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2024 Top 10

Panda Plan

At the end of the film’s best action sequence, Jackie unadvisedly says what we’re all thinking: 'What a waste of time.'

Ruaridh Mollica—Sebastian, The Franchise—8/2/2024

I actually relate to [Max] a lot…I feel very proud to be a queer actor and proud to be waving the queer flag, you know?

Jayden Revri & George Rexstrew—Dead Boy Detectives—5/30/2024

[Rexstrew:] I made some mood boards about boarding school culture…and then some of the backstory was imagined. In the comic book, there's only one panel that mentions Edwin's parents, so I kind of filled a lot of that in…

Goodnight Mommy (2022)
A mixed bag, but there are definitely moments where the performances, direction and photography sync up for an effectively moody atmosphere.
Blonde (2022)
Bold, indulgent, polarizing, poetic, rapturous and artfully made but also an epic-length torment, like the secular The Passion Of The Christ.
The Woman King (2022)
The diffuse storytelling somewhat dilutes the film's themes but Viola Davis, a Terence Blanchard score and an inherently interesting milieu are all good reasons to see it.
Confess, Fletch (2022)
A triumphant re-thinking of the Fletch franchise with a flat-out great script, confident direction and a stand-out star performance.
Clerks III (2022)
The weakest of the three. It fails at taking its own emotional logic that seriously; the drama is embarrassingly schmaltzy and the humor hacky. Feels like a parody of itself.
Private Desert (2022)
A melancholic and poetic queer romance that teases out some interesting ambiguities about the nature of the story's relationship.
Pinocchio (2022)
There's an overabundance of unnecessary concessions to modern taste in this effects-driven, CGI-animated remake, but it moves along pretty nicely—and they haven't broken it.
Out of Office (2022)
Lightweight, flimsy and sitcomedic in the style of The Office, but its cast of funny people being funny is enough for a recommendation.
I Came By (2022)
Hugh Bonneville as a posh but psychotic killer with serious daddy issues. So-so script but enjoyable enough as a pulse-pounding thriller.
Peter Von Kant (2022)
Ozon's gender reversal of Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant straddles camp, but it's colorful and makes a bit more of the obsessive relationship between artist & muse.
The Delta Force (1986)
A dated and morally dubious propaganda film.
Samaritan (2022)
Well shot, but it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting—a wafer-thin plot, simplistic, and repetitive. It’s all theatrics and no theater.
Katrina Babies (2022)
A lot of this feels a bit like therapy in front of the camera,  but the subject matter is so compelling that, if approached from an emotional rather than intellectual standpoint, it definitely holds one’s interest.
The Invitation (2022)
Comes on like an old Hammer horror picture, but then becomes full of old-hat psychological horror theatrics lacking a single original or interesting idea or performance.
Me Time (2022)
A very strange mix of family sitcom and R-rated bro-down buddy comedy. A witless string of dumb comic set pieces and an unfunny slog.
Burial (2022)
A tense and compelling World War II thriller and a leisurely shoot-‘em-up made all the more unsettling by its deliberate pace, interesting ideas and timely sociopolitical parallels.
Loving Highsmith (2022)
Highsmith's prose, alternately earthy and soaring, best reveals the breadth of her personality, but the perspectives of her lovers humanize her to a more relatable degree...
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2022)
Worth seeing through to the bitter end...finds its soul when Ebo allows the satire to curdle into tragedy and the very real pain of its characters. 
Heat (1995)
A stealth epic, framing an urban jungle and making its own kind of contemporary history by pairing acting giants Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in what has arguably become the preeminent cops-and-robbers movie.
Sniper: Rogue Mission (2022)
A chintzy, corny, cheesy men-with-guns movie peppered with low-wattage humor and a lot of action movie cliches.
Paradise Highway (2022)
Ambition...effort...well-intentioned...some genuinely affecting grace notes on occasion, but it's also shameless.
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Despite its extremely messy story, if looked at as a '50s B-movie matinee, it's not too bad.
Funny Pages (2022)
The picture's 'soul'...is kindred to the anarchic underground comics its characters worship and long to create...Appropriately for a film about an 18-year-old, Funny Pages invites optimism and discomfort into a cold embrace.
Breaking (2022)
Serves as a low-key character study and an actor’s showcase for John Boyega.
Last Journey of Paul W.R. (2022)
To put it simply, The Last Journey has enjoyable trappings but doesn't amount to much.
The Territory (2022)
In the efficient and consistently engrossing 84 minutes of The Territory...Alex Pritz illuminates the terrible plight of Brazil's Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people, a worrisome situation with implications for all of humanity.
The Green Planet (TV) (2022)
Shot in twenty-seven countries over three years using cutting-edge technologies, BBC One's The Green Planet focuses on plants, their livelihood amidst growing climate challenges, and their relationships with other species...
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
A legit comeback for Raimi...He meets the moment with the good ol' Raimi dynamism and winking movie-love savvy.
Spin Me Round (2022)
An endangered species—an indie comedy with an original idea, which arrives at an extremely funny comic climax. Great Pino Donaggio score.
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
A solid western in its own right and an important film in African American cinema, with a healthy blend of western action, comedy and social commentary drama.
Steve Martin & Martin Short—Only Murders in the Building—5/25/2022
[Martin:] I've read that monkeypox is sexually transmitted, so neither Marty nor I could possibly catch it." [Short:] "Unless you can catch it through batteries."
Secret Headquarters (2022)
Basically a less creative and less idiosyncratic Spy Kids produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (that might tell you something).
Infinite Storm (2022)
The characters and their interdynamics simply aren't that interesting during the rescue, so somehow it all comes off as dull. But there is Watts (and who wouldn't follow her anywhere?)
Beast (2022)
The real draw here is actually the photography by Oscar-winning cinematographer Philippe Rousselot.
Day Shift (2022)
Unpretentious, light, and amusing with a horror-action kick. Ultra violent, but does an enjoyable job of vampire-hunting and vampire-society worldbuilding.
Hotel du Nord (1938)
One of the best examples of poetic realism, which was Marcel Carne's stock-in-trade. A satisfying blend of comedy, drama and romantic melodrama.
Orphan: First Kill (2022)
A prequel to 2009's Orphan, but despite a plot twist that perks up the story a bit, it's pretty much more of the same.
Vivo (2021)
It's fine...the plot is kinda clunky, but it's well cast.
Memory (2022)
You can pretty much forget about it.
Escape the Field (2022)
Feels longer than six seasons of Lost with only a sliver of that 'Mystery Box' show's cohesiveness. The actors gamely sally forth but they, like us, are getting nowhere.
Emily the Criminal (2022)
Largely feels cut from the cloth of the neorealists...[a] compelling dramatization of the strain the American economy puts on the indebted class of gig workers, and the lengths people may find themselves going to in the face of dwindling options.
Hot Seat (2022)
A ludicrous action fantasy full to bursting with lunkheaded macho banter and every cliche in the cat-and-mouse cyber-thriller handbook.
Species (1995)
Typifies middling Hollywood schlock: a pulpy, sleazy sci-fi/horror creature feature destined to cycle endlessly through cable airings and, now, to pad out streaming platforms.
Natural Enemies (1979)
The film's bold and uncompromising treatment of the frustrated modern man seeking—and perhaps finding—his last resort in gun violence has unfortunately only grown in relevance.
The Window (1949)
Ted Tetzlaff’s snappy thriller—adapted from the Cornell Woolrich short story “The Boy Cried Wolf”—straddles the rarely mapped line between Aesop’s Fable and film noir. 
13: The Musical (2022)
A musical for kids done very much in the style of Disney Channel Original Movies. A mixed bag, mostly harmless with impressive opening and climactic musical numbers.
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