Honorable Mentions
Black Panther | Blockers | Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Commuter | Eight Grade | The Favourite
Ideal Home |Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again |Mission: Impossible- Fallout
Nappily Ever After | Outlaw King | Paddington 2
A Simple Favor | A Star is Born | Teen Titans Go! to the Movies
Tully | Where is Kyra? | Widows
Special Mention
Adventure Time: Come Along With Me
Directed by Diana Lafyatis & Cole Sanchez
The great Adventure Time wrapped up after ten seasons with the feature-length special episode and it was the very best possible ending that it could have had. Rather than going for the epic finale that the entire tenth season seemed to be leading to, it remained as small and ambitious as ever. With its trademark use of bizarre images, Come Along With Me uses the extended running time to get the characters to a satisfying, natural end point. By the time the final montage comes, a look brief look at the lives of our favorite characters set to the “Island Song” we’ve heard a million times before, I was in tears and cemented this as one of the best shows of all time.
Top 25
25.
Love, Simon
Directed by Greg Berlanti
Hardly the stuff of legends, but every time I jave watched this it leaves mi a big goofy smile on my face and tears running down my cheeks. I’m not sure I needed this type of movie when I was young but I’m sure glad that it now exists and is easily accessible to the people who may need it.
24.
Blindspotting
Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada
An energetic and sadly relevant look at race and identity in an ever changing world. Though perhaps not a subject that many want to dive into right now, the script and performances by Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, as well as Carlos Lopez Estradas’s direction makes this a must see.
23.
Isle of Dogs
Directed by Wes Anderson
Certain things about the script and some directorial choices are questionable, but Wes Anderson just keep doing his thing and getting better and better.
22.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Directed by Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothmam
It’s a standard origin story no matter how self aware they are about it, but incredible filmmaking immediately made it rise above the rest. This film is evidence that no matter how hard live-action superhero films try, animation is the best medium to tell these stories.
21.
Museo
Directed by Alonso Ruiz Palacios
A beautiful and thought-provoking heist film that asks important philosophical questions about art while also showing jow these philosophies can be corrupted and corrupt human beings.Gael Garcia Bernal is fantastic. The cinematography and the score are ridiculously beautiful.
20.
The Rider
Directed by Chloe Zhao
I don’t really know how to write about this I’ll just say that it’s beautiful, it made me emotional, and that Chloe Zhao is ridiculously talented.
19.
Hereditary
Directed by Ari Aster
Going into this without having seen much footage made for my favorite theater experience of the year. The mood director Ari Aster sets from the very first shot that unnerved me until the very end. Toni Collette and Alex Wolff are tremendous.
18.
Incredibles 2
Directed by Brad Bird
Not much to say about this one really. Obviously not as inventive as the original but it is a worthy sequel. Its
politics are iffy, but the filmmaking is amazing.
17.
The Sisters Brothers
Directed by Jacques Audiard
I thought this would just be a funny western but I should have known better given that Jacques Audiard was at the helm. As it progresses and we get to know the characters and we start to see what the point is it had me on the verge of tears.
16.
Sharp Objects
Directed by Jean-Marc Valée
Though this new Jean-Marc Valée limited series is not as enjoyable as Big Little Lies, it is a more project in terms of scope and story and he pulls it off. The story itself is far from great but him and his crew bring the town of Wind Gap admits atmosphere to life so beautifully that it makes it more compelling than I could have expected. Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson do some of the very best work of their careers, but just about everyone is bringing it and is an equally important part in the success of the project.
15.
Support the Girls
Directed by Andrew Bujalski
The comedy about the working class that we needed. Though far from realistic, it perfectly captures what it feels like to work in the customer service industry in how painfully awkward it can be but you just got to deal with it while somehow retaining your sanity. Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, and Shayna McHayle shine every moment they are on screen. The ending, though not necessarily happy, is perfect.
14.
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Directed by Chris Moore and Phil Johnston
A worthy sequel to its predecessor. Though perhaps its corporate branding and pacing can be overwhelming what matters most is that the filmmakers didn’t forget what made the first movie so great: its heart. The struggles that both central characters go through is expanded upon from the first one in such a beautiful way that its easy to see oneself in it. Once again, John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman go above and beyond what the characters demand from them and make the movie better for it.
13.
First Man
Directed by Damien Chazelle
Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to La La Land was nowhere near to what I expected it would be. When I sat down to watch this I did not think I was about to watch such a sad look into the life of Neil Armstrong and the attempts to get to the moon. This, the top-notch technical achievements, and the best performance of Ryan Gosling’s career made for one of the most intense and emotional theater experiences of the year.
12.
Leave No Trace
Directed by Debra Granik
A story of an army veteran with PTSD living in a forest with his teenaged daughter could have gone wrong in so many ways. Under the eye of Debra Granick it becomes a humane and specific look at how soldiers are affected by their time in the service and how then they affect those around them. The drama doesn’t hinge on grand emotional expressions, but it still manages to be very affecting. Thomasin Harcourt Mackenzie is a star.
11.
The Haunting of Hill House
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Over the course of eight hours Mike Flanagan gave us one of the greatest horror stories that has ever grazed any screen, whether on television or theaters, so there was absolutely no way it was going to be left off this list. The atmosphere that Flanagan and his crew create and the way his co-writers develop the characters grabbed me from the end of the first episode and continued to build to an outstanding conclusion that left me speechless. Just perfect.
10.
First Reformed
Directed by Paul Schrader
This is the film that grew on me the most this year. The first time I did not like it, not because it was bad, but because it made me feel like crap. I mean, I do not go to the movies to feel like that! But I simply could not shake it. The more I sat on it and what it’s trying to say and thought about the performances and the chilling cinematography the more I understood its greatness. It’s not higher on this list simply because there are films that I looked as much and left me feeling more hopeful, but there is no denying this is the most important film of our time.
9.
Mirai
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Prior to watching this I had no idea what it would be about and my mind was blown by the time it was over. This films tells a very small and simple story about a little kid learning to love his baby sister and leaning to appreciate his parents. However, this is a Mamoru Hosoda film, so it could not be that simple so he turned it into a study in how decisions made across time by people we didn’t know or don’t know well enough yet make us who we are, how a declaration of love made many years ago is responsible for being led to us being here in the first place. It can shift in tone from cute to annoying to hilarious to emotional on a dime and it still works perfectly. Easily Hosoda’s best film.
8.
The Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Directed by Masaaki Yuasa
Masaaki Yuasa returns to the literary universe Tomihiko Morimi for the first time since The Tatami Galaxy and it feels so good. This story about one girl’s particularly wild night is bursting at the seams with creativity, bot on screen and on the page. You would think that a movie about a girl going on a pub crawl, coming face to face with literary demons, guerilla theater, secret societies that oversee her college’s campus, and a particularly nasty bit of weather would not work, but thanks to Yuasa’s crazy imagination and filmmaking skills it works perfectly and it is an absolute delight fro. The very first frame to the last.
7.
Thunder Road
Directed by Jim Cummings
This is Jim Cumming’s feature directorial debut and my goodness what a talent he is. This tale of a police officer on the verge of a nervous breakdown on the verge of his divorce and his mother’s death is darkly hilarious and emotionally powerful from the very beginning. Cummings not only directs the film, but he also wrote, edited, produced and gave an amazing lead performance in it. This film cost about $100,000 to make, but it looks better than most studio films today. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
6.
Let the Sunshine In
Directed by Claire Denis
I should not like a character like Juliette Binoche’s “Isabella” but thanks to her performance and Claire Dennis’s direction I fell in love with her. The way Agnes Godard’s lights. A scene and the way her camera moves, along with Tindersticks jazzy score perfectly work with the two of them to make us go through Isabella’s gamut of emotions without realizing how they are manipulating us. It is this approach that can make a small moment, like Isabella dancing alone to Etta James’s “At Last” feel like a momentous occasion.
5.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
This might be Coen brothers’s most Coen-esque movie. With this anthology of westerns they continue to explore the themes that they have explored their entire careers: greed and death. But seeing them told in six short tales, including a funny but disturbing musical and some very bleak dramas lets them drive their point home further than ever and results in one of their very best films.
4.
You Were Never Really Here
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Rather than going for extreme violence and cheap emotional thrills like other films of its kind, Lynne Ramsey preoccupies with giving us a sensory experience that puts us in the frame of mind of Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joe.” This lets her tell the story of a broken Army veteran going after sex traffickers in a way that feel lean and mean but without being exploitative.
3.
BlacKkKlansman
Directed by Spike Lee
Going into this I didn’t think it would move me in the way it did. The trailer sold it as a comedy, but knowing Spike Lee I knew there would be more to it. Even then I was unprepared by the balance between comedy and seriousness. I did not see how much I’d be affected by Corey Hawkins’s performance as Kwame Ture, or how I’d get emotional by the crosscutting between Harry Belafonte speech and a KKK initiation. And the ending just destroyed me. The last five minutes of the story gave a whole new meaning to the film, and then the montage at the end was a punch to the gut that took the air out of me
2.
Roma
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
I don’t think I can say any more to praise this than what’s already been said. While it didn’t overwhelm me emotionally, I could not help but be taken by what’s on the screen and how Alfonso Cuaron was able to capture that specific feeling of a memory that you’ve long had but you just now see the truth behind it. The cinematography and the sound design are hypnotic, while the production design is a tremendous achievement. But the film would be nothing with Yalitza Aparicio’s performance at its core.
1.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Directed by Barry Jenkins
As the end credits started to roll the only words that came to my mind were “this is major.” In his follow-up to Moonlight, Barry Jenkins tells a story of how people who have the world against them from the moment they are born find a way to fill their lives with good things and live as gracefully as possible. From scene to scene it can take you from feeling euphoria at the images of love on screen to rage as you see how these characters are treated by those who are in power. I wish I could properly express in words what this movie made me feel. I’ll just say that it’s so beautiful, and that for the first time in a while, walking out of that theater I felt hope that things in the real world could turn out alright.
Superlatives
Best Director
- Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
- Lynn Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here
- Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
- Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
- Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Claire Denis, Let the Sunshine In
- Masaaki Yuasa, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl
- Mike Flanagan, The Haunting of Hill House
- Damien Chazelle, First Man
- Paul Schrader, First Reformed
Best Actor
- Ryan Gosling, First Man
- Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
- Jim Cummings, Thunder Road
- John C. Reilly, The Sisters Brothers, Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Stephan James, If Beale Street Could Talk
- Gael Garcia Bernal, Museo
- Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
- Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
- Ben Foster, Leave No Trace
- Daveed Diggs & Rafael Casal, Blindspotting
Best Actress
- Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Leave No Trace
- Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, The Favourite
- Amy Adams, Sharp Objects
- KiKi Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk
- Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Where is Kyra?
- Juliette Binoche, Let the Sunshine In
- Regina Hall, Support the Girls
- Toni Collette, Hereditary
- Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Supporting Actor
- Bryan Tyree Henry, If Beale Street Could Talk
- Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
- Tom Waits, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Raul Castillo, We the Animals
- Leonardo Ortizgris, Museo
- Nicholas Hoult, The Favourite
- Kiefer Sutherland, Where is Kyra?
- Sam Elliot, A Star is Born
- Jim Cummings, Christopher Robin
Best Supporting Actress
- Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
- Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects
- Miranda July & Molly Parker, Madeline’s Madeline
- Elizabeth Debicki, Widows
- Marina de Tavira, Roma
- Dale Dickey, Leave No Trace
- Haley Lu Richardson, Support the Girls
- Victoria Pedrettri, The Haunting of Hill House
- Cynthia Erivo, Bad Times at the El Royale
- Jennifer Garner, Love, Simon
Best Ensemble
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- The Favourite
- Widows
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Roma
- BlacKkKlansman
- Isle of Dogs
- We the Animals
- Support the Girls
- Love, Simon
Best Original Screenplay
- First Reformed
- Roma
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Mirai
- Let the Sunshine In
- Blindspotting
- Where is Kyra?
- Support the Girls
- Hereditary
- The Rider
Best Adapted Screenplay
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Night is Short, Walk on Girl
- BlacKkKlansman
- The Haunting of Hill House
- Thunder Road
- Leave No Trace
- Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- The Sisters Brothers
- You Were Never Really Here
- First Man
Best Cinematography
- Roma
- Museo
- First Man
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- You Were Never Really Here
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- We the Animals
- A Star is Born
- First Reformed
- Where is Kyra?
Best Costumes
- The Favourite
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Crazy Rich Asians
- BlacKkKlansman
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Roma
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- First Man
- A Simple Favor
Best Editing
- You Were Never Really Here
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Roma
- BlacKkKlansman
- We the Animals
- Incredibles 2
- The Haunting of Hill House
- Sharp Objects
- Widows
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Best Makeup
- Vice
- The Favourite
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- BlacKkKlansman
- Outlaw King
- Suspiria
- Black Panther
- Aquaman
- The Haunting of Hill House
- The Sisters Brothers
Best Original Score
- First Man
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- You Were Never Really Here
- Museo
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- The Sisters Brothers
- Isle of Dogs
- Annihilation
- Incredibles 2
Best Original Song
- “Time Adventure,” Adventure Time: Come Along With Me
- “Flower of the Universe,” A Wrinkle in Time
- “OYAHYTT,” Sorry to Bother You
- “Shallow” & “I’ll Never Love Again,” A Star is Born
- “Pray for Me,” Black Panther
- “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- “The Great Unknown,” Widows
- “All the Stars,” Black Panther
- “Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life,” Teen Titans Go! to the Movies
- “Girl in the Movies,” Dumplin’
Best Production design
- Roma
- Museo
- Isle of Dogs
- Sharp Objects
- BlacKkKlansman
- You Were Never Really Here
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- The Haunting of Hill House
Best Sound
- Roma
- First Man
- Spider-Man : Into the Spider-Verse
- A Star is Born
- Incredibles 2
- Mission: Impossible- Fallout
- Hereditary
- Ready Player One
- Black Panther
- Annihilation
Best Visual Effects
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
- Ready Player One
- First Man
- Aquaman
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Mission: Impossible- Fallout
- Bumblebee
- Christopher Robin
Best Directorial Debut
- Jim Cummings, Thunder Road
- Carlos Lopez Estrada, Blindspotting
- Ari Aster, Hereditary
- Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
- Kay Cannon, Blockers
The Gary Cooper Memorial Award for Babe of the Year
Henry Cavill, Mission: Impossible- Fallout
Michiel Huisman, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther
Paul Rudd, Ideal Home
Henry Golding, Crazy Rich Asians