6. Black Panther

In a year that saw dozens of heroes uniting to stop a 
universe-spanning calamity, “Black Panther” still became not 
just the best MCU movie of the year, but the best film Marvel 
Studios has put out to date. At its best, Coogler’s latest plays 
like a Shakespearean epic crossed with the visual panache of 
“The Matrix” with a little bit of James Bond thrown in for 
good measure. That’s a diverse set of influences for anyone to 
wrangle together, yet Coogler still molds them into something 
that feels wholly original from top to bottom. The action is 
crisp, the cinematography and production design is beautiful; 
it’s nothing short of a triumph of worldbuilding, art direction 
and storytelling. Everybody on both sides of the camera gives 
it their all with each scene.
It’s hard to pick a true stand-out from the cast, as Chadwick 
Boseman absolutely nails the balance between relatability and 
regality in the title role while Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira 
and Winston Duke round out one of the best supporting casts 
of the year (M’Baku laughing at his own joke might be the 
single most endearing moment in 2018 entertainment). Yet the 
undeniable scene stealer is Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger in 
what might be the MCU’s first Oscar-nominated performance. 
In a film all about what it means to have power, Jordan 
portrays just the opposite: a man inundated with feelings 
of powerlessness and driven by a sense of righteous fury, 
grounding the performance in a humanity that many other 
MCU villains sorely lack. It’s Ryan Coogler’s world, we’re just 
living in it.

– Jeremiah Vanderhelm, Daily Arts Writer

7. Avengers: Infinity War

Although heralded as the biggest crossover of all time and 
the culmination of the ten year Marvel Superhero Saga, this 
bursting at the seams adventure epic is merely the prologue 
to an even bigger conclusion coming this spring. But while 
the marketing may have been misleading, the film itself is 
the ultimate realization of what the Marvel universe can be 
when maximized to its full potential: a comic book brought 
to life. No movie has ever felt more like a comic book than 
“Infinity War” in the way it weaves between storylines and 
the sheer number of characters and locations it throws at the 
audience. In the case of “Infinity War,” bigger is better, it’s 
hard to imagine a film that is larger in scale. Is it totally and 
completely satisfying? Not really. But in channeling the spirit 
of other fantasy and sc-fi epics like “Lord of the Rings” and 
“Star Wars,” it becomes the first Marvel movie to tap into 
the inner power of epic mythology and present itself not just 
as an event film but as the event itself. To quote Nick Fury 
in Joss Whedon’s original “Avengers,” what “Infinity War” 
represents isn’t a Marvel movie with stakes, but a promise 
of a Marvel universe with the one thing it’s been missing: 
catharsis. Come this May, audiences around the world will 
have the opportunity to see if it was worth it.

 – Ian Harris, Daily Arts Writer

8. Eighth Grade

I saw “Eighth Grade” at the Nantucket Film Festival this 
summer and the whole time I couldn’t help thinking, is that 
Mike Birbiglia sitting two rows in front of me? So I spent the 
entirety of the film looking at Mike Birbiglia, monitoring 
his every reaction in time with my own. Was Mike Birbiglia 
laughing? I shall laugh. Was Mike Birbiglia crying? Here come 
the tears. Was Mike Birbiglia 
trying to get a popcorn kernel 
out of his rearmost molar? The 
entire audience felt swarmed 
with 
the 
awkward 
energy 
emanating from Bo Burnham’s 
cringe-fest of a coming-of-age 
film. We squirmed in unison as 
Kayla (a brilliant performance 
from newcomer Elsie Fisher) 
comments, selfies and DMs 
her way through the horrific 
awkwardness of middle school 
social 
situations. 
“Eighth 
Grade” is the coming-of-age 
film of today. It’s “Pretty in 
Pink” 
plus 
Instagram 
and 
minus racism. The millennial 
comedian’s 
writing 
and 
directing debut is nothing 
short of genius. John Hughes 
would be proud.

 – Becky Portman, Daily 
Arts Writer

9. Mission: Impossible — Fallout

In a year saturated with franchise blockbusters, “Mission: 
Impossible — Fallout” managed to both dominate the mid-
summer box office and raise the bar for future action movies. 
“Fallout” arrived with an energy and dedication to meticulous 
stunt work that immediately lent the film comparisons to 
2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The comparisons are more than 
valid: “Fallout” is and should be the new standard against 
which action set pieces are held.
The sixth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” series 
could only be built upon a collective awareness of Tom Cruise as 
the actor who constantly challenges his physical capabilities. 
That’s why the narrative of “Fallout” doesn’t matter as much 
as most movies. The intricacies of the backroom espionage are 
not the reason the film captivates so many.
The action set pieces in “Fallout” are comfortably some of 
the strongest in the franchise and arguably some of the most 
jaw-dropping ever made. It’s hard to recall a moment in film 
from 2018 as thrilling as the one-take HALO skydive near the 
beginning of “Fallout.” Of course it is equally impossible to 
forget an uncommonly jarring bathroom fight scene or Cruise 
leaping from building to building (and actually breaking his 
ankle in a shot that made the film’s final cut). Above all, 
“Fallout” serves as a reminder for why we go to the movies in 
the first place. It is an unrelentingly tense yet undemanding 
joyride of an action blockbuster that is as adrenaline-fueled as 
it is intelligent and boundary-pushing.

– Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts Writer

10. Incredibles 2

The release of the much-anticipated sequel to “The 
Incredibles” showcases our generation’s desperate need 
for a feel-good, nostalgic movie — something to bring back 
the carefree energy of our childhood — and “Incredibles 2” 
does not disappoint. Set immediately after the ending of the 
original movie, “Incredibles 2” follows the Parr family as they 
try to navigate a new environment where the family’s powers 
are on full display in a world where “supers” are still illegal.
Like all Disney-Pixar movies, “Incredibles 2” develops 
important social commentary under the sophisticated guise 
of a kids’ movie. The primary storyline, in which Helen 
is the main super of the household, represents a shift in 
expectations for women and how our society handles this 
change. In a year marked by prominent feminist messages and 
female empowerment, “Incredibles 2” addresses the complex 
relationship that grows from a woman returning to work while 
her husband stays home to take care of the family.
“Incredibles 2” is every bit as super as its lead family and 
then some. The movie brought back a franchise most of us 
thought long-gone and proved that sentimentality can be every 
bit as successful as a steroid-driven action movie. Nominated 
for a Golden Globe, “Incredibles 2” finds its way into all of our 
hearts and will stay there for years to come.

– Emma Chang, Senior Arts Editor

WARNER BROTHERS

A24

Our favorite films from this past year, continued

The swankiest directorial debuts of last year

Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade”

Maybe Bo Burnham was exactly the right person to tackle 
adolescence on the internet. Bo Burnham got his start on 
YouTube making nonsensical music, eventually moving to 
six-second video platform Vine and scoring his own stand-up 
specials on Netflix. Yet his success never gave him an inflated 
sense of self-importance — if anything, the sweet neuroticism 
that defined his bedroom YouTube videos only grew stronger. 
In an interview with The Daily over the summer, Burnham said 
“I just wanted to do an intense movie about being this person, 
not what it means to be a kid always throughout all of time. I was 
feeling very nervous and panicked and anxious on the internet, 
and I was looking at the internet and meeting people, and I saw 
all these people also feeling very nervous and panicked in their 
lives too.” Burnham channels these common, but culturally new 
feelings through Kayla (Elsie Fisher, “Despicable Me 2”), whose 
generation, by circumstance, has had unparalleled access to the 
internet. Most 20-somethings and young adults are familiar with 
ways the internet can interfere with how you express yourself. 
Anxieties about a crush turn into vague AIM status messages 
or logging in and out to generate notifications. Arguments and 
confrontations reach nebulous ends, as “leaving somebody on 
read” or “ghosting” become increasingly common terminology. 
And yet, despite their ubiquity, the effects of the internet on our 
most core selves have never been depicted as accurately as they 
have in “Eighth Grade.” Burnham’s directorial debut marks a 
watershed as an unflinching yet warm portrayal of being young 
online.

— Jack Brandon, Managing Arts Editor

Boots Riley, “Sorry to Bother You”

Rarely is a directorial debut from an absolute-unknown; 
especially one as fresh and surprising as Boots Riley’s “Sorry 
to Bother You.” It’s a fantastical satire about telemarketers 
and (not so subtly) ultimately the sociopolitical relationship 
between corporations and the workforce. It’s not surprising, 
then, that the road to get “Sorry” onto the big-screen was a 
long and winding one, with Riley fighting through a decade of 
production deliberations and setbacks to finally see his vision 
realized on screen. And “Sorry” could only really be his vision. 
No one else could have cooked up the type of fever-dream, 
fever-pitch whirlwind we end up with. Thank goodness he stuck 
with it to the end.

Not to give too much away, “Sorry to Bother You” is a film 
that always seems to have one more surprise up its sleeve. Riley 
is seemingly determined to never stop throwing wrenches 
and humanitarian crises at his audience. No-name directorial 
debuts tend toward the safe side, often resulting in callow 
pictures with little scripts that aim for a “less-is-more” mis en 
scene. “Sorry to Bother You” spits in the face of anybody telling 
it that it can’t shoot for the moon, with Riley biting off more 
than anyone can chew in the best possible way.

— Stephen Satarino, Film Editor

Ari Aster, “Hereditary”

Horror movies are often treated with a sense of escapism. 
They allow viewers to feel scared for a contained period and 

continue on with their lives without a second thought. In sharp 
contrast, the reason that “Heredity” is so claustrophobically 
terrifying and one of the year’s best films is that it never truly 
leaves you after the credits roll.

Ari Aster’s feature-length debut functions in many ways 
like a drama rather than a scary movie, centering around how 
tragedy deteriorates the livelihood of the Graham family. By 
constructing the film like a family drama, Aster avoids tiresome 
horror cliches. There is no killer. There are few jump scares. 
There is no easy escape from the danger. The true demons of 
“Hereditary” are just ordinary people. This is what makes the 
film one of the most original and unforgettable of the year.

As important as it is to discuss Aster’s creativity, it’s just 
as important as the technical means by which that creativity 
manifests on screen. The lighting is often dim and somber, 
allowing a viewer to see the defining features of an performer’s 
visage but nothing more. The walls of the Graham house 
eventually feel like they are caving in like an abyss. Another 
ingenious method of Aster’s is to hold a shot for longer than 
expected on a painful or unsettling image, forcing viewers to 
powerlessly stew in grim discomfort.

“Hereditary” is a truly special horror movie. It enshrines 
Aster as an important name in the future of the genre and as 
a filmmaker whose future works will surely be too frightening 
to miss.

— Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts Writer

Bradley Cooper, “A Star is Born”

You might know him as Phil, the dentist from “The Hangover,” 
or Ben, Amy Poehler’s partner in musical theater crime in 
“Wet Hot American Summer” or as David O. Russell’s favorite 
leading man. However you recognize the versatile actor with 
those piercing blue eyes. He is now officially a director. As a 
filmmaker, 
Bradley 
Cooper 
(“Burnt”) crafted the fourth 
re-make of “A Star is Born” 
with immense care, ensuring 
its 
predecessors 
were 
not 
overlooked while keeping a 
fierce eye at the future. The 
first-time director managed 
to add significant depth and 
raw emotion to a tale often 
wrought with conventionality 
and sappiness. The film is a 
stunning 
manifestation 
of 
the filmmaker’s vision and 
knowledge 
of 
filmmaking, 
incorporating strong editing 
choices, 
sophisticated 
camerawork 
and 
an 
ear 
for 
music 
emphasized 
by 
his co-star’s (Lady Gaga as 
“Ally”) talent. I have a feeling 
Cooper’s directing days are 
long from over; rather, he’s 
just getting started.

— Becky Portman, Daily Arts Writer

Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti 
Jr. and Rodney Rothman, “Spider-
Man: Into the Spiderverse”

Calling “Into the Spiderverse” a directorial debut is 
something of a misnomer given that Peter Ramsey, one of the 
three directors, had previously helmed “Rise of the Guardians” 
in 2012, but being as his two co-directors Bob Persichetti and 
Rodney Rothman were both newcomers to the director’s chair, 
I’ll say two out of three isn’t bad. Frankly, I’ll take any chance I 
can get to praise this movie.

If the job of a director is to take the various elements of 
filmmaking and storytelling and make them work together 
toward a singular purpose, then “Into the Spiderverse” is one of 
the best directed films of the year. From beginning to end, it’s 
a psychedelic, hyper-kinetic ride that boasts groundbreaking 
animation and a slew of pop culture references, yet everything 
always comes back to the characters and their arcs. The color 
scheme, the “Scott Pilgrim”-esque insertions of comic book 
imagery, the score, everything. At the center of “Into the 
Spiderverse” is Miles Morales and everything else exists in his 
orbit.

That isn’t to say that the rest of the movie is underdeveloped in 
any way. Each of the supporting characters is made memorable in 
their own way — from Hailee Steinfeld’s (“Bumblebee”) Spider-
Gwen to Nic Cage’s (“Mandy”) hysterical Spider-Man Noir 
— and are made even more so by the careful attention paid to 
what makes them Spider-Man. It’s the ethos of the film: Anyone 
can be a hero, anyone can be Spider-Man, and by forefronting 
this spirit through such a diverse set of characters in terms 
of personality and animation style, Ramsey, Persichetti and 
Rothman ensure their film enters into the realm of the greats.

— Jeremiah Vanderhelm, Daily Arts Writer

6B — Thursday, January 10, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

