21 pop culture moments from 2018 we’re celebrating

The final shot of A Quiet Place

With franchises continuing to reign supreme, the 2018 box office offered few surprises. Maybe that’s why, eight months after its theatrical release, A Quiet Place still stands as one of the year’s most notable movies. Until the Tiffany Haddish comedy Night School had a brief stint there in the last week of September, it was the only original movie to nab the top slot at the domestic box office this year. (Even The Meg was loosely adapted from a book.)

Or maybe it’s because, in a year dominated by fantasies, A Quiet Place is the rare mainstream hit that feels utterly in sync with the current cultural climate. At first glance, John Krasinski’s post-apocalyptic thriller seems like pure escapism, with its high-concept premise and secluded setting, and no doubt it was intended to be. Yet, art doesn’t have to directly address Our Times in order to resonate with them. Sometimes, it just has to capture with visceral immediacy the sensation of being alive.

To immerse his audience in a world that threatens to spin out of control literally at the drop of a hat, Krasinski turns tension into white noise – so constant as to be almost soothing. Subtle sound design and a trio of performances by Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and Millicent Simmonds dredge up seething emotions – grief, guilt, resentment, love, fear – from the silence, felt all the more deeply for being unexpressed. What image better sums up life in the Trump era than that of a woman wanting to scream and not being able to?

A Quiet Place’s ability to sustain tension is equaled only by its ability to break it. Each instance of catharsis is deftly handled and well-earned, none more so than the final shot of Blunt pumping a shotgun, a defiant smirk on her face. Impeccably framed and lit by cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen, it’s an exuberant, applause-ready finish that cements Blunt’s place among the great actors of action/horror cinema.