New York Times Critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott Name Best Films of 2018
New York Times film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott have joined the end-of-the-year fray to announce their picks for the best films of 2018, including both a handful of titles the pair agreed on and some interesting deviations that speak to their unique tastes. Both Dargis and Scott singled out Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro,” Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” and Frederick Wiseman’s “Monrovia, Indiana” for inclusion, though the duo diverged on exact placement.
For Dargis, Cuarón’s personal black and white Netflix offering was the best film of the year, while Scott opted to cede his top slot to a four-way tie between various documentaries, including “Monrovia, Indiana” alongside Robert Greene’s “Bisbee ’17,” RaMell Ross’ “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” and Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap.” Both lists included a number of foreign-language entries, like Dargis’ picks of “Burning,” “Shoplifters,” and “Zama,” and Scott’s selections of “Capernaum” and “Let the Sunshine In.”
And neither critic seems particularly rattled by the influx of Netflix films this year, as each list includes a variety of features distributed by the streaming giant, from “Roma” to “Private Life” and “Happy as Lazzaro.”
Dargis’ full list is available below:
1. “Roma” (Alfonso Cuarón)
2. “Burning” (Lee Chang-dong)
3. “Shoplifters” (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
4. “Zama” (Lucrecia Martel)
5. “Happy as Lazzaro” (Alice Rohrwacher)
6. “BlacKkKlansman” (Spike Lee)
7. “First Reformed” (Paul Schrader)
8. “The Death of Stalin” (Armando Iannucci)
9. “Monrovia, Indiana” (Frederick Wiseman)
10. “Colophon (for the Arboretum Cycle)” (Nathaniel Dorsky)
Scott’s full list is available below:
1. “Monrovia, Indiana” (Frederick Wiseman); “Bisbee ’17” (Robert Greene); “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (RaMell Ross); “Minding the Gap” (Bing Liu)
2. “Happy as Lazzaro” (Alice Rohrwacher)
3. “First Reformed” (Paul Schrader)
4. “Private Life” (Tamara Jenkins)
5. “Roma” (Alfonso Cuarón)
6. “Let the Sunshine In” (Claire Denis)
7. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Marielle Heller)
8. “BlacKkKlansman” (Spike Lee)
9. “Capernaum” (Nadine Labaki)
10. “The Favourite” (Yorgos Lanthimos)
You can read the full article over at the New York Times, which also includes Dargis and Scott’s fascinating notes on films that just missed their ten-best cut-off.
