Its story of three couples working at the same British agency turns all the right screws with impeccable timing, forcing its characters to examine the flaws in their relationships as its tale of state secrets gradually unravels.

The glass slipper, the Fairy Godmother, Jaq and Gus - Cinderella is a parade of majestic moments.

With a coming-of-age story that is universal in its portrayal of misunderstood artists and broken homes, but hyper-specific in its portrayal of the childhood that formed a legendary filmmaker, this is a therapy session turned into a hugely entertaining movie, aided by a fantastic cast, and one of John Williams' best scores in years.

The themes of hope and positivity introduced are a welcome change for the franchise, and help give a sense of closure for the characters we’ve come to know and love. A sometimes inscrutable final act overflowing with extremely busy visuals and a never-ending barrage of new in-universe terms is the only major gripe in an otherwise satisfying and life-affirming finale to this beloved series.

It's a strange, hypnotic, completely fresh vision, not of the future per se, but into Terry Gilliam's own mind.

It’s a joyful, uplifting ode to tokusatsu and to superhero tales, and well worth a watch no matter your level of familiarity with the character.

Driven by its performances, and smuggling revolutionary politics into “award season” prestige, Judas and the Black Messiah makes for a powerful (if at times dramatically rickety) retelling of a violent chapter of US history.

The respective performances of DiCaprio and Pitt and the film’s meticulous attention to period detail are all great and keep you invested in where this cruise around Tinseltown will ultimately take you.

Ryan Coogler enters the horror realm and nails it in Sinners, which drops vampires into a deeply personal, heartfelt, emotional, sexy, and bloody story that’ll stick with you.

The cast is pitch-perfect, scoring big laughs, heart swells, and even tears. Feldstein and Dever are a phenomenal comedy duo; Lourd is a stellar standout. And Wilde crushed it right out the gate.

A timely, powerful piece about the slow road to progress, and the nuances of fighting broken systems from within.

Pixar Animation delivers another hilarious yet also deeply moving chapter in their blockbuster franchise.

In the Heights moves smoothly between cinematic realism and the magic of the stage, in a defiant musical about what it means to belong, and what it means to be remembered. It is one of the most moving and joyful films this year.

Hamnet is not without a few flaws, but it ultimately comes together as a strong dramatic showing for director Chloé Zhao. Anchored by a fantastic performance from Jessie Buckley, Hamnet simultaneously works as a family drama and as an exploration of how personal experience manifests in artistic expression.

The Vast of Night is a minimal marvel, drawing out fear and anticipation with not much more than a cunning script, stirring performances from its young stars, and the starkness of the dark skies above them. Within it you'll find a Spielbergian love for sci-fi peppered with a twisted appreciation for negative space and the unknown.

This is a film about pain, and it forces the audience to live in and work through that pain. And it’s absolutely worth the effort. By the end it’s a transformative experience.

Widows is so severe and reserved a picture that it never quite works as a thriller, but it’s so mired in conventional thriller storytelling that it never completely works as a serious drama either. But there’s no denying the power of that cast and the particular vision of McQueen, who turns Widows into something truly distinctive… if not necessarily effective.

The Bad News Bears isn't the greatest film ever made, but it's definitely better than its two sequels and worth its cult classic status.

A stunning cinematic achievement that celebrates one of humanity’s biggest triumphs (and mourns the tragedies that happened leading up to it), yet it never loses sight of its personal and small-scale story about a man going to work.

Stalag 17 is a black comedy before the term black comedy was coined.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the quintessential Star Wars movie. It embraces everything in the franchise that came before while taking big risks to push the story into new and unexpected places.

While Soul offers food for thought and has heart, it’s never quite as funny, engrossing, or emotionally rewarding as Pixar’s best.

Sing Sing gathers a collection of heartfelt, nuanced performances in an unmissable drama about the life-altering effects of a real-life rehabilitation-through-theater program at the titular prison.

A story of magical transformation as a metaphor for personal and cultural change, Turning Red (from Bao director Domee Shi) is Pixar’s funniest and most imaginative film in years. It captures the wild energy of adolescence, uses pop stars as a timeless window into puberty, and tells a tale of friendship and family in the most delightfully kid-friendly way.

It's a melting pot of experiences from comical to romantic to thrilling to richly ruminative. Everything flows together gracefully in step through a delicate and beautiful dance that speaks to the ever-changing beast that is New York City.

While it doesn’t hit the dizzying heights of The Witch, Robert Eggers' new film is a powerful psychological thriller.

A passionate, well-intentioned deviation in style, Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Evil Does Not Exist doesn’t quite hit the mark with its meditations on nature. However, in its best moments, it’s another entrancing dramatic piece from the Japanese maestro, whose strengths lie less in observing natural environments, and more in observing people’s nature.

Obsession should and will put Barker on the map as a horror filmmaker you need to watch. Thanks to fantastic turns by Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette, you'll be addicted to this sour Valentine's Day counterprogramming.

If you want plot and thespian displays, well, look elsewhere. For action, you can't top this film.

Kemp Powers' thoughtful script gives us an insight into what might have been going on behind the sports and entertainment performances that awed us, and in doing so urges us to look at what's still going on now. Director Regina King's cast delivers some of the best performances of the year, unveiling the hidden pain of public figures. Through a keen focus and confident flow, she unfurls their struggles in a poignant display to show how they live on today.

Belle is a gorgeously animated, futuristic interpretation of Beauty and the Beast that combines dazzling song and eye-popping visuals for a well-meaning yet meandering modern fairy tale. Unfortunately, its heartfelt message is muddled by perplexing plot holes, occasionally grating characters, and a bloated runtime.

One of Spike Lee’s best movies. With a dynamite cast, sharp script and pointed humor that underscores real-life, disturbing horrors, it’s an entertaining crime drama that amuses and shocks and invites the audience into a complex and impassioned conversation about the power of racism - and the moving image - to influence our lives.

Using familiar characters to tell a new story with fresh gags and supreme animation, Vengeance Most Fowl stands shoulder to shoulder with some of Aardman’s best work.

Visually lush and emotionally affecting, Janet Planet marks playwright Annie Baker’s bold transition to the big screen.

Vastly entertaining, but like Porco aiming for the ethereal stream of planes above the clouds, never quite reaching its profound goals.

Steven Spielberg tells an intimate story through extravagant storytelling, giving audiences an intensely relevant historical drama, and giving Meryl Streep one of her most nuanced roles in years.

Despite the fantastic basis of the story, the movie isn't dominated by its effects, or even the eight-foot-tall robot Gort. It's really just about an alien visitor trying to convince us to try and get along in an age where the nuclear threat is very real.

Redford offers just the right amounts of arrogance and innocence to make Hooker a believable hustler but half-hearted scoundrel.

Saint Maud is an impeccably crafted, deeply unsettling, and wickedly engrossing religious horror film.

It plays into the dystopian fantasy of being able to reinvent yourself in a lawless world, delivering a clever tale about what it takes for someone who's not a part of existence to want to reengage with life.

A film with sights and sounds you’ve never seen or heard, it’s an intriguing watch with catchy, energetic numbers, even if it doesn’t always land emotionally.

With a tour de force performance by Glen Powell and a sharp script, Hit Man delivers the kind of intense romance sorely lacking in sexless Hollywood movies. It’s a fascinating character study that, though directed by Richard Linklater, gives off the vibes of a chaotic, dark crime comedy from the Coen brothers. Come for Powell's ascendance to superstardom, stay for one of the funniest and most entertaining movies of the year.

In its portrait of a perennially prickly novelist (Thomas Schubert), it gets at tough and sometimes funny truths about the nature of writers.

War for the Planet of the Apes is an excellent closing act to this rebooted trilogy, but also one that does enough world-building that the series can potentially continue from here – and it’s a rare case where, after three movies, we’re left wanting more.

Less of a straight-up horror movie and more creeping dread, You Won’t Be Alone explores the spectrum of human emotion with an otherworldly curiosity. Perhaps it takes someone on the fringes of society to find out what it really means to be human.

This is an irreplicable experience that speaks volumes about following your dreams despite the challenges that await. The reward will always be worthwhile, even if it’s just about the friends you make and NPC cops you massacre along the way.

It'll probably remind you of Jurassic Park mixed with Cloverfield, plus a dash of Aliens and a pinch of Buffy's "Hush," but between its unique approach and gleeful desire to shock you, you can't really be mad at it.

Writer-director Mike Mills gets the very best from Joaquin Phoenix by pairing him with the young Woody Norman. Their pitch-perfect chemistry enlivens this quiet road drama about the perspectives of our youth with emotionality that won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

This is easily one of Bava's crowning achievements as a filmmaker and one of the greatest horror anthologies ever filmed.

The central plot is a devious one that pulls the rug out from under the audience on multiple occasions; no mean feat in a genre where every variation and outcome would seem to have been tried and tested. But what really sets Knives Out apart from the competition is its humor.

A film that volleys back and forth in time, Luca Guadagnino's Challengers builds the relationships between its leading tennis trio in exciting and exacting ways. Enhanced by layered physical performances from Mike Faist, Zendaya, and Josh O'Connor, the result is one of the sexiest and most electric dramas of 2024.

Pig subverts the expectations of the average revenge-thriller and accentuates the deep emotional scars that often underscore these stories. It features a measured, meticulous performance from Nicolas Cage.

Alexander Payne finds deft balance with The Holdovers, in which every glance and verbal exchange may as well be set up for something equally hilarious and touching.

Benefitting from a strong story held together by a solid ensemble, Da 5 Bloods works as a caper, it works as a drama, and it works as a searing commentary on our current cultural moment.

One of Wes Anderson’s best movies, an imaginative and amusing travelogue through incredible settings, populated by wonderful characters, with a lot of heart and even a little insight. You can feel the love radiating off of this movie, like a hug from your own beloved pet.

Derek DelGaudio's In and Of Itself is a beautiful, powerful performance that employs art, illusion, storytelling, and its own audience to explore aspects of identity, isolation, and our own desperate drive to figure out who we are as individuals. There's nothing quite like it, which, as goes the uniqueness of humanity, is the point.

With a nuanced perspective and eye for detail, director Hiroyasu Ishida has swept the floor with a debut that hits all the sweet spots of a coming-of-age story, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store from him and Colorido in the future.

The Long Good Friday is arguably the best British gangster film ever made due to its politically-charged story and the performances of Bob Hoskins and Hellen Mirren.

It organically expands and grows what came before. It’s a deep, rich, smart film that’s visually awesome and full of great sci-fi concepts, and one that was well worth the 35-year wait.

Weapons is a righteous, fully actualized genre-bender in which writer-director Zach Cregger hones Barbarian’s blend of unbearable tension and dark humor to a new level of razor-sharpness.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a complex film that encompasses a variety of subjects, but it does justice to each of them with a carefully written script, marvelous performances, and a healthy dose of bizarre humor to counter its bleak story. Michelle Yeoh in particular gives a powerhouse performance in a story that puts a fresh, welcome spin on the idea of the multiverse.

A rousing, spectacle-filled blockbuster, Godzilla: Minus One takes the king of the monsters back to his roots in post-WWII Japan. The story is character-driven, but the monster scenes are exciting and effective.

Coco wonderfully explores familial themes, identity, and learning what it means to grow up in a world that isn’t perfect.

A pleasant surprise that both undermines and elevates typical revenge sagas, Riders of Justice is a unique blend that charms and captivates.

Us is a very, very strange film. But that’s OK because it wouldn’t be a Jordan Peele joint if there wasn’t a little risk involved. Peele has proven that he’s not a one-hit-wonder with this truly terrifying, poignant look at one American family that goes through hell at the hands of maniacal doppelgangers.

The film has a stirring emotional honesty, and an impressive intelligence about its subject matter. It’s a film that may one day be required viewing for adolescents, and it might just change them the way that these events change its protagonist.

I Lost My Body stands as one of the year's best and most profound pieces of animation.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a bigger, bolder, funnier, angrier sequel that improves on almost every aspect of its predecessor.

Whatever lies in store for the future of Mission: Impossible, McQuarrie’s third outing as director proves that he still has an ingenious bag of tricks to pull from, having departed from the gloom and doom of Fallout to create an explosive yet self-reflexive action saga that leaves you wanting more.

For those who enjoy indulging in an exciting, moody, stylized cop drama molded from the best of templates and carved out of '80s pop art, To Live and Die in LA is a truly great way to spend an evening.

Ford v Ferrari is well acted and shot, but the story doesn’t engage, making James Mangold’s latest effort something of a slog.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a ridiculous, riotous, and relevant adventure fill with great humor and winning sentiment.

The horrors of childbirth become entangled in a demonic subplot as Huesera fits neatly into the list of chilling pregnancy horror tales, but doesn’t add much new to it.

There’s a wit and humor at play in The Bone Temple that elevates, in all the right ways, the dramatic stakes of a zombie apocalypse working on its third decade, especially in Ralph Fiennes’ record collection.

Wake Up Dead Man is a solid third entry for Benoit Blanc, finally delivering the classic-style mystery the series has sorely needed.

An intoxicating historical musical about faith, led by career-best work from Amanda Seyfried.

While its gnarly payoffs eventually peter out, X is filled with fun and intense setups that harken back to classic slasher fare.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On suffers from an aimless plot that feels stretched too thin, but it provides one of the most endearing and adorable animated characters since Paddington Bear. It delivers enough heart, laughs, and innocence to forgive its shortcomings.

Kelly Reichardt’s heist movie The Mastermind is crackingly, urgently alive, an assured and magnificent addition to an already storied body of work.

Brad Bird’s strong script and direction elevate this animated adventure to new heights. Instead of trying to copy or parody the superhero films of the past 14 years, Incredibles 2 embraces what made its first outing so memorable: The Parr family and their willingness to work together in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Ad Astra is grand but, rather frustratingly, it's not great. James Gray’s film is a most impressive technical achievement, and the first half is exciting and flirts with profundity. The second half, however, slows to a maddeningly sluggish pace, and the film ultimate leaves you worn out and disengaged.

A Hidden Life is both inspiring and heartbreaking, and the result is Terrence Malick’s best film in nearly a decade.

Noah Baumbach succeeds in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) in fine fashion, delicately balancing serious issues with lighthearted moments – it is a movie that is equally adept at making the audience cry as it is with making them laugh.

Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel deliver two brilliant, diametrically opposed performances in Steven Soderbergh’s gentle art world caper.

Without Cagney, this movie would still be memorable, but probably only as a minor footnote to the better gangster films to come. With Cagney's smart acting, this movie is a decent watch.

Though it's hard to recommend this film to people without at least a passing interest in folk horror or folklore, those who stick with Woodlands Dark will find an expansive, practical, entertaining history lesson in a popular yet ill-defined subgenre of horror and come out the other side with a newfound appreciation for it.

A masterful exploration of femininity and the pressures of perfection.

Tilda Swinton serves up an emotionally invigorating double turn in Joanna Hogg’s moving biographical relationship drama, laced with heart and wit through an atmospheric, Gothic lens.

This grim, acclaimed Chilean Western will dazzle your eyes, even as it crushes your spirit with its true story of genocide.

While Bertrand Bonnello’s film is a timely, somewhat satirical send-up of dystopian futures and past traumas, The Beast doesn’t quite measure up to its heavy portents of doom.

Personable, emotional, and packed with humor, this film – and the spirit of Rogers – holds on to your heart and refuses to let go.

Phil Tippett’s Mad God unleashes decades of pent-up creative darkness into a trippy and troubling ride with astonishing craftsmanship, but little substance.

The Old Man & the Gun is a fitting swan song to screen legend Robert Redford.

Linoleum is a heartfelt story about making every day seem like something fantastic.

The reclamation project known as Mank falls short. Even with showy performances from Oldman and Seyfried, and its beautiful craft, the film lacks heart. Because underneath the wisecracks and drunken debauchery, in the face of a sweeping political narrative, there’s scarcely an impression of the man.

Annihilation isn’t always as consistently well-executed or involving as it might have been, and it’s told in a manner that robs the story of some much needed life-or-death suspense, but overall it’s a bold undertaking that doesn’t play it safe and features some strong performances.

Much of the film's success is thanks to the delightfully enigmatic cast, and a sharp script that allows for the perfect balance of story and irreverent silliness. There's not a weak link in this cast.

Clocking in at nearly two hours, Peter Strickland’s sound-and-food odyssey Flux Gourmet is only ever alluring when its made-up artform (“sonic catering”) is front and center during surreal vignettes. Otherwise, it falls back on rote observations and explanations about what compels its characters to create — a far less engaging experience than actually witnessing that creation.