My 20 Favorite Films of 2018

This year, I saw a total of 104 new releases, compared to the usual 65 or so.  Part of that is because of a concerted effort to commit myself more to film, but it's also because of the increased democratization of the medium.  As much as critics and purists like to complain about Netflix invading the release market and ruining the cinema experience, they've made movies that often would have otherwise been relegated to the festival-to-limited-coastal-screening pipeline instantly accessible to everyone around the world.  Not to mention the types of films that are mostly seen only by critics seem to have gotten online releases much sooner lately, which allows for regular folks like myself to do more end of the year catch-ups.

For those reasons, I have less complaining to dish out about not seeing important films in time than I usually do in these intros.  I've seen a majority of the major films that are in contention for everybody's Best Ofs, aside from If Beale Street Could Talk and a few others.  So let's take a look at my favorites from 2018's crop of films.

The rules: As long as a film got an official release in 2018, it was eligible for placement on this list.  This is an important thing to remember, since some of the films that appear in my top 20 premiered at film festivals in 2017, but didn't get released in theaters until this year.  And in the case where a film got no theatrical release, then a VOD debut in 2018 will make it eligible.


Honorable Mentions (25-21)
Steven Soderbergh shot his bracing B-movie thriller Unsane on an iPhone and it's still better directed than 90% of the movies that came out this year.  Buoyed by three lead performances that rip through the material, The Favourite is a wonderful slice of nastiness.  Hong Sang-soo's brief and conversational Claire's Camera may seem slight at first glance, but it takes great skill to make something so relaxed and invigorating.  With the fiery, entertaining BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee made his most engaging work in years.  Revenge is a grimy, stylish rape revenge actioner that marks director Coralie Fargeat as a promising new talent.

20. Paddington 2 (Directed by Paul King)

It came out so long ago and certain people who love it are so obnoxious about it that it's easy to forget what an actually great film Paddington 2 is.  But Paul King's sequel to his 2014 instant kids movie classic is a charming and heartwarming romp for all ages.  Functioning like a Wes Anderson film for children, Paddington 2 is a work of impeccable production design, full of intricately detailed sets and resplendent with color, which only becomes more impressive when the elaborate gags and setpieces cause chaos that shakes up the homespun environments.  And it's not just the technical aspects that astound.  The film continues the first installment's commitment to its characters, giving Paddington and the whole Brown family (and even a few more side characters) all a sense of life and personality, allowing them to change and grow in moving ways.  Like the marmalade sandwiches that its ursine protagonist loves so much, the Paddington series might seem unappealing, but give it a try and you'll find it sweet and worthwhile.

19. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Directed by Marielle Heller)

I generally try not to place too much stock in trailers, so I'm always happy for a film like Can You Ever Forgive Me? to confirm my trailer suspicions.  In the summer, its trailer was attached to almost every movie I saw and it always made the film look like a mildly kooky, but mostly dusty indie movie for the septuagenarian set.  But the actual thing is so much more.  Can You Ever Forgive Me? forges together the formidable talents of director Marielle Heller and screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty to create a moving and entertaining tale about a difficult woman who's at her wit's end.  The story of Lee Israel is one of personal loneliness and professional underperformance, and Heller depicts it with a palpable pain and rawness.  There's also a load of bite and personality to the movie, thanks to the crackling chemistry between Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant.  The first impression may not have been great, but the film's wit and warmth stays with you.

18. Love, Simon (Directed by Greg Berlanti)

Though Lady Bird only came out last year, it feels like it has already had huge reverberations on the way we think about teen movies.  (For evidence of that influence, look no further than my number 16 pick.)  The prizing of realness colored the reception of Love, Simon from people I follow on places like Letterboxd, where many reviews poked fun at its cheesiness.  But I think there's room for a pop fantasy like this film alongside its more true-to-life peers.  And as far as frothy fare goes, you could do alot worse than Love, Simon, a movie with well-defined characters who all have clear wants and needs, and a conflict that comes from the way those desires are at odds with one another.  Though it may not operate on a plane of reality that we've become used to, it's fun and pleasing nevertheless.

17. Bad Times at the El Royale (Directed by Drew Goddard)

There's a fine line between homage and theft, but luckily Bad Times at the El Royale finds itself on the right side of that divide.  With its non-linear structure denoted by chapter cards, sudden flashes of violence, dialogue-heavy scenes, and a McGuffin that drives everything forward, it's clear that Bad Times at the El Royale is heavily indebted to Quentin Tarantino.  But this succeeds where so many clones fail because it has a style and life of its own too.  Writer/director Drew Goddard worked on Lost and Buffy in the past, and it's clear that he's a very genre-savvy guy, so he knows how to inject the story with surprises that will keep the audience guessing.  It's a skill that ends up making Bad Times at the El Royale a total blast, one of the best theater experiences of the year.

16. Eighth Grade (Directed by Bo Burnham)

We all remember eighth grade, right?  The newfound hairs, the sweaty palms, the gangly limbs. Bo Burnham's debut feature film Eighth Grade, takes those feelings and blows them up to widescreen proportions, giving us one of the most raw and genuine depictions of adolescence we've ever gotten on the big screen.  There's nothing particularly extraordinary about Kayla or her struggles to find herself and fit in, but the movie siphons a hypnotic wonder out of its ordinariness.  The screen is an important symbol throughout -- it's both what these characters use to project themselves out to the world and what they dive into in order to block that same world out.  Authenticity is all well and good, but that only gets you so far.  Eighth Grade uses its verisimilitude of middle school life to arrive at a feeling of clarity about the anxieties that drive being a teenager.

15. Leave No Trace (Directed by Debra Granik)

Leave No Trace lives in the small moments.  Debra Granik's first narrative feature film in eight years, about a veteran with PTSD who chooses to live in the woods with his teenage daughter, is another movie in the recent trend of stories about patriarchs who shun society, but it stands out from the crowd by staying quiet.  It's a film of silence, pauses, minuscule movements.  Those are the pockets where deep wells of beauty and humanity lie, at once soothing and devastating.  The world has become so loud, so fast.  Sometimes we need to bask in the delicate grace of a film like Leave No Trace.

14. Black Panther (Directed by Ryan Coogler)

I thought the days of MCU movies making this annual top 20 were over.  I like just about every film that comes out in the franchise, but their ability to surprise had long since faded, and the best ones were worth an honorable mention at most.  Black Panther puts an end to that.  Finally, there's a movie in the universe that feels like it actually breaks from the house rules, delivering a stylish world that's decked out in an Afrofuturism that's fully realized and tactile.  And it wrestles with actual, genuine themes that are given more than lip service, as its two opposing forces battle ideologically over what is the best way to empower the world and what obligations advanced nations have to their neighbors.  That's not to say it's an arthouse film -- part of the joy of Black Panther is that it does the aforementioned while still painting within the lines of the superhero genre.  Director Ryan Coogler knows how to stage a thrilling action sequence, and thanks to a commanding performance by Michael B. Jordan, Killmonger is one of the most interesting villains a comic book movie has ever had.  We may get back to the standard of baseline MCU fun, but Black Panther will be remembered as a clear high point in the franchise.

13. A Simple Favor (Directed by Paul Feig)

2018 was as good of a year for mainstream studio comedies as we've gotten in ages.  Most people will point to Game Night and Blockers as evidence, but my favorite example is A Simple Favor.  Paul Feig's wildly entertaining seventh film blends comedy with a Gone Girl-style mystery-thriller, as Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively both give peak performances in a winding game of hilarious cat and mouse.  It's a film that knows the tropes it's sending up well, so it works as a commentary, but also is enough of a yarn to be genuinely engrossing when taken straight.  I'm of the opinion that Feig is a TV guy at heart, but if he keeps making films this good, then cinema can have him.

12. Never Goin' Back (Directed by Augustine Frizzell)

Never Goin' Back, the shaggy debut from writer-director Augustine Frizzell, ignores the past as a concept.  It doesn't concern itself with explaining the backstories of its protagonists, a pair of slacker teenage girls who live with one of the ladies' barely adult brother, things like where their parents are or whether they go to school.  Instead, it lives completely in the present.  There is no task too small to turn into an odyssey in this film, taking objectives like scraping together money for rent or arriving to work on time and stretching them out to epic lengths in the hands of its broke, stoned, poorly behaved protagonists.  Never Goin' Back has an infectious energy, its plot fumbling along with a dazed and confused sense of humor, taking pleasure in its daffy, but likable ensemble.  And in Camila Morrone and Maia Mitchell, it has found a perfect dynamic duo who play off of each other with an inimitable ease.  This film may not seem like much at first, but once the contact high kicks in, it's a wild ride.

11. Thoroughbreds (Directed by Cory Finley)

Apparently Thoroughbreds was first conceived as a stageplay, but you wouldn't be able to tell.  Cory Finley directs his debut with a veteran sleekness, composing each frame with beauty and exactitude.  It's the kind of filmmaking required for a story like this to work.  Two teenage girls -- one a supposed sociopath, the other a snobby rich kid -- plotting to kill the latter's stepfather is a premise that could come off as ridiculous and trashy, but Thoroughbreds plays with a frigid archness that jolts every scene and makes them work.  From the starting gun to the finish line, it's a lean beast of a film that dashes through its twists and turns, while also offering some resonant commentary on the intersection of class and crime along the way.  Mostly though, it's just a diabolical piece of craftsmanship.

10. Private Life (Directed by Tamara Jenkins)

Private Life couldn't be further away from my cone of relatability.  On paper, it wouldn't seem like I'd get so much out of a story about a middle-aged couple going through the fertility process in order to have a baby, but it's injected with such humanity and depth that it winds up being a winner anyway.  As a pure procedural, Private Life is terrific.  It depicts the grind of IVF, egg donation, and adoption in great, granular detail; making that step-by-step process compelling cinema on its own.  But where it truly transcends is by layering the emotional wreckage of its protagonists (played superbly by Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti) without a false note or a sense of conventional drama.  The story examines notions of parenthood in the literal and the abstract, finding beauty in the idea that a meaningful life can spring about in the places you may not be searching for it.  That's something I think we all can relate to.

9. The Rider (Directed by Chloe Zhao)

Religion comes up in many subtle ways in Chloe Zhao's barely fictional sophomore film, which follows a rodeo rider who gets put out of commission after a serious head injury.  The titular rider says a quiet prayer before going out to perform, he gets a tattoo with a cross in the background of a friend who suffered severe brain damage while bull riding, and even a key scene of him getting back on a horse is shot with a hushed spirituality.  The message is clear: riding is like touching God.  Wouldn't you want to risk it all to capture a feeling like that again?  That's the central tension of The Rider, which beautifully depicts its protagonist's struggles between preserving himself and preserving his dreams.  Zhao films the open landscapes of South Dakota with a Malickian sense of grace, but she reserves the most tender moments for the interactions between man and animal.  It's in keeping with the film's examinations of the almost primal nature of masculine norms and how damaging the cowboy code of always chinning up can be.  The Rider is a romantic, tragic, and gorgeous film, one that makes sitting through so many mediocre films in hopes of getting something like this worth it.

8. Blindspotting (Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada)

On one of the last nights of his probation, Collin Hoskins witnesses a cop murdering a fleeing black man, setting off the events of the terrific and vibrant Blindspotting.  It's a movie that nails a tricky tone -- zipping by on the comedic energy of its two leads (Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, who also co-wrote the film together) while also wrestling with the gravity of the circumstances Collin finds himself in.  Blindspotting is a movie that calls attention to its own existence, employing flights of style where characters break out into freestyle raps and the plot curls itself into crazy coincidences.  But it works because the film is always grounded in an emotional reality, using its heightened nature to convey the absurd tragedy of being a black man in 2018's version of America.  Blindspotting offers up a vision of Oakland in the midst of culture clash and gentrification, a treatise on the prison system, and a thoughtful examination of racial biases, but it shows that a movie need not be somber to express those ideas.  Instead, it's an absolute live wire, and it's all the better for it.

7. The House That Jack Built (Directed by Lars von Trier)

Cinema's reigning number one enfant terrible Lars von Trier has always been his own biggest critic, and this year he produced his most extreme work of self-evaluation with the reflexive, excoriating splatter-comedy The House That Jack Built.  The titular psychopathic character views himself as a failure and he works through his dark impulses by peddling grotesquerie as art (sound familiar?), doing so in a course of murderous incidents that run the gamut from comically inept to chillingly methodical.  Along the way, von Trier himself attempts to sort through the accusations he gets about the brutal treatment of women in his films, his predilection towards philosophical bloviating, and the value of shock in art.  And in doing so, he makes one last attempt at frustrating his detractors by fully embracing those same habits.  It's a fascinating movie to turn over due to those elements of reflection and nose-thumbing wrestling with one another at all times.  Von Trier may have alot to answer for, but at least he knows it.

6. The Land of Steady Habits (Directed by Nicole Holofcener)

It gives me so much joy to finally have Nicole Holofcener represented on one of these lists.  She's one of my favorite directors, and I always feel the need to campaign for her work because it seems like she's constantly underappreciated.  The Land of Steady Habits, her first feature length directorial effort in five years, didn't get the warmest of receptions either, but it's another quiet, affecting work from her.  It's a movie that finds her stretching herself in small ways, with a more incident-heavy story and a male protagonist -- a middle aged man (Ben Mendelsohn) who finds himself adrift after retiring early.  All of her signature themes and storytelling touches are still wonderfully intact as the film muses on aging, familial obligations, failing bodies, and failing interpersonal relationships.  If you're a fan of gentle indies, then The Land of Steady Habits is as good as it gets.

5. Widows (Directed by Steve McQueen)

Widows feels like the perfect synthesis of all its component parts.  Its dynamite cast is so well-balanced, with greats like Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Daniel Kaluuya, and Brian Tyree Henry all getting standout moments to grab scenes with both hands and completely charge up the energy.  Co-screenwriter Gillian Flynn's razor sharp dialogue is able to make even transition scenes feel electric.  And then there's director Steve McQueen at the helm, giving the whole thing gravitas with the incredible heft of his camerawork.  This is a dense film, one that squeezes an entire miniseries worth of subplots and an intricate world of political machinations as a backdrop, but that only serves to make it more textured and full in a landscape where so many of its peers are slim and top-heavy.  Widows is the kind of movie that will come on cable in the future, and no matter what point it's at, you'll be so absorbed that you'll stop to watch the rest of it.

4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Directed by Christopher McQuarrie)

Sometimes it can feel like cinephiles whine too much about practical effects and real stunt work, but the truth is that stuff does matter.  These things help sell the reality of a film, it allows us to stay in the moment on a visceral level.  Mission Impossible – Fallout is the poster child for this argument.  So much of the promotional cycle revolved around the fact that Tom Cruise does all of his own stunts, and that simple fact is impressive alone, but the important factor is that you can feel that all the stuff in the film is really being done. Fallout is pure action movie nirvana, an onslaught of one jaw-dropping setpiece after another, and director Christopher McQuarrie films each of them with a masterful kineticism, all bodies and machines moving together in an elegant symphony.  With a twisty story full of double and triple-crosses to match, it makes for the greatest thrill ride of the year.  This installment broke tradition by having a repeat director, but based on the results, I'd be happy with McQuarrie shepherding the series permanently.

3. First Reformed (Directed by Paul Schrader)

We're living in bleak times.  There's an autocrat running the country, hearing blatant lies from the government has become the norm, families who are trying to seek a better life are getting separated at the border, a mass shooting occurs every day, and worst of all, the deluge of troubling news has made us numb to it all.  First Reformed takes all of the rage, confusion, and despair that many people are feeling right now and channels it into its story about a pastor who is questioning his faith and his life's work in a world that's tilting towards destruction.  Director Paul Schrader employs muted digital photography and a boxy 1.33:1 aspect ratio to make its world feel even more bleak, suffocating, and hopeless.  It's a rich, challenging work that would be engrossing no matter what year it came out, but its timeliness makes it all the more powerful.

2. Support the Girls (Directed by Andrew Bujalski)

There's a scene in the middle of Andrew Bujalski's excellent Support the Girls where Regina Hall, who stars as the manager of a fictional "breastaurant" named Double Whammies, is standing outside the back of the building, lamenting the horrible day she's having.  Out of nowhere one of her employees (played by the terrific Haley Lu Richardson), unaware of the bad mood her boss is in, interrupts to let off a confetti cannon while yelling "you're the best and we love ya!"  It's a tiny moment that perfectly encapsulates the tension at the heart of the film, that push and pull between the soul-crushing nature of a dead-end job and the genuine, almost familial connection you start to feel with those stuck in the muck with you.  This film is full of surface pleasures -- it glides through its 90 minute runtime with a relaxed, watchable energy -- but also contains so much depth of character, technique, and emotion.  There's only one thing you can say to a movie like Support the Girls: you're the best and we love ya.

1. Annihilation (Directed by Alex Garland)

Who could have imagined that Alex Garland was just warming up with Ex Machina?  The screenwriter's directorial debut was a fully-formed work of sci-fi excellence, imbued with an eerie precision that belied his inexperience behind the camera.  But his sophomore film Annihilation somehow completely blows it out of the water.  With a script that's the obvious product of someone who knows their way around structure, the movie's incidents come like clockwork, each with an increasing amount of intensity and stakes.  Yet, it's the direction that's the real star here.  Garland sells the sinister nature of The Shimmer, making it grounded in reality while also giving it a queasy offness.  And the film's gonzo third act is one for the ages, a trippy mindfreak that explodes with chaos after such a controlled buildup.  It like feels we might have a landmark science fiction film on our hands with this one.


Well, that wraps things up for my best films of 2018 list.  I love reading other lists, so feel free to share yours in the comments.  Or if you have any thoughts on my list, then you can do that too.  To see a complete ranked list of all the 2018 films I've seen this year, along with a list of my favorite performances and some other data, you can find them on this Google Doc.

Previous lists
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013