Time Names ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ ‘A Star Is Born,’ and More the Best Films of 2018
The end of the year is officially upon us now that Time magazine film critic Stephanie Zacharek has released her list of the 10 best movies of 2018. The publication is the first major outlet to release a roundup of the year’s best film offerings, and Zacharek’s personal choices are a mix of titles you’re bound to see on many lists this year (hello, “Roma”) and at least one you probably won’t (“Bohemian Rhapsody”).
Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” tops Zacharek’s list for 2018, and the film is expected to play well with critics’ group throughout the rest of the year (the New York Film Critics Circle announces their 2018 winners November 29). Zacharek hails “Roma” as the director’s most “gorgeous and moving” effort to date, writing, “In telling his own story, [Cuarón] gets us thinking about the latticework of people who made each of us what we are. Roma is an ode to the power of memory, as intimate as a whisper and as vital as the roar of the sea.”
The most polarizing choice on Time’s Top 10 is Bryan Singer’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which IndieWire’s film critic David Ehrlich called “royally embarrassing” in his D+ review. Zacharek placed the Freddie Mercury biopic, starring Rami Malek, in her #9 spot and praised the film for its “luxuriant, potent energy that movies of ‘higher quality’ rarely pull off.”
“It may be a bit of a mess,” Zacharek writes of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “but it’s a glorious one, a polychrome anthem about what it means to live for love and sex, rock ’n’ roll and beauty—the very opposite of sticking to an agenda.”
Other entries on Time’s official list include “Paddington 2,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “The Favourite,” and “A Star Is Born.” Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut landed two spots ahead of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at #7. “The [film] is a cathartic melodrama that feels both fresh and comfortingly classic,” Zacharek raves, “Who knew that the last thing we thought we needed—a remake of a film that’s already been remade plenty of times—was exactly the thing we wanted?”
Check out Time’s full top 10 list below. Head over to magazine’s official website to read more about Zacharek’s picks.
1. “Roma”
2. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
3. “First Reformed”
4. “Eighth Grade”
5. “The Favourite”
6. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
7. “A Star Is Born”
8. “If Beale Street Could Talk”
9. “Bohemian Rhapsody”
10. “Paddington 2”
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