This year I took a vacation to eastern Canada and while there attended the Toronto International Film Festival. It was a terrific experience and something I recommend for all film nerds. I saw 20 movies in six days which was physically tiring (too much sitting) but spiritually uplifting. Wish I could do it every year!

Another big film thing that happened this year was formalizing my Sunday Movie Club. My best friend and I have a longstanding tradition of going to the movie theater on Sunday afternoon. After some interest from other friends, I started an email list to let people know what movie we were going to see each Sunday so people could meet up with us to watch the movie and then discuss it over food or coffee. It wasn’t a huge success attendance-wise – Seattle isn’t a big town for film buffs (at least in my social circle) and it’s hard to compete with family obligations, the Seahawks, church, outdoor activities, and all the other things people have going on Sunday afternoons. But it did help me reconnect with some good friends that I hadn’t seen a lot of in recent years, and it helped solidify my habits of seeing a film in the theater every week. Hopefully more people will be able to join us in 2019 – let me know if you want to be on that email list.

Here’s my top 10 list. Frankly I saw so many good movies this year that I wish I could do a top 25, but that seemed like it would make for too long of a blog post. I compromised by having eight bazillion honorable mentions.

1. The Tale. As much time as I spent in movie theaters this year, it’s odd that the film that hit me hardest emotionally is one that only played on HBO. The Tale tells the true tale of director Jennifer Fox’s childhood sexual abuse. It’s difficult to watch, but builds to a bravura ending sequence that explores the slippery nature of old memories and our constant attempts to edit and reshape our personal histories. Six months after seeing this film, I still think about it all the time.
2. Roma. While most people were only able to see the most critically acclaimed movie of 2018 on Netflix, I was lucky enough to see it in theaters twice – once in Toronto and once in a very limited engagement at Cinerama in Seattle. Alfonso Cuaron proves that his mastery of creating indelible images and beautiful shots works just as well in a black-and-white historical drama as it did in sci-fi epics like Gravity and Children of Men. Roma is a story of a year in the life of one ordinary family that looks and feels like an epic.
3. Wildlife. This story of a teenager watching his parents’ marriage fall apart in 1960s Montana is a master class in acting and empathy. Actor Paul Dano makes his directorial debut and Carey Mulligan gives my favorite performance of the year as a woman who is heart-breakingly relatable even as she blows up her life and traumatizes her son.
4. Sorry to Bother You. There were a lot of searing takes on race this year but none had the white-hot lacerations of Boots Riley’s comedic take on code switching and telemarketing. The last act got a little silly for my tastes but everything leading up to it was bitingly funny and darkly insightful. Also nice to see a pro-union movie in 2018.
5. Leave No Trace. Debra Granik’s last film, Winter’s Bone, is one of my all-time favorite films. Leave No Trace doesn’t quite reach those heights but it leaves a lasting impression with its story of a young girl and her father living off the land in Oregon. My movie club got into a surprisingly feisty discussion over the ending, so this is maybe a good one to watch with your family if you want something to argue about.
6. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. This Western anthology is definitely a lesser Coen Brothers work. That said, the Coens are my favorite director and even their lesser works are a golden pocket of joy in my heart. Speaking of golden pockets – the prospecting story with Tom Waits was my favorite segment. What was yours?
7. The Favourite. How can we watch heroic king and queen movies like Outlaw King or Mary Queen of Scots after watching The Favourite? This film does such an amazing job at skewering this one awful queen, that it demolishes the entire idea of royalty.
8. If Beale Street Could Talk. Barry Jenkins does work with color and composition in this movie that could hang on the walls at the Louvre. A perfect follow-up to Moonlight and a must-see for film lovers.
9. First Reformed. Great movie for people who thought The Favourite or Buster Scruggs weren’t misanthropic enough.
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Apologies to Black Panther but the best superhero film of the year is this animated tale of parallel dimensions and learning to live up to high expectations. Spider-Man has long been my favorite superhero due to his cool powers and his relatable, oh-so-human alter ego. Viva Miles Morales!

Honorable Mentions: Paddington 2, A Star is Born, The Death of Stalin, First Man, Burning, Revenge, Tully, Black Panther, Eighth Grade, The Incredibles 2, The Old Man and the Gun, Widows, Crazy Rich Asians, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Avengers: Infinity War, Set it Up, Disobedience, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, A Simple Favor, Three Identical Strangers, Annihilation, Free Solo, The Sisters Brothers, BlacKkKlansman, Support the Girls, Thoroughbreds, The Rider, Sweet Country, Upgrade, Green Book, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hereditary. (gasps for air).

I get some complaints that a lot of my picks are a bit obtuse for average people who don’t always love the critically acclaimed stuff. So here’s some recommendations for normal folks.

Action movie recommendations: Mission Impossible Fallout and Black Panther are obvious choices but for some smaller gems, check out the French revenge thriller Revenge or the twisty sci-fi actioner Upgrade.

Romantic comedy recommendations: I love rom-coms so much that I end up watching Hallmark Channel just because Hollywood isn’t really making them anymore. That said, we got two great ones this year – Crazy Rich Asians and Netflix’s Set it Up.

Movies everyone can enjoy: If you don’t enjoy the cozy Robert Redford bank robber film The Old Man and the Gun, then you just don’t like movies. I also whole-heartedly recommend Paddington 2 for the whole family or even crusty single people like me. You don’t need to see the first Paddington to jump in.

Still on my list to see: Shoplifters, Cold War, Mary Poppins Returns, Vice, Private Life, Happy as Lazzaro, Suspiria, Minding the Gap, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Bad Times at the El Royale, and many more. Never enough time.

I obviously watch a lot of TV, but in this day and age there’s so many great shows spread across so many platforms that it’s harder than ever to keep up (see below for my list of shows that I didn’t have time for). With that in mind, it’s great that we’re starting to see a few trends that make things a bit easier.

For one, the half hour drama is back! Shows like GLOW and Homecoming have big storylines and real stakes but in a 30 minute package that is way easier to digest.

Another thing I really appreciate is lower episode counts per season. When I was a kid, 22 episodes per year seemed to be the standard for any show, whether cop drama or sitcom. Then when TV really started getting good in the 2000’s, the 13 episode season took over. These days lots of good shows clock in at 8 or 10, even on broadcast networks. Not only does it make it easier to watch more things, I think it improves storytelling by reducing bloat and letting writers focus on core strengths without a lot of stalling for time. It’s rare to find a show that can sustain a great story over 13 hour-long episodes. That’s too much story!

Another thing I love to see is final seasons that are planned by the writers in advance rather than based on when the ratings start to droop. A decade ago you saw this with Lost which got immensely better once an end date was decided on. More recently you see it with Game of Thrones which also improved a lot once the wheel-spinning ended and the writers started to wrap shit up. I’d love to see more shows plan out stories with a beginning, middle, and ending across 3-5 seasons. Six is almost always too long (even my #1 show below had some draggy middle seasons).

Which brings up my final positive trend – the miniseries! These used to be big in the 80’s but went away for a long time. Now they’re back in a big way and proving that maybe one season in the best length for a TV show. I don’t actually have a miniseries in the top 10 this year but my honorable mentions are crammed with them.

Speaking of which, here’s the list:

1. The Americans. I hate being predictable and I hate writing again about a show that’s been my #1 or #2 several times. (Fun fact, I’ve only picked two different shows as my #1 in the last five years of lists – at least I’m consistent). I’d prefer to write about some exciting new shows but I can’t deny that the final season of the Americans was the most flawlessly directed, acted, and written season of television in 2018 and compelling from start to finish. The final episode stabbed me in the heart multiple times and wrapped up the six season saga of the Jennings family to absolute perfection. Dasvidaniya, comrades.
2. Bojack Horseman. Being a hysterically funny animated talking-animal show, Bojack doesn’t typically get recognized as being a great drama. But it’s often painfully sad and never without a true emotional core. Bojack waded into the #MeToo movement with characteristic insight and no other show felt so relevant and essential.
3. Killing Eve. Finally a new show to talk about! Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, this tale of the twisted bond between an assassin and the intelligence analyst trying to track her down was one of the most compulsively watchable shows of the year.
4. Atlanta. The Atlanta cast seemed to be everywhere this year, with Donald Glover co-starring in a Star Wars movie and his costars Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz popping up in many of the year’s best films. I guess some casting directors like Atlanta as much as I do.
5. The Good Place. Still can’t believe there’s a twisty, ultra-serialized high-concept comedy about the afterlife and it’s airing on NBC of all places. Broadcast lives!
6. Barry. Yay, another new show! This seems to be the year of the Contract Killer Comedy, but it’s hard to complain when the shows are as good as this. Barry follows Bill Hader as a hit man who decides to get out of the life and become an actor. Like many of the great shows on this list, it wrestles with questions of whether people who do terrible things can ever truly leave them behind. It’s also funny as hell, particularly the Chechen gangster characters. I do think we’re good on hitmen comedies but I’m sure some network is working on a Grosse Pointe Blank reboot.
7. American Vandal. Who is the Turd Burglar? The mockumentary send-up of true crime shows manages to perfectly satirize Making a Murderer while also taking a deep look at the world of high school students and how our quick judgments about each other can cause a lot of pain. Still mad that this got cancelled (on Netflix of all places! They don’t cancel anything!).
8. GLOW. I love the “gang comes together to put on a show” vibe you get on GLOW. With The Americans off the air, Zoya the Destroya is my new favorite Russian.
9. The Deuce. David Simon, creator of The Wire, heads up a murderer’s row of writers bringing 1970’s New York to life. Sure, it’s about porn, but really it’s about a city and a cast of characters struggling against the roles they’re forced to play.
10. Better Call Saul. I suppose as long as Vince Gilligan is making TV shows I’m going to keep sticking them in my top ten lists. I do think this show suffers from being a prequel to another show (I hate knowing how Jimmy’s story ends) but the stellar cast and direction make this one can’t-miss television.

Honorable Mentions (in rough ranking order): The End of the F***ing World, Detroiters, Maniac, Succession, Counterpart, Dietland, Brockmire, Strike, Sharp Objects, The Sinner, Patrick Melrose, Howard’s End, Vida, Cardinal, Aggretsuko, Homecoming, The Looming Tower, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, LA to Vegas, Strike Back, iZombie, Silicon Valley, Forever.

Cancelled Before Their Time: Pour one out for American Vandal, Detroiters, Dietland, LA to Vegas, The Joel McHale Show, Lady Dynamite, Another Period.

Haven’t Watched (or Finished Watching) Yet: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Kidding, Lodge 49, The Little Drummer Girl, My Brilliant Friend, The Venture Bros, Doctor Who, Sneaky Pete, Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black, Escape at Dannemora, The First, The Romanoffs, Bodyguard, Star Trek: Discovery, Big Mouth, The Good Fight. My DVR doth overflow.

Worst of 2018: I somehow watched five episodes of NBC’s Reverie because I think the concept of a virtual reality show is really cool, and I like star Sarah Shahi. That’s time I’ll never get back.