Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Brian's Top Films of 2018

For much of 2018 I was under the impression I wouldn’t be compiling a list. Personally, it was a year of much change, ups and downs, days passing like ripples in a lake as the pages of the calendar flipped with no signs of slowing. But over the last couple months I crammed as many blindspots in as I could, racing across town to screenings, streaming from sofas, and spending so much time at the library I believe they genuinely worried about me. The end result is a beautiful collage of cinema from chainsaw-wielding psychopaths to mournful meditations, racial identity and politics to love and loss, cults, cam girls, and a triple serving of skateboarding. 

Below you’ll find my fifty favorite films of 2018. The 2015, 2016, and 2017 editions are also available for your perusal.

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50. Cam (Goldhaber) 


49. Summer 1993 (Simón) 


48. Outside In (Shelton)


47. What Keeps You Alive (Minihan)


46. The Night Comes for Us (Tjahjanto)


45. Filmworker (Zierra)


44. Halloween (Green)


43. Vazante (Thomas)


42. Isle of Dogs (Anderson)


41. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey, Rothman)


40. Mandy (Cosmatos)


39. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay)


38. The Strange Ones (Radcliff, Wolkstein)


37. Incredibles 2 (Bird)


36. First Man (Chazelle)


35. Hell Fest (Plotkin)


34. Lean On Pete (Haigh)


33. Mid90s (Hill)


32. The Endless (Benson, Moorhead)


31. Eighth Grade (Burnham)


30. Shirkers (Tan)


29. American Animals (Layton)


28. Won't You Be My Neighbor? (Neville)


27. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Coen, Coen) 


26. Searching (Chaganty) 

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25. Sorry to Bother You (Riley)


24. November (Sarnet)


23. Skate Kitchen (Moselle)


22. Before We Vanish (Kurosawa)


21. Golden Exits (Perry)


20. Roma (Cuarón)


19. Zama (Martel)


18. Suspiria (Guadagnino)


17. If Beale Street Could Talk (Jenkins) 


16. Support the Girls (Bujalski)


15. Western (Grisebach)


14. Hereditary (Aster)


13. The Rider (Zhao)


12. Unsane (Soderbergh)


11. Leave No Trace (Granik)

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10. Minding the Gap (Liu)


9. Blindspotting (Estrada)


8. Happy as Lazzaro (Rohrwacher)


7. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (Wilkerson)


6. Annihilation (Garland)


5. Gemini (Katz)


4. BlacKkKlansman (Lee)


3. Wildlife (Dano)


2. Sollers Point (Porterfield)


1. First Reformed (Schrader)

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