Best of 2018: Film Critic Top Ten Lists

I don't really like the system of giving "points" based on inclusion on top 10 lists. Seems to me that if a critical consensus places one film at third, and another at tenth, that ought to be factored into the ratings. One system that properly takes this into account is Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). The way it works is that there are several rounds of voting; in each round every critic votes for their most preferred film, and at the end of the round the film(s) with the least votes is eliminated. Eventually only 2 films are left and the one with the most votes wins. For example, I ran IRV on the data from this page and in the last round Roma beats First Reformed on 131-83 ballots. The full top 10:

1. Roma
2. First Reformed
3. The Favourite
4. Burning
5. Eighth Grade
6. If Beale Street Could Talk
7. BlacKkKlansman
Tie: Shoplifters, Black Panther
10. You Were Never Really Here

Maybe the most interesting result is that Annihilation (16) and Hereditary (15) do much worse under IRV. While they are included on enough ballots to do well under this page's system, they don't have the kind of broad critical consensus needed to win an instant runoff vote. Perhaps this reflects the critical bias against sci-fi and horror? You decide.

My top 5:

5. Anna and the Apocalypse
4. A Quiet Place
3. Hereditary
2. Halloween
1. Love, Simon

I can see why Roma is at the top of the list. Two incredibly heart-breaking moments. But for my money, it's Green Book for Best Picture. beautiful film.

What the bleep is The Movie Minute? Looks like some random nobody's blog. I thought this site only included major critics?

I like the contrarians who put "Suspiria" on their top ten lists. The film never made it to Hawaii. Polarizing films are sometimes the most interesting films. Like Gaspar Noe's "Irreversible" or Lars Von Trier's, well, entire ouevre. But in particular, "Dancer in the Dark" because the audience booed the film when it took home the Palm d'or. 152 minutes? Hell, yeah. You should always reward ambition. I hate how ambition is almost categorically looked down as pretentiousness.

BlacKkKlansman was NOT the best Spike Lee movie of the year; that'd be Blindspotting, which has only made 3 of these first 27 top ten lists so far. That Green Book is on 6 of these lists tells you something. People don't like being truly engaged or challenged on race-related issues. Much better to laugh a bunch w/Green Book and pat ourselves on the backs for "how far we've come" than to immerse ourselves in the world of Blindspotting, which has its finger on the pulse of today's issues. It's a great movie and Rafael Casal & Daveed Diggs should be the Damon & Affleck of this awards season with what they created w/their screenplay. I hate that everyone's sleeping on it.

Casper has some of the worst hot takes I've seen in a while.

There was nothing exceptional whatsoever about Black Panther. It is cerainly the best of the MCU films, but that's not saying much. I'd say it's a good movie, but in the same ballpark as the other Coogler films. They're watchable but have next to nothing to say and nothing extraordinary about them. Plus, the last third of Black Panther is literally just a remake of The Phantom Menace with the divided attention across multiple action sequences not working in 1999 or 2018.

Black Panther will inevitably make lists but be on virtually zero lists of critics who are into film as ART rather than popcorn munching.

As for Avengers, it topped two "voted for" lists merely because those publications are just fanboy magazines that favor comic book films and other genre stuff. It will continue to fall as it's hard to imagine how any actual film critic can make a case for it being in their Top 10.