More Movies Like This, Please: 2018 List

I started something in 2012. Whenever I saw a new movie I liked, I would jump onto Twitter, identify the movie, then simply tweet: “More movies like this, please.”

Then I thought, Why don’t I do an annual More Movies Like This, Please list?

What do I mean by “more movies like this, please”? Not big popcorn flicks. Hey, I love huge spectacle movies as much as the next guy, but we know Hollywood is going to make them, studios don’t need encouragement to produce prequels, sequels, remakes, tentpoles, and so forth.

Rather, I’m talking about movies Hollywood seems to have a hard time committing to nowadays for a variety of reasons, most of them related to economics and conventional wisdom about what supposedly will work / won’t work.

Here are some of elements I’m looking for in my More Movies Like This, Please list:

• More adult dramas
• More mid-budget movies [$25–50M], smaller stories that need larger budgets to be told well
• More original movies [based on an original screenplay]
• More movies targeting people who love movies and appreciate the history of movies
• More movies that represent the vision of one writer / writer-director or team of writers / writer-directors
• More movies that explore interesting, unique and unusual subcultures
• More movies written, directed, and/or starring women and people of color
• More movies that take risks
• More movies that approach narrative in different ways
• More cinematic movies
• More quirky, whimsical, oddball movies reflecting a distinctive take on the world
• More movies where the focus is on characters, not special effects
• More movies that make me think
• More movies that have no reason to exist other than the fact they have a great story to tell.

So here is my 2018 More Movies Like This, Please list:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Colette
Crazy Rich Asians
Eighth Grade
The Favourite
First Reformed 
If Beale Street Could Talk
Love, Simon
Minding the Gap
On the Basis of Sex
A Quiet Place
The Rider
Roma
Sorry to Bother You
Vice
You Never Were Really Here

There are several movies I have yet to see including Destroyer, First Man, Never Look Away, Private Life, Shoplifters, What They Had, Wildlife, but having read some of these scripts or reviews of critics I trust, I’m pretty sure I’d add those to the list.

There are some big budget movies which make my 2018 list: Annihilation, Black Panther, and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, each of which feature interesting stories, compelling characters, and in the case of Spider-Man a truly inventive, colorful, and flat-out fun experience.

If you’re looking for three recommendations, I’d say make sure you see these:

Both of these are likely to show prominently in the Academy Awards and deservedly so as they are astonishing films, but here is a small film you may not have heard of I implore you to watch: The Rider.

The Rider is the second feature length movie written and directed by Chloé Zhao, and it’s a gem. Plot summary: After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

Here is the trailer for The Rider:

Nominated for 5 Independent Spirit Awards, this is an intimate, deeply human story which immerses the viewer into one man’s life amidst a fascinating subculture. Definitely more movies like this, please!

The Rider movie website

I probably missed some movies, so I reserve the right to update the list.

How about you? Which movies would you put on your More Movies Like This, Please list?