Top 10 Movies of 2018

While still making my way through 2019,

here are my top ten films of 2018 out of 44. They are:

10.  Leave No Trace
9. Free Solo (although as I say in the video, I'm not a fan of documentaries)
8. If Beale Street Could Talk
7. Tag (yes, I am not joking here)
6. The Favourite
5. Crazy Rich Asians
4. Disobedience
3. Death of Stalin
2. First Reformed
1. Green Book


For reference, the other 34 films I saw were:
Ant Man and the Wasp, Aquaman, Bad Times at El Royale, Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Beirut, BlacKKKlansman, Black Panther, Clapper, Bohemian Rhapsody, Game Night, Hotel Transylvania, Ibiza, Night School, Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Ocean's 8, Overboard, Racer and the Jailbird, Ready Player One, Red Sparrow, Roma, Set it Up, Sierra Burges is a Loser, Shock and Awe, Solo, Teen Titans Go to the Movies, Tomb Raider, Vice, Wreck-it-Ralph, Welcome to Marwen, Wrinkle in Time, Widows

The 25 Best Performances of 2018 in Film

1.       Ethan Hawke, First Reformed-What’s most impressive is that there are no overtly dramatic shouting monologues when you feel the character really has something to say. You can feel him bottling it up inside. 

2.       Rachel Weisz, Disobedience-The performance is helped along by the absence of a score in some places. The soundscape (mirroring a horror film to some degree) matches the performance really well and there’s also the fact that Weisz has to play discomfort in the first half without revealing too much of a larger truth (her past attraction to McAdams’ character)

3.       Christian Bale, Vice-It boils down largely to “It’s Christian Bale, what do you expect?” There’s a lot of nuance in playing Bale

4.       Rachel Weisz, The Favourite-The stand-out in this film because she’s so devious and fun. If Emma Stone donned an accent, it might have been more of a contest

5.       Mahershala Ali, Green Book-I feel like accent-wise he Sidney Poitiered it up a wee bit too much and I could sense inconsistencies accent-wise, so deducting a little for that. Other than that, it’s a tour-de-force performance worthy of an Oscar. Obviously, it should be a lead but the marketing team at Universal was smart enough to place him in a weak field where there’d be no question he could win with all the fluctuations of a long season

6.       Kiki Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk-In particular, I remember the indelible montage of her working long days behind a retail counter while pregnant and then succumbing to labor

7.       Alessandro Nivola, Disobedience-“You are free!” So much subtlety in this performance and so many uncomfortable situations. “Disobedience” and “The Favourite” were easily the most challenging and successfully acted films of the year

8.       Rachel McAdams, Disobedience-McAdams’s Oscar nomination came from being elevated by the prestige of starring in sn eventual Best Picture winner in a week year. This is miles above that role. 

9.       Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody-I was originally happy to see him win an Oscar but upon rewatching this film a second time on an airplane, BORRRING. I believe I was so blind to its flaws on the first watch because I knew nothing about Queen and they are a really interesting story. Mercury was an ethnic and sexual outliar to his time while gaining exalted status as a rock God and he was also intellectually ahead of his time. If you already are aware of Queen the novelty wears off fast and that applies for the performance too. However, there is a certain multi-directional charisma Malek bought to the role that helped move it along. I was planning on ranking him higher but A) He didn’t sing and B) He has a certain naivette in the first half of the film that sort of leaves more questions than it answers.

10.   Ben Foster, Leave No Trace-Proud to brag here that I attended a screening with Foster appearing afterwards in Q &A. Since the days of “Big Trouble” and “X-Men: The Last Stand”, I’ve been a fan of this guy.  He generally has a look that gets him cast in baddies or rough-and-tumble guys.

11.   Viola Davis, Doubt-I’m not as much of a fan lately of Davis for reasons that have to do with her (publicly disowning “The Help)  and reasons absent (the attention she gets in comparison to costars), but It was a creative choice to grant her a BAFTA nomination. As the lead, she plays a key role in elevating a genre film to a work with the kind of socio-economic  that might get the Oscars talking.

12.   Cynthia Evro, Bad Times at El Royale-Aside from her wonderful singing voice, she brings the fear and tension and when she smashes that bottle over the dude’s  head (it would spoil it to identify the victim of her smash but I left a hint there), it’s a show-stopper of a scene. This film has a very strong ensemble

13.   Jon Hamm, Beirut-Squinting at intelligence reports, ruminating over high-pressure decisions, talking with the authority of a well-versed operative against various diplomats, this is the kind of stuff they gave Claire Danes Emmys for in “Homeland” and Hamm deserves at least a sliver of the same attention here for a fine performance in a film that opened at the wrong time of year. Like Viola Davis, the movie’s ability to transcend genre rests entirely on him.

14.   Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk-An excellent choice for Best Supporting Actress if they’re not going to go with Weisz. The scene where she pleads to the Puerto Rican for her son-in-law’s life is that showstopping moment an Oscar campaign needs for the highlight reel but she’s present in every scene.

15.   Emma Stone, The Favourite-This film is a collection of great scenes and she had a number of standout moments I can’t deny. If she put just a bit more work into an accent or just felt more of the period, I could have felt like she was carrying more of her weight.

16.   Olivia Coleman, The Favourite-It’s always nice to see the Oscar prognosticators be made fools of on Oscar night. After all, the spirit of the event is to be elated when a name is called on the big night and those prognosticators try to mathematically shortcut the process and suck the fun out of it. Besides, Olivia Coleman has been a vibrant up-and-comer who has enhanced everything she’s done and Glenn Close isn’t owed anything just because she’s been nominated before. However, the screen time was a bit short to get all worked up about.  

17.   Colin Farrell, Widows-I’m not one of those types who goes around saying “I’m gonna write a screenplay someday” but I occasionally have imaginary movie ideas I’m developing in my head and one of them is about an apathetic politician exactly like the kind Colin Farrell played in this film which is kind of creepy yet remarkable. One way to measure a good supporting performance is if you want to see a whole film developed about the side character and in this case, yes.

18.   Tim Blake Nelson, Ballad of Buster Scruggs-If this singing cowboy had the whole film to himself, I could say it having some kind of Jack-Sparrow-like potential in terms of making a dent in pop culture and getting action figures and the like.

19.   Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace-I remember it being a great movie with a solid relationship in the center, but I don’t have that sensory memory so many months  later of what this performance felt like.

20.   Marina del Taverna, Roma-Is the “d” capitalized or lower-case. Discuss amongst yourselves (or look it up)

21.   Viggo Mortensen, Green Book-A bit stereotypically Italian but f the Green Book critics who are continuing to perpetuate the myth that the movie’s inaccurate. I’m assuming Mortensen did his homework

22.   Jeff Bridges, Bad Times at El Royale-After seeing Jeff Bridges in interviews, I have a sneaking suspicion that this seven-time Oscar nominee has just been playing variations of his stoned hippie self for a long time. I’ve seen four of his seven Oscar-nominated performances and have been unimpressed.

23.   Michael Palin, Death of Stalin-What a national treasure. His indecisive pickiness is a great contrast to this unique film

24.   Lakieth Stanfield, Sorry to Bother You-A terrible and obnoxious movie, but credit where credit is due.

25.   Sandra Bullock, Ocean’s 8-Yes, I think she’s more charming than the smug George Clooney here. This is a playfully fun part and she has a slyness I like

Others I was considering:
Nancy Garcia Garcia, Roma; Donald Glover, Solo; Steve Carell, Vice; Jeffrey Tambour, Death of Stalin; Rufus  Sewell, Death of Stalin, Lewis Pullman, Bad Times at El Royale; John  David Washington, BlacKkKlansman; Amanda Seyfried, First Reformed

All films I've seen in 2018 ranked 1 to 32

All films I've seen in 2018 ranked 1-32:
1. Green Book-Exactly what our disastrously polarized society needs right now: Throwing political correctness out the window so we can have a real conversation. Think Driving Miss Daisy with a sense of fearless adventure. If humor is about the release of tension, watching these two completely mismatched people go at each other is downright cathartic and hilarious

2. First Reformed-The film’s cinematography is still and meditative, much like the protagonist’s newfound lucidity that doing good involves sacrifices and uneasy compromise. Films about spirituaility and environmentalism are rarely hot topics in moviedom and writer-director Paul Schrader makes the case that these human elements can work cinematically. 
3. The Death of Stalin-Ten times better than anything else Armando Ianucci has done, fitting your style of writing into a historic tragedy and making it hillarious is a high-wire act
4. Disobedience-Orthodox Jewish film about a community outcast (Rachel Weisz) who returns to sex up Rachel McAdams, shot with a Hitchcockonian bent, treats its three leads with a lot of affection
5. Tag-Popcorn comedies can be treated as highish art if done well and this film is sweet, rebellious and does so much right. It's also thematically got a great thematic parable about keeping the best parts about adulthood as you grow up
6. Crazy Rich Asians-Go Asians on screen (is what people are saying)! But this is a film that's legitimately probing into inter-race racism (if that's a term) and classicism specific to the Asian commuhnity and immigration experience, and it's a lot of opulence and scenery porn
7. If Beale Street Could Talk-Better than Moonlight in my book because it was more overt about its racial issues. Beautifully shot and scored although the chronological jumping was more self-congratulatory than useful
8. Leave No Trace-Think a less pretentious "Captain Fantastic" dealing with ADHD and a daughter who has to outgrow her dad sooner than later. By Deborah Granik of "Winter's Bone"
9. Solo-What Star Wars should be like: Quixotic and adventurous, not too rooted in complex mythology, and loaded with fantasical CGI (Full disclosure: Didn't see Last Jedi)
10. Bohemian Rhapsody-Considering I knew nothing about Queen, it was a solid intro to a unique man and his three sort-of-unique band mates (especially the one who still kept that gnarly hairstyle after the 70s). If you already knew about Queen, you'll be less impressed but hopefully enjoy the music deconstructed
11. Ocean’s 8-After seeing "Widows", went back to this one for an execution of a heist film done right. Even with the standard suspension of disbelief, the way they get around James Corden's character is ridiculous but Corden was pretty charming, nice to see him acting. Had more of an emotional uplift than anything in the entire Ocean's 11 trilogy
12. Night School-The premise: novel, the execution: Formulaic but sweet and funny and throws realistic out the window
13. Set It Up-Reminiscent of "Juno" in its efforts to be hip but its cuteness will bowl you over and it's a romantic comedy that ends pretty organically and logically and that rarely happens
14. BlacKkKlansman-This is a guy who "infiltrated" the KKK on the phone? This is like pranking Pizza Hut and saying you've done industrial espionage. It was exciting in parts but not Lee's best work
15. Ant Man and the Wasp-Definitely the kind of fun-for-all-ages film that I imagined Marvel movies used to be modelled after and had room to do big things special effects-wise
16. Ballad of Buster Scruggs-Definitely dark but if you're a fan of Westerns and want to see the different forms of the genres commented on and taken to absurd levels. If it wasn't such a dark murderous year for movies, my patiences for some of these tragic endings might have been greater
17. Black Panther-It's a good movie, I guess? Don't have that much patience for Marvel films that want to be grounded , and now that so many of the must-see films are commentary on the African-American experience in America in some way, the profoundness of any one of these gets diluted. It still had very awesome visuals and I liked the message of the hero that the end goal was peace and not fighting all slights (too bad some of the more extreme leftist voices liked the villain more)
18. The Clapper-It's a pretty low-stakes comedy but the subject matter has some pretty stinging satire in how exploitative our media (and subsequently all of us who absorb that media) can be of our public figures. Not a bad movie at all
20. Bad Times at El Royale-Shot with a lot of stylistic flair and some very memorable scenes. Again, it was a dark year and I kind of got fatigued of so many people **SPOILER** dying meaningless deaths. If you dig the look and the performances, you'll get this film.
21. Dog Days-Very sweet. I got a little teary at the end. Although you know from the very beginning that all the romantic pairs are gonna get together because this is the romantic comedy. So it's not the most organic film
22. Beirut-The Jon Hamm character is very interesting because he has an attachment to a certain kid from the other side of the battle lines and he has a bit of that Don Draper stoicness in geopolitical negotiations. The plot was compelling up to a certain point and then became sleep-inducing (although maybe it was my particular level of fatigue the night I watched the film). So close to being memorable.
23. Tomb Raider-Alicia Vikander and Anjelina Jolie both have the same number of Oscars, but as far as I can tell, Anjelina Jolie was mostly sold to audiences in the 2000s like waitresses at Hooters are sold to potential diners. I’m a sucker for archeological jungle adventures and while the McGuffin was ridiculously weak, the Alicia Vikander character was progressive without being obnoxious, compelling, and was a unique style of action star (mainly crashing into objects with minimal impact). The races and set pieces were pretty solid.

23. Sierra Burgess is a Loser-The protagonist is a teenager who is entirely comfortable with being bullied and eventually uses it to her advantage to get something she wants out of it, that's something novel.
24. Ibiza-Pretty standard "people go on a Spring Break like experience and get wild" film

25. Widows-Loved the way that director Steve McQueen treated such a diverse type of cast members with equal focus but the whole heist thing was a mess. Either they wanted to make the heist intentionally confusing to the point of being forgettable, it was a red herring, or they just fumbled it
26. Thoroughbreads-Nice seeing the young woman from Bates Motel do some acting but this was just dark
27. Ready Player One-I was thinking it was nice to see something other than a sequel, but this was like the quasi-sequel to every film from the 80s. It was almost like fetishizing unoriginality
28. Red Sparrow-A bit gruesome and repetitive but a largely coherent plot and less nihilistic than the female spy thriller I saw last year “Atomic Blonde.” Spy thrillers like these often have too many twists and turns and that can lose viewers at light speed, so that this is a coherent story is a major accomplishment. I also imagine a decent sociology thesis can be written about everything this movie has to say about female sexuality and cinema.

29. Racer and the Jailbird-I thought this would be an exciting film about a female race car driver and a prisoner but it's a dark, dark film. If I had known it was a dark film about two people who suffer a lot, maybe I'd have been more ok with it even if I knew it wasn't a popcorn film?
30. Shock and Awe-A film about hotshot journalism which committed the sin of tedium. Cute romantic plot with James Marsden and Jessica Biel though
31. Game Night--I hardly see a reason to justify this film’s existence. A couple (Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman) like playing games? That’s the hook? The violent take on comedy has been done a million times and it just feels tacked on here. The “when is this real, when isn’t this real” tension is stripped of its meeting when we know the plot is “thing that they think isn’t real becomes real.”
32. A Wrinkle in Time-This children’s film doesn’t treat its mythology as something worth caring about yet asks us to endure excruciatingly boring technobabble about said non-interesting mythology. The film is too tonally bizarre and its character dynamics too uninteresting to care about anything at all that’s happening on screen.