In my opinion, 2018 has been a weak year for films, and easily the weakest year this decade. It appears like the stark prediction that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made over five years ago is coming to pass. Their theme park analogy is particularly relevant with the increased power Disney has in the film industry, particularly with their purchase of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. The other major studios are predominantly concentrating only on a handful of tentpole films, and the division between television and film for low budget films is blurring. Indeed, Netflix and Amazon have picked up the art house film torch. Netflix has a lot riding on Roma and have more prestige films in production including Martin Scorsese’s next film, The Irishman. I personally worry about the tech giants having this much power in the film industry, as I fear that their presence would widen the gap between the film haves and have nots. Sure, respected filmmakers such as Alfonso Cuaron and Martin Scorsese will be fine, but how would the next Barry Jenkins be discovered? Film is about people, not about algorithms.
Still, there are great films released even in a down year such as 2018. Here’s my personal top ten list. Two caveats when reading through my list: I personally favor visually-oriented films, and I of course haven’t seen everything released in 2018.
1: Roma – Alfonso Cuaron
I was fortunate enough to see Roma a few months prior to its wide release at the Philadelphia Film Festival, where it cemented its status as the best film of 2018. After back-to-back commercial and critical sci-fi/fantasy successes including Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban, Children of Men, and Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron delivered something unexpected with his latest film, Roma. Roma is an intimate neo-realist film made with the eye-popping spectacle of a modern sweeping epic, complete with the director’s trademarks of elaborate tracking shots, meticulous choreography, and detailed world building. Neo-realist films (made popular by Italian filmmakers such as Fellini and Rossellini) are characterized by being more concerned with depicting the day-to-day life experience of their characters in a particular time and place rather than a traditional plot-driven three act narrative. The particular place is the Colonia Roma neighborhood in Mexico City, and the particular time is the early 1970s, both of which are brought to life with vivid black and white cinematography and the director’s technical virtuosity. As Cuaron is primarily concerned with depicting the film’s protagonist Cleo’s daily life experience as a nanny in Mexico City, (based on his own nanny from childhood), the film itself requires patience that is rewarded with a powerful ending. Beyond commenting about class in Latin culture and finding grace in every day life, Alfonso Cuaron emphasizes the interconnectedness of human experience and that all actions, no matter how small or large, have an effect on others.
2: If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins
There’s no sophomore slump for Barry Jenkins, whose follow up to Moonlight is a heartfelt love story set on a backdrop of racial injustice in 1970s Harlem. Barry Jenkins has a gift for using color, lighting, and music to set the mood of his films and convey the inner state of his characters. His cinematic technique has an Asian sensibility; indeed Barry Jenkins himself has stated that he’s quite influenced by the great Hong Kong filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai. (He also effectively borrows a bit from Martin Scorsese for Beale Street) Barry Jenkins fundamentally understands that the strength of cinema lies in portraying human experience rather than narrative arcs, and Beale Street conveys its social justice message through the experience its excellent characters falling in love and the obstacles they face as the audience shares in Tish and Fonny’s tenderness and hardship.
3. Annihilation – Alex Garland
Annihilation continues a yearly tradition of mature and smart science fiction that started with Gravity in 2013. Blending Solaris, Apocalypse Now, and Alien, Alex Garland deftly manages disparate tonal shifts to make a film that is equal parts contemplative and horrifying. Like a few films on my list this year, the narrative struggles toward the end. However, Alex Garland uses inventive and distinctive visuals to make a film that’s a metaphor for grief, impermanence, and the fragility of life.
4. Widows – Steve McQueen
“Heat for the me too era” is probably the best way to describe Widows. Both heist films share a film noir sensibility and feature complex characters whose actions are driven by broken family dynamics. Michael Mann in his 1995 classic used the tropes of the heist genre and his characters to comment on the relativity of good and evil. Steve McQueen goes further in Widows, by suggesting that the inherent corruption in American political power structures forces the characters in his film to make morally ambiguous choices. Steve McQueen makes his case with visual storytelling, best exemplified with the technically exhilarating but startling dialog scene filmed on a car dashboard as it drives through a gentrifying neighborhood in Chicago.
5. Mission Impossible: Fallout – Christopher McQuarrie
I personally had more fun with Mission Impossible: Fallout than any other film in 2018. An exercise in pure cinematic spectacle, the formula established by Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise is to provide spy movie thrills in the form of high adrenaline action sequences embedded in a cat-and-mouse caper storyline. (Which, upon close reflection, is admittedly completely ridiculous) The action sequences in Mission Impossible: Fallout are among the technically most accomplished in the action genre, which use the geography of its international locations in ingenuous ways. I couldn’t help but get a retro vibe when watching Mission Impossible: Fallout, with its reliance on intricate stunt work (famously performed by Tom Cruise himself) and insistence of capturing as many special effects in camera as possible. In an era where tent pole films are computer generated affairs, Mission Impossible: Fallout increasingly feels like filmmaking from another time and place.
6. First Reformed – Paul Schrader
Religious themes are probably the most challenging ideas to address in film, and Paul Schrader’s main character in First Reformed is stuck in the Dark Night of the Soul. Played brilliantly by Ethan Hawke, (who much deserves an Oscar nomination) Ernst Toller seeks consolation in the church he leads and in the writings of Christian Contemplatives in order to help him move beyond a personal tragedy, but consolation is nowhere to be found. First Reformed asks difficult existential questions about religious life. Is over-reliance on a religious institution an impediment to spiritual growth? Can personal faith be more than a cultural or political tribal allegiance? Is the greatest temptation on the spiritual journey not carnal pleasures, but in finding solutions to suffering that are unable to bring lasting happiness? Can true consolation only be found within, by helping others, or a combination of the two? Paul Schrader treats these questions seriously and explores them earnestly. An almost masterpiece, First Reformed falls apart during its lackluster, grindhouse ending that is overly inspired by Paul Schrader’s own screenplay from Taxi Driver. The ending simply doesn’t work and clouds the central themes of the film, however, few films in 2018 has stayed with me like First Reformed.
7. A Quiet Place – John Krasinski
A Quiet Place is the most tense and suspenseful movie experience of 2018, a genuinely terrifying horror movie brought to life with expert sound design, flawless acting, and smart editing. Taking a page from Ridley Scott’s Alien, John Krasinksi emphasizes atmosphere and tone rather than gore. There is a core of humanism beyond the scares and the horror movie tropes that asks what defines a family and what is needed to preserve it. The film’s well-drawn and empathetic characters each offer something unique to the family’s survival, including the smart and brave protagonist, Regan, who also happens to be deaf. Although her disability seemingly puts her at a disadvantage with the monsters of the film, John Krasinski cleverly subverts this assumption at every turn.
8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – The Coen Brothers
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a Twilight Zone-style anthology set in the Old West made with a Coen Brothers sensibility. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs consists of six short stories that manage a delicate tonal balancing act between hard-edged realism and exaggerated tall-tales, with the narratives blending the brutal with the absurd. The best Western since Tarantino’s Hateful Eight, the Coen Brothers turn Western tropes on their head. The first two short stories recall the Coen brothers screwball comedy roots, but the anthology soon enters the darkest territory the Coen brothers have covered since No Country For Old Men. Indeed, death is a central theme pervading all the anthology short stories.
9. A Star is Born – Bradley Cooper
A remake of a movie with the same name with Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, A Star is Born is part fairy tale, part Hollywood melodrama. Excellent acting and intimate direction elevate the film above its melodramatic tropes, as both Bradley Cooper (channeling both Eddie Vedder and Jeff Bridges) and Lady Gaga have great on-screen chemistry. In some ways, A Star is Born is the anti-Roma. Whereas Roma uses the cinematic language of epic spectacle to portray every day life, A Star is Born relies heavily on closeups, lending the film an intimacy and putting the emphasis on the actors. (Even the songs sung on stage are shot mostly in closeup)
10. The Favourite – Yorgos Lanthimos
The Favourite is an unpredictable blending of Downton Abbey and Veep. The screenplay is viciously funny, and the entire conceit of the film wouldn’t work without the excellent acting of Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone. The film is at its best when it enters Mad Men territory, reflecting on how a person of power who seemingly has everything could be so lonely and unhappy. The film stumbles during a lengthy setup and an anti-climactic ending, nevertheless The Favourite is the freshest costume drama to be released in a long time.
Honorable Mentions
- Burning – Lee Chang-Dong: I’m not as in love with Burning as the art-house film community is, but it’s nevertheless a thought-provoking slow-burn thriller about class warfare in Korea.
- Black Panther – Ryan Coogler: My personal distaste for Marvel Studios is the only thing keeping Black Panther from my top ten of the year, but it’s the best Marvel film to date.
- BlackKlansman – Spike Lee: Tonally off, but still provocative and Spike Lee’s best film in years.
- Isle of Dogs – Wes Anderson: Weaker characters than his other films, but still colorful, joyful, humanistic, and thematically very Wes Anderson.
Philadelphia Physicist 