2018 was a year that introduced a few young and unique voices into the ever-growing and evolving experience of cinema-going. While the mainstream films mostly turned out to be mediocre, the independent cinema scene is thriving into newer directions. While I wasn’t able to see as many films as I usually do I couldn’t help myself from making this elaborate list that I make every year. These are those films that in my opinion comprise as the best films of 2018:
50. The Cakemaker | Director: Ofir Raul Graizer | Language: Hebrew, German
Ofir Raul Graizer’s delicate and tender The Cakemaker makes a wonderful case for how important it is to know, witness and go through grief together. The film very steadily measures through the various levels of loss through a beautiful story about a gay man’s fate to rest with a lonely pedestal.
Must-Read – 20 CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED FILMS OF 2018
49. The Guilty | Director: Gustav Möller | Language: Danish
A pulsating Danish thriller that knows exactly how to get the heart beats racing, Gustav Möller’s The Guilty manages to keep true to its restricted premise and high concept thriller without succumbing to theatrics. Tautly plotted with an uncanny understanding of a gripping, multilayered narrative that focuses on aural space and inner imagery, the film ingenuously bags a head-start when compared to Hollywood counterparts.
Also, Read – THE GUILTY [2018] REVIEW – A BRILLIANTLY LAYERED CLAUSTROPHOBIC THRILLER
48. The Old Man & The Gun | Director: David Lowery | Language: English
After making a cosmic connection with existence in his experimental indie feature ‘A Ghost Story,’ David Lowrey is back with Old Man and the Gun. A charming homage devised as a puristic farewell for the legendary Robert Redford. Oozing with style and giving the actor a fun, frolic character to hangs his shoe which proves that Lowrey can do almost anything.
Also, Read – A Ghost Story [2017]: An Existential Poetry on Featherbed of Grief
47. Long Day’s Journey Into Night | Director: Bi Gan | Language: Mandarin
After lapsing us in a time frame in his poetic masterwork – Kaili Blues, Bi Gan is back with another mind-scrambling, dream-like film-noir that is intentionally fragmented to keeps it’s selected audience at bay. It’s only nearly one hour into Long Day’s Journey Into Night that you see the film taking a three-dimensional turn into answers about life and love that you never knew could be answered in the first place.
Recommended – 20 Criminally Underrated Films of 2018
46. Thunder Road | Director: Jim Cummings | Language: English
Jim Cummings, who wrote, directed and acted in Thunder Road deserves a pat on his back as he manages to channel out a very assured, matured and understated character sketch of a broken man on the verge of mental breakdown. His understanding of the process of grief pits this little indie as one of the best debut films of the year.
Also, Read – Thunder Road [2018]: ‘MAMI’ Review – A Tragic Comedy about a Broken Man
45. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse | Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman | Language: English
It would be a definite surprise for people who know me to see that an animated film, that too with a superhero narrative has made it to the list of my favourite films. Not that I have anything against them, but it takes only a great film to break the curse. Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse is that great film. Not only is it the best spiderman movie ever made but is also the greatest superhero film in quite a while.
Must-Read – 10 Reasons Why Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is the Greatest Spider-Man Movie Ever
44. In Fabric | Director: Peter Strickland | Language: English
If I say that Peter Strickland’s In Fabric is a dark, ominous black comedy about a killer dress, then it might just sound silly. But that’s exactly what it is A silly, homage to early Giallo euro-horror sans Dario Argento’s Suspiria. While it might seem to have a tad too many loose threads, there’s so much artistry that has gone into this strangely fetishistic fable that it’s hard to let go.
Recommended – 15 Must-See Surreal Films Of 2015
43. Minding the Gap | Director: Bing Liu | Language: English
Bing Liu – Who serves as a part of this self-questioning documentary about a trio of young skaters in Rockford, Illinois has held his camera up close for more than a decade. On the surface, the film feels like your usual Skateboard Documentary that would recollect memories of how these young people made it big in the skating scene. But Liu – Who shot this film himself wishes to rig through the very centre that plagues the lives of young people who run away from their homes. Minding the Gap astonishingly questions the life of American youth. This is an incredibly personal look at fractured American lives that need internal catharsis.
ALSO, READ – 2018: GROWING UP SKATEBOARDING – SKATE KITCHEN, MID90S AND MINDING THE GAP
42. Sorry to Bother You | Director: Boots Riley | Language: English
Boots Riley’s incredibly inventive Sorry to Bother is a big fat dick on the face of capitalism. A funny, weirdly arousing satire on workplace politics and selfishly falsified socio-economic structure. Cast to perfection and surreal for more reasons than one, Riley’s film brings greed and moral dilemma inside a box and then traps the protagonist with spooky thrills.
Also, Read – SORRY TO BOTHER YOU [2018]: ‘MAMI’ REVIEW – AN INVENTIVE AND ORIGINAL SCREWBALL COMEDY
41. Isle of Dogs | Director: Wes Anderson | Language: English
You heard the rumour, right? The one which said that Wes Anderson can make an adventure film about loving dogs and forming a middle ground in our language barriers while setting his entire tale in a dirty, disease-filled wasteland? He can also make it look like a kaleidoscope of anti-propaganda wrapped around a political bureaucracy to tame the world. Isle Of Dogs is a wonderous film with a big heart.
Also, Read – ISLE OF DOGS REVIEW [2018]: CREATING RESONANCE THROUGH A LANGUAGE BARRIER
40. Thoroughbreds | Director: Cory Finley | Language: English
A daring, amusing dark comedy about the peril nature of teenage rebellion. Cory Finley’s Thoroughbreds is an incredibly confident first feature about the absence of empathy and the sudden realizations of the comforts of a posh life. Featuring Olivia Cook as an antisocial psychopath who just can’t feel any kind of feeling, this is one of those films that is both dangerous and delicious at the same time.
Also, Read – THOROUGHBREDS [2017] – A DELICIOUSLY TWISTED TALE OF MURDER AND DEEP-SEATED APATHY
39. Disobedience | Director: Sebastián Lelio | Language: English
Disobedience is a complex drama about people who are tired of not being able to live their truths. It’s a compelling, real and occasionally sentimental look into the life of oppression which is beautifully orchestrated by a sensual lesbian love story. Watch it for its realism and not because Rachel Weisz spits into Rachel McAdams mouth as an act of reunited sensuality.
Also, Read – Disobedience [2018]: A Complex Slow-Burning Drama about the Freedom of Choice
38. Ee.Ma.Yau | Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery | Language: Malayalam
Surpasses Lijo Jose Pellissery’s previous film both in it’s introspect of the human condition and a certain event triggering complex emotional reasonings in people connected and not connected to it. Ee.Ma.Yau balances brilliant writing with a gloomy atmosphere that can in no way pre-warn you about the impending doom that the final act packed up
Part of – The 15 Best Asian Films Of 2018
37. Leave No Trace | Director: Debra Garnik | Language: English
Debra Garnik, who likes to tell tales of survivors, investigates the lives of a father-daughter duo who has decided to live a life in complete secrecy with no hook to the real world. However, Leave No Trace is a brilliant drama that works in an unconventional way of dealing with coming of age troops. With her newest film, the takeaway is really about accepting and understanding that sometimes children grow faster than you expect them to. And really it’s you – The viewer who really grows up watching them deal with real-life problems with a brave face.
Also, Read – Leave No Trace [2018] Review – A Subtly Powerful Tale of Life on the Fringes
36. Happy as Lazzaro | Director: Alice Rohrwacher | Language: Italian
In Happy as Lazzaro, director Alice Rohrwacher has seamlessly stitched the elements of social realism and magical realism to devise a dubious character sketch of one innocent boy witnessing the corruption and societal discern with a wide-eyed smile. With time serving as a catalyst to compare the two opposite poles of existence, this whimsical fairytale-esque story is about Lazzaro – A simple, hardworking boy who is forced to understand the different facets of life in spite of serving life the best way he can.
Also, Read – Happy as Lazzaro [2018] Review – A Whimsical and Thought-Provoking Social Drama
35. Hereditary | Director: Ari Aster | Language: English
Ari Aster’s astutely well-crafted, unnerving feature debut is a guilt-ball of dread. The kind of dread that doesn’t scare you but completely overpowers your psyche when you find yourself sleeping on the wrong side of the bed or walking past the home corridor while dragging your feet. It’s the kind of scare-machine that twists every possible nerve in your mind to completely reframe your outlook towards the possibility of redemption. With Hereditary, Aster has given birth to a dreadful, infecting organism that sits inside you while prevailing evil minute after minute.
Also, Read – Hereditary [2018]: An Unsettling Family Drama that will leave you Cold!
34. Eighth Grade | Director: Bo Burnham | Language: English
Gives you the kind of honest, heartfelt portrayal of high-school that Hollywood only wishes to do. Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade has a kind of understanding about the teenage mental state that it’s hard to differentiate it from real life. I haven’t seen such measured, unadulterated version of contemporary teenage problems with understated artefacts of glowing wisdom before.
Also, Read – Eighth Grade [2018] – A Captivating and Heartfelt Portrait of Modern Teenage Life
33. October | Director: Shoojit Sircar | Language: English
In Shoojit Sircar’s October, none of the characters expresses their love for one another. And yet, like the changing season that comes and goes – you feel it’s presence. On the shimmering, tired, yet always hopeful face of the selfless protagonist, Love blooms like a fallen flower that still retains some of its fragrance. Even when it is no more a part of the place that gave it light, it flickers with sadness that grows tenderly into something that the four letter word is too small to encapsulate.
Also Read – October [2018]: The Blooming Uncertainties of Selfless Love
32. Manta Ray | Director: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng | Language: Thai
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s debut feature is hypnotic, layered and symbolically angry take on the refugee crises in Thailand in how it represents a loss of identity wrapped in a tale of true friendship. Subtley filmed and mostly silent in its metaphorical look at societal displacement, Manta Ray is a film of truly artistic beauty.
Related to 50 Best Films of 2018: The 50 Best Films of 2016
31. If Beale Street Could Talk | Director: Barry Jenkins | Language: English
I’m sure Berry Jenkins had a deeply connective adoration for Baldwin’s text. From start to finish you can foresee how he wishes to visually represent a sensory experience that he might have had reading the book for the first time. With perfectly calibrated sound design and an uncanny eye for framing, he manages to give a visually stunning homage to lives that his fellows had lived. While not as poetically poignant and relatable as Moonlight, Berry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a timeless romance brimming in the face of distress.
Also, Read – If Beale Street Could Talk [2018] Review: Go Listen To This Film
30. Jonaki | Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta | Language: Bengali
A true cinematic equivalent to dreamscape memories formulating an articulative mosaic of artful images, Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Jonaki is an interpersonal account of decaying life and fumigating sadness. It is a love story set to the moving sensibilities of the time and the destructive immunity of memorabilia. In only his second feature, Sengupta proves to have a vision that, in spite of its clear influences, manages to be surrealistically magical.
Also, Read – Jonaki [2018] Review – A Bewitching Experimental Cinematic Endeavor
29. Under the Silver Lake | Director: David Robert Mitchell | Language: English
A hippie post-break-up film that jumbles itself in a bizarre neo-noir, trapped in a fever-dream that critiques what’s it’s like to decode LA – especially Hollywood. While David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake can feel constantly bonkers and cartoonish, the mystery that engulfs the central character is only about him understanding that he needs to grow up and maybe grow out of his apartment.
Must-Read: 15 Must-See Coming Of Age Films Of 2018
28. Cold War | Director: Paweł Pawlikowski | Language: Polish
Cold War is an exquisitely shot, beautifully rendered love story about broken people in a broken state and place. Joanna Kulig shines in Paweł Pawlikowski’s film that shadows the romance of two people over the course of 20 years as they try in vain to fix each other. This romance understands the restlessness of love and the passion that simply wouldn’t become whole.
Also, Read – Cold War [2018]: ‘MAMI’ Review – An ode to restless love
27. In the Aisles | Director: Thomas Stuber | Language: German
Thomas Stuber’s In the Aisles is an incredibly absorbing and immersive character drama that studies the life of a man trying to find his place in the world. Set inside the shoddy interiors of a supermarket, Stuber manages to subdue the lack of space by formulating a dreamy, almost poetic reflection of life’s ordinance and transience.
26. The Great Buddha + | Director: Huang Hsin-yao | Language: Taiwanese
A smart, uproaring black comedy that decidedly breaks the narrative strand into a superbly crafted narrative device where the director spells out everything for you. Yet, The Great Buddha+ manages to keep the social critique so concretely bleak and rigid that hearsays would simply skim it for it serves a delicious voyeuristic gaze at the never-in-concern higher class literally snatching colour out of the black and white days of the lower class.
Highly Recommended – The 15 Best Asian Films Of 2018
25. The House that Jack Built | Director: Lars von Trier | Language: English
An incredibly personal and a metacritique/apology for the kind of artistic liberties that Lars von Trier takes in his cinematic endeavours, The House that Jack Built features him at his most hilarious and utterly insane. This is not just the funniest film of the year but also Von Trier’s wildest descend into self-aware madness.
Recommended Read – Review That Jack Wrote [2018]: ‘MAMI’ Review of The House that Jack Built
24. The Heiresses | Director: Marcelo Martinessi | Language: Spanish
Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses is a quietly powerful fable of hidden desires, long-lost escapades and a really deceptive look into how gender roles are devised in traditional films about older people. The themes explored in the film are not obvious. They come with powerful wind and washes everything that you thought it could have been. For a debut, this is definitely top-tier work.
Also, Read – The Heiresses [2018]: ‘MAMI’ Review – Rekindling the Lost Desires
23. A Family Tour | Director: Ying Liang | Language: Mandarin
In Ying Liang’s latest feature there is an overabundance of uneasily quiet frames. This does not take away anything from the fact that the metastasized A Family Tour comes from a very personal space and is probably his most angry film till date. Taking his own life in exile after releasing his controversial film, Liang brings forth heartbreaking truths with a reunion in the in-betweens.
Also, Read- A Family Tour [2018]- ‘NYFF’ Review: A lamenting outcry for injustice
22. The Endless | Directors: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead | Language: English
Continuing their unbeatable streak of weaving psychological drama with low-budget, high concept sci-fi/horror, the director duo Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead present a malleable reality where the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. Taking the cult-return premise to incredibly fascinating science fiction highs, The Endless is like a mirage full of goodies that only keeps giving from all its edges.
21. The Rider | Director: Chloé Zhao | Language: English
What do you do when the one thing that truly makes you who you are is suddenly snatched away from you? In Chloé Zhao’s wonderful orchestration of a rodeo’s tortured masculinity, we see Brady – A young, gifted horse trainer unable to succumb to his life post his accident in the ring of Cowboy fantasies. The Rider is a fantastic character sketch that dwells on the very idea of masculinity without infusing class-porn into the context of displacement.
Also, Read – THE RIDER [2018] REVIEW: AN INTIMATE AND HEARTBREAKING RIDE
20. An Elephant Sitting Still | Director: Hu Bo | Language: Chinese
Hu Bo’s first and tragically last feature film – An Elephant Sitting Still is a bleak, melancholic soul-searching drama that traces the lives of four individuals succumbing to life’s nature of crushing them under the pressure of existence. It’s terrible to know that Hu Bo died after completing the film that takes us through a day that starts and ends with the four people dealing with their interpersonal battles – Wherein they occasionally learn to cope with the fact that lives simply doesn’t work the way one wants to.
Also, Read – AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL [2018]: ‘TIFF’ REVIEW – A GRITTY ROMANTICISM WITH FATALISM
19. Hotel by the River | Director: Hong Sang-soo | Language: Korean
With “Hotel by the River” Hong Sangsoo – The master minimalistic filmmaker drives in a poetic poignancy that helps you revel in its sturdy moments. Beautifully shot in melancholic black and white, the film poses most existential questions without focusing too much on the passage of time. The emotional impact is stilted but clear. Which makes me wonder how Hong Sang-Soo manages to make the same film over and over again.
Also, Read – HOTEL BY THE RIVER [2018]: ‘TIFF’ REVIEW – A SURPRISINGLY ENDEARING HEARTBREAKER!
18. The Wild Pear Tree | Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Language: Turkish
Turkish master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree philosophizes and investigates the life of a young Turk coming of age whilst he meanders and accepts that his wisdom can’t withdraw him from own his fate. Lensed around the countryside that triggers an expansive look into the lives of contemporary middle-class Turkish people, The Wild Pear Tree mostly motions along with a young writer trying to mould the conventions in his favour as he tries to understand the environment he is living in.
ALSO, READ – THE WILD PEAR TREE [2018] REVIEW – AN ODE TO THE DISCARDED DREAMERS
17. You Were Never Really Here | Director: Lynne Ramsay | Language: English
A dark, unflinching and violent film about the horrors of past-traumas, self-loathing and loneliness. Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here features a blazing Johnny Greenwood score, an incredibly sad and powerful Joaquin Pheonix performance and a subtle, understated direction by Lynne Ramsay.
Also, Read – YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE [2018]: MASTERCLASS IN AESTHETICAL AND ELLIPTICAL STORYTELLING
16. First Reformed | Director: Paul Schrader | Language: English
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed follows a spiritual collapse of a pastor in the wake of his son’s death. And his crisis of faith deepens when a radical environmentalist raises a question cutting in the religious belief even deeper. Heartbreaking and equally frightening, the film’s unsettling narrative is painted in muted colour, giving no hopeful cracks on the wall of despair.
Also, Read – FIRST REFORMED REVIEW [2018]: SPIRITUAL COLLAPSE UNDER CRISIS OF FAITH
15. Lean on Pete | Director: Andrew Heigh | Language: English
Without playing its poignant dysfunctional dismemberment for ripe sympathy, Andrew Heigh’s Lean On Pete transcribes a displaced teenager’s journey with beautiful, gentle strokes. Both heartbreaking and humane in its portrayal of isolation, the film gains a new high for coming-of-age stories. While showing the struggles of everyday people Heigh also captures the last essence of hope left in the last drop of sweat. It’s an incredibly powerful film.
ALSO, READ – LEAN ON PETE [2018] – AN ELEGIAC TALE OF A LONELY TEENAGER AT CROSSROADS
14. Wildlife | Director: Paul Dano | Language: English
Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife is a heart-warming drama which talks about a family that loses faith in themselves. It is also the coming of age story of a genuinely mature teenager trying to stay sane in a household that is not able to hold itself together. Crumpled with beautifully staged scenes that ooze with pain and descent, Dano’s first film as a director matches it’s star’s performances with a pious understanding of situations that keep pushing people towards failure and disorientation.
ALSO, READ – THE 10 BEST FILMS FROM TIFF 2018
13. We the Animals | Director: Jeremiah Zagar | Language: English
Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals is an incredible dissection of childhood and the eventual loss of innocence. However, it deals with a child who is pretty much down the lines of growing up. Chronicling the life of three brothers who grow up in a household full of volatile love – The film traces Manny’s life as he scribbles his anger and dissolves the early signs of sexual awakening in his notebook of fears. It also essentially understand how growing up also distances you from the most important things in life – Even those which are blood tied to you forever.
Highly Recommended – 15 MUST-SEE COMING OF AGE FILMS OF 2018
12. Relaxer | Director: Joel Potrykus | Language: English
Relaxer is a sickening, strangely funny takedown of the capitalistic system that’s taking over the world. If there was a genre that ranked films that feature a guy playing a Pac-man game for 90 minutes as the world collapses around him – Relaxer would definitely be top-tier.
Also, Read – RELAXER [2019] REVIEW: SURVIVAL OF THE UNFITTEST
11. Private Life | Director: Tamara Jenkins | Language: English
After a hiatus of 9 years, Tamara Jenkins returns with a hilariously profane comedy about a couple at the end of the rope. Featuring top work from both – Paul Giamatti & Kathryn Hahn, Private Life slowly breaks your heart as you watch the two people at its centre try everything and anything to have a baby before its too late.
Recommended Read – THE 10 BEST NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILMS OF 2018
10. Sunday’s Illness | Director: Ramon Salazar | Language: Spanish
Probably the rightful descendent of contemporary Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, Ramon Salazar has staged an enigmatic, surreal and heartfelt family drama about an estranged mother and her daughter coming to terms with life and all its sorrows and regrets. Featuring some of the most striking and sublime imagery of the year, Sunday’s Illness is one of the biggest surprises of the year and one of the best films of 2018.
Must-Read: THE 25 BEST FOREIGN FILMS OF 2018
9. Climax | Director: Gaspar Noé | Language: French
Imagine a filmmaker throwing you into a hedonist narrative that skims over the first two acts and glorifies the third with breakneck camera-work and tripped out visual anxiety. Imagine feeling swept off your seat into a deranged dance sequence that seems to pull out the heart out of you. Imagine an acid-trip that anxiously drains your breath till you drop dead. Imagine that and then some – You’ve got Gaspar Noé Climax.
Also, Read – CLIMAX [2018]: ‘MAMI’ REVIEW – THE GREATEST CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR
8. Non-Fiction | Director: Olivier Assayas | Language: French
Olivier Assayas’s delightful, funny and super-meta Non-Fiction is endowed with the spirit of an Éric Rohmer classic. Wherein, the characters channel a subsequently rom-com-esque narrative to plug a sharp, often hilarious critique on contemporary issues that start and end over the internet and it’s life-changing and life-threatening dynamics over real-world artistry.
Also by Oliver Assayas – PERSONAL SHOPPER [2016] – AN IMAGINATIVE EXAMINATION OF GRIEF AND PERSONAL IDENTITY
7. High Life | Director: Claire Denis | Language: English
French filmmaker Claire Denis’s English language debut is one of the most elusive, hypnotic and audacious sci-fi films ever made. In High Life, Denis pits the darkest of human desires against the infinite void of space. It is a surreal, cosmic odyssey that investigates why human beings are so vulnerable to the various entrapments in the world – Both emotional and physical.
Also Read – HIGH LIFE [2019] REVIEW: SCI-FI HIGH
6. The Favorite | Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Language: English
Emma Stone beating herself up with a book to makeshift the power dynamics in the wickedly bleak The Favorite has to be one of my favourite scenes of the year. This Yorgos Lanthimos feature adds a raving cap to the director’s ever-growing filmography of weirdly peculiar deadpan comedies. This one, however, manages to add a strange feeling of genuine care towards these powerful, uncompromising women who manage to have their sorrows up their sleeves yet go on marching with fearsome force.
Recommended Read – The 15 Best English Language Films Of 2018
5. Mandy | Director: Panos Cosmatos | Language: English
A bizarrely volatile revenge saga that drives it’s gonzo violence into a narrative that thrusts its range of insanity to an extent of absolute ridiculousness. However, in a universe that Cosmatos has created, Mandy absolutely makes sense. Full of cosmic, biblical metaphors that would suit comic-books fanatics, this Nicolas Cage performance is so metal that you’d forgive him for all his previous atrocities.
Also, Read – MANDY [2018]: A PHANTASMAGORIC JOURNEY FILLED WITH VENGEANCE & LACED WITH FIRE
4. Madeline’s Madeline | Director: Josephine Decker | Language: English
Featuring a star-making turn from Helena Howard and an ambitious, almost experimental approach from director Josephine Decker, Madeline’s Madeline is an extraordinary feat in tracing the life of a person who is naturally misunderstood. Decker’s film uses fascinating sound design and exquisite narrative thrills to get into Madeline’s head churning all her emotions out. It’s a film that says that a person who experiences extreme emotions should be the only orator of their story.
Please, Read – 20 CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED FILMS OF 2018
3. Burning | Director: Lee Chang-dong | Language: Korean
Based on Haruki Murakami’s short-story ‘Barn Burning’, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is a stupendous drama about succumbing to the invisible peer-pressures of existence. An intense drama that talks about the factors that hold-back certain individuals from growing out of their self-made bubbles and how evil can actually be a mysterious answer to questions that always change their toxicity. Features some of the bleakest metaphors known to mankind, Burning solidifies that growing up doesn’t always promise a pleasurable future.
Also, Read – BURNING [2018]: ‘NYFF’ REVIEW – A Stunning Opaque Story
2. Roma | Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Language: Spanish
Death looms over Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece. However, it’s not the tragicness that makes Roma such a glorious and unforgettable experience. It’s not even the stylized resurrection of Federico Fellini‘s. It’s simply because at it’s very basic, the film is a snapshot of life in its exact implication, making it one of the best films of 2018.
Also, Read – IT’S OKAY IF YOU DON’T LIKE ALFONSO CUARÓN’S ROMA
1. Shoplifters | Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda | Language: Japanese
After slightly diverting from his comfort zone by delivering a slow-burning thriller in 2017, the Japanese master of familial dramas is back with Shoplifters. Soothing, understated and so emotionally moving that you wouldn’t even notice when tears stream down your face, the newest film by Hirokazu Kore-eda is a humanist masterpiece.
