The Year 2018 in Movies and Television

Cinema and television were two joys that entertained me for much of my life. Through the year, we at Matt Lynn Digital averaged reviewing roughly two movies or television shows per month, even as we enjoyed more than this. On a rating scale of 1-star to 5-stars, Matt rated 19-films as well as the first season of a television series that debuted in August.

Four (4) films outshone the rest by rankings of 4.00 or higher. These simply were films of the highest quality that we would like to watch again and again. The gold rated as reviewed in 2018 include:

1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

2 One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

3 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

4 It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) tells the story of a friendship and humanity forged behind the bars of a Maine prison as one of the two was completely innocent of the charges raised against him. The endearing quality of the film is that the true bonds of decency can persevere even against the strongest of odds.

Eight (8) films earned rankings of 3.75, which would commend repeated watching, enjoyment, and discussion among friends. While not the all-stars among all-stars, the great movies included are:

1 Hoosiers (1986)

2 The Shape of Water (2017)

3 Logan (2017)

4 Dunkirk (2017)

5 Wonder Woman (2017)

6 Platoon (1986)

7 First Man (2018)

8 Vanilla Sky (2001)

Hoosiers (1986) told a story of friendship, redemption, and community in small town Indiana where high school basketball was king. Checkered pasts were the tale as we also were gifted the chance to see a recovering addict stand up and redeem himself in his big screen community as well as Hollywood.

Six (6) movies and one (1) television show were reviewed this year as engaging with passing grades of 3.5-stars on a 5-point scale. Redeeming qualities were present, yet these features might not muster repeated watches from the good folks at Matt Lynn Digital.

1 The Post (2017)

2 The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

3 Live By Night (2016)

4 Atomic Blonde (2017)

5 Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

6 Deepwater Horizon (2016)

1 Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2018)

The Post (2018) tells us of the widow Katherine (Kay) Graham, who takes over leadership of The Washington Post following her publisher husband’s death. Not only was Graham facing 1960s era chauvinism and misogyny, she also was facing a president competing with the media for control of the political narrative coming out of the nation’s capitol.

Finally, one movie came in at slightly less than the rest with a grade of 3.25-stars on a 5-star scale. This movie tells of a man manipulated into doing a random string of unethical behavior at the behest of another. The outcome is less than satisfying, and thus the lowest ranked movie review of the year.

1 The Commuter (2018)

Matt – Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Charlize Theron and the movie ‘Atomic Blonde’

In paying homage to the time in history ending the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the movie Atomic Blonde (2017) captures a spy game pitted against the falling of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989.

The movie Atomic Blonde gets a fair degree of distance out of its stylized action sequences and its nostalgic homage to the past that, stylistically if not with the thematic ‘excess’ that is a hallmark of Tarantino, it brings to mind the cinematic experience forthcoming in movies by Quentin Tarantino. The movie, directed by David Leitch, reflects a bold sense of visual mood setting, intermixing of soundtrack that befits the time period, and action.

(Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton)

Charlize Theron stars as the strong female lead and top level MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. Broughton is tasked taking down an espionage ring in Berlin, where she is ordered to cooperate with Berlin station chief David Percival. The alliance is fraught with duplicity, mistrust, and intrigue that I personally both expect and enjoy in espionage movies.

(James McAvoy as David Percival)

The story of the movie is framed around the concept of Broughton (Theron) explaining to a joint MI6 and CIA after-action committee of Eric Gray of MI6 and Emmett Kurzfeld of CIA precisely how the Berlin action went awry. The full story is known only to Broughton at the start, with the full plot circle coming to revelation in the final minutes of the movie.

(Toby Jones as Eric Gray).

Other reviews of the movie focus on the story being somewhat light. The summary review from Rotten Tomatoes goes so far as to call the story “less hard hitting than its protagonist”. My feeling is that the movie is worth the watch as a first foray into feature film for a potentially effective new director in the form of David Leitch.

(John Goodman as Emmett Kurzfeld)

The soundtrack of Atomic Blonde includes Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst) by Peter Schilling, 99 Luftballoons by Nena, Der Kommissar by After the Fire, I Ran (So Far Away) by Flock of Seagulls, Voices Carry by ‘Til Tuesday, London Calling by The Clash, and Father Figure by George Michael. That a soundtrack of the 1980s was so intermixed within the movie proved a positive way to take me to when the movie was set.

(Atomic Blonde director David Leitch)

Consider seeing this movie. In fact, run (like a Flock of Seagulls) to see this movie.

Matt – Saturday, September 15, 2018