When December rolls around, one invariably sees critics taking stabs at top-10 lists. I’m always a bit reticent, as my true “best of the year” list usually doesn’t take its final form until March or April of the following year, after I’ve caught up on foreign films and documentaries.

So when some of my fellow writers from the Florida Film Critics Circle started sharing their “top films of 2018 so far” lists – in June! – I initially wanted no part, mostly because I’m a bit ashamed I’m so far behind on watching movies. Nevertheless, if you’ve visited my yearly list on MeierMovies.com, you already know I keep a running tab of my favorites. And I’m admittedly proud of the five that are sitting on top of my 2018 list now. Although only one or two of those might ultimately end up in my top-10 list at the end of the year, they are all worthy of praise. So I present my way-too-early, best-of-2018-so-far list:

1. Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg
2. Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster
3. The Guilty, directed by Gustav Möller
4. The Death of Stalin, directed by Armando Iannucci
5. Ghost Stories, directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

(Please keep in mind that several films that you might think were released in 2018 actually had extensive festival runs or limited releases in 2017. The five listed above either premiered in 2018 or played just one U.S. festival in 2017, so I’ve categorized them as 2018 movies.)