Mark Olsen's best movies of 2018: 'If Beale Street Could Talk' stands out in a year that tried to make sense of madness

It is not a political statement to say that these are strange and troubled times. Some days can feel like a week and some weeks can feel like a year. It's no surprise that so many movies seemed invested in the emotional toll and practical reality of just making it through, getting from one day to the next.

Overall, 2018 felt like an exceptional year at the movies. Just about any film from my runner-up list of 11-20 could easily have been slotted somewhere into my top 10, and it would have been easy to continue with an entirely credible list of 10 more titles.

And though I am reluctant to use box-office success as a barometer of anything - an honest acknowledgement that many of the films I personally like and professionally champion are unlikely to be