1
|
|
The Swordsman (2020)
|
Toussaint Egan
|
If you're looking for period-piece martial arts drama with engrossing performances and pulse-pounding swordplay, it's definitely worth a watch.
EDIT
Posted Feb 23, 2021
|
2
|
|
Some Like It Hot (1959)
|
Matt Patches
|
The madcap energy is right up there with Bridesmaids or 30 Rock, and it's a shame to imagine that it's black-and-white veneer would keep people away.
EDIT
Posted Feb 23, 2021
|
3
|
|
I Care a Lot (2020)
|
Joshua Rivera
|
Pike works wonders to make a thin story feel full and satisfying to watch in the moment, but once it's over, the thinness starts to become bothersome, especially given the arresting subject matter at its core.
EDIT
Posted Feb 22, 2021
|
4
|
|
The Half of It (2020)
|
Karen Han
|
The idea of a teenage version of Cyrano de Bergerac seems to lend itself to pure romantic fluff, but Wu imbues it with incredible depth and consideration.
EDIT
Posted Feb 20, 2021
|
5
|
|
Flora and Ulysses (2020)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
With Lawler commanding her scenes - her dynamic with Hannigan and Schwartz sparkles - Flora & Ulysses sometimes transcends its bland hijinks into cute and heartwarming family dynamics.
EDIT
Posted Feb 19, 2021
|
6
|
|
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
|
Roxana Hadadi
|
Uneven methodology robs Judas and the Black Messiah of the propulsive energy it could have... by viewing [Fred Hampton] primarily through the lens of his detractors rather than his champions, he's guaranteed an uneven execution.
EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2021
|
7
|
|
Saint Maud (2019)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
By most reasonable standards, Saint Maud is a good horror movie.
EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2021
|
8
|
|
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
|
Matt Patches
|
A cult-movie-on-arrival just waiting to be discovered... Whether it's improvisation or the result of years inside each other's heads, the material beams off the screen.
EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
|
9
|
|
To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
While the movie contains some genuine heartfelt moments, the thread connecting them all is flimsy, and the core conflict is overdone.
EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
|
10
|
|
The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)
|
Robert Daniels
|
Everything about The Forty-Year-Old Version feels fresh.
EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
|
11
|
|
Malcolm & Marie (2021)
|
Quinci LeGardye
|
While the film is a stylistic treat on the surface, it has very little depth.
EDIT
Posted Feb 8, 2021
|
12
|
|
Space Sweepers (2021)
|
Kambole Campbell
|
The interplay between these characters is the film's saving grace, and the reason it's still mostly a joy to watch.
EDIT
Posted Feb 8, 2021
|
13
|
|
A Glitch in the Matrix (2020)
|
Siddhant Adlakha
|
An emotional Trojan horse, smuggling viewers into these subjects' lives and the way they process information.
EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2021
|
14
|
|
Finding 'Ohana (2021)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
For the most part, [director Jude] Weng weaves adventure and sentimentality together, but when it comes down to it, Finding 'Ohana works when it focuses on the ohana at its core.
EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2021
|
15
|
|
John and the Hole (2020)
|
Matt Patches
|
The level of craft John and the Hole brings to its ideas makes it worthy of chewing on.
EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2021
|
16
|
|
His House (2020)
|
Robert Daniels
|
His House is a terrifying debut that breathes a fresh voice into the haunted-house subgenre.
EDIT
Posted Feb 2, 2021
|
17
|
|
Cryptozoo (2021)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
Cryptozoo winds up as a window into a decidedly uncommercial mind, and a form of storytelling that isn't the practiced, polished committee effort that comes out of animation houses like Disney and DreamWorks.
EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2021
|
18
|
|
Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)
|
Matt Patches
|
[F]or anyone worn thin by the homogeny of American superhero cinema, there's an entire back catalogue waiting for you. Prisoners of the Ghostland is a great, digestible start.
EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2021
|
19
|
|
Earwig and the Witch (2020)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
It's barely more than a short story, and Ghibli's adaptation adds little to the stripped-down narrative.
EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2021
|
20
|
|
How It Ends (2021)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
It's a pleasant enough hangout movie, and someday it may be held up as a slanted portrait of what mid-2020 felt like for people privileged enough to ignore politics. But it still feels like a minor movie in the face of a major catastrophe.
EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2021
|
21
|
|
CODA (2021)
|
Matt Patches
|
Authentic, sensitive, and playful, CODA remains human even as it tugs at the heartstrings.
EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2021
|
22
|
|
The Little Things (2021)
|
Robert Daniels
|
Hancock, in what might be his best film, grazes with greatness by constructing an enthralling thriller that relies on the talent of its three leading men to mine regret for mystery.
EDIT
Posted Jan 26, 2021
|
23
|
|
Soul (2020)
|
Robert Daniels
|
Even with the film's bid for a suspension of racial disbelief, the racial-passing narrative in the second act of Soul is acutely bizarre.
EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2021
|
24
|
|
Promising Young Woman (2020)
|
Delia Harrington
|
For all of Promising Young Woman's merits, it still uses trauma and sexual violence to teach a lesson to the unenlightened, while telling actual survivors that the price of justice is our lives.
EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2021
|
25
|
|
The White Tiger (2021)
|
Siddhant Adlakha
|
The film is full of potent human drama (largely coming from Adarsh Gourav's performance), but as an examination of the world's intersection with modern India, it usually lands on the wrong side of inauthentic.
EDIT
Posted Jan 23, 2021
|
26
|
|
Outside the Wire (2021)
|
Roxana Hadadi
|
A disappointingly tidy conclusion for what had the potential to be a far more challenging film.
EDIT
Posted Jan 19, 2021
|
27
|
|
Tenet (2020)
|
Ben Kuchera
|
I love Tenet so much, despite its frustrations. Nolan wants to keep pushing the boundaries of these kinds of blockbusters, and that means he's going to fail as much as he succeeds.
EDIT
Posted Jan 19, 2021
|
28
|
|
One Night in Miami (2020)
|
Siddhant Adlakha
|
In spite of its heavy subject matter, it's also one of the most electrifying and downright fun historical dramas to come out of Hollywood in years.
EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2021
|
29
|
|
War Dogs (2016)
|
Ben Kuchera
|
Tthe whole thing has a breezy, surprisingly low-stakes "isn't the system really at fault here?" feel to it. Which makes War Dogs an enjoyably goofy, if rote, look at the banality of war profiteering.
EDIT
Posted Jan 5, 2021
|
30
|
|
Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)
|
Matt Patches
|
Nearly 20 years later, the breezy, no-stakes filmmaking is a welcome diversion from movies with too much budget, too many cooks, and too much pressure to be Truly Great.
EDIT
Posted Jan 5, 2021
|
31
|
|
Sound of Metal (2019)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
The film is startlingly artful for a directorial debut, and endlessly surprising.
EDIT
Posted Jan 5, 2021
|
32
|
|
Another Round (2020)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
The film features its share of trauma and tragedy, and the final sequence is bittersweet, but it's also one of the most purely entertaining, magnificent moments on film in 2020.
EDIT
Posted Jan 5, 2021
|
33
|
|
Soul (2020)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
It's funny, surprising, and powerful, but above all, it feels like Pixar returning to the core values that used to define it as a creative house, and returning to the inspiring industry leader it used to be.
EDIT
Posted Dec 28, 2020
|
34
|
|
We Can Be Heroes (2020)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
We Can Be Heroes is a rarity: A kids movie actually made for kids, bringing what was special about Spy Kids to a new generation, and a complete delight on its own.
EDIT
Posted Dec 25, 2020
|
35
|
|
Monster Hunter (2020)
|
Chelsea Stark
|
It's hard to say if it's comprehensible to someone who doesn't love the series, but its bombastic action hardly lags during its hour-and-a-half run time.
EDIT
Posted Dec 21, 2020
|
36
|
|
Skylines (2020)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
It's perfectly passable low-key science fiction, almost certainly destined for a fast trip to Netflix, where it can be taken up as an amiable evening's viewing.
EDIT
Posted Dec 21, 2020
|
37
|
|
Tron: Legacy (2010)
|
Kambole Campbell
|
There's an undeniable appeal at its core - in its sincere approach to ridiculous concepts, in its resistance toward quipping at its own expense.
EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2020
|
38
|
|
Max Cloud (2020)
|
Andy Crump
|
Characters like Sarah - and for that matter, Jake and Rexy - are as crucial to a satisfying gaming experience as big bruiser types like Max... After all, they make Max Cloud a fully satisfying moviegoing experience.
EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2020
|
39
|
|
Promising Young Woman (2020)
|
Roxana Hadadi
|
Those scenarios aren't exactly nuanced, but [Emerald] Fennell gives a voice to the exasperation of being treated purely, and only, like a sexual object, and [Carey] Mulligan lives and breathes that rage.
EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2020
|
40
|
|
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
|
Seanan McGuire
|
A Wonder Woman story in 2020 could be uplifting and inspiring, and this film is neither.
EDIT
Posted Dec 15, 2020
|
41
|
|
The Prom (2020)
|
Roxana Hadadi
|
There's too much of Corden to ignore in The Prom, but there isn't much to like.
EDIT
Posted Dec 14, 2020
|
42
|
|
News of the World (2020)
|
Robert Daniels
|
A leaden, drawn-out Western that's saved by its two knowing lead performances and a reverence for how the right stories can heal divisions.
EDIT
Posted Dec 14, 2020
|
43
|
|
Songbird (2020)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
Songbird isn't as expensive, noisy, or misanthropic as a proper Bay film, but it's every bit as cynical, never less than when it's insisting that this is a hopeful pandemic story.
EDIT
Posted Dec 10, 2020
|
44
|
|
The Midnight Sky (2020)
|
Robert Daniels
|
In the end, The Midnight Sky doesn't match Clooney's past directorial highs.
EDIT
Posted Dec 9, 2020
|
45
|
|
Mank (2020)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
Mank luxuriates in its dreamy atmosphere.
EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
|
46
|
|
Tudo Bem no Natal Que Vem (2020)
|
Brian Moylan
|
It's startlingly philosophical for a Christmas movie, but that's all balanced out by the great verbal and physical comedy, including a hilarious ongoing gag about Jorge's contentious mustache.
EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
|
47
|
|
Ammonite (2020)
|
Siddhant Adlakha
|
Its approach to queer history as coded, long-buried document is its most exacting facet. But as a story of science, hidden desire, and sparks re-igniting the soul, it's a languid affair.
EDIT
Posted Dec 5, 2020
|
48
|
|
Godmothered (2020)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
The result is a movie that interrogates Disney tropes but actually delivers on dismantling them.
EDIT
Posted Dec 4, 2020
|
49
|
|
Antarctica (2020)
|
Petrana Radulovic
|
The movie works best when director Keith Bearden plays up the weirdness and brings the characters together, but it'd be stronger if Kat and Janet's storylines shared more of a solid thread.
EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2020
|
50
|
|
Alien Xmas (2020)
|
Tasha Robinson
|
There's nothing particularly wrong with Alien Xmas, a cute supplement to a long canon of Christmas-in-peril stories. But there's nothing here that would make it a classic worthy of inspiring future canon entries, either.
EDIT
Posted Dec 1, 2020
|