There were a lot of great movies in 2018, but not all of them got the press they deserve.
While Marvel had plenty of big films, the rest of Hollywood marched on as well.
Here are some of the best movies of 2018 that you might just have missed.
In this fictional tale of World War II, the German army has discovered a mysterious substance,
which, when injected into human bodies, gives those bodies super-strength and a rather annoying
resistance to bullets.
As their bodies get more powerful they become increasingly aggressive and their minds descend
into madness.
Overlord starts out as one kind of movie, in this case, a World War II adventure, and
morphs into something much weirder.
It's a perfect popcorn flick and a classic B-movie in the making.
It has everything you need to spawn a new franchise, except for its box office take:
It only made $10 million in its opening weekend and barely made over $20 million domestically
in its first month.
In Tully, Charlize Theron's Marlo is a pregnant mother of two.
Once her third child is born, she becomes seriously overwhelmed.
Her husband, Drew, is nice enough, but spends more time playing video games than helping
her with the kids.
So she takes up her rich brother's offer of hiring a "night nanny" to care for the baby
at night.
It's a game changer for her, and she soon develops a tight bond with the night nanny,
Tully, played by Mackenzie Davis.
Theron, as she often does, prioritized performance over vanity, putting on 50 pounds for the
role, and it seems like the type of role that Oscar voters love.
Sadly, it fizzled at the box office, earning less than $10 million in its first six months.
You may have seen Lucas Hedges in powerful supporting roles in Manchester By The Sea,
Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
In Boy Erased, he takes the lead, playing an onscreen version of Garrard Conley in this
cinematic version of Conley's 2016 memoir of the same name.
Conley is the son of Baptist parents in rural Arkansas, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole
Kidman, who send him to a gay "conversion center" to try and force him to be straight.
Director/writer Joel Edgerton plays Victor Sykes, the head honcho of the Love In Action
conversion center, and there is also a great performance by singer/songwriter Troye Sivan
as a patient who has figured out how to fake his way through the program.
"Play the part, man.
Then, once you're home, you gotta figure out what to do next."
The film is enjoying a great reception from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but it barely
earned $1 million in its first weekend and only cracked $5 million after a few weeks
in theaters.
Wes Anderson's second stop-motion animation film is a weird and heartwarming story about
the love between people and their dogs … or dogs and their people.
The plot is a bit crazy, but it goes something like this: In near-future Japan, a strain
of dog flu threatens the human population, so the mayor of fictional city Megasaki decrees
that all dogs will be banished to Trash Island, starting with young Atari's dog, Spots.
Six months later, Atari steals an airplane and goes to Trash Island to find his pal.
There, he meets up with a group of talking dogs voiced by a deep roster of celebrity
talent.
Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, and Jeff Goldblum all lend a
voice to one of the pack.
It's all very sweet, and very Wes Anderson.
Yet somehow, it didn't do as well at the box office as Alpha, another movie about dog and
human friendship.
In the decades to come when movie buffs talk about the best dog movie of 2018, Isle of
Dogs will be the one they talk about.
Eighth Grade is a film about a girl finishing eighth grade.
If you're older and it's been a while since middle school, you'll instantly be taken back
as the universal anxiety and awkwardness wash over you.
If you're younger and you dealt with middle school or junior high during the social media
era, you'll recognize even more.
Elsie Fisher's Kayla is an awkward tween who has almost no friends and makes motivational
YouTube videos that hardly anyone watches.
The only person who wants to talk to her is her single dad, who of course, she mostly
ignores.
Her struggles to get through the day will resonate with anyone who's been there, but
it also has a bit of sweet optimism about the future.
Ninety-nine percent of critics liked the movie per Rotten Tomatoes, but it only grossed $13.5
million in its first four months.
This poster child for awkward eighth graders could also be a poster child for underappreciated
films.
Science fiction used be a niche genre, designed to appeal to the brainiest film-goers.
These days, sci-fi movies are aimed at the widest possible audience.
But while cerebral films in the genre are scarce these days, there have been a few rewarding
exceptions: 2016's Arrival, 2014's Ex Machina, and 2011's Another Earth come to mind.
If you liked those films, you need to add Annihilation to that list.
Natalie Portman stars as Lena, a biology teacher with a personal, and secret, reason for going
on an expedition into a mysterious meteor landing zone where the laws of nature don't
apply.
The all-female expedition team doesn't get along, but the film provides them all with
reasonable back stories.
It's a visually beautiful and haunting sci-fi film with action and adventure that also explores
heartbreak, depression, and guilt.
Portman is excellent, as is Tessa Thompson as Josie, another scientist on the expedition.
If you don't like soulless special effects movies and you want something better, this
is a fantastic movie to get behind.
"It wasn't destroying.
It was changing everything.
It was making something new."
Blindspotting has genuinely funny moments and genuinely tense ones.
Collin, played by Daveed Diggs, has three days left on his probation and needs to keep
his nose clean.
That isn't easy, given that his best friend Miles, played by Rafael Casal, has a penchant
for getting into trouble and dragging Collin with him.
When Collin sees a police officer gun down an unarmed man, things get even more complicated.
Co-written by real-life pals Diggs and Casal, the film explores racism, police brutality,
and gentrification in Oakland.
There's plenty of tension in the film between the two characters; while Collin deals with
being judged, Miles conversely feels he always has to prove himself to his community because
he's white.
Both deliver excellent performances.
If more Americans saw this film, it might actually help us to understand each other
a little bit more, so it's a shame that it grossed less than $5 million in its first
four months.
Widows easily boasts the cast of the year for 2018 with Viola Davis, Colin Farrell,
Daniel Kaluuya, Brian Tyree Henry, Michelle Rodriguez, and Liam Neeson, just to name a
few.
But the movie's strength lies not only in its movie stars, but in its wild story and
excellent directing, courtesy of director Steve McQueen.
Veronica, Linda, and Alice are strangers to each other, connected by the fact that their
husbands were killed while trying to pull off a robbery.
It turns out their husbands stole money from a powerful and dangerous man who now hits
the wives with their husbands' debt.
Luckily, Davis' late husband left a notebook with plans for a $5 million heist.
You don't want to know any more than that before going to see the film, but the film
is a wild ride with all the wonderful performances you could ask for.
Sorry To Bother You starts out as one kind of movie and then becomes a completely different
one.
In an alternative present-day version of Oakland, Cassius Green, played by the wonderful Lakeith
Stanfield, lives in his uncle's garage.
To pay his bills, he gets a job as a telemarketer.
He's pretty bad at it until a coworker helpfully explains the secret:
"Let me give you a tip.
Use your white voice."
"My white voice?"
"Yeah."
David Cross provides the voice for Cassius in a purposefully unsettling overdub effect
that provides Cassius his ticket to fame and fortune.
"To my esteemed Regal View associates, whom I revere with great fervor"
The movie gets way weirder from there, as he begins selling for a company called WorryFree,
which offers clients a life free from paying bills with free food and lodging... at the
cost of a lifetime work contract.
And then it continues to get even weirder in ways that we won't spoil for you.
"I can see that you're freaked out and that you want to say no, but I wouldn't do that
before you see what I'm offering you."
Sorry To Bother You is a wild ride, incredibly funny, and the film will stick with you long
after it ends.