2018 movie reviews
*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 (A-)*
- Adrift (A-).
- Annihilation (B+).
- Another Justice (A). An extraordinary documentary about restorative justice as an alternative to the current punitive system implemented in the U.S.
- Aquaman (A-).
- Avengers: Infinity War (A)*
- Bird Box (A-)
- Black Panther (A)*
- Blackkklansman (B+)*
- Bohemian Rhapsody (A)*
- Bumblebee (B+).
- Chappaquiddick (B-). A surprisingly slow moving drama about the political ambitions (or lack thereof) of Ted Kennedy and the events surrounding the drowning of a young campaign volunteer.
- Crazy Rich Asians (B+)*.
- Creed II (A-).
- Crimes of Grindelwald (B+).
- Equalizer 2 (A).
- The Favourite (B+)*
- Free Solo (documentary) (A)* A riveting documentary of Alex Honnold's quest to be the first person to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without the aid of ropes of equipment.
- Front Runner (A-/B+).
- Green Book (A)*
- Review & Analysis
- My essay on Green Book and the 2019 Oscars
- The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (B+)
- Hostiles
- Hotel Artemis (C).
- If Beale Street Could Talk (A)*
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (A-)
- Little Pink House (B+)
- Mary Poppins Returns (A-)*
- Mission Impossible: Fallout (B+)
- Mortal Engines (A-).
- Ocean's Eight (B-)
- On the Basis of Sex (A-/B+)*
- Pope Francis (documentary)
- Ready Player One (B+)*
- RBG (documentary, short review)*
- Roma (A-)*
- My essay on Roma and the 2019 Oscars
- Set It Up (B-)
- Shape of Water (A-)
- Solo: A Star Wars Story (B+)*
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (A) *
- Stan and Ollie (B-).
- The Princess Switch (B+). A surprisingly entertaining, if predictable, light hearted family drama about a princess tired of her life in royalty who finds her doppelganger.
- The Wife (A-).
- They Will Not Be Forgotten (A-, documentary). Incredibly innovative approach to telling the story of World War I from the perspective British soldiers using vintage war video footage. A technical and cinemagraphic masterpiece from Peter Jackson.
- Tomb Raider (C+)
- Will You be My Neighbor? (documentary) (A)
- Venom (B+). A fun, action-filled launch to the Marvel series about a journalist inhabited by an alien who lives on human blood.
- Vice (B-)*
- Waco (A-, Netflix series. Listen to my radio interview on the series)
- 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 8.0 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.
