2018 Sleepers
                                                        Part 1

A reader recently asked: when are you going to start with the 2018 sleepers we might like to watch? Here’s the answer: Right now!
One of my highest rated films of 2018 was Searching. It has an incredible plot that will keep you guessing (probably wrongly!). I watched it twice because I thought it might have a major plot hole, but nope, it did not. John Cho’s daughter is missing. He goes all-out to find her and is helped by local cop Debra Messing. I don’t think you’ll see the end coming in this one. I sure didn’t. In the sub-genre of missing children, this is an exceptionally good one. 
I freely admit a lifelong love of all things Winnie The Pooh. So of course I really liked Christopher Robin, a film about the little boy grown into a man. When trouble comes, Pooh shows up in his back yard. Together they return to the Hundred Acre Wood where all the other little animals are on hand to help. Oh bother! Things get bumpy but smooth out quite well. 
Can You Ever Forgive Me? Is based on Lee Israel’s book of the same name. Melissa McCarthy portrays the woman who got really good at forging the signature of authors and creating valuable editions. Richard Grant plays her abetter, often taking their forgeries to dealers for cash. This is a fascinating story well played. Both actors were nominated for Oscars, but lost to Olivia Colman for The Favourite and Mahershala Ali for Green Book.
There are lots of movies about the space program, and most of them are very good. First Man is also good, and it takes a slightly different path in telling the story of the first man on the moon. Ryan Gosling does a fine job portraying the heroic Neil Armstrong. The supporting cast is uniformly good and uniformly unfamiliar. Armstrong wanted to fly to the moon but he never wanted the adulation that followed.
A strange film with a great title is  Don’t Worry-He Won’t Get Far On Foot. It’s the story of cartoonist John Callahan, deftly portrayed by Joaquin Phoneix. After riding in a car driven by a very risky friend (played by Jack Black) he is left paralyzed and wheelchair bound. He struggles with alcoholism and issues with his mother. The title comes from a cartoon featuring a posse surrounding an empty wheelchair. He continues to draw hilarious cartoons. That’s all you’re getting from me. 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Christopher Robin is fine for all ages. All the others are for mature audiences.