A year to die for: Highs and lows of 2018’s memorable, sometimes morbid movies

Seeing as how this is a recap of the year in movies, there will be some spoilers here and there. Nothing outrageous.

What a killer of a year at the movies.

Yes, I’m saying it was a terrific year for film — but I’m also saying I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen SO many movies where SO many key characters bit the dust.

Some bought it before the opening credits. Others perished in flashbacks. Still others were with us through nearly the entire journey — and then they up and died on us. What the what!

Hey, we expect death in a remake of “Death Wish,” or in a costumed biopic about someone who … died. But in 2018 there was also an inordinate number of character deaths ranging from the mildly surprising to the admittedly inevitable but still heartbreaking to the downright shocking.

There were so many deaths in “Life Itself” it should have been retitled, “Get Out of the Street, Idiot!”

I’m not going to list the titles because I don’t want to spoil your catch-up viewing experience, but let’s just say the Cinematic Grim Reaper dropped in on virtually every genre you can imagine — including animated fare — in 2018.

And yet: What a year! From the exuberant, epic, exhilarating and groundbreaking smashing success of “Black Panther” to the stunning and gorgeous black-and-white masterpiece that was “Roma,” from the toe-tapping loveliness of “Mary Poppins Returns” to the brilliant and bleak and criminally overlooked “Widows,” there were at least 30 films that could have made my 10 best list this year.

I’ve already shared my picks for the best and the worst movies of 2018. For now, let’s celebrate some of the most wonderful moments and performances — and note a few of the more fantastically ridiculous onscreen occurrences as well.

Actress of the Year

For those few still wondering if Emily Blunt could do it all, she erased all doubt with the one-two knockout punch of performances in “A Quiet Place,” in which she hardly talked at all, and “Mary Poppins Returns,” in which she talked and talked and talked, and sang and sang and sang, and laughed and sparkled and won our hearts and did I mention Emily Blunt is the Actress of the Year?

Spider (Easter) Eggs

“If you see the wonderful ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ do look out for this rather tantalizing parallel-universe billboard in Times Square.” – Tweet from director Edgar Wright, accompanying a shot of a billboard for the fictional movie “From Dusk Till Shaun.”

The soaring, sleek, ultra-cool and flat-out entertaining “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was the best animated film of the year — and it won the Easter Egg, my annual (starting this year) trophy (there’s no real trophy) awarded to the movie with the best visual treats and insider references.

Just a sampling of the Easter Eggs in the Spider-Verse:

• A quick “flashback” depicting the guyliner-wearing disco jerk Tobey Maguire/Peter Parker of “Spider-Man 3.”

• It appears Miles Morales/Spider-Man is a fan of DC Comics even though he’s living in a Marvel Universe. His drawings include renditions of Superman and Batman.

• When Miles visits his Uncle Aaron, a clip from “Community” is playing on the TV. In the scene is Donald Glover, who once started an (unsuccessful) online campaign to be considered for the lead in “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

Can you do the FAN-dango?

With some $184 million in domestic grosses and a worldwide take over $600 million, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is easily the highest-grossing music biopic ever.

That still doesn’t mean it’s any good.

If you’re one of the legions of fans who enjoyed the watered-down, condescending, stiffly shot, sometimes laughably cartoonish biography of Freddie Mercury and Queen, good on you.

I’m still reeling from (among other howlers) the film’s argument that despite performances by the likes of Mick Jagger and Tina Turner, Madonna, Tom Petty, Elton John, the Who, U2 and B.B. King, the fundraising phones for Live Aid were dead until Queen took the stage.

Movies I really wanted to see — until I saw them

“The 15:17 to Paris”

“Tag”

“Ocean’s 8”

“Bohemian Rhapsody”

“The Happytime Murders”

“Vox Lux”

Movies I wasn’t sure I’d like—until I saw them

“Uncle Drew”

“Life of the Party”

“The Death of Stalin”

“Equalizer 2”

“Asher”

“The Mule”

Most romantic couple of the year

Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson in “Creed 2.”

One of the reasons we want to see new chapters in the “Creed” story: the tender, sweet, sexy, loving, complex, real and (we hope) lifelong love story of Jordan’s Adonis and Thompson’s Bianca.

Don’t blame the titles

Near the end of the year, we had three Teenager in Trouble stories, two of them starring Lucas Hedges: “Boy Erased,” “Beautiful Boy” and “Ben is Back.”

This led to some easy jokes about “The Beautiful Boy Who was Erased is Back” — but I hope you take the time and effort to see each of these well-crafted, beautifully acted, strong and memorable films.

In addition to the fine performances from Lucas (“Boy Erased,” “Ben is Back”) and Timothee Chalamet in “Beautiful Boy,” these films feature beautifully nuanced work from some of the finest actors in the world as the parents/step-parents: Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman in “Boy Erased,” Steve Carell, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan in “Beautiful Boy,” and Julia Roberts and Courtney B. Vance in “Ben is Back.”

Some great films you most likely haven’t seen. Please see ‘em!

“Lean on Pete”

“Unsane”

“Tully”

“First Reformed”

“Juliet, Naked”

“You Were Never Really Here”

“Leave No Trace”

“Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado”

I’m not scared, YOU’RE SCARED!

OK, we all were scared. What a great year for horror movies and/or films that at least step into the gooey blood-red horror genre at times, including the “Halloween” sequel, “A Quiet Place,” “Hereditary,” “Annihilation,” “Mandy,” “Unsane,” “Bird Box” and “Mom and Dad.”

Fight of the Year

The Bathroom Brawl, the Faucet Fight, the Slug-out in the Stall — call it what you will, the hand-to-hand (to neck to face to limbs) three-man dogfight in “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” between Tom Cruise, a “guns”-reloading Henry Cavill and Liang Yang was an instant classic: stunningly brutal, perfectly cut, gruesome, funny, exhilarating and exhausting. One of the best fight scenes of this or any other year.

Goosebumps of the Year

The moment when Lady Gaga’s Ally joins Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine onstage at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and they duet on “Shallow.”

In that scene a music star was reborn as a movie star, and a remake was born as a monster hit and an Oscar contender.