by Nathaniel R
Given that we're two months into a new year, the best cinema of 2018 is receding in our mind's eye, still shimmering but moving out of focus. But so much vivid color and feeling remains. Before we are fully blinded to its beauties (until, that is, they are "old films" and we can revisit) by a whole new batch of cinematic images to obsess over, here's one last post to honor the year that was. Here's your host's choices for the 25 best films of 2018.
This year's HONORABLE MENTIONS are a varied bunch taking us from horny self-discovery in Swedish woods to a trash-heap island in Japan. Strangely, grief was the year's most defining theme across genres as diverse as horror, tragicomedy, bopics, thrillers, character studies, and romantic dramas.
The films are listed in loosely ascending order, though we always reserve the right to change our minds where lists and rankings are concerned:
- Paddington 2 (Paul King, UK) If all franchises were crafted with this much heart and warmth and wit, Hollywood wouldn't feel souless at all.
- Border (Ali Abassi, Sweden) A refreshing oddity which totally commits to its own hybrid identity as its protagonist discovers hers.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Ramsey, Persichetti, and Rothman, US) If all superhero movies were this fun, inclusive, and inventive, they'd deserve their now automic success in the marketplace.
- First Man (Damien Chazelle, US) A nation's epic ambitions paired with a marriage's intimate drama. So elegantly crafted.
- Burning (Lee Chang-dong) as elusive and mysterious as a cat that doesnt want to be seen, until it saunters boldy into sight to stare you down.
- First Reformed (Paul Schrader, US) The year's most disturbing drama. Hard to shake and necessary.
- Widows (Steve McQueen) Overstuffed and strangely paced, but reverberating with provocative ideas and juicy characters.
- Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, Lebanon) For all that urgency and visceral feeling, not to mention one of the great child performances.
- Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, US) for its ramshackle charms and subtle character-portrait
- Hereditary (Ari Aster, US) What a calling card debut, from that dollhouse opening shot all the way through that psychotic break ending, a new horror classic.
RUNNERS UP. Oh, if there were room in the top ten for all of these...
- Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson, US) Anderson was born for this medium, his compositional whimsy sparking to and surprising with the animated form.
- Western (Valerie Grisebach, Germany/Bulgaria) A hypnotic rethinking of an American genre to address a European conflict
- Disobedience (Sebastian Lelio, Ireland/UK/US) A beautifully acted drama of faith and sexuality and redemptive childhood bonds.
- Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland) Like Viktor, we can't get Zula or the ever-shifting music out of our heads. Even better on second viewing.
- Wildlife (Paul Dano, US) An underappreciated but promising directorial debut. Deeply felt with a sensational star turn at the center.
AND NOW THE TOP TEN LIST 2018
We the Animals
(Jeremiah Zagar)
The Orchard. Aug 17th
94 minutes
While it bears some traditional flaws of the "first feature" -- the influences are baldy obvious for one -- there's a feral beauty and humane heft to this coming-of-age story about a young queer biracial boy living in poverty, the film's succession of images brilliantly pulling him further and further away from the family as it goes until he's all but flown away. Kudos to the writer/director for adapting what should have been an unfilmable (but amazing) memoir with such cinematic zest.
A Simple Favor
(Paul Feig)
Lionsgate. September 14th
117 minutes
The first thing me and my best friend did when we got out of A Simple Favor was make a plan to see it again with our other best friend who we knew would absolutely love it. We all went again the next week and the new convert immediately started making plans to see it with another friend of his. Emily (Blake Lively) would hate this urge to share her movie, but if she wants to slip by unnoticed, she needs to stop being such a fucking legend. It's a great central tension for this tetchy, stylish, strange, and very funny movie that's constantly in-fighting about what kind of movie it's going to be. Is it a comedy? A thriller? a mystery? aspirational real estate/wardrobe/girl-power porn? winking modern noir? It's all of these things and it wears each of them almost as well as Blake wears a suit. Paul Feig is a great comedy director, and absurdly reliable when it comes to directing actresses to their very best feature film performances. He's already accomplished that with Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids... though McCarthy just outdid herself again) and Rose Byrne (Spy). Now he can add Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick to that list.
(If you'd like to compare this to an Oscar ballot, here then, is where the best picture nominees would begin... given the Academy's annoying sliding scale)
BlacKkKlansman
(Spike Lee)
Focus Features. August 10th
135 minutes
Though BlacKkKlansman is set in the 1970s, Spike Lee's first molotov cocktail is to explode the timeline immediately with a 1939 film clip. Later a 1915 clip and finally, after spinning a great yarn, a 2017 clip. Aided considerably by longtime collaborators on fire like Terence Blanchard on score, and Barry Alexander Brown in the editing room, and a fine cast eager to dig into his tonally challenging heavily embellished but TRUE where it counts story, the celebrated auteur has made one of his very best films for the right now by engaging with multiple back thens and cinema history itself. Some period pieces are just contemporary films in drag and this Spike Lee Joint is unfortunately timely. Let's hope it's not timeless.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
(Marielle Heller)
Fox Searchlight. Oct 19th
106 minutes
Okay so I have this "friend" who is a writer and queer and lives in NYC and has been known to hang out at the bar Julius. He obsesses over dead legends and he struggles with feeling lonely and past his prime and that worries that maybe he has to [Jane Curtin voice] 'get out there and find another way to earn a living!' And his cat died two years ago and... and... I can't keep up this charade anymore. I'll turn myself in. The "friend" ... it me! No, YOU relate to Can You Ever Forgive Me too much!
Tully
(Jason Reitman)
Focus Features. May 4th
95 minute
There is not a better or more surprising dream-team working in the movies than the Jason Reitman + Diably Cody + Charlize Theron triumverate. The brilliance of their first collaboration, Young Adult, went largely unnoticed and misinterpreted at the time but the film quickly developed a cult following and has aged spectacularly well. Tully met the same immediate fate and will, with any luck, find its devout audience and age just as beautifully ...even if it doesn't want to. While not as rowdy or as acidly funny as Young Adult, Tully is even more profound about the universal experience of growing up; what we cling to, what we let go, who we are when we do. May these three artists make one movie together every six years. It will be the best stealth franchise of all time.
Roma
(Alfonso Cuarón)
Netflix. November 21st.
135 minutes
A shameful confession: As the year wore on and the kudos piled up I began to resent Roma for becoming a Goliath when it was such a remarkable David. Such is the insanity of awards season which makes everyone a little bonkers (even those who claim not to care about it) and in its most basic form tends to heighten opinions one already held sometimes too the point of distortion. Now that the crashing waves of gold have receded, we return to sanity and remember and recognize that though we dont feel all that personally attached to Roma, the evidence that Alfonso Cuaron did, as he built this epic monument to the woman who helped raise him, is written on every sublimely beautiful frame. It's a glorious spectacle and a major moment in this auteur's deservedly loved filmography.
Shoplifters
(Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Magnolia Pictures. November 23rd
121 minutes
Koreeda is a magician. When I think of Shoplifters I struggle to remember individual scenes or character particulars (two things I generally recall well in movie fandom) or anything really other than the massive cumulative effect of it all. His soul-stirring treatise on the nature of family is seemingly modest in execution but invisibly masterful all the same. It's a great film possessed by true heart and forceful humanity. When the movie ended I felt briefly abandoned, like the courts had separated us because apparently you're not allowed to live in movie theaters? Bureaucracies will never understand chosen families and people and places which feel like home, even when you don't technically have one.
Eighth Grade
(Bo Burnham)
A24. July 13th
93 minutes
(to the tune of "Born Free")
Eighth Grade, was painful to sit through
Cuz it was painful to live through
Eight Grade, it echoes your heart
Eight Grade, insightful and so true
Elsie and Bo will astound you
"Gucci" 👌these two will go far.
A Star is Born
(Bradley Cooper)
Warner Bros. October 5th
136 minutes
(to the tune of "Born this Way")
"There's nothing wrong with lovin' remakes, boo"
She said, "When Bradley made it perfect, babe"
"So hold your head up girl and rank it at two,
You cried like Sam in driveway"
Beautifully shot by the way!
Judy, Babs, Gaga, hey!
"Shallow"s a tight track, Movie Stars are born this way!
The Favourite
(Yorgos Lanthimos)
Fox Searchlight. November 23rd
119 minutes
(to the tune of "Favorite Things")
Mudbath moustaches
And royal duck races
Wedding night handjobs and Abigail's two faces
French whore vajujus and rabbits (seventeen!)
These are a few of my Favourite scenes
When Queen Anne barfs!
When Sarah's quips sting!
When Harley strokes his cane!
I simply remember The Favourite's my thing
Cuz Lanthimos is insane.
And, yes, this means the 19th annual Film Bitch Award nominations are complete at last! (You can also see a list of everything screened in vague ever-changing order of preference at my letterboxd page or the review page here on the site. While we're sharing links please do follow us on Instagram won't you?)