Listmania: The Top 40 Movies of 2018 (#26-40)

Scene from The Hate U Give

The end of 2018 is upon us. That could only mean one thing for Listmania. It is officially time to honor the best of cinema in 2018. Over the next two days, I will be counting down the Top 40 movies of the year, recognizing the wide variety of films that made the year a little better and will be talked about for years to come. It was an excellent year for dramas as well as genre films ranging from horror to action. It's hard to say goodbye to the year, but at least these films will be with us to remind us of how great it was to sit in a cineplex and cheer in awe as the images moved on screen. It's the one thing that's always pure about years as fraught with tension as this.

40. Anna and the Apocalypse

While Mary Poppins Returns ended 2018 with a festive and upbeat musical full of whimsical imagery, it was a great year for alternative programming. Anna and the Apocalypse is a delightful import that mixed the Christmas season with zombies and musicals in a way that is often creative and inspired, with plenty of great new songs to push things along. It's a film that feels destined to become a cult classic, and for good reason. In between the zombie bashing is plenty of character development and pathos that is emotionally resonant. It's a fun little film, and perfect for anyone looking for teenagers singing songs as they explore the angst of living in a small Scotland town, but with a lot of fun decapitations.

39. Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Fred Rodgers had quite a year thanks to this pop doc that explores his work on the iconic PBS series Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood. While most found it as a beacon of optimism in an era of unrepentant gloom, it's more interesting to read this as how Rodgers the artist struggles with these demons inside him. With the rare capability to empathize with a young audience, he managed to explore hard hitting issues, such as the Vietnam War, and apply it to a radical series known for its kindness. There's plenty to love from the talking heads, who all create a more complex vision of the man, and makes the viewers realize that there's ways to be positive in times of darkness. It's hard, but nothing worth doing isn't.

38. First Man

After a phenomenal back-to-back success of Whiplash and La La Land, young director Damien Chazelle has returned with a film that argues that he might be the next great filmmaker. This biopic of Neil Armstrong may at times be cold and calculated, but Chazelle is more interested in why a man would want to walk on the moon in the first place. With a charismatic performance by Ryan Gosling, he dives into a story full of grief and loss mixed with an intensity of spaceships barely holding on as they escape the atmosphere. It's one of the most technically accomplished films of the year, regardless of flag controversy, and one of the grandest spectacles. Chazelle seems destined for a long and eventful career, and this film solidifies that potential as more than hokum. 

37. Crazy Rich Asians

As some critics would note, 2018 was a groundbreaking year for Asian-American actors. While there's massive evidence for this, there's nothing likely to resonate with general audiences as the first major romantic comedy in decades to feature a predominantly Asian cast. Thankfully what transpires is more than a gimmick and what the film achieves is the perfect blend of spectacle and emotion, managing to convey a conventional story through a new lens. The film goes even further and explores the difference between Asians and Asian-Americans, which is an issue that is taken for granted elsewhere but is given hefty importance here. With a phenomenal cast that will hopefully headlining films for years to come, this is one of the few times that a feel good movie has felt revolutionary, even if the story isn't all that surprising.

36. The Sisters Brothers

Palme d'Or winner Jacques Audiard makes his English language debut with a western that seeks to explore the American Dream in an albeit morbid fashion. It's a dark comedy that becomes something more experimental and bizarre in the third act, but all ties into the film's strange themes of how greed tears us apart. It's Treasure of the Sierra Madre for a new generation, but with more rambunctious shooting and comedic interchange between the reliable duo of Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly. As a whole, this strange western is one of the smarter, more inventive takes on the genre and it's mostly thanks to Audiard's outsider perspective, which allows the drama to be more confrontational and unpleasant than a more starry eyed director would've been. 

35. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen Brothers are in a state of kaleidoscopic cinema lately. Following the thoughtful genre mash-up Hail, Caesar!, they return with an anthology film that challenges the definition of "Old West" in a morbid new way. There's a lot of death, which starts with the titular character introducing his madness in a Gene Autry-style musical number that is a tad disturbing. Some segments are lighter than others, but the feeling of harsh honesty hangs over everything in a way that makes the ride a bit nihilistic. It may be a mixed bag because of this, but looking into the bags of Joel and Ethan Coen often produces some slivers of brilliance, and there's plenty here to like. 

34. Mandy

Just when it seemed like there was never a chance that Nicholas Cage would ever be relevant to pop culture again, 2018 greeted him with open arms. Along with the delightful Mom and Dad, Mandy was one of those balls-to-the-wall films that thrusts the viewers into the realm of madness that becomes transcendent cinema. There's so much to love at the ribald chaos on display in this film, often through clouds of red, which barely covers up the blood that comes from chainsaw battles. It's the most metal film of the year, and the best evidence that Cage is a good actor. All it takes is the right role. One could argue that this is his craziest role ever and there's little chance of him topping it, if just because you can't imagine how he keeps getting out of these movies alive. 

33. Christopher Robin

Disney's August release was a live action update of the A.A. Milne story that has warmed the hearts of millions for almost a century now. So, what does Winnie the Pooh bring to this new realm? In some ways, it's the darkest film that Disney released in 2018 thanks to a plot that mixes World War II trauma and the fears of growing up with this inherent desire for youth. Thanks to some brilliant writing, the film never lingers too much in misery and instead comes across as the warmest hug they could produce. The film thankfully maintains the wit of the characters throughout its entire running time, and the character designs are beautifully adapted. This may be a bit of a harmless film, but it's one of the few times that Disney's live action gambit feels like it has something more than shameless shilling behind its intentions. 

32. Love, Simon

In a lot of ways, the most groundbreaking LGBT drama of the year was the most subdued. As the first film about coming out that was released by a major studio, it manages to go beyond the taboo and focus more on the emotional core that comes with this revelation. It's the struggle of the self to come to terms with personal identity, and how uncomfortable it can make you feel as you hide the secret from the world. There's not an ounce of flamboyance here. In its place is a more honest discussion of how one person's inability to be comfortable in their own skin impacts those around them. It's poignant and powerful in small ways, which feel bigger as a result. Thankfully, director Greg Berlanti's career has been in writing teenage characters on TV series like Riverdale, so it's safe to say that the humor and heart is all present and downright charming here. It's a great film about how normal it is to be different, and will hopefully help to alter the conversation around LGBT coming of age stories.

31. Unsane

It's still weird to think that Steven Soderbergh was ever a "retired" director, if just because his return to film has been one of his most revelatory in quite awhile. In his 2018 film, he creates one of the most compelling found footage movies in a long time as Claire Foy plays a woman trapped in a mental asylum. The limited capabilities of phones allowed the film to explore the paranoia of the character in its own form of claustrophobic ways, producing a film that is unnerving and slowly builds to more heightened tension. Even if Soderbergh is only going to make experimental, unpredictable films from now on, it's great to think that he'll be around to challenge the conventions of cinema in a way that at worst are still far more interesting and ambitious than most of those he influenced.

30. The Other Side of the Wind

There's a lot of ballyhoo that comes with unreleased films. As they get further and further into decades, there's more of an allure about seeing it at all, regardless of quality. With that said, director Orson Welles' posthumous release finally escapes exile to be released on Netflix. While it's disappointing to not see it get a theatrical release, it still feels like the auteur's last joke on a public who always mocked him. This is a film that is a director clearly trying to find a way to become relevant in the New Hollywood era while adopting mockumentary format in a way that is disjointed, sometimes illogical, but always provocative. This is one of those films that feels like it would've never been a masterpiece, though remains worth exploring if just to understand what it has to say about Welles' career, especially through the main character played by John Huston. It's scathing, artful, and far more sensual and esoteric than anything he had done before. The best joke of the film is that he convinced a studio to make this his Hollywood return. It's more of an indictment than a celebration, and even that is another perplexing piece of the puzzle that's worth writing extensive essays on. Even in death, Welles continues to provoke his audience.

29. Halloween

In theory, slasher films are meant to be trashy and disposable thanks to stories that revolve around obnoxious teens running from masked killers. While it's been true of the sequels to John Carpenter's original, the latest Halloween feels like a breath of fresh air as director David Gordon Green finds a way to apply a story of legacy into the franchise in a way that matters. The director is impressive, turning one shots into lingering moments of dread. The acting is great, especially as it gave Jamie Lee Curtis one of his most rewarding roles in years. There's so much to love in the film that goes beyond clever kills. What's present is a sense of a society in love with a mass murdered, even 40 years later. It feels like a plot that could be true of anyone with a Me Too story to share, and it helps to make Michael Meyers feel more crucial and important to modern pop culture than his knock-off counterparts. 

28. The Hate U Give

There are few films that feel like they will be as important and engaging to contemporary times quite like this. Despite references that put the story in a time and place, the themes feel like new ground for a major studio release. This is a study on race relations as well as how the police have grown to profile an entire community. It's an exploration of hate that doesn't go for cheap answers, but instead understands how everyone is culpable in prolonging the chaos. With an electric lead performance by Amandla Stenberg, this film feels like one of the rare times that any film has addressed the matter as more than a simplified "Us vs. Them" matter. There's a feeling of helplessness at times, but change comes through finding empathy for each other. As difficult as that may be, the film comes closest to depicting a society that could change. If the audience can get the message, positive change can be made and it will all be worth it. 

27. The Death of Stalin

Even if Josef Stalin was a real person, the film feels more like a commentary on the modern American presidential administration. The plot is simple: what happens when the man in charge dies? If you're corrupt and have shady ways of hiring people, it can go extremely wrong. Thanks to this pitch black political satire, there's a sense of how poorly things can go when too many egos are put in one room. It may not provide any answers for America's current fiasco, but it still features a great cast who all have enough memorable moments that poke fun at attempting to establish control when those in charge are impulsive brats. Director Armondo Iannuci has rarely been better than when the cast of Russian diplomats are fighting each other over petty reasons, especially when they feature an Oscar-worthy performance by Steve Buscemi. It's one of the rare comedies that sting because they feel all too real, and not just because of the notoriety that Stalin brought upon the world.

26. The House That Jack Built

There's not much that hasn't been said about director Lars von Trier at this point, who captures controversy every time he so much as opens his mouth. While this may be petty and annoying to some, there's something exciting about how he provokes. Matt Dillon leads the film as the affect-less Jack, whose days as a murderer are chronicled in a perverse attempt to compare death to art, often spliced in between segments like clip shows. It's profane and disturbing, but that's more a feature than a bug that is meant for audiences to understand the shamelessness that some humans will go to to fulfill their personal impulses. It's an entertaining film that will leave the viewer both laughing and shivering in regret. It's  a film of surreal intellect that may be only skin deep. It's hard to tell, but that's some of the allure that comes with watching any film of von Trier, especially one as personal and reportedly autobiographical (thematically!) as this.