Ali Plumb's Best Movies of 2018

It’s ‘Review Of The Year’ time. More specifically, it’s ‘Review Of 2018’ time, with an emphasis on movies, what with me being “Ali Plumb, BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s film critic” ‘n’ all. So as I always say, here are my favourite films of 2018. Are they the best? Well, maybe, but it’s all subjective, so before you scream “What about Mission Impossible Fallout!?” or “But, but, but you didn’t mention The Endless!” just bear in mind that lists are pointless and it’s all a bit of a laugh really. Oh, and I should also add, that I tend to veer towards the blockbuster over the indie Oscar-botherer. Just so you know. But anyway! Let’s do this thing:

Way back in January and February, some pretty big films came out, such as Margot Robbie’s fourth wall-breaking Tonya Harding biopic I, Tonya, plus Martin McDonagh’s visceral revenge drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Spielberg’s The Post, and Pixar’s Coco, and, and, and… Regular readers of my top 10s will know I have a tendency to cop out with my number 10 slot, and this one’s no different: several very good films, all of which came out in early 2018, but somehow don’t feel like they came out in 2018 because it really was a long time ago. So… yeah.

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Bradley Cooper: writer, director, songwriter, actor, producer. That A Star Is Born is his directorial debut is astonishing: no first film should be this confident, this polished, this good. Then there’s Lady Gaga, who delivers a delicate, vulnerable performance, as well as the fact that this is a remake of a remake of a remake of an original. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, but it did, and if you saw it, you probably cried. Don’t worry, I cried too. We all cried, let’s face it.

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Yes, it’s another Marvel movie, but what a Marvel movie. Black Panther was an international phenomenon, hoovering up a tidy $1.3 billion across the globe and introducing the world to a (fictional) country that they never knew existed (and still doesn’t, just to be clear): Wakanda. (Wakanda forever, by the way). Some of the special effects may not have quite been perfect, but there’s no denying the power and the all-pervasiveness of this film. It was everywhere and it landed. And while Chadwick Boseman gets the lion’s share of the praise, spare a thought for the brilliant Michael B Jordan, the excellent Andy Serkis and the superb Letitia Wright. There’s a lot of acting talent going on in this film, basically.

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Shamefully underseen, Steve McQueen’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave was nonetheless very good. Based on the 1983 ITV series of the same name, and boasting a stunning cast – featuring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson – Widows was a rare thing: a highbrow, worthy, clever action thriller that tackled important social topics whilst still delivering the genre goods. Blessed with many good performances, it seems cruel to pick out just one, but I just can’t help myself: Daniel Kaluuya was outstanding as mob enforcer Jatemme Manning. There are three scenes in Widows that all are all about him that I will never ever forget.

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Spike Lee came back with a bang this year, delivering an important, incredible real-life story about how – wait for it – a black police officer in 1970s America somehow managing to infiltrate the Ku Klax Klan. Yes, you read that correctly. Anchored by two stellar turns by John David Washington and Adam Driver, this is a dangerous dance of tone and the unfortunate truth, with Lee somehow delivering a comedy drama that makes you laugh and gasp in horror. It’s something special, this one.

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It’s been a so-so, ho-hum, relatively okay-ish year for horror – Hereditary and Halloween spring to mind on the positive side, with less said about The Nun and The Predator the better – but the scary movie that cut through, the one that got everyone talking, was, of course, A Quiet Place. Directed and co-written by American Office alumnus John Krasinski (who also stars alongside his real-life wife Emily Blunt), this sci-fi shocker had a real heart behind the muffled screams and all-pervasive sense of dread. If you haven’t caught it, I really recommend you hunt it down. The whole “blind monsters with an acute sense of hearing” set up may sound cheesy at first, but it just works, with cinema audiences actually being… quiet. And for that alone, A Quiet Place deserves some sort of Oscar for ‘Biggest cinema miracle 2018’.

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While I love a good blockbuster (and occasionally a bad one too), there’s always room in my heart for a few indier-than-indie arthouse films, such as the stunning PTSD drama Leave No Trace. Chances are, you haven’t heard of it, so let me change that. Directed by documentary filmmaker Debra Granik and starring the regularly-excellent Ben Foster and the stunning young newcomer Thomasin McKenzie, this is a film about those of us who take the path less travelled. Literally. Foster and McKenzie play a war veteran and his daughter who live in the woods outside of Portland, Oregon, eking out a life in the wilderness as they avoid the numbing, noisy, meaningless repetition of modern life. To say much more would be to give too much away, but this is a heartfelt, emotional story that will move you. There’s a reason why it has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. (Hint: it’s because it’s great)

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How on earth did Marvel pull it off? This is a film that requires you to watch 18 other movies, a film that boasts close to two dozen superheroes, a film that is essentially a part one of a two-part story, a film that ends with – spoiler alert – one heck of a downer… and yet, it landed with a almighty thump, blasting every other movie out of the cinema and making anyone and everyone who’s ever seen just one MCU film suddenly stand up and say… I have to catch up. Directors Anthony and Joseph Russo have achieved the seemingly impossible, corralling so many egos and negotiating so many schedules, creating a jaw-dropping piece of pop culture cinema that will never be matched… until Avengers: Endgame comes out in April 2019, of course.

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Swinging into my top 10 with just a couple of weeks left of 2018 to go, this animated Spider-adventure proves that even with Homecoming, Infinity War and Venom in cinemas of late, as well as the brilliant PS4 game at home, we still haven’t had too many Spider-Men in our lives just yet. As you may have guessed from the title, Into The Spider-Verse gives us half a dozen new Spider-folk, so if you’re arachnophobic in any way at all, maybe give this one a miss – otherwise, buckle in for arguably the best Spider-Man movie yet. Produced by 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie’s Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (who also co-writes), and directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, this film has an infectious energy throughout, crackling with jokes and love and heart. It’s a kinetic, frenetic, kaleidoscopic fireworks display of bravura animation and witty writing. It’ll leave you walking out the cinema with a big smile on your face and the sincere desire to watch it again. Can you tell I like it?

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It happened. An arty, Oscar-worthy film released at the beginning of the year was so good, so moving, so real that I’ve made it my favourite film of 2018. Written and directed by the extraordinarily gifted Greta Gerwig, and starring the ridiculously talented Saoirse Ronan – 24-years-old and already with three Oscar nominations – this is a coming of age story that just hit me. It’s so well observed, balanced, delivered, I’ve ended up watching it a number of times over the past 12 months, finding more and more each time around. The fact that it’s set in the early 2000s and therefore it’s somehow a period piece, all flip phones and dial-up internet, is slightly concerning for anyone who’s in their early 30s, but if you can put that aside, you’ve got a touching, true tale that, that, that… I just love. Watch it. Regret nothing.