Josh Kupecki’s Top 10 Films of 2018
By Josh Kupecki, Fri., Dec. 28, 2018
1) Roma
A filmmaker known for his unrelenting bravado behind the camera dials it back a few f-stops for a sweeping yet intimate epic.
2) Shoplifters
Who says you can't choose your family? A happenstance gang circumvents that with poignancy and hilarity.
3) First Reformed
Ethan Hawke floored me, and while Paul Schrader wanders a well-trod path, this convergence is one of 2018's best things.
4) Thunder Road
That rare film where I seldom had any idea where the narrative was going, and I did not care one single bit.
5) The Favourite
There're the performances, to be sure, but what makes it is the beautifully cruel sandbox Lanthimos created for them.
6) Mandy
Did you ever desire to deconstruct every cultural artifact from your pubescent years? Boom! You have Mandy.
7) Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.
You can have your Fred Rogers doc, I'll take this story of an immigrant refugee-turned-international pop star.
8) You Were Never Really Here
As much as you want to burn away the world, it has a nasty penchant for sneaking up on you.
9) Sorry to Bother You
It's amazing that this cinematic Molotov cocktail even exists. There's so much to look at in any given frame.
10) Lean on Pete
A boy and a horse: an odyssey fraught with trauma that sticks into your soul.
Near Misses
Minding the Gap, BlacKkKlansman, Free Solo
Most Overrated
A Star Is Born, Suspiria
Most Underrated
Annihilation, Summer 1993, Under the Tree
Wild Card
TV outshines film as Maniac, Homecoming, and My Brilliant Friend mine incredibly complicated narratives that speak volumes.
Acting Kudos (Male)
Ethan Hawke (First Reformed), Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete)
Acting Kudos (Female)
Kathryn Hahn (Private Life); Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?); Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
Best Director
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete), Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here)
Best Original Screenplay
Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade), Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Macon Blair (Hold the Dark); Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
TV Series/Event
Killing Eve
Worst Film
Mile 22: Perhaps director Peter Berg needs some calming herbs in his life, because this mess of a movie, in which the editing whiplash pummels the viewer for 90 minutes of incoherence, coupled with Marky Mark's attempt at being some badass, renders the whole affair as a schizophrenic trainwreck (trainwreck not included).