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25 Best Movies of the 2020’s You Probably Haven’t Seen

Somehow, we’re already halfway through the 2020s. The world’s still on fire, the algorithms and A.I. have taken over, my readership is down (people love video, and yet, here I remain), and despite the fact that there is continued chatter about the death of cinema… great movies keep slipping through the cracks. While big franchise I.P. garbage continues to dominate the cultural conversation, there’s been a steady stream of bold, bizarre, and beautiful films flying under the radar. Whether they had a tiny theatrical run, got buried on streaming, or just never hit your watchlist, these are 25 films from this chaotic half-decade that you probably haven’t seen — but absolutely should. Read More

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Top Ten Films of 2021

What a year it’s been. In some capacities, post-pandemic life began to creep back to normal with the aid of vaccines. So too did the global box office. But multiple variants spooked people into skipping out of movies in theaters as a fundamental shift to the industry took shape. Day and date releases became more prevalent as the economics of a new movie market unfurled. A misleading rescue beacon, Spider-Man: No Way Home just delivered the best receipts of the entire 2020/2021 but that level of resurgent success seemed reserved exclusively for superhero content. No adult-skewing cinema has fared nearly as well. Read More

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Psychosexual Fever Dream ‘TITANE’ Pushes All the Right Buttons

It’s worth prefacing my thoughts on Titane by reminding readers that Julia Ducournau’s Raw was my favorite film of 2017. Darkly funny and completely uncompromising, that cannibal coming-of-age horror sunk its teeth in deep to unspool a surprisingly thematic story of sexual appetites, family politics, and genetic disposition. I loved every minute of Ducournau’s irreverent storytelling; her evident hunger to show up fully formed with her debut film, and her reveling in the national bloodlust that is the French New Extremity movement revealed a filmmaking talent of untold potential. Read More