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Best and Worst Films from September 2018

Best Films from September 2018:

3. Cinema Paradiso

This Italian classic won an Oscar and deservedly so. It is a great testament to the power of cinema, especially in the early days, fueled with some moving scenes and a great attention to detail. Its romance is hastily written and unnecessary as are some of the sexual scenes, but the movie is simultaneously epic and intimate, wonderfully acted and offering a great glimpse into its time period. For all of those reasons, it edged out ‘Blue Velvet’ for my third spot.

2. A Silent Voice

If you discount its overly melodramatic third act, A Silent Voice is a perfect anime drama. It’s actually more tragic and grounded in reality than most live-action dramas out there. Its beautiful animation, great voice acting and terrific dialogue add to a great cinematic experience, but its powerful emotion, many harsh truths, a couple of harrowing sequences and a difficult theme of bullying make it an instant classic.

1. The Bad and the Beautiful

Kirk Douglas has never been better than he was in this seminal drama about Hollywood which also features lovely Lana Turner and hilarious Gloria Grahame. The cast is great as is the clever dialogue, phenomenal score, noirish cinematography and terrific direction from Vincente Minnelli. It is a still highly relevant movie that truthfully portrays the inner-workings of Hollywood while offering a terrific three-story structure and memorable characters. This month was great for me, but despite some very tough competition, The Bad and the Beautiful quite easily takes this one.

Worst Films from September 2018:

3. The Champ

The Champ is definitely beautifully acted not just by Wallace Beery in his Oscar-winning role, but also Jackie Cooper who’s surprisingly strong here. However, the film is an immensely sugar-coated, very annoying movie which is emotionally manipulative in its ending, overly melodramatic and simply dated in execution.

2. Ocean’s Twelve

Right in the middle in the Ocean’s trilogy comes Ocean’s Twelve, but in terms of the quality it is dead last as both its predecessor and even successor are much better entries in the franchise. This one has its shining comedic moments and the characters remain great, but the plot, action and energy are otherwise highly lacking.

1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Fallen Kingdom is undeniably entertaining in its well shot action sequences and the romance is memorable. However, whenever it tried to be serious, it failed miserably owing to one-note villains and horrible dialogue. It’s another mindless and stupid entry in the franchise which is fun and sometimes even charming, but mostly forgettable and seriously annoying in some new character additions.