Favorite Movies of 2018

OK. Here's my last catch up post from last year. This is last year's favorite movies list!!! 2018! The reason I never posted this last year is my inability to make any choices. In the last days of the year a saw an inordinate of great films and I was overwhelmed. Anyway, I chiseled my list down to twenty. These are my twenty favorite from last year. Plus honorable mentions. Plus the five worst movies I saw from last year. The worst films are the only ones with commentary, although I wrote commentary for about half the rest, because what I wrote was funny. 

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Annihilation

Director: Alex Garland

Writers: Alex Garland, Jeff VanderMeer (book)

Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novonty, Oscar Isaac

Beautiful Boy

Director: Felix van Groeninger

Writers: Luke Davies, Felix van Groeninger, David Sheff (book), Nic Sheff (book)

Starring: Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan

BlacKkKlansman

Director: Spike Lee

Writers: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee, Ron Stallworth (book)

Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Robert John Burke, Frederick Weller, Ryan Eggold, Jasper Pääkkönen, Paul Walter Hauser, Topher Grace

Blindspotting

Director: Carlos López Estrada

Writers: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs

Starring: Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Ethan Embry, Tisha Campbell-Martin

Cold War

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Writers: Pawel Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki, Piotr Borkowski

Starring: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza

Eighth Grade

Director & writer: Bo Burnham

Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Catherine Oliviere

The Favourite

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writers: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Starring: Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, James Smith, Joe Alwyn.

First Man

Director: Damien Chazelle

Writers: Josh Singer, James R. Hansen (book)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Patrick Fugit, Christopher Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Olivia Hamilton, Pablo Schreiber, Shea Whigham, Lucas Haas, Ethan Embry

First Reformed

Director/writer: Paul Schrader

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer, Victoria Hill, Philip Ettinger, Michael Gaston

Free Solo

Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Featuring: Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell, Jimmy Chin, Cheyne Lempe, Mikey Schaefer, Sanni McCandless, Diedre Wolownick, Peter Croft

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Director: RaMell Ross

Writers: RaMell Ross, Maya Krinsky

Featuring: Latrenda ‘Boosie’ Ash, Quincy Bryant, Daniel Collins, RaMell Ross

Isle of Dogs

Director: Wes Anderson

Writers: Wes Anderson, Roman Copolla, Jason Schwarzman, Kunichi Nomura

Voices: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Kunichi Nomura, Akira Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Akira Ito, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Mari Natsuki, Fisher Stevens, Nijiro Morakami, Liev Schreiber, Courtney B. Vance

Mandy

Director: Panos Cosmatos

Writers: Panos Cosmatos, Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Chris ‘Casper’ Kelly

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roach, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, Bill Duke, Line Pillet

     Minding the Gap

Director: Bing Liu

Featuring: Keire Johnson, Bing Liu, Zack Mulligan

Roma

Director/writer: Alfonso Cuarón

Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortino Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Marco Graf, Daniela Demesa, Nancy García García, Verónica García, Andy Cortés, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza, Latin Lover, Zarela Lizbeth Chinolla Arellano

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Writers: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman

Voices: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Valez, Zoë Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicholas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Chris Pine, Natalie Morales

Tully

Director: Jason Reitman

Writer: Diablo Cody

Starring: Charlise Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston, Asher Miles Fellica, Lia Frankland, Mark Duplass, Elaine Tan

Vice

Director/writer: Adam McKay

Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, LisaGay Hamilton, Jesse Plemons, Bill Camp, Don McManus, Lily Rabe, Shea Whigham, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Tyler Perry

Widows

Director: Steve McQueen

Writers: Gillian Flynn, Steve McQueen, Lynda La Plante (book)

Starring: Viola Davis, Liam Neeson, Jon Bernthal, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Michelle Rodriguez, Alejandro Verdin, Bailey Ryhse Walters, Elizabeth Debicki, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell, Molly Kunz, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael J. Harney, Jackie Weaver, Garret Dillahunt, Kevin J. O’Connor, Jon Michael Hill, Cynthia Erivo, Lukas Haas

You Were Never Really Here

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Writers: Lynne Ramsay, Jonathan Ames (book)

Starring: Juaquin Phoenix, Dante Pereira-Olson, Viniscius Damasceno, Judith Roberts, Frank Pando, John Doman, Alex Manette

Honorable mentions

Avengers: Infinity War, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Black Panther, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Creed II, Deadpool 2, The Death of Stalin, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Filmworker, Halloween, Hereditary, Hold the Dark, Incredibles 2, Leave No Trace, Mission: Impossible-Fallout, The Mule, A Quiet Place, Sorry To Bother You, A Star Is Born

Worst

15:17 To Paris highjacked an incredible run of movies—especially when retelling true stories—for Clint Eastwood, one of Hollywood’s finest and most reliable directors; and this time the terrorists won.

The Happytime Murders murdered the good name of muppets everywhere.

Hurricane Heist stole too many hours from the poor souls unlucky enough to think thrills could overcome Mother Nature.

Paradox riddled the long form music video with terrible and incomprehensible ideas that betrayed the music of a great artist.

Uncle Drew drew so many fouls on basketball and comedy films; it should’ve been ejected from the game.