Best Movies of 2018

There are almost too many interesting movies I still haven't seen from 2018 to count. And yet, I think this is one of the most solid lists of movies I've ever had in a post. A great year for movies.

Best of 2018

10. First Reformed


My familiarity with Paul Schrader prior to this is kind of weird. He wrote several great Martin Scorsese-directed movies from the 70's to 90's, and more recently he's made a couple of smaller movies I didn't really like at all. But First Reformed feels like the work of someone who's been at the top of their game their whole career. Ethan Hawke is quasi-secretly one of the best actors of his generation, and he is great once again as a reverend of a small but extremely old church who deals with a drinking problem, declining health, and a spiritual crisis in the face of climate change as he's expected to handle his duties at an important moment. For the most part it's very straightforward, which makes the few moments that depart in an unreal way hit a lot harder. One of the most interesting movies about religion that I have seen.

9. Roma


Alfonso Cuaron is one of my favorite directors, and in Roma he revisits his own childhood as he tells the story of a maid and nanny to a fairly well off family living in Mexico City in the 70's. I believe this is Cuaron's first movie that he actually shot himself (it's also the first he wrote by himself), and he's clearly learned a lot from cinematographers he's worked with in the past, because Roma looks absolutely stunning. The black and white photography is beautiful and he continues to be the modern master of the long take. In the past it sometimes seems like showing off, but in Roma it's more understated and always for a clear purpose. I wish I had connected with the characters a bit more, but Roma is still an impressive movie.

8. Black Panther


I hope that the huge success of Black Panther means we can see more movies with huge budgets that can have unique perspectives and settings that aren't just the same old thing as always. Black Panther is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it's also an afrofuturist science fiction movie, and that departure and focus was maybe my favorite part of it. The cast was also very good, especially Michael B. Jordan as perhaps the MCU's best, and certainly its most sympathetic villain. The action was a bit underwhelming at times, but I'd still love to see Ryan Coogler make a sequel with these characters and this world.

7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The reliable Coen brothers gave Netflix what is essentially a collection of six short Western films, and all of them have something to recommend. They range in tone from delightful to depressing, but each explores the theme of death and its sometimes arbitrary nature. I could say something about each of them, but I think it suffices to say that Buster Scruggs gives you a little bit of all the different things the brothers like to do, and the parts you like or don't like probably won't surprise you if you have any history with them.

6. Hereditary


First-time director Ari Aster is surprisingly assured in this film that is part family drama, part satanic horror. By the end the former fully gives way to the latter, but both elements work, and work together very well. Tony Collette plays a woman grieving the loss of her mother along with her family, and the things that happen from there are unexpected and develop into an intriguing mystery before they start spiraling completely out of control. Her performance could be over the top, but I think it works for where things eventually go. And I love where they go, because it's pretty damn wild.

5. Eighth Grade


First-time director Bo Burnham is surprisingly assured in this coming of age film. Most movies of this type focus on high schoolers, but Eighth Grade (obviously) goes a bit younger, telling the story of Kayla, a girl who struggles to make friends in a world of ubiquitous internet use and self promotion, but constantly strives to improve her situation. I could easily see this moving being sadder and harder to watch, but I found myself rooting for Kayla rather than feeling sorry for her, feeling bad about her setbacks but elated for her moments of progress and clarity. Elsie Fisher gives a remarkable performance, and Burnham's depiction of young adulthood is spot on.

4. Sorry to Bother You

First-time director Boots Riley is surprisingly assured in this bizarre satire of modern labor politics. There are basically two parts to this movie. There's the part where the main character, Cash Green, starts working for a telemarketing company at the same that some of its employees decide to start organizing and eventually strike, clashing with the police at the picket line. There's also the part where Cash learns to use a "white voice" to get ahead in the company and eventually becomes involved with the corporation that essentially found a loophole in modern anti-slavery laws and is dominating the global market. One of these aspects is very serious, the other is very silly, but they work together to the film's overall message, that companies and government will do anything they can in the name of profit and workers have to stick together and protect each other. It's a very funny and surreal movie with a real point.

3. Annihilation


People need to keep giving Alex Garland money to make science fiction and horror movies. Annihilation, based on a popular novel I have not read, does a great job mixing both. Natalie Portman plays a scientist who joins an expedition into a strange alien phenomenon that is constantly growing, and into which several previous expeditions have gone and not returned. Inside they find strange plant and animal mutations, some of which are beautiful, and some of which are terrifying. They begin to lose their grip on reality, and it's hard to say what exactly is real and what is not. There's enough ambiguity to keep an otherwise straightforward story mysterious, and the climax is exactly what it needs to be. Even if you don't get it, the movie is a lot of fun to look at.

2. Avengers: Infinity War


Yes, I am a Marvel fan. This is a damn good Marvel movie. Despite having dozens of characters the central story has room to breathe and develop, and pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine. The visuals are great and the action scenes are inventive and exciting. Thanos is a genuinely menacing villain, and while reports of his plan's viability have been exaggerated, I felt like I still understood his motivation in a way that his goals were clear and helped drive the story. And I appreciate any movie with this much money behind it going with that ending. We all know that what happens in comic books might not matter in the long term, but what does matter is what it means to the characters in the moment. And based on the showing I went to, this movie worked on people.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse


On the one hand, Into the Spider-Verse is a stunningly gorgeous animated film that combines the strengths of computer generated and traditional cel animation along with the history of comic book art to create something unlike anything I've seen before. On the other hand, it tells a beautiful, heart felt story about how anyone given the opportunity can be a hero. And on the third hand, it's a comic book movie filled with so much love for these characters and their histories that as a Spider-Man fan it was just absolute delight to watch from start to finish. So you can see how difficult it is for me to find a single way to recommend this movie. I loved it. Oh, also it's laugh out loud hilarious the entire time. And the villains were all interesting and great! And the cast!

Delayed Entry

This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2018 but I didn't see until then.

Spotlight

Is it cool to like any movie that wins Best Picture? There are definitely things you can criticize about the Oscars, but their last few big winners haven't been bad choices. Spotlight tells the story of the newspaper that helped break the story of the Catholic Church molestation scandal, and while you can see how a movie about Serious Journalists Reporting Important Stories is easy award bait, it's really just an extremely well made film, with an exceptional screenplay and a cast that delivers from top to bottom. It balances the tension of a political thriller with the heartbreaking trauma of the subject matter. It's kind of amazing that Tom McCarthy made this and The Cobbler back to back.

The Station Agent

I was told to see this after hearing that HBO's adaptation of the brilliant book series A Song of Ice and Fire is officially getting a full season, because it was directed by Thomas McCarthy, who shot the pilot, and stars Peter Dinklage, who'll be playing my favorite character. McCarthy is better known as an actor, but he's done a couple films now and they've been very well received by the few people who have seen them. The Station Agent is short and light on plot, but it still manages to pack a lot of heart and humanity into its 90ish minutes. Dinklage plays a man with dwarfism who moves out into a rural part of New Jersey after his friend and the owner of the store where he works passes away and leaves him some property.

He's a quiet loner with a passion for trains and not much else, and you get a taste of his life where he's always seen as different and often mocked. Even the other main characters who come to befriend him over time seem to treat him differently because of what he is, and it's an interesting thing to watch. With the character being reserved, it isn't very obvious most of the time what he's feeling, but it still seems like you know what he's going through thanks to the subtle intelligence of the performance and the detached way he seems to view everything. The movie might have been especially poignant to me, since I was always short growing up (I still am, just not enough to be gawked at), although anyone who's ever felt out of place could probably get something out of it.

I may be making the movie sound too morose or something, but in some ways it could be called a comedy, thought a pretty naturalistic and understated one. It gets more serious in its last half hour, but in general it's simply a pleasant watch, well shot without an excess of flair and with strong performances from everyone. Patricia Clarkson got a few awards for her turn as a painter who separated from her husband after her son died, and rightly so, and Bobby Cannavale is enjoyable as the overly enthusiastic patron of a hot dog stand. The chemistry between the three friends is a unique one, as you'd probably not expect any of them to ever spend time together, but it makes for an entertaining and touching film. It's not the kind of thing I usually watch, but I liked it a lot and have even more confidence that Game of Thrones will be great.

Up

Pete Docter was the first guy at Pixar to direct a film that John Lasseter wasn't in charge of, and his return to the job is a successful one. I didn't like it as much as Wall-E or The Incredibles, but it was still strong throughout and showed the studio's increased maturity and ambition to do something besides make kids laugh for an hour and a half. It's actually very deliberate about tugging at the heartstrings in the beginning, as we get a glimpse of protagonist Carl's entire life to explain why he decides to take off with a bunch of balloons in the first place. It honestly felt a bit manipulative, but it was still a well executed and fairly moving sequence. There's another scene later on that revisits the same idea that I actually thought was more effective.

But this is a family comedy, so most of the time is spent with Carl and young Russell the wilderness explorer floating on a house/airship and wandering through a strange jungle. If there's one thing Pixar can do, it's breathe new life into the simple slapstick humor of old cartoons. Normally a character like Kevin the bird would be only funny to little kids, but its movements are just so perfectly timed that I found myself laughing out loud at its antics repeatedly. And I loved the execution of the talking dogs. They could have been too silly, but the fact that they remain 100% dogs the entire time that they're acting like henchmen and servants just works perfectly.

And really, only maybe Hayao Miyazaki's films can match Pixar's for its incredibly inventive, unique, and exciting action sequences. It seems weird talking about an adventure movie starring an old man with a walking stick, but that's really what it is. The villain could have been developed better, as he goes from Carl's friendly childhood hero to murderous psychopath without much transition. I guess you can see how decades spent fruitlessly searching for something could make a man desperate and unstable, but some of his actions made me think "Really, you're doing this?" Oh well. Carl and Russell are likable characters with an interesting dynamic to their relationship, and overall the movie is quite funny with several moments of brilliance. Somewhere between the studio's fairly successful early work and their more genius stuff a bit earlier this decade.

The Wire - Season 5

And so what is probably the best dramatic television series I've ever seen and likely will see for a long time comes to an end, with all the frankness and honesty I've come to expect of it. A lot was said about The Sopranos' strange finale, which cut to black without a real resolution and was probably designed to be talked about more than the story. The Wire completely avoids all stereotypical tricks and flair we're used to seeing in our entertainment. There are no cliffhangers. There are no plot twists that only surprise you at first while making most of what happened previously meaningless. Plenty of characters die, especially in this last season, but part of the impact comes from the fact that they don't play it up at all. There's no dramatic music or slow motion shots, the scene just ends and we move on. The fragility of life and how it can end so quickly while the rest of the world continues without batting an eye is part of the show's realism that makes it so effective. The resolution might not have been as satisfying as I had hoped, but that's just how life is. Things don't always go your way.

Enough with the praise though, as far as actual quality television goes, this season was one of the weaker out of the bunch. That's not to say it's bad, because it's still better than almost everything else. It's just not quite as compelling as it was before, and felt a bit more like the rest of television this time. Every season adds something new, and this time they went with the press, but didn't handle it as well as they probably could have. They could have done some interesting things showing how well or poorly they cover the real issues facing the city they work in, but instead they got wrapped up in these serial killer and Pulitzer side plots and the drug problem on the streets, the crux of the show, was put on the back burner. Stuff was still happening, but it just wasn't tied in well with the new topic du Jour. The second season was in a similar situation, but they managed to link the docks to the main issue by showing how the drugs actually get into the city. The fifth season didn't really do that. It was still interesting, and the huge impact of what actually did occur on the streets helped keep them relevant, it was just a bit disappointing. Still, they did a fine job of gracefully ending a truly spectacular show.