Movie Enthusiast Issue 63: My Favorite Films of 2018; The Markatos Oscars; Reviewing Monrovia, Indiana
Watching
If you follow me on Twitter you’ve probably already seen, but I reviewed Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana for The American Interest. Of the 5 (!) Wisemans I watched this year, I wouldn’t call this my favorite by any stretch of the imagination. But there’s still a lot to say about it, and a lot to reflect on after seeing it. Or, since it isn’t in theaters currently, after reading my review of it.
Ranking
Okay okay okay it’s what you all came here for! First, I listed my favorite movies of 2018 over at my website. Instead of splitting hairs this year, I just listed everything alphabetically. Honestly, it feels good not to compare apples to oranges, especially since nobody is paying me to write a listicle of the Best Movies of the Year for their niche online-only publication. So, get over there and knock yourself out arguing with me over the relative merits of X vs. Y.
Now for the really fun stuff. Every year since I started this newsletter, I’ve been putting together the ballot I would submit for the Oscars if I were an Academy member and I could vote in every category and create my own categories as I see fit. I find this to be a much more fun way of taking stock of the year in movies, as it lets me hand out superlatives where they’re due instead of trying to decide if one good performance here is worth more than one excellent cinematic vision there. Winners in bold.
Best Director
Lee Chang-dong, Burning
Josephine Decker, Madeline’s Madeline
Debra Granik, Leave No Trace
Lucrecia Martel, Zama
Paul Schrader, First Reformed
Best Actor
Yoo Ah-in, Burning
Daveed Diggs, Blindspotting
Ben Foster, Leave No Trace
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Meinhard Neumann, Western
Best Actress
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Kathryn Hahn, Private Life
Helena Howard, Madeline’s Madeline
Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
Lise Leplat Prudhomme, Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
Best Supporting Actor
Rafael Casal, Blindspotting
Philip Ettinger, First Reformed
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther
Steven Yeun, Burning
Best Supporting Actress
Kayli Carter, Private Life
Lola Dueñas, Zama
Jun Jong-seo, Burning
Nancy Murilo, I Am Not a Witch
Dolly Wells, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Original Screenplay
Blindspotting
The Day After
First Reformed
Private Life
Support the Girls
Best Adapted Screenplay
Burning
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Death of Stalin
If Beale Street Could Talk
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
Best Editing
BlacKkKlansman
Burning
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Roma
Zama
Best Original Score
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Incredibles 2
A Star Is Born (…this counts, right? this category was dire this year)
Best Cinematography – Five left-field choices that probably won’t get much recognition this awards season
L’amant d’un jour
Let the Sunshine In
Madame Hyde
Where Is Kyra?
Widows
Best Production Design
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Roma
Sorry to Bother You
Zama
Best Costume Design
Black Panther
The Favourite
If Beale Street Could Talk
Sorry to Bother You
Zama
Best Hair and Makeup
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
The Death of Stalin
If Beale Street Could Talk
Where Is Kyra?
Best Sound Editing
Burning – also the winner of sound effect of the year, decade, and possibly my lifetime
Leave No Trace
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Roma
Zama
Best Sound Mixing
BlacKkKlansman
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born
Zama
Best Documentary
…I only saw two this year. Oops.
Best Foreign Language Film
Burning
Cold War
The Day After
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
Lazzaro Felice
Best Ensemble
The Death of Stalin
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Best Animal
Apollo the horse from The Rider
The Zama llama
The Favourite rabbits
Lee Israel’s cat
The chicken that’s surprisingly good at math in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Best End Credits
The Commuter
Let the Sunshine In
The Alexander Payne’s Downsizing Award for Forgotten Mainstream Hollywood Release Destined to Be Championed by Nick Pinkerton as Actually One of the Best Movies of the Year, and Although I Would Disagree I Think He Makes a Valid Point about How Certain Movies Are Preordained as “Good” by the Work of Studios and Critics Alike, Thus Screwing Over Filmmakers Who Think of Cinema as a Craft and in Terms of its Populist Appeal Instead of in Terms of Trying to Win Awards or Get the Attention of Critics Whose Influence in the Industry Might Land Them Their Next Project and/or Paycheck
The Commuter
(Sight-unseen runner-up: Welcome to Marwen)
Scenes of the Year
Brady trains Apollo, The Rider
Tish explains working at the perfume counter; moving the “fridge” into the new apartment, If Beale Street Could Talk
The Gal Who Got Rattled; The Mortal Remains, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Rock Around the Clock, Cold War
The moon landing, First Man
Shallow, A Star Is Born
Areum’s taxi ride, The Day After
Searching for Screenslaver; the helicopter rescue, Incredibles 2
Kwame Ture’s speech and Jerome Turner’s speech, BlacKkKlansman
The heads of state have an extremely democratic meeting, The Death of Stalin
At Last, Let the Sunshine In
The sunset dance, Burning
The beach, Roma
The director interviews his mother, Minding the Gap
Sail away! Eighth Grade
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, First Reformed