Slant’s Top 25 Films of 2018

See below for a list of the films that just missed making it onto our list of the best films of 2018, followed by our contributors’ individual ballots.

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
Photo: Grasshopper Film

From Chuck Bowen’s introduction to Slant Magazine’s Top 25 Films of 2018: “Film critics find themselves in an exhilarating and frustrating situation: Cinema keeps getting better—more formally adventurous, auto-critical, and responsive to the chaos of the society that yields it—but at the price of being less and less seen. This was a banner year for cinema, but how many of the films below have been able to penetrate Disney’s essential monopoly on the mainstream populace’s adulation? Yet perhaps this widening gulf between artisan films and pop culture at large is benefiting the former. With a certain portion of studio filmmaking that’s essentially incapable of losing money in place, and with streaming sites that are voraciously in need of ‘content,’ other films are emboldened to be themselves and to follow their creators’ obsessions into increasingly wild-and-wooly places.” Click here to read the feature and see if your favorite films of the year made our list. And see below for a list of the films that just missed making it onto our list, followed by our contributors’ individual ballots.

26. A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two
27. Shoplifters
28. El Mar La Mar
29. Leave No Trace
30. Milla
31. Madeline’s Madeline
32. Bodied
33. Claire’s Camera
34. Isle of Dogs
35. The Rider
36. Minding the Gap
37. Caniba
38. November
39. Unsane
40. Jeannette: Childhood of Joan of Arc
41. First Man
42. Amazing Grace
43. Let the Corpses Tan
44. Before We Vanish
45. Araby
46. A Star Is Born
47. The Death of Stalin
48. Cold War
49. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
50. Notes on an Appearance

Chuck Bowen
1. Monrovia, Indiana
2. First Reformed
3. The Other Side of the Wind
4. Bisbee ‘17
5. Zama
6. Golden Exits
7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
8. Claire’s Camera
9. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
10. Let the Sunshine In

Honorable Mention: A Bread Factory, Burning, Gavagai, The Green Fog, Isle of Dogs, Leave No Trace, Notes on an Appearance, Sollers Point, Unsane, Werewolf

Pat Brown
1. Burning
2. Bisbee ‘17
3. First Reformed
4. Shoah: Four Sisters
5. The Favourite
6. 24 Frames
7. Cold War
8. Let the Sunshine In
9. Western
10. If Beale Street Could Talk

Honorable Mention: 306 Hollywood, The Day After, The Death of Stalin, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, Eighth Grade, The Green Fog, I Am Not a Witch, Minding the Gap, November, Of Fathers and Sons

Jake Cole
1. Milla
2. 24 Frames
3. First Reformed
4. Zama
5. Burning
6. The Day After
7. Prototype
8. If Beale Street Could Talk
9. Madeline’s Madeline
10. Let the Sunshine In

Honorable Mention: Annihilation, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Bisbee ‘17, A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two, The House That Jack Built, The Other Side of the Wind, Paddington 2, Roma, Support the Girls, Western

Greg Cwik
1. The Other Side of the Wind
2. First Reformed
3. The House That Jack Built
4. Prototype
5. Golden Exits
6. The Favourite
7. Let the Sunshine In
8. Monrovia, Indiana
9. Claire’s Camera
10. Shoplifters

Honorable Mention: Before We Vanish, The Day After, The Green Fog, Hereditary, Isle of Dogs, Notes on an Appearance, Ready Player One, A Star Is Born, Support the Girls, Western

Clayton Dillard
1. Burning
2. The House That Jack Built
3. First Reformed
4. Mrs. Hyde
5. Before We Vanish
6. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
7. Western
8. Tyrel
9. El Mar La Mar
10. Bodied

Honorable Mention: Blindspotting, Claire’s Camera, Isle of Dogs, Let the Sunshine In, Private Life, A Quiet Place, The Rider, Scarred Hearts, Summer 1993, Suspiria

Peter Goldberg
1. Zama
2. First Reformed
3. Dead Souls
4. If Beale Street Could Talk
5. The Other Side of the Wind
6. 24 Frames
7. Milla
8. Minding the Gap
9. Support the Girls
10. A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two

Honorable Mention: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Bisbee ‘17, Burning, The Day After, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, I Am Not a Witch, Let the Sunshine In, The Rider, Western

Ed Gonzalez
1. First Reformed
2. BlacKkKlansman
3. Do You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
4. Bisbee ‘17
5. Monrovia, Indiana
6. Paddington 2
7. Bodied
8. The Day After
9. The Green Fog
10. Let the Sunshine In

Honorable Mention: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Before I Wake, Claire’s Camera, Isle of Dogs, Leave No Trace, The Other Side of the Wind, Unfriended: Dark Web, Unsane, Western, Wild Boys

Christopher Gray
1. Let the Sunshine In
2. First Man
3. First Reformed
4. Zama
5. If Beale Street Could Talk
6. Minding the Gap
7. Bisbee ‘17
8. The Rider
9. Western
10. Leave No Trace

Honorable Mention: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Burning, El Mar La Mar, Happy as Lazzaro, Monrovia, Indiana, The Other Side of the Wind, A Quiet Place, Shirkers, Shoplifters, Unfriended: Dark Web

Wes Greene
1. Bisbee ‘17
2. Amazing Grace
3. Araby
4. A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two
5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
6. Support the Girls
7. The Green Fog
8. First Reformed
9. Happy as Lazzaro
10. Roma

Honorable Mention: BlacKkKlansman, The Day After, Gavagai, The Grief of Others, I Am Not a Witch, Let the Sunshine In, Notes on an Appearance, Paddington 2, Unsane, Zama

Carson Lund
1. Let the Sunshine In
2. 24 Frames
3. Monrovia, Indiana
4. First Reformed
5. The Other Side of the Wind
6. El Mar La Mar
7. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
8. Shoplifters
9. Hale County This Morning, This Evening
10. Unfriended: Dark Web

Honorable Mention: Classical Period, The Day After, Distant Constellation, Golden Exits, The Green Fog, Prototype, Roma, Support the Girls, Unsane, Zama

Sam C. Mac
1. The House That Jack Built
2. Dead Souls
3. Blind Detective
4. Golden Exits
5. Prototype
6. Isle of Dogs
7. A Star Is Born
8. The Other Side of the Wind
9. Shoplifter
10. Support the Girls

Honorable Mention: Before We Vanish, Bodied, Burning, Claire’s Camera, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, Ismael’s Ghosts, Let the Corpses Tan, Notes on an Appearance, Revenge, Stranger in Paradise

Paul O’Callaghan
1. Roma
2. First Reformed
3. Burning
4. Custody
5. Leave No Trace
6. Madeline’s Madeline
7. You Were Never Really Here
8. Shoplifters
9. Sorry to Bother You
10. Vox Lux

Honorable Mention: BlakKklansman, Cold War, The Favourite, The Green Fog, Hereditary, Minding the Gap, Monrovia, Indiana, A Star Is Born, Suspiria, Sweet Country

Niles Schwartz
1. First Reformed
2. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
3. Burning
4. The Other Side of the Wind
5. Let the Sunshine In
6. Zama
7. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
8. Unsane
9. The Rider
10. Roma

Honorable Mention: The 15:17 to Paris, BlacKkKlansman, Bodied, At Eternity’s Gate, The Favourite, Isle of Dogs, Leave No Trace, Mandy, Ready Player One, You Were Never Really Here

Diego Semerene
1. Shoah: Four Sisters
2. 24 Frames
3. Happy as Lazzaro
4. Burning
5. Western
6. Loveless
7. Caniba
8. The House That Jack Built
9. Of Fathers and Sons
10. Vice

Honorable Mention: Cold War, The Death of Stalin, Distant Constellation, A Fantastic Woman, The Favourite, If Beale Street Could Talk, Lover for a Day, Monrovia, Indiana, November, Tehran Taboo

A.J. Serrano
1. Mandy
2. First Reformed
3. The Rider
4. If Beale Street Could Talk
5. Hale County This Morning, This Evening
6. The Other Side of the Wind
7. Paddington 2
8. Burning
9. Roma
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Honorable Mention: 306 Hollywood, The Favourite, Infinite Football, Isle of Dogs, Private Life, Support the Girls, Suspiria, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Unsane, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Derek Smith
1. First Reformed
2. Zama
3. Burning
4. If Beale Street Could Talk
5. BlacKkKlansman
6. Prototype
7. El Mar La Mar
8. November
9. The House That Jack Built
10. Let the Corpses Tan

Honorable Mention: 24 Frames, Bisbee ‘17, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, First Man, The Green Fog, Happy as Lazzaro, Leave No Trace, The Other Side of the Wind, Paddington 2, Shirkers

Keith Watson
1. The Other Side of the Wind
2. Paddington 2
3. The House That Jack Built
4. Caniba
5. Support the Girls
6. Madeline’s Madeline
7. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
8. The Death of Stalin
9. First Reformed
10. Let the Corpses Tan

Honorable Mention: 24 Frames, Bodied, A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two, Distant Constellation, Infinite Football, Milla, November, Prototype, The Road Movie, Sorry to Bother You

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