The 10 Best Movies of 2018

There may not have been a ton of great movies released in 2018, but 2018 was still a great year for movies. It was one of the most fertile cinematic years that I can remember, full of challenging, fascinating films that were far from perfect but were resolutely good and—more important—interesting. Even as the industry continues to undergo seismic change, the movies themselves remain a vibrant cultural center, a thriving bazaar where viewers can converse, promote, argue, and discover.

It was also a year full of exciting and diverse voices, varied not only in terms of race and gender, but also with respect to age, style, and even mode of distribution. Black directors made themselves heard, and loudly, from the stirring adventure of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther to the fiery agitprop of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman to the scalding satire of Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You to the youthful anger of George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give to the piercing melancholy of Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. Women, too, continued to assert themselves as equals in a marketplace that has treated them as inferiors for far too long; Kay Cannon’s Blockers made us laugh, Chloé Zhao’s The Rider made us cry, and Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? made us do both, while Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer and Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here made us tremble in fear and awe.

Actors went behind the camera for the first time, plying their trade in all manner of genres; Bradley Cooper gave us old-Hollywood glamour with A Star Is Born, Jonah Hill provided a different sort of nostalgia with mid90s, and Bo Burnham flashed back to the agony of adolescence with Eighth Grade. Another debut filmmaker, Ari Aster, revolutionized our understanding of just how scary movies can be with Hereditary, while newcomer Daniel Goldhaber explored the horrors of the internet with Cam. The latter was distributed by Netflix, which continued to change how movies are watched; the streaming giant established itself as a major player in 2018, releasing an array of provocative titles, from a Best Picture nominee to a devastating marital portrait to a Western anthology from American cinema’s most revered tandem.

All of those movies are worth seeing; none of them made my top 10. In fact, six of the films that did make my list went unheralded by the vast majority of critics when they compiled their own best-of lists. That’s less a statement on the peculiarity of my tastes than a welcome consequence of a medium that keeps offering bountiful new pleasures from every corner of the globe—not to mention the multiplex, the art house, and your television. There was so much to see in 2018, it’s small wonder that we can’t easily agree on what was the best. These were my 10 favorites:

Honorable mention, aka “The Next 10” (alphabetical): Destroyer, Eighth Grade, The Escape, First Man, Private Life, Roma, Tag, The Tale, Tully, Widows.

10. Blindspotting. A funny and poignant look at two best buds navigating the perils of the criminal justice system—as well as the more prosaic challenges of work, marriage, and parenting—Carlos López Estrada’s three-days-in-the-life drama pulses with contemporary significance. It is also blisteringly entertaining, packing important themes and ideas into a fast-paced story that teems with detail and color. Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal both deliver powerhouse performances (they also wrote the screenplay), crafting a thorny friendship that bristles with vitality, realism, and life.

9. Mission: Impossible—Fallout. Cinema’s greatest action franchise gets increasingly grandiose with each dazzling new installment, a vertiginous game of self-referential one-upmanship. Returning to the director’s chair after the magnificent Rogue Nation, Christopher McQuarrie evinces a keen understanding of how these films tick, reeling off one staggering set piece after another. His style is defined by speed but also skill, with a deceptive elegance that only enhances the astonishing stunt work. His muse is Tom Cruise, a fiercely committed artist who keeps giving these movies his all. Bones break, necks snap, helicopters explode, and through it all, you grip your seat and hold your breath. (Full review here.)

8. Cold War. Post-war Poland must have been a grueling place to live, and this rigorous picture doesn’t flinch from its ugliness and absurdity. But the genius of Pawel Pawlikowski’s aching film is the way it uses the tragedy of history as a mere backdrop for its central romance, a love story that’s soaring and searing in equal measure. Unfolding over a bracingly taut 85 minutes, Cold War transforms nationwide strife into personal trauma, a pain that’s heightened through the astute, prickly performances of Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot. But this is no piece of miserabilism; it’s a joyous work of cinema, with lapidary craft and a number of boisterous sequences that only amplify the agony. It’s a hammer and sickle swung straight into your heart. (Streaming on Amazon beginning March 22.)

7. Incredibles 2. Everything old is super again in this rip-roaring adventure that doubles as a sweet and gentle meditation on the importance of family. Also, it’s hilarious. Brad Bird has never channeled his enormous imagination with such visual audacity, while his dialogue still sings with warmth and wit. And thematically, few films have made parenting seem so daunting, and so rewarding. Affection resides in every frame of this movie, whether it’s a motorcycle sprinting to catch a runaway train or a weary father cracking open a textbook. (Full review here; streaming on Netflix.)

6. Leave No Trace. Two people struggle to escape the world, only to discover that the world might not be so bad. That realization doubles as a reckoning in Debra Granik’s exquisitely observed drama, which reveals anguish by way of tenderness. Ben Foster plays brilliantly against type as a withdrawn veteran, while Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is downright revelatory as a teenager torn between security and devotion. Here is a movie of devastating quiet that screams to be seen. (Full review here; streaming on Amazon.)

5. Revenge. Exploitation cinema is best served scalding hot in Coralie Fargeat’s riveting thriller, which opens as a standard slice of woman-in-peril sleaze before deliriously tipping that dynamic on its head. Replete with stunning images and exhilarating camerawork, this movie is nightmare fuel for traumatized women and abusive men alike, with a propulsive momentum that continually crescendos all the way until the gloriously operatic climax. As the victim-cum-reaper, Matilda Lutz mingles innocence with fury, never more so than in an excruciating surgery scene that leaves its mark on her stomach—and your soul. (Streaming on Shudder.)

4. A Quiet Place. Shh! John Krasinski’s expertly conceived horror movie builds on its simple premise with remarkable variety and ingenuity, turning its run-silent gimmick into an agonizing fight for survival. It also works as a lovely story of familial compassion, contemplating how old wounds can calcify and scar and eventually heal. Emily Blunt is hugely sympathetic as a pregnant den mother, while Millicent Simmonds breaks your heart without uttering a word. You’ll be scared to make a sound, even as your mouth keeps falling open. (Full review here; streaming on Epix.)

3. The Favourite. Stuart England has never been so debauched—or so hysterical—in Yorgos Lanthimos’ biting depiction of a capricious monarch and the two women battling to pull her strings. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone all deliver pitch-perfect performances, while Lanthimos’ craft is as sharp as his wit. What surprises, amid the dastardly machinations and the constant guffaws, are the tendrils of sadness that creep through the picture and suddenly hold you fast, turning your delighted laughter into chokes of pain. (Full review here.)

2. On Chesil Beach. Two lovers, one room. And from that mundane setup, Dominic Cooke’s crushing romance—based on a novel by Ian McEwan, who also wrote the screenplay, as well as the book that inspired the best movie to come out this century—spools backward and forward in time, watching with helpless compassion as a happy day slowly curdles into a fateful night. As the prideful young man, Billy Howle is both sympathetic and infuriating, while as his fearful new bride, Saoirse Ronan is… well, she’s Saoirse Ronan, continually uncovering new rivulets of emotion. Aided by Cooke’s caressing technique, this movie is sweet, sad, hopeful, and ultimately overpowering. (Streaming on Amazon.)

1. Thoroughbreds. Few relationships in cinema have been more complex than the knotty friendship at the center of Cory Finley’s stupendous debut feature. Brought to life with exquisite clarity by Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy—two knockout actors who appear destined for magnificent careers—their camaraderie is unclassifiable, a fascinating amalgam of admiration, envy, and fear. They seem to be dancing on the edge of a blade, or maybe it’s just Finley’s camera, which he wields with inveterate poise and uncompromising rigor. Every scene of this film thrums with purpose, as Finley mixes an intoxicating cocktail of menace, pathos, and humor. Two girls sip drinks on a couch, trading caustic barbs and unspoken looks, and once again the movies remind us of what they can do. (Full review here; streaming on Cinemax.)