2018 was the year I learned that when you’re making a film, you don’t go to theaters very often. Or at least I didn’t. As a result, there are lots of 2018 heavyweights missing from my list. For me, watching movies at home, for better or worse, fosters a sense of intimacy that I don’t feel in the same way when I watch a movie on the big screen. And because I’m in the midst of making my own, more than usual I found myself really wrapped up in the nuts-and-bolts craft of filmmaking. It can be kind of drag when I’d rather just suspend my disbelief and lose myself in a film, but que sera sera.

BLACKKKLANSMAN (2018, Spike Lee)
DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (2016, Bill Morrison)
THE DEATH OF STALIN (2017, Armando Iannucci)
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017, Sean Baker)
THE INQUIRING NUNS (1968, Kartemquin Films)
LADY BIRD (2017, Greta Gerwig)
MERCURY IN RETROGRADE (2017, Michael Glover Smith)
99 RIVER STREET (1953, Phil Karlson)
PORTO (2016, Gabe Klinger)
WIDOWS (2018, Steve McQueen)
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (2018, Morgan Neville)
ZAMA (2017, Lucrecia Martel)