There was a lot to talk about this year, and here’s a look at the year overall, the top films and the top performers.
There 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’ 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 “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” and its “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” as well as other studios’ Marvel Comics-based “Deadpool 2” and “Venom,” added up to half of 2018’s top 10 box-office titles. Heck, even the third highest-grossing film of the year, “The Incredibles 2” from sister Disney unit Pixar, played like a Marvel cartoon. And December release “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will likely be as big a hit with the public as it has been with critics, who uniformly seem to consider it 2018’s finest animated feature.
“Spider-Verse” introduces Miles Morales, the Latino/African-American incarnation of the webslinger, to cinema. That satisfyingly mirrors “Black Panther’s” 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: “Panther’s” Ryan Coogler, “A Wrinkle in Time’s” Ava DuVernay, “BlacKkKlansman’s” Spike Lee, “If Beale Street Could Talk’s” Barry Jenkins, “Widows’” Steve McQueen, “The Hate U Give’s” George Tillman Jr., “Sorry to Bother You’s” Boots Riley, “Creed II’s” Steven Cale Jr. Directors of other colors made insightful films about African-American culture (Antonio Mendez Esparza’s “Life & Nothing More,” Joseph Kahn’s “Bodied”).
Of course, the big news in August was “Crazy Rich Asians,” the first all-Asian cast Hollywood production in 25 years and a monster hit. Just as noteworthy, though, was the clever computer screen thriller “Searching,” which featured a predominantly Asian-American ensemble while never once remarking on its central, highly compelling family’s ethnicity.
Miles Morales aside, U. S. Latinos seemed underrepresented by comparison – again – in this year’s movies. Mexican filmmakers, however, extended their decade of artistic dominance with Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” the best theatrical experience of the year – 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 – “The Favourite” appears to be emerging as the movie awards favorite, at least for this week – and some fine films by female directors. Last weekend alone saw the L. A. releases of “Ben Is Back,” “Vox Lux,” “Dumplin’,” “The Party’s Just Beginning” and “Mary Queen of Scots,” all fine female-forward stories and the latter three directed by women. But the first full year of #MeToo/Time’sUp awareness in Hollywood saw only one film by a woman, DuVernay’s, crack the nine-figure ceiling. And complaints are starting to pile up about female filmmakers’ 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’m approaching that a little differently this time, in a way that I rarely do.
