Will Sorg-
10. Society of The Snow: One of the most astounding movies I’ve ever seen. The story it’s based on is deeply fascinating and honestly would be unbelievable if it didn’t actually happen. Overall, a ton of great performances by the cast and a really impressive showing from the Spanish film industry. The direction by J.A. Bayona is perfect for the film and features a ton of really intense moments. A deeply affecting and truly beautiful film can be found here along with the pure brutality of the story of survival in the Andes Mountains.
9. Past Lives: The only way to demonstrate how incredible this film is would be to tell you that it opens in the modern day with a simple scene. The scene is given without context and the only way to gain the full depth of the story is for the film to then flash back over 20 years to the past. The depth of character work on display in this film is immense. The film paints an intimate portrait of human relationships and how people from our past can change our lives permanently. It’s a wonderfully small-scale story that is still intensely complex.
8. Passages: This is one of the funniest movies of this year. A strange love triangle/square/line between a bisexual German filmmaker, his British husband, and his French mistress spirals into petty arguments and strange living arrangements. A truly human dramedy about the awful things people do to one another and the comedy that comes from the insane things people do for love. Although it wears the sheen of prestigious foreign film dramas at its core, this is a rom-com about European angst. Deeply awkward, perfectly acted, and truly a blast to watch.
7. John Wick Chapter 4: John Wick 4 is the perfect action movie. No one says their lines like a normal human being and the editing, cinematography, and all that other technical stuff is phenomenal. It’s got some of the most kinetic, entertaining action set pieces of all time and it’s got a cast that almost seems tailored to include a bunch of people I love. What’s crazy is that I don’t love the rest of the John Wick films nearly as much as I love this one. JW4 is simply a better movie than most films ever made. You can revoke my movie critic badge for this opinion if you want. Just know that I’m right.
6. Robot Dreams: This charming, wordless ode to friendship, loneliness and the unstoppable force of change within ourselves is an animated movie about a dog who orders a real sentient robot from an ad on TV. I almost guarantee that if this doesn’t blow up in the next year or so when it hits streaming services, it is going to have a cult following regardless. The whole thing is so likable and fun that it hits that much harder when the film gets to its emotional beats. I am not ashamed to say that I almost cried to September by Earth, Wind & Fire because of this wonderful movie.
5. The Boy and The Heron: Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most influential artists of all time. His films at Studio Ghibli have always been some of the greatest animated movies ever made but here he goes down another path than his typical work. Obviously, there are similarities to his previous works but this film is far more abstract. It reflects the artist’s own feelings on legacy, memory, loss, and the need to not allow the past to take hold over you. The film is a deeply unique work that features some of the most breathtaking animation I’ve ever seen.
4. Poor Things: I’ve been a Yorgos Lanthimos fan since 2018 and the recent surge of love for his offbeat, intentionally alienating style of filmmaking has been wonderful to watch. This film is easily one of his best. Emma Stone’s Oscar-winning performance is the centerpiece of the already impressive film that weaves between 1920s science fiction aesthetics and some sharply modern sensibilities that make the film electrifying to watch. Visually, it seems like a step up from Lanthimos’ already well-honed style. The sets and costumes are the best of this year. Overall it’s hard to stop singing this movie’s praises because it’s just that good.
3. All of Us Strangers: I talked about all of the following three quite extensively in my previous editions’ reviews for them. However, it is worth reiterating just how perfect All of Us Strangers is. Playing out almost like a dream, this movie is like a quiet hug. It slowly envelopes you until there’s this sense that you’ve been within the world of the movie for hours and you’re quite alright with staying in it for as long as it will allow you to stay. This was absolutely robbed at awards this year and that’s truly tragic because the film is a masterpiece of queer romance as well as a truly heart-wrenching look into the ghosts of our familial guilt and loss. It’s great, there’s a drug sequence that might be the best drug scene of the last decade.
2. The Zone of Interest: What is left to say about this soon-to-be essential film? No movie has truly captured the horrors of humankind in a way like this movie has. Jonathan Glazer meticulously researched the Holocaust in preparation for this movie and it shows. There is such a restrained mastery in the portrayal of this film. It does something remarkable in that it almost transfixes the viewer completely. You sit in your theater seat the whole time – almost unable to breathe. That is the horror of genocide, the fear that comes from seeing it every day and still choosing to do nothing.
1. Killers of the Flower Moon: Since my first review of this movie, I have seen it two more times. It is a masterpiece of the highest degree. A truly great American film that should be held in esteem as an example of how powerful the art of filmmaking can be. This is in my top ten movies of all time and may very well one day be in the top five or higher. A true landmark in Indigenous representation in film and an unstoppable force of a movie. I have never run out of things to say about this film and probably never will.