Shin Godzilla - Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi
Hey, whaddya know, a film from this year I really fully enjoyed. Guess those things do exist even for complete cinema snobs like me after all.
I was basically caught up with this one the very moment I first saw the Japanese trailer, had some real high hopes for it after seeing it and boy did it ever live up to them. Kept my fingers crossed since July for its eventual American release, and those prayers were answered in the form of a limited theatrical screening of a subbed version. Was one of the few really lucky ones to see its premiere in Atlanta, and I was in awe after seeing it. With all the films that just got sillier, it felt about right to see the king of the monsters become a genuine threat again. The film is a real chiller, a lot of the scenes with the monster are less action-y and more deeply unsettling, like how it's disturbing to see footage of a natural disaster. And despite having what could be considered a happy ending, the final shot is genuinely one of the more creepy images I've seen with all the context leading up to it.
To cut the post from going into a lengthy ramble, I'll just link
this one review I did the night I saw the film. It's also a bit of a recap of my experience at the theater it was screened in.