2018 is not a particularly strong year looking back 5 years. There’s still only one perfect movie to me, and many of the Top 10 are great but flawed films. Very fitting for the Oscars this year, because the, um, not positively viewed Green Book was the big winner. For me personally, it is a year that has benefitted from the pandemic…because I rewatched a lot of the films others loved that I didn’t for some reason (shame on me for my discarding so callously of Miles Morales). I also expanded my movie horizons, and watched some stuff I didn’t get a chance to review the year it come out (one of those is in the Honorable mentions, just missing the Top 10).
The last all Asian cast in an American film was the Joy Luck Club. This movie is much happier, putting a classic rom com through a fresh, original story. Plus, it’s a travelogue of Singapore, and a star maker for Constance Wu and Henry Golding.
A YouTube Original movie about a white battle rapper produced by Eminem has a million traps to fall into. That’s why 2018’s biggest surprise is high on my list: it not only knows the traps coming, but has traps within traps you will find yourself walking into.
The rewatch of this one floored me. It’s truly an amazing feat Phil Lord and Christopher Miller pull off here, when everyone was kinda sick of and not interested in a new Spiderman. Miles Morales’s origin story could not be more beautifully told, completely immersing the audience into what it feels like reading a comic book and how it can come alive for a young kid. It’s got jokes, action, suspense, lore, and a well of emotion that sneaks up on you and slowly makes you a believer.
There’s no way describe Pawel Pawlikowski’s film other than it’s pure art. The story is about a couple who meet and fall in love in Poland, but at the worst possible time: during post WWII Iron Curtain time, forcing one of the pair to flee. Pawlikowski’s film breathes in music, sees in luscious black and white, and hears the cries of those long forgotten who got through terrifying times with the power of love, sometimes waiting years to reconnect.
Sometimes its best to just keep it simple and kick some ass, and no one does it better than the men and women in the Indonesian crime syndicates in this movie. I will cringe every time I look at a pool table for a long while….
Directed by a Chinese directer, a Lakota Indian Cowboy gets thrown off a bull and potentially has to give up his bullriding and horse whispering. This movie sounds like melodramatic garbage, but magnetic star Brady Jandreau and director Chloe Zhao find that ubiquitous truth of how hard it is to give up something that defines who you are.
Family is earned and chosen, not simply something you’re born into. Writer/Director Hirokazu Koreeda shows us a powerful tale of a group of misfits finding each other and forming a bond from nothing. This bond might be fragile and built on a house of sand, but that doesn’t mean those relationships aren’t real, and will have you smiling and crying at the same time.
Rich, sprawling story about a host of things including cultural appropriation, police overreach, family drama, and a coming of age story anchored by a great Amandla Stenberg performance. This film is trying to tackle a lot of ideas, and mostly has a good story for all of them.
Maybe it’s because of the bitter, divisive moment in time, but Morgan Neville’s documentary about Mr. Fred Rogers is like warm chicken noodle soup on a cold day. Mr. Rogers, it turns out, is actually more wonderful than he was on his show, living by such a caring, empathetic mantra that you can’t help but shed a tear or two and be hopeful that there are people like him still around.
I never pegged YouTube comedian Bo Burnham for a directing savant, but I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong. He and his amazing star Elsie Fisher capture that either gut wrenching or euphoric time, and how fraught each new experience or decision can be, moment to moment. By far the best movie about eighth graders ever made.
