THE INVADER

It seems like the dialogue surrounding the romantic relationships between Black men and White women are being negatively sensationalized more than ever. A professional athlete is seen with a White wife and everyone loses their mind and assumes this is not only the norm but something bad (fyi - 85%-88% of Black men that are married are married to Black women). A lot of prominent Black films and tv shows have some Get Out-ish subplot where a White woman tricks a clueless Black man in to ruining his life. There’s a very specific lane of chronically online White guys that deal with what appears to be Black male penis envy by going online to call White women with Black male partners or biracial sons things like “mud shark” or “race traitor”. As a Black man with a White wife and a biracial son, I sometimes find myself fascinated by this. When I have some down time I take a couple of minutes to comb through the comment sections of various tweets, tiktoks and IG posts thinking to myself; “I never come across these people offline”. It's weird. 

On the opposite end of the bench is a very specific lane of pro-Black online pseudo activist who’s entire personality is dick-policing and penis-watching Black men in relationships with White women. They swear they don’t care who dates who but they always write some thesis-level explanation as to why they supposedly don’t care then constantly give their thoughts and opinions on interracial relationships that don’t concern them. That’s an interesting way to not care about something. And I as I stated in my review on Sinners, it’s almost always only a critique on Black men with White women but silence on just about any other interracial combination. Funny how that works. You’ve got meme-fied online figures like Dr Umar Johnson who has officially become the face of straight Black male dick-policing. Last time I checked, it’s odd behavior for straight men to concern themselves with who other straight men date. That’s something gossipy girls do. Men aren't supposed to do that. But perhaps I was just raised with a different set of values.

I say all this because Nicolas Provost's 2011 film The Invader addresses all of this and more. The basic premise follows an undocumented construction worker that becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman (it also isn’t clear if he has mental illness or is just really immature). I'm just not sure it succeeds at the end of the day. The signals are very mixed.

I saw this at the Toronto film festival 14 years ago and got so caught up in the overt racial commentary concerning Black men and White women that I completely overlooked the cinematic influences and the obvious commentary on the growing fear of African and Caribbean migrants (men specifically) entering Europe. The movie is literally called “The Invader”. I’m not sure how I missed that. 

It’s been a long time since I watched this movie from start to finish but every once in a while a random scene from it will pop up in my head.  Again - I don’t know if this movie is a success but there's clearly something thought provoking about it. I guess any movie that takes an unflinching and naive/borderline unrealistic look at interracial relationships and immigration is going to leave an impression. 

A big chunk of The Invader is shot like a Hitchcock movie. The film's main character spends a lot of the movie stalking a woman like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo...

Vertigo / The Invader

Vertigo / The Invader

Vertigo / The Invader

the people who brought me the most are Hitchcock, Lynch and Kubrick. To me they are the most important masters. They made me dream the most – Nicolas Provost, filmmakermagazine.com

Psycho / 2001... / Blue Velvet / The Invader

The Invader also shares a lot of coincidental similarities with Steve McQueen’s Shame and Lodge Kerrigan’s Claire Dolan. From a subject matter standpoint – The Invader would pair well with Claire Denis’ No Fear, No Die in that they’re both clearly about the fear of Black migrants coming over to Europe…

Shame / The Invader

No Fear, No Die is a much better execution of what Nicolas Provost tried to do with The Invader. A lot of the shots in Denis' film are Black migrants holding and man-handling the French national animal to represent the fear of outsiders taking over Fracnce/Europe. A little on the nose but it still works...

No Fear, No Die

No Fear, No Die

No Fear, No Die

I’m kind of glad The Invader came out in 2011 instead of today. If the right/wrong people caught wind of it, we would have gotten some of the most insufferable commentary from people who’d use this movie to fit their personal agenda. That’s sort of the problem with this movie. To be clear – it’s incredibly well-made and very thought provoking. But it’s one of those movies where the audience should be required to read at least one interview of the director so you could see where his head was at when making it. But that’s obviously unrealistic. Most people aren’t going to make the effort to read an interview with an obscure arthouse Belgian filmmaker. Nicolos Provost is incredibly liberal and anti-racist. He also doesn’t appear to be anti-immigration. 

I wanted to create a feeling where this story is not just an anti-hero story. It’s also about our projection on immigrants. It becomes the monster that we project on immigrants, sometimes. I’m not trying to judge anyone. That’s what I hope is clear with the film, that I’m not taking parts. I’m not trying to come up with a voice for the immigrants, and I’m not blaming the Western world. It’s a tragic situation – Nicolas Provost, filmmakermagazine.com

But without doing some quick research on the director and his personal views, one might think his film was an anti-immigration/anti-interracial relationship propaganda movie. This is potentially dangerous. That doesn’t necessarily make it Provost’s fault. Most people are either very stupid or disingenuous or a combination of both. Like I said earlier – people are way more in to making art fit or speak to their own personal agendas. Someone could watch The Invader and think it’s a nationalist tool to promote hatred towards Black men and their “invasion” of Europe. If you’ve been keeping yourself up to date with current events, then you know immigration is a hot topic all over the world (especially concerning darker-skinned migrants). Folks online, specifically the archetypes I laid out at the start of this entry, want to believe those negative stereotypes about migrants. They want to believe the taboos concerning Black men and White women. The Invader is the type of film that might give those people validation to go “I KNEW IT!”. The opening scene alone, where the lead Black male is ogling a naked White woman on a beach, is enough to fuel their insecure beliefs.

At the end of the day this movie kind of leaves you wondering “so…what was the point of all this? The message seems a little mixed.” Normally, a mixed message or something left up for different interpretations isn’t always a bad thing. But when you take the director’s own words and put them up against the movie itself – certain things don’t align. 

No matter how much of a mixed message this movie sends, I certainly encourage any and all viewers with the ability to think abstractly to seek it out. If you’re able to find a digital copy and come out confused, I think that’s perfectly understandable. If you’ve seen this and think I’m off or missing something, please let me know.

COMPLETE FEATURE FILMOGRAPHIES

I'm happy to announce that I've now written about the (feature length) filmographies of some of my favorite active filmmakers. Take some time throughout the rest of the year to get familiar with their work...

(*click each movie title for the individual review*)

Carlos Reygadas

Japon

Battle In Heaven

Silent Light

Post Tenebras Lux
Our Time

Bonus Content:

  The Cinema Of Carlos Reygadas Told Through Images & Stills

Claire Denis

Chocolat 

No Fear, No Die (The Pink Smoke)

I Can't Sleep
U.S. Go Home (The Pink Smoke)

Nenette & Boni

Beau Travail

Trouble Every Day
Trouble Every Day (The Pink Smoke)

Friday Night

The Intruder

35 Shots Of Rum

White Material (The Pink Smoke)

Bastards
Voila L'enchainement
Let The Sunshine In
High Life

Bonus Content:
Vers Mathilde vs. Dionysis In '69

The Cinema Of Claire Denis Told Through Images & Stills

An Interview With Claire Denis

THE WAITING ROOM/THE CINEMA OF CLAIRE DENIS 1.5

Lodge Kerrigan

Clean, Shaven

Claire Dolan

Keane

Bonus content: 

The Cinema Of Lodge Kerrigan Told Through Images & Stills

An Interview With Lodge Kerrigan

Lynne Ramsay

Ratcatcher (The Pink Smoke)

Morvern Callar

We Need To Talk About Kevin
You Were Never Really Here

Bonus Content:

The Cinema Of Lynne Ramsay Told Through Images & Stills

Jordan Peele

Get Out
Us

Yorgos Lanthimos

Kinetta

Dogtooth

Alps

The Lobster
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
The Favourite

Bonus Content:

Aggeliki Papoulia

Attenberg

Steve McQueen

Hunger

Shame

12 Years A Slave
Widows

Rick Alverson

The Builder

New Jerusalem

The Comedy

Entertainment

Bonus Content:

The Cinema Of Rick Alverson Told Through Moving Images & Stills

THE BEST OF 2018!!

Artwork courtesy of Patrick Horvath

This year was is a little strange. Not bad, just strange...

While there were certainly lots of good/solid/entertaining films (Black Panther, Upgrade, The Green Fog, etc), there were only a handful of exceptional releases that truly stood out to me (Zama, Shoplifters, The Rider, etc) along with a few pleasant surprises (Game Night, Lowlife, etc).
The rest of my Top 10 is made up of slightly flawed works with head-scratching endings (First Reformed) or movies from the early 1980’s that didn’t get a theatrical run until this year (Personal Problems).

I admit that my excitement for 2018 died a little when I discovered films like High Life, Our Time & American Dharma wouldn’t be released until 2019 (who knows when American Dharma will get a proper release). But I guess the positive is that 2019 is already shaping up to be a good year (all the aforementioned films are already in my top 10 for next year).

I still had fun documenting, podcasting & writing about the 2018 movie year (make sure to go back and explore both PINNLAND EMPIRE & Zebras In America as I’ve given my thoughts on every film on this list in either written form or podcast form).


Enjoy...

TOP 10

1-4: ALL AROUND GREAT 
(films that I felt were just all around great. Essentially the 1st tier of great 2018 films)

Zama/ Shoplifters
The Rider / You Were Never Really Here

5-6: SOLID 
(the 2nd tier of all-around great films from 2018)

Burning / The Favourite

7-8: UNDER THE RADAR 
(films I loved from 2018 that may not have had the same exposure or platform as the larger releases, but are still great)

Lowlife / Monrovia, Indiana

9: FRUSTRATING BUT REWARDING 
(all around great but one major flaw or weird aspect that really bugged me)

First Reformed

10: BEST NEW OLD MOVIE 
(an old film that didn't get a proper release until this year which, in my opinion, makes it a 2018 movie)

Personal Problems

JURY PRIZE

These are movies that I genuinely loved but I also have some kind of personal connection to either the film or the filmmaker. In this year's case, I happen to know Kurt Vincent & Irene Chin (Friends Of Wonder) and I have a very biased love towards Bruno Dumont and his work as he's slowly becoming one of my all-time personal favorite filmmakers (Jeanette...)

Jeanette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc / Friends Of Wonder / 24 Frames

HONORABLE MENTION

It wouldn't be right to define an entire year with just a handful of movies. Below are some more solid releases from 2018 worth your time...

TOP TIER:

The Taste Of Cement / Blue / Cold War

THESE MOVIES HAD NO BUSINESS BEING THIS GOOD:

Game Night / Upgrade / Equalizer 2

SOLID:

Black Panther / Marlina: The Murderer In Four Parts

FRUSTRATING BUT REWARDING:

Vox Lux / The Green Fog / Widows

HONORABLE HONORABLE MENTION

A few more movies from 2018 worth your time...

Suspiria / Three Identical Strangers
Claire's Camera / Mandy
Hereditary / The Night Comes For Us
Avengers: Infinity Wars / Roma

OTHER MOVIES POSSIBLY WORTH YOUR TIME

These aren't exactly the best films from 2018 but they all had something that earned them a mention on this year's list...

Deadpool / Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs / If Beale Street Could Talk
Death To Stalin / Ant & Wasp
Sorry To Bother You / 8th Grade

UNDECIDED...

(I need more time to process these)

Madeline's Madeline / The House That Jack Built

(PERSONAL) FAVORITE PERFORMANCES OF 2018

Matheus Nachtergaele - Zama*
Shaye Ogbonna - Lowlife*

Topher grace - Blackkklansman

Ryan Reynolds - Deadpool 2

Joaquin Phoenix - You Were Never Really Here*

Rachel Mcadams - Game Night*

Millicent Simmons - A Quiet Place

Stacy Martin - Vox Lux
Steve Yeun - Burning

Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk

Nicholas Cage - Mandy

Sam Elliot - A Star Is Born

Emma Stone/Rachel Weisz/Coleman - The Favourite*
Ethan Hawke - First Reformed*

Matt Dillon - The House That Jack Built

Daniel Kaluuya - Widows

Mia Goth - Suspiria
Toni Colette - Hereditary

PERSONAL FAVORITE IMAGES FROM 2018

Mandy

Burning

Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami

Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami

Blue

First Reformed

The Rider

Zama

Zama

Zama

You Were Never Really Here

24 Frames

24 Frames

HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & OTHER RANDOM MOVIE MOMENTS FROM 2018...

Hold The Dark

Y’all really liked this? (Hold The Dark)*

So this is becoming a genre now? (Blindspotting, The Hate You Give, First Purge, Monsters & Men)

It really was that bad (Venom)

Venom

Jesus christ - stop waisting Michelle Williams' time! (Venom)*

If you actually liked this movie I honestly hate you (The First Purge)

Grace Jones being an unbelievable diva in Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami

Hereditary

the clicking noise in Hereditary*

Meh: Blackkklansman, Unsane , Annihilation, Thoroughbreds , Roxanne Roxanne, Fahrenheit 451, Let The Sunshine In 

Mission Impossible: Fallout

ok, I guess: Creed 2, Isle Of Dogs, Mission Impossible Fallout* & A Quiet Place

The lama scene in Zama

chasing after the bus at the end of Shoplifters

All the estrogen in Suspiria

Lowlife

El Monstro going in to rage mode in Lowlife*

The respect Ryan Prows showed Lucha wrestling in Lowlife

mad that I missed: Paddington 2, The World Before Your Feet & Bisbee 17

indifferent about missing: The Green Book, First Man & Vice

completely fine with missing: Tyrel & Bohemian Rhapsody 

The Rider

the hospital visits in The Rider*

the overall ambiance of The Rider

The overall ambiance of Mandy

Uma Thurman’s scene in The House That Jack Built

The OCD scene in The House That Jack Built 

Climax

the first 20 minutes of Climax*

Bill Duke's cameo in Mandy

Chainsaw fight in Mandy

Joaquin Phoenix staying with the agent (that he murdered) in his final moments (You Were Never Really Here)

The sex scene in Burning

The headbanging in Jeanette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc

O Lucky Man /
Sorry To Bother You

Boots Riley paying homage to O Lucky Man in Sorry To Bother You*

The freemason meeting in Monrovia, Indiana

Game Night

Lamorne Morris' Denzel Washington impression in Game Night*

Danny Huston's appearance in Game Night

Game Night

"How can that be profitable for Frito Lay?" (Game Night)*

"I'm sorry I called you bald...you little bitch!" (Game Night)

Seeing Michael Beach in a major theatrical release (If Beale Street Could Talk)

The heist scene in Widows

A final talk between Colin Farrell & Robert Duvall in Widows

That shit was not necessary (Marcus’ death in Widows)

Upgrade's underrated ambient score

Upgrade

The dorky main villain in Upgrade*

Clancy Brown's death in The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

The title cards in The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Special shoutout to Wes Anderson for the Kidney Transplant angle in Isle Of Dogs

can we see more of you in 2019?: Betty Gabriel, Alex Descas, Sam Elliot, Juliette Binoche, Angeliki Pappoulia & Gregg Turkington/Neil Hamburger

can we see just as much of you in 2019 as we did in 2018?: Rachel Mcadams, Colin Farrell & Daniel Kaluuya

can we see less of you in  2019?: Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Mel Gibson, Mark Wahlberg & Bradley Cooper


Reasons to look forward to 2019: High Life, Us, Our Time, American Dharma, The Mountain & Peterloo