Wednesday, March 13, 2019

2018 One-Week-Run Manhattan Premieres

I thought I was going to catch up with a few more 2018 films before making this list, but one day I looked around and the films were all gone from theaters. So here are my favorite films that played at least one week in Manhattan for the first time in 2018, in approximate order of preference:

1. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
2. Classical Period (Ted Fendt, USA)
3. Western (Valeska Grisebach, Germany)
4. 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
5. The Grief of Others (Patrick Wang, USA)
6. Dim the Fluorescents (Daniel Warth, Canada)
7. Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, USA)
8. The Banishment (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia)
9. Ray Meets Helen (Alan Rudolph, USA)
10. Ismael's Ghosts (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
11. Mrs. Hyde (Serge Bozon, France)
12. Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
13. On Body and Soul (Ildikó Enyedi, Hungary)
14. Notes on an Appearance (Ricky D'Ambrose, USA)
15. Dovlatov (Alexey German Jr., Russia)
16. Rodin (Jacques Doillon, France)

Pretty good year, though only four of these films actually premiered in 2018. I consider any theatrical premiere that feels like a new film to me: in this list, that includes 2007's The Banishment and 2015's The Grief of Others, but not 1953's When You Read This Letter and 1949's Rendez-vous de juillet, hotsy-totsy though both are. Nor The Other Side of the Wind...

I didn't see many documentaries, but I liked 12 Days (Raymond Depardon, France), The Rest I Make Up (Michelle Memran, USA) and Pow Wow (Robinson Devor, USA).