The Year's Best (and Worst) Films, According to Michael Musto
The first annual Mustos go to...
Best Movie of the Year: Roma
Runners Up: Green Book, Tully, Vice, Eighth Grade, First Reformed, If Beale Street Could Talk, BlakKklansman, Boy Erased, Cold War, The Favourite, The Hate U Give, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Stan & Ollie
Person Who Will Hate All of the Above Classics the Most, Without Even Seeing Them: Donald Trump. After all, Roma is about a wonderful Mexican woman; Vice centers on an evil Republican; Boy Erased is vehemently anti-conversion therapy; three of the films involve lesbianism or bisexuality; and four of the other ones are potent screeds against racism. Stay home, Donald!
Best Musicals: A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody [despite problems], Mary Poppins Returns
Popcorn Classics: A Quiet Place, Crazy Rich Asians
Most Hypnotically Arty: At Eternity's Gate
Worst: Life Itself. Pretentious and boring itself.
Overrated: Beautiful Boy. It maybe would have been a decent TV movie in the 1970s, but my heart didn’t bleed for this privileged white kid.
Made the Least Sense: Hereditary. As Toni Collette’s family members kept burning up or losing their heads, I wanted her to just stay put in a corner and do some knitting.
Movie I Couldn’t Bring Myself to Pay to See After Having Missed the Screening: Book Club
Lousiest Trend: Heroic parents saving their troubled kids. But they created those kids! At least in Mary Poppins Returns, Michael has a nanny do all the fixing.
Most Power Scene: The real-life Charlottesville footage at the end of BlackKklansman. You will sob in disbelief.
Performances Ignored by Too Many Awards Groups So Far: Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, and Russell Hornsby for The Hate U Give; Elisabeth Moss for The Seagull; Josh Hamilton for Eighth Grade; Kiki Layne and Stephan James for If Beale Street Could Talk; Danny Glover for Sorry To Bother You; Rosamund Pike for A Private War
People Who Could Easily Replace Kevin Hart as Oscar Host (and Yes, They Should Hire a Person of Color): Dwayne Johnson, Wanda Sykes, Tiffany Haddish, Chris Rock, Billy Porter, RuPaul, Whoopi Goldberg...come on. If the Academy decides that they can’t find anyone suitable, they’re just lying.