It’s that time again.
I saw a lot of movie in 2018. 335 to be precise. To be clearer on this, posted below are the movies I saw I consider to be 2018 releases:
- Brad’s Status
- All the Money in the World
- Hostiles
- Coco
- Darkest Hour
- The Commuter
- Face 2 Face
- The Post
- Padmaavat
- Early Man
- 12 Strong
- Den of Thieves
- Phantom Thread
- The Open House
- Step Sisters
- Roman J Israel, Esq.
- Status Update
- The Mercy
- The 15-17 to Paris
- Winchester
- Black Panther
- The Shape of Water
- The Cloverfield Paradox
- Aadhi
- Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas’s
- Father Figures
- Lady Bird
- I, Tonya
- Finding your Feet
- Mute
- Custody
- Racer and the Jailbird
- The Guardians
- Jealous
- Catch the Wind
- C’est la vie!
- The Apparition
- The Workshop
- Reinventing Marvin
- Red Sparrow
- Game Night
- Gringo
- Macbeth
- My Generation
- Kobiety mafii
- Mary Magdelene
- Peter Rabbit
- Annihilation
- Unsane
- Sajjan Singh Rangroot
- Last Flag Flying
- A Fantastic Woman
- Kobieta Sukcesu
- Blockers
- Proud Mary
- Pacific Rim: Uprising
- Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist
- Midnight Sun
- You were Never Really Here
- A Quiet Place
- Isle of Dogs
- The Hurricane Heist
- Love, Simon
- Ghost Stories
- Blackmail
- Thoroughbreds
- Passage of Life
- Mary and the Witch’s Flower
- The Third Murder
- At the Terrace
- Rampage
- Truth or Dare
- Pitbull: Ostatni Pies
- Death Wish
- On Chesil Beach
- Bharat Ane Nenu
- The Leisure Seeker
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Wildling
- The Cured
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Beast
- I Feel Pretty
- Never Steady, Never Still
- Walk with Me
- Tully
- Narzeczony na Niby
- Skid Row Marathon
- Life of the Party
- Breaking In
- Anon
- Have a Nice Day
- Raazi
- Entebbe
- The Strangers: Prey at Night
- Deadpool 2
- Citizen Lane
- Dive
- Allure
- A Wrinkle in Time
- The Breadwinner
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Lean on Pete
- The Ballad of Shirley Collins
- Veere di Wedding
- Edie
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Irreplaceable You
- Happy Anniversary
- Kaala
- Take Your Pills
- The Boy Downstairs
- 6 Balloons
- Seeing Allred
- Paradox
- Hereditary
- Ocean’s 8
- Ibiza
- The Rachel Divide
- Cargo
- McQueen
- Lek and the Dogs
- Kissing Candice
- Dublin Old School
- Patrick
- Adrift
- Tag
- Sicario 2: Soldado
- Leave No Trace
- Abrahaminte Santhathikal
- The Happy Prince
- The First Purge
- My Friend Dahmer
- Whitney
- Terminal
- Uncle Drew
- The Incredibles 2
- Skyscraper
- The Secret of Marrowbone
- Soorma
- In the Fade
- Mary Goes Round
- Let There Be Light
- Cardinals
- Hotel Artemis
- Dhadak
- Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
- A Prayer Before Dawn
- Mission: Impossible-Fallout
- Mary Shelley
- A Ciambra
- Extinction
- Alex Strangelove
- Ant Man and The Wasp
- Generation Wealth
- Mulk
- Fanney Khan
- First Reformed
- Studio 54
- How It Ends
- To Each, Her Own
- Recovery Boys
- The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter
- Tau
- Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football
- Pope Francis: A Man of his Word
- The Darkest Minds
- Sgt Stubby: An American Hero
- The Bleeding Edge
- Flavours of Youth
- The Image You Missed
- The Meg
- Unfriended: Dark Web
- Dog Days
- The Festival
- Christopher Robin
- The Equalizer 2
- Gold
- BlacKkKlansman
- The Happytime Murders
- Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi
- The Spy Who Dumped Me
- Alpha
- Slender Man
- Filmworker
- The Ballymurphy Precedent
- The Escape
- Searching
- I, Dolours
- Yardie
- Black ‘47
- Crazy Rich Asians
- Upgrade
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
- Puzzle
- Sierra Burgess is a Loser
- The Predator
- King of Thieves
- The House with a Clock in its Walls
- American Animals
- The Seagull
- Cold War
- Lucky
- A Simple Favour
- The Little Stranger
- Batti Gil Meter Chal
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post
- A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot
- John Paul II in Ireland-A Plea for Peace
- Night School
- The Meeting
- Chekka Chivantha Vaanam
- Mile 22
- Juliusz
- Venom
- Skate Kitchen
- Utøya 22. Iuli
- Smuggling Hendrix
- For Molly
- Climax
- Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.
- Between a Rock and the Sea
- The Holy Fail
- A Star is Born
- Pity
- Minding the Gap
- Dogman
- Daughter of Mine
- Bad Times at the El Royale
- Rosie
- First Man
- Vada Chennal
- Hunter Killer
- The Hate U Give
- Halloween
- Mandy
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Kler
- Wolfman’s Got Nards
- Ready Player One
- Assassination Nation
- Suspiria
- The Dark
- Ravers
- Videoman
- Piercing
- Await Further Instructions
- One Cut of the Dead
- Katie
- The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid
- Slaughterhouse Rulez
- Juliet, Naked
- Kayamkulam Kochunni
- Mirai
- 22 July
- Overlord
- Widows
- Lords of Chaos
- Bergman: A Year in a Life
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
- The Favourite
- Meeting Gorbachev
- The Old Man & the Gun
- The State Against Mandela and the Others
- Monsters and Men
- For the Birds
- The Widowed Witch
- The Return
- Yours in Sisterhood
- Putin’s Witnesses
- Same God
- Ága
- What is Democracy?
- Crystal Swan
- The Dig
- White Boy Rick
- In Fabric
- No Greater Law
- Sorry Angel
- Girl
- Sorry to Bother You
- Capernaum
- The Grinch
- Robin Hood
- Creed 2
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelward
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse
- The Possession of Hannah Grace
- The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
- The Camino Voyage
- Shoplifters
- Three Identical strangers
- Surviving Christmas with the Relatives
- The Belly of the Whale
- Bumblebee
- Dumplin’
- Wildfire
- Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
- Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
- Aquaman
- Free Solo
- Lizzie
- Disobedience
- Milosc jest wszystkim
- The House That Jack Built
- Mary Poppins Returns
- The Ballad of Buster Scraggs
- Roma
- The Other Side of the Wind
- They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
- Shrek Retold
- Bird Box
- Feminists: What were they Thinking?
- The American Meme
- The Children Act
- Operation Finale
- Hell Fest
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
- This Beautiful Fantastic
- Holmes & Watson
- The Christmas Chronicles
- Peppermint
- The Wife
- Reversing Roe
- Hold the Dark
- Dude
- Us and Them
- Life Itself
- Patient Zero
- Cam
- Collette
- Shirkers
- Two Catalonias
- Apostle
With that housekeeping out of the way, let us start with my guilty pleasures. Films I’m not sure are great or not, but I enjoyed nonetheless. Starting off with:
1. Aadhi
I went hard into Bollywood films this year, and this one was an absolute blast. I mean there’s a weird tonal change in the middle of the first act, a languid pace, really hokey acting, characters who come and go at the plot’s convenience and a dude jumping out of an incredibly tall building; what can’t you love about that?! It’s so over the top and silly and way, way too serious, but if you let go of that and just get into the action, it’s really well shot and off-ends how maudlin everything is. It’s not very compelling and pretty predictable in places, but it’s dumb enough to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
2. The House That Jack Built
This is Lars Von Trier at probably his most self-indulgent, and your enjoyment of this will be determined of how much you can deal with a weird Danish bloke sucking his own cock onscreen for about 2 and a half hours. As it stands, I don’t know how to feel about it, which says a lot about me I guess. And I can take a lot of this guys weird narcissistic habits (I really enjoyed Nymphomaniac), but I kind of had to roll my eyes at a certain moment. But hey-there is a lot of shit that made me laugh here. Matt Dillon is game for whatever weird shit he’s asked to do, and the mood is wonky and so all over the place that it’s really hard to get the intentions behind certain moments. Like, is the acting in the first part meant to be terrible, is every character in this meant to be a moron, is this a meta-commentary on Lars’ flaws or him making fun of you for overthinking his work? I dunno, I can’t tell you, but what I can tell you is this wasn’t boring. It’s definitely won over a lot of my friends so I’m probably a lone voice in the wilderness here, but I will say it’s worth seeing yourself if you’re a fan of the man’s work.
3. The Hurricane Heist
This movie just straight up sucks. I mean it’s dumb as shit and nothing about it really makes a lot of sense. But holy fuck is it gloriously entertaining! There’s a guy with a grudge against a hurricane, a hurricane face, none of the physics add up, it has some of the most hilarious deaths I’ve seen onscreen all year, it’s just a mad ride. There’s an obnoxious score, insanely unlikeable characters, Toby Kebbell needs to fire his agent. Not much else to say, really. You want a dumb hurricane movie? Here’s a dumb hurricane movie for ya.
4. Kaala
Another Bollywood film, this one trying to be political. And, like any film that’s overtly political but also trying to appease the masses, it’s painfully on-the-nose with its messages. But, goddamn, the lead here is great (Rajinikanth, who is also a political figure)! He is the bad-ass old man to end all bad-ass old men, and every moment he’s onscreen is a blast. Another fun thrillride, I love how unsubtly evil the villain is, it has a really great if…kind of confusing ending. Agree with the movie’s politics or not, this is a lot of fun with an effortlessly charismatic lead. It misses the mark on making its point, but it succeeds in entertaining
5. Kobiety mafii
This was in contention to be my worst film of 2018, but honestly it’s fucking great how apeshit it is. The plot follows several women as they manipulate or fall into fortunes and end up on top of the Polish mafia. It has some of the most confused structural issues I’ve seen in a mainstream release, none of the characters are interesting or likeable (or smart), the plot takes several tangents that go nowhere, and stuff just keeps happening that benefits or detriments of our leads and it’s completely random. No thought was put into how to get characters to certain points, they just forced them into it. And it’s really saved just because it’s laughably inept. There’s an execution scene that may be the funniest things I’ve seen in a movie in quite a while. This likely hasn’t been seen by a lot of people, but I enjoyed myself, even in it’s just being baffled by how bad everything is.
6. The Meg
Ever since I found out what a Megalodon was as a kid, I’ve wanted a movie about them. And I got one finally, and it’s…this. This movie kind of wears its stupid on its sleeve, even if it’s trying way too hard to be cool and extreme. It’s basically an overly expensive B-movie that’s not campy or self-aware enough. But I had a blast, those who I wanted to die died and really that’s the only reason we got to these movies because we’re just fucked up individuals like that. If you couldn’t get into this I get it, the CG is really ropey and the action is sparse as hell. But it’s just on that level of dopey for me that I enjoyed it. It manages to be grossly cynical and yet utterly sincere, and also Jason Statham outswims a shark the size of the Hindenburg. I can’t not love that.
7. Paradox
The real paradox is that this got released when even Darryl Hannah said it was essentially a personal art piece! This isn’t a movie, it’s a bizarre art installation she shot on the road with her partner (now husband) Neil Young interspliced with his music. It’s just so strange and directionless with weird asides that don’t add up to much. And I’m all for experimental films if they have a point, this really doesn’t. But that’s what makes it so much fun. It’d likely be a forgettable attempt of being thoughtful or artistic, but with how inept and confused it really is, it does that turnaround to be fascinating and kind of hilarious. I do not get how this managed to get onto Netflix (well, they have very little quality control in the content they distribute), but it’s up there now, so check it out for good music and an attempt of Midwestern Hippy Jodorowsky gone terribly, terribly wrong.
8. Patient Zero
Trash zombie flicks are my jam, and this one was right up my alley! It’s got such a fascinating premise too-Matt Smith playing a man bitten by the infected but the only side effect he gets is that he can talk to them. He then decides to help scientists navigate to the human originator of the virus so they can reverse engineer a cure. It’s just a shame that none of this shit ever gets explained. Everything just rushes into place, and yet still a really slumming it Stanley Tucci, who clearly knows he’s in shit, comes on in and steals the show. It’s dumb and trashy and really shows what a bad idea it is to set a movie on one location as a cost saving measure. But it has such a silly third act and it’s all so weighty and self-serious that it makes the entire thing a joke all around. I need more trashy B-movies in my life, especially ones starring actors who have careers. No wonder this film took so long to come out, and eventually got dumped to home release. Track it down if bad zombie movies are your thing.
9. The Strangers: Prey at Night
I thought the original was a dull, boring waste of time (sorry, I know a lot of people love this movie). The sequel takes everything ambitious and, well, distinctive about the original and makes the most generic slasher possible. And it is glorious! The Strangers: Prey at Night has some of the most tryhard attempts at following the recent 80s trend and some incredibly generic character work. Also, they rip off the ending of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre nearly beat for beat. But it’s really fun and incredibly silly. It’s hard to take seriously, and it’s not as well made at the original, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more. For what that’s worth.
10. Truth or Dare
After finding unprecedented acclaim and even awards attention for Get Out, Platinum Dunes spoiled all that good will from the people and released this garbage nightmare into the cinemas. The Snapchat face is one of the dumbest horror conventions I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time, so much so that the movie is self-conscious enough to comment on it! It has a bafflingly stupid and mean-spirited ending, even if you liked the moronic cast that was thrown out the window from that point on. But, again, I can’t say I didn’t have fun! I admire a movie that tries and fails way more than one that doesn’t try at all (we’ll be seeing those in another list), and while this is so incompetent and extremely badly written, I’ll give it to them that there’s an attempt at a story here. It’s just let down by a badly implemented conceit and nonsense set pieces, which will make every person in the audience come up with a better solution. But hey, no use for cheap thrills, but plenty of cheap laughs.
11. Venom
Hey, this film did really well. I totally miscalled it. I was wrong. It still sucks ass, though. It has some of the worst action I’ve seen in a superhero film all year, it’s first act is draggy and overlong, the love interest is pitifully lacking in personality or anything to do and has one of the worst villains I’ve seen in years. What makes this so entertaining for me, then? Tom Hardy. Goddamn it, I dunno what this man is doing, but he is doing it with all he’s got. And I get the feeling Venom is a little more self-aware and comedic than most of the movies on here, but it’s ineptly made and poorly thought out that it really makes it difficult to know what I’m supposed to laugh at and what I’m not, so I’ll just laugh at everything. This was a total misfire even if it did well financially, but I can’t say it wasn’t a blast to watch.
12. Winchester
This film was an absolute failure to tell a compelling ghost story out of a real life tale that’s honestly really fascinating. The house this is set in is real, as is a lot of the backstory of the family who lived there (Winchester, as in the rifle, to give you context as to why they may have wanted a lot of rooms to hide from their own ghosts). Yet it’s flat, horrifically unscary and ropes in a really slumming it Helen Mirran. I guess I have a fascination with movies that were handed a great or even competent movie on a silver platter and still failed spectacularly. This hit that sweet spot of being….say it with me now….my trash. It’s terribly made and drags on like hell, but again can’t say I wasn’t immersed by the ineptitude. If you found this boring or unwatchable I totally get it, but the nature of film is we’ll all find something different from certain movies. Even if that difference is me taking the piss out of poorly made hot garbage.
Worst Movies of 2018
Best Movies of 2018
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