2018 in Movies: The Last Six Months
THE TOP 5
1. Roma (review)
“From the camera work (which Cuarón did himself) to the sound design to the flawless, incredibly intricate choreography of the film’s many exquisite tracking shots, there’s not a moment in Roma that isn’t an awesome (in the true sense of the word) achievement.”
2. Green Book (review)
“It’s pretty clear from the beginning exactly how this story will play itself out, but the fact that the film remains riveting, entirely captivating entertainment is proof that sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination. And Green Book is among the best trips you’ll take this year.”
3. Widows (review)
“Widows is already getting a fair share of Oscar buzz, and deservedly so. Everyone is at the top of their game, both in front of and behind the camera. Come for the heist flick, leave with your socks blown off at how well a heist flick can be done.”
4. A Star is Born (review)
“It’s certainly possible that yet another re-make of A Star is Born will find its way into theaters sometime in the future (in, say… 2040 maybe?), but it might well be a futile gesture. It’s hard to envision a re-telling that could ever be as perfect as this one.”
5. The Favourite (review)
“Though on the surface The Favourite may look like something from the staid Merchant-Ivory world, it’s anything but, and though it has perhaps the narrowest audience of any movie this year, those who just sit back and let the madness in will be handsomely rewarded with the black licorice treat of the movie season.”
THE REST
6. BlacKkKlansman
7. 22 July
8. Crazy Rich Asians
9. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
10. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
11. Creed II
12. Bumblebee
13. Searching
14. Boy Erased
15. The Grinch
16. Instant Family
17. Outlaw King
18. Bohemian Rhapsody
19. Halloween (2018)
20. The Sisters Brothers
21. First Man
22. Bad Times at the El Royale
23. A Simple Favor
24. Alpha
25. Christopher Robin
26. Ant-Man and the Wasp
27. Mary Poppins Returns
28. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
29. Fahrenheit 11/9
30. The Equalizer 2
31. Venom
32. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
33. Vice
34. Bird Box
35. Skyscraper
36. Aquaman
37. Ralph Breaks the Internet
38. Like Father
39. The Spy Who Dumped Me
40. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
41. Smallfoot
42. Bad Reputation
43. The Meg
44. Welcome to Marwen
THE BOTTOM 5
45. Night School (review)
“As unfunny as detention, and seemingly just as long, the attempted comedy is the latest from Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee, who is working from the ultimate screenplay-by-committee.”
46. Mile 22 (review)
“First-time screenwriter Lea Carpenter apparently wrote Mile 22 with Wahlberg in mind, and if I were Wahlberg I’d take that as an insult. It’s hard for me to recall a lead character so insufferably obnoxious that you wind up wishing the bad guys actually win.”
47. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (review)
“Wwhen you take into account the fact that Crimes’ only real purpose is to serve as a bridge between the first film and the third (which will, in turn, bridge to the fourth and then from them on to the grand finale in the fifth), it’s difficult to want to spend any time at all trying to decipher what the heck is going on.”
48. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (review)
“We get a posse of nightmare-inducing clowns, a Mouse King creepily made from the bodies of thousands of mice, and an army of tin men, who represent the final straw in this woefully misguided derivation from the beloved Nutcracker story.”
49. The Happytime Murders (review)
“Lame jokes that are repeated ad nauseum throughout this trainwreck include how McCarthy looks like a man (she doesn’t) and how people somehow still find humor in the kindergarten-level humor of ‘A (jerk) says what?’ ‘What?’ ‘Ha ha haaaa’.”
