My top three of the year:
Sorry to Bother You
Was it really the best on some objective scale? I don't know and I care surprisingly little. Im not sure when was the last time I left the theater feeling so "well I haven't seen THAT movie before". Maybe Pulp Fiction? It was thoroughly entertaining, pushed a lot of right buttons for me and was just fun in a non-calculating and non-obvious ways that felt really good amongst all the Disney candy I've had recently. I'm always a sucker for brazen anti-capitalism propaganda and full frontal horse dick jokes.
Death of Stalin
Sure it came out in 2017, but I think most saw it this year so what ever. It rides on a massive historical anachronisms and inaccuracies and the humor was so black it was impossible to laugh at it sometimes, but it was also genuinely entertaining and had an actual point to what it was doing. Again, well made and actually different.
First Man
Honestly surprised this made my top list. I'm not usually much for realistic space travel films, nor biopics, especially movies about all-American man-heroes. But this was just everything that can be good about historical biopics. Instead of the usual uncritical romanticizing of some flavor of (let's face it: highly problematic) masculinity and history making, or a vapid first-year-at-art-school blanket condemnation of everything others find meaning in, it was a really thoughtful film about certain types of people and their drive to make the history books, and how complicated both things really are in a way that can't simply be described with any blanket statements. Plus it had all the important parts of traditionally excellent film making. The acting was downplayed yet evocative and the technical aspects of cinematic storytelling were top notch. This is the type of movie that deserves to be showered with traditional film awards if for nothing else than just showing how such old school films about old school topics can still be completely relevant if executed with skill and vision.
It will also make a lot of comparable biopic look vapid and bland in comparison. "Well it's not exactly First Man" is a criticism I'm definitely going to throw at something in the future.
Honorable mentions:
Suspiria
It was more okay than great, but it was just such a great example of revisiting a classic while making a movie that stands on it own that I can't not mention it. Plus the first dancemagic scene is a killer, and the ending is... certainly memorable
Avengers: Infinity War
I love Marvel, but they're never likely to be my favorites of the year simply because while they're doing I think the be job you can with these kinds of blockbusters, they're always shot and scored in really boring ways and that just takes the sharpest edge off of anything they do.
That said, it was remarkable to think that this film not only exists, but was a smash hit. We're very likely nearing the highpoint of what Disney gets out of these characters and story lines, but the amount of skill it takes to mash together such a mountain of previous worldbuilding into a coherent and highly entertaining film that actually manages to pay off the commitment fans have put into it is remarkable. This film should have too many characters but it doesn't, it should be bewilderingly incoherent but isn't, and it should play things incredibly safe but it really doesn't.
The MCU might be pretty close to my favorite Marvel now, and that's really something for someone who basically grew up on eighties X-Men.