Top 10 Films of 2018

With this year's list, I will spotlight seventeen films and documentaries, categorized within six genres: Early-Year Gems, Blockbusters, Streaming Greats, Indie-Darlings, The Underrated, and Documentaries.

This year, I also chose to highlight a favorite scene from each film (with no spoilers).

Note: At the end, you will find a more traditional top 10 ranking. 
Additional Note: Each film summary is courtesy of IMDb.

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The Early-Year Gems

Blockers

Three parents try to stop their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night.

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Paddington 2

Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.

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The Blockbuster

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.

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The Streaming Greats

Roxanne Roxanne

In the late 80s/ early 1990s, the most feared battle MC in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenage girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At the age of 14, Lolita "Roxanne Shanté" Gooden was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the streets of the Queensbridge Projects in NYC.

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Quincy

An intimate look into the life of icon Quincy Jones. A unique force in music and popular culture for 70 years, Jones has transcended racial and cultural boundaries; his story is inextricably woven into the fabric of America.

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The Indie-Darlings

Support the Girls

The general manager at a highway-side ''sports bar with curves" has her incurable optimism and faith, in her girls, her customers, and herself, tested over the course of a long, strange day.

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Hereditary

After the family matriarch passes away, a grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences, and begin to unravel dark secrets.

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The Wife

A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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Searching 

After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a desperate father breaks into her laptop to look for clues to find her.

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The Underrated

The Death of Stalin

Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly 30 years, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power.

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Annihilation 

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

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Chappaquiddick 

Depicting Ted Kennedy's involvement in the fatal 1969 car accident that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.
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Widows

Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities, take fate into their own hands, and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.
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First Man 

A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
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Boy Erased

The son of a Baptist preacher is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program after being forcibly outed to his parents.
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The Documentaries

Wild Wild Country 

When the world's most controversial guru builds a utopian city deep in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal. A true story.

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Fahrenheit 11/9

Filmmaker Michael Moore examines the current state of American politics, particularly the Donald Trump presidency and gun violence, while highlighting the power of grassroots democratic movements.

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Top 10 Films of 2018

10b. Hereditary

10a. Annihilation 

9. Blockers

8. Fahrenheit 11/9

7. Chappaquiddick 

6. Boy Erased

5. Searching 

4. First Man

3. Widows

2. Wild Wild Country

1. The Death of Stalin