Best films of 2018, from ‘Black Panther’ to ‘Roma’

Frankly, it’s a fool’s errand to determine the 10 best films of any given year. There’s too much to see, and too many variables to consider about the ones we have seen. And even once we’ve settled on an opinion of a given movie, there’s no way of knowing how it might evolve in the coming days or weeks or years.

But that’s also the fun of choosing 10 favorites. This list is a snapshot of what we were into this year, at the end of this year—what made us laugh or week, gape in awe or fall in love over the past 12 months.

10. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 

In a year of romcom resurgence, none stole our hearts more completely than To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. It was funny, it was sweet, it had loads of personality, and it leaned into that most gleefully ridiculous of romcom tropes, the fake relationship. But the reason we spent a full month watching this damn movie on repeat were its leads, the bubbly Lana Condor and the hunky Noah Centineo, and the electric chemistry between them. 

Every love letter Lara Jean wrote may as well have been us sighing and swooning over To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. It’s that irresistible.

9. Can You Ever Forgive Me? 

Like its antiheroine, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is brilliant in an unflashy sort of way. Unlike its antiheroine, it’s also a pretty lovely way to spend two hours—at least if you don’t mind having your heart shattered at regular intervals.

Melissa McCarthy turns in a career-best performance as the caustic Lee Israel, and she’s well-matched by Richard E. Grant, all charming smiles as Jack Hock. The setting, too, is devastatingly specific: the bookshops and gay bars of early-’90s New York. Lee’s crime (forging letters by famous writers), is the plot of the movie, but not the point of it. That would be the aching loneliness of these two souls on the margins.

8. Hereditary 

Creepy doesn’t begin to describe Hereditary, which gave us some of the most unsettling scenes we’ve ever seen. (Remember the telephone pole? Or the head covered in ants??) It’s the kind of horror that gets under your skin, festering there and keeping you up at night. 

And then, even once that fear has dissipated, it leaves a lasting ache. Because Hereditary isn’t just about literal demons. It’s about grief, in all its madness and its ugliness—its ability to possess you, poison you, pervert everything and everyone around you. Maybe you believe in the power of Paimon and maybe you don’t. But the power of death can’t be denied.

7. Black Panther 

The best fantasy stories pull us into a fully realized world, making us believe—making us want to believe—that it’s all real. Black Panther‘s Wakanda is so vivid, so vibrant, that seeing it for the first time felt like coming home, and leaving it again felt like a bittersweet goodbye. 

Which is not to say that Black Panther felt divorced from our own reality. Far from it. The film grappled with thorny geopolitical issues that had no easy answers, through conflicted heroes and complicated villains—while also delivering satisfying popcorn action and crowning your new favorite superhero.

6. Roma 

“Transporting” doesn’t begin to describe Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, which employs unhurried long takes, thoughtfully composed wide shots, and an immersive soundscape to bring you through the screen and into another time and place entirely—specifically, early-’70s Mexico through the eyes of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a kind and quiet live-in nanny. 

What Roma understands is that the personal and political aren’t just inextricably intertwined, but one and the same; that every single detail or setting tells a story, if only you know how to listen; that the intimate can be epic, and vice versa. And despite being released by Netflix, it’s one of the greatest arguments this year for making the effort to actually go to the films.

5. If Beale Street Could Talk 

So much of Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk plays out in the way people look at each other: with love, with longing, with expectation or anger or pride. All those gazes make the film breathtaking in its intimacy, even as it connects a large cast of characters across years and even countries. 

The plot is explicitly about racial injustice—it concerns a young black man (Stephan James) sent to jail on a false accusation, as his fiancée (Kiki Layne) discovers she is pregnant—and the film does not shy away from the ugliness of their ordeal. But what’s most striking about it is its insistence on joy. Beale Street is a film concerned not just with the hardships of life, but in the big and small blessings that make it worth living anyway.

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 

Did the world really need another Spider-Man movie? We didn’t think so, until we saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film embraces Spidey’s comic-book roots (this is seriously one of the most gorgeous animated films in recent memory) while simultaneously putting a fresh and funny spin on the mythology we know so well.

Standouts among this new team of ever-stranger spider-people include Jake Johnson as a weary Peter Parker and John Mulaney as a weirdo Spider-Ham. But the story belongs to Shameik Moore’s winsome Miles Morales, a living embodiment of the idea that anyone can grow into that mask.

3. First Man 

First Man‘s IMAX moon landing sequence alone probably would’ve been enough to secure its on best-of-2018 lists. It’s a stunner of a scene, so huge and so crisp that you might think, for a moment, that you’ve actually been transported to the moon.

But what makes that moment hit so hard is everything leading up to it. First Man takes the time to show us all the blood, sweat, and tears—as well as the not-insignificant amount of luck—that have gone into Apollo 11. The greatest accomplishments in history are made up of thousands or millions of tinier achievements and setbacks. By focusing on the small stuff, First Man makes the big stuff feel enormous.

2. The Favourite 

“As it turns out, I am capable of much unpleasantness.” That line is uttered by Emma Stone’s Abigail, but it may as well be the slogan for every single character in this wickedly delicious film.

There’s pleasure in watching Abigail, Sarah (Rachel Weisz), and other courtiers jockey for influence, but there’s tragedy, too, in Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne—ostensibly the most powerful person in the land, but in reality a woman trapped in a gilded cage. Like the cakes she eats, in defiance of her stomach condition, The Favourite will go down sweet, come up acid, and have you going back for seconds.

1. Eighth Grade 

Eighth Grade is such a dead-on representation of adolescence that watching it feels less like remembering your youth than like reliving your youth, with all the expectation and mortification that that entails. This could be the best non-horror movie we’re too traumatized to ever watch again.

Which isn’t to say Eighth Grade is depressing. To the contrary, it ends on a sweetly optimistic note, with a sense that this little girl is going to be all right. Kayla may be unsure of who she is, what she wants to be, and how she wants to be seen—but Eighth Grade knows exactly what it’s doing, thanks to Elsie Fisher’s flawless lead performance and Bo Burnham’s confident direction.