The nominations for the 2018 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. You’ve all been on the edge of your seats since then, but fear not, I’ll be announcing the winners today. Next week, I’ll announce the winners of some more goofy, freeform categories that we call the Arbitrary Awards, and not long after that, I’ll post my top 10 of 2018. Finally, we’ll have some Oscars talk (predictions and probably live-tweeting or more accurately, retweeting funnier people than I am) and then it’s on to 2019. And the award goes to:
- Best Villain/Badass: Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther. And it wasn’t even particularly close. Last week, I called this a middling year for villainy, but looking more closely, there’s some pretty weak choices and I had to stretch to fill up the category as much as I did. However, Killmonger is really strong, and definitely the best of the MCU, though that’s not quite as impressive when you realize that the MCU has generally struggled with villainy. On the other hand, this is the second year in a row that this award has gone to an MCU villain, so they’re improving. I suppose Thanos was far better than the nothingburger I was expecting, but that’s a low bar, and his Malthusian motivations are, well, dumb. Killmonger, on the other hand, is a bit more sympathetic and has a genuine grievance to address, even if he’s completely nutso (but then, that combo is what makes him a great villain). Special notice to Hugh Grant in Paddington 2, who is clearly having a blast, though it doesn’t quite fit with the tradition of this award. Henry Cavill in Mission: Impossible – Fallout is interesting, and I suppose I’m kinda spoiling this, but not really. There’s also a nice meta-villainy aspect to Cavill too; he refused to shave his mustache during the Justice League reshoots, leading to bizarre uncanny-valley-esque CGIed scenes in that movie. Also that bit in the bathroom scene where he reloads his arms is glorious. But this remains Killmonger’s show.
- Best Hero/Badass: Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. As with Cavill above, there’s a bit of a meta-influence here, as Cruise’s intensity and desire to perform his own stunts, even after becoming severely injured after that big jump, is hard to deny. Strong runner up with Nicolas Cage in Mandy, a bonkers movie that deserves some recognition for sure (but never fear, we’ll get to that film soon enough). It’s funny, but I also called this a middling list of nominees last week, but this is actually much stronger than I realized. A lot of the other nominees are really enjoyable. Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz in Revenge put in a gutsy performance, You Were Never Really Here is anchored by the always great Joaquin Phoenix, Tim Blake Nelson’s turn as the titular character in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is great, albeit to short lived, Tom Hardy goes for broke in Venom and somehow succeeds in a way that I doubt anyone else in the world could pull off, and even Jennifer Garner in Peppermint was fun, if a bit derivative. Of special note: Ma Dong-seok in Champion is perhaps the most unconventional and obscure choice, but he’s absolutely fantastic and charismatic in the role, and a total badass to boot. Ultimately, though, it goes to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, a first time win for a frequent nominee.
- Best Comedic Performance: Rachel Weisz in The Favourite. Perhaps the most unconventional choice amongst the nominees, but her biting rejoinders and cruel banter are certainly worthy of recognition.
Part of the issue with the other nominees is that so many comedies rely on a comedic ensemble for their laughs that it’s hard to single anyone out. I mean, Game Night and Blockers are a lot more conventionally funny than The Favourite and I tried my best to single out my favorite parts of the ensemble, but what works is the ensemble. It’s getting to the point where I should probably just tweak this award to account for ensembles instead of singular performances, but I to be honest, even considering ensembles, The Favourite would do well in the voting. I mean it’s a bleak, dark comedy, but it has such a great ensemble! Also, it seems like good comedies are few and far between these days, which is a bit sad. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough.
- Breakthrough Performance: Cynthia Erivo in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows. She belts out a couple of great songs in Bad Times and rivals Tome Cruise’s onscreen running ability in Widows. And she holds her own in two pretty great ensembles too, so it’s not just her pipes and physicality that do the work. I expect to see much more of her in the future. Also of note, two other folks from Widows, Elizabeth Debicki and Brian Tyree Henry (who is having an insane year and is in even more films than listed in my post, I just haven’t seen them yet – and apparently he could rival Erivo, but I didn’t get to them in time). Also of note: Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade, who was a last second addition, as I only saw the film a night after the nominations were announced. Awkwafina did great in supporting roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s Eight as well. But in the end, Erivo was the real eye opener this year.
- Most Visually Stunning: Mandy. Gorgious and trippy, Panos Cosmatos’s pyschadelic fever dream of a movie didn’t quite strike the chord with me that it did with everyone else, but I cannot deny how pretty it is to look at.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse managed to evoke the comic book aesthetic, bringing something new and exciting to a mostly stale animation field. The Favourite and Roma are both impeccable formal exercises that are beautiful, if sometimes distracting from the stories they were trying to tell. Free Solo has some of the best nature photography I’ve ever seen, tinged with potential tragedy (a topic that is best explored in a longer post, perhaps). But ultimately, it’s Mandy. It was always Mandy.
- Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: One Cut of the Dead. I don’t even particularly love zombie movies, and this starts out as a sorta rote zombie tale heightened by a long take, but then it becomes so much more. It’s a shame that the US release is being jeopardized by a leak, but it’s worth seeking out when it does become available. Strong competition from the likes of The Endless and its intricate time-loops, as well as Upgrade‘s AI exploration. A lot of strong horror this year, and after a strong showing for a while, SF is slipping a bit with this award (this is why the seemingly random combo of SF and Horror are included in this one award – SF often doesn’t have enough good films in a year to make it worthwhile). Still, One Cut is just so charming and fun.
- Best Sequel/Reboot: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Almost both a sequel and a reboot, this film knocks it out of the park, effortlessly introducing several new spider-beings, each with their own, unique origin story, while maintaining a strong central character in Miles Morales.
Paddington 2‘s nicecore sequel is as strong if not stronger than the original (which, sadly, I slept on back when it came out). Mission: Impossible – Fallout continues the franchise that could; somehow maintaining or maybe even exceeding previous entries in the series. The Endless is only kinda-sorta a sequel and still functions as a standalone, but it’s really fantastic and definitely better than the film it follows. The other nominees were mostly fun, well done entries in their respective series, even if they can’t quite compete with their predecessors.
- Biggest Disappointment: The Predator. All the ingredients were there, but man, nothing came together like you would hope. Shane Black’s best qualities seemed muted (or perhaps cut out, as the film seems to have been edited in an odd way), and his worst tendencies were amplified, leading to a disjointed, shambling mess. It’s like there were three completely different movies jammed into one blender, then pureed to a slimy mush. Part of this is my general disdain for sequels and reboots. As per usual, I love the original Predator, but ever since then, it’s been a rocky road. And not in, like, the fun, ice cream way. Such that it’s hard to believe they’re still making Predator movies, though again, on paper, this seemed like a slam dunk. Other nominees range from movies that I expected to be bad that were somehow even worse, to movies that really weren’t that bad at all (Creed II and A Wrinkle in Time), with a couple of middling movies in the, um, middle. But I was really looking forward to The Predator!
- Best Action Sequences: The Night Comes for Us. Sometimes it feels like a cheat when a strong martial arts movie is available in this category, and indeed it does seem unfair to compare the non-stop, brutal action and gruesome carnage that is The Night Comes for Us with, say, the astounding spectacle of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. We could call it a tie, I guess, but despite being two action movies, it still feels like comparing apples to oranges. Make of that what you will, but those two movies are head and shoulders above the entire field this year. In fact, I had to kinda stretch to fill out the category as much as I did. But then, the winner(s?) are so great that it still feels like a great year for action.
- Best Plot Twist/Surprise: Hereditary. Obviously a bit of a spoiler even acknowledging that there is a twist/surprise, but there is one moment in Hereditary where my jaw dropped and I just sat in dumbfounded shock for about two minutes. I have my issues with the movie overall, but that is probably the most memorable moment I’ve experience in a theater this year. Other nominees have their charms, especially One Cut of the Dead and Sorry to Bother You and, you know what, they all have pretty great surprises and twists, so we’ll just leave it at that. In a decent year for this sort of thing, Hereditary still takes the cake.
- Best High Concept Film: One Cut of the Dead. I don’t want to spoil this one by explaining why, but the concept here is pretty great and very charming, such that it really wins you over as it plays out. Strong competition from Searching, the best of the burgeoning group of films set entirely on a computer screen that I’ve seen (a small subset of films, to be sure, but this one delivers pretty well). The other nominees aren’t quite as high concept, which is admittedly a vague category and totally subjective, but they’re all pretty good, unusual films in general so they’re worth seeking out too.
- 2018’s 2017 Movie of the Year: Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. Frankly, I didn’t see many new-to-me 2017 releases in 2018, and this seems to be a general pattern for this award. The award was instituted specifically because there was one year a while back where I really wanted to recognize two movies, but since then, I haven’t done much with it. That being said, I watched these two Indian epics this year (the latter of which was released in 2017), and had an absolute blast with both of them, so I’m glad I have the ability to recognize them in some small way. The other nominees are fine, but relatively weak. Which is to be expected, since I have already seen most of the stuff I should have seen last year. On the other hand, there are at least a few high profile movies that I should have probably watched that could be contenders, but I just never got around to them, even when they became widely available on streaming services.
Congrats to all the winners! Some of these were difficult to pick, and our jury (i.e. me) really struggled, but I think we did a pretty good job. Stay tuned for the Arbitrary Awards next week!