2018 in Films

• A Fantastic Woman – A- (90%RT) In the immediate aftermath of her partner’s death, trans-woman Marina, has to navigate prejudice with his family. Poignant & classy.
• A Quiet Place – B+ (96%RT) Thank god her labor and kid’s birth is like 90 seconds long.
• A Simple Favor – B (83%RT) An over-achieving mommy blogger gets involved in a missing persons case in this acerbic “Cruel Intentions” meets “Gone Girl” satire.
• A Star Is Born – B+ (90%RT) Gaga and Cooper duet through the usual story. Cooper mumbles a bit.
• A Wrinkle in Time – D (43%RT) A bunch of CGI nonsense. It wasn’t as good as the book and I did NOT like the book.
• Annihilation – A- (92%RT) Far superior to the book. This adaptation is beautiful, disturbing, and unnerving. One of the year’s best.
• Ant-Man and The Wasp – B (86%RT) Scott and team must rescue Janet from the Quantum Realm before Ghost derails them. Not as fun as the first but still entertaining.
• Aquaman – C+ (64%RT) Less a superhero movie and more generic Star Wars underwater. The movie can’t decide if Arthur is a genius or a moron and therefore his character seems all over the place. Entertaining but not smart.
• Avengers: Infinity War – A- (84%RT) The culmination of 16 very good MCU movies and two not-so good. And it’s a doozy!
• Bad Times at the El Royale – A- (71%RT) Five strangers, each with an agenda, meet at a motel and things go south quickly in this unique, and intriguing thriller. One of my favorites of 2018.
• Beautiful Boy – B+ (67%RT) A disturbing and distressing look at a teen’s descent into drug addiction and how his father tries to cope. Timothée Chalamet will probably get an Oscar nod. Elevated only because of the performances, the story is so-so.
• Birdbox – B (65%RT) If you look at the things you will kill yourself. Except for some people who won’t. Also, what are the things and where did they come from? No one knows, not even the movie.
• BLACKkKLANSMAN – B (95%RT) Two cops team up to infiltrate the KKK in the 70s. Not much has changed with racism since then.
• Black Panther – B+ (97%RT) “Probably the best and most important Marvel movie to date” says everyone else.
• Blockers – B (83%RT) This was a lot funnier than I expected. Leslie Mann and John Cena are great.
• Bohemian Rhapsody – B- (53%RT) Yes, it’s cliché but it’s so entertaining.
• Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story – B+ – (97%RT) Genius inventor that was dismissed for her good looks. Without her invention we wouldn’t have wi-fi, bluetooth, spy satellites, and more.
• Book Club – C+ (59%RT) Consider the fact that if it wasn’t for the A+ talent in this movie my grade would be lower. These women deserve a better script.
• Can You Ever Forgive Me? – A (99%RT) McCarthy is fantastic as a cranky writer who forges letters to make ends-meet. I hope she gets an Oscar nomination.
• Christopher Robin – B+ (71%RT) In which Christopher Robin helps Pooh find his friends while in turn Pooh helps Christopher Robin find his lost childhood.
• Cloverfield Paradox – B- (16%RT) Serviceable space adventure that marginally fits into the Cloverfield Universe. Explains how it came to be but felt like a TV movie.
• Crazy Rich Asians – B- (93%RT) Some of the comedy in this Rom-Com fell flat but overall it’s an entertaining love story.
• Deadpool 2 – B- (84%RT) Worthy sequel that is almost as funny and almost as awesome as the first. Domino is the star. Needs more Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
• Dumplin‘ – B- (76%RT) It’s hard being the plus-sized daughter of a pageant queen but Willowdean is her own worst critic.
• Eighth Grade – A (98%RT) Awkward teen Kayla is trying to navigate the space between jr. high and high school in this sweet, unsettling, and all-too-real film.
• Fast Color – A- (85%RT) A woman with superhuman abilities returns home after years on the run. It’s a story of female empowerment and rebirth. One of the top 8 films of SXSW.
• First Man – A- (88%RT) – Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong in this exhilarating bi-pic. The sequences of him in flight are a marvel!
• First Reformed – A- (93%RT) A small town priest questions his life after he counsels a local activist. A quiet yet gripping film.
• Game Night – B- (82%RT) Some legitimate “Oh my god!” moments make up for the fact that the main characters have no sense of self-preservation, the bad guys are all inept fools, and the holes in the plot can be overlooked.
• Green Book – B+ (82%RT) Needed more Linda Cardellini.
• Halloween – C+ (79%RT) This is a direct sequel to Halloween ’78 and thus the fourth timeline for this series. Yay girl power (!) but overall it’s not that scary.
• Hearts Beat Loud – B (90%RT) A father-daughter band navigate modest success and real life. Good for a rental.
• Hereditary – A- (94%RT) Brilliant acting by Toni Collette elevates this psychological ghost story. Disturbing and atmospheric. I have a theory about the ending.
• I Feel Pretty – A- (35%RT) Renee wishes she were “beautiful” but instead learns that confidence and a positive outlook are way sexier. Funny, sweet, and a great message.
• If Beale Street Could Talk – A (94%RT) Beautiful and frustrating story of a young couple forced apart when he’s accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
• Incredibles 2 – C+ (94%RT) The “bad guy’s” motivation was extremely sloppy and makes no sense and it was easy to figure out who it is within the first few minutes. Plus 90 minutes of the film the family is apart. Formulaic and sloppy.
• Juliet, Naked – B (81%RT) Love story about one relationship at it’s end and another that is doomed to start. Sweet and funny.
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – C+ (50%RT) I didn’t care about two of the new characters, in fact they disappeared for about 35 solid minutes. Unethical and immoral decisions abound from both sides. It’s all just a setup for the third movie.
• Keep the Change – B+ (100%RT) A New York RomCom about two adults with autism. Funny, sweet, and touching.
• Leave No Trace – A- (100%RT) A caring widowed father with PTSD lives off the grid with his teenage daughter. He feels this is their best life, she knows better.
• Love, Simon – B (91%RT) A John Hughes-esque love story for Gen-Z about a teen struggling to come out. Sweet and kind and lovely.
• Mary Poppins Returns – B+ (78%RT) The acerbic shadow demon ensnares three unsuspecting children in a waking fever dream of music and dance while letting the clock run out on their family homestead.
• Mary Queen of Scots – B (62%RT) All evils ever committed were by white men in the name of religion and power.
• McQueen – C+ (100%RT) This documentary about revolutionary designer Alexander McQueen sits on the surface of his life. It never gets deep enough on his life or his fashions.
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout – B (97%RT) How in the heck do they even film these movies, the stunts are ridiculous!
• Molly’s Game – A- (82%RT) – True story of Molly Bloom ex-Olympian who ran the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the U.S. and how the FBI caught her. Fascinating and quick paced.
• Ocean’s 8 – B (68%RT) – Like all the “Ocean’s” movies (and Logan Lucky) it requires everything to go according to plan but that’s what you know going in. It’s fun.
• Paddington 2 – B+ (100%RT) On almost every critics Best Of 2018 list. Paddington enacts prison reform in the UK. No, really.
• Phantom Thread – A- (91%RT) – This movie about a jerky fashion designer and his muse wraps around you like a beautiful piece of silk. The third act will leave you talking about it for days afterwards.
• Puzzle – B- (82%RT) – A housewife stuck in a rut finds a new life in jigsaw puzzles.
• Ralph Breaks the Internet – A- (88%RT) I loved the way they visually represented the internet and I liked the lessons for kids about friendship, Independence, and the drawbacks of the dark net.
• RBG – A- (94%RT) Fascinating documentary on the groundbreaking supreme court justice.
• Ready Player One – B+ (76%RT) – Faithful to the book only in spirit this fun action, adventure, VR Willy Wonka is a true Spielberg classic.
• Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind – B+ (100%RT) – Documentary-bio about the celebrated actor and comedian.
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood – B+ (91%RT) – Scotty Bowers’ salacious book “Full Service” gets the documentary treatment. This is equal parts his current life (he’s 95) and his tales of hooking up the Hollywood elite with gay escorts
• Searching – B (93%RT) – A desperate dad turns to the web to find his missing daughter, what he discovers in her social media is every parents nightmare.
• Solo: A Star Wars Story – B (70%RT) – We finally find out what the Kessel Run was!
• Sorry To Bother You – B+ (92%RT) – A social commentary on…something. Funny, genius, and just plain weird.
• Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse – A (97%RT) Possibly the best Spider-movie ever. The animation is unbelievable.
• That Summer – B (88%RT) – Found footage of the Bouvier Beale’s life in squalor from 1972.
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – B+ (92%RT) – The Coen Brothers’ anthology of six short stories set in the wild west. The first is the liveliest and the last is the most somber.
• The Christmas Chronicles – B- (70%RT) – Two kids nearly ruin Christmas and have to work to save it and Santa. Two parts Adventures in Babysitting and one part Gremlins.
• The Endless – B (96%RT) – Two brothers return to the “UFO death cult” they left ten years earlier only to discover that maybe the cult wasn’t lying.
• The Favourite – A- (93%RT) – Lady Sarah and servant Abigail vie for position in Queen Anne’s favour with witty and diabolical results.
• The Hate U Give – B+ (96%RT) – An honest and hopeful look at race relations in the U.S.
• The Old Man & The Gun – B+ (89%RT) – Redford is the world’s most charismatic and prolific bank robber in this true life cat-and-mouse slow burn.
• The Post – B+ (88%RT) – Extremely relevant into today’s political climate, this film tackles the First Amendment amongst government corruption and sanctions.
• Three Identical Strangers – B (94%) – What starts off as a heart-warming story of triplets reunited after 19 years takes a dark turn, then a darker one, then takes a left into crazytown.
• To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before – B (96%RT) – Lara Jean has been secretly crushing on five different boys when they all find out at the same time in this cute rom-com with a positive message for teens.
• Tully – B- (87%RT) – An acerbic and somewhat endearing tale of a night-nanny come to rescue a postpartum mom doesn’t completely earn it’s ending; a twist that doesn’t resolve anything and falls apart on closer examination.
• Venom – C+ (31%RT) – Venom is obviously in love with Eddie Brock in this anti-hero film that is essentially a 2-hour preview for the sequel. It’s exactly what Movie Pass was made for.
• Veronica – B- (88%RT) – Routinely referred to as “the scariest movie on Netflix” this moody possession film is about as scary as a Twilight Zone episode.
• Vice – B (64%RT) – Cheney is an evil prick who has no sense of ethics or morals. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. He will burn in hell.
• Widows – B- (91%RT) – There really wasn’t anyone to root for in this “our-evil-husbands-are-dead-so-let’s-be-bad-too” movie. A+ for performances though.
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – A+ (99%RT) – Poignant and emotional documentary on Mr. Rogers. It’s exactly what the world needs right now.