#that movie is a gorgeous masterpiece of soundtrack design and cinematography and scenery

[emily-ella-nightshade89]

Me @ Disney movies I felt would have been great had they been released in theaters, (or would have been more known/seen):

[hollyplays]

Top Ten Movies of 2018

Alright. Now that it’s *checks watch* March 14th, I’m ready to give you my top ten movies of last year. I know, it’s absurdly late, but a lot of the big movies didn’t show in my theater so I had to wait til they hit digital or blu-ray to see them. Hell, there’s some I still haven’t seen. We’re all doing our best, right?

(I’m gonna spare you the “sorry for how long its been”. you know how long its been and how sorry i am by now. <3)

#10- Eighth Grade

You can tell this is gonna be a good list, because a movie this good is at the bottom. Eighth Grade is a hard, brilliant time capsule of a time in our lives we all do our best to black out. It speaks eloquently and simply about the effect social media has on the process of maturing without sounding like an after-school special for baby boomers. It’s phenomenal on a technical level as well- the cinematography is gorgeous and the soundtrack is immersive and haunting. I cannot reccomend Eighth Grade enough. (Nor can I spell recommend properly, apparently.)

#9- Hereditary

This movie fucked me up. I don’t have the biggest tolerance for horror (which I’m working on!) but typically a jumpscare movie like Sinister doesn’t do much for me afterwords. Hereditary had me on edge for days. You should absolutely go watch this movie wrapped up in a blanket, and you should absolutely read the doesthedogdie.com page for it so you’re completely prepared. Because trust me- you do not know what is going to happen.

#8- Thunder Road

Thunder Road had my number one spot for a long time, but there’s so many other excellent movies this year. I expected this movie to make me cry, but I didn’t expect it to hit me as hard as it did. Thunder Road is a fantastic indie movie with a fantastic cast and script. Jim Cummings delivers a picture-perfect performance.

#7- Roma

Roma is so hard to rank among the other movies, because I know it’s going to be a part of the film “canon” for years. Alfonso Cuaron is an excellent director, but I didn’t get into any of his other films as much as I enjoyed Y Tu Mama Tambien. Roma changed that. It is hauntingly beautiful, especially for black and white. It’s engineered to make you crave color, to make you crave depth from it’s characters and it’s scenery, and it delivers hard. Roma was so interesting and striking I wanted to do research on it after it was done. That’s some hardcore shit.

#6- First Reformed

My first Paul Schrader. (Far from my first Ethan Hawke, though. That man can get it.) This is one that haunts me, too. Every time I see some shit about Jeff Bezos’ wealth growing or workers being exploited, I hear Ethan Hawke’s voice in my head saying “Will god forgive us?”. This was especially striking to me as someone well-versed in the teachings and customs of Christianity. Planning a rewatch soon. First Reformed absolutely deserves it.

#5- BlacKkKlansman

I was nervous to watch this one, and I’m not sure why now. I think I had it in my head it wouldn’t be very good? I don’t know why I thought that. Spike Lee is good, and it’s no surprise that this movie is also quite good. John David Washington should be the next Batman. This movie doesn’t break the fourth wall so much as it glides through it like a permeable membrane. Casting Alec Baldwin as the KKK spokesman in the beginning of the movie is brilliant- Spike Lee knows you associate him with Trump thanks to SNL, and it forces you to both recontextualize what he’s saying with modernity, but also to recontextualize what Trump is saying with the horrible history of his rhetoric. And then that ending, jesus christ. There is exactly one (1) feel-good moment. Everything else is designed carefully to make sure you know- nothing has changed.

#4- Sorry To Bother You

Okay, from #6 on you cannot hold me responsible for how I rank things. Everything is so close to everything else. It’s all so good. Please do not yell at me in the comments.

Sorry to Bother You is fucking amazing. Everything about it is phenomenal. The script is tight, funny, depressing satire. The dialogue is believable and surreal. The cast is incredible. The soundtrack is wonderful. I could watch this movie forever. Don’t read any spoilers for it. Don’t look up anything. Just watch it.

#3- Blindspotting

Blindspotting was the only movie on this list that had me genuinely sobbing and shaking in fear. Blindspotting on paper should not work, but it works so, so well. Diggs and Casal fucking kill it. Blindspotting has so much to say about gentrification and the justice system and parole and it says it so eloquently. It’s so hard to rank Blindspotting next to Sorry to Bother You and BlacKkKlansman because they’re all such exceptional movies, but Blindspotting’s visceral third act keeps it a touch above the others.

#1- Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse

Spider Verse is the perfect superhero movie. It stands so triumphantly above the rest of the comic book movie canon. And I love superhero movies! Everything about Spider Verse is to be commended. The writing is fucking impeccable. The first act is devastating. The character work is phenomenal, especially for a film that literally shoves three spider-people at you in a single scene.

That’s to say nothing of the absolute visual treat that Spider-Verse is. The animation is like nothing I’ve ever seen. The colors are striking and blended so perfectly.

Spider Verse is a superhero movie, but it’s also a visually enthralling artistic masterpiece. It’s tied for me for the best movie of 2018.

#1- The Favourite

I hated The Lobster. I thought Killing of a Sacred Deer was a solid 8/10. But The Favourite is so, so far above Yorgos Lanthimos’ other work.

The cinematography is amazing. I never thought I’d enjoy a fish-eye lens in a movie, but it works so well here to distort your perspective of these people’s home and lives.

Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Colman are all amazing. Any one of them could’ve won Best Actress.

The Favourite is a movie about lesbian love. It never feels voyeuristic- even when scenes where it by all rights should- or fetishistic. It never objectifies lesbian sex or romance.

The script is amazing. The dialogue is smart and complex and simultaneously understandable. It never feels stuffy or forced.  It’s often laugh-out-loud funny.

I was /not/ prepared for how good The Favourite is. I don’t think you are, either.

So that’s my top ten movies of 2018! I’ve got something special in the pipeline for you, so look out for that soon!