Top 20 Movies of 2018
It’s that time of year again! Something I look forward to towards at the beginning of every year is looking back and sorting out what I thought the best movies of the previous year were. I am no professional film critic, so most of these are emotional decisions. I consider many factors when discerning whether or not I’m watching a great movie: Screenplay (does the dialogue sound natural, are the characters fleshed out, and is the narrative coherent?) Performances, direction, and whether or not I feel the movie accomplished what it set out to achieve. Other things to consider: Do the cinematography, the score, the editing, and the sound design help take the movie and its audience to the places of the director’s intent? If a movie doesn’t accomplish these things it often distracts and takes away from the filmmaker’s intent, making it difficult for it to grab my heart.
Having said that, 2018 was a year full of movies that did this successfully! I included a list of honorable mentions that you definitely should not skip out on just because they didn’t make the top ten of the year. Anyone of these could have been on there.
Honorable Mentions:
The Incredibles 2
The Incredibles 2
Love, Simon
Widows
The Endless
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Lean on Pete
Creed 2
Game Night
Unsane
Also, I don't include documentaries in my top twenty. However, this year saw a few documentaries that are more than worth a watch. These would probably end up on my list if I included the genre. Here are the three must watch docs ranked:
1. Won't You Be My Neighbor
2. Minding the Gap (this is on Hulu, WATCH IT!)
3. Three Identical Strangers
20. A Quiet Place
Director: John Krasinski
Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Milicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe
John Krasinski’s directorial effort should set him up for a prospering career moving forward. Creating a terrifying analogy for parenthood, and casting his wife, made this movie feel like a deeply passionate project. Mastering the use of sound and bringing a visual flare, this is a crowd-pleasing horror movie that many will be re-watching for years to come.
19. Bad Times at the El Royal
Director: Drew Goddard
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth.
Have you ever wondered what The Hateful Eight would have looked like if Quinton Tarantino had a soul? Wonder no more! Cabin in the Woods co-writer and director Drew Goddard returns with his second directorial outing, and he hits the ball out of the park. Creating a colorful ensemble cast in a secluded setting with lots of twists and violence, Goddard is clearly channeling his inner Tarantino… Yet, Bad Times carries within it an inspiring optimism and characters in search of redemption. This is a fun, weird, intense, and immensely entertaining movie.
18. Vice
Director: Adam McKay
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell, and Tyler Perry.
At times hilarious, and other times enraging, Adam McKay’s manic style he presented in The Big Short is amped up (for better and for worse) in this Dick Cheney biopic. Christian Bale continues to prove why he’s the best actor of his generation in his fully immersed interpretation of the infamous V.P. Add to the mix a biting script, sharp editing, fantastic supporting performances, and you have a movie that shouldn’t be missed.
17. First Man
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Clair Foy, Kyle Chandler, and Jason Clark
Damien Chazelle’s third outing (after Whiplash and La La Land) only further proves his fantastic versatility. Ryan Gosling and Clair Foy bring honest, nuanced, and complicated depth to their performances that never wink at the camera. The final act will definitely leave you looking at the moon with a little more awe.
16. American Animals
Director: Bart Layont
Starring: Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Berry Keoghan, and Jared Abrahamson.
15. Avengers: Infinity War
Directors: Joe and Anthony Russo
Starring: Who isn't in this movie?
How do you take a movie that is the culmination of nineteen previous movies, stars dozens of main characters, and not have it feel like a manic, over-crowded mess? I don’t know, but if you want to know ask Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo. They accomplished the impossible, while taking the DCEU to task on bringing some darkness and edge to the universe.
14. Tully
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, McKenzie Davis, Ron Livingston, and Mark Duplas.
Tully plays out like as a comedy, drama, psychological thriller, and horror movie. Charlize Theron delivers one of the best performances of her career and Jason Reitman brings his best game since Juno. It may be the most effective movie version of birth control since Rosemary's Baby.
13. Beautiful Boy
Director: Felix van Groeningen
Starring: Steve Carrell, Timothee Chalamet, Maura Tierney, and Amy Ryan
Steve Carrell (one of my favorite actors working today) and Timothee Chalamet (the Leonardo DiCaprio of his generation) deliver some of the best performances of the year in this tough and tender look at drug addiction and its effects on a family. The movie excels in helping you understand how someone allows themselves to travel down this destructive path without glamorizing it. Made with lots of heart, Beautiful Boy will stick with you long after the credits role.
12. Annihilation
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac.
It should be no-surprise that Ex Machina’s writer/director Alex Garland’s next outing would be a strange and challenging sci-fi thriller tackling dark themes, but I don’t anybody was expecting it to be this strange or challenging. Featuring dazzling visual effects, chilling performances, and some genuinely horrifying moments, Annihilation isn’t for everybody, but for fans of think-y movies it is a real treat.
11. 8th Grade.
Director: Bo Burnham
Starring: Elsie Fischer and Josh Hamilton
Bo Burnham has such a dry and seemingly cynical presence in comedy act that it caught me off guard to see such aching compassion in his first outing as a writer/director. 8th Grade tells the story of a young girl expected to live and look like an adult, but still living on the edge of childhood. It is funny, sweet, heartbreaking and at times horrifyingly awkward, but it is one of the best coming-of-age movies we’ve had in years. Elsie Fisher and Josh Hamilton bring a lot of heart and soul to their performances, and Bo Burnham paints every scene with love and empathy. 10. A Star is Born
Director: Bradly Cooper
Starring: Bradly Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliot, Andrew Dice Clay, and Dave Chapell
This is so much more than a vanity project. When it comes to directing, Bradley Cooper is the real deal. Lady Gaga gives one of the best performances of the year in a naturalistic and raw display, and Cooper excels at everything he does for the movie (acting, singing, writing, producing, and directing). I loved this movie because it manages to take a story that has been made 3 times (1937, 1954, 1976) and make it feel fresh. This doesn’t feel tired, or like a classic case of Hollywood running out of ideas, it shimmers with movie magic and entertains every second of its two hours and fifteen minutes.
9. Roma.
8. If Beal Street Could Talk
Director: Berry Jenkins
Starring: Kiki Layne, Stephen James, Regina King, and Colman Domingo
Barry Jenkins, the writer/director of 2016’s Moonlight (another one of my favorite movies), shows us with his most recent outing that he is a true auteur. That is to say that his influence over and vision of the movie make it feel as if he is the films author. Like Moonlight, If Beal Street Could Talk feels like a musical without any flashy numbers: The dialogue is the lyrics, the score the melody, the camera the dance, and it’s all orchestrated by his masterful directing. The movie manages to evoke rage and beauty within the same breath, a rare feat that only a poet/prophet like Jenkins could pull off. This filmmaker is no fluke, and it is an absolute sham this movie did not get more Oscar attention.
7. Black Panther
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lapita N'Yongo, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, and Forrest Whitaker
Black Panther may not be the first superhero movie worthy of a Best Picture nod from the Academy (I see you The Dark Knight and Logan), but it certainly deserves all the praise it is getting. Writer/Director Ryan Coolger’s heart and soul bleed through every frame, and Michael B. Jordan gives us one of the most complex and engaging villains in movie history. This is a film with a lot to say about colonialism, heritage, race, legacy, holding the powerful accountable, the current political climate… oh and it’s a superhero movie.
6. Blindspotting
Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada
Starring: David Diggs and Rafeal Cassel
This was the biggest surprise of the year for me, in that it was not on my radar at all before I saw it. Blindspotting managed to have me laughing until my stomach hurt in one moment, shaking with rage in another, and brought tears of sadness to my eyes the next. It accomplishes all of this without any sense of tonal inconsistency, and that is insanely hard to pull off (watch any Tyler Perry movie to see what I mean). Daveed Diggs and Rafael Cassel (real life best friends and the writers of the movie) are a revelation, and I hope this is only the beginning of more material from them.
5. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Directors: Bob Perischetti and Peter Ramsi
Starring: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, Liev Schreiber, Katheryn Han, Mahershala Ali, Lily Tomlin, Brian Tyree Henrey, Chris Pine, and Nicolas Cage
As good as Black Panther was, it wasn’t even my favorite superhero movie of the year. This movie was so much better than it had any right to be. Not only is it a visual masterpiece, but it takes what should have been an insanely complex narrative and makes it totally palatable. Add to it the fact that Miles Morales is an instantly love-able hero, profound cultural relevance, a screenplay and voice performances that give these animated characters a soul, and you have my second favorite Spiderman movie (behind 2004’s Spiderman 2).
4. Boy Erased
Director: Joel Edgerton
Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Troye Sivan, and Joel Edgerton
Joel Edgerton has written and directed a deeply emotional and passionate project in Boy Erased. Led by the reliably phenomenal Lucas Hedges and featuring Oscar worthy supporting performances from Nicole Kidman (the greatest actress of all time, don’t @ me) and Russell Crowe, this movie brings nuance and sensitivity to a subject that could have been handled in such an ugly way. Telling the story of a pastor’s kid who is subjected to the abusive horrors of a gay conversion therapy program after coming out to his parents, Edgerton makes room to truly establish the humanity of his characters without excusing the devastating impact of conversion therapy. Opting not to make the boy’s parents villains, but a couple doing the only thing they know to do to help their son. That is a risky move in today’s world, but for anyone who has loved someone they fundamentally disagreed with, it’s wonderfully refreshing.
3. BlacKKKlansman
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, and Topher Grace
Spike Lee is a provocative auteur. That’s not news to anybody. Still, the maestro fits his message, his love for cinematic history, his social awareness, his conviction, his sense of humor, and his uncompromising style in BlacKKKlansman effortlessly. This movie should
2. Hereditary
Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolf, and Ann Down.
Let me start this off by saying this movie is horrifying. If you hate scary movies, anyone who tells you to watch this is not your friend. However, the horror in Hereditary is not just in gruesome visuals (though there is some of that) or the supernatural elements, but rather the brutally honest depiction of grief, guilt, and mental illness. First time director Ari Aster floods every shot with multiple levels of meaning, and demands multiple viewings to catch all the nuance he brings to the picture. Toni Collette gives the best performance of her career. This is one of the most underrated and overlooked movies of the year, and if you love a good horror movie, or even more so you love movies that illustrate the deeper life experiences, you owe it to yourself to watch this one.
11. First Reformed
Director: Paul Schrader
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric the Entertainer.
If you know me you know I am a sucker for movies that love to tackle the light and easy questions like faith, doubt, God, and human responsibility. First Reformed joins an elect club of fantastic movies from the 2010’s that takes these themes seriously (Tree of Life, Silence, Higher Ground etc.). Writer/Director Paul Schrader, who grew up in the Reformed Christian tradition, tells an agonizingly honest portrait of a pastor who experiences a crisis of faith. As a pastor myself, the scenes of him doing ministry were all too familiar, and the theological debates reminded me of my Facebook profile during my deconstruction. Ethan Hawke delivers the best performance of his career, and his Oscar snub is one of the most criminal in my lifetime. Schrader tells the story with an incredible visual flare that rivals anything else he has done, and the ending will stay in your mind for days after the credits role. If you are a fan of Taxi Driver, if you love movies that deep-dive into faithfulness and doubt, First Reformed is a must see.