Okay, I am going to give you my Ten Best Movies for 2018, but first some stipulations.
- I am not a professional movie critic, so I don't see every movie that gets released. As a result, this is most certainly not an all-encompassing list of all 2018 movies.
- I usually go to see only movies that I am inclined to see. The means, although this is not always the case, that the movies I see will not include science fiction, comic book flicks, or foreign language films.
- This list include only movies that I have seen in a movie theater in the calendar year 2018 (there were twenty-five of them this year). Three of my Ten Best were actually 2017 movies. I am going to take those out of these rankings, so that my list will only show ten movies that were released in 2018.
- For the record, the 2017 movies that I am removing from my list are "The Post" (#4), "The Shape of Water" (#9), and "Get Out" (#10).
That said, and counting backwards from 10 to 1...
10. Crazy Rich Asians. A romantic comedy featuring an all Asian cast. Maybe you might see that as a gimmick, but you soon get over that idea as the movie unfolds. An attractive cast and gorgeous location filming in Singapore. Best line: "Nobody likes getting free stuff more than rich people."
9. Ocean's 8. Another heist movie, only this time with an all female gang of thieves. Lots of fun.
8. A Simple Favor. A quirky little movie that casts Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively as mismatched moms who suddenly become unlikely "best friends". The friendship takes an unlikely turn when Lively suddenly disappears.
7. Three Identical Strangers. A documentary about identical triplets who were separated at birth who accidentally learn of the others' existence when they reach their late teens. What starts out as a feel good story of brothers reuniting takes a decidedly dark turn when they look to determine why they were separated at birth in the first place.
6. A Star Is Born. The third remake (or maybe the fourth, depending on how you count) of this old Hollywood war horse is certainly the best of them. Bradley Cooper produced, wrote, directed, and co-starred in this one, but the true star is Lady Gaga. She is absolutely fabulous in this one, and she alone makes this one worth seeing, although that is certainly not the only reason to go. Look for the movie to get a whole bunch of Oscar nominations, and it may well be a big winner on Oscar night, including taking home the Best Picture award.
5. The Wife. When this movie was released late in the summer, critics were saying that this would be the move that would finally deliver an Oscar to Glenn Close. However, the movie wasn't a big hit, and both it and Close have disappeared in year end discussions and as awards season approaches. Close's performance as the long suffering wife an insufferably self-centered Noble Prize winning novelist was one of the two best performances by an actress that I have seen this year. The other came in the next movie on the countdown.
4. Tully. In this one, Charlize Theron plays a Mom approaching middle age who is about to have her third baby. When the baby arrives, so does a "night nanny" who is there to give the new Mom a break in her motherly duties that at times become overwhelming. The movie delivers a twist that you never see coming, and that makes "Tully" one of the best movies of the year. This was another movie that was released early in the year, didn't do big box office business, and has been forgotten. Too bad, and if Theron doesn't at least snag an Oscar nomination, it will be a real injustice.
3. Won't You Be My Neighbor. A documentary about Fred Rogers. In a world that seems to get darker and uglier every day, the message that Mr. Rogers delivered, and continues to deliver, in his landmark PBS children's television program stands out like a beacon. Wonderful movie.
2. First Man. The story of astronaut Neil Armstrong and the first manned moon landing in 1969. Critics loved this movie. Lots of people loved this movie. I loved this movie. Yet many people, and people whose opinions I highly respect and often dovetail with my own (my wife, for example), did not. Apparently, most of the movie going public disagreed with me, because this one never got much traction and it disappeared from theaters fairly quickly. I thought it was a great piece of movie making, particularly the depictions of Armstrong's space flight during the Gemini program, and , of course, that moment when "the Eagle has landed".
1. Mary Poppins Returns. I wrote extensively about this one just yesterday, so I won't restate it all here, but this sequel to Disney's 1964 classic has it all....fabulous performances by Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, wonderful songs and great choreographed dance numbers, beautiful and colorful costumes and production values (its a beautiful movie just to look at), and, most important of all, a terrific story with a wonderful message. In an era where we always seem to focus on the negative, "Mary Poppins Returns" gives us all a huge dose of positivity. I just saw this yesterday, and I could go see it again today.
Honorable Mentions: "A Quiet Place", "Black Panther", and "The Party".
I also need to note that there a couple of 2018 movies out there that I am just not going to get to in calendar year 2018, foremost among them being "Green Book" and "Widows". I'll get to them, I promise, but, alas, too late to make this list.
Best Acting Performances: Glenn Close and Charlize Theron, as mentioned above, but also, and in no particular order...
- Claire Foy, "First Man"
- Bradley Cooper, "A Star Is Born"
- Lady Gaga, "A Star Is Born"
- John Kracinski, "A Quiet Place"
- Emily Blunt, "A Quiet Place
- Emily Blunt, "Mary Poppins Returns"
- Chadwick Boseman, "Black Panther"
- Steve Buscemi, "The Death of Stalin"
- Patricia Clarkson, "The Party"
- Saoirse Ronan, "On Chesil Beach"
- Dick Van Dyke, "Mary Poppins Returns" (yeah, it's a cameo, but the guy is 92 years old; he has to be on this list)
We only saw two movies on TCM's Big Screen Classic series this year, but they were indeed classics: Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard". I'll say what I always say: nothing beats seeing a great movie as it is meant to be seen, in a theater on a big screen.
And a word about the worst movie I saw this year. Sometime in mid-summer, reviews began appearing for "Gotti", a biopic about Mafia Boss John Gotti that starred John Travolta in the title role. The reviews were so universally awful that I made a note that I just had to see it, although I wasn't going to pay full price to do so. I finally saw it, and no charge, via Amazon Prime. I like mob movies, and I always have liked Travolta, but, wow, this one was really bad. If it doesn't kill Travolta's career, then he will become the Teflon Actor, much as Gotti himself was the Teflon Don.
Dishonorable Mention for Worst Movie: "Red Sparrow". Love Jennifer Lawrence, and I hope she got a really nice paycheck for starring in this bomb.
So there you are. Can't wait to begin compiling a new list for 2019.
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