The Oscars were yesterday; now it’s time for the Stevens.

Welcome to The Twelve Posts post-Oscars.

In this, the 1st Post post-Oscars, my true love sent to me: the first of twelve posts, each dedicated to different aspects of my favorite movies of 2018.

Notice how I refuse to use the label “best”, which feigns objectivity I don’t dare claim to possess (and the world wouldn’t scorn critics as much if more of my ilk followed suit). Some people could justifiably question the raison d’être of ranking art at all, a qualitative act in a profoundly subjective realm. And you know what: they’d be 100% correct. So please don’t mistake my impending musings as any sort of official pronouncement.

But then what’s the point?

I view these twelve lists — with ample commentary throughout — less as declarations regarding the year that was, and more as reflections of who I was in 2018, a time capsule of myself captured through my taste in this moment. As such, these lists should not be considered “final”; I’m still changing them, and I will continue to do so. So keep in mind they’re merely a snapshot of me, and hopefully somewhat of 2018, right now, mere weeks after putting a bow on a year that, though it may not have felt like a present, still offered ample artistic gifts.

And another thing: I will hopefully keep expanding my taste with age. The idea that experience should refine taste into more discernment yet again besmirches the critical vocation; why should we strive to become more curmudgeonly instead of learning how to love as much as possible, well, as much as possible? In the same way movies over the last 365 days restructured my taste, hopefully my taste will continue to evolve over the next 365, and then the next, and then the next, and then you get the idea.   

And if I happen to mention a movie you’ve never heard of — which is bound to happen, unless you’re as voraciously drawn to sitting in dark rooms with a bunch of strangers for as much of your life as moi — then maybe it’ll compel you to check it out. And if even one person does, this whole endeavor immediately becomes worthwhile in my eyes.

Which brings us to the subject of this post: sharing with y’all a list of every new movie I watched in 2018, a good place to start so you know the body of movies I’ll subsequently cull from. I follow the Oscars’ lead in that I only count movies that actually played in theaters. Streaming is great, but even if something looks like a movie at home, unless it takes up residence in at least one theater in the country for at least one week, it’s nothing more than #content (not that there’s anything wrong with that). As an ardent defender of the theatrical experience, I will continue to define art by my preferred consumption method. My website, my rules.

Oh, and for those wondering why I’m recapping 2018 so far into 2019, click here!

OK, let’s boogie.

In the 1st Post post-Oscars, my true love sent to me: an unranked, alphabetical list of every 2018 movie that I’ve seen:

2018 MOVIES

12 Strong
1985
22 July
306 Hollywood
A Bread Factory, Part One
A Bread Factory, Part Two
A Kid Like Jake
A Paris Education
A Prayer Before Dawn
A Private War
A Quiet Place
A Simple Favor
A Star Is Born
A Wrinkle in Time
Acrimony
Action Point
Acts of Violence
Adrift
All About Nina
Alpha
Amazing Grace
American Animals
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
Anna and the Apocalypse
Annihilation
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Aquaman
Arizona
Assassination Nation
At Eternity’s Gate
Avengers: Infinity War
Bad Reputation
Bad Times at the El Royale
Basmati Blues
Bathtubs Over Broadway
Beast
Beautiful Boy
Before We Vanish
Beirut
Bel Canto
Ben Is Back
Beuys
Bird Box
Bisbee ‘17: A Story Told in Six Chapters
BlacKkKlansman
Black Panther
Black ’47
Blaze
Blindspotting
Blockers
Bodied
Bohemian Rhapsody 
Book Club
Border
Borg vs McEnroe
Boundaries
Boy Erased
Breaking In
Bumblebee
Burning
Cam
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Caniba
Capernaum
Chappaquiddick
Charm City
Christopher Robin
Cielo
Claire’s Camera
Cold War
Colette
Communion
Crazy Rich Asians
Creed II
Crime + Punishment
Custody
Damsel
Dark Money
Dark River
Deadpool 2
Death Wish
Death of a Nation
Den of Thieves
Destination Wedding or: A Narcissist Can’t Die Because Then the Entire World Would End
Destroyer
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
Disobedience
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes
Django
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot
Double Lover
Dumplin’
Early Man
Eighth Grade
El Angel
Entanglement
Every Day
Fahrenheit 11/9
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Far From the Tree
Fifty Shades Freed
Filmworker
Final Portrait
Finding Your Feet
First Man
First Reformed
Flower
Forever My Girl
Free Solo 
Galveston
Game Night
Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable
Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti
Gemini
Generation Wealth
Ghost Stories
Golden Exits
Goldstone
Good Manners
Gotti
Green Book
Gringo
Hal
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Halloween
Hannah
Happy as Lazzaro
Have A Nice Day
Hearts Beat Loud
Hereditary
Hold the Dark
Holmes & Watson
Hot Summer Nights
Hotel Artemis
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Hunter Killer
I Am Not a Witch
I Feel Pretty
Ideal Home
If Beale Street Could Talk
In Between
Incredibles 2
Infinite Football
Insidious: The Last Key
Instant Family
Isle of Dogs
Itzhak
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
Johnny English Strikes Again
Journey’s End
Juliet, Naked
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Kusama: Infinity
Leaning into the Wind
Leave No Trace
Let the Corpses Tan
Let the Sunshine In
Life Itself
Life and Nothing More
Life of the Party
Lizzie
Love, Cecil
Love, Gilda
Love, Simon
Lover For A Day
Loving Pablo
Madeline’s Madeline
Makala
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Mandy
Maria by Callas
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Shelley
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
McQueen
Memoir of War
Mid90s
Midnight Sun
Mile 22
Minding the Gap
Mirai
Mission: Impossible — Fallout
Mom and Dad
Monrovia, Indiana
Monsters and Men
Mortal Engines
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Museo
Nancy
Never Goin’ Back
Never Look Away
Nico, 1988
Night Comes On
Night School
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Nobody’s Fool
Nostalgia
Ocean’s 8
Of Fathers and Sons
Oh Lucy!
On Chesil Beach
On Her Shoulders
On the Basis of Sex
On the Seventh Day
Operation Finale
Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Animated
Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Documentary A
Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Documentary B
Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Live Action
Outlaw/King
Overboard
Overlord
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Paddington 2
Pandas
Papillon
People’s Republic of Desire
Permission
Peter Rabbit
Pick of the Litter
Poop Talk
Pope Francis: A Man Of His Word
Private Life
Prospect
Proud Mary
Puzzle
RBG
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Rampage
Ready Player One
Red Sparrow
Revenge
Robin Hood
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Rodin
Roma 
Roxanne Roxanne
Ryuichi Sakamito: CODA
Sadie
Science Fair
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Searching
Searching for Ingmar Bergman
Second Act
Seven Days in Entebbe
Shirkers
Shock and Awe
Shoplifters
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Sicilian Ghost Story
Skate Kitchen
Skyscraper
Smallfoot
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Stan & Ollie
Studio 54
Submission
Summer 1993
Super Troopers 2
Superfly
Support the Girls
Suspiria
Tag
Tea with the Dames
Teen Titans Go! to the Movies
Tehran Taboo
The 15:17 to Paris
The Apparition
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Bleeding Edge
The Bookshop
The Boy Downstairs
The Cakemaker
The Captain
The Catcher Was A Spy
The Charmer
The Children Act
The Clapper
The Commuter
The Cured
The Day After
The Death of Stalin
The Devil and Father Amorth
The Distant Barking of Dogs
The Equalizer 2
The Favourite 
The Female Brain
The Final Year
The First Purge
The Front Runner
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
The Gospel According to André
The Great Buster
The Green Fog
The Grief of Others
The Grinch
The Guardians
The Guilty
The Happy Prince
The Happytime Murders
The Hate U Give
The House That Jack Built
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
The Hurricane Heist
The Kindergarten Teacher
The King
The Land of Steady Habits
The Leisure Seeker
The Little Stranger
The Meg
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
The Mule
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
The Oath
The Old Man & the Gun
The Other Side of the Wind
The Party
The Predator
The Price of Everything
The Rest I Make Up
The Rider
The Seagull
The Silence of Others
The Sisters Brothers
The Spy Who Dumped Me
The Strangers: Prey At Night
The Third Murder
The Wife
The World Before Your Feet
The Young Karl Marx
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
Thoroughbreds
Three Identical Strangers
Thunder Road
Tomb Raider
Trouble
Truth or Dare
Tully
Tyrel
Uncle Drew
Under the Tree
Unfriended: Dark Web
Unsane
Upgrade
Venom
Vice
Viper Club
Vox Lux: A 21st Century Portrait
Watergate — Or, How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President
We the Children
Welcome to Marwen
Western
What Keeps You Alive
What They Had
What We Started
Where is Kyra?
White Boy Rick
Whitney
Widows
Wildlife
Winchester
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
You Were Never Really Here
Zama