1
|
|
Some Kind of Heaven (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
If John Waters directed a remake of Midsommar, it would probably look a lot like Some Kind of Heaven.
EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2021
|
2
|
|
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Shadow in the Cloud is just clever enough to qualify as a lark, without ever quite crossing the threshold into "good."
EDIT
Posted Jan 6, 2021
|
3
|
|
Promising Young Woman (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Promising Young Woman fully taps into the fury of the moment, by turns (and often simultaneously) harrowing, blisteringly funny, and utterly devastating.
EDIT
Posted Dec 25, 2020
|
4
|
|
The Midnight Sky (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
In the grand tradition of the sci-fi weepie ... [but] unfortunately, it just doesn't quite measure up on either side of the equation.
EDIT
Posted Dec 23, 2020
|
5
|
|
Mank (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
You won't be tricked into thinking what you're watching is the real world, but it's so much fun to watch that you likely won't care.
EDIT
Posted Dec 4, 2020
|
6
|
|
My Psychedelic Love Story (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Breezy, playful, and kinetic, even as it delves into the Mephistophelean inner workings of the federal government under America's second most evil president.
EDIT
Posted Nov 29, 2020
|
7
|
|
The Twentieth Century (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
All I know is that it's one of the strangest, most delightfully baffling films I've seen in years, and I can't recommend it enough.
EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2020
|
8
|
|
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
There's something undeniably entertaining about listening to such a larger-than-life figure given the space to unspool uninterrupted.
EDIT
Posted Nov 19, 2020
|
9
|
|
Anything for Jackson (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Anything for Jackson is a wonderfully clever, gleefully perverse black comedy packed with enough ideas and well-sketched characters for five movies.
EDIT
Posted Nov 17, 2020
|
10
|
|
Freaky (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Like its central character, Freaky's grisly exterior masks a heart of gold.
EDIT
Posted Nov 13, 2020
|
11
|
|
Zappa (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
There's material here that even the most obsessive Zappa devotee has never seen, yet it's presented in such a way that it just might inspire a new generation of fans.
EDIT
Posted Nov 6, 2020
|
12
|
|
Nuevo Orden (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
New Order is probably the bleakest thing I've seen all year- no mean feat in 2020.
EDIT
Posted Nov 3, 2020
|
13
|
|
Undine (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Like its titular spirit, Undine flits around the edges of reality, but casts a bewitching spell.
EDIT
Posted Nov 3, 2020
|
14
|
|
Sound of Metal (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Sound of Metal is a sweet, melancholy character study about a deeply flawed man learning to cope with personal tragedy.
EDIT
Posted Nov 2, 2020
|
15
|
|
Minari (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Minari is a beautiful film, in every sense of the word.
EDIT
Posted Nov 1, 2020
|
16
|
|
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a cracking piece of entertainment, but it also serves as an easily accessible menu of ways to fight against oppression
EDIT
Posted Oct 16, 2020
|
17
|
|
Dinner in America (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Dinner in America has a big, gushy heart beating under its crust-punk exterior, and it's one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.
EDIT
Posted Oct 15, 2020
|
18
|
|
French Exit (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
It's just exceedingly pleasant, and in an exceedingly unpleasant year, I appreciated it.
EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
|
19
|
|
()
|
Oscar Goff
|
This is simply a very funny, if deeply weird, little movie.
EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
|
20
|
|
Possessor: Uncut (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
We haven't seen many horror films simultaneously so graphically disturbing and so smart since, well, the days of David Cronenberg.
EDIT
Posted Oct 2, 2020
|
21
|
|
Hopper/Welles (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Watching Hopper/Welles is like a great conversation at the end of a great party, and I think it's safe to say that's something we could all use right now.
EDIT
Posted Sep 30, 2020
|
22
|
|
Nomadland (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
[McDormand's] is a fascinatingly complex, almost entirely internal performance, and it's one of the year's absolute best.
EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2020
|
23
|
|
City Hall (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Each tableau presents its own unique perspective on what it's like to live in Boston, and plays out at its own pace.
EDIT
Posted Sep 25, 2020
|
24
|
|
MLK/FBI (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
What Pollard does, and does very well, is lay out the facts as plainly as possible, and leave it to us to consider the ramifications.
EDIT
Posted Sep 21, 2020
|
25
|
|
The Inheritance (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
The Inheritance would be a lovely film no matter when it saw release, but coming as it does during a time where congregation is impossible, it's a miracle.
EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2020
|
26
|
|
Antebellum (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
There's a lot to like about Antebellum, but its big gambit- the "cold open" on the plantation, which spans the entire first act- simply does not work.
EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2020
|
27
|
|
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
When everything onscreen is a metaphor for the characters' mental state, it's hard to care about the characters themselves.
EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2020
|
28
|
|
The Block Island Sound (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
This is a truly cosmic horror story with some unnerving implications about man's place in the universe, but it functions just as well as a remarkably grounded character study.
EDIT
Posted Aug 30, 2020
|
29
|
|
The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
The Dark and the Wicked is a perverse delight, oozing with country-fried creepiness and some remarkable performances.
EDIT
Posted Aug 29, 2020
|
30
|
|
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
There are moments when the execution is not as sure-footed as it perhaps could be, but I'm still a sucker for a good puritan freakout.
EDIT
Posted Aug 28, 2020
|
31
|
|
Survival Skills (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Survival Skills is one of the most original comedies in ages- though you may spend more time gasping than laughing.
EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
|
32
|
|
()
|
Oscar Goff
|
This is a movie called Monster SeaFood Wars, about giant seafood monsters who fight each other. If that sounds like a good time to you, see it. If it doesn't, see a doctor.
EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
|
33
|
|
The Oak Room (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Yet, as when you find yourself in a meandering conversation with a drunk, the film is at times frustratingly roundabout.
EDIT
Posted Aug 25, 2020
|
34
|
|
The Prophet and the Space Aliens (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
One can't deny the loony spectacle of the whole thing, and some scenes ... must be seen to be believed.
EDIT
Posted Aug 24, 2020
|
35
|
|
Feels Good Man (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Feels Good Man may be the most vital snapshot of this deeply strange moment in history
EDIT
Posted Aug 24, 2020
|
36
|
|
Gutterbug (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Gutterbug dives into its characters' lives with an electric intensity, like a Trainspotting for the basement show set.
EDIT
Posted Aug 23, 2020
|
37
|
|
Class Action Park (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Class Action Park is horribly entertaining, and will have you laughing and gasping in the very same breath.
EDIT
Posted Aug 22, 2020
|
38
|
|
Special Actors (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
It takes everything that made One Cut special- its silly humor, its surprise twists, its infectiously happy-go-lucky attitude- and applies it to a more ambitious canvas.
EDIT
Posted Aug 21, 2020
|
39
|
|
Sputnik (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Sputnik isn't trying to reinvent the genre or create a franchise; it simply wants to tell a story about monsters and cosmonauts... and it does so exceedingly well.
EDIT
Posted Aug 14, 2020
|
40
|
|
Boys State (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
A compelling and engrossing snapshot of political ambition and youthful masculinity.
EDIT
Posted Aug 14, 2020
|
41
|
|
She Dies Tomorrow (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
I respect She Dies Tomorrow ... but, for the most part, I just didn't enjoy it, and I can't think of many people to whom I would recommend it.
EDIT
Posted Aug 7, 2020
|
42
|
|
Host (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
It stands on its own feet as one of the year's best horror movies, gimmick or no gimmick.
EDIT
Posted Jul 30, 2020
|
43
|
|
The Rental (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Like many actors-turned-directors, Franco has an occasionally uneven hand in terms of tone and pacing, but he also knows how to wield a killer ensemble.
EDIT
Posted Jul 24, 2020
|
44
|
|
Relic (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Relic is inventive, idiosyncratic, and deeply personal.
EDIT
Posted Jul 10, 2020
|
45
|
|
The Beach House (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
The Beach House is a mood, a disorienting hit of bad acid that overtakes you before you even realize it's working.
EDIT
Posted Jul 8, 2020
|
46
|
|
You Should Have Left (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
[A] well-made and generally effective thriller which nevertheless fails to show much in the way of personality.
EDIT
Posted Jun 18, 2020
|
47
|
|
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Da 5 Bloods earns its running time through heart, soul, brain, and moviemaking artistry.
EDIT
Posted Jun 12, 2020
|
48
|
|
The King of Staten Island (2020)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Try as it may -- and it does try -- its good points simply aren't enough to justify its maudlin self-indulgence or its gargantuan running time.
EDIT
Posted Jun 8, 2020
|
49
|
|
Judy & Punch (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
Devilishly funny, occasionally harrowing, and wholly original.
EDIT
Posted Jun 5, 2020
|
50
|
|
The Vast of Night (2019)
|
Oscar Goff
|
The effect is incongruously thrilling, simultaneously recalling classic radio drama ... and presenting something entirely new.
EDIT
Posted May 29, 2020
|