One of the upsides of living through turbulent sociopolitical times is that popular art becomes bolder, more subversive, more versatile, and more creative as things in the real world get worse. It’s the end of the world as we know it, but at least we’ll meet it with some great movies. The bitter conflicts, divide, and confusion the US and in many cases the rest of the world went through during the late ‘60s and most of the ‘70s resulted in some of the best and most enduring work in film history. Therefore, with straight up the cast of “Goodfellas” running the world in tandem with the resurgence of good ole fascism, with global warming breathing down our neck and as George Carlin put it, about to turn the planet into a “big, smoking ball of shit”, it should come as no surprise that 2018 turned out to be the first year where I upgraded my usual Top 10 list to Top 20 in order to fairly represent all the great work that was released.
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Perhaps as a rebuttal to open racism being infuriatingly popularized again, if 2018 has an overarching theme, it would be the rich and unique batch of socially conscious and righteously indignant films by both up-and-coming and well-established African-American filmmakers. Resonant and imaginative work like “Sorry to Bother You,” “Blindspotting,” and “Blackkklansman” tackled similar issues using refreshingly different tones and narrative approaches. Even though it didn’t make my list, “The Hate U Give” is also well worth your time. Political depression turning into vibrant art didn’t stop with the US of course, as the gorgeous and timely Brazilian animated gem “Tito and the Birds” offered a touching fable against the dangers of fearmongering. Meanwhile, brilliant and brutal satires like “The Death of Stalin” and “The Favourite” reminded us how not only fallible, but often buffoonish and downright stupid and incompetent our leaders can be.
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Of course, not everything was political. “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” slid in at the tail end of the year to once again derail all those think pieces about superhero movie fatigue by bringing something entirely new and exciting to the table. So without further ado, here’s the video of my Top 20 Movies of 2018. Enjoy!
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
