Reflecting on the year in cinema, it feels like the first time I’ve ever personally regarded the documentaries more than the fiction. Don’t get me wrong, I love documentaries but they’ve never been my focus creatively or for entertainment. So the fact that they’re more on my radar, and have affected me more deeply than the compounded experience of dramas, is pretty surprising.
Some docs I’ve seen that were truly amazing, if not groundbreaking: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Three Identical Strangers (admittedly I think the story is more impressive than the documentary craft work here, but still), Free Solo (groundbreaking - per my previous post!), Minding the Gap (virtuoso), They Shall Not Grow Old (technically astounding, per my previous post!). And those are just some I’ve seen relatively recently!
Others still on my list to watch: Notorious RBG, Shirkers, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Dark Money, Recovery Boys, Of Fathers and Sons, the list goes on…
Meanwhile, just looking over Oscar noms for general consideration of cinema, I find myself pretty uninspired. A few standouts, of course: Roma, The Favourite, A Star is Born, Black Panther.
But others that have fought their way into the various top categories I feel haven’t changed the game in any discernible way. Green Book (blunt in attempt and Oscar-baity to the maximum), Vice (almost virtuosic but fumbles the tone and character study I think), Bohemian Rhapsody (no), BlackKklansman (a good entry in the Spike Lee canon but to me hardly new or his best, though I’m glad he’s getting it for general recognition), and while I included Black Panther above - I don’t think it’s creatively or technically achieved anything new in movies — while it should certainly be recognized for the profound cultural impact it achieved as a vehicle for African and African-American style, influence, strength and relevance.
Outside of the Hollywood system, there was some truly amazing foreign films (as there always are, honestly) — and a few digital/streaming films made it into the awards race, but that’s as far as it goes. I had to go back and study the year’s history to compile this list — while these documentaries still actively live in my head and in my heart, all own their own. For that reason, I’ll say that 2018 was the year of the documentary.