Favorite Films 2022 (Monte’s Take)

Monte’s Favorite Films of 2022

2022 was another fantastic year for the cinema. A year that, in the still lingering cloud of a pandemic, saw a return to the theater-going experience. It was a year that continued the surge of streaming platforms and so many media options to watch. The diversity of films released, from the big to the small and at-home streaming screens, displayed a wealth of brilliant performances, inventive stories, and exciting new artistic voices. Every month a new film competed for my favorite movie of the year. For a cinephile, that's a beautiful feeling to experience while going to the movies. Here are my favorite films of 2022.  

10. Top Gun: Maverick

"Top Gun: Maverick" is a sequel, but it feels more like a reboot. From a story perspective, the framework is similar, in some ways identical, to the original film. Scenes feel pulled from the 1986 movie, updated with new faces, and reintroduced for modern times. The action is exceptional throughout the film, with most scenes featuring the actual actors twisting, turning, and being placed in situations with the immense forces exerted on their bodies. It's exciting filmmaking, adding another element to blur the lines between the special visual effects and reality. "Top Gun: Maverick," with its purposeful nostalgic callbacks and familiar storytelling design, is a delightful movie. 

 

9. RRR

The staggering three-hour and seven-minute runtime of director S.S. Rajamouli's "RRR" is nothing short of epic. A feast of intoxicating imagery, a spectacle of over-the-top action, and, at its core, a celebration of cinema in all its many forms. "RRR" implements a story about two freedom fighters, Bheem and Raju, who join forces in an epic adventure featuring a rapid-fire narrative, a spectacular musical number, and a bromance between two charismatic leads that evokes both comedic and sweet sentiments. S.S. Rajamouli proudly displays a deep admiration for popular cinema and an intriguing artistic fingerprint that showcases his cultural influences. 

8. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio 

The story of "Pinocchio" was adapted three different times in 2022. Each version handled the one-hundred-year-old story through various artistic mediums and implemented new narrative features and tones with each film. "Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio" was the best of the bunch. Del Toro builds a darker, more tragic version of the fairytale within a stunning stop-motion animation style while focusing its emotional emphasis on elements surrounding family and the unconditional love found within that structure. The familiar story of the wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy is superbly re-envisioned by one of the finest storytellers working in cinema today. 

7. Bones and All

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, "Bones and All" is a road trip coming-of-age love story about two cannibals searching for meaning across Midwest America. But underneath the sheen of young love in peril and surrounded by horrors at every pit stop is a story using genre characteristics to delve into concerns surrounding seclusion, abandonment, and inherited trauma. At times it feels like a commentary on the opioid epidemic in America, the socio-economic imbalance felt during a crisis, and the changing, ravaged, yet still mystical and majestic landscape found on quiet roads across small-town America. The performances are deeply layered. Mark Rylance is unnervingly odd, while Taylor Russell is formidable with her conflicted emotions for her newfound urges. "Bones and All" can be brutal and beautiful in equal parts.

6. Decision to Leave 

A mountain climber falls to his death mysteriously. A detective investigates the accident but considers it a possible crime. At the center of the investigation is a woman operating with curious, suspicious motives. Sound familiar? Director Park Chan-wook's "Decision to Leave" is an elegant, confounding mix of neo-noir sophistication in the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout his career, the director has masterfully curated genre stylings, utilizing varying degrees of meticulously strategized elements of sex and violence within each tale. "Decision to Leave" weaves a familiar mystery, one that harkens back to noir stylings of the 50s and 60s, but in the steady hands of Park Chan-wook, the result feels different. It's unexpectedly complicated, sensuous, and intriguing with every twist.  

5. The Banshees of Inisherin

Friendship is central to Martin McDonagh's humorous and heartfelt drama "The Banshees of Inisherin." Situated on the fictional island of Inisherin in 1923, the film falls directly into the dissolution of a longstanding friendship between two friends. Featuring career standout performances from Brendan Gleeson, playing the stubborn Colm, and Colin Farrell, portraying the oblivious Pádraic, the film composes a tale of morality and the fragility of relationships, both new and old. Beyond its initial humor and oddball partnership, "The Banshees of Inisherin" delves deeper into human complications that grow gravely personal and startlingly brutal for two friends. It works because of McDonagh's clever script, direction, and astounding performances from Gleeson and Farrell. 

4. The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg's fictionalized, semi-autobiographical story of adolescence and falling in love with the movies is spellbinding. The fragments of life, the moments that profoundly change and influence humans, can be equally magical and tragic. Spielberg curates the details of Sammy Fabelman's life, from the spectacle of cinema that stole his heart to the slow collapse of his parent's marriage and the progress of chasing a dream of making art. The influence of Spielberg's love for cinema finds incorporation in subtle and obvious places. The coming-of-age story indulges in everything the director has perfected narratively throughout his career. "The Fabelmans" is Spielberg's most personal work and also his best film of the past decade. 

3. Vortex

Gaspar Noé, the controversial and uncompromising auteur, composed the only film that haunted my thoughts for days after its viewing. "Vortex" is an unflinchingly honest look at growing old, dying, and the inevitable encounter with death. The film is viewed through split frames, detailing through different perspectives the ailing health of a husband and wife, an astounding portrayal from legendary genre filmmaker Dario Argento and a heartbreaking performance from Francoise Lebrun. "Vortex" is unlike any of Gaspar Noé's previous work. The sensationalization of themes and the gratuity of violence are replaced with a subdued, although still affecting and tragic, portrayal of end-of-life emotions. "Vortex" is a film I will always admire but probably never watch again. That's the power of the emotions conjured by this film. 

2. Aftersun

The debut feature for writer/director Charlotte Wells is a poignant filmmaking exercise. The film begins with 11-year-old Sophie vacationing with her father, Calum, at a resort. It's a memory she recounts lovingly and longingly 20 years later as an adult as she tries to piece together a portrait of her father, both the man she remembers and the one outside her view. "Aftersun" is a character study of a father and daughter, of a family doing its best to hold the pieces of their bond together. The style imposed in the framing devices and photography choices portrays memories between the two family members with delicate empathy, beautiful creativity, and heart-aching feeling. The performances from all involved, especially Paul Mescal, who plays Calum, are pitch-perfect. "Aftersun" is a fascinating journey into how we compose memories of the ones we love. 

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as the creative directing combo, Daniels, composed a fantastical, genre-bending spectacle of pure cinema with the appropriately titled "Everything Everywhere All At Once." The film centers around everything between the Wangs, a Chinese-American married couple who own a laundromat, and the tenuous relationships experienced in their multigenerational family. While they finish their taxes, Evelyn, a stunning Michelle Yeoh, is brought to the realization of the many versions of herself from everywhere in the multiverse. The directing duo expertly executes the extreme shifts, from dazzling to bonkers. However, the story's brilliance is that underneath all the dazzling designs is a delicate and emotional family drama. It's a film about how life can force people to try to be everything for everyone. About how experience can influence from everywhere around us. And how we can find our purpose all at once at any moment on our journey through life. 

Honorable Mentions: 

11. Tár 

12. Nope

13. Fire of Love

14. Barbarian 

15. Is That Black Enough For You 

16. Holy Spider

17. Resurrection

18. The Northman

19. Jackass Forever 

20. Crimes of the Future

21. You Won't Be Alone

22. Babylon 

23. The Menu

24. Causeway

25. The Batman

Favorite Horror Films 2020

Favorite Horror 2020

By: Monte Yazzie

 

In early December 2020, after months of social distancing, stay at home orders, mask ordinances and a general separation from movie friends, concert buddies, and convention colleagues, I was standing in front of an eager audience in a parking lot ready to screen a special outdoor presentation of Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “The Holy Mountain”.  It was cold and my thoughts were oddly sentimental. The first time I watched this cult classic was in an old theater, on 35mm film, with sticky floors, uncomfortable chairs, and stale popcorn. As I looked out into the crowd, most sitting in lawn chairs with blankets on their laps and masks on their face, I couldn’t help but reflect on all the pieces that came together to form the year of 2020.

 

My movie year began in Baltimore, Maryland. The first film I watched, after traveling on crowded public transit to an enormous and packed outlet mall, was the superb creature feature “Underwater” in a completely sold out theater with two strangers sitting right next to me. 

Mid-year, pandemic in full tilt boogie, and I found myself scanning the movie theater seating charts waiting for that perfect moment when 5 or less people were in a theater. I watched “Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula” and worried more about my safety than the raging zombies. 

 

Even though I watched fewer movies inside a theater, 2020 was my biggest year for movie watching ever. 500+ films sitting on my couch, watching every Severin, Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome feature. Streaming festival films, Criterion Channel curated programs, and Shudder TV programming. But one thing came clear very quickly, home streaming will never replace the movie theater experience.

 

And back in that parking lot, at my beloved FilmBar Theater in downtown Phoenix, standing in front of a portable film screen, the glow of Jodoworsky’s brilliant movie illuminating the faces of movie fans, I grew so happy to have, for a fading moment, the opportunity to share the experience of movie watching with strangers. To escape the news, the low hospital bed alerts, and the sorrow that the virus had taken on relatives and friends. It was moment to drift away into the screen.  I will never take that feeling for granted ever again.  

 

It’s been a strange and difficult year but cinema still had some exceptional offerings through numerous genre outlets. Here are 15 of my favorite horror films of 2020. 

 

Top Fifteen

15.  Blood Quantum

 

Zombie films will never go away. “Blood Quantum” blends bloody zombie gore with social commentary and weaves in a few ingenious twists. The Mi'kmaq community of the fictional Red Crow Indigenous land find themselves immune to a zombie plague, forcing them to setup resistance forts on tribal land. Director Jeff Barnaby focuses the film through a strict Native lens, showcasing a film that feels completely genuine in its understanding of culture. It’s a beautiful thing to see representation of Indigenous people on screen, the fact that it’s a horror film is just icing on the cake.

14.  Swallow

 

Pica is a psychological condition characterized by an irresistible urge to ingest inedible objects and materials. A young housewife (Haley Bennett) in a seemingly perfect marriage develops this disorder, and what starts with ice cubes quickly escalates to more confounding objects. Director/writer Carlo Mirabella-Davis crafts a film that is richly composed and led by an engaging performance from Haley Bennett. It grows more disturbing but it’s impossible to look away.  

13.  Anything for Jackson

 

From the beginning moments “Anything for Jackson” sets up an intriguing premise about a couple who try to resurrect their dead grandson through a pregnant woman. It’s a creative horror film with great characters that produces some of the best images and scares of 2020. Director Justin G. Dyck made a career crafting holiday romantic comedies, but his try calling may be in the realm of horror. Keep an eye on this director. 

12.  She Dies Tomorrow 

 

A film that relishes and transfixes you on the topic of existential dread, in the time of a global pandemic where everyone is forced to live in separation of one another and within their own thoughts, is easily the scariest premise of any film this year. Writer/director Amy Seimetz continues to prove an interesting creative, both with her acting choices and with her filmmaking pursuits. “She Dies Tomorrow” is funny, thoughtful, intoxicating, and uneasy. 

11.  Scare Me 

 

Take two people and put them in a cabin on a snowy night in front of a fireplace and make them tell scary stories…that’s the simple premise of “Scare Me”. This absolutely fun and funny story is directed/written by the talented Josh Ruben who composes a script that is filled with infectious comedy and some great characters. It’s a small concept executed with exceptional skill. “Scare Me” may be light on horror but it delivers on everything else.

10.  La Llorona

 

“La Llorona” takes folklore of the Weeping Woman and turns it into political commentary as the sins of the past come back to torment a Guatemalan General (Julio Díaz) who committed atrocious war crimes. Writer/director Jayro Bustamante layers the film with culture while slowly pulling the viewer further into the story of Alma (María Mercedes Coroll), a maid who enters the General’s home and family life. Most impressive is how Bustamante maintains steady control on the focus of historical horror that shapes the film, the truly frightening horrors that history tries to hide. “La Llorona” is elegant and engaging genre filmmaking. 

9.  Freaky

 

Sometimes an idea just falls in the right hands at the right time. “Freaky”, a body-swapping slasher film playing on the “Freaky Friday” motif, fell in the capable clutches of writer/director Christopher Landon who’s catalog of films have consistently embodied a pitch-perfect blend of horror and comedy. Landon’s voice as a filmmaker grows stronger with every film. Kathryn Newton is fantastic and Vince Vaughn gives a committed and often hilarious performance. “Freaky” is fun, plain and simple. 

8.  His House 

 

It would be easy to call Remi Weekes’ film “His House” a simple haunted house story, but the fact is that it’s so much more. The film centers on a refugee couple who narrowly escape their war-torn home in South Sudan and are relocated to a new life in a new home in an English town. For first-time feature director Remi Weekes the ghosts examined within “His House” are both remnants of the past and a conjuring of present-day fears and anxieties. It’s a fascinating balance of scares and social commentary about the dehumanization and historical trauma for people who survive the atrocities of violence and injustice found throughout the world.

 

7.  Alone

 

“Alone” is a stripped-down thriller that finds a cold-blooded killer chasing down a woman who barely escapes from a remote cabin she was being held captive. It’s a simple premise executed with a wealth of filmmaking flair and impressive grasp of the tone of the film. Jules Wilcox gives an emotional performance that ranges from grief-stricken to enraged. Director John Hyams creates suspense and tension with simple camera movements and never opts for the easy answers for the characters. “Alone” pushes its simple premise to its absolute limits.   

6.  Host

 

Just when you thought the first-person horror film was over, the safety protocols proposed during a world-wide pandemic bring it back with a unique and well-executed scary movie. “Host” was filmed during quarantine restrictions; director Rob Savage was tasked with directing actors remotely and actors had to set up cameras, lightning, and perform stunts. The vessel for storytelling was composed through the social meeting application “Zoom” where a group of friends come together to have a séance with the help of a medium. The result is innovative filmmaking that offers a horror movie with some of the best scares of the year. 

5.  The Invisible Man

 

The beloved Universal Monsters have found their share of updated renditions; so many new Dracula tales and even entire franchises surrounding the Mummy. Director Leigh Whannell cleverly updates “The Invisible Man”, separating itself from the past story and instead crafting a premise that is far more thrilling and creepier. Whannell’s skillful strokes within the narrative structure and intriguing filmmaking style make “The Invisible Man” one of the best updates of the original icons.

4.  Underwater 

 

I love a good creature feature, especially one that is committed to trying to scare you. “Underwater” doesn’t spend much time developing a complicated narrative, instead, it focuses on being a fun, mostly thrilling, sometimes scary, monster movie that has some interesting creature designs to watch development and eventually consume the screen. Kristen Stewart, who continually proves how exceptionally gifted she is at her craft, holds this film together with her interesting and committed performance. “Underwater” is one of the better additions to the aquatic horror genre of the last decade.

 

3.  Spontaneous 

Writer/director Brian Duffield takes the teen romantic comedy model and infuses it with pitch-perfect satire of familiar tropes, sharp comedic elements that run both dark and delicate, and bloody horror explosions by the gallons. However, most impressive amid these admirable elements, is the wonderful heart the film is able to compose with a great lead performance from Katherine Langford and a story that never sits comfortably with familiar choices but rather explores social aspects with metaphor and character. 

2.  Possessor: Uncut

 

There is so much to unpack with Brandon Cronenberg’s futuristic, genre-busting feature, so much that every person I’ve discussed the film with has taken something different away about the shifting narrative tone, the use of violence and gore, and the themes of fear proposed in different forms throughout the film. The premise is over-the-top, purposefully complicated, and the use of genre is startling, bizarre, and provocative throughout. “Possessor: Uncut” is dystopian fiction done exceptionally, uncompromisingly well. (**Note: There are two versions of this film. You will want to watch the UNCUT version.)

1. The Relic

 

“Relic”, from first-time feature director Natalie Erika James, is a film that still lives in my mind nearly half a year after watching it. The haunting imagery, the beautiful performances, and the use of genre to tackle the devastating health condition of memory loss and dementia. “Relic” is a great conversation horror piece for adults, one that displays why the genre of horror can be so fluid in how it tackles subject matter both simple and difficult, using monsters and scares to portray an understanding of real-life trauma. It's scary, devastating, beautiful filmmaking.

Honorable Mentions: 

 

16. The Vast of Night

17. Wolf of Snow Hallow

18. Hunter Hunter

19. Bad Hair 

20. The Wretched 

21. Sputnik 

22. Zombi Child 

23. After Midnight

24. VFW

25. Sea Fever

26. Vampires vs The Bronx

27. The Dark and the Wicked

28. The Mortuary Collection 

29. Koko Di Koko Da

30. Impetigore

31. Come to Daddy

Favorite Films 2020

Favorite Films 2020

By: Monte Yazzie

 

In January 2020 I was in Baltimore, Maryland taking crowded public transit to a packed outlet mall. I was there to sit inside a completely full 250 seat cinema ready to watch Kristen Stewart in the creature feature “Underwater”. The threat of a deadly virus was simply a cautioned whisper at this time, maybe a random tweet found while scrolling through the daily updates. 

 

A mere two months later would find the entire world changed, with closures, lockdowns, and curfews set in place to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. The last film I watched before everything closed was Kelly Reichardt’s wonderful “First Cow” at a press screening with fellow movie critics. If I would have known this would have been the last time I went to the movies without social distancing protocols, mask ordinances, and sanitizing stations, I would have ordered more concession food and sat closer to someone to hear them express some kind of emotion while watching the film. 

 

It would be August 2020 before I found my way back into a movie theater, monitoring the attendance for the perfect scenario when 5 or less people were inside a big enough theater to feel safe sitting and watching the silver screen for 90 minutes. The opportunity came on a quiet Wednesday afternoon with the movie sequel “Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula”, I was more concerned about my safety than the zombie mayhem happening on screen. 

 

Streaming has become commonplace in my home, looking for something new to come out while revisiting films from the past and rewatching entire seasons of television just waiting for the opportunity to return to the movie theater. If there is one truth found for me in 2020, it’s that cinema and the feeling of going to a theater with people will never be replaced. Movie theaters will forever be sacred meeting places for those that love moving pictures. 

 

Overall in 2020 I have watched more film than any other year of my life, some 500+ movies ranging from new films, every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, a curated home film festival of Ingmar Bergman movies, one whole month of Gene Hackman and Elliot Gould, terrible B-horror movies, a wealth of westerns from the 1960s and 1970s, and more than few Jackie Chan films from his early career. I introduced my son to Godzilla movies, watched a ridiculous amount of 80’s action films with my wife, and can recite almost every minute of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” with my daughter. 

 

Even amidst a lack of films released, with many being rescheduled towards the end of the pandemic, 2020 was still an amazing year from new films. Here are my favorite movies of 2020.

 

Top Twelve

12. Bacurau

The building of dread in Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles film “Bacurau” is exceptional; it’s a blend of fantasy, horror, history, and culture focusing on themes of colonialism, human injustice, and sacrifice. It’s played similarly to a western in the violent vein of Sam Peckinpah blended within a world modeled after the atmosphere in a Terry Gilliam dystopian future. Add the amazing performances of cult icon Udo Kier to the mix, as murderous leader of a bloodthirsty gang, and “Bacurau” is one of the most unique films of 2020. 

  

 11. Bloody Nose Empty Pockets

There is something interesting about familiarity. The fact that you could exist in a place, like a dive bar that sells mediocre beer but has a great jukebox, and confide in strangers you call friends in the confines of those scared spaces is a special kind of home away from home. And, for some regulars, it might be the only place they could call home for a few hours a night. “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” lives in one these sacred spaces with a group of regulars on the final night of operation. It’s fascinating and poignant watching people say goodbye, drink and smoke in hand, in their unique ways.

10. Soul

There are two moments in Disney Pixar’s “Soul” that I can still see and hear so clearly. When Joe, our disenfranchised jazz music teacher, freely plays a piece on the piano to a group of young people, showing how inspired and individual music can be. The other moment, when Joe leaves a club after, what he thinks, was supposed to be the defining night of his life. The expression that Joe makes as he exits is so familiar, but it’s an expression that changes the older, wiser, and more experienced you get in life. That’s the power of what Pixar is doing with “Soul”, finding emotions and showing you familiar and different ways to understand all those complicated feelings. “Soul” is bold and ambitious and beautiful storytelling.

9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

At the heart of Eliza Hittman’s film “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” is a story about a pregnant 17-year-old girl who is thrown into the intolerant and controlling adult world, one made more complicated and difficult because of her gender. It’s also a heartwarming story of womanhood shown through two young women traveling across state lines to obtain a safe and legal abortion. Faced with difficulties at every turn, Hittman never forces the political discussion but rather uses character to show how the process is faced. It’s poignant, powerful filmmaking.  

8. The Forty-Year-Old Version

The discovery of 2020 was writer, director, actor Radha Blank. Playing a fictionalized version of herself in the film “The Forty-Year-Old Version”, Blank stuns from start to finish. Forming a narrative that doesn’t settle for an easy Hollywood structure but instead dissects the ups and downs of the creative process, showing how inspiration finds everyone a little different. For Radha, the opportunity to flex her creative style is found with a choice to become a rapper. Photographed in stark black and white, within the mysticism of New York City, “The Forty-Year-Old Version” is exceptional art from a shining star of an artist. 

7. The Relic 

“Relic”, from first-time feature director Natalie Erika James, is a film that still lives in my mind nearly half a year after watching it. The haunting imagery, the beautiful performances, and the use of genre to tackle the devastating health condition of memory loss and dementia. “Relic” is a great conversation horror piece for adults, one that displays why the genre of horror can be so fluid in how it tackles subject matter both simple and difficult, using monsters and scares to portray an understanding of real-life trauma.  

6. Minari

It’s been said that a good story should feel universal. For director Lee Isaac Chung the story about a Korean American immigrant family who move to Arkansas to start a 50-acre farm is as familiar as it is unique. That’s the beauty of what Chung is doing with the film, displaying the theme of “the American Dream” but through a perspective of a family who comes from a different culture and looks different than those who practice the same craft. Steven Yuen and Yeri Han give exceptional performances as the married couple struggling to understand what they want out of life and how they will survive the many obstacles that persist through their life. It’s an intimate portrait of family dynamics but also a film that displays how hard it was, and still is, for non-white people to assimilate into America.

 

5. Another Round

Oh the joys of day drinking! Director Thomas Vinterberg may relish in showing a group of middle-aged men drink and dance, all who are educators at the same school, but these men concoct a semi-scientific plan to drink during their school day to see if a low intoxication will make their work day habits and skill better. It’s silly, plain and simple, but it’s also completely committed to the joke. And, in occupying this premise, the film wanders into something more personal, both for the viewer and the director. It becomes a film about coming to some kind of terms with adulthood, understanding the unease and anxiousness of aging, and the joy that growing older allows you to find in simple pleasures like good music, great food, or drinks with friends.  

4. Small Axe: Lovers Rock

There is a moment in Steve McQueen’s superb “Small Axe: Lovers Rock” when a group of house party attendees slow dance/grind to the song “Silly Games” by Janet May. The room of people, dripping hot with the sound of pattering footsteps finding its own unified rhythm, sway and glide around, next to, and into each other. The music slowly fades away and the entire room begins to sing the song, each of them dancing, singing, and fading into the ecstasy of the night. It’s one of my favorite movie moments of 2020. At a tight 68-minute run time, “Lovers Rock” is beautifully acted and incredibly photographed. It’s an ode to romantic reggae music, to a moment in time in London, and for the freedom found by Black youth at house parties from the discrimination waiting down the street. McQueen crafts an exhilarating story with a loving and soaring spirit.

3. Nomadland

Writer/director Chloe Zhao crafts a melancholy tale of a woman who loses everything in the recession and makes the move into a van to explore the American West in “Nomadland”. The minimalistic approach to the film composes some affecting emotional moments of isolation, both beautiful and bleak, and a loneliness that echoes more pertinent in the midst of a pandemic. With the exception of Frances McDormand and David Strathrain, “Nomadland” is supported with a cast of nonprofessional actors. This adds an authenticity that allows the viewer to sink deeper into the meditative rhythm Zhao narrates with the meandering yet contemplative structure. It builds and unfolds beautifully, painting a portrait of independence and peace found in a solitary existence. 

2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things 

Charlie Kaufman’s horror film? Seems too easy of a definition for one of cinema’s most wildly original filmmakers. Still, there is an unconventional use of genre elements employed throughout this film; you can feel the unease of the unknown, the creepiness of coincidences, the fear of discovering hidden intentions within others and, specifically, yourself. It’s all there, shaped and molded in a way that is distinctly Charlie Kaufman.  “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is a fascinating and complicated film. All the feelings produced throughout the film challenge one another: it’s interesting and infuriating, sometimes at the same time. But altogether it is simply pure cinema, another highlight in the career of Charlie Kaufman.

1. First Cow

Director Kelly Reichardt crafts minimalistic films centered around specific emotional relationships; the auteur has an undeniable ability to make the most simplistic stories feel overwhelmingly complex yet also richly textured. “First Cow” creates this same quality, one focused on the relationship between two unlikely friends. It’s a beautifully structured composition that is assisted by two actors, John Magaro and Orion Lee, who provide nuanced and natural performances. “First Cow” may serve as the perfect example of the kind of art Kelly Reichardt creates; emotional, historical, personal, and deliberate stories about relationships. It’s one of the director’s finest works

 

 

Honorable Mention

A Sun

The Assistant 

A White White Day

Beanpole

Boys State

The Climb

Da 5 Bloods

David Byrne’s American Utopia

Gunda

The Invisible Man

Mank

The Nest 

One Night in Miami

Palm Springs 

Possessor Uncut

Small Axe: Mangrove

The Sound of Metal

Spontaneous

Time

Tommaso

The Twentieth Century

Underwater

The Vast of Night

The Wild Goose Lake