Alan Ng

Bottoms falls right in my wheelhouse of comedy. Be offensive and don’t care about offending anyone. Bottoms goes after everyone without apology. It’s what comedy used to be; we’ve strayed so far off the path in the last ten years. There’s no place to play it safe in comedy. We need to return to this form of comedy oh so badly.

With standout performances from Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza, it sticks the landing beautifully—don’t be surprised if it ends up on your favorites list, too.

Denis Villeneuve delivers on the big epic space story we’ve been waiting for and comes through in unique and unexpected ways.

Love Gilda is one of those documentaries that will make you laugh, touch your heart, and inspire to make the most of your life without fear.

Eternal You is an excellent documentary because it engages you along the way, and you’re constantly wrestling with the issue long after the credits roll.

What makes See You Yesterday work for me is its fresh take on the overtold, worn-out, time-travel trope and the pitfalls of time travel. A fun and solid story that score big points with its originality and good lead performances. All this to say, See You Yesterday is good science fiction.

Joy Ride breaks through all the preconceived notions of female-led sex comedy and an all-Asian cast. Director Adele Lim has brought back for this brief moment in time the over-the-top sex comedy and delivers.

The only excuse you have not to see Crazy Rich Asians is because you hate love.

Watching The Ghost of Peter Sellers is like watching a 15-vehicle car crash in slow motion.

If there is any complaint to be laid against Big Hero 6, it is that the team itself takes a back seat. The story is primarily about the relationship between Hiro and Baymax. This is not a negative comment because the relationship between the boy and his robot is endearing and effectively told.

Life and love are like a song, and Música will have you falling in love with your toes tappin’ and knees slappin’.

Miss Juneteenth’s brilliance is in its subtlety.

The Iron Claw succeeds because of the human story being told.

What sets Robert Fisk apart from the rest is he’s on the ground and in the middle of the action. He is amazingly able to travel (sometimes) to both sides of a conflict and personally eyewitness the event from both perspectives. This is the heart of This is Not a Movie.

I love the fact that they told a straightforward, insightful story that doesn’t feel the need to push the “message.” At the same time, Inside Out 2 misses that quest for excellence and instead goes for good enough.

The Fall Guy is a fun action flick with something for everyone.

The story is about being held accountable for your actions and making things right. But it’s also about the love and honesty of family and, ultimately, forgiveness.

Wicked: Part 1 is an incredible adaptation that captures the core of what fans adore about the stage musical while offering its own cinematic flourishes. Despite a few pacing hiccups, Jon M. Chu’s direction and the cast’s passionate performances create a magical journey worth experiencing.

The Lavender Scare is essential to watch and an excellently produced documentary about a time the communist threat overshadowed the so-called “gay threat” from our history books.

The Biggest Little Farm not only has by-the-minute drama and an ever-present tension between success and failure, but as an accomplished cinematographer, the film’s images of the farm is breathtaking.

If you want to hear the story of dreamers fulfilling their outlandish dreams, this is the film.

There’s nothing new and nothing we haven’t seen, which means every single moment and plot twist is familiar and predictable.

The world of Calle Málaga is small. It takes place on a simple street in a simple town where everyone knows everyone else. Everyone is cordial and competitive at the same time, as the film focuses on the place we call home and how leaving can be a bitter pill to take. In the end, this family drama hits you in the feels like a warm cup of cocoa before turning in for the night.

In these divided times, films centering on political issues either make an earnest attempt to persuade the other side to consider its point of view or play to its political allies and demonize its enemies. The Public does the latter, and the result is to further widen the divide of political discourse with self-righteous finger-pointing.

In the end, the film and its storytelling is meh.

Montana Story is a solid film set on a standard story structure.

Sheep Without A Shepherd is good fun as both an action flick and a heartfelt crime-thriller at the same time. In case you were wondering, the ending is fantastic, which is traditionally problematic for thrillers in general. It wraps everything up nicely and in a satisfying way.

Congrats to Jared Bush and the Walt Disney Animation team for an overall solid effort with Zootopia 2. I can’t wait to see what you have coming next.

It features likable characters, and though it may not offend or make you laugh, it ultimately leaves you smiling. However, you can’t help but feel a sense of loss regarding the potential the film and its story had to be truly great.

In the end, Restoring Tomorrow reminds us that you can restore an old historic building to its original beauty, but it’s ultimately about the people.

While Bong Joon Ho delivers his signature visual flair and Robert Pattinson fully commits to the existential dread of his endlessly disposable character, the film struggles to keep its high-concept ideas fresh past the first act.

Great science-fiction storytelling is not going to come from the big studios anymore. We will find it from new filmmakers with big ideas and very little money. But thankfully, big ideas attract big talent (then hopefully big money), and that’s what we have with Edson Oda’s Nine Days.

If you’ve ever had a friend or family struggle with an addiction, you know that nothing you say or do will change their ways. It seems to always happen at their rock bottom. Nora Fingscheidt’s feature, The Outrun, starts at the bottom.

Dark Money does succeed in presenting a strong case for campaign finance reform.

Framed may not be the thriller you want, but it’s a fine drama and morality play.

Elio is a complete misfire—an ambitious premise that never takes off.

Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy is a big story with big action along the lines of Carlito’s Way. You can easily jump in on this story without needing to see the previous Ip Man films.

Not since The Florida Project have I felt this emotional about a story of children forced to grow up way too fast.

A far as coming-of-age stories go, Once Upon a River is a very sweet story. There’s not a lot of fluff, but there is a lot of heart in a story based on a novel and feels in a way like a novel.

No one is safe, and decency is thrown out the window. Not since Deadpool has a movie ever been so f****d up. Though Deadpool wandered more into the sexual and scatological terrain, The Suicide Squad, instead, blurs the line between cartoon violence and gory realism.

While the authenticity of a television show from that era may dampen the intensity of the scares, the film is still just plain fun to watch. The effects are wonderful, with the vast majority of them being practical. The Cairnes brothers lean on fun over terror, which may irk some. But, what fun is had!

Those first two acts feel fresh and different. I loved Pattinson’s take. He’s not a pretty boy, he’s a conflicted human being. He’s a hero who’s not so super.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an origin story, and director Destin Daniel Cretton, working from script he wrote alongside Dave Callaham and, Andrew Lanham did a masterful job telling a story that’s not only Asian-American but a Marvel movie at the same time.

Eternal Spring is a beautiful film about freedom. It’s also a film that is currently flying under the radar, rife with controversy but is well worth seeking out for a serious evening of cinema.

Paradise City is a fun and lightweight tale for an evening of Hulu and chill. It’s not going to change the world, but it’s entertaining enough, especially considering Willis’s recent retirement.

The endless loop, the anomalies, the reset — all of it connects back to who the man is and what his fundamental flaw as a person is. When the ending hits, it doesn’t explain itself. You just sit there and work backward, and then it clicks.

You expect excellence from Pixar, and excellence is what they deliver in Onward.

Waldo On Weed does a fantastic job following Waldo’s adventure of healing and convincing audiences on the benefits of medical marijuana. What sets this film apart from other documentaries on the same subject is the personal battles the Dwyer’s would go through.

It is a good movie, but what elevates it from the pack are the performances from Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer.

The film has good action set pieces, but without a story that has something to say or connects with audiences beyond the surface, it’s just another standard sci-fi action film.

Amir Agha’ee shines as the film’s lead. His portrayal of grief and guilt is heartfelt and his emotional performance is perfect.

Mayfair’s The Third Wife is a powerful reminder that the oppression of women is not strictly a Western problem and everyone—women or men—want to be free to choose their own path in life.

Filmmaker Heather Lenz pieces together a fascinating story of this little-known, yet wildly popular artist.

With Come As You Are, the laughs are good and abundant, the characters are well-defined, and the story takes us on a wild trip to its heartfelt destination.

Yes, God, Yes is a good movie overall. The narrative is strong and takes a more serious tone than Saved!.

Shazam! just refused to take any risks and put all its eggs in the family and comedy basket. The performances by all the leads are the best part of the film.

It made bold choices to be a memorable sequel, and most of those chances are exciting. While it has some definite hits and misses, it finds its rightful place in the franchise.

This is an action film, meaning that’s where the fun lies. Cage gets to show off his special skills with unique bits of punctuation after each kill. There are plenty of chases, gun combat, and hand-to-hand fighting. The only disappointment you’ll feel is that everything is done for comedic effect. This is much lighter in tone than you probably want it to be.

Tim Roth is great as Neil.

Companion takes a stab (literally) at sci-fi horror with an interesting idea, but making a robot the emotional center of the film is a misfire.

The best cure for a bland movie is quality ingredients, and in this case, it’s Manville and Neeson’s performances.

The space stuff is secondary to a powerful tale, insightful dialogue, and brilliantly developed characters. It’s the perfect nerdy date movie.

In the end, Sisu is all about the violence and blood, and there are buckets of both. This is one of those action films where you can just sit back, unplug your brain, and hop on for one wild ride.

Resurrection is a brilliant thriller that rests on the actors’ remarkable performances without the need for typical thriller elements nor the need to resort to torture porn.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 succeeds because David Frankel trusts his cast and Aline Brosh McKenna’s script to handle both nostalgia and modern complications without preaching to the audience.

The acting is sub-par, with Selena Gomez delivering the weakest performance. I don’t know Spanish, but even I can tell she struggles to sound like it’s her first language. As Emilia, Karla Sofía Gascón is stiff as a board and can’t sing. Zoe Saldaña is the only one putting an effort in, but even she can’t make horrible lyrics sound authentic.

For his rookie debut, Dev Patel ultimately produced a fun action film with pacing issues—in my humble opinion. Monkey Man’s Indian influence makes this story of class and caste fascinating to behold.

Moon, 66 Questions is a movie made for adult children reluctantly forced into the care of their parents. Lentzou brings their struggle to the big screen with great empathy and introspection in that says you’re not alone.

I love Together Together because it’s a sweet and straightforward story surrounding surrogacy. It’s void of Hollywood dramatics and firmly places Ed Helms into that older best friend category on screen.

I Swear is not looking for pity. It’s looking for empathy and understanding, as if to say there is no such thing as good or bad disabilities.

The best thing about the film is the repeat viewing value.

The Peanut Butter Falcon refuses to condescend to its star and tells a story that’s authentic to the life and experiences of adults with Down Syndrome.

In Standing Up, Falling Down, this new style of comedy is light on laughs, but big on heart, weaving together a story of hope, redemption, and second chances with a solid cast led by Ben Schwartz and Billy Crystal.

Ultimately the success of Summertime comes from director Estrada and his crew, who put the film together with a small semblance of a story. They masterfully piece each poem and poet together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The biggest downfall of Relay is the ending.

Handling the Undead is more of a philosophical journey than a survival journey.

Visually speaking, Fletcher’s film is wonderful to watch. The fantastical choices he occasionally makes is grounded and never pull you out of the film.

By preserving the core narrative, characters, and emotional arc of the original, the live-action remake remains true to its roots. Though the cast is new, the heart of Hiccup and Toothless’s friendship still soars.

Directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir deliver an unpredictable and eerie narrative that lingers long after. With its sharp character development and refusal to sanitize its dark themes, this Australian indie is an unsettling yet thrilling watch you won’t forget.

Yeo Siew Hua shows that surveillance isn’t only about control—it’s also about how we see ourselves through someone else’s eyes. In the end, the film leaves us unsettled with the idea that being watched doesn’t just change how we act, it changes who we become.

What I can say is Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic in this movie. I was skeptical about bringing in Mysterio as the potential antagonist (villain), and he exceeded my expectations. The FX-team transferred Mysterio’s powers from comic book page to the big screen beautifully.

Tell Me Who I Am is an incredible real-life mystery.

Greener Grass is over-the-top hilarity. It’s grounded. It’s smart. It’s downright disgusting.

Cha Cha Real Smooth is a series of reflections on life.

And Then We Danced works because of a tender and heartfelt performance by Levan Gelbakhiani.

While Florence Pugh and David Harbour try to inject some soul into the chaos, the film proves that no amount of punchlines can save a story that forgot its superpower. Sometimes you don’t need a group hug—you need a good old-fashioned throwdown.

On the pages of the script, it could come across as forced, but thanks to good direction, editing, and the performances by Robert and Fortas this love story works.

Own The Room is fun, hopeful, and inspiring to any future entrepreneur and a must-watch.

Messaging aside, there is such great nuance in both performances of Carice van Houten and Marwan Zenzari. You’re continually guessing their state of mind in a true psychological thriller manner.

Homeroom is a fantastic piece of documentary storytelling

The Wedding Banquet is the kind of film that reminds you why we fall in love with movies in the first place—because they surprise us, move us, and make us laugh at how messy and magnificent life can be.

Other Music is a compelling story of nostalgia and a memento of what once was.

The story may be light, but the execution is strong, and the performances are engaging. It’s one of my go-to movies to see again this year, and it’s worth watching in a premium format.

A Quiet Place: Day One failed to capture what we loved about the original films and instead decided to focus too much of its time on a rollercoaster ride of an alien invasion. Fun is fun, but without proper character development, Day One is more fast food than a hardy meal.

Yes, Make Me Famous highlights the life and work of a brilliant artist, and just for that, the documentary is worth watching. The film also vividly describes what life as an artist was like on the Lower East Side of New York.

No Time To Die tells a fantastic Bond story. It has everything you expect from Bond and appropriately honors Daniel Craig for his service to the Queen.

Deadpool & Wolverine is an absolute blast, mixing savage humor, intense action, and heartfelt moments. Let’s hope this isn’t the end of the line for this dynamic duo – we need more adventures in this brilliantly chaotic universe!

Stevenson’s story is engaging as the David versus the Goliath of the state’s district attorney. There are a lot of great actors on display and put together it feels like an A-List repertory company featuring Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson, and Jamie Fox, to name a few. Then add some outstanding supporting veteran and up-and-coming actors, Just Mercy becomes a solid drama and film.