There was a lot to talk about this year, and here\u2019s a look at the year overall, the top films and the top performers.<\/b>
\nThere were a lot of significant events at the movies in 2018.
Perhaps the main one being that people went to the movies. Went a lot, despite dire warnings of Netflix, Amazon Prime and other such streaming services taking computerized control of all good, 21st Century citizens\u2019 moving picture viewing habits.
Instead, folks flocked to cinemas, especially for anything with Marvel superheroes in it. Disney-owned Marvel Studios registered the third and fourth highest North American grosses of all time with \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and \u201cAvengers: Infinity War,\u201d and its \u201cAnt-Man and the Wasp,\u201d as well as other studios\u2019 Marvel Comics-based \u201cDeadpool 2\u201d and \u201cVenom,\u201d added up to half of 2018\u2019s top 10 box-office titles. Heck, even the third highest-grossing film of the year, \u201cThe Incredibles 2\u201d from sister Disney unit Pixar, played like a Marvel cartoon. And December release \u201cSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse\u201d will likely be as big a hit with the public as it has been with critics, who uniformly seem to consider it 2018\u2019s finest animated feature.
\u201cSpider-Verse\u201d introduces Miles Morales, the Latino\/African-American incarnation of the webslinger, to cinema. That satisfyingly mirrors \u201cBlack Panther\u2019s\u201d early year critical and commercial triumph with the first almost all-African superhero spectacular. Beyond that, 2018 was another highly fruitful year of films by black auteurs: \u201cPanther\u2019s\u201d Ryan Coogler, \u201cA Wrinkle in Time\u2019s\u201d Ava DuVernay, \u201cBlacKkKlansman\u2019s\u201d Spike Lee, \u201cIf Beale Street Could Talk\u2019s\u201d Barry Jenkins, \u201cWidows\u2019\u201d Steve McQueen, \u201cThe Hate U Give\u2019s\u201d George Tillman Jr., \u201cSorry to Bother You\u2019s\u201d Boots Riley, \u201cCreed II\u2019s\u201d Steven Cale Jr. Directors of other colors made insightful films about African-American culture (Antonio Mendez Esparza\u2019s \u201cLife & Nothing More,\u201d Joseph Kahn\u2019s \u201cBodied\u201d).
Of course, the big news in August was \u201cCrazy Rich Asians,\u201d the first all-Asian cast Hollywood production in 25 years and a monster hit. Just as noteworthy, though, was the clever computer screen thriller \u201cSearching,\u201d which featured a predominantly Asian-American ensemble while never once remarking on its central, highly compelling family\u2019s ethnicity.
Miles Morales aside, U. S. Latinos seemed underrepresented by comparison \u2013 again \u2013 in this year\u2019s movies. Mexican filmmakers, however, extended their decade of artistic dominance with Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s \u201cRoma,\u201d the best theatrical experience of the year \u2013 and, defiantly enough, one that new devil Netflix got roped into paying for.
As for women, well, a lot of great roles for actresses this year \u2013 \u201cThe Favourite\u201d appears to be emerging as the movie awards favorite, at least for this week \u2013 and some fine films by female directors. Last weekend alone saw the L. A. releases of \u201cBen Is Back,\u201d \u201cVox Lux,\u201d \u201cDumplin\u2019,\u201d \u201cThe Party\u2019s Just Beginning\u201d and \u201cMary Queen of Scots,\u201d all fine female-forward stories and the latter three directed by women. But the first full year of #MeToo\/Time\u2019sUp awareness in Hollywood saw only one film by a woman, DuVernay\u2019s, crack the nine-figure ceiling. And complaints are starting to pile up about female filmmakers\u2019 lack of traction in the current awards season.
So, all of that and a whole lot of musicals in this eventful year. But what you really want to know is, what are my top 10 movies of 2018, right? I\u2019m approaching that a little differently this time, in a way that I rarely do. For these kinds of lists, I tend to think weighted rankings mean a lot, though I could not tell you why.
But in 2018, I saw a number of great films that I more or less liked equally, and just one that transcended everything else. So yeah, I have a best movie of the year, but the rest of the top 10 (teased, inelegantly as usual, to a dozen or so) are listed alphabetically with a few add-on exceptions.
Don\u2019t call me a wimp. Or if you must, at least call me a wimp who saw a lot that he liked.
Best film of 2018:
Roma: Everything is just about perfectly realized in director\/writer\/ cinematographer Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s memory film from his 1970s, Mexico City youth. The fascinating particularity of its incidents, the richly designed frames of its silky yet realistic, black-and-white images, the precisely edited length of time our eyes are given to savor each of those shots\u2019 details and implications. . and Yalitza Aparicio, the amateur actress who turns the selfless, loving nanny stereotype into a universe of inner conflicts and quietly churning mysteries.
The other best films of 2018:
Black Panther: Is it possible to separate \u201cBlack Panther\u2019s\u201d unprecedented cultural and commercial impact from its groundbreaking artistry? I don\u2019t know, but I do know that Ryan Coogler not only made a superhero film like no other, but also made the most African film \u2013 informed by the continent\u2019s aesthetics, traditions and politics \u2013 Hollywood has ever bankrolled. He didn\u2019t avoid the crowd-pleasing elements that some (wrongly) say make all Marvel movies the same, but he made the humor and social anxiety entirely his own. As for the action, two words: battle rhinos.
Blaze: There was only one authentic movie about a country artist\u2019s substance abuse, busted romance, struggles with selling out and untimely death this year, and it didn\u2019t involve Lady Gaga. Ethan Hawke\u2019s biopic of mostly unknown Texas troubadour Blaze Foley featured a fully lived-in lead performance by actual musician Ben Dickey and an even better, spookily accurate supporting portrayal of Foley\u2019s enabling frenemy Townes Van Zandt by another music pro, Charlie Sexton. It says something, too, that this was the 2018 music film that onetime \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d actor Kris Kristofferson chose to cameo in. Hawke wins the 2018 trifecta for directing this, starring in \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d (the year\u2019s best performance) and expertly playing a burnt-out singer-songwriter himself in \u201cJuliet, Naked.\u201d
A Ciambra: Though an American, filmmaker Jonas Carpignano brought an Italian Romany community to persuasive, pulsating and morally messed-up life in this story of criminality as multi-generational way of life (and not just for the Romani, but the Calabrian cops and African immigrants they interact with, too). I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen so many tight, handheld shots swirl around so jitter-free.
Cold War: Like \u201cRoma,\u201d something of a speculative, black-and-white memory film, this one inspired by writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski\u2019s parents\u2019 stormy relationship with one another and as artists, in Communist Poland and beyond. The year\u2019s swooniest mad love story. And oddly enough its best musical, which it\u2019s not really even trying to be.
If Beale Street Could Talk: Following his Oscar-winning \u201cMoonlight\u201d with this heart-holding adaptation of James Baldwin\u2019s 1974 novel proves that Barry Jenkins understands love better than any other director working today. Wounded soul performances from KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Brian Tyree Henry and many others speak to institutionalized racism\u2019s horrendous cost, sure, but it\u2019s the commitment that they express and act on \u2013 that their characters live on \u2013 which so artfully warms this otherwise tragic story.
Life and Nothing More: A single mom struggles with her teenaged son\u2019s drift toward delinquency and a lot of other stuff she\u2019s not equipped to handle, but does anyway. Somehow, Spanish director Antonio Mendez Esparza approaches this oft-told tale in vivid, convincing, thoroughly African-American detail. There was hardly any script, and the ad-libbing skills of nonpro (in resume only) actors Regina Williams, Andrew Bleechington and Robert Williams were clearly key to achieving that effect. It\u2019s also the most artfully framed film about messy reality this side of \u201cRoma.\u201d
Mid90s\/Wildlife: Admired actors Jonah Hill and Paul Dano\u2019s first feature directing efforts both turned out exceptionally well, capturing not only terrific performances but strong senses of their places and times (the delinquent L. A. skateboarding scene of 20 years ago in Hill\u2019s, early \u201860s dead-end smalltown Montana in Dano\u2019s). I guess we might legitimately squeeze YouTube star Bo Burnham\u2019s astonishingly empathetic \u201cEighth Grade\u201d into this grouping if we want to. Which we do.
Searching: Rescuing the it\u2019s-all-happening-on- computer-screens conceit from crappy horror movies, novice feature director Aneesh Chaganty tells the best mystery of the year while presenting the full measure of parental angst and the story of one family, the Silicon Valley Kims, with heartrending completeness. All props to \u201cVice\u2019s\u201d Christian Bale, but John Cho, as \u201cSearching\u2019s\u201d widowed dad probing the internet and the maddening inconsistencies of human actions, had the toughest technical acting job of the year, got the full measure of a man across with, mainly, just a GoPro to play off of. Chaganty and his effects team also had a blast creating a Wild West Web that looks and acts much like the real one, but had to be entirely, and often wittily, fabricated for this movie.
Shoplifters: For years now, Hirokazu Kore-eda has been compared to Japan\u2019s (and the world\u2019s) past master of family drama, Yasujiro Ozu. With \u201cShoplifters\u201d Kore-eda not only fully blossoms into the position, but slyly subverts our very notions of what a family is or can be. The last half hour is among the most emotionally potent stretches of cinema you\u2019ll ever see.
Zama: The psychosis of colonialism fills the backgrounds of Lucrecia Martel\u2019s eccentric and feverishly gorgeous study of an 18th Century Argentine functionary who just wants to get home to his family in Spain. If only the local ladies who keep distracting him, and the king, would permit it. Based on Antonio Di Benedetto\u2019s novel, this thing is cruelly woke, yes. But more important, it\u2019s distinctively nuts.
Performers of the Year: We\u2019ve already mentioned Ethan Hawke, right? So how about some love for Three Reginas: Regina Hall (\u201cSupport the Girls,\u201d \u201cThe Hate U Give\u201d), Regina King (\u201cBeale Street\u201d) and Regina Williams (\u201cLife and Nothing More\u201d)? Two veterans summoning all their powers and a first-timer who could not be more real, they made motherhood memorable and magnificent this year, whether as surrogate to a bevy of young women, concerned and conflicted but not necessarily compromised, unstoppable in defense of her unjustly treated son until she hits the wall of a stranger abused at least as badly, or justifiably just fed up but continuing on.<\/p>\n