- I've seen most of the best shows already.
- I've seen few of the best movies yet.
As I covered Sunday, the TV crop has been
disappointing so far in 2018, which is disconcerting for the rest of the year's
outlook. The list of movies hasn't been encouraging so far, but that's
standard. If I've seem even three of my end of the year top 10 by now, I'd
consider that a win.
I don't see 200+ new movies a year, so astute
readers will notice that I haven't seen nearly enough movies to follow my
self-imposed "100 movie minimum" for top 10 lists. So, unlike the end
of the year list, for my mid-year top 10 movies, I'm using all the movies I've
seen in 2018. That means 42 films released in 2018 and 67 movies released
before that, including some stragglers from 2017. After far as monthly theming
goes, this is weak, I'll admit. I suppose it does give you an idea of my
headspace right now. I'm not sure there are any overall themes to my
selections. I've seen a number of super old films. I broke into Indian films
finally. Documentaries have a healthy share. I've spent the last few months
trying to build up a better list to finish as a post Club 50
project. Instead, of one big project, it's more like a dozen small ones. I do
worry that I'm hitting a point where I've picked through my most likely
candidates for favorite movies. We'll see.
Next month's list is going to be insane, so I'm
going to hold off on too much detail about how I worked down this list. Here
are a few dozen movies I saw this year that didn't get much consideration for
the top 10. There were some real stinkers - possibly even more than usual. I'm
still fine with the list though. You live and you learn.
50 Shades Darker (2017)
A Futile and Stupid Effort (2018)
A Quiet Place (2018)
A Royal Affair (2012)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017)
Andre the Giant (2018)
Annihilation (2018)
Beirut (2018)
Blockers (2018)
Buzzard (2015)
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Cat People (1942)
Chinatown (1974)
Columbus (2017)
Crash Pad (2017)
Dark Water (2005)
Dawn Patrol (2014)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Diabolique (1955)
Disobedience (2018)
Dude (2018)
Emelie (2015)
Face2Face (2018)
Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
Game Night (2018)
Gates of Heaven (1978)
Good Time (2017)
Half Nelson (2006)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Hostiles (2017)
Hotel Artemis (2018)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
It Comes at Night (2017)
Jab We Me (2007)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Kicking & Screaming (1995)
Kill Your Darlings (2013)
Krisha (2016)
Lagaan (2001)
Last Men in Aleppo (2017)
Lean on Pete (2018)
Life of the Party (2018)
Match Point (2005)
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
Meek's Cutoff (2011)
Mine (2017)
Molly's Game (2017)
My Bodyguard (1980)
My Fair Lady (1964)
On Chesil Beach (2018)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Peter Rabbit (2018)
Rampage (2018)
Red Sparrow (2018)
Say Anything (1989)
Set It Up (2018)
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
Stagecoach (1939)
Strictly Ballroom (1993)
Strong Island (2017)
Suite Francaise (2014)
Super-Size Me (2004)
Tag (2018)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Boss Baby (2017)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Gift (2015)
The Interrupters (2011)
The Kid (1921)
The Other Dream Team (2012)
The Post (2017)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Tomb Raider (2018)
Tully (2018)
Upgrade (2018)
Vernon, FL (1981)
Violet & Daisy (2013)
Weiner (2016)
When We First Met (2018)
Why Him? (2016)
Withnail & I (1987)
Won't You Be My Neighbor (2018)
Wonder (2017)
Wonderstruck (2017)
Honorable Mention
In no particular order, the following films came the
closest to breaking into the top 10.
56 Up (2013) - It's hard to separate any individual
installment of this wonderful documentary series that's followed the same group
of people since they were 7 years old (they're 61 as of 2018). I'm all caught
up finally and can't wait for 2020.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - The movie had
issues, sure, but I liked seeing how all those characters bounced off one another.
And the Snap is too big of a pop culture moment to ignore.
Hereditary (2018) - A very solid horror movie.
Perhaps victime to some overhyping.
North by Northwest (1959) - I can't believe it took
me so long to get to this. Hitchcock sure was great.
Phantom Thread (2017) - I can't wait to rewatch this
twisted little comedy. I'm honestly just so pleased to not have to see that
trailer anymore.
Ready Player One (2018) - Speilberg making a movie
about nostalgia for Speilberg's most influential era. I don't ever want to be
too cynical to enjoy a dumb movie like this.
Rec (2007) - One of the best found footage movies
from the pre-Paranormal Activity era.
Stop Making Sense (1984) - I was not expecting a
Talking Heads concert movie to be so enjoyable. This may have made me into a
fan of theirs.
The Death of Stalin (2018) - Armando Ianucci brings
his hilarious take on the incompetency of government to Stalin era Russia. Many
laughs were had.
The French Connection (1971) - Damn, that train
chase was something else.
Top 10
This is right in my wheelhouse - a coming-of-age
high school movie about first love. I am curious how it will play in repeat
viewings. These movies can age weirdly. It's such a well-populated world that
I'm not too worried.
9. Incredibles 2 (2018)
Brad Bird is awesome. That's about all I have to say
about that. Since the Jon Lassiter ousting, I've heard people insist that he
hasn't been that influential with the projects for several years. I sure hope
that's true, because I don't want to live in a world where I can't rely on
Pixar making good movies.
8. Black Panther (2018)
It's fair to call this movie a cultural phenomenon.
Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger is already a top on-screen 3 Marvel villain and
he's just one person in an absolutely stacked cast.
7. American Graffiti (1973)
Much like Dazed & Confused 20 years
later, I can't quite say why this relaxed, almost meandering movie works so
well, but it does. It's funny to think about how this led to Star Wars.
It's almost a shame that George Lucas' career got so dominated by the one
thing. Almost.
6. Aliens (1986)
One of the best sequels of all time, especially when
you consider that it changed directors and shifted into a different genre. It's
like the Lou Grant of movie sequels.
5. Ocean's 8 (2018)
I love the heist structure of an Ocean's
movie, and they couldn't've gotten the cast any better. It almost doesn't
matter that the heist itself was underwhelming.
4. Halloween (1978)
A horror classic that it took me far too long to
see. I have to agree with every good thing I've ever heard said about it. If
all we got from the movie was that music, that would've been enough.
3. Thoroughbreds (2018)
I'm not sure how this ended up so high. I kept
matching this up with other movies and this is the one that came out ahead.
It's a twisted little story about friendship that worked for me in ways that
probably aren't good signs for my mental health.
2. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
I fully admit to my Star Wars blindness. I
refuse to do anything about it. If that means you have to say "Alex has
really good points about most movies, but I just have to ignore his stance on
Star Wars", I'm fine with that. This is a deeply flawed movie that I'll
happily watch again in an instant.
1. I, Tonya (2017)
This does a lot of the same things that American Animals*
or my favorite documentaries do: it challenges the "truth". I,
Tonya tells an insane true story and flaunts the inconsistencies between
the accounts. Because of that, it feels somehow more true despite being less coherent. It's also very, very funny.
*I'm only choosing among the movies I saw through
6/30, otherwise American Animals
could be my #1.
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