The best 20 films of 2018
The films include 2 films released in 2017 that competed/won awards in 2018. All 20 are films I watched in 2018. They are ranked in order of comprehensive quality.
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20 titles
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsMasaharu FukuyamaKoji YakushoSuzu HiroseA courtroom drama centered around the murder of a factory president.An amazing script and film less about a murder but more about why murders are committed and what is truth, presented by re-working the Rashomon principle. My review is at http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/07/223-japanese-director-hirokazu-kore.html
- DirectorNadine LabakiStarsZain Al RafeeaYordanos ShiferawBoluwatife Treasure BankoleWhile serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.A film that puts Lebanon on the world cinema map by presenting truth, humanism, and issues often swept under the carpet, in many parts of the globe. My review is at http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/12/233-lebanese-director-nadine-labakis.html
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsDogu DemirkolMurat CemcirBennu YildirimlarAn unpublished writer returns to his hometown after graduating, where he seeks sponsors to publish his book while dealing with his father's deteriorating indulgence into gambling.A slow-paced, contemplative stunner, yet another Ceylan tale of an adult male member within a traditional family, touching on several contemporary problems in Turkey. My review is at https://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/10/228-turkish-director-nuri-bilge-ceylans.html
- DirectorAleksey German Jr.StarsMilan MaricDanila KozlovskiyHelena SujeckaThe film actions unfold in 1971, telling about the four days of life of famous writer Sergei Dovlatov. The film raises the eternal issue of the Russian and European culture - the issue of moral choice.A soulful reduction of the travails of a Russian writer of repute, intelligently collapsed into six interesting, representative days in 1971 of Brezhnev-era USSR, providing the viewer a mirror image of what director Aleksei German, Sr., endured as a creative filmmaker battling censors in that same timeframe. My review is at https://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2019/02/234-russian-director-aleksei-german-jrs.html
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsLily FrankySakura AndôKirin KikiOn the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence.
- DirectorNaomi KawaseStarsJuliette BinocheMasatoshi NagaseTakanori IwataFrenchwoman Joan is a world traveller and chronicler. She travels, sees, experience and writes. She lands in the forest and hills near Nara, Japan and meets Satoshi. Despite the mysterious aura and eccentric personality the woodsman finds a place in the visitor's heart.Science fiction through the eyes of Japan’s Terrence Malick. My review is at http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2019/04/236-japanese-director-naomi-kawases.html
- DirectorAsh MayfairStarsHong Chuong NguyenLong Le VuNu Yên-Khê TranIn 19th century rural Vietnam, May is ready to become the third wife of a wealthy landowner. Little does she know that her hidden desires will force her to decide between living in safety and being free.Gorgeous cinematography, interesting visual allegory, female characters and actresses add value to a film that ought to make Vietnam proud! My review is at
http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/11/230-vietnamese-director-ash-mayfairs.html - DirectorAndrea PallaoroStarsCharlotte RamplingAndré WilmsStéphanie Van VyveIntimate portrait of a woman drifting between reality and denial when she is left alone to grapple with the consequences of her husband's imprisonment.A film with minimal spoken words and yet providing a subtle, complex and visually informative narrative, aided by an award-winning performance, intelligently captured by the camera. My review is at http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/09/226-italianus-director-andrea-pallaoros.html
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsJoanna KuligTomasz KotBorys SzycIn the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsBehnaz JafariJafar PanahiMarziyeh RezaeiThree actresses at different stages of their career. One from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, one popular star of today known throughout the country, and a young girl longing to attend a drama conservatory.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsYalitza AparicioMarina de TaviraDiego Cortina AutreyA year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
- DirectorThomas StuberStarsAndreas LeupoldFranz RogowskiPeter KurthChristian begins to work as a shelf stacker at a supermarket and finds himself in a new, unknown world: the long aisles, the bustle at the checkouts, the forklifts.
- DirectorAbu Bakr ShawkyStarsRady GamalAhmed AbdelhafizOsama AbdallahA Coptic leper and his orphaned apprentice leave the confines of the leper colony for the first time and embark on a journey across Egypt to search for what is left of their families.
- DirectorPhuttiphong AroonphengStarsAphisit HamaWanlop RungkumjadRasmee WayranaNear a coastal village of Thailand, by the sea where thousands of Rohingya refugees have drowned, a local fisherman finds an injured man lying unconscious in the forest. He rescues the stranger, who does not speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. But when the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his friend's life - his house, his job and his ex-wife.
- DirectorMarcelo MartinessiStarsNorma CodasMargarita IrunAna BrunMarcelo Martinessi's stunning debut The Heiresses is an immersive and emotionally compelling look into the lives of the privileged, through the tribulations of a hesitant woman in quiet crisis.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsRobert PattinsonJuliette BinocheAndré 3000A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.
- DirectorMatteo GarroneStarsMarcello FonteEdoardo PesceNunzia SchianoA timid dog groomer living in a poor suburb sells cocaine on the side and stays out of trouble, while trying to deal with his unstable, violent acquaintance who is a menace to the whole neighborhood.
- DirectorBo HuStarsYu ZhangYuchang PengUvin WangFour people in a Chinese city live through a complicated day as their lives intersect.A realistic film on the lives of the marginal urban population in China, a perspective rarely presented to foreigners, based on a novel written by the director.
My review is at https://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2018/11/229-late-chinese-director-bo-hus-debut.html - DirectorGaspar NoéStarsSofia BoutellaRomain GuillermicSouheila YacoubFrench dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoFan LiaoZheng XuA story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.