Tag: 2018

The Best Performances of 2018

The year has finished and Oscar season is one again upon us. Before the Academy has all the fun, CinemaBabel has compiled its own list of “nominees” and top picks recognizing the best performances in film this year….

Read More »

Best Films of 2018

2018 was a year in film marked by parity. There doesn’t feel like much distance between film #1 and film #11, nor does it feel like a truly great film was released this year, just a lot of…

Read More »

If Beale Street Could Talk and The Audacity of Love

Loving someone is one of the most audacious, risk-taking things a person can do. When you love someone, you entrust them with your mental well-being, wagering that they will honor your faith in them and not lead you…

Read More »

Shoplifters is a Superb Family Drama Full of Mystery and Uneasy Moral Questions

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** Family plays an indelible mark in who we are as individuals. A good one can set a person up for life before they ever even leave the womb while being born to bad circumstances…

Read More »

In Thoroughly Examining Our Political Past, Vice Provides a Peek at America’s Future

“You chose me, and I did what you asked.” Vice is a retelling of the political rise of former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney (Christian Bale), from his Wyoming roots with wife Lynne Cheney (Amy…

Read More »

Much Like Its Setting, Green Book Feels Like a Backward Glance at a Bygone Era

Green Book follows a 1962 concert tour through the south for Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class black pianist being chauffeured for the duration by Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), a tough, boisterous bouncer with mob ties…

Read More »

A Visual Milestone, Aquaman Feels Like Our First International Superhero Film

Aquaman follows the archetypal “man without a country”, that man in this film being Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), a super-powered half human, half Atlantean also known to the world as the superhero Aquaman. Arthur’s genetic homeland of Atlantis…

Read More »

Roma Examines The Societal Barriers That Separate Women and What Can Unite Them

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** “We are alone. No matter what they tell you, we women, we are always alone.” Roma follows a wealthy family and their nanny Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) in 1970s Mexico City as both try to…

Read More »

Cold War Depicts an All-Too Common Tainted Love Affair

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** “You’re the drug running through my veins……and the crash right after.” Cold War follows the relationship between two Polish lovers, Zula (Joanna Kulig) and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) in postwar Europe. The pair embark upon…

Read More »

The Favourite Explores The Nexus of Power, Sex, and Love

************************This review contains spoilers**************************** The Favourite finds us in 18th century England during a time of war with the French. Leading England at this time is Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), a sick and impressionable queen lacking self confidence,…

Read More »