Year after year, a ton of incredible films are released only to end up going largely
unnoticed, and 2018 is no different.
But don't worry about missing out on all the future classics slipping under the radar:
we've got the scoop on the very best.
Writer-director Chloé Zhao 's The Rider breaks the barriers of what a true story film can
be.
Real-life South Dakota rodeo rider Brady Jandreau leads as a faintly fictionalized version of
himself, and recounts the horror of the moment a horse trampled him, and the hardships he
faced afterwards.
Though shaken and stripped of the very thing that gave him purpose, Brady refuses to succumb
to sorrow and journeys across the badlands to find a new identity.
Jandreau's performance comes across nuanced and naturalistic, gorgeously complemented
by shots of the South Dakota sky.
On the whole, the film's ability to deliver its dizzying narrative in a beautiful package
makes it critically acclaimed but unfortunately underseen.
In Academy Award-winning director Sebastián Lelio's Disobedience, wanting what you can't
have isn't just a simple taboo.
Disobedience stars Rachel Weisz as Ronit, a non-practicing Orthodox Jewish woman who
returns to her buttoned-up London community decades after her teenage romance with a female
school friend was found out.
Rachel McAdams plays Esti, the childhood friend who still holds the passion for Ronit in her
adulthood that she did in her youth.
Once reunited, the two fall into their feelings once more, a dynamic made more complicated
when Esti's husband Dovid gets involved.
Balancing risky dramatic material with a poignant rumination on centuries-long values, Lelio
creates a film that swirls with strife as intensely as it stupefies with its eventual
truths.
"So everything was alright when I left?"
"No…
I was… ill."
Adapted from Jim Shepard's psychological fiction novel Project X, And Then I Go chronicles
middle schooler Edwin's mounting stress as it snowballs into insomnia and anxiety.
Edwin's world changes after his best friend Flake suffers a particularly humiliating encounter
with a bully and suggests that he and Edwin silence their tormentors.
What unravels after Flake's idea is an intimate look into the peaks of violence and pain Edwin
rides through, and how the two boys' suppressed fury fuels their terrifying, life-or-death
plan to finally be accepted.
Ethan Hawke gives the performance of a lifetime in First Reformed, the mesmerizing loss-of-faith
drama thriller from writer-director Paul Schrader.
Hawke plays Reverend Ernst Toller, a middle-aged pastor who works at a centuries-old Dutch
Reform church that draws in more tourists than it does parishioners.
Grappling with his own grief and dependence issues, Toller faces a harrowing new challenge
when he meets pregnant parishioner Mary and her suicidal husband Michael.
Michael's radical beliefs compound Toller's spiritual crisis, which leads to his final,
violent trial in an ending that will leave you with plenty to think about.
This isn't your mama's movie about parenthood.
From director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, Tully stars Charlize Theron as Marlo,
a struggling mother of two who's pregnant with her third child.
At Marlo's baby shower for her daughter, her wealthy brother Craig offers to gift her a
night nanny, a young woman named Tully.
Though reluctant at first, Marlo later agrees to Craig's proposition, and she, her husband
Drew, and Tully embark on a mind-bending journey that marries humor with surprising sincerity.
Led by up-and-comer Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade follows 13-year-old Kayla Day as she completes
her final week of middle school.
Kayla is awkward but well-meaning: she creates motivational YouTube videos and encourages
others to carry themselves with confidence that she doesn't seem to have herself.
She's every young teenage girl, and Bo Burnham's writing and direction perfectly captures that
in a sweet, heartwarming, true-to-life movie.
"One more week of eighth grade, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's crazy."
"Yeah, huh."
"I can't believe you're gonna be in high school."
"Mm-hm."
From Academy Award-nominated director and co-writer Debra Granik, Leave No Trace begins
just before the boiling point: war veteran Will and his 13-year-old daughter Tom have
been living in an isolated section of a public park.
When the survivalist duo make one small misstep, social services come calling, taking them
in for extensive evaluations and setting them up with everything they need to live a normal
life.
Though confused as to why anyone would have previously considered her and her father homeless,
Tom tries her hardest to adapt to her new environment and embrace her surroundings;
her father, however, grows increasingly rigid as both father and daughter try to understand
each other and their place in the world.
"Think it might be easier on us if we try to adapt."
"We're in their clothes, we're in their house, we're..."
Fifteen years after the death of children's television pioneer Fred Rogers, director Morgan
Neville invites audiences to celebrate the life of the benevolent host of Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood and honor the good-heartedness and empathy he taught.
More than just a single-subject documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?
examines Rogers for who he was outside the PBS series and beneath his cozy cardigans.
It reminds viewers that Rogers was far more amazing than anyone knew, the kind of compassionate
creative that the world could use many more of.
Anyone who doubted Nick Offerman's ability to play characters other than the mustachioed
Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation needs to watch Hearts Beat Loud.
Offerman shines as Brooklyn-based widower and musician Frank in the Brett Haley-directed
drama that brings together the magic of music and the intricacies of a father-daughter relationship.
When Frank and his daughter Sam find success after Frank uploads one of their songs to
Spotify, their lives shift in a new direction.
Rather than explore what happens to a parent and a child who hit the road like real rock-and-rollers,
Hearts Beat Loud pulls the story inward, documenting Frank's fears of his daughter leaving New
York, Sam's blossoming feelings for her girlfriend Rose, and the pair's dual acceptance that
life may be scary, but that's what makes it beautiful.
Everyone who took a high school-level psychology class will know that one of the most popular
debates in the field is that of nature versus nurture, whether we are the way we are because
of our genetics or because of our upbringing.
Three Identical Strangers, an equally harrowing and heartwarming documentary by Tim Wardle,
sticks that question under a microscope as it centers on Bobby, Eddy, and David, identical
triplets who were separated at birth, each adopted by different families of different
socioeconomic classes.
The trio discover one another by chance in 1980, 19 years after their birth; Bobby and
Eddy found out they were "twins" after Bobby was mistaken for Eddy on their college campus,
and David learned he was the third brother following press coverage of Bobby and Eddy's
reunion.
But the joy-filled homecomings quickly turn dark as the triplets search for answers behind
their adoptions, which lead them to shocking, life-altering secrets they were likely never
meant to uncover.
Based on Emily M. Danforth's 2012 novel of the same name, The Miseducation of Cameron
Post centers on Chloë Grace Moretz's Cameron Post, who is outed as a lesbian when she's
caught kissing her female best friend.
Soon after, Cameron's conservative aunt orders her to undergo conversion therapy at a center
called God's Promise.
There, Cameron forms friendships with a handful of other teens who, like her, put up a fight
against being "re-educated."
It's a stirring coming-of-age movie that's absolutely worth seeing.
Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs prove to be triple-threat talents in Blindspotting, the
comedy-drama the pair wrote, produced, and starred in under the direction of first-time
feature filmmaker Carlos López Estrada.
Diggs leads as Collin, a felon who's so close to the end of his year-long probation, he
can practically taste it.
Casal plays his best friend Miles, a troublemaker who offers no support to Collin in helping
him make it through the fateful final 72 hours of his sentencing.
Where Collin longs for a new beginning, Miles actively seeks out danger in the rapidly gentrifying
streets of Oakland, California.
The pair's lives splinter when Collin witnesses a white cop kill a black man, and Miles' fixation
on violence and his increasingly trigger-happy mentality threatens to have devastating consequences.
Those who missed out on seeing Blindspotting in its original release should remedy that
misstep ASAP, and see why critics are calling this provocative, timely, wholly underappreciated
movie one of the most unique films of 2018.
"You went to jail on a fire technicality."
"Did I?"
"Yes!
How were we supposed to know hipsters are so flammable?"
Regina Hall leads Support the Girls as Lisa, the general manager of Double Whammies, a
Hooters-esque restaurant.
Lisa and her co-workers are trying to make it as well as they can in the world of customer
service, until they find themselves stuck in a particularly heinous day.
Lisa tries to hold it together, but every hour seems to bring even more problems.
The real world bites, the girls learn, but they bite back.
Support the Girls is rock-solid and rollicking, able to handle heavy themes while still remaining
buoyant.
Writer-director Crystal Moselle takes viewers to the concrete jungle, to the inner workings
of a young woman's mind, and to the half-pipes, tramps, and grinding rails of New York's many
skateparks in the down-to-earth drama Skate Kitchen.
The film is an R-rated exercise in just how good movies can be when they're simplistic
and realistic.
The movie follows introverted teenager Camille who joins the all-girl skateboarding group
Skate Kitchen.
Camille's world cracks open wide thereafter: she leaves home, begins falling for her new
roommate's ex-boyfriend, fosters confidence, and fights misogyny.
Most importantly, she learns how great life can be with a pack of like-minded ladies at
your side.
In the mystery-thriller Searching, John Cho stars as David Kim, the father of 16-year-old
Margot, who goes missing without a trace after visiting a friend's house for a group study
session.
David begins searching for answers in Margot's laptop, retracing the steps she took online
in hopes of bringing her home before it's too late.
What follows is a heart-stopping, jaw-dropping journey to uncover the truth behind his daughter's
disappearance, which is darker and more complex than David could have ever imagined.
With its unique approach, well-sustained suspense, tight pacing, and a final twist you'll never
see coming, Searching is one of the best movies of 2018, and the most original thrillers in
recent memory.
Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly star as sibling gunslingers Charlie and Eli Sisters
in director Jacques Audiard's witty and emotionally weighty Western The Sisters Brothers.
Adapted from Patrick deWitt's novel of the same name, the 1851-set film follows the rebellious,
liquor-loving Charlie and the contemplative Eli as they travel through the northwest United
States on the hunt for chemist Hermann Warm.
Hermann has created a formula for prospecting gold, which makes him a target for the Sisters'
boss and a detective played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Unpredictable and atmospheric, with a story made all the more enjoyable by Phoenix and
Reilly's brilliant performances, The Sisters Brothers is a Western that you should see
as soon as possible.