2018: THE LOW

This list is usually comprised of movies that I found disappointing rather than poor. But this year my radar failed me more than once.

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
Old style Tarantino ensemble thriller never gets beyond ok and takes too long to get that far.

THE GREEN FOG
Recreating a vague version of Vertigo through a mishmash of other films with the same setting. Why hasn't anyone thought of it before? I hope Guy Maddin finds his form again some time soon.

SUSPIRIA
Good filmmaking wasted on unjustifiable remake that was so divergent from its source that its use of the same title was offensive.

GHOST STORIES
A promise of something pleasingly complex collapses into an unsurprising twist. Wish it had been better.

HALLOWEEN
The matrilineal message is undercut by a clumsy mix of tribute and new ideas that don't quite make it. And how come, if this is meant to be the real Halloween II, are there so many call backs to all the other entries in the franchise that this film pretends never existed? What did I expect? What T.S. Eliot said about poetry, a return to the banal.

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE
Why subvert something when all you are doing is using the title to make what you wanted despite the source material? This unscary extended psyche workshop is using the branding without substantial reason. See also Suspiria 2018.

WILD LIFE
A guy with loser syndrome, his restless wife looking to survive while he's off being a hero and a boy
who looks happy to stand around. Then it ends.

THE INSULT
Potentially explosive story of accelerating pride in a community of opposites keeps going when it should just get over itself and resolve without the grandstanding.

THE KING
Conceptual documentary of a road trip in celebration of Elvis Presley never quite answers its own question of why it was made.

THAT SUMMER
In which the footage of the failed first attempt of what became a great documentary proves why it was a failure. Is there merit in the meta?