It's that time of the year! 2019 is upon us, but for now, let's take a moment to look back at the year of 2018 in movies, and reflect on why it was once again a great year in the cinema. I already had five honorable mentions that I've posted prior to compiling this list, but here are the top ten movies of 2018. Without a doubt, I implore you to check these movies out. See it for the first time if you haven't seen them before or if you have seen them, rewatch them. And if you have your personal top ten, please do write on the comment below! Also, there are some on this list that I didn't have the chance to review on this website, but for the ones that I've got the chance to review in-depth, there's a link underneath. In descending order, here we go:
10. Ralph Breaks the Internet
Typical of a Disney animated movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet is rendered with state-of-the-art, colorful animation. Typical of every movie today, it is filled to the brim with pop culture references (and on top of that, an Avengers-style Disney Princesses team-up scene yearning for a feature-length movie). Typical of a great movie, it marries style with substance. It is both a cautionary tale about the Internet as well as a deeper, more existential look at the true meaning of friendship, told in a way that's accessible to people of all ages.
9. A Quiet Place
All horror movies start with the simplest of concepts. With A Quiet Place, it sets up a dystopian universe where monsters kill people if they make a sound. What could have been just a run-of-the-mill creature feature blossoms into a future 21st century horror classic thanks to John Krasinski's direction. Distancing itself from the jump scares-a-thon of today's horror flicks, it is a movie that prefers to keep the audience on edge through sustained tension than the occasional jolts, to effective result. Sound is essential in sustaining the tension, and it's clear that the people working in this movie pays close attention to the smallest of details, how floors creak, how objects fall, what silence sounds like, to maximize the scares. It certainly helps that the screenplay provides the movie with characters that's both human and worth giving a damn.
8. Leave No Trace
This Debra Granik's indie gem is one of the criminally underseen movies of the year. On a visual standpoint, it's got some meditatively breathtaking cinematography of mossy forests to please the eyes. But it's really the acting where it's worth all the money in the world. Ben Foster and Thomasin Mckenzie's subtle turns as father and daughter respectively are more powerful than anyone nominated in 2019's Golden Globes. It's their believable father-daughter chemistry which makes Leave No Trace work, this often uplifting, often heartbreaking tale of a father's love to his daughter, which dares to question at what point does that love become nurturing, at what point does it stunt a child's growth.
7. BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee's latest joint sees him explore one of the darkest chapters in 20th century American history: the reemergence of white supremacism in the hands of the infamous organization Ku Klux Klan. In theory, this should have been a straight-up horror movie. But Lee as a storyteller manages to find a bit of light in such a difficult subject, as BlacKkKlansman dramatically yet smoothly lurches from the breezy snappiness of a buddy cop movie to an unsettling social thriller where people spouts the n-word on a daily basis. It's a movie that reminds the audience of the importance of people like undercover policeman Ron Stallworth (portrayed charismatically by Denzel Washington's son John David Washington), a figure that perfectly symbolizes racial equality.
6. A Star is Born
With a talent like Lady Gaga onboard, it is not surprising that musically, A Star is Born is packed with surefire hits. It's the perfect stage for Gaga to prove her vocal versatility as she masterfully tackles a wide range of genres, whether it's acapella, jazz, powerful ballads to even her Poker Face-era Auto-tuned pop. At the same time, it's also the perfect stage for Gaga to prove herself as an actress. Atypical to her larger-than-life public persona, she fully embodies Ally, this movie's withdrawn, down-on-her-luck leading lady. Not to mention her chemistry with Bradley Cooper, which is both sweet and poignant in a very natural way. Still, what stands out above all though is the movie's social commentary on the music industry, which is so real and relatable that it's as impactful as a hard slap on the face.
5. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
The Mission: Impossible movies are already in its sixth entry with Fallout, but its latest could just be the action movie that trumps all action movies. It is a movie which sees a 56-year old Tom Cruise freefalling in mid-air and jumping from one building to another, no green screen, no wires. The scope and peril in Cruise's jaw-dropping stunts are further elevated by the intense camerawork and meticulous choreography, which also extends to the close quarter combat sequences (the three-way bathroom fight springs to mind). More than just action, Christopher McQuarrie supplies Ethan Hunt's latest mission with added emotional weight. It's not only Hunt's personal arc that matters, but also his relationship with the supporting members in the IMF, as well as their own personal arcs.
4. Incredibles 2
Back in 2004, The Incredibles came as a breath of fresh air to the superhero genre, biding its time to explore the family building aspect of a superhero team-up movie rather than just go straight to the old-fashioned superhero beat-down. With Incredibles 2, it is a case of sticking with the status quo. It plays with the same idea of the first movie, where normal lives are a superhero's most effective Kryptonite, even more effective than any super-powered world domination-hungry villains combined, and how that affects each and every member of the Parr family, young and old. The battle of the sexes aspect of Bob and Helen Parr's conflict this time around adds a lot to the proceedings. Still, in between the domestic matters, Brad Bird keeps things briskly moving with energetic animation and thrilling superhero fights that's both exhilarating (the train sequence comes to mind) and Looney Tunes-level hilarious (Jack Jack v. the Raccoon for example).
3.
Deadpool 2
2016's Deadpool was advertised as a romantic comedy, while 2018's Deadpool 2 is advertised as a family movie. Family movies with the biggest impact have heart, which Deadpool 2 surprisingly has in spades. It's that added dramatic weight which prevents this sequel from being just a one-trick pony movie. It actually deepens the character of the Merc with the Mouth to the point that he's more compelling than just a joke machine. This is a movie that, through a tragic opening involving the death of his loved one and his quasi brotherly relationship with Firefist, dares ask Marvel's most merciless antihero this question: is killing the answer to everything? Since this is a Deadpool sequel after all, it doubles down on the self-referential humor (taking pot shots at the DCEU and ramping up his obsession on Hugh Jackman while he's at it) as well as, with David Leitch onboard, the gore factor in its slick, fast-paced John Wick-esque action.
2.
Hereditary
Ari Aster's twisted feature-length directorial debut produces this year's most quietly disquieting horror movie experience. Hereditary breathes new life to the genre's storytelling through its old school perspective. It's not the jump scares, the loud sounds or stringy haired ghosts contorting its body in strange positions that unnerve people. It's the suggestion of such entity and how it represents the types of fear that's tangible in real life. All a ghost can do is just mess people's minds up, similar to this movie's ghosts where the sight of them standing silently in the corner or subtly creeping on walls are more than enough to send chills. Aster's fascination with the dollhouse aesthetics and tragic characters serves as the perfect juxtaposition between the idyll of the outside world and the bleakness of the Graham family's mental state. It uses its visual and horror movie tropes to explore themes like grief and survivor's guilt, how it can bring out the worst in people, exemplified by Toni Collette's unhinged performance.
1.
Spiderman Into the Spider-verse
Many Spiderman movies come and go, but Into the Spider-verse might just be the one that's going to be as fondly remembered as the first two Sam Raimi movies. Watching Into the Spider-verse is like watching history unfold, involving a risk-taker that consistently bends the rules of both animated and superhero filmmaking at every turn. This movie is the definition of comic book pages coming to life, where so much movement, energy and colors unravel in one imagery after another. Everything that's happening in the background has as much life as the characters in the foreground, aided by a hand-drawn-meets-CGI animation hybrid visual style that will go down as the most groundbreaking discovery in animation since 1995's Toy Story. Visuals aside, it's got a clever mix of pop culture reference and everyday life humor as well as a gigantic amount of heart. It's a movie that abides to the late Stan Lee's ideal: human first before the superhero. It manages to correlate young Miles Morales' doubts and struggles of being a superhero with that of a teenager trying to come to terms with growing up.
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