The Brown Note Movie Review

Black Panther (2018)

This huge cultural event - the first black superhero movie - was, whisper it, a mediocre film and more a 6.5/10 than the 7.5/10 I begrudge it here.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

After some mid-franchise wobbles, the Russo brothers landed the Marvel Movie universe better than anyone could've hoped. Part 1 of the finale had one of the decades greatest WTF! endings.

Annihilation (2018)

One time zeitgeist hitting novelist and frequent Danny Boyle collaborator, Alex Garland, never impressed me with his overrated debut, Ex Machina, but he sure as hell did here (as did Natalie Portman, who is a much better actress than a decade ago). In the end I think I bumped this sci-fi mind bender at the last minute into 2nd place in my films of the year list - but can't remember what replaced it.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Post The Office, actor-writer-director John Krasinski has led a wildly unexpected path, here both he and his wife (an excellent Emily Blunt) helm one of new-horror's high points and an entry into the human sense genre.

12 Strong (2018)

There seems to be a raft of new American war films that don't seem to realise the moral landscape post the invasion of Iraq is very different and trying to portray American military involvement overseas in a golden light is jaw-dropping. This spoils an amazing true-war story here with some great battle sequences.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Luc Besson's multi-million dollar, neon schlock disasterpiece is a film I have a lot of love for and one that is fatally hamstrung by the insufferable lead pairing of Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan, the worst and most damaging casting blunder this century.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

I would definitely down-vote this Oscar hoover now, as everything falls apart in an often silly second half.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Just when the Marvel universe was entering the home stretch and tiring, with some dodgy entries, along came Kiwi Taika Waititi to unexpectedly deliver a third Thor film that was as fresh and funny as Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Shape of Water (2017)

All the talk is of Koreans but no one dominated cinema last decade like Mexicans, taking an incredible five out of ten best director Oscars. Like many before him, auteur Guillermo del Toro took home the gong for a far lesser and surprisingly slight work in comparison to a masterpiece like Pans Labyrinth.

The Post (2017)

I've said before, no director as talented as Steven Spielberg has ever ruined so many films. This century the cupboard is especially bare and he brings his trade mark morally black and white, simplistic, heavy-handed approach to hammer home this flat modern history drama.