The Films of 2018

I recently watched a year in review on YouTube where the vlogger said that 2018 wasn’t a great year for film. Obviously, I have to disagree because 2018 was definitely a great year. 2018 might’ve been the strongest year since 2015. It was a year where the viewer has to do some work to find the interesting films, find and put their trust into new and different critics and actually leaving the house to see the films. I feel the adage “you can’t complain, if you don’t….” applies more aptly to film going. You can’t complain about the abundance of super hero films, if you don’t go out and support the types of film you want to see. If you want more adult thrillers, then you should’ve seen Widows or rolled out for Den of Thieves. Support the cinema that you want to see whether it’s in a theater or on your preferred streaming platform.

Now, I did not get to see everything that I would’ve liked to. Never the less, let’s boogie!

Best Films:

Roma

The Rider

The Night Comes For Us

Burning

First Reformed

Blockers

Mandy

Vice

Shoplifters

Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse

Second Best Six

• If Beale Street Could Talk 
• Widows 
• Beast 
• First Man
• Black Panther
• Whitney 

Pretty Great Stuff:

• Can You Ever Forgive Me? 
• Game Night
• Crazy Rich Asians 
• Eighth Grade
• Leave No Trace 
• You Were Never Really Here

A Pretty Good Time:

• Creed II 
• The Favourite 
• Sorry to Bother You 
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• The Commuter 
• Tully 
• Zama 
• Skate Kitchen 
• Unsane 
• The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Over Rated:

• Support The Girls
• Suspiria (2018)
• Upgrade 

Still Undecided:

• Hereditary

The Dregs/Trevorrows:

• Thoroughbreds 
• Bad Times at the El Royale 
• Green Book
• Ready Player One
• Boy Erased

Best Performances:

• Brady Jandreau, The Rider 

• Helena Howard, Madeline’s Madeline

• Ah-in Yoo, Jong-seo Jun and Steven Yeun, Burning 

• Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

• Jesse Plemons and Olivia, Game Night

• Madeline Brewer, Cam

• Ryan Gosling, First Man

• Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

• The cast of The Night Comes for Us

• Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians

The “Harris Savides” Award for Excellence in Cinematography:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
• Bradford Young, Solo
• James Laxton, If Beale Street Could Talk 
• Benjamin Loeb, Mandy
• Kyung-pyo Hong, Burning

The “Don’t Hurt ‘Em” Award for Dropping So Many Hammers:

• Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here; Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot; The Sisters Brothers)
• Brian Tyree Henry (Hotel Artemis, Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider – Man: Into the Spider Verse, and “Atlanta”)

The “Chill Out Ryan Reynolds” Award:

• Skateboaring Movies

Best Hair:

• Mila Kunis, The Spy Who Dumped Me 

 

Best Performance by an Animal:

• The Llama in Zama 
• Olivia, Game Night & Widows 

Best Unjustly Cut Cameo:

• Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster, Ant-Man & the Wasp 

Best On Screen Couple:

• Tessa Thompson & Michael B Jordan, Creed II
• Jessie Buckley & Johnny Flynn, Beast

Best Use of Atlanta as Los Angeles:

• Den of Thieves

And California as Itself:

• Bird Box 

Best Dab:

• Greg Crowe, Eighth Grade