. The performances are lovely, the direction is lovely, and the message worked on me, despite my own deep seated, Gen-X bred cynicism.

Also new this week is Gringo which features a central performance by David Oyelowo that is unlike anything in his relatively short career. Gringo finds the usually serious, Capital A-Actor Oyelowo getting loose and having fun in the kind of role he's never played before. It's a fun and surprising performance that is easily the best thing about a good, not great dark comedy.

The strangest arrival on the rankings this week is Hurricane Heist from Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen. Hurricane Heist is a bad movie as in bad, as in bizarrely idiotic plot, bad special effects, and bizarre choices. And yet, despite the bad, this cast is having so much fun that I couldn't help enjoying how epically silly it all was.

The last new movie of the week, and the lowest entry on this list, is Strangers Prey at Night, a long held sequel to 2008's The Strangers. I wasn't a fan of the original and the sequel is far worse. The sequel attempts to evoke the bizarre atmosphere of the original in which killers chose random victims and the randomness became part of the horror.

Here, the killers are equally random and yet far more sloppy. With none of the creative team back from the original, the only thing that remained the same are the killers' masks, and the masks weren't that interesting in the original. The sequel is set in present day but it's hard to tell that from the 80s soundtrack and the drab costuming and empty sets.

Add to that killers that have now taken on psychic dimensions and Jason Voorhees levels of survivability and you have a recipe for one boring, derivative slog of a horror sequel. Strangers Prey at Night has one far bigger sin however, wasting the casting of the talented and beautiful Christina Hendricks, an actress 50 times more interesting than anything in the original or sequel Strangers.

1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
2. Black Swan
3. Phantom Thread
4. Black Panther
5. His Girl Friday
6. Annihilation
7. Just Charlie
8. Columbus
9. Hostiles
10. A Wrinkle in Time
11. Boogie Nights
12. Foxy Brown
13. Becks
14. Game Night
15. Are We Not Cats
16. The Ballad of Lefty Brown
17. 12 Strong
18. Red Sparrow
19. Act & Punishment
20. Switching Channels
21. Actors of Sound: A Foley Artist Documentary
22. Insidious: The Last Key
23. Sheik Jackson
24. Gringo
25. Hurricane Heist
26. Samson & Delilah
27. Heat
28. Hell’s House
29. Early Man
30. Almost Paris
31. Bloodsport
32. Reds
33. Play Misty for Me
34. Frantic
35. Taffin
36. Samson
37. Last House on the Left
38. Burnt Offerings
39. Paddington 2
40. Cloverfield Paradox
41. Peter Rabbit
42. Proud Mary
43. Den of Thieves
44. Death Wish 1974
45. Death Wish 2018
46. The Commuter
47. Fifty Shades Freed
48. Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built
49. Forever My Girl
50. Every Day
51. Strangers Prey at Night
52. 15:17 to Paris
53. The Greasy Strangler
54. Maze Runner: The Death Cure