2018 movie reviews

Note: Beginning in 2018, movie reviews include an approximate word count . Typical reviews in newspapers run about 300-400 words. My longer reviews (700+) typically appear as movie analysis published by the Independent Institute in Oakland, California. (Movie review archive can be found here.)

*Signifies Academy Award nominee. I've consolidated my reviews of the nominees into one blog post here. Also, I've written an extended essay on how human dignity and individual freedom fared at the 2019 Academy Awards. 

2018 (release date)

• A Star is Born (1,064)*
• Adrift (439)
• Aquaman
• ​Avengers: Infinity War (809)*
• Bird Box (478)
• Black Panther (1,323)*
• Blackkklansman (714)*
• Bohemian Rhapsody (946)*
• Bumblebee (614)
• Crazy Rich Asians (1,142)*
• Equalizer 2 (922)
• The Favourite (495)*
• Free Solo (documentary) (331)*
• Green Book (352)*
  •  Review & Analysis (954)
  • My essay on Green Book and the 2019 Oscars
• The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (364)
• Hostiles 
• Hotel Artemis (569)
• If Beale Street Could Talk (405)*
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (632)
• Little Pink House (1,373)
• Mary Poppins Returns (208)*
• Mission Impossible: Fallout (878)
• Ocean's Eight (503)
• On the Basis of Sex (406)*
• Pope Francis (documentary) (978)
• Ready Player One (1,210)*
• RBG (documentary)*
• Roma (650)*
  • My essay on Roma and the 2019 Oscars
• Set It Up (478)
• Shape of Water (741)
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (542)*
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (496) *
• Will You be My Neighbor? (documentary) (857)
• Tomb Raider (822)
• Vice (1,705)*
• The Wife (449)*

Generally, the movies that I have seen and intend to review are on this list, with links to live reviews.  A movie is not on this list for one of two reasons: I have not seen the movie, or the movie scored lower than an 8.5 on my rubric (roughly a B). If you have a question about a specific movie, feel free to email me with a question at sam@srstaley.com. 

Given the subjective nature of movies as an expression of art, and the fact negative reviews tend to prejudice the commercial success of a film more than positive ones, I generally do not post negative reviews. 

If you have a question about a movie, feel free to email me at Sam@srstaley.com.