The Contenders
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Downsizing
The Commuter
The Shape Of Water
I, Tonya
Game Night
Love, Simon (Secret Screening)
Ready Player One
Unsane
Isle Of Dogs
Beast
Book Club
The Incredibles 2 (Secret Screening)
Hotel Artemis
Searching
The Equalizer 2
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Crazy Rich Asians
King Of Thieves
Mile 22
The Hate U Give (Secret Screening)
Assassination Nation
Green Book (Secret Screening)
Spider-Man: Into The SpiderVerse
Stan & Ollie
Four Secret Screenings this year made for a lot of discussions between me and my fellow Unlimited members. I only successfully managed to guess one, The Hate U Give, and that was really only because I desperately wanted it to be that so I wouldn't miss it while I was on holiday.
People's reactions are always interesting. I have never heard so much joy come from a screen filled with adults as I did when the Incredibles 2 title card came up on the screen. Gleeful childlike squealing. That was pretty much the state of us the whole way through. Green Book elicited a much different reaction, one of pure confusion. Being three months early it was a totally unknown entity. I was very sad to see so many people walk out of Love, Simon. It was a charming adaptation and just a genuinely nice film. For those of you who said you walked out because you couldn't believe they'd show a young adult film... news flash... The Hate U Give is a young adult film and you all stayed for that. And everyone that did stay for that was suitably awe struck by what they saw.
Out of the 25 Unlimited Screenings I gave 16 of them 4 or more stars which is an amazing amount of quality films. My policy this year was to see all the films that were showing at my local Cineworld (give or take some of the horror and Fifty Shades of just-watch-some-porn), but had that not been the case then I'm not sure that I'd have seen some of these truly amazing films.
Let's start with the losers, because honestly I'm still trying to decide what was the best one.
The Losers
I had three that came out in joint last place. First off there was Beast starring Johnny Flynn, the now star of your favourite frustrating Cineworld Unlimited adverts. I had no expectations for this one so out of the three it was the least disappointing. It just sadly wasn't to my taste. There wasn't a lot in the film that particularly entertained me, be it acting or story line.
But the other two... well. These guys really are in a fist fight for that top bottom spot.
Downsizing had plagued our screens with adverts for what felt like an eternity. There wasn't a film that went by without me having to see the trailer AGAIN. It looked intriguing though, and while I have issues with Matt Damon films the story seemed like it would be enough to get me through. What I saw at that screening was a chaotic mash-up of two entirely different films. I still maintain my theory that they asked two people to write their own scripts to be picked from, then someone accidentally dropped them and shuffled them together before panicking and submitting the one jumble. The story line was a fun idea that was ruined by its indecision over whether it was a comedy or a drama.
King Of Thieves unfortunately made it down here too, for much the same reason as Downsizing, the sheer disappointment. The Hatton Garden heist has quality picture written all over it and the cast was gold standard talent. Yet those two things couldn't redeem a truly terrible script and some poor execution.
The Winner
I'm still not sure which one to pick. Let me start by summarising my short list.
The Shape Of Water was wildly different and had several stand out performances. Ready Player One was an amazing mix of nostalgia for nerds everywhere. The Incredibles 2 was a piece of joy to watch after 14 years of waiting. Hotel Artemis brought some action to the mix with it's cast of heavy hitters taking on a variety on interesting roles. Searching was an emotional roller coaster of one man's hunt for his missing daughter. The Hate U Give was a powerful depiction of Angie Thomas' YA novel. And finally, Green Book was a wonderfully unexpected and funny depiction of a tale from history that I would imagine a lot of people are unfamiliar with.
Even after whittling it down to those 7 films I'm struggling to pick my favourite. I've watched Ready Player One a few times since it came out to buy and it's a fun film but I don't think it can compare to Green Book's humour and Viggo Mortensen's wonderful performance or John Cho's challenging roll as a fraught father in Searching... argh... why must I choose?!
Okay, it's like ripping a band aid off... 1... 2... 3... Green Book! I think ultimately, like Hidden Figures last year, this is something important that shouldn't be missed. (Technically this is a bit of a cheat as it isn't out until February 2019 in the UK, but I saw it this year it gets a pass.)
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