Every typical category of film analysis – the performances, the cinematography, the score, the wit, so on and so forth – needn’t be labeled as anything less than great.

12 Years A Slave will beat you down emotionally, scene after scene, without any mercy - but that's just a testament to the brilliant direction, transformation-like performances, and unapologetic storytelling that elevates Steve McQueen's movie high above the masses.

It’s a movie where even seasoned cinemagoers who feel like or claim to have seen everything are likely to marvel at how director Kenneth Lonergan was able to achieve something new, interesting, painful, hilarious, or beautiful, or some combination of all these things, in every single scene. It’s the type of movie that makes a person reach for the nearest hyperbole to describe it.

By combining her nostalgic take on formative family holidays with an unflinching portrait of conflicting personal identity, Aftersun intentionally delivers an emotional sucker punch few will soon forget.

With tighter scripting, this’d be a masterpiece. As is? Christopher Nolan has produced a damn-fine picture that goes against most of what his catalog has become renowned for in a good, streamlined way.

The Irishman is delicately handled by experienced, especially-inspired makers. It’s simply the kind of film that isn’t made too often anymore; and it’s one of the best this year has to offer.

Delightful, inventive and deeply affecting, Inside Out embodies the very best of what Pixar has to offer.

La La Land feels like a throwback and also like something we've never seen before, resulting in a dreamy musical that hits just about every note.

With a perfect balance of heart and humor, Toni Erdmann transcends its clichéd premise, becoming one of the most tragic comedies of the decade so far.

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is a graphic yet gorgeous masterpiece about the Vietnam War. It's also perhaps the best movie ever made about the horrors of war.

Propulsive, beautiful and tense as hell, Tower is superior documentary filmmaking.

Hayao Miyazaki's 12th and possibly final feature film could not be more relevant as a call to action, bravery, and the unrelenting hope of childhood.

Unsentimental, brutally honest, and staggeringly complex in its execution, intelligent cinema like this is a rarity.

Slow, low-key and often beautifully observed, Blue Is the Warmest Colour won't blow your mind, but it will charm your socks off.

The true test of 'Oppenheimer' is whether Nolan can maintain his typically mammoth vision with a narrative that mostly comprises white men talking in small rooms. Like his protagonist, the writer/director succeeds in a grand and unexpectedly horrifying fashion.

Paterson, led by Adam Driver's skillfully restrained performance, is a brazing social commentary culminating in a harsh, yet beautiful truth.

It's hard not to anticipate many of Verhoeven's moves, but Isabella Huppert is too good to ignore in Elle.

Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is an expertly made thriller with fluid camera work, dark humor and enough cliff-hanging build up to keep you biting your nails until there's nothing left. Easily one of Hitch's most underrated films.

Intellectually vibrant and emotionally complex, Things To Come is a luminous film drawn along by Huppert’s central performance and Hansen-Løve’s delicate script.

In spite of a momentous directorial debut and performance from Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga leaves the lasting impression in A Star Is Born, a beautiful production perfectly suited to re-release the superstar as a top-tier performer; she is nothing short of astounding.

Part of Hamilton’s brilliance is this reclamation of U.S. history.

Pulpy, old-fashioned Western action and terrific performances make Hell or High Water one of the most satisfying releases of the summer.

Black Panther proves how representation can rejuvenate even the oldest superhero origin arcs, allowing Marvel a victory that still feels every bit a Ryan Coogler film.

Led by a fantastic Michael Keaton, Birdman is a deeply thoughtful and darkly hilarious meta dissection of egotism that satirizes the entertainment business with a compelling visual style that is all its own.

A rebirth for both actor and director, Pain and Glory sees Banderas and Almodóvar at the peak of their electric, heart-wrenching capabilities.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is cocked, locked and ready to blow you away with more than just Henry Cavill's forearms.

In Martin McDonagh's morbidly hilarious meditation on male friendship, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson turn in performances every bit as powerful as in 'In Bruges' and paint a heartbreaking but comic look at one happens when one man doesn't want to be friends with another anymore.

Prepare to be turned-ghost pale by horrors of the mind, body and soul, unlike you’ve experienced in quite some time.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a celebration of limitless creativity that honors comic book runs of the same freeing mentality.

This is acting at its purest, designed to communicate and enlighten an audience in search of answers. Either through visual and verbal dexterity, or blood-curdling physicality and audible androgyny, this play still has much to teach people about the power of cinema.

Renaissance is not a concert film, it's an artifact and a time capsule of Beyoncé at "f***ing forty-two". Its every frame a reminder that although fleeting, greatness is also immortal.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse travels worlds to upend its own status quo, spinning a truly unique and sometimes devastating narrative that finally matches its visual ambitions.

This is a movie about life. Bigger than love. Bigger than hope. Bigger than anything. Just life, and all its attempts to wear you down – and how you’ll never let it.

Baby Driver proves why we should never doubt Edgar Wright's vision, because few filmmakers can back their ambition with such quality thrills.

Pivoting gut-punching drama and whip-smart comedy around a career-best turn from Kieran Culkin, 'A Real Pain' is a real treat of the highest caliber.

Despite sliding into melodrama a bit too often, From Here to Eternity remains a decent film due to the strong performances of its Oscar-nominated cast.

Get Out marries racial satire with a terrifying finale, one that tears down blinders that some may have kept conveniently in place. Don’t listen to those who say horror movies are defined by physical scares. Plots based on real-life fears typically make for the most horrifying scenarios.

Just like the star-crossed lovers at its center, this West Side Story risks it all, and the result is an explosive reminder that life and love are both gifts worth celebrating, for we never really know how long we have to enjoy either one.

Equal parts eye-and-ear candy and carbs for the soul, 'The Wild Robot' is animation's finest hour of the year.

Holding itself to the tip-top standard that the talent involved would imply, 'Black Bag' is intelligent, entertaining, and nearly bulletproof.

Decision to Leave is a finely crafted film, with stellar performances from Park Hae-il (charming, and perfect as a detective torn between emotions and duty) and Tang Wei (also perfectly cast, lovely with a depth that’s just below the surface).

The Fabelmans is a compelling family portrait, a love letter to filmmaking, and a revealing look inside the heart of one of America’s great directors. It’s well worth watching, just to see Spielberg at his most tender and personal.

This beautiful work pays an immaculate tribute to him, illustrating the legacy of a man whose nature transcended the concepts of knowledge, understanding, age and love. Fifteen years after his death, the heroic and criminally under-appreciated efforts of Fred Rogers are finally being celebrated on the big screen in what may very well be the best documentary of the year.

A unique cherry blossom of a period piece finds its roots intertwined with an erotically-charged crime, set to shock and entrance viewers unaware of the free-spirited madness to follow. A cultural appropriation of submission, the male gaze and gender dominance, stretched until storytelling fabrics just begin to tear.

Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood is a wistful fantasy fueled by a series of top-grade performances, a stampeding collage of Tarantino-isms, and of course, a happy slathering of movie magic.

Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut bursts outward with neon electricity, encompassing, even if overcooking, the teenage tropes levied by similar films of the past, while also staying deeply rooted in the here and now.

What this film celebrates more than anything, is the fact that it’s never too late to make a change.

Toy Story 4 is as mediocre a Toy Story movie as there is and probably can be, but it also marks another unbelievable triumph at Pixar in their never-ending quest to realize the imagination.

A Ghost Story leads you down a path that allows for personal reflection, which will either sooth lost souls or scare them away.

The best ensemble cast of the year live through Steve McQueen’s Widows, an entertaining, intelligent, but altogether familiar rendition of the heist film.

First Man hardly comes close to capturing the overwhelming triumph behind Neil Armstrong’s lunar explorations, though the journey to get there is technologically masterful.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is striking, stunning, visually hypnotizing, thrilling - everything "epic" about the famed franchise rolled into a tremendously overcharged start to Rian Johnson's Star Wars career.

In His Three Daughters, Azazel Jacobs provides the very unique joy of a simple, yet perfectly executed story about universal human experiences.

Under The Shadow marries haunted horrors with period-piece importance for a deliciously dark ghost story.

The Lighthouse boasts and thrives off of a maritime rap battle between Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison, whose claustrophobic journey together towards madness is among the sickest and most memorable collaborations in recent memory.

20th Century Women relegates a set of extraordinary female characters to supporting players in a standard coming-of-age narrative. It's entertaining, but also disappointing.

With U, Belle could be a prescient reimagining of real-kei for a new age, but it never fully escapes the tired conventions of homage it so desperately wants to fit into this future.

Spike Lee offers no solution here – his story’s conclusion, in the long run, hardly ends on a positive note – but rather a very, very loud plea that cannot be ignored.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is supremely sincere, warmly witty, and laugh-out-loud funny. And really, what else did you expect?

The Love Witch is a seductive 60s time-capsule that calls back to the technicolor charms of early genre filmmaking.

Much like its protagonist, 'Hit Man' is an amalgam of personalities, not entirely one thing or the other, but a combination of genres that, through careful writing, each manages to maintain their essence throughout.

While War for the Planet of the Apes's third act is a bit hairy, the sequel helps cement the franchise as one of the more exciting mainstream properties worth watching.

This vibrant indie rom-com from director Raine Allen Miller dives into the cultural melting pot of a globally recognized city, yet showcases it through the eyes of Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson). Slick, funny, and charming - 'Rye Lane' is one to watch.

The Unknown Country proves to be a road trip unlike any other.

John Krasinski orchestrates a loud and ferocious symphony of sonic scares that will assert A Quiet Place as one of the year's most terrorizing films.

For 130 minutes, the writer-director disorients and delights, confidently trailblazing through his murder mystery two, maybe even three steps ahead of the audience. This isn’t a simple, direct testament to the slick, sidesplitting script, nor the fully committed, second-to-none ensemble, but rather a passed inspection of these cogs and their ability to form a purely entertaining experience.

It's truly never been more fun to watch three people be absolutely despicable to one another than in Luca Guadagnino's tennis court love story.

Wes Anderson continues to exercise his (hopefully) endless imagination in Isle of Dogs, creating another fictional setting bursting with unlikely heroes and another unusually appealing adventure that offers more depth than meets the eye.

Certain Women more than justifies itself as a serious argument for the beauty of the small and intimate drama and the importance of female-driven filmmaking.

The Northman is wild, startling, fascinating, and phenomenal at once, but hopefully it’s just the beginning of Eggers regularly being handed sizeable budgets to deliver more sprawling near-masterpieces.

An exuberant visual poem reflecting the life and politics of the Chilean poet, Neruda is much more than a simple biopic.

The acting, craft, and tone of Sicario are so precise that the absurdity of this cartel yarn is both its greatest weakness, and maybe its entire point.

The latest Denis Villeneuve achievement, Blade Runner 2049 is the rare sequel that both pushes the franchise to challenging new places and serves as a natural extension of what's come before.

A searing and pivotal documentary about the prison-industrial complex, Ava DuVernay's The 13th is a truly frightening film that galvanizes its viewers to action.

The Levelling is a wonderful first feature from Hope Dickson Leach. Morose beyond measure, but leavened with subtle hope via Ellie Kendrick's superb central performance.

Arrival challenges viewers to a brainier sci-fi conundrum than they're used to, which makes for an intellectual breath of fresh air.

Everything Everywhere All At Once understands that the world is infinitely big and scary, and that we often feel like we are the worst versions of ourselves. And yet, it manages to effectively advocate for us to keep going, to seek the connections and moments that make life worth it.

From BAFTA-nominated director Aleem Khan, and BAFTA-winning actress Joanna Scanlan, this visceral exploration of grief offers one of the most honest and generous representations of middle-aged womanhood in recent memory.

This is a masterpiece of woven ancestral roots and the importance of “familia,” confident in song and poetic in vision.

As a timely testament to our willingness to validate and support rather than investigate, White Lie is both insightful and terrifying.

Jackie is Natalie Portman's show, and she never wastes an opportunity to dazzle as JFK's glamorous grieving widow.

It’s a wonderfully bizarre movie set in a world that at first glance might be our own, yet quickly slides off the rails into gonzo territory.

Us is an impressive and astonishingly hair-triggered sophomore feature squarely positioned to decimate genre audiences. It’s purposefully vague, but jam-packed with more memorable genre imagery and inquisitive discussion starters than most braindead by-the-book cinematic offerings beholden to formulaic blueprints.

Visually, Moana shines like a diamond at night.

With Glass Onion, Johnson and Craig have created a sequel that not only earns its keep but promises that subsequent installments in the franchise will deliver both reinvention and all the comfort and intrigue of the classic whodunit that filmmakers come back to time and time again for a reason. It’s pure fun, and it’s clear Johnson reveres the genre enough to cleverly break the rules.

Tom Cruise has only gone and done it again, with 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' delivering a stunning summer blockbuster that'll leave you wondering how it can possibly be topped next summer.

Any misgivings bestowed upon Ford V Ferrari by the script are, more or less, eliminated by the film’s big draw: the racing. Gloriously calibrated, simply designed, and modestly edited, audiences are reminded of the dynamite, nearly natural relationship automobiles share with filmmaking.

Huesera is a sermon, a spell, a treatise on how destructive societal expectations and motherhood in general can be to someone’s identity.

Ti West's latest slasher 'X' defies all odds and sets itself apart from the crowd as a phenomenal piece of filmmaking that reinvents the overplayed clichés and marks a refreshing turning point for modern horror.

Good Time is just that and little more, but Robert Pattinson's performance deserves praise like "career-defining" and "best yet."

The characters are despicable and insufferable, but worse yet, interchangeable and not particularly interesting.

Tried, tested, and uninspiring - this four way relationship drama goes over old ground.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is some kind of miracle. It works on every imaginable level - as a heartfelt love letter to fans, an irresistible invitation to newbies, a visual marvel and a blockbuster of unparalleled emotional heft and cultural significance.

Greta Gerwig's summer blockbuster is well worth watching, but fails to reach the storytelling heights of her previous work.

Any hint of sappiness in the neighborhood is squashed by Hanks’ paralyzingly delightful turn as Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.

Lean and mean, The Survivalist a realistically miserable apocalypse - and all the more terrifying for it.

As complex as it is compassionate, 'Other People's Children' features standout performances, and no end of nuance. For the incurable romantic and cynic in equal measure, this film deserves to be seen by a big audience.

The Endless is a masterful cinematic echo chamber with incomprehensible depth. You will feel, laugh and be forced to address emotions shared with all on-screen personalities.