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6 January 2019
This article is a look at my favourite films of 2018. |
MY TOP 35 FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2018
35. THE WEAK ONES
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An unusual 65-minute, modern Mexican revenge western, full of characters with wisecracking mouths. A bit of MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME is thrown in too. Directors to watch.
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34. TULLY
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I keep thinking about TULLY’s brilliant conceit.
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33. PIG
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A filmmaker is blacklisted by the government, while his fellow directors are being murdered by an unknown serial killer. An excellent dark comedy with so many targets in its cross hairs.
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32. THE RIDER
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Deeply empathetic. What happens when your dream career no longer looks like becoming a possibility?
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31. COLD WAR
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A love story about incandescent passion, mutual destruction, and relationship horror that we cannot look away from.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
30. TRANSIT
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Christian Petzold hasn't delivered a dud in his cinema career. He continually dissects authoritarianism in fascinating ways. And here ambitiously incorporates commentary on the current refugee crisis.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
29. ISLE OF DOGS
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Witty and stunningly animated. An adventure with a perpetually relevant allegory. Too neat an ending, but a minor quibble. Puts EARLY MAN in the shade.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
28. NON-FICTION
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Is this director Olivier Assayas's funniest film? There's even an OCEAN'S 12 Julia Roberts-style meta joke. Ostensibly concerning the publishing industry, but the film is about so much more.
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27. IN THE FADE
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A superb drama looking at the repercussions of neo-Nazism in the modern day. The film expertly plays with expectations. The courtroom chapter is particularly skilful. Diane Kruger is on fire. Powerful and gripping.
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26. BLACK PANTHER
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This is a rare thing: A superhero action film suffused with righteous political fury. A contender for Marvel’s best film.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
25. THE NIGHT COMES FOR US
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Bar a couple of scenes where henchmen seem to be waiting their turn to have the sh*t kicked out of them, the fight sequences are phenomenal.
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24. CREED II
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Surprisingly packs an emotional punch. Geddit? *I’ll get my coat*
I hope this is the final instalment in the ROCKY franchise. It would be a fitting conclusion. |
23. ARCTIC
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What a survival flick! Mads Mikkelsen was a wise choice of protagonist. Drops you right in immediately. No backstory. A polar bear acts like a loaded gun.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
22. BRAD’S STATUS
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An awkward but uplifting analysis of status anxiety few talk about.
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21. CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
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Literary forgery shenanigans and loneliness. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, playing to their strengths, are an engagingly unruly double act.
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20. FACES PLACES
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Filmmaker Agnès Varda and photographer JR team up to make a joyous documentary about making art. It is much more. Also, a celebration of the importance and value of everyone.
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19. GREEN BOOK
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Acting, screenplay and tone work in harmony to create a buddy road movie for all eras. Deftly humorous and moving without resorting to the saccharine. Likely to be returned to every Christmas.
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18. UNSANE
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Director Steven Soderbergh's engrossing, brilliantly shot thriller is made on an iPhone, and stars THE CROWN’s Claire Foy.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
17. FIRST REFORMED
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A dense, intense mix of organised religion and environmentalism. The conclusion is ambiguous. If the ending is literal, boo! If the ending is TAXI DRIVER/VERNON GOD LITTLE, bravo!
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16. MUSEO
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Starring Gael García Bernal, a different kind of heist movie. Whizz-bang energy filled with panache, and anger at colonial theft.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
15. HUSBAND MATERIAL
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An engrossing 156-minute pre-marital drama, which constantly keeps the audience guessing at how it will end right to the last minutes. An agonising, fervent love triangle that damns the pressure of getting married too soon. Anurag Kashyap is not only the best Indian director working, but now one of the world's most skilful.
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14. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
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What a directorial debut! An epically bonkers satire on the modern working world.
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13. BURNING
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Six for six from director Lee Chang-dong. 148 minutes of gripping, creeping emotional devastation. Class and gender discourse are mixed into a story concerning crushing loneliness.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
12. SHOPLIFTERS
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Morally complex and sociologically piercing. With THE THIRD MURDER (2017) and SHOPLIFTERS (2018), director Hirokazu Koreeda has delivered his most accomplished films to date. Unbelievably, he keeps getting better.
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11. THE SISTERS BROTHERS
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Director Jacques Audiard is a cinema master. He continually brings a fresh spin to the genres he touches. This Western's humour, rapid gunplay, chase structure, and thematic resonance are combined unusually and winningly.
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10. SHADOW
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An elaborate, inventive action film, with plenty of political cynicism. Epitomises the ornate, from the design and the choreography to the plot.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
9. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
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8. THE FAVOURITE
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What a period comedy! Wit pours from every pore. Sublime and masterfully crafted. The film includes an emotional kick, among the laugh-out-loud courtly games of influence and ambition.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
7. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT
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Exhilarating. Hollywood's best action franchise does the improbable, by continually improving with each instalment. So thrilling you are actually out of breath.
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6. VOX LUX
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The rarest of movie offerings: A work that feels like a cinema island of its own creation. Natalie Portman is a force of nature as a complicated pop star.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
5. DESTROYER
4. IN THE AISLES
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German cinema is on fire at the moment. A film set in a supermarket recognising the dignity of ordinary lives. Told with flair about understated camaraderie and romance.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
3. ONE CUT OF THE DEAD
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2. WOMAN AT WAR
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A choir mistress/environmental activist takes on Icelandic heavy industry. A film that is both funny and furious, as well as being utterly gripping.
[To read my full review, click here.] |
1. WIDOWS
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I live for films like this. An electrifying crime action thriller, with something to say about the world we live in. Up there with my second favourite movie of all time, HEAT.
[To read my full review, click here.] |