Just to be safe, I’m splashing a big ol’ SPOILER WARNING right at the beginning here. I’ll be covering lots of movies to varying degrees. So proceed with caution if you’re worried about being spoiled. You will see links to a number of reviews I’ve written for these movies. Those reviews are mostly spoiler-free. If there are any spoilers, there will be a notice. In other words, you don’t have to worry about opening up a review and being instantly and inadvertently spoiled.
Movie Stats
Feel free to skip right past this (my feelings will remain intact), but for those of you who may be interested, here are some stats on all the movies I watched in 2018.
- Total number of movies watched: 338 (plus 10 movies I watched twice, for a total of 348 movie viewings)
- 131 of those were new 2018 releases
- 143 were movies I saw for the first time
- Leaving 64 movies that I had seen at least once before
- The Top 5 movies that I rewatched were:
- Good Will Hunting – 97/100
- Whiplash – 96/100
- Toy Story – 96/100
- The Dark Knight (96/100
- Toy Story 3 – 95/100
- The Top 5 movies that I watched for the first time were:
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – 96/100
- Mystic River (2003) – 93/100
- Frost/Nixon (2009) – 90/100
- Django Unchained (2012) – 90/100
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – 90/100
- The worst movie that I saw for the first time was Battlefield Earth, which I gave 0/100
- I watched this (along with many other bad movies) for the sole purpose of being able to listen to the corresponding episode of the How Did This Get Made? podcast. I will be doing the same in 2019. Love HDTGM.
Top 10 Movies of 2018
- First Man – 99/100 (Review)
- A Star is Born – 97/100 (Review)
- Green Book – 96/100
- Eighth Grade – 95/100 (Review)
- A Quiet Place – 95/100 (Review)
- Avengers: Infinity War – 94/100 (Review)
- BlackKlansman – 93/100 (Review)
- The Hate U Give – 92/100 (Review)
- Black Panther – 92/100 Review)
- Love, Simon – 91/100
Bottom 10 Movies of 2018
- The Happytime Murders – 0/100 (Review)
- Rideshare – 1/100
- Gotti – 6/100
- Fifty Shades Freed – 8/100
- The Kindergarten Teacher – 17/100
- Little Italy – 18/100
- Holmes & Watson – 20/100 (Review)
- Nobody’s Fool – 22/100 (Review)
- Life Itself – 25/100 (Review)
- Billionaire Boys Club – 30/100
If you’re interested in my full 2018 rankings, there are posts on Twitter (below) Instagram, and Facebook showing all 131. And you can still check out Matt’s Movie Rankings. The 2018 list will remain there for a bit more, until I can see a few more 2019 movies.
My Oscars (The Big 6 at least)
These would be my personal picks for nominees for the major awards. There are a few movies I have not yet been able to see that have at least been in the conversation for one or more of these awards, including: Can You Ever Forgive Me?; At Eternity’s Gate; 22 July; Destroyer; The Wife; Vox Lux
Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22nd.
Best Picture
*See Top 10 list above*
Best Director
- Damien Chazelle – First Man
- Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
- George Tillman Jr – The Hate U Give
- Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
- John Krasinski – A Quiet Place
Lead Actor
- Christian Bale – Vice
- Ryan Gosling – First Man
- Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
- Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
- Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Lead Actress
- Lady Gaga – A Star is Born
- Emily Blunt – Mary Poppins Return
- Saoirse Ronan – Mary, Queen of Scots
- Amandla Stenberg – The Hate U Give
- Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Supporting Actor
- Russell Hornsby – The Hate U Give
- Sam Elliott – A Star is Born
- Mahershala Ali – Green Book
- Daniel Kaluuya – Widows
- Timothée Chalamet – Beautiful Boy
Supporting Actress
- Emma Stone – The Favourite
- Rachel Weisz – The Favourite
- Amy Adams – Vice
- Margot Robbie – Mary, Queen of Scots
- Claire Foy – First Man
Best Movies Relative To Expectations
Eighth Grade
While this movie has earned almost unanimous rave reviews, I knew very little about it going into it; I had only seen one trailer and had read a brief plot description. It sounded like a cringe-inducing awkward coming-of-age story, I was thinking 90 minutes of “Scott’s Tots” level of awkwardness (the only episode I will even consider skipping on a rewatch of The Office). And while it was awkward, it wasn’t “cover your eyes and look away” levels of awkward. It was a funny, touching story that accurately depicted what it can be like growing up feeling like an outsider.
A Simple Favor (88/100) – Review
One of my favorite movies of the year. Similar to Eighth Grade, I barely had any info other than a general idea of the plot. I knew it had the mystery/thriller aspect, but it was much funnier than I could have anticipated. It was just as good on the second watch, too. Plus, it has little kids swearing, which is an easy, easy way to win me over.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (80/100) – Review
I was not a fan of the first Mamma Mia. There were some good musical numbers, but that was about it. I was expecting more of the same with the sequel. This was just a fun movie, led by Lily James. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone have as much fun with a role as she did here.
Instant Family (85/100) – Review
I was ready for this movie to suck. The trailers weren’t very good. The story had all the markings of trying too hard and being too sappy. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. The script was sharp, it was funny, it was surprisingly heartfelt and touching. It seems to have helped that writer/director Sean Anders had his own life as inspiration for the story.
Favorite Performances
Zoey Deutch – Flower
After watching Flower I was fully on board the Zoey Deutch hype train. While I don’t think she would be at the top spot, she would certainly at least be in consideration for my single favorite performance of any movie I saw in 2018. Flower was a decent enough movie, but Deutch’s performance had me fully engaged the entire time. She just went for it; dove all in on Erica. The movie is currently available on Hulu, so if you subscribe to Hulu (or you have someone’s log-in info) Deutch alone makes it worth seeing.
Her performances were also strong in Set It Up and The Year of Spectacular Men. I’d love to see her get some meatier roles and see how she fares with those. But either way, she’s almost at the point where I’ll see anything she’s in, regardless of the movie.
Lily James – Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
As I touched on before, she was an absolute joy to watch. I couldn’t help but just smile throughout the entire movie, and James’ performance was a big reason why.
Jake Ryan – Eighth Grade
This kid was/is the best. The chicken nuggets scene literally had me in tears from laughing so hard (only scene in a movie this year to do that). An absolute riot.
Anna Kendrick/Blake Lively – A Simple Favor
Given the darker tone of most of the movie, A Simple Favor was surprisingly fun. And this is owed in large part to the two lead actresses. They had great chemistry and were fantastic on their own as well. These two alone make this worth a watch…and a rewatch…and another…
Daniel Kaluuya – Widows (65/100) – Review
Kaluuya was terrifying in this role – particularly the bowling alley scene, pictured above. You couldn’t help but be in awe of Kaluuya’s performance.
Shuri – Black Panther
As we head towards a new era of the MCU, Shuri could be part of a new youth movement. Aside from the AWFUL “What are those?!” scene, she was a delight.
Emily Blunt – Mary Poppins Returns (Review)
This was going to be one of the most scrutinized roles in any film in recent memory. Julie Andrews’ performance as the original Mary Poppins is iconic. Heck, she won an Oscar for her portrayal. And what did Emily Blunt do this time around? Oh nothing but completely nail the role. There was enough similarity to Andrews but she still managed to inject her own originality to the character. The result was practically perfect in every way.
Kathryn Newton – Ben is Back
I want to mention her because she is getting overlooked when talking about Ben is Back. Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts are getting tons of praise, and rightfully so. They are both at their best here. While I don’t have them among my personal Oscar choices, I don’t think I’d have any issue with one or both of them being nominated, or even winning. But Kathryn Newton is almost as strong in portraying Ben’s younger sister, Ivy.
She is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. She’s been in some real heaters lately (and has been killing it): Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2017; Ben is Back and Blockers in 2018; HBO’s acclaimed series Big Little Lies; and the highly-anticipated Detective Pikachu in 2019, out this May.
(Some of the) Best Scenes
I tried to hold back some and pick just a handful. But, well, you’ll see I didn’t do so well there. It was too hard to cut any of these out. That said, this list will still be far from complete. For some scenes, I just couldn’t find the right clip. For others – like the “Leap of Faith” scene from Into the Spider-Verse – the video could only be played on YouTube. Other movies aren’t available yet on demand/streaming/blu ray or they have only recently been released, making good clips hard to find.
All that was a long-winded way of explaining why a number of great scenes will be left off. So apologies in advance for any deserving scenes not included; I know there are numerous worthy ones that won’t be listed here.
A Star is Born – A star is born
Black Panther – Killmonger’s death
Infinity War – Thor arrives in Wakanda
Infinity War – Thanos throws a moon
Infinity War – “The Snap”
Possibly the most iconic scene of any superhero movie ever.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Silent take (Review)
In the running for my single favorite scene of the year.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Bathroom fight scene
Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Chase scene
Love, Simon – Emily’s talk with Simon
You give me a scene with a parent having a real, heartfelt conversation with their kid, and I’m hooked. Much like the dad’s speech in Call Me By Your Name, Jennifer Garner delivers on one of the best scenes of the year. I don’t cry during movies, but this was about as close as I’ve come recently.
Eighth Grade – Kayla’s talk with her dad
*Copy and paste from the Love, Simon scene*
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Super Trouper, When I Kissed the Teacher, Why Did it Have to be Me?
Given that each of these is essentially just a music video, they are at a bit of an advantage. But the fact remains, I absolutely loved each of these. Plus, Dancing Queen gifted us this iconic Colin Firth gif.
The one video I could find that can played outside of YouTube.
The Incredibles 2 – Jack-Jack vs. the Raccoon (Review)
Upgrade – Kitchen fight scene
Deadpool 2 – X-Force skydiving scene (Review)
Who knew a group of people dying horrible deaths could be so funny? Plus, surprise Brad Pitt cameo!
First Man – Moon landing
This scene also included some of the most incredible shots I’ve seen in any movie in a long time. The pictures below won’t do them justice, but hopefully they will give a good enough idea of their epic scale. If you haven’t seen First Man yet, and it’s still showing in an IMAX theater near you, go see it.
Blockers – Explaining emojis
John Cena and Leslie Mann are great here, but Ike Barinholtz is on another level.
Game Night – Cleaning the dog
Vintage Jason Bateman.
The Long, Dumb Road – The guys talk Fast and Furious
Made even better by Jason Mantzoukas’ real-life love of the franchise.
Ready Player One – Chucky (Review)
So brief, but probably my favorite part of the movie.
Mile 22 – The good scene
Even bad movies can have killer scenes. And Mile 22 was one of the worst. But this scene is one of the best fights on the year.
Bohemian Rhapsody – Live Aid (Review)
Say what you want about the movie as a whole, but this scene was fantastic. It’s even more impressive when you watch the comparison and see how closely the movie was able to mimic the actual performance.
And here for your viewing enjoyment is the full video of Queen’s set at Live Aid in London.
Best Movie-Going Experience: A Quiet Place
As many of you who also saw this movie in theaters can likely attest to, this was such a unique experience. Obviously the movie is very quiet, which makes any noise (in the movie or in the theater) that much more magnified. I have never been in a theater where everyone was so conscious of every little noise they were making. People either weren’t eating the food they had, or would wait until one of the moments in the movie with louder sound, or would eat it deliberately and carefully. It made for a much more immersive experience than I ever would have thought it would be. It was truly something special.
Best fashion
Hand up, this is just another reason for me to gush over A Simple Favor, specifically Blake Lively. Her drip is pure steak sauce (side note: I have never used the word “drip” in this context before. But it just felt necessary.).
Her outfits are honestly one of the better parts of the movie. They’re just oozing with power, confidence, and intimidation. I’m here for it.
Lastly, AMC Stubs A-List is a godsend
No, this is not an ad (but since we’re on the subject, sup AMC?). Real quick, for those who may not know what A-List is. It’s $19.95/month and you get to see up to three movies every week. There are a few exceptions – special event showings, for example – but that’s any movie, any time, any screen type (IMAX, Dolby, etc). Around here, a prime time IMAX showing is around $20 on its own, so it doesn’t take much for the program to pay for itself.
Of the 2018 releases I saw, around 70 or so were in theaters. I never would have been able to do that without A-List; it would just be too expensive. So to anyone who wants to start getting back to the theater more often, I can’t recommend this enough.
And that’s a wrap on 2018 – well, at least until the Oscars. Be on the lookout for my Academy Awards preview/predictions post once the nominations are announced. It was a solid year in film, and I’m looking forward to hopefully an even better 2019. Speaking of 2019, be sure to check out my 2019 movie preview for some movies to look forward to in the coming year.
Where to follow:
Personal: Twitter @MattHambidge, Instagram @matthambidge
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