Most Underrated Movies of the 2010's (By Year): 2018

Honorable Mentions: Destination Wedding, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Red Sparrow 

Mid90s: Watching Mid90s was a surreal trip because its characters and the situations they were put into reminded me a lot of my own experiences as a teenager. It captures the loving ballbusting, reckless decisionmaking and raw heart-to-heart conversations that defines the adolescent male experience with staggering realism. Providing such a level of heartfelt authenticity to a scrappy story made Jonah Hill's directorial debut every bit as impressive as the more widely celebrated inaugural efforts from other actor-turned-filmmakers including Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig and Bradley Cooper that were released during the same nearly 2 year period.
   

The Night Comes for Us: Indonesia became known as an international martial arts powerhouse after the release of The Raid series. The traditional Indonesia form of martial arts known as Pencak silat- which combines full body fighting with the use of weapons both traditional and improvised- provided the type of versatile backdrop that allowed for the creation of a pair of widely-acclaimed martial arts flicks that featured some of the most elaborate choreography and brutal enemy deaths the genre has ever seen. By bringing in many of the same unbelievably gifted silat masters (Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, Zack Lee) and a horror director in Timo Tjahjanto that shared Gareth Evans' unfiltered sensibilities, The Night Comes for Us serves as a spiritual sequel that comes very close to matching the jaw-dropping highs of both Raid films. The pacing is relentless, the fight sequences are cleanly-edited, impeccably-choreographed spectacles and the gore is on the level of an extreme grindhouse splatter flick. For my money, it's one of the best martial films ever made and a call to the rest of the world's martial artists to get on the level of Indonesia.    

Overlord: Its been 18 months since Overlord was released, and I'm still blown away by how smoothly it melded together the war and horror genres. Combining the real life terror of World War II with the supernatural threat of the Nazis turning people into bloodthirsty zombie-like creatures that are damn near impossible to kill makes for a uniquely visceral experience that is unbelievably intense, unsettling and entertaining throughout.