2018 has been a bumper year for brilliant movies. Here are 6 of the best

1. BLACKKKLANSMAN

Spike Lee reaffirmed his position as the US's most consistently interrogatory and political director with this story of FBI agent Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) who infiltrated the Klan in the 1970s.

With wonderful period recreation and a mix of sassy humour and sometimes heavy-handed political pointedness about how the more things change, the more they stay the same, it's a welcome return to form for Lee and a timely film that makes a horribly relevant statement about the failure of the US to deal with race relations.

By the time Lee hammers home his point at the end by bringing the events of Charlottesville into the picture, it's been a difficult but rewarding journey - and lingers long after the final frame.

2. THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

The Coen brothers took what was supposed to be their first venture into the peak-TV era and turned it into a curious, darkly comic and sometimes-brutal Western anthology film for Netflix.

It is not always even in the telling, but there are nevertheless plenty of gems here to savour for their sense of the macabre and the sheer pleasure with which the Coens relate them.

The West is an unforgiving place where life is short and sharp, and there's little patience for the vainglorious. Watch it if only for a standout performance from Tom Waits as a lonesome gold prospector whose luck might be about to change.

3. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Netflix's other gift to movie lovers came in the form of the overdue restoration of Orson Welles's lost masterpiece about the hell of the film business.

Fellow film giant John Huston gives a career-defining performance as doomed and broken director Jake Hannaford who throws a surreal Hollywood party in the desert on what will turn out to be the last day of his life.

It may not be a perfect film but it's a necessary reminder of Welles's distinctive genius and impish love of the bizarre and unusual. Cinema is better for its existence in whatever
form.

4. WIDOWS

Ignore the trailer and ignore the plot summary: Widows is not a heist movie. Yes, it's about four women who must stage a heist to pay off their late criminal husbands' debtors, but that is just the subplot.

Widows is as much about a heist as director Steve McQueen's brilliant Shame was about sex: the criminal act is really just the surface in a film that explores topics including race, misogyny, class, politics, violence, women's agency and relationships.

The camera work is magnificent and the score top-notch, reminiscent of Shame. It's a little self-indulgent and preachy sometimes and the twist at the end is very silly, but it's mostly an incredibly rewarding watch.

5. ANNIHILATION

One of the most memorable scenes in Annihilation features Natalie Portman, crouched with one knee on the ground, fiercely unloading a machine gun into a mutant crocodile - all in slow motion, of course.

It's also a scene that perfectly captures the spirit of Alex Garland's film: it feels a bit like a war movie, but it's mostly a weird sci-fi/fantasy/psychological thriller/horror. And it looks like a Björk video.

So what's it about? An all-female group of scientists and soldiers investigate a mysterious, spreading electromagnetic field that swallows everything and everyone within it.

Creepy, tense and intriguing.

6. CRAZY RICH ASIANS

This movie is pure fun - gilded, stereotype-laden, high fashion-wearing, bejewelled fun.

It's about a Chinese-American economics professor who goes to Singapore to meet her secretly super-wealthy boyfriend's family and attend his best friend's wedding. As you've guessed, it's not a smooth ride.

Crazy Rich Asians isn't some in-depth exploration of culture or race, it's simply a feel-good movie, the kind perfect for repeat watches.

Not only is this one of the best romcoms of the past decade, we're willing to stick my neck out and claim that it's one of the best romcoms of all time.