Flickering Myth’s writing team present our top ten movies of 2018…
As 2018 draws to a close, the writers here at Flickering Myth have been looking back over another twelve months of cinema to vote on our favourite movies of the year. As always, our writers have shared their personal top ten picks, which we’ve then used to calculate an overall list of our favourites. And so, without further ado, let’s begin the countdown…
10. American Animals
Directed by Bart Layton.
Starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson, Blake Jenner, Ann Dowd and Udo Kier.
Coming in at number 10 (and topping two of our writers’ lists as their personal favourite of the year) is the crime drama American Animals from BAFTA-winning filmmaker British filmmaker Bart Layton (The Imposter), which blends drama with documentary elements to detail the outlandish story of an American university library heist.
“American Animals is not the beast you’d expect. Trailers sell a smash-and-grab student caper with prosthetic disguises and unstoppable spirits, but Bart Layton calculates a balanced and burdensome thriller rooted in details similar movies so often glance over. Lasting damages, long-standing reputations, remorseful confessions – somehow Layton packages the sincerity of The Thin Blue Line with The Bank Heist’s charms. You call it a trick, you call it a ruse, but I’ll call it some of the most impressively sustained storytelling hard-pressed to be beaten this year.”
SEE ALSO: Read our review here
9. A Quiet Place
Directed by John Krasinski
Starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe and Cade Woodward.
Paramount Pictures scored a huge critical and commercial hit this year with John Krasinski’s nerve-shredding post-apocalyptic horror A Quite Place, which sees Krasinki and his real-life wife Emily Blunt as parents trying to protect their family from mysterious creatures with hypersensitive hearing in a world where even the slightest sound can mean death.
“The best way to describe A Quiet Place, the new film by beloved TV-actor-turned-director John Krasinski is that it feels like you’re sitting in front of a timebomb for 95 minutes… Krasinski has crafted a horror film for the decades, one that will keep you at the edge of your seat by weaponizing sound and may even bring out a tear by the end.”
SEE ALSO: Read our review here
8. First Man
Directed by Damien Chazelle.
Starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Christopher Abbott, Ciaran Hinds, Olivia Hamilton, Corey Stoll and Pablo Schreiber.
Following their Oscar-winning collaboration on La La Land, director Damien Chazelle and actor Ryan Gosling reunited this year for the breathtaking biographical drama First Man, which sees Gosling taking on the role of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong as he looks to make one giant leap for mankind by becoming the first man to step foot on the Moon.
“As the Apollo 11 mission draws closer, First Man finds a groove and fires on all cylinders. When the crew launches for the moon and the film’s aspect ratio shifts (everything on the moon was filmed with IMAX cameras), hold your breath. Damien Chazelle, Ryan Gosling, and Justin Hurwitz are quickly making their case as the modern-day holy trinity of filmmaking; all of them deserve awards recognition and have once again funneled their outstanding efforts to grippingly juxtapose sacrifice with ambition.”
SEE ALSO: Read our review here
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