All the movies I saw in 2018, ranked
By: Kevin Slane
Tags: Rankings, Movies, Year In Review, Oscars

LaKeith Stanfield in “Sorry to Bother You.” (Annapurna Pictures)

Recently, I discovered that in the last year or so, my Tumblr had been deleted. I wasn’t especially upset about the loss of my college-age ramblings or my too-edgy attempts at humor from a time when I was refining my writing and comedy chops. The only thing that really disappointed me was that my yearly lists ranking every single movie I saw that year had disappeared into the ether.

Now that we’ve entered the final year of the 2010s, I was already looking forward to effortlessly synthesizing 10 years’ worth of data into a comprehensive and authoritative “Best movies of the decade” list at the end of the year.

Long story short, I was eventually able to re-access my Tumblr. (No, I’m not linking to it.) What I discovered was… not good. Much like looking back in befuddlement that the Oscars had chosen “Crash” as the best movie of 2005, I was confronted by the fact that my college-age self had very different ideas of what constituted quality cinema. There were also some years where I merely shared my college friend Todd’s list, saying something like, “Keep your eyes peeled for my own edition soon!” and then never wrote one.

(Side note: If you’d told our fellow editors at UW-Madison’s college newspaper that a decade later, Todd has diligently put out a yearly film list while slogging through three years of law school and his current day job as a practicing lawyer, while I actually write about movies for a job but either failed to put a list out or left it to the last possible moment, they would not be surprised.)

With all of that in mind, I’ve decided to plow ahead and release my own list once more, with full knowledge that I will likely disavow large parts of it 10 years down the road. I saw 85 new releases last year, a new personal best, and saw the lion’s share of movies up for Academy Awards this weekend. Overall, I thought it was a great year for film, with a ton of filmmakers offering new, unconventional stories that left me thinking about them days and weeks afterward. That said, three of the eight movies nominated for Best Picture this year are in the bottom half of my list, so take that was you will.

Unlike other years, I didn’t have a clear favorite film in mind when I started this list, and flip-flopped the top three multiple times. If you’re looking for a more broad breakdown of this list, I would say I unreservedly recommend the top 25, feel generally positive about the top 45, put #46–75 in the B-/C- range, and highly recommend steering clear of the bottom 10.

Here’s the full list, along with some individual awards at the bottom.

Ethan Hawke in “First Reformed.” (A24)

85. Gotti

84. Mile 22

83. Hot Summer Nights

82. Gringo

81. Vice

80. Sicario: Day of the Soldado

79. Ready Player One

78. A Wrinkle in Time

77. Uncle Drew

76. The Equalizer 2

75. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

74. Deadpool 2

73. Alpha

72. The Meg

71. Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

70. Avengers Infinity War

69. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

68. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

67. The House with a Clock in its Walls

66. Hearts Beat Loud

65. Bohemian Rhapsody

64. Chappaquiddick

63. Venom

62. Ocean’s 8

61. Tag

60. The Spy Who Dumped Me

59. Andre the Giant

58. Tomb Raider

57. Aquaman

56. Beirut

55. Bumblebee

54. Beautiful Boy

53. Oh Lucy!

52. Instant Family

51. American Animals

50. Green Book

49. The Commuter

48. Ant-Man and the Wasp

47. Solo: A Star Wars Story

46. Blockers

45. Ralph Breaks the Internet

44. Free Solo

43. RBG

42. Super Troopers 2

41. Kindergarten Teacher

40. Crazy Rich Asians

39. Mandy

38. First Man

37. Upgrade

36. Isle of Dogs

35. A Quiet Place

34. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

33. Three Identical Strangers

32. Widows

31. Blindspotting

30. Game Night

29. Mary Poppins Returns

28. The Incredibles 2

27. The Old Man & The Gun

26. Mission Impossible 6

25. Searching

24. You Were Never Really Here

23. Tully

22. BlacKkKlansman

21. Support the Girls

20. Cold War

19. Madeline’s Madeline

18. Spider-Man into the Spiderverse

17. Black Panther

16. Annihilation

15. Can You Ever Forgive Me?

14. A Star is Born

13. The Death of Stalin

12. Thoroughbreds

11. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

10. Paddington 2

9. Roma

8. If Beale Street Could Talk

7. Minding the Gap

6. Leave No Trace

5. Eighth Grade

4. Burning

3. The Favourite

2. First Reformed

1. Sorry to Bother You

Still need to see: Hereditary, Mirai, Private Life, The Rider, Shoplifters, The Sisters Brothers, The Tale, The Wife

Awards

Best Picture: “Sorry to Bother You”

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”

Best Actress: Elsie Fisher, “Eighth Grade”

Best Supporting Actor: Stephen Yeun, “Burning” (and “Sorry to Bother You”)

Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite” (She was really a co-lead, but I’ll follow the Academy’s path here and shoehorn her into supporting.)

Best Director: Debra Granik, “Leave No Trace”

Best Original Screenplay: Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade”

Most Memorable Scene: Sales pitch, “Sorry to Bother You” (Runner-up: Screaming bear, “Annihilation”)

Best contemplative staring out at the horizon: Farmhouse sunset, “Burning” (Runner-up: Screaming from the rooftop, “Support the Girls”)

Biggest Squandering of Talent: Timothee Chalamet, “Hot Summer Nights” (Runner-up: Charlize Theron, “Gringo”)

Best Dog: Olivia, “Widows” and “Game Night” (Runner-up: Wolfie, “Paddington 2”)