This film made some waves at the Oscars last year, notably clinching a nomination for Best Picture despite being not an American film at all. It was directed by Italian director Luca Guadagnino, there is dialogue in English, French, Italian and a sprinkle of German and it is set and filmed entirely in northern Italy. It’s also one of the most unashamedly positive, beautiful films I’ve ever seen with not the slightest touch of darkness in it and somehow it all work out perfectly.

This Singaporean documentary has such an intriguing backstory that it simply demands to be watched. Essentially the director of this film Sandi Tan and her friends decided to make a movie in Singapore in the 1992 when they were in their late teens. However shortly after the completion of filming, the director of that project and their mentor, an American named Georges Cardona, absconded with all of the footage and they never saw it again for nearly 20 years. This documentary was made after they recovered the footage and makes use of it to tell the story of its making and the people involved.

Together with Sorry to Bother You, this was the other of the two important black films released last year though characteristically for the of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it was a third film, the less lauded Green Book, that actually won the Best Picture award. This is one of those based on real life stories that is so good that it just had to be made into a film though I understand that most of the later parts are fiction.

The critical consensus is that Roma is the best film of 2018 so watching this is certainly a must. I don’t think that it is the very best even with 2018 not being a very good year for films but it is a very strong contender. It is also easily one of the most technically impressive films I’ve seen all year and I’m amazed that Alfonso Cuarón managed to pull off a project of this scope.

After working through many of Hollywood’s best known musicals, it’s time we move on to this classic that highlights the dancing ahead of the music. It’s also appropriate that we watch at least one film starring that great dancer of cinema Fred Astaire and he certainly does not disappoint here.

This topped critics’ lists of notable films last year and I did a bit of a double-take when I realized that it’s an entry in the exploitative rape and revenge genre. Still this was made by a woman French director Coralie Fargeat and I knew it wouldn’t have been so lauded had it been merely puerile so here we are.

So Searching turns to be just the perfect little American independent film. It’s the feature film debut of its director Aneesh Chaganty, it was made with a super low budget and it makes use of a clever new gimmick to tell its story. John Cho is of course a pretty recognizable Hollywood star these days but this is apparently still the first time an Asian American actor headlines a Hollywood thriller.