It will lift up and squeeze your heart, crack you up with laughter, and give you a sense of hope and wonder in a way that few movies have been able to inspire. Lord & Miller have created something truly magical, and we'll be talking about this one for decades to come.

Sanders' ability to interpret the material on the page and turn it into this living painting of a film is nothing shy of a wonder.

I can’t remember the last time a film shook me like this.

It's impossible to describe. It's unlike anything you've ever seen. It's the best American movie in years, and certainly the best movie to hit theaters since the pandemic began.

The enormity of this film intimidates me. And it hypnotizes me, and seduces me, and captures me until it feels as if the green has grown like moss over my entire body. But rather than threatening to choke, The Green Knight injects a new source of oxygen into the sword-and-sorcery genre.

It's the perfect blend of haunt and humor, and no matter how many years go by, it keeps us laughing — and screaming.

This film frequently feels like a powder keg ready to go off...And yet, Anderson also keeps the film consistently fun and funny. Nearly everything DiCaprio is doing here is hilarious.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a spellbinding piece of filmmaking, an acting masterclass, a celebration of the written word, and a powerful cinematic plea for self-acceptance and self-love.

Traditionally, films that are this delightfully raucous, bloody (and I mean BLOODY), and silly are relegated to B-movie schlock (not a bad thing, for the record), but "Abigail" still embraces the excessive and ornate gothic aesthetics of classic horror movies. The result is an old-school vampire movie with modern frisk and flair and an absolute blast of a movie to watch with a crowd.

For all its heartbreak, for all its pain, Nickel Boys is a staggeringly beautiful film. You don't simply watch it; you experience it. This is a major work of art, and we are lucky to have it.

There are certain movies that grab you from the jump, and Train Dreams is one of them — as the film began its journey, I felt instantly connected to it; engrossed, near hypnotized. I didn't want it to end.

As visually overwhelming and artfully engineered a film as The French Dispatch is, it's also one of secret warmth lurking beneath the surface.

After it's over, you won't soon forget what you've seen and heard. Even if you try, it'll come back — whether in your fantasies, your nightmares, or both.

I don't want to get too hyperbolic here, but watching "Licorice Pizza" reminded me why I love movies so much; particularly the way they can drop us into another place and another time, and embed us completely into the lives of total strangers. If Licorice Pizza had stretched on for another hour, I would've been perfectly content to go along.

This is unquestionably the best performance of Timothée Chalamet's career, and Marty Supreme is one of the best movies of the year. I can't wait to watch it again.

Watching The Brutalist has the feeling of reading a great, sprawling work of literature; as you near the final pages, you're both thrilled at having made it through the journey while also wishing there were just a few pages more.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is a triumph of genre filmmaking, proof that sci-fi/action can be both deliriously daring and thoroughly thrilling. At this point, I can't wait to go back to Pandora.

The Coffee Table is one of the most unique experiences you can have in a movie, a torturous dark comedy with a fantastic ensemble, a great eye for visuals that maximize the emotional gut punch, and a script that ties you down to a chair as you go through the nine circles of hell, laughing like a maniac along the way.

Not only does it stand on its own as a masterful action-adventure blockbuster, but it also exemplifies Miller's thesis as a whole: that survival "in extremis" reveals the true essence of a person. "Fury Road" is an even better movie because of "Furiosa," and George Miller has gifted the world with his magnum opus. Witness him.

Glazer's first feature film in ten years is a sick, bleak, and absolutely vital reimagining of the Holocaust drama, one that finds a new way — and possibly a more effective way — to put an important spotlight on the face of atrocities.

While Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui's documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story recounts Reeve's journey with appropriate tenderness, it isn't a hagiography. It consistently reminds audiences that this was a real human being, and not actually a savior from another star.

Eighty years on, The Wizard of Oz still stands as an icon of craft and the power of movies. For me, the moment that still amazes the most is one of the simplest: when Dorothy walks out of her displaced house and into Oz, from sepia to Technicolor.

It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others.

Benediction" is true to its title, offering up a blessing — not to the Church, rather, but to those whose lives were never able to be lived to the fullest. The film is more than a beautifully performed, masterfully directed piece of entertainment. It transcends, offering hope to any person yearning for more. It is in equal turns lively, devastating, funny, hopeful, and heartbreaking.

Oldroyd lulled me into a false sense of expectation and then dropped a bomb into his movie that completely shifted the ground under my feet. I can't remember the last time I was so energized by a surprise.

Spielberg's West Side Story is a knock-out. A dynamite blend of old-school musical showmanship and modern sensibilities. It's one of the best movies of the year, and one of the best movies of the acclaimed filmmaker's career. Yes, really.

In what might be his magnum opus, Nolan has meticulously crafted a biopic that feels like a thriller.

The layered dynamics and pure, honest emotions underneath Luca‘s simple coming-of-age story are what elevate the film to one of Pixar’s best — and an example of what animation can be if they stop trying to race forward, and just stop and take a breath.

With Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos meets every challenge with aplomb. Nearly every single second feels perfectly calibrated in tone, theme, character, and scope.

Within The Banshees of Inisherin, McDonagh manages to capture both the elemental resonance of folklore with the sophisticated weightiness of classic stage drama. This tragicomic tale nimbly balances both the personal and political dimensions of his richly developed characters and scenarios.

This bleak and profound meditation on diminishing faculties results in a shattering work of cinema. I was left shaking with the results, drawn in completely to the film’s shifts in tone and character, anchored throughout by Hopkin’s impeccable performance.

Coen shows an understanding of Shakespeare's original play as well as a willingness to go beyond it. His "Tragedy of Macbeth" leans into the staginess of the story, while tapping into the surreal nightmare of the whole thing. It's nothing short of magnificent.

Saint Omer is an intelligent, absorbing drama that had me under its intoxicating spell.

The Holdovers is proof that we need more thoughtful, studied, loving, and irresistible human stories on screen. It certainly helps, however, when Alexander Payne is at the helm.

It’s a beautiful, strange terrarium of a film, inviting us to gaze through the glass and wonder what’s going on underneath. Just as funny and creepy as it needs to be, the film is Kaufman at the top of his game, firing on all cylinders. A master of his own unique, unclassifiable craft.

Blaze is bold, striking, visionary cinema that makes for an astonishing debut. Its magnificent blend of puppetry, animation, and visual effects allows it to stand out from the crowd, but it also allows for an impressive interrogation of the human mind, delivered with tremendous empathy.

Here is a film that, like its source material, treats its characters with care and tenderness, establishing an instant and unbreakable bond with the audience that hits home in scene after scene.

Audacious, heartfelt, and uproariously funny, Hoppers has all the makings of an instant classic for Pixar.

For a debut to be this assured, and for a script to so deftly dance around the obvious challenges and result in a film that’s delightfully, darkly comedic, The Unknown Saint shows that despite all the obvious ways in which this work could have gone horribly, risibly wrong in these rare cases miracles can come true.

Dick Johnson is Dead is both a poetic act of defiance and a portrait of love at the end of a life.

Petite Maman is richer in its simplicity; a lovely slice-of-life tale that knows that loss is so enormous and monumental that we can only linger with it for brief moments.

Though there are certainly moments that will pull at your heartstrings, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is more uplifting than sad, and it's also quite funny thanks to Fox's natural charm and the wealth of comedy from his on-screen career.

Joy Ride is the big, broad, studio comedy to beat this year, an incredible directorial debut with one of the funniest scripts in a while, and a cast that should get all the praise in the world because they just became the dynamic quartet to watch.

Feels Good Man is, in some sense, a horror movie about the legacy of images, the ownership of images by their creators, and the lives they take on outside of the artists who make them. In particular, it’s a horror story about the life of one particular image: Pepe.

I'm not saying all movies need to feel this effortless, and deliver such big emotions wrapped in such thoughtful complexity. But I am saying movies like this remind me why I like movies so much in the first place.

There's a big beating heart at the center of the movie that keeps you close to the ground and makes it an absolute triumph of twisted humor and love.

Every aspect of the production is nearly flawless, from the production design to direction to the performances, and it all builds to an absolutely perfect ending that's hinted at from the very beginning. If you're looking to get your heart rate up and your mind racing, there are few better ways to spend an afternoon inside than by checking out Windfall on Netflix.

It manages in a concise and remarkable way to illustrate not only the ravages of this new virus but how its effects continue to resonate no matter the political forces looking to downplay its risks.

Pound for pound, segment for segment, death for death, this is everything we could possibly want from a horror anthology.

This is a story of unlikely triumph. An uplifting coming-of-age tale about embracing whatever it is that makes you different from others, an example of how people can flourish past their inhibitions to thrive and shine when their talents are met with a nurturing environment. It’s a much needed serotonin boost that will have you grinning from start to finish.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a big kiss of a movie, one so genuinely loving that it's hard not to swoon.

It's What's Inside is one of the funniest, most clever, and narratively ambitious movies I've seen in a long while.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is easily the funniest movie of 2020. That’s not exactly difficult in a year when there are barely any new comedies to challenge it for the title, but even in a year with stacked comedies, I’m confident this sequel would undeniably come out on top of the pack.

Through a phenomenal performance, chilling atmosphere and a terrific script, Spiral builds an experience that is as terrifying as it is depressingly timely.

Jazzy can be called many things — a slice-of-life rumination on the things we take for granted, a coming-of-age marvel — but, at its core, it's the simplest and most childlike of statements that echo far beyond the movie's pitch-perfect ending.

Tabsch and Constantini’s documentary is a reminder to thank the people in our lives who believe in us.

This is a great time at the movies, the kind of dark comedy that plays to the crowd and the kind of pseudo-thriller that keeps you guessing as each poor decision made by its lead character introduces a new wrinkle in the ongoing spiral of drama and recklessness.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth encapsulates one woman’s blossoming from a reserved drone into a willing participant with Maeda’s subtle dynamism from a perpetually placid and pouty countenance to a focused visage.

Overall, I wouldn't say Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a "dark" movie so much as it is a challenging one — refreshingly so, with knotty, complex questions and real peril.

The best and most profound parts of Moonage Daydream are when we just get to hear Bowie share great quotes about his creative process, how he loved to challenge himself by traveling to unknown places to grow as an artist, and how he learned to embrace life and be curious about everything.

The most impressive feat Black Phone 2 pulls off is finding a way to bring The Grabber back that feels coherent and actually adds to the character. We get some backstory on the child-abductor that comes across as deepening the character rather than just answering questions that no one asked.

Rather than portray its characters as glorious heroes bravely fighting for their country, or even ending the film on an optimistic note, "All Quiet on the Western Front" is tragic from beginning to end, and is relentlessly, almost unbearably, bleak. That's the point. It's the ultimate anti-war war film.

An effective blend of lyrical impressionism and controlled precision, After Yang is another quietly impressive effort from Kogonada.

A powerful and important look behind the curtain, Beyond Utopia is one hell of a cinematic nail-biter and a stark reminder of the human rights violations being committed every day in 2023.

Transformers One is the breath of fresh air the franchise has tried to achieve for years, a movie that feels new and unique but also familiar and fitting with the rest of the franchise.

By its nature as a silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc shows how unnecessary some dialogue is.

Our Time Machine might deploy too many endings, but each epilogue feels precious as if it is snatching as much time as it could with its subjects.

Waititi’s World War II satire is both a magic trick and a high-wire act – the filmmaker keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat while balancing comedy, kindness, and often shocking darkness. The end result is a heartfelt, sweet, blackly comedic coming-of-age journey that tries to find hope in hopeless times.

Even if its archetypes might feel overly familiar, the formula works for a reason, and when anything is executed with such pure-hearted joy and affection for its characters, you can't help but smile.

Fancy Dance has excellent performances, elevated by the script's deft composition. There's a remarkable nuance at play in this story of womanhood, parenthood, sexuality, community, and coming of age. It all feels so real and authentic.

Thirteen Lives is a film that truly orients itself around a grounded cinematic approach to story, one largely told without big, grandstanding emotional speeches but instead focused on visually capturing subjectivity, demonstrating tension, and highlighting the life-or-death weight of the characters' choices.utm_campaign=clip

Once again, Benson and Moorhead prove that they can produce a stellar, original film with a tiny fraction of the budget of bigger Hollywood filmmakers. The movie landscape is a far better, weird, and beautiful place with them in it.

Make no mistake about it, The Dark and the Wicked is by far the scariest movie at the Fantasia Film Festival, and its due in large part to Ireland’s neurotic catatonia. You find yourself holding your breath, waiting to see what spine-chilling event hovers just ahead, hiding behind a dark corner.

Three Thousand Years of Longing tells a fantastic and poignant story about storytelling, longing, and love. It's about the art of telling smaller, intimate stories at a time when big stories seem to only be valid. A fairy tale with more in common with "Babe" than "Mad Max," this movie reaffirms George Miller as one of the great magicians of cinema working today.

Lindy doesn't just make a fun genre mash-up of a film, blending together comedy, fantasy, romance, horror, and musical theatre, but uses the movie's genre elements to tell a subversively wicked story of suppressed emotions, and what can result when those feelings aren't kept behind a closet door.

If more world-building, bigger action, and a deeper embrace of what its leading man does well all perk up your ears, you know what you need to know. As someone who has been in the tank for these movies for nearly a decade now, the fourth film is everything I wanted out of these movies. Yeah, I'm thinking he's back.

Part Brian De Palma flick, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, part Dracula, and part Stepford Wives, Bad Hair filters its influences through Simien’s hyper-specific passions and unique sensibilities to become a singular horror comedy from a singular filmmaker.

Crimes of the Future is Cronenberg in his comfort zone, which is a zone choked with things both repulsive and fascinating. It's not quite as nasty as its pre-release reputation suggests, nor is it even the most graphic film Cronenberg has directed. But it's rife with the filmmaker's signatures and quirks; his fetishes and his dreams; his obsessions and his amusements.

This is a truly beautiful film. But these visuals wouldn't be nearly as effective if del Toro had neglected the emotional heft of the story. Thankfully, he has Elordi to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

On paper, this movie should not work, but what we got was an instant classic that is eminently rewatchable and assembled one of the best funny casts ever. The energy levels of the movie are off the charts, keeping it wildly entertaining even in today's short attention span world.

Is God Is is an amazing piece of work. One of those "bolt from the blue" movies that is coming from a new artist with a new voice that audiences and critics alike will look forward to hearing again. This is Harris' first feature film, and I am eager to see more.

It can at times feel sentimental and mawkish — an inevitability of adapting the classic story — but no other film in 2019 has conveyed as much ineffable joy, or been such a testament to the human spirit.

As the narrative unfolded in lickety-split fashion, I found myself totally charmed and a little dizzy. Anderson uses almost all of Dahl's prose here, and while that could've backfired, or even resulted in bloat, the filmmaker keeps the proceedings brisk and snappy, relying on Dahl's inherent dry humor to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

It's a heartbreaking, but clear-eyed look at the last gasp of a dying industry, and a man whose whole identity, whole livelihood gets shattered by a force beyond his comprehension.

A wonderful mixture of bad vibes and macabre fun, Weapons is one of the best horror movies of the year, and further confirmation that writer-director Zach Cregger is one of the most exciting voices in the genre right now.

The biggest strengths of the film are its sharp script and phenomenal lead actors, both of whom give committed performances which vacillate between ruthless pragmatism and explosive emotionality.

Reality is an immensely nerve-wracking film that grips you from the get-go and never lets up. Like Reality Winner, we're all stuck in that dirty, empty room, wondering when we'll get out, and worrying about what will happen next. 

Kill is a near-perfect action thriller that's stuck in overdrive.

At first blush, Mank isn’t your typical David Fincher flick. Yes, it’s gorgeously mounted and meticulously crafted. But it doesn’t feel like Fincher’s other movies. And yet, when you look closer…it does. Because like all great Fincher films, Mank is about obsession. The obsession with getting something right. The obsession with creating good art. The obsessions with being remembered long after the whole world has faded to black.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a world that I wouldn't mind living in. Even if there are occasional, ineffable cosmic deities plotting to devour me, and terrifying silver aliens ripping my soul apart with their eyes. "First Steps" is a superhero movie where we're already better. And I love that.

The Substance has an impossible-to-miss message about the struggles of women, especially women on constant display in an industry that thrives on rigid beauty standards. But it's also a delightfully farcical romp; an exhilarating, shocking freak show with an absurdist heart. It's the type of movie you won't forget.

Fire of Love is a riveting portrait of a charismatic couple who lived life on the edge.

Once Upon a Time in Uganda is the perfect representation of the enduring spirit of independent cinema, our love for movies, and how they bring the world together.

In Asghar Farhadi's fascinating, complex A Hero, nothing is simple. And no good deed goes unpunished — if it was even a "good deed" to begin with.

Like any given episode of "SNL," Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" is not perfect; there are highs and lows, and the cast just might be too big to adequately hit all the finer points in a satisfying way. But the outcome is an ultimately satisfying showbiz romp with equal parts comedy and drama that is full of effervescent life, outstanding performances, and a wealth of laugh-out-loud moments.

The Outwaters is an immersive hellmouth waiting to, quite literally, swallow us up and spit us back out into the landscape more horrified of what the universe is capable of than ever before — and trust me, you don't stand a chance against what it has in store for you.

Do we really need yet another "Batman" reboot? The answer, after watching Matt Reeves' tremendous The Batman, is apparently a resounding yes.

The Disappearance of Shere Hite, in its thoughtful compilations and equally important talking heads, should be required viewing for every self-described feminist as we strive for a more sexually-inclusive world. Without it, Hite's hopes for a truly equal world might have been for nothing.