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Best and Worst Films from June 2018

Best Films from June 2018:

3. Marnie

While this month was filled with mediocre movies, the list for best films was more difficult to put together as I’ve only seen two great moves and only a couple of very good ones. The Producers and The Big House were close, but eventually Marnie ended up taking the third spot despite it being slow and far from Hitch’s best efforts. The film is a particularly sophisticated psychological thriller for its time with a memorable ending, great score, effective cinematography and a career-best performance from Tippi Hedren.

2. The Official Story

The Official Story is an Argentine Oscar winner that ranks among the best foreign Oscar winners released up to this point. It meanders a bit, but the performance from Norma Aleandro is absolutely magnificent in a demanding role. Her character is complex and fascinating. This is the kind of movie that teaches you about history of its nation as it explores a terrible chapter in Argentine history so well and with a lot of hard-hitting emotion.

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring

By far the best film I’ve seen all month and probably even the best when it comes to at least three months, this South Korean spiritual drama is the kind of religious film which is perfect even for atheists/agnostics such as myself. That’s because it is so immensely spiritual, meditative and calm that it leads to a simply transcendent experience. It has a lot to say thanks to wonderful messages that it promotes, but it’s also a very intimate film that manages also to be rather epic in scope.

Worst Films from June 2018:

3. Isle of Dogs

Disraeli and Delicatessen came close, but eventually Isle of Dogs ended up taking the third spot in the worst category and unfortunately all three of the movies here are mediocre 2.5 rated movies from me. This is yet another frustrating, annoying Wes Anderson flick and even the fact that it’s an animated film about dogs set in Japan did not help it. The voices are annoying, there are a lot of bad choices made here and the film is simply boring and pretentious throughout.

2. Conan the Destroyer

Conan the Barbarian is a solid blockbuster, but Conan the Destroyer is a mediocrity. It is an obviously inferior sequel to a much better film. It’s certainly a lot of fun, but unfortunately the new characters are all rather boring or annoying and the entire film is ridiculously silly, campy and at times even laughable.

1. Dangerous Moves

This Swiss/French drama is one of the dullest films I’ve seen all year. Yes, it has some solid dialogue, but the two main characters are so weakly developed that the entire film suffers as a result. The plot is also slim and the approach to telling this story is flat, uninteresting and cheap looking. It’s another frustrating foreign Oscar winner from a very uneven decade for the Academy.