Matthew's Journal

Unusually for me, I've seen enough of the nominees in this category that it might be worth voting. I might catch the final two before the deadline (essentially, the end of July), although Sorry to Bother You sounds very much like Not My Sort Of Thing (I have almost no tolerance for cringe comedy, and comedy films almost always have too much of it). Briefly:

1. Annihilation
I've read the entire Southern Reach trilogy, and it wouldn't have occurred to me to try and turn them into films. This is a compelling, strange, and sometimes frightening film, and a pretty good adaptation of the original - they make a couple of things explicit that I think are only implied in the first book of the trilogy (but become clear in later books), but I think that makes for a useful framing device.

2. A Quiet Place
a very tense 90 minutes of film, extremely effective. I'm probably not the target audience for horror films about parenting, but this does a lot with a simple premise.

3. Black Panther
I'm not really the person to talk about the politics of this film. I've only seen some of the Marvel films, but this is one of the better ones, I think - interesting characters, a reasonable plot, and some great performances.

4. Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse
Obviously a great technical achievement, and quite good fun. I found it a bit trying-to-be-Deadpool at times, which didn't quite work for me. 4th feels a bit unkind; I think I just preferred the other films...

5. Avengers: Infinity War
This is half of a 6-hour film (I've seen Endgame too), and I wasn't really impressed. The plot felt full of holes, and somehow it managed to lack tension at times, despite the scale of what was threatened.

I've not seen Sorry to Bother You nor Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. ETA Updated to reflect that I've now seen Spider-Man.