The Best Movies Of 2018

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

While it might not have been the great year for movies that some have proclaimed, 2018 was pretty decent. One way to tell is that not only was I able to come up with 20 movies that I'm very enthusiastic about, but there were a number of pictures that I would really liked to have included in my top 20, but couldn't find the space for all of them.

These include "Eighth Grade," "Black Panther," "Leave No Trace," "Juliet, Naked," "Gemini," "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," "First Man," "A Quiet Place," "Love, Simon," "Private Life," "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," "Hearts Beat Loud," "The Mule," "Shirkers" and "Isle of Dogs."

Without further ado, here are my top 20 movies of 2018.

Ten Runners Up

20. Green Book (Peter Farrelly) - I'm aware of the problems associated with the film, and while they may be valid, Farrelly's film is still a wonderfully acted and highly enjoyable road trip movie. Reviewed here.
19. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller) - Melissa McCarthy proves her dramatic talents and Richard E. Grant provides a great foil. Reviewed here.
18. A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper) - The fourth time's the charm (to be fair, so was the first) for this often-told tale, which is given a fresh spin, courtesy of Cooper and Lady Gaga. Reviewed here.
17. Tully (Jason Reitman) - Reitman's best film in nearly a decade is a surprisingly moving take on postpartum depression. Reviewed here.
16. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) - Ramsay's 21st century "Taxi Driver" is a tense, 90-minute showcase for the talents of Joaquin Phoenix. Reviewed here.
15. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos) - Lanthimos' acerbic, witty and outrageous costume drama is the director's finest since "Dogtooth." Reviewed here.
14. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher) - This peculiar Italian fable plays with the notion of time and casts a beguiling spell. Reviewed here.
13. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles) - One of cinema's greatest artists gets in a final word some 30 years after his death with the restoration and completion of this unfinished work, which feels more like Jean Luc Godard than "Touch of Evil." Reviewed here.
12. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos) - Batshit crazy doesn't even begin to describe this future midnight movie classic, which finds Nicolas Cage at his most brilliantly insane and feels like it was inspired by 1970s prog rock and 1980s heavy metal album covers. Reviewed here.
11. Hereditary (Ari Asher) - Imagine if John Cassavetes directed an extremely creepy horror movie, and you'll get a sense of what you're in for with "Hereditary," the best American horror movie since "It Follows." Reviewed here.

Top Ten

10. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda) - The Japanese master's Palm d'Or winner finds the director at his best and most melancholic. Reviewed here.
9. Widows (Steve McQueen) - The year's best action movie has a fantastic cast, a #MeToo vibe and proves that McQueen is not only a purveyor of high art, but also capable of a great genre movie. Reviewed here.
8. First Reformed (Paul Schrader) - Schrader makes a major comeback as a director and Ethan Hawke gives one of his finest performances in this tense exploration of holding onto faith in a fallen world. Reviewed here.
7. Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski) - Following up his award winner "Ida," Pawlikowski's jazzy, smoky film about a stormy love affair set behind and beyond the Iron Curtain in the mid-20th century is a haunting tale of amour fou. Reviewed here.
6. Blindspotting (Carlos Lopez Estrada) - The year's best debut and most underrated movie is an equally hilarious and intense picture, obviously inspired by "Do the Right Thing," that tackles everything from gentrification and police brutality to race relations in Oakland. Reviewed here.
5. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) - In the follow up to his masterpiece, "Moonlight," Jenkins takes on James Baldwin to haunting effect, exploring the concept of trusting in love in a hate-filled world. Reviewed here.
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen) - This anthology western from the Coen Brothers starts out as a lark and then gets progressively darker as the six stories unfold. The ending forces you to rethink the entire picture. Reviewed here.
3. Burning (Lee Chang-dong) - Chang-dong's first film in eight years is 2018's most mystifying and enigmatic movie, a slow burn meditation on perception that will have you questioning what you think you know about its story for weeks afterward. Reviewed here.
2. Roma (Alfonso Cuaron) - Telling a personal story on a grand scale, Cuaron's artistic triumph is a visually astounding and deeply moving memoir-like tale, set against the backdrop of the 1971 Corpus Christi Massacre, that pays homage to the women who raised him. Reviewed here.
1. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee) - With his best film in more than 20 years, Lee's incendiary latest is full of righteous anger, but also extremely funny - and its final moments, which utilize documentary footage of a recent event, pack a gut punch. Essential viewing for our deeply troubling times. Reviewed here.