Your Favorite Directors Pick Their Favorite Movies Of 2018...and 'Venom' Makes The List

IndieWire gathered together some prominent film directors, locked them in a room, and made them fight to the death! Oh no, sorry, that's not accurate at all. Instead, they asked these filmmakers to pick their favorite films of 2018. Edgar Wright, Guillermo del Toro, Attack the Block's Joe Cornish, Destroyer filmmaker Karyn Kusama, and many more all weighed-in, singing the praises of a wide variety of 2018 movies.

The IndieWire piece, which features input from 52 different directors, is massive, and I obviously won't be reposting the entire thing here. You should head on over there to get the full experience. Instead, I've highlighted some interesting portions of the large list. Some of the filmmakers offered a simple list of titles, while others went deeper, providing blurbs about what they enjoyed about each film.

Joe Cornish, director of Attack the Block and The Kid Who Would Be King, has perhaps the most unexpected entries. Mandy and You Were Never Really Here are on his list, along with Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Burning, Suspiria and more. None of these are that surprising. But he also has both Venom and The Predator nestled among the picks. Regarding these choices, Cornish wrote:

Two critically dismissed studio franchise movies that didn't deserve their green splats. Both are well crafted, robustly written blockbusters. "Venom" features an eccentric, always interesting lead performance by Tom Hardy, some truly byzantine special effects and at least one stunning chase sequence. It's also pretty much a stealth re-make of Jack Sholder's 1987 classic "The Hidden." "The Predator" may be tonally very different from the original, but it's still a blast with a bunch of spectacular splatter moments and kinetic plotting which makes a lot more narrative sense than many made-up-as-they-go-along franchise entries.

Josephine Decker, the filmmaker behind this year's Madeline's Madeline, has Suspiria, The Favourite, Hereditary and more, but this might be my favorite of her selections:

This is dedicated to the film I am definitely forgetting that I very much loved this year. You were so great, and you did so much with your tiny budget, and you made me feel more alive.

Guillermo del Toro provides a disclaimer saying "There are some big ones I have yet to see," then lists the following films, unranked:

Roma

You Were Never Really Here

Leave No Trace

The Rider

First Man

Sorry to Bother You

Killing (Tsukamoto)

The Favourite

Mandy

First Reformed

Destroyer director Karyn Kusama provides her list in no particular order, featuring Leave No Trace, First Reformed, and, curiously enough, The Great British Bake-Off, which isn't a movie, of course. But Bake-Off is a blast, so who cares? Kusama also throws some love to Mandy, writing:

One of the most thrilling cinematic experiences I've had in a long while. Yes, Nic Cage is great. But it's Andrea Riseborough's unforgettable Mandy who holds this film together — her wisdom, her undeniable power, her freaky witch-wavelength — all of these qualities are potent in their presence and doubly so in their absence. For me, this is a film about all the hell that breaks loose when we continue to desecrate a woman. Plain and simple, it's not pretty when we pull down The Goddess. Heavy metal feminism at its most unsparing.

Edgar Wright goes an extra mile, first providing his top 10 (which includes Roma, Mandy and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), before adding some honorable mentions:

Very Honorable Mentions: "Bad Times at the El Royale," "The Old Man and the Gun," "Shadow," "First Man," "Ghost Stories," "Wildlife," "Annihilation," "Isle of Dogs," "Ray & Liz."

Head on over to IndieWire to get the full list.