Top 20 Of 2018: Part 2 (10 - 1)

10: Widows

I was excited for Widows since I heard Steve McQueen paired with Gillian Flynn and the film was even better than I hoped it could be. The actual heist part of the heist movie was a very small portion, instead the film was this sprawling crime drama with a personal touch that focussed on grief, betrayal, loyalty and family. From the cold-hearted criminals to the even colder politicians, McQueen and Flynn captured a sense of realism within their entertainment and allowed their female quartet to give the film some much needed heart. Unjustly ignored and an absolute gem to catch up on.

9: Isle Of Dogs

Last year I noted that there was no animation movie in my top 10 which was a new case for me, and with the main hitters of Spider-Man and Disney only in the top 20, I feared the same might be true here. Enter Wes Anderson who delivered his trademark perfectionism to the story of a boy looking for his dog and gave it enough charm, heart and humour to move it in a new direction about half-way through and still maintain its greatness. Whether it’s the painstakingly crafted style or even something as simple as a robotic dog sneezing, nobody but Anderson could’ve made this film and I’m so glad he did.

8: Beast

Biggest surprise of the year, easily, I went into this not knowing what to expect and I got a dark as fucking hell Beauty & The Beast tale featuring a troubled young woman and her lover who may or may not be a serial rapist/killer. It’s stylish, it’s poetic, it’s chilling and it’s a fantastic turn from Jessie Buckley as our disturbed heroine from a disturbed family, everything about this film plays out one of the grimmest fairy tales around and I fucking can’t wait to see more from this team.

7: Leave No Trace

Currently the second highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes and for good reason, telling a tale of loneliness and isolation through the eyes of a father and daughter, it’s equal parts heart-warming and heart-breaking thanks to the combined efforts of Ben Foster’s troubled vet, Debra Granik’s soft-handed direction and above all, newcomer Thomasin McKenzie delivering one of the best performances of the year.

6: The Night Comes For Us

People calling Fallout the best action movie of the year clearly never saw this flick, absolutely bat-shit insane with enough blood-shedding to put Eli Roth to shame. The hero is way too crazy, the villain way too calm, the action is intense from every frame and the whole thing is put together like the long-lost cousin of The Raid and I fucking loved every second of it. Easily one of the most brutal, graphic and fucking fun actions films out there and one of the most entertaining flicks of 2018.

5: Revenge

Speaking of brutal, graphic and entertaining, my love of revenge films and bloody French flicks were what brought me to the bloody French flick called Revenge but it’s stuck with me for much more than that. Billed as a feminist rape/revenge film, the level of brutality inflicted upon our lead heroine Jan (played to a silent perfection by Madison Lutz) and what she inflicts on her attackers is nothing short of astounding but it plays into the ultra-contrasted, ultra-violent, ultra-sexualised world she lives in. This is complete style over substance from top to bottom but it does it so fucking well that I couldn’t help but go along for the ride.

4: Annihilation

Sent to Netflix for being ‘Too smart’, Alex Garland’s follow-up to Ex_Machina (my number one film for that year) is as mind-bendingly brilliant as before, following a group of female scientist into this impossible place. This is easily one of the best Hard Sci-Fi films we’ve had in ages, the logic is twisted, the scenery terrifying, the biology fucked with the screaming bear still standing out as one of the best scenes of the year. Tackling self-reflection and self-destruction, Garland takes his team (led by a fantastic Natalie Portman who’s not as likeable as you’d think she’d be) into the most colourful Hell imaginable and watches them come apart. I still don’t fully get it but fuck me, has it stayed with me.

3: Hereditary

Best Horror Movie of the year? You’re goddamn right, I have never been this unnerved by a film in a long time and it’s still in my mind long after I last show it. Taking a slow-burn approach peppered with some of the most shocking scenes put to a modern horror movie (the car scene alone makes this movie a must-see) and then firing it all out during the final act, newcomer Ari Aster seems to have already perfected the genre first time out, anchored by a fucking Oscar worthy performance from Toni Collette as the distraught matriarch and a script that has every line, every moment called back to later on to mean something, there’s nothing like Hereditary out there which given how much it fucked me over is probably a good thing.

2: The Haunting Of Hill House

Isn’t this a TV show? Yes but it’s also my list so shut up. If I want to call this a 10 hour movie and place it on my Best Of The Year list I fucking well will but this is a 10 hour movie and one of the best of the year. Taking grief, trauma, self-destruction and that’s just what they’ve suffered in the real world, never mind the years worth of ghosts (real and metaphorical) they’ve carried with them. The non-linear story was the best utilised since Memento, the acting was phenonmenal with each of the children showcasing a different breed of trauma and standout Luke delivering the best reluctant addict acting since Bubbles from The Wire and Mike Flanagan slowly creeping throughout every episode with shadows, tricks and long-takes to properly get under your skin. It might be a TV show but nothing grasped me the way this did all year.

1: Avengers: Infinity War

Video-Game critic Yahtzee Croshaw once said that sometimes something is popular because it is good and that’s very much the case for Infinity War, the biggest movie of the year and the best, yes I know, it’s an easy choice but how could this not be. 10 years in the making, 6 years of build-up since the Thanos tease at the end of The Avengers, 100 billion characters and 19 movies to reach this point... and they fucking nailed it. The story was epic, the SFX outstanding, the humour brilliant, the action intense and the villain perfect, not only were they able to give everyone their moment to shine but they re-introduced Thanos and made him easily the best villain the MCU has ever faced, tragic, relatable, but utterly mad and dangerous at the same time. From ‘Get lost squidward’ to ‘I don’t feel good Mr Stark’ there wasn’t a dull moment across the entire run-time and what’s even better, we’re only half-way through. Endgame has a lot to live up to but I have a feeling by this time next year it’ll take the top-spot again.