OVP: Previously, in 2018...

  2018: A Look Back

We are rolling right into the 15th Oscar Viewing Project retrospective after finishing up 2006 yesterday... For those who are new to this series, we do two ballots a week (usually Monday/Wednesday, but I have a full-time job that sometimes gets around that...but we always hit two a week), so for the next ten weeks we'll be exploring 20 Oscar races from 2018.

That is enough behind-the-scenes from me, so I want you now to sit back, relax, and transport yourself back to 2018.  A time when Nancy Pelosi was (thank god) starting the first electoral victories against Donald Trump, the United States was leaving the Iran Nuclear Deal, and we were discovering actual bodies of water on Mars (which considering what we were doing the climate, felt less like discovery and more like Plan B).  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Box Office

This is what the Top 10 at the (Domestic) Box Office looked like:

1. Black Panther

2. Avengers: Infinity War

3. Incredibles 2

4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

5. Deadpool 2

6. The Grinch

7. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

8. Mission: Impossible-Fallout

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Ooph-that's a lot of franchises, isn't it?  2018 was one of the years where the straw was breaking the camel's back for me personally when it came to franchise fatigue, and I'll admit right off that I haven't seen all of these movies-I'm missing three (Deadpool 2, The Grinch, and Mission: Impossible-Fallout).  I am mixed on the latter franchise in terms of quality (though the special effects can be out-of-sight), but the other two I really have no interest in seeing.  Other $100 million movies I missed include Venom, Aquaman, The Meg, and Creed II.  It's worth noting we have Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born joining Black Panther as $100 million Best Picture contenders.

The Films I Missed

While I've seen all of the Oscar nominees, I haven't seen every film in 2018.  In addition to the films I just listed, there are a few films that were in contention at precursors that didn't make it to the Oscars-amongst them Stan & Ollie and Girl (real talk-I saw a lot of the 2018 movies so the list of quality films I missed is short, that was a thorough year for me).  I think I'll probably catch Mission Impossible-Fallout and Stan & Ollie in the coming weeks as there's a chance those might factor into some of my categories, but if there's any under-sung films from 2018 that you think I should check out, share below in the comments!  And on Monday-we'll start with Best Makeup!