2017
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I don't get it:
1. MOTHER! - Misogynist trash that seemingly gets a pass by critics for style.
2. I, TONYA - Meanspirited film that uses domestic violence for its punchlines that seemingly gets a pass by critics for its style.
3. BABY DRIVER - Film that isn't about anything nor does anything excitingly new seemingly gets a pass by critics for its style.
4. A GHOST STORY - A film about WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE LIFE which means it's about nothing at all and Lowery keeps resisting ever getting specific which leads to empty scenes of people being sad about how hard life is. It literally has a GARDEN STATE moment ("listen to this song") played for intense seriousness. So of course it seemingly gets a pass by critics for its style.
5. PHANTOM THREAD - A film that brings no new ideas to the table of a well-worn plot but seemingly gets a pass by critics for its style.
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They didn't get it:
1. SONG TO SONG - I don't love this movie, but it gets a lot right about the messiness of romantic relationships that normal romance films avoid since it doesn't fit perfectly into a narrative structure. Strangely, it seems that most critics did not give a pass for its style here.
2. TRAINSPOTTING 2 - I love how it meditates on the way time has changed and not changed their lives between the two films. I definitely had problems but I feel critics just didn't care to find these ideas.
3. LOGAN - It probably shouldn't be on my list because it was well-loved, but I think it does to superhero films what THE DARK KNIGHT did for superhero films; evolve the subgenre by maturing with its audience in a more realistic way. I don't mean with the R-rating, but specifically how agonizingly sad this film is, how it talks about myth making, how it talks about how suicide, how it talks about killing - regardless of whether the victim is good or bad - is still a psychological toll someone takes on them... There's still a lot of casual deaths in MCU/DCEU whether its henchmen or citizen casualties. There's little thought given to killing in those franchises, but here it becomes deeply meaningful. Critics just seemed too worn out by superhero films to think deeply about this one.