Hollywoods most over-the-top star finally found the perfect vehicle: the gonzo revenge fever dreamMandy.
9.Green Book
Green Bookliterally couldnt be more black-and-white.
And yet…I fell for it.
Jim Judkis/Focus Features; Universal Pictures; Atsushi Nishijima/Fox Searchlight; Paramount Pictures; Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios; Alfonso Cuarón/Netflix
Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Alis note-perfect performances ground the more sentimental moments with real heft.
The wordcrowd-pleasersomehow became a four-letter pejorative.Green Bookis a crowd-pleaser, to be sure.
But in the best possible sense.
XYZ Films
8.First Man
Damien Chazelles last two movies 2014sWhiplash
and 2016sLa LaLand were my No.
1 movies of their respective years.
Ryan Gosling plays Armstrong with an interior unknowability.
Patti Perret/Universal
Hes become a skydiving, cliff-hanging, bathroom-brawling antidote to franchise fatigue.
series that somehow manages to get better, twistier, and more deliriously fun with each installment.
5.Paddington 2
Trust me, Im as surprised as you are.
Daniel McFadden/Universal Pictures
But after watching everyones favorite talking bear in a blue coat, I felt like a kid again.
Any movie can pull at your heartstrings, but the wonder ofPaddington 2is how clever its universe was.
But the films fizzy, fuzzy execution was as delicious as a marmalade sandwich.
Annapurna Pictures
4.Eighth Grade
Being a teenager is a circle of hell that no one would want to relive.
Especially today, with the mean-spirited digital scrum of social media.
Shes all of us at that age.
Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures
Writer-director Bo Burnham captures the self-consciousness of eighth grade with an uncanny sense of humanity.
3.Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Played with soulful grace by Yalitza Aparicio, Cleo is, hands down, the years most unforgettable character.
Warner Bros. Pictures
8.Hereditary
Edgar Allan Poe had his tell-tale heart under the floorboards; director Ari Aster has thethock.
Its just a tic, the low pop of a little girls tongue against the roof of her mouth.
But it hauntsHereditary, and the private 3 a.m. screening room in your mind.
Linda Kallerus/A24
3.Black Panther
“My son, it is your time.”
The Worst Movies of 2018: 5.The Cloverfield Paradox
Netflix had a great year.
Especially if you block out this viral event in which Chris O’Dowd’s severed arm gave the best performance.
Lynn Johnson/Focus Features
If so, bravo, Marvel gods!
that should have been calledThis Is Insufferable.
Carlos Somonte/Netflix
Yorgos Lanthimos/Fox Searchlight
Nikolaj Moller/Magnolia Pictures
National Geographic
Reid Chavis/A24
CGV Arthouse
Universal Pictures
A24
Peter Mountain/Paramount Pictures
Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios
Carlos Somonte/Netflix
Yorgos Lanthimos/FOX Searchlight
Scott Garfield/Netflix
Columbia Pictures
Brian Douglas/Lionsgate/Emmet/Furla Oasis Films
Jon Pack/Amazon Studios
Doane Gregory/Universal Pictures
Finlay Mackay for EW; Ruven Afanador for EW; Art Streiber for EW; Matthias Clamer for EW; Eric Ray Davidson for EW; Williams + Hirakawa for EW; Alexei Hay for EW; Joe Pugliese for EW
