2018 is nearly over. And with the new year comes reflection, retrospection, and some top ten lists. This year gave us an onslaught of pop culture, and now Street has endeavored to choose the best of all of it—best albums, best movies, best television shows, and best books from this year, based on staff's picks.
Street's favorite album of 2018 is…
1. Golden Hour: Kacey Musgraves
Rising country superstar Kacey Musgraves pushes the boundaries of genre on the standout Golden Hour, her fourth widely released album. From the psychedelic trip of "Slow Burn" to the deft circular wordplay in "Space Cowboy," every track on this record stuns.
For the full list of Street's ten favorite albums of 2018, click here.
Street's favorite movie of 2018 is…
1. Roma: Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Roma is undoubtedly Alfonso Cuarón's masterpiece. He returned from his sci-fi streak to deliver this force of a movie, and he did it all—directing, writing, producing, editing, and shooting—and his guiding hand shows through. In Roma, the treatment is distilled and foregrounded—projected onto Cleo, the film's hopelessly kind protagonist. It is without question the most beautifully shot film of the year—shot in rich, wide 65 mm film with the gorgeous framing and wandering tracking shots. Roma is emotional devastation treated with careful restraint. It emanates a quiet sadness, mixed with some kind of befuddled, desperate hope.
For the full list of Street's ten favorite movies of 2018, click here.
Street's favorite television show of 2018 is…
1. The Handmaid's Tale
The Hulu adaptation may have outstripped Margaret Atwood's source text in its second season, but it retains the same horror and bleakness as the first season, given humanity and grounded by the cast's restrained performances. The terrifying show, in its dystopian timeline, still manages to feel very of–the–moment.
For the full list of Street's ten favorite television shows of 2018, click here.
Street's favorite book of 2018…
1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation: Ottessa Moshfegh
In one of the most talked–about books of the year, Otessa Moshfegh takes a self–obsessed protagonist's journey to spend a year in a pill–induced haze to some in–between zone of absurdism and hyper–reality. While the narrative is darkly funny, the novel shines in interactions between the unnamed main character and her best friend Reba, in a beautifully wry depiction of a friendship with power and wealth imbalances pulling at either participant. Moshfegh covers a lot of ground in the novel considering the protagonist rarely leaves her house: The vast landscape of New York City just before 9/11 folds into itself and inhabits a single apartment. It's a remarkable feat when a writer accomplishes a narrative despite so much of the plot being predicated around inaction, and Moshfegh's razor–sharp prose and darkly funny plotting delivers.
For the full list of Street's ten favorite books of 2018, click here.
