Previous Rankings
#191-209
#171-190
#151-170
#131-150
#111-130
#91-110
#71-90
#51-70
#31-50
IN THE HEIGHTS is simply a delight. Electric performances, fun musical sets, it’s great. SHANG-CHI offers some of the best-looking and choreographed fight scenes in all of the MCU. The inclusion of martial arts is a more than welcome addition, and helps give it a fresh feel. I love, love, love CODA. Being pretty predictable is about the only bad thing you can say about it. Incredibly well-acted, smart script, and one of the most touching scenes from the year – it’s one I’ve watch probably at least 20 times.
I’m not as big a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson as so many others are, but LICORICE PIZZA, a coming-of-age story taking place in 1970s Hollywood is exactly my bag. There are a couple potentially problematic elements, but they don’t have too big of an effect overall. But at its core, it’s a smartly written, fun movie. PIG is arguably Nicolas Cage at his best. It’s maybe a little to laid back at times, but at that point we’re just nitpicking.
NO TIME TO DIE (full review here) is the sendoff Daniel Craig deserved. I adore this movie. It’s got all the classic Bond elements, and hits an emotional level no other Bond movie has seen. CYRANO is another lovely musical. It has a few problems in the story setup, but it has wit and charm to spare, along with Peter Dinklage matching, maybe even exceeding his best work in Game of Thrones. KING RICHARD (full review here) is a weird one for me. I’ve never been a fan of Serena or Richard Williams, so a movie about Serena and Venus’s rise to stardom under the tutelage of their father Richard wasn’t exactly something I was going to get excited about. But. It works. It’s a pretty great movie. It helps that it chronicles their early years; it’s much easier to root for the kids.
With THE SUICIDE SQUAD, James Gunn brings his signature style to the DC side of comic book movies. And it’s a riotous good time. It’s unlike anything else in the current DC live-action slate, and it’s a welcome change of pace. A two hour movie that’s basically one continuous conversation doesn’t always work. But when you have four dynamic performers like we do in ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, plus the deft directing hand of Regina Kina, and you’ve really got something.
Anthony Hopkins’ devastating performance in THE FATHER feels a little too real as his character’s mind continues to wane. Maybe it’s because I have a nephew around the same age, but C’MON C’MON really got me. It finds some serious emotional depth as it explores the central uncle-nephew relationship. I can’t stand seeing THE LAST DUEL get so overlooked. A trio of amazing lead performances (Jodie Comer!), plus Ben Affleck in what is one of my favorite performances of the year. He’s outrageous and over-the-top and I love it.
Being a Steven Soderbergh movie automatically gives NO SUDDEN MOVE a leg up. It can be little confusing at times, but you don’t come to a Steven Soderbergh heist movie for something completely straightforward. If you liked A Quiet Place, you’ll like A QUIET PLACE PART II, because it’s almost the same movie. That’s probably the biggest strike against it. But everything that made the first one so good is there again. It just loses a few points for being too similar.
If you want a powerful movie that constantly and brutally rips your heart out, then check out QUO VADIS, AIDA? As un-fun as that sounds, that actually plays as a huge recommendation. Mads Mikkelsen rules, which means RIDERS OF JUSTICE rules. It’s got action, revenge, dark comedy. It’s great. If you can buy into HOUSE OF GUCCI and appreciate it for what it is, you’re in for a fun, wild ride. But this is one where if you don’t like it, you’re likely to really not like it.
Rebecca Hall kills it with PASSING, her directorial debut. Of course, it helps when you get two superstar performances out of Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. But it takes a careful hand at the helm to balance the tricky themes at play here. Of all his great performances this year, I think Benedict Cumberbatch in THE COURIER is his best this year; you can keep The Power of the Dog. But beyond that, a well-made Cold War spy thriller is going to get me every time.
