Best Films of 2018
Emory experts weigh in on the year's top films
The film experts in Emory’s Department of Film and Media Studies offer their view of the best offerings of the very rich 2018 year. The choices are based on films that have opened in Atlanta as of Dec. 18. Many of the titles below are currently in theaters, streaming online or available on Blu-Ray or DVD. The films are listed in alphabetical order.
Emory reviewers include Tanine Allison (TA), Matthew H. Bernstein (MHB), Nsenga Burton (NB) and Dan Reynolds (DR).
Black Panther
It is difficult to summarize the manifold ways in which Ryan Coogler’s imaginative, visually astonishing and incredibly entertaining entry into the cinematic Marvel Universe is a game changer. The infectious performances (particularly from Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Guria and Letitia Wright) combine with a fully realized Wakanda that is aspirational and accessible. With its well-deserved $1.34 billion box office gross, “Black Panther” proves decisively that black filmmakers (writers, directors, cast members, production designers and costume designers) can produce box office gold. (NB)
Capernaum
Lebanese writer-director Nadine Labaki worked with an entire cast of non-professional actors, including several illiterate Syrian and African refugees in Beirut, to coax astonishingly intimate and authentic performances in this eye-opening portrait of the denial of national identity and the grinding poverty that slowly wears down the most hopeful and responsible people. Anchoring the film is the 12-year-old Zain Al Rafeea, a street-smart, foul-mouthed scamp who does everything he can to fight the sale of human beings. Labaki leavens the drama with moments of humor and family connection, resilience and hope. Think “The Florida Project” meets “City of God” (without the violence) and you have a sense of this eye-opening, unforgettable work. (MHB)
The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos’s follow up to his 2016 surreal sci fi romance “The Lobster” turns the British historical costume pic inside out and on its head in this period film revamping of “All About Eve” which repays multiple viewings. The sumptuous costumes and historical locations are there all right, but the dialogue is witty and lewd and the humor a mix of slapstick and absurdism as Emma Stone and Rachel Weiz (both marvelous) compete for the affection of the melancholy, unhealthy Queen Anne (an astonishing Olivia Coleman) in the early 1700s. (MHB)
Madeline’s Madeline
Josephine Decker’s third feature continues the director’s exploration of the expressive frontiers of narrative cinema. Teenager Madeline is the youngest member of an experimental theater troupe. As her bond with the troupe’s director intensifies, it puts further pressure on Madeline’s already-strained relationship with her mother. Cinematographer Ashley Connor’s visuals work together with Caroline Shaw’s innovative score to channel the narrative through Madeline’s consciousness. The film is anchored by a trio of powerful performances by Molly Parker, Miranda July, and especially Helena Howard who, in the debut of the year, embodies Madeline with remarkable intensity and conviction. (DR)
Paddington 2
Movies that tout the power of kindness are a dime a dozen. Far rarer are films that embody kindness, not only in the stories they tell but in the telling itself. Updating Michael Bond’s mid-century books, the Paddington films tell the story of a Peruvian bear who immigrates to England and the London family who takes him in. “Paddington” was a revelation, and “Paddington 2” is even better, free of the complacent edginess that haunts contemporary “family” film. Generous to its protagonists, its audience, and even its villains, “Paddington 2” is funny, visually clever, gentle, and, above all, kind. (DR)
RBG/Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
These adoring documentaries focus on two distinctly extraordinary American heroes, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Fred Rogers. Both films use interviews (with close friends, family and co-workers) and archival footage to relate behind-the-scenes little known stories of each figure’s rise to prominence in their chosen fields and the ways in which they approached their work, which was challenged on many fronts. Both Ginsburg and Rogers have striven to make America the best country it can be, and these documentaries leave you deeply moved and inspired. (MHB)
Roma
Alphonso Cuaron’s tribute to his family’s housekeeper (played with dignity and integrity by newcomer Yalitza Aparicio) in early 1970s Mexico City is beautifully crafted recreation of his broken family, his privileged childhood and the quiet strength of the impoverished woman he considers even more of a parent than his biological mother. Intimate and deeply moving in its portrayal yet sweeping in its scope, Cuaron’s film also features his own black and white, widescreen cinematography. You will not see a more visually stunning film (hopefully in a theater), in which every frame could be a photograph, this year. (MHB)
Sorry to Bother You
This dark comedy is a fantastical indictment of contemporary capitalism. In a surrealist near-future Oakland, Lakeith Stanfield stars as a low-level telemarketer who learns to use his white voice (brought to us by David Cross) to join the vaunted ranks of master salesmen. As he does so—selling out his friends who are on strike against the company—he learns too much about what the corporate leadership is really up to and has to extricate himself from some sticky and truly bizarre situations. The debut film of rapper and activist Boots Riley, who wrote and directed, “Sorry to Bother You” is a wild ride that marks the emergence of a unique and vital voice in American cinema. (TA)
Three Identical Strangers
The first half of Tim Wardle’s intriguing documentary celebrates the reunion of three Jewish brothers who were separated at birth—how they discovered each other and how they became media celebrities in early 1980s Manhattan. The second half investigates why they were separated in the first place, and things take a distinctly darker, disturbing turn as it explores institutional malpractice in thrall to the nature-nurture debate. (MHB)
Watch the trailer for Three Identical Strangers.
Honorable mentions: “First Reformed”, “The Guilty”, “The Rider”, “Shoplifters”, “Thunder Road”, "A Star is Born", and "BlacKkKlansman".
Want to learn more about Emory?
Please visit Emory.edu and the Emory News Center.
