Mike Ryan

It’s literally a party. It’s an all-encompassing experience that McQueen directs with the same urgency of his other, more inherently intense films – the urgency that has made him one of the best directors today (and one of my own personal favorites, if not just plain “favorite”).

The Irishman is terrific.

Call Me By Your Name is a triumph of humanity.

You should see Lady Bird...and, when you do, savor its delightfulness because this is a tougher and tougher commodity to find.

There’s something whimsical and magical about the whole thing. It is designed to make the viewer feel good.

What’s important in The Last Jedi is what happens to, and what we find out about, all of these characters along the way. In retrospect, The Force Awakens feels like a short introduction to these characters. After The Last Jedi, I feel like I’ve gone on a week-long road trip with them all.

The plot of this movie doesn’t matter because it barely has one, even though it’s incredibly entertaining.

At three hours long, even though the editing and narrative style keeps it moving, it gets to be redundant.

This is an excellent, poignant, and amazing film that will stick with you. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a must-see, even though watching it is a very difficult thing to do.

What Bradley Cooper has done here as an actor and director is truly remarkable.

If you’re looking to nitpick historical accuracy, Napoleon is going to drive you bonkers. But good gosh is it entertaining. And funny. Don’t forget funny.

It’s obvious Ryan Coogler didn’t direct Black Panther to make an action movie. Instead, it’s a dense movie about family, community, internal struggle, and external struggle. And it’s a movie with a lot on its mind.

Simply put, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the best action movie you will see this year. You’ll probably leave the theater overcome with an urge to go jumping from building to building.

Boseman is just so alive in this movie. This is not an “understated” performance. It’s like watching an athlete give it all on the field and we are left there wondering how this man isn’t just completely exhausted. Yeah, turns out Boseman did have one last gift for us. And, my gosh, he didn’t disappoint. He’s pure dynamite. It’s devastating.

Nomadland will almost physically take you places. It’s a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous motion picture.

Like In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin is a dark movie that is often downright hilarious.

This animated movie has more heart and emotion than most live actions films of this genre. If you give it a chance, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will knock your socks off.

It’s one of the most, if not the most, immersive superhero stories going, pushing far beyond the boundaries of what superhero stories should and could be.

This is a Spielberg classic.

What Dee Rees has done here is remarkable. The themes of racial injustice alone would make this movie “important,” but what she’s done with her film makes it an epic.

After you see The Fabelmans you realize this man will never stop making movies. It truly is his life. And, here, he is inviting us in to see how and why that all happened.

It’s kind of hard to write about Won’t You Be My Neighbor? as a film. It’s exceptionally well-made, mind you – which shouldn’t be a huge surprise coming from Morgan Neville, who won an Academy Award for directing 20 Feet From Stardom – but beyond being a film, it’s an experience of earnestness we don’t see or hear much anymore, to the point that it’s a bit of a jolt to the system.

I’m glad this movie exists if, for nothing else, to introduce new generations to Sharon Tate. And, frankly, I include myself in this. What Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood does best – and most importantly – is frame Sharon Tate as a human being we should get to know.

It’s a movie that feels like hope as actual hope stares us smack in the face. We are almost there. In the Heights didn’t ask for this responsibility, but it will forever be remembered as the right movie for the right time. It’s the kind of movie that will make you want to dance in the streets. And after this year we’ve all had, we all deserve to have our moment dancing in the street.

The footage, from the Krafft’s archives, is stunning. This truly is a remarkable film.

First Man is a movie to see in full IMAX because in that first scene after Neil and Buzz open the hatch, the whole screen suddenly blurts alive filling the whole IMAX screen, the sound goes away, and for a couple of seconds you can convince yourself that this is what it would have looked and sounded like.

What a debut film it is. She gets just the right amount of tension and angst out of these four actors in a way that still makes it believable they might all still be friends or want to hang out together in the first place. It’s a movie about agendas.

Samberg and Milioti are great together.