2018 offered a huge range of awesome, diverse films in just about every genre… but which
are the at the top of their class?
These are the very best films 2018 has to offer.
John Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim Halpert on The Office, probably isn't
a name that comes to mind when thinking about the horror genre.
“I ate a tuna sandwich on my first day so Andy started calling me Big Tuna.
I don’t think any of them know my real name.”
But after cutting his directorial teeth on TV and a couple of well-received low-budget
features, Krasinski made the leap from the world of comedy to the realm of fright flicks
with A Quiet Place.
Krasinski stars along with his wife, Emily Blunt, in the tale of a couple plagued by
mysterious creatures who hunt by sound, forcing them into a tense and silent existence.
Rolling Stone's Peter Travers called it an instant horror classic, citing Blunt as a
highlight by calling her,
"... in a class by herself, taking a near-silent role and building a tour de force of expressive
emotion."
The Toronto Sun's Liz Braun agreed, calling A Quiet Place
"... a terrific movie, beautifully made and carried along by strong performances and skillful
storytelling.
It'll scare the hell out of you, too."
In a year that's shaped up to be a great one for fans of horror, A Quiet Place stands atop
the critical heap.
After ten years, Marvel Studios isn't surprising anyone with the high quality of its films.
With director Ryan Coogler and star Chadwick Boseman onboard, Black Panther was naturally
another winner.
The film managed to surpass even the highest of expectations, surpassing $1.3 billion at
the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing solo superhero movie of all time.
The movie appeals to more diverse audiences than standard superhero fare, and Black Panther
was simply astonishingly good.
“Interesting.”
Many critics have proclaimed it to be on a totally different level from the rest of the
MCU, exploring themes of alienation and loss more effectively than a comic book film has
any right to.
Special credit goes to Michael B. Jordan's conflicted villain, Erik "Killmonger" Stevens,
who's been cited as the MCU's best villain ever thanks largely to the actor's towering
performance.
"Don't trip.
I"m gonna take this off your hands for ya.
These items aren't for sale.
How you think your ancestors got these?
You think they paid a fair price?"
Slashfilm summed it up the best:
"Run, don't walk, to the theater to see Black Panther.
This is not hyperbole…
Saying it's just 'good' is underselling it.
[…It is perhaps] the best film of 2018."
Even the eye-popping box office success of Black Panther was only a warm-up act for Avengers:
Infinity War, which shattered too many records to list here.
Part one of the culmination of Marvel's three-phase mega-arc brought together nearly every hero
introduced in the MCU thus far, and fans responded by putting up tremendous box office numbers.
Sure, Infinity War didn't earn the widespread critical adoration enjoyed by Black Panther,
but positive reviews recognized it as a gigantic feat of storytelling, delivering meaningful
arcs for characters we've come to know and love.
Notably, its villain, Josh Brolin's Thanos, moved some critics to declare the Mad Titan
as one of the MCU's most effective villains ever.
"Your planet was on the brink of collapse I'm the one who stopped that."
The film's amazingly dark cliffhanger ending caused some reviewers to call Infinity War
"half a movie," but perhaps their tune will change when Avengers 4 debuts in 2019.
It's no surprise here that Marvel Studios landed their 20th straight film to debut at
No. 1 with the lively and entertaining Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Audiences needed a bit of a palate cleanser after Thanos' big snap, and returning director
Peyton Reed gave them one.
A worthy sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, this follow-up is even more assured, and perhaps even funnier
than the original.
“What’s Up!
You don’t remember that beloved commercial?
What’s up?”
Filmfare.com went so far as to call it, quote, "the funniest Marvel film you'll see," which
is high praise considering that Thor: Ragnarok was released less than a year prior.
The film's loose, playful tone and confidently staged action pieces make even more novel
use of the hero's size-changing technology than the original, and the film's reasonably
low stakes compared to Infinity War make it a great, light break from the MCU's recent
trend toward all-out destruction.
But if you're still traumatized from Infinity War, you may want to skip Ant-Man and the
Wasp's post-credits scene.
Fans of Ryan Reynolds' Merc With a Mouth eagerly awaited the follow-up to 2016's ridiculously
popular R-rated hit Deadpool, and Reynolds, along with incoming director David Leitch
didn't disappoint.
Fans of the original knew they could expect insane action and over-the-top vulgarity,
but most weren't ready for the surprising amount of character building and emotion in
the sequel.
Plus, as promised, they introduced Cable in this one.
Wired gushed over the performances of the entire cast, noting that Deadpool's assembly
of the mutant superhero team X-Force,
"... gives Deadpool 2 a much stronger narrative arc, and emotional payoff, than its predecessor."
They also praised the ending, calling it
"... surprisingly heartfelt…
This sequel actually set out to be a movie, not just a series of jokes stuck to a Macguffin."
It's the rare sequel that might just surpass its beloved predecessor.
And some critics called its post-credits scene the best one ever, which is really saying
something.
Picking up literally seconds after the 2004 original, Incredibles 2 deals with the destructive
consequences of superhero battles, and how the Parr family survives in a rapidly-changing
world.
But even in this era of superhero movie box office dominance, Incredibles 2 is unique,
and it still manages to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with everything Marvel and DC have to offer.
In one of many glowing reviews for the film, Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
called it,
"One of the most entertaining films of the year, and one of the smartest.
[...It] sets a standard that few superhero flicks, animated or live-action, can match."
In a year typically stuffed to the brim with high-profile superhero adventures, Incredibles
2 proves Marvel Studios aren't the only ones who know how to score a critical hit in the
genre.
For over two decades, Tom Cruise has put himself in mortal danger for the surprisingly resilient
Mission: Impossible franchise, which has failed to lose speed despite its star's advancing
age.
Now in his 50s, Cruise continues to insist on doing every stunt that it's physically
possible for him to do.
Honestly, audiences don't go to a Mission: Impossible film for character beats or high
drama.
They come for the action, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout delivered in spades.
Director Christopher McQuarrie's sure hand behind the camera, plus Cruise's dedication
to the role of eternally put-upon I.M.F. agent Ethan Hunt, resulted in a crackerjack picture
which pulled down some of the best reviews of the entire series.
As impossible as it may seem, this venerable action franchise and its star just seem to
keep getting better with age, or, as succinctly put by the Detroit News' Adam Graham,
"Bless this franchise, we're truly not worthy."
Crazy Rich Asians, featuring Constance Wu as a native New Yorker who accompanies her
boyfriend to a wedding in Singapore, became a surprising critical smash and a cultural
phenomenon, as the only romantic comedy in recent memory to feature a nearly all-Asian
cast.
Reviewer Rendy Jones encapsulated the positive consensus in concluding his review,
"Crazy Rich Asians takes familiar tropes and revitalizes them and its entire genre [with]
a great cast, amazing direction, and powerful writing."
Like Black Panther before it, Crazy Rich Asians constitutes a clear message to Hollywood execs
that heartfelt, well-executed stories featuring people of color can not only cross cultural
boundaries, but smash them, and earn huge box office in the process.
A classic Hollywood story that's been revisited no fewer than three times since the 1937 original,
A Star is Born got new life in 2018 with a lovingly crafted retelling that may prove
to be not only the finest version of the story put to film, but one of the greatest remakes
of all time.
Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, the film tells the story of up-and-coming singer
Ally, played by Lady Gaga, who falls in love with an established musician and begins her
ascent to stardom even as the career of her mentor and lover begins to decline.
Cooper displays some true directorial skills; Adam Epstein of Quartz called his direction,
quote, "instinctive [and] remarkably orchestrated", enhancing his own spot-on performance while
taking full advantage of Gaga's smoldering star power.
To nobody's surprise, she absolutely crushes it in her first big-screen leading role, with
piles of notices singling out the realistic chemistry between the two leads and Gaga's
"powerful and winning" screen presence.
Expect Oscar nominations.
Striking actress Anya Taylor-Joy has been busy carving out a niche for herself as a
modern-day scream queen, with high-visibility roles in critically acclaimed fright flicks
The Witch and Split in just the last few years.
First-time writer/director Cory Finley was lucky enough to secure her for his debut feature,
the black comedy/thriller Thoroughbreds, and with the help of his clockwork script and
tension-generating direction, he was able to score a winner on his first outing.
The plot follows reuniting friends Lily and Amanda as they scheme to murder the former's
stepfather.
Critics agree that Finley shows the kind of self-assuredness and confidence in his vision
that normally eludes freshman filmmakers.
Christy Lemire praised the film as
"... classically Hitchcockian in its smoldering homicidal tendencies, yet bracingly current."
Other reviews singled out Finley's masterful balance of humor and darkness.
It seems that he nailed it, and also that we might have a major new talent on our hands.
Love, Simon was destined for praise for one simple reason: it's the first major studio
Hollywood film to focus on a gay teen romance, which is a groundbreaking endeavor in and
of itself.
Fortunately, director Greg Berlanti delivered a film that's notable for far more than just
that reason.
It's a funny, disarmingly sweet rom-com that some critics are comparing to the best work
of John Hughes.
Working from a 2015 YA novel titled Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens' Agenda, the script is
populated with strongly drawn characters, all with feelings and motivations familiar
to anyone.
Nick Robinson was singled out for praise in the lead role, among a strong cast which included
Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, and Alexandra Shipp.
Critic Sheila O'Malley called the film, quote, "a radically inclusive act," which was a common
theme throughout most of the glowing reviews.
Den of Geek's Delia Harrington proclaimed it,
"A rare, uplifting, 'romantic AF' LGBTQ movie… to be prized.
With a modern soundtrack and a diverse cast, Love, Simon is the kind of movie many people
wish they had growing up."
The films in the Transformers series have produced consistently diminishing returns
both critically and at the box office, and you could be forgiven for expecting Bumblebee
to offer more of the same.
But with director Travis Knight taking over for Michael Bay and working from a smart,
'80s-set script, a funny thing happened: Bumblebee debuted to stellar reviews, with near-universal
praise for its smaller, more personal story and throwback vibe.
Meanwhile, lead Hailee Steinfeld was singled out for her heartfelt, nuanced performance,
surely the first time those words have been applied to a Transformers movie.
For proof of that, see exhibit A:
"Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man."
Simply put, Bumblebee served up what the series had thus far struggled to provide: heart,
wonder, and fun.
"God I'm so screwed."
Sony Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse skipped the traditional Peter Parker-focused
Spidey story in favor of fan favorite Miles Morales.
Based loosely on the Spider-Verse comics event, in which multiple Spider-people from different
universes must band together to take on a common threat, the film leaned into the idea
that "anybody could be behind the mask" — and followed through with its wildly eclectic
collection of Spider-characters.
"Hey guys.”
“Wanda?”
“It’s Gwen, actually.”
“Haha.
You know her.
Very cool."
In addition to its spot-on characterizations and story, the flick drew tons of praise for
its insanely innovative animation style, rendered to look as if it were leaping right off the
comics page.
Some critics went so far as to call it the best Spider-Man film ever made, with others
suggesting it should be a shoo-in for an Academy Award in the animation category.
An unmitigated triumph for Sony, Into the Spider-Verse opened up whole new avenues of
storytelling for Spidey and garnered wider acclaim than nearly any wide release of 2018.
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