Every Movie I Saw in 2018
Hey there! It’s 2019 now, and we’re actually a full month into it. There are actual 2019 movies out now, including our regularly scheduled Liam Neeson revenge movie that’s set to release in a week or so (he kills people with a snowplow in this one, pretty sure it’s going to be a new American classic). But I had a particularly busy January, so I was unable to get around to my annual tradition of listing every release I saw from the last year, ranked from best to worst. Turns out 2018, like most every year, had a lot of great movies! It also had a lot of mediocre-to-bad movies, but also our entire culture descended into a near literal hellscape, so who are we to complain, you know?
Anyway, I put together maybe my most eclectic list ever in 2018. My top 10 oscillates from the some of the most empathetic and moving films I’ve ever seen to movies full of nothing but darkness and cynicism. Also, I saw three movies last year that revolved around the same central plot point of a woman being pushed off a cliff yet somehow surviving against all odds. Oh 2018, you just loved making the subtext into text.
Here’s the list. I’d say I liked everything ranked ahead of The Week Of and didn’t like anything ranked below it. Apologies to people who loved Mandy. No apologies to people who loved Bohemian Rhapsody, you suck.
And to answer your inevitable questions: Yes, Paddington 2 really is that good.
Eighth Grade
Paddington 2
Leave No Trace
The Death of Stalin
Revenge
Widows
Minding the Gap
Black Panther
Roma
Set It Up
If Beale Street Could Talk
Hereditary
Hold the Dark
Support the Girls
Sorry to Bother You
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Blindspotting
Private Life
The Favourite
Avengers: Infinity War
The Tale
Shirkers
First Reformed
Shoplifters
Tomb Raider
Madeline’s Madeline
The Rachel Divide
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
A Simple Favor
Chappaquiddick
Tully
Burning
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Bad Times at the El Royale
Annihilation
Beautiful Boy
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
You Were Never Really Here
Crazy Rich Asians
BlacKkKlansman
The Wife
Red Sparrow
The Predator
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Game Night
What Keeps You Alive
Mary Poppins Returns
The Land of Steady Habits
The Grinch
Bird Box
Deadpool 2
The Week Of
Isle of Dogs
A Quiet Place
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Solo: A Star Wars Story
First Man
Incredibles 2
A Wrinkle in Time
Ant-Man and the Wasp
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Mandy
Aquaman
Love, Simon
Anna and the Apocalypse
Halloween
The Cloverfield Paradox
Searching
Vice
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Venom
Bohemian Rhapsody
Slice
Green Book
The Hurricane Heist
Fahrenheit 451
Rampage
The Meg
Ready Player One
Capernaum
Ibiza
Hotel Artemis
Gotti
The Happytime Murders
And some awards to cap things off:
Best Actress: Helena Howard, Madeline’s Madeline (Runner-up: Kathryn Hahn, Private Life)
Best Actor: Ben Foster, Leave No Trace (Runner-up: John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman)
Best Performance in a Bad Movie: Elizabeth Debicki, The Cloverfield Paradox (Runner-up: Y’lan Noel, Slice)
(Honorable Mention: Sterling K. Brown, The Predator. I actually liked The Predator, but Brown’s performance here is basically the template for a great performance in a bad movie)
Worst Performance: Spencer Lofranco, Gotti (Runner-up: Li Bingbing, The Meg)
Best Dog: The Oracle, Isle of Dogs (Runner-up: Charlie, A Star Is Born)
Best Movie Where a Woman Is Pushed Off a Cliff Supposedly to Her Death, Yet Shockingly Survives: Revenge (Runner-up: What Keeps You Alive) [Runner-up-up: Searching]
(Jesus, why were so many movies pushing women off cliffs in 2018?)
Best Scene: The Accident, Hereditary (Runner-up: Equisapien Sales Pitch, Sorry to Bother You)
Setting of the Year: Oakland, Sorry to Bother You/Blindspotting/Black Panther (Runner-up: Suburban Dallas, Support the Girls)
Looking forward to naming Liam Neeson Kills People With a Snowplow as my #1 movie of 2019.
Toss
