Top 10 Films of 2018
Here’s a look at some of my favorite films from last year.
10. Mission Impossible: Fallout
“I’ll figure it out.”
Mission Impossible: Fallout is so fun to watch. Every time I find myself starting to hate on Tom Cruise, he goes and does a live-action HALO dive, drives a high-speed motorcycle through France, and learns to fly a helicopter through the mountains of New Zealand. Cruise is the embodiment of a blockbuster movie star, and he may be the only one left. Fallout continues the trend that the Mission Impossible franchise has set, keep making the action bigger. The film has some of the most insane stunts that a movie has ever attempted, and its pay-off is undeniable. One of the greatest action movies ever made.
9. Game Night
“Three bags of Tostitos scoops I noticed...Three for one?...How can that be profitable for Frito Lay?”
Game Night was one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I went into it expecting another raunchy, sub-average comedy, but what I got was a smartly crafted and perfectly cast hour and a half of pure hilarity. It has been a long time since I’ve laughed this hard at a movie. Bateman and McAdams are brilliant together as a hyper-competitive couple who have to learn they can’t be young forever. Gary is one of my favorite characters ever created in a comedy, Jesse Plemons is in peak form here. One of my favorite things about this film is that unlike most recent comedies, Game Night doesn’t rely on raunchy sexual humor to bring the laughs. Each character has their own style of humor and it all melds together perfectly.
8. Private Life
“And I know, intellectually, that I am supposed to do something for you now. Comfort you, or whatever. But I'm sorry that I can't. I just don't have it in me.”
After watching Private Life my first thought was, can we please have more movies with Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn? The way that these two actors interact with one another and play off of each other, made their performances two of my favorites from the year. The storyline is a complex one, a couple going through the struggles of infertility and transitioning into the IVF process. Wherever you as a viewer stand on this issue, one cannot take away from the fact that this film beautifully encapsulates the struggle and heartbreak that people going through this process often experience. As the above quote from the film references, there is a consistent honesty present in each characters’ dialogue that powerfully enhances the couple’s relationship.
7. Minding the Gap
“When you're a kid, you just do, you just act and then somewhere along the line, everyone loses that.”
This documentary is heartbreaking and hopeful. Minding the Gap questions how one should know what being a man looks like when your father figure hardly even makes you feel human. Bing Liu documents the life of himself and two close friends growing up, as they attempt to navigate their home struggles through the outlet of skateboarding. The power in this documentary lies in the honesty of its subjects and the bluntness of its creator. I’ll never forget the moment Liu asks his mother for the first time, “Why did you stay with him and let him beat me?” or Liu asking Kiere, “Why do you skateboard? Doesn’t it hurt?” and Kiere replying, “Yeah it hurts, but I love it; my Dad hurt me too, but I still love him.”
6. If Beale Street Could Talk
“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
Barry Jenkins has yet to make a misstep. From directing Best Picture-winning Moonlight to his adaptation of James Baldwin’s acclaimed novel, Jenkins is in a league of his own. Rarely do you see a supporting cast give a film such a powerful foundation as this. The beautiful score helps to provide the intimate feel that this film achieves. My only wish is that Brian Tyree Henry could’ve been in it longer. Everything about If Beale Street Could Talk feels specifically crafted and executed as intended. Every member of the Rivers family was my favorite thing about this film.
5. Roma
“I like being dead.”
Roma is so beautifully poignant and precise. I found myself along with Pepe, seeing myself as someone I was not, becoming apart of the world unfolding before me on the screen. Yalitza Aparicio is magnificent. I can’t believe she decided to do this movie just because she’d finished school to be a teacher and “had nothing better to do” while she waited for her results. Cuaron is unlike anyone else when it comes to his dyadic pairing of symbolism and technical precision. I was very thankful I had Kleenex close by. The entire movie is fantastic, but the third act is an absolute masterclass.
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.”
I mean what does one even say? A Spider-Man movie with six different Spider-Men, one of which is voiced by Nicolas Cage. What more needs to be said? The fan reaction to Into the Spiderverse has been a strong one, sparking the creation of the #spidersona trend that has people drawing their one versions of Spider-Man that they see themselves as. This plays directly into the message that the film is trying to express, anyone can wear the mask. Don’t for one second think that you should give up on this because “Animated movies aren’t your thing.” This film should be nominated for best picture, not just animated picture.
3. Paddington 2
“Aunt Lucy said, if we're kind and polite the world will be right.”
If you’ve talked to me at all about my favorite movies this year, you’ll have no doubt heard about my strong love of Paddington. Paul King achieves the impossible here. He puts a CGI BEAR, into the real world, gives him a passion for marmalade, sends him to prison, AND YET SOMEHOW YOU CARE ABOUT THIS BEAR LIKE HE’S A REAL PERSON. Hugh Grant deserves a supporting actor nomination for this one. Paddington 2 was one of the best theater-going experiences I had this year. It was myself and about 20 adults with special needs who were on a field trip with their day program. It still brings me to tears thinking about the joy and the laughter that was exuding from the theater that day. It was a beautiful reminder that film has the power to transcend all kinds of barriers, and that the simple story of a Peruvian bear could bring myself and twenty other people I’d never met, together for a couple of hours on a Saturday.
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor
“Love is at the root of everything - all learning, all parenting, all relationships. Love or the lack of it. And what we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.”
Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a delightful documentary that invites us to discover all of the goodness that there’s still to find in this world. There’s that common saying that says you should never meet your heroes because they’ll always disappoint you. However, Mr. Rogers was not one of those people. Through various interviews and behind the scenes footage, the documentary explores the impact that Mr. Rogers had on everyone around him, which was not only kids, but adults as well. The question of “what does one do to make the world truly good?” is often asked. While Mr. Rogers tried best he could to answer it, I’m not sure he would admit to ever truly finding the answer. As someone who only watched a little bit of Mr. Rogers growing up, this documentary made me want to go back and watch it all. Whether it was breaking down emotional barriers and talking to kids about the fear of being worthless, or breaking down racial barriers and casting a black man as a police officer in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Mr. Rogers made an impact on this world that will not soon be forgotten.
1. First Reformed
“Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously, hope and despair. A life without despair is a life without hope. Holding these two ideas in our head is life itself.”
Reverend Toller often quotes Thomas Merton, battling between this seemingly contradictory struggle of hope and despair. First Reformed is visually mesmerizing, forcing the viewer to soak in everything on screen. Hawke is a subtle but powerful force to be reckoned with, giving a performance that should be remembered. But more than that, First Reformed is a carefully weaved warning for Christians to stop trying to create their own form of convenient Christianity. One cannot pick and choose the commands of God they wish to follow. The various film techniques that Schrader uses are ones he admits to having picked out from film history, most notably the levitation scene that he took from Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. These various styles that Schrader employs give the film a truly unique feel and contribute strongly to why First Reformed is my favorite film of 2018.
by Nathan Robertson