C H A P T E R L I N K S :
• BEST MOVIES: 2024
• BEST DOCUMENTARIES: 2024
• BEST TV: 2024
• BEST RESTORATION
• C R I T E R I O N
• This will often spotlight directors for special merit.
But Auteur Theory is a shoebox; films are a collaborative effort with everyone involved.
• Because of varied global distribution, films from 2023 are listed in parenthesis.
B E S T
M O V I E S :
2 0 2 4
T H I N K
Woman, Life, Freedom.
This is probably the best movie of the year, and certainly the most haunting and relevant.
True democracy in Iran was replaced in 1953 by a puppet dictator, the Shah, beholden to Big Oil and the CIA. Fundamentalist fanatics seized power in 1979, and all vestiges of democracy have since disappeared under zealotic martial law.>
When the Morality Police beat a young girl to death over her clothing in 2022,> a massive public backlash sparked the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, filling the streets with brave student activists calling for a return to democracy with universal respect and freedom for all women.
Proving that the personal is political, this timely allegory scrutinizes the nation through the lens of a gripping family trauma. The father's new job for the government ministry during the uprise erodes all trust between family and friends, and the psychological drama quietly uncoils into a tense thriller.
Zealotry commits evil in the name of faith. For including actual footage of the protest struggles, Iran sentenced this film’s director to eight years in prison and he had to escape the country into permanent exile.
Reject all Fundamentalism as the oppression that it is.
See also:
the graphic novel anthology "Woman, Life, Freedom" (2024),
edited by Marjane Satrapi ("Persepolis")
How do you stand up for progress in a corrupt nation?
Francis Ford Coppola waited most of his storied career to create and self-fund this Speculative Fiction parable.
(or, How To Stand Up For Creativity In A Corroded Film Industry)
The film is an epic satire of ‘New Rome’, a corrupt classist America (Caesar) fluffered by a sensationalist Media (bread and circuses). Tellingly, it was assailed by media flacks from its filming to its release with embarassingly rabid fervor. All that payroll-troll hate just ended up validating the film’s message.
Lang and Harbou’s film METROPOLIS (Germany, 1927) was the hinge into modernity, examining the class schism between the toiling workers and rising mechanization, democracy vs. technocracy. The schism proved prophetic and personal; when the Nazis rose, he escaped them while she joined them. Rand’s fascistic novel "Atlas Shrugged" then retooled that film into American industrialist agitprop, exactly compromising the point.
Coppola, after a century, re-examines all of this with a defiantly humanist update. His satire of the rich overlords, their syccophant media, and their literal class war is exactly on point in every way, from style to statement. Unlike Rand’s cynical cipher, his haunted architect is determined to chart real progress for the suffering people, to bypass the impassable by opening up the once impossible. It’s the sheer intelligence of the script, girded in history and literature while winged by dreams, within all of the bold style that makes it an unparalleled success.
(If he’d done the architect’s story in expected terms, such as his classic '70s style, critics would have fawned all over it. He could call it THE BRUTALIST.)
What other film can you name this year (or recently) with this much fearless innovation?: the epic Shakespearian tenor, the sweeping scope at galloping pace, Adam Driver’s nervy improvs, the Deco futurism and hallucinatory opticals, the radical editing and experimental tone shifts, and his most fully inclusive cast ever. The film is informed by his career while forging frontiers. Coppola is an old master who is still more cutting edge than the latest hotshot.
This is one of the best films of his peerless resume, and certainly the most brazen. So burn all the bridles, spark the hooves, and fools be damned.
See also:
Lang’s METROPOLIS (Germany, 1927)
CLOSE YOUR EYES
• SEPTEMBER 5 ⇧
The seizing of the Israeli athlete hostages during the 1972 Olympics.
The whole world was watching. Like a fly-on-the-wall doc’, this riveting thriller follows the ABC sports crew telecasting from nearby and their struggle to cover the story without endangering the captives.
Filmed like the era, with journalistic depth and flawless period detail, the sharp drama makes no concessions; for every right move by the deft crew members, every questionable choice is also called to account.
This is the modern media being born in real time: crisis coverage, media branding, the terrorism narrative, captive audiences, ad hikes, news cycles, talking heads, opinion grooming, faction pimping,...
See also:
MUNICH (2005)
• CLOSE YOUR EYES (Spain, 2023) ⇧
A retired filmmaker suspects his long-lost friend might still be alive.
Victor Erice has made four films in fifty years, and each one matters. His classic debut, THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973), was one of the first to undermine the rule of the fascist leader Franco.
This first film in 30 years is a meditation of creative roads not taken, relationships unpursued, bonds abandoned. As the former filmmaker traces his loose ends, he begins suturing closure. A self-recovery that uncovers like a mystery.
Bob Dylan’s first dreams.
You’re able to write your own songs, broadcast your activism, change up your style, and keep your integrity in the music world because of this true story.
James Mangold’s auspicious bio-pic of Bob Dylan’s rise from 1961 boho folkie to 1965 zeitgeist herald is both a galvanization of crucial history and a primer for new souls about deeper possibilities. Here is why the '60s became THE SIXTIES.
Its octane drive pulses from full-blown festival recreations and a canny cast belting actual live performances. Marquee heartthrob Timothee Chalamet guiles wily as the mercurial youth and old-soul wordsmith, the secret whisper that provokes the storm. But it’s Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez who owns the show, as pitch-perfect in her worldly demeanor and scalpel tongue as her operatic range.
See also:
Scorsese's documentary 'No Direction Home’ (2005); Haynes' I’M NOT THERE (2007)
MIDAS MAN
• QUEER ⇧
Illegal love in a Mexican small town.
William S. Burroughs slipped into literature under a psuedonym with the backalley 1953 paperback "Junkie", but his sequel "Queer" went unreleased until 1985. He could veil his addiction in fictions, but couldn’t speak his affections at all.
Daniel Craig, directly playing against type, works hard to channel the essence of Burrough’s alter ego/ulterior echo/altar ergo (despite being so much the opposite of him in body and manner), from his erotic longings for a fickle adonis, to his shadow slide into dependance with its hypnagogic visions, to his mad quest for botanical enlightenment in the jungle.
All the ingredients are there, if cooked a bit unevenly, but there’s much food for thought.
to watch in their historical order:
• KILL YOUR DARLINGS (2013)
Early-'40s; Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg meet in college amid a murder
• THE LAST TIME I COMMITTED SUICIDE (1997)
1950; Cassady writes a letter to Kerouac
• BEAT (2000)
Early-'50s; Burroughs and wife Joan go to Mexico
• QUEER (2024)
1951; Burroughs in freefall after the tragedy
• NAKED LUNCH (1991)
[which is parallel to THE SHELTERING SKY (1990) about Bowles]
Mid-'50s; Burroughs’ hallucinatory book about his exile in Tangier
• HOWL (2010)
1955; Ginsberg changes literature with his breakthrough poem
• ON THE ROAD (2012)
written 1951/ published 1957; Keroauac’s crucial book about his cross-country road trip with Cassady
• HEART BEAT (1980)
The toll of that book’s success on Kerouac, Cassady, and their mutual love Carolyn
• BIG SUR (2013)
Early-'60s; Keroauc tries to detox and find zen in the mountains
• MAGIC TRIP (documentary, 2011)
1964; Neil Cassady drives Kesey’s bohemian bus across America.
• WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN (1978)
late-'60s; fictional telling of Cassady’s latter years
• MIDAS MAN ⇧
How Brian Epstein discovered The Beatles.
Brian discovered the greatest public phenomena of the century, but lived in constant fear of the uncovering of his private life.
Being gay was still a crime in early-'60s England, threatening prison or financial ruin. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is finely nuanced here as the suave promoter with the delicate soul, steering the world’s greatest band while navigating insecurities, myopics, and blackmailers. Everyone who knew Eppy loved him, and here is why.
(Newcomer Jonah Lees is also especially good as the young John Lennon.)
• REZ BALL
The Navajo basketball team dreams of winning the state championship.
Director Sydney Freeland (DRUNKTOWN’S FINEST) returns with co-writer Sterlin Harjo (creator of 'Reservation Dogs') for this winsome sports drama. As the conflicted coach, Jessica Matten ('Dark Winds') leads a spirited amateur cast with chops both on-screen and on the court. A good-hearted gem.
There need to be 100 new films and shows about all facets of Native American lives in every genre, just for starters, to make up for lost time. Bring it.
D A I S Y R I D L E Y
Daisy had the gall to be the best Jedi of all, and the incel brats couldn’t handle it. As typically insecure sexist bullies, they tried to dox her by downvoting her films. And, as chronic failures do, their attempts to fell her have failed.
Because meanwhile, in the grown world, Daisy has earned critical acclaim and awards doing indie films that let her experiment and flourish. And if you see an underlying theme of lone women overcoming thugs or ostricization, well, that could just be a coincidence (instead of Jedi mind tricks).
YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA;
MAGPIE
• SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING (2023) ⇧
The small-town nebbish might be coming to life.
The deliberate wallflower at the office in the Oregon coast town daydreams about surreal deaths. Meanwhile, that new-hire guy is really annoying and distracting. Rachel Lambert’s covert comedy is as surface steady and undertowed as its lead character.
• YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA ⇧
The young swimmer wants to take on the biggest challenge of all.
Women could hardly show up at the public beach in bathing wear in the early-1900s, let alone be allowed to swim. Despite side effects from measles, Gertrude Ederle swanned into a famous champion swimmer, with an eye toward the toughest horizon. This true sports bio-pic could have been overly familiar, but you’ll coast on its swells the whole way.
See also:
NYAD (2023)
• MAGPIE ⇧
Is he keeping her at home to keep her down?
Is it a a psychological drama or a thriller? Yes. A new mother is adrift in an English countryside, while her husband dallies at a local film shoot. Her frustrations turn to fears that question everything in her life. Expanding an original story by Daisy, this taut twister gains deeper layers the more you think about it.
See also:
GASLIGHT (1944)
S M I L E
The behind-the-scenes creation of the 1975 debut of 'Saturday Night Live'.
This is how it actually was.
Before the formula kicked in by 1978 (monologue, hit skits, catchphrase characters, the News, two music spots, sax bumpers, Warhol title cards, beer and pizza ads, 'good night everybody' wave), the first seasons of the show were a free-form grab bag of stoner improv, Altman-esque sketches, experimental films, and cult musicians (Leon Redbone). If the formula became like a night out at the Roxy, the primordial show was like an improv and cabaret in a Greenwich basement. (They didn’t even add the 'Live' until the third season.)
'Saturday Night' was the show where the CounterCulture finally took control of TV on their own terms.
It was rooted out of an untapped and insanely fertile early-'70s radical comedy ecosystem that straddled across NYC, Chicago, and Toronto, from cutting-edge standups and college improvs to 'Zap Comix' and 'National Lampoon' and KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE, from Artaud (Michael O’Donaghue) to Lucille Ball (Gilda Radner).
Jason Reitman’s cinema love letter to this lovely chaos is as precisely spot on as possible; the astoundingly accurate likenesses and voices of the cast and writers, the breathless feeling between rush and disaster (probably the coke), the studio details and the clothes and the slick execs and the music guests, the skit evolutions and recreations, the handheld Arriflex film grain, the backstage bloodletting, the whole debacle in a taco. The original show was experimentalism that happened to be hilarious, as far from formula is anyone could escape it. Primordial perfect.
For those tuning in late, catch up. Lively up yourself!
See also:
• the first five seasons of 'Saturday Night Live' (1975-'80)
• 'Second City Television/SCTV', (1976-'84)
• A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE (2018)
PROBLEMISTA; CHRONICLES
OF A WANDERING SAINT
• HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (Canada, 2022) ⇧
Can the fur trader fend off the Beaver apocalypse?
Yes, you do want a live-action slapstick freak-out like Roadrunner cartoons and 'Spy vs. Spy' on crank, and here it is but weirder. This fusillade of ludicrous sight gags in kooky animal costumes could get tiresome, but every gag actually builds exponentially into an astoundingly epic third act. Method/madness!
• MY OLD ASS ⇧
18-year-old meets her 39yo self while tripping.
Megan Park’s very funny film is surprisingly nuanced and touching, thanks to the reliably sly Aubrey Plaza (39) and the sunny breakout Maisy Stella (18). Always goofily funny and, before you know it, very moving.
• PROBLEMISTA (2023) ⇧
Salvadoran moves to NYC with dreams of designing conceptual art toys.
Julio Torres spritzes his unique cocktail of surreal glibness in this skewering satire of elitism, bureacracy, bias, cryrogenics, art galleries, corporations, and fetishism. As expected, Tilda Swinton walks away with it like absurdism is just another vogue ramp.
See also:
'Fantasmas' (2024)
• CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT (Argentina) ⇧
Or, how to con your way into sainthood.
Rose, the church cleaning woman, longs for recognition. She concocts an odd scheme to fob a statue as a miracle. And then things abruptly go odd.
Be sure to stay past the credits.
ANORA; LAROY, TEXAS
• THE MONK AND THE GUN (Dzongkha) ⇧
If the people have the ballots, why is the monk looking for bullets?
After knowing only monarchy, Bhutan will now be a democracy. Mock elections are held as training exercises and, in the mountain provinces, a monk calls for firearms. Finding out why, as you become charmed by the guileless villagers along the way, is the fun of this wry and timely gem.
• THE CRIME IS MINE (France, 2023)
She takes the blame for the fame, but then...
A slapstick mystery that spoofs celebrity, the courts, and the press flacks. Struggling actor Madeleine just wants to become famous through the crime she didn’t do, but life keeps complicating it with who did. A fun tribute to 1930s screwball comedies and the golden era of French cinema.
• THELMA ⇧
93-year-old Grandmother scooters into a heist adventure.
June Squibb wins the day with her hearty performance as the nonplussed but plucky Senior grabbing the wheel from scammers. This fun romp is softly a family dramedy, and Richard Roundtree, in his final performance, goes out on a lovely grace note here. Rev up.
See also:
STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF (2024)
• ANORA ⇧
An exotic dancer may have married into bad Russian wealth. Who’s in trouble here?
Writer/director Sean Baker (THE FLORIDA PROJECT, TANGERINE) continues pushing the envelope inside out, which was duly rewarded by Cannes and AFI, and nommed at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
Watch it for the Living Room Showdown in the middle alone, and stay all the way for mouthy Mikey Madison giving what for to all comers. Brooklyn represent.
• LAROY, TEXAS (2023) ⇧
He’s not the real hitman, but now everyone’s after him for it.
Like a Lone Star State cousin to FARGO, this smart farce about hapless local yokels in over their heads scatter-shots on a great cast: schleppy John Magaro, hustlin' Steve Zahn, a bravura NASHVILLE-esque spin by Megan Stevenson, and an edgy Dylan Baker.
• HIT MAN
The schizoid fable of the college prof marketing himself as a cold assassin.
Another curveball from Richard Linklater (BEFORE SUNRISE trilogy, BOYHOOD), this amiable zinger is quietly devious in convincing you that Glen Powell and Adria Arjona's ('Good Omens', 'Andor') hijinks are just fine.
D R E A M
Part 2 ⇧
Long live the fighters.
If Part 1 was all the setups of the epochal 1965 book, then Part 2 is all of the payoffs.
The first film, true to the steady build of Herbert’s royal intrigue, was a stately industrial grind. But the second, where everything surges spindrift, is chaos opera. Coil / Release.
Director Denis Villeneuve, now past the warm-up, goes for broke without brakes. The result is a beautiful, subversive, and innovative experience that dances free as flame. Anarchic energy suffuses its many moods: the human and spiritual Fremen sand rebels, personified by the zestful Javier Bardem; the creepy ferocity of the anti-christ Feyd (Austin Butler); the politic cool of the beatific Bene Gesserit order (Rebecca Ferguson, Lea Sydoux, Florence Pugh); the compassionate activism of Chani (Zendaya); the transformation of Paul (Timothee Chalomet) from rich outsider to guerilla fighter to heretic/messiah.
Herbert’s hero uprising saga is actually a cautionary tale; disguised as Jesus and Hamlet and Lawrence, it is covertly a sharp critique of oligarch supremacy and colonialism (power), martial law and nuclear extortion (military), climate disaster (non-science), and manipulation by zealot faiths (church) that is as timely as ever. Be careful what you put your faith in.
✭ Special commendations to production designer Patrice Vermette, costume designer Jacqueline West, and editor Joe Walker. And, thanks to Grieg Fraser’s startling cinematography, it could arguably be the best shot SciFi film yet made: the granular sand oceans of Arrakis’ roiling tundras, and the severe Black/White noir panoplies of the villains’ homeworld (whose fireworks look like viruses in negative). Consummate craft on every level.
See also:
Lean’s LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962); STAR WARS (1977); JOHN CARTER (2012)
Also read:
Heinlein's "Stranger In A Strange Land" (1960)
What happened after Caesar began the planet of the apes?
This is where we’ve never been before.
The First Wave of APES films (1968-'73) told us of a future and its origins in the past, but barely sketched any of the middle. The recent Second Wave of 'the Caesar trilogy' (2011-’17) rethought the beginnings as -let's call it what it is- an alternate timeline.
After the sophistication and dramatic brilliance of the Caesar films, the safe bet would be to leave it all alone. But the unspoken truth is that, someday, there will be a revision of that future endpoint, and the way to get there is a new trilogy about the middle years.
Let’s snuffle the elephant in the room. Fans are resistant to a remake of the 'original' PLANET OF THE APES film (1968), and crucified the 2001 rethink for doing so. But they are wrong twice: both are loose adaptations of Pierre Boulle’s 1963 book, and each is strong with what new ideas they brought. So stop with it. Both are great, go read the book to appreciate their updates.
So I’m going to go out on a limb here, guessing: eventually there will be a third 'Future trilogy' (Taylor) to bring this all full cycle, starting with a new third version of the original book. And then you will ultimately see in these nine films how the alternate timeline started by the first Caesar trilogy frees that up for new possibilities we haven’t seen before, and an alternate future than was shown before.
(calm down, deep breaths, go with the change)
Which is why this second trilogy started by this fourth film is so valuable. Every move it makes that signals what we’ve seen before is actually doubling out what we haven’t. It pretends to be a cover version of our memories when it’s really a counter-melody. Inversion is the key, from Noa to Nova to the ending twist. Everything is secretly telling you that the past is overwritten and the future will be rewritten. From story to craft, this excellent film is the smartest ape in the room.
(I’ll write a longer article about the entire evolution of the APES saga, from page to screen, in the near future.)
The secret story of what happened between ALIEN and ALIENS.
Here’s the prime lesson every prequel and sequel should understand: do what you haven’t done before, with the same impact.
Set in the decades span in between the first ALIEN (1979) and the sequel ALIENS (1986), this exceptional prequel/sequel/(midquel?) is at it's best when doing new things, while integrating the whole history of the series cohesively. Its few weaknesses are the general bane of any series, of turning the unknown into rote formula. (It's literally in the title, folks; keep it alien to us instead of familiar.)
Doing what you haven't done before means exploring the mysteries, which lead to the possibilities. And then to second-guess expectations with fresh zags instead of tired zigs. This film does it with the humanity it brings to terrific leads Cailee Spaeny and the versatile David Jonsson through their sibling bond. Along the way, it also cleverly connects the evolutionary dots between the two PROMETHEUS prequels, the four ALIEN films, and even the cult fave 2014 video game.
This film by Fede Alvarez was so well-made and recieved that a follow-up to it is justified and welcomed by everyone.
WICKED
• FURIOSA: A Mad Max Saga ⇧
The secret origin of Imperitor Furiosa.
Everyone wanted a standalone movie starring Charlize Theron. Because of off-screen tensions, we instead got a prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy with just enough panache and turbo to distract you from the fact that it is a reheat of the superior FURY ROAD (2015). It’s a fun drive, even if it mostly takes the familiar path instead of the uncharted. Enjoy the ride anyway.
There’s actually a whole prequel to this that could be made about her mother and the fate of that commune. Ta da, trilogy. Just saying.
• GHOSTBUSTERS: Frozen Empire ⇧
The new team hits the big city.
The quiet brilliance of Jason Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS: Afterlife (2021) lay in stripping back to new basics, setting it in midwest nowhere and rebuilding everything from scratch. Since the classic GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), every version since had remade it, from the rushed 1989 sequel to the unfairly undervalued 2016 reboot. Reitman, son of the original director Ivan Reitman, rebirthed the saga from an indie-style mystery that unveiled into a family affair and a legacy handoff. The very freshness of this phantom approach was its strength.
This follow-up, co-written by Reitman and director Gil Kenan, is a fine time and solid expansion. Somehow it manages to juggle the new family with the original cast, with little noticable strain for balance. They freshen the villain but feel a bit too familiar in the big NYC climax. (Hint: continue to do what you haven’t done on the next one.) Breaking new ground continues to keep this new team from going bust this time around.
• WICKED, Part 1 ⇧
But why is she the Wicked Witch of Oz?
Baum’s beloved 1900 book, "The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz", is open to myriad interpretations. The 1995 book "Wicked" and its 2003 stage musical posit the flipside of the Wicked Witch’s version of events.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), loved by every person ever, is one of the best crafted films there is, from story to visuals to songs to costumes to design. This spiritual prequel amplifies every inch of these to the nth.: the Rococco Deco city and school, the fashion-fervid costume design and coiled coifs, the vivid and codified color palette, the soaring camera, the breathless pace, the showstopper numbers.
But the brains of OZ is always its heart. What anchors this lovely cotton candy tornado is the story of Elphaba's quest for acceptance. It's a given that MVP Cynthia Erivo always walks off with every film she sets foot in, so she's of course perfect leading this supple tale of overcoming bias and rejection with acuity. Her surprising match/duet/foil is Ariana Grande, whose snap precision as an uber-Deb’ wanna-witch gleefully skewers every influencer and Heather hither. Each nefarious and hilarious. ✭ Special citation for Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum, as well.
See also:
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939); THE WIZ (1978)
▶ THE CANON: 50 Books That Created Modern Pop Culture
N I G H T M A R E
SLEEP;
NOSFERATU;
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
• A QUIET PLACE: Day One ⇧
The day that They came.
A QUIET PLACE I and II should have rounded out with a climactic third part about the rural family. Instead, the studio made a prequel origin story of the alien invasion set in the city. This could have been a terrilbe mistake, giving us more of same for no reason. (The cardinal rule of prequels should be: never rob out the original by doing the same things 'before' it. Do unexpected things with the same impact.)
But it works because we get a needed grounding of the story in the bigger urban picture, and Lupita N'yongo is mesmerizing as the ill woman who has to make a stand.
(Here’s hoping that they still come back around to that third part finale.)
• SLEEP (S. Korea) ⇧
A husband’s sleepwalking may be veiling something more sinister.
The core of this movie is how engaging the young couple is. They are so believable and likable as early lovers that they win us over, regardless of what kind of story surrounds them. Which is why, as things tilt askew, we really feel alarm. This is a great thriller and perhaps a new classic.
• ODDITY (Ireland) ⇧
No one should get away with murder.
When a woman is killed at an Irish country home, suspicion compels her sister to find the true culprit. Arriving unannounced, she brings her clairvoyant skills and the mystery in the wooden box. A meditation on karmic justice.
• NOSFERATU ⇧
The vampire returns.
Murnau's classic silent film NOSFERATU (1922) was, er, an 'unoffical version' of Stoker’s novel "Dracula" (1897), streamlined to basics and with startling Expressionist imagery.
Robert Eggers (THE WITCH, THE LIGHTHOUSE) spent his career wanting to homage/reinterpret this. He recombines Murnau's film with Stoker’s book for breadth (and some of THE EXORCIST), while bringing in deeper references from Romanian and Hungarian culture to Vlad the Impaler. The veteran cast sells it well, but it is recent newcomer Lily-Rose Depp whose passionate performance gives lifeblood to the story. Notably, Jaren Blaschke's moody cinematography tributes the original film with the tinted B/W dream sequences.
See also:
NOSFERATU (Germany, 1922); Coppola's DRACULA (1992); SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (2000)
• LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL ⇧
Tonight’s sponsor is Satan.
NETWORK (1976) meets THE EXORCIST (1973). A live late-night 1977 talk show invites a young girl on who claims to possessed, and then...
Many love this film but I just like it. It’s the spot-on attention to period detail that sells me, and the rest is fun extras. Don’t touch that dial.
E N I G M A
Why does she stalk the cyber-killer trial?
There’s an urban myth about Red Rooms, where torture is paid entertainment on the Dark Web. (It’s untrue.) Don’t be confused by others with the same name (TV series, horror comic), this is the one to see because of its tricky shifts.
Superficially akin to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, in that a mysterious young woman uses hacker skills in a larger mystery, this film is solely its own. Intelligence is its calling card, always intense but never grisly, ever thoughtful without going bombastic. Who is she, what is she doing there, what does she know, where is this leading? This is a spellbinding mystery of the best order.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
• WOMAN OF THE HOUR ⇧
Has the quiz show guest won a date with a serial killer?
True story: in a 1978 episode of 'The Dating Game', a mass murderer charmed his way into winning a date. Director/star Anna Kendrick plays a composite of the contestant who won, using this framework to reveal his wider murder spree across the decade. It works as a compelling thriller, while damning the social infrastructures -lax police, sexist media, flippant public- that allowed this hideous sociopath such leeway for so long.
• STRANGE DARLING ⇧
The man and the woman are in a survival contest.
Five chapters told out of order, challenging your perception, making you question what you think you see. Adrenal action, gritty camera work, kickdrum editing, and more twists than a noose.
See also:
Nolan's MEMENTO (2000)
• LOVE LIES BLEEDING ⇧
Is their love a ticket out of this nowhere town or to disaster?
An hallucinatory neo-noir by Rose Glass (SAINT MAUD) about lust, murder, and bodybuilding. Lonely outcast Kristen Stewart is mesmerized when stunning bodybuilder Katy O'Brien (ANT-MAN 3) walks into the desert town gym. Things careen out of control, and at times make you question what is real.
See also:
THELMA AND LOUISE (1991); BOUND (1996); DRIVE AWAY DOLLS (2024)
• THE BEAST (France)
A karmic relationship in three acts across time.
Is the man following the woman across three incarnations a lover or a stalker? An art film by Bertand Bonello that is carried by the always great Lea Seydoux and the admirable craft.
• CLUB ZERO (2023)
The new Nutritionist at the elite prep school has a radical approach.
Mia Wasikowska is deadpan guile as an inscrutable advisor who proposes dubious life changes. Co-writer/director Jessica Hausner's (LOVELY RITA, LOURDES) demented black comedy is a steady build by degrees from mundanity toward counter-sanity.
G R A P H I C
I M A G E S
When these two get together, everyone crashes the party.
Yes, it’s full of jokes and action set pieces, and that’s enough fun for itself. But what really pushes this film forward is how it reintegrates Marvel.
Before Marvel Studios began in 2008, many Marvel characters were licensed to other studios: 20th Century Fox had The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Deadpool, Daredevil, and Elektra; Sony had Spider-Man, Venom, The Punisher, and Ghost Rider; Universal had The Hulk. Because of mergers and handshake deals, Disney can now integrate these characters back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), bringing the true and complete Marvel together on the screen.
This film is essentially a love letter to all of those earlier Fox-era films, and a multiversal roundup that brings them around to the present. The guest stars are startling, the mayhem crazoid, and the fan-payback priceless.
(Milllions. It took many millions of dollars.)
A R T F L I X
2024 was a banner year for smart and diverse animation.
THE WILD ROBOT;
FLOW;
MARS EXPRESS
• INSIDE OUT 2 ⇧
Riley is now 13; what could go wrong emotionally?
INSIDE OUT (2015) was perfect and this expansive sequel makes it more so. Pixar only makes sequels when a good idea justifies it, and they take years to finetune them.
The first film was such a smash success and social phenomena because it is truly profound: emotions are the sensors of our consciousness, and here they were stripped to their essence to clarify the base emotions that guide our early lives. It was the mirror we all recognized ourselves with.
Emotions gain complexity in time by combining, and this sequel explores that second level as Riley hits adolescence. The base 5 emotions gain 4+ more and what could be a chaotic tumble (like teenhood) is another revelatory thrill ride (like life). This is the mirror where we start to see our depths.
• THE WILD ROBOT ⇧
The abandoned robot rebuilds a new self on the forest world.
A refreshingly great story that moves the heart. MVP Lupita Nyongo voices the earnest robot who has lost her programming but gains empathy through the wilderness creatures around her. A lovely time in every way with rich imagination, charming and touching characters, and savvy lessons.
See also:
THE IRON GIANT (1999); WALL-E (2008)
• FLOW (Latvia +) ⇧
As the tides rise through the forest, the animals work together to survive.
A delightful film, as rollercoaster as a dream and as mysterious as the "Myst" game. Truly universal with no dialogue, the stealth ecology parable follows a cat and verging animals on a survival quest across a strange forest realm. All-ages and all win.
• MARS EXPRESS (France) ⇧
Do androids dream of something more?
An exemplary tech-noir mystery in the mode of Philip K. Dick, with two future detectives threading a conspiracy in the android service industry that leads to the oligarchal red planet. Sophisticated and adult, balancing revved action with heady ideas.
See also:
CHINATOWN (1974); BLADE RUNNER (1982); RENAISSANCE (France, 2006); ‘Westworld’, Season 2 (2018)
• ORION AND THE DARK
Turns out that The Dark is a really fun guy.
The kid's afraid of everything, and then he's shown other ways of seeing. This film starts annoying, gets interesting and then fun, and bursts into its best in the third act, where it briskly deconstructs itself and goes zingy.
She wants a way out of this backwards nowhere.
LOVING VINCENT (2017) illustrated Van Gogh’s life by doing actual full paintings frame-by-frame in his style. The same creators now interpret Reymont's serial book (1904-’09) in the styles of 19th Century Polish painters, based on filmed actors. The result is a true synthesis of fine art and cinema.
Always relevant, Reymont's parable is a potent distillation of how women are mistreated by inbred society: desired/hated for beauty, coveted as objects of status, abused and cast aside without mercy. A failure to appreciate the film for this timeless message would be just that. This is as powerful and valid a political statement as any this year, and deserves the highest respect.
The War Of The Rohirrim
(Japan / New Zealand) ⇧
Hera must save the people in the fortress from rising evil.
Set before "The Hobbit" and the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, this gripping animated prequel tells the origins of the Helms Deep fortress (seen later in the film, THE TWO TOWERS).
Kenji Kamiyama worked with the Jackson/Walsh/Boyens team to extend from their live-action films, while reinterpreting Tolkein in an Anime approach. This hybrid progression augers the production's strength, of trying new possibilitites with classic material.
(see also: ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ series)
Amid all the usual macho bustling, Hera the warrior grabs the reins and brings in the rest of the human audience with her. She liberates the tale to be more and deeper, and fittingly it is narrated by her spiritual heir Eowyn (Miranda Otto herself), who becomes crucial to THE RETURN OF THE KING later. A fine addition to the canon on every level.
See also:
LOTR in animation:
• Rankin/Bass' 'The Hobbit' (TV, 1977)
• Bakshi's THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1978)
• Rankin-Bass’ 'The Return Of The King' (TV, 1980)
THE IMAGINARY
• SIROCCO and the Kingdom of the Winds (France, 2023) ⇧
Two young sisters fall into the magic realm from an author’s books.
A beautiful tour de force of French psychedelia in the mode of Moebius or Cirque du Soleil, this wondrous tumble through the looking glass unveils secrets and surprises.
See also:
YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968)
• THE IMAGINARY
(Japan, 2023) ⇧
A land of imaginary friends.
After Miyazaki first retired, a producer and many artists from his Studio Ghibli branched into the worthy heir, Studio Ponoc, debuting with the spritely MARY AND THE WITCHES FLOWER (2017).
Their second film is even better and braver. What could have been enough as a whimsical epic about imaginary friends who bond together takes riskier turns dealing with real-world losses along the way. The adept film trusts the audience as it peels its reveals across magic cities, sinister villains, and plot turnarounds. All fans of Studio Ghibli will be rewarded.
• LOOK BACK (Japan)
She wants to be the best Manga artist, but the mystery girl is so much better.
This 60-minute film packs a feature's worth of ideas and emotions. Two teen rival Manga artists find common connection by putting in the time together to be their best. A tacitly mature story that is ultimately poignant.
(England) ⇧
The criminal penguin Feathers McGraw may be on the loose from prison.
The Aardman studio (CHICKEN RUN) returns with another thoroughly pleasing and clever escapade, as an old arch-enemy enacts a plan of revenge on the spacey inventor and his nimble dog.
B E S T
D O C U M E N T
A R I E S :
2 0 2 4
• MADE IN ENGLAND: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
Golden Age classics from London.
Martin Scorsese honors the career of his visionary heroes, who made BLACK NARCISSUS (1948) and the masterpiece THE RED SHOES (1949).
• MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK
The auteur Director.
Mark Cousins ('The Story Of Film: An Odyssey', 'Women Make Film') essays cinema's iconic most Director.
• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story ⇧
You will believe in the man that tries.
A very moving doc' about Reeve’s traumatic accident, and his crusade for ongoing medical research which has benefited many lives.
• BIBI FILES
Gaza-cide.
A dissection of the crimes of the right-wing fanatic, Netanyahu.
• UNION
Amazon employees move to unionize.
An expose of Amazon's union-busting perpetrated by owner Jeff Bezos.
• POWER
Police State.
An exam and expose of the hundred year history of Police, and the corruption therein.
Beatlemania from the inside.
A HARD DAYS NIGHT (1964) was the fantasy of The Beatles' iconoclastic rise, but this new doc', executive produced by Martin Scorsese, gleans behind-the-scenes of that mad mad mod mod year.
• LET IT BE (1970) ⇧
A revelatory remastering.
Who wants to watch your parents fight? As a lifelong fan, I avoided watching this 1970 film because of decades of bad press about group in-fighting.
All untrue. In reality, it's mostly music as the band finds the tunes, and has the briefest of miscommunication moments.
This remastered version is now as clear in its picture and sound as it is honest. Taken as a prelude to Peter Jackson's epic expansion series, 'Get Back' (2021), the film allows us a candid view of our heroes as human beings while they make classic standards out of the ether.
The greatest Soul label of all.
Memphis redefined Soul music for the ages in the mid-'60s, and then The Man came to wipe them out.
Thrill anew to the crucial sounds of Booker T And The MGs, Otis Redding, Sam And Dave, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, The Bar-Kays, the Wattstax concert, and so much more.
[Note: this new 4-part series for HBO shouldn’t be confused with the also great 'RESPECT YOURSELF: The Stax Records Story' (doc', 2009).]
• SAVE THE CHILDREN: A Concert For The Ages
Classic Soul concert returns.
A remastered reissue of Jesse Jackson’s 1972 benefit concert for urban youth, with a stellar roster; Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Isaac Hayes, The Chi-Lites, Gladys Knight And The Pips, The O’Jays, The Staple Singers, and The Jackson 5, plus many more.
In full-view and still outta-sight.
• THE 9 LIVES OF BARBARA DANE ⇧
Secret hero of the resistance.
Dane belted out Folk, Blues and Jazz; was fearlessly activist before most anyone, from civil rights to No-Nukes; was praised by Bob Dylan; recorded with Benny Carter, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, The Chambers Brothers, and many more.
• MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS
The composer behind the soundtracks of modern film.
JAWS, STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, SUPERMAN, INDIANA JONES, E.T., JFK, SCHINDLER’S LIST, HARRY POTTER...
The Rings Of Power
B E S T
T V :
2 0 2 4
N E W S
you have to laugh to keep from screaming.
• The Rachel Maddow Show
• LAST WEEK with John Oliver
• PBS NewsHour
• PBS FRONTLINE
• THE DAILY SHOW ⇧
D R A M A
The Day Of The Jackal
• Shogun 1 ⇧
Feudal lords vie for control of Japan.
Clavell's 1975 bestselling epic -adapted as a TV miniseries once before in 1980- is masterfully reinterpreted, from the widescreen vistas to the cloistered intrigue. Long-time fan-favorite Hiroyuki Sanada gets rightful due as the ethical lord, but the central power here is the layered performance by Anna Sawai as the conflicted translator.
(Note: This intended mini-series adapted the bulk of the book, but popularity led to its renewal for two more seasons.)
• The Day Of The Jackal 1 ⇧
The hunt is on to stop the world's greatest hitman.
Forsyth's bestselling 1971 book about a mysterious assassin was adapted into the classic 1973 film. This contemporary and international version rethinks and expands on the general premise with nailbiting results, propelled by the rivalry of killer Eddie Redmayne and agent Lashawna Lynch.
(Note: Like 'Shogun', this intended mini-series was renewed for another season from popularity.)
See also:
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (1973)
He’ll do whatever it takes to get ahead.
Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock could have become the best writer/director team of thrillers in history after their triumph, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951). But the proud lesbian and the controlling misogynist chafed each other. She forged new success by writing the kind of movies they might have made as a lauded series of books.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1955), about a chameleonic grifter killing his way to fortune, schemed across four more books up to 1991, before her passing. It was adapted first as the classic film PURPLE NOON (France, 1960), but is most often known by the wildly popular version THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999).
In 2019 Showtime had the brilliant idea to adapt the five books in sequence for a season per book. Then everything interrupted (Lockdown, Strikes, funding woes) before Netflix picked up the ball.
All this preamble is necessary because the general public often thinks the '99 film is 'the original', and context brings better insight and appreciation to any comparisons. Showrunner Stephen Zaillian’s stunning new interpretation expands beyond what Highsmith and Hitchcock might have done. Shot for shot, it is one of the best master classes in cinematography ever televised (thanks to Robert Elswit), an international day-noir in incredibly crisp B/W with arresting compositions. With eight hours, it enriches her story structure with extra depths, newly adding many of the motifs that audiences have raved over (his background, the pen, painting, La Dolce Vita, the elevator, the disposings, the inspector).
Highsmith’s book is so solid that any interpretation wins, but this vaults a new high bar for excellence.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1955):
• PURPLE NOON (France, 1960),
dir. Rene Clement
• LES BICHES, a.k.a., The Does (France, 1968),
dir. Claude Chabrol
('unofficial' female version)
• THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999)
• 'Ripley' Season 1 (2024)
"Ripley Under Ground" (1970):
• RIPLEY UNDER GROUND (2005)
"Ripley's Game" (1974):
• AN AMERICAN FRIEND (W. Germany, 1978),
dir. Wim Wenders
• RIPLEY’S GAME (2002)
See also:
SLEUTH (1972 and 2007); THE ORIGIN OF EVIL (Canada/France, 2022)
and:
Highsmith's CAROL (2015)
Slow Horses;
Blue Lights
• True Detective: Night Country 4
A new crime, a new style.
The classic pulp magazine 'True Detective' was (theoretically) truthful. Nic Pizzolatto's three season TV anthology (2014-’19) used that title with irony through unreliable narrators, following investigators with something to hide.
New showrunner Issa Lopez picks up the baton with a different focus, moving away from the stealth throughline of occult murders linked across time and hewing toward the hint of supranormal hinted at before. (The result may have more in common with 'The Terror' anthology series than the original show.) Jody Foster and Kali Reis investigate a bizarre mass death in the Alaskan snowdrifts, which quietly comes around into a powerful social statement.
See also:
CATCH THE FAIR ONE (2021)
• Slow Horses 4
The MI5 outcasts of Slough House face problems too close to home.
Based on Herron's espionage book series, this show only improves each year. The punkly acerbic Gary Oldman is the ballast for the spy ensemble dramedy, with additional fine turns this time by mentor Jonathan Pryce and the mysterious villain Hugo Weaving.
• Blue Lights 2
A new player comes into the scene to wipe out the crime lords.
In the wake of The Troubles, a Dublin cop unit struggles to serve a fractured community that hates them. No longer rookies this season, a wider canvas opens for the cast from the precinct to the law offices in interlocking stories about trying to resolve the pain of the past.
See also:
‘The Wire’, Season 4 (2006)
Get Millie Black
• This Town ⇧
What can a poor boy do but play in a Rock’n’Roll band?
In the early 1980s, Jamaican and Irish immigrants living in Midlands council estates, snared in the troubles between Britain and Ireland, look for a way out by making music together. A talented young cast, some crack evocations of the postpunk music scene, and strong political critiques of the Brit military and IRA diehards and criminals in between make this edgy dramedy a hit parade.
• Get Millie Black ⇧
Raised in London, a cop returns to Jamaica to sort out her troubled past.
In 'This Town', the callbacks to the characters' Jamaican heritage often use most of the soundtrack to THE HARDER THEY COME (1972) as pop shorthand.
This denuded series reveals the real Jamaica outside of tourist bubbles -its poverty and squalor, the class divides and corruption, the inherent bigotries, the striving desperation. It doesn't shy from the flaws of its lead either, the dogged but exploitative detective played deftly by Tamara Lawrance. Great turns also by the supportive cast, with Joe Dempsie and Gershwyn Eustache Jr as cop partners, and Chyna McQueen as her sister.
The Jetty; Under The Bridge;
Fight Night
• Lady In The Lake ⇧
Two separate deaths have secret connections.
In late-'60s Chicago, a young Jewish girl and a Black woman are killed. This noir mystery with political undertones starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram corkscrews its way to the entwined truth.
• The Jetty ⇧
Is the culprit someone she knew?
In a small English town, investigator Jenna Coleman ('Doctor Who', 'The Sandman', 'Victoria') finds that an odd arson case keeps intersecting with the wounds of her past.
• Under The Bridge ⇧
In 1997, a teen girl is found murdered in a British Columbia berg.
Based on a true story, from the book by Rebecca Godfrey. An estranged writer (Riley Keough) and a suspicious cop (Lily Gladstone of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON) familiar with the local gangs and school cliques follow the leads ignored by the establishment cops.
• Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist ⇧
During Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback fight, someone rips off the Black Mafia.
A fun romp based loosely on a real event which homages early-'70s Blaxplosion* crime films. As mob bosses gather in an Atlanta suburb to watch the live telecast, a masked crew robs them and vengeance goes on four-alarm. A slapstick frolic from an all-star cast, with Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle, and Terence Howard.
* 'Blaxploitation' has become too derogatory a term to describe the vital explosion of black films from this crucial period.
D R E A M
Doctor Who;
Time Bandits
• Dune: Prophecy 1 ⇧
The origins of DUNE.
Frank Herbert wrote two trilogies about the desert world Arrakis before his passing. His son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson continued his legacy spinning many prequels and sequels from his copious notes.
This prequel TV series, set 10,000 years before the current DUNE films, reveals the origins of the Bene Gesserit order and their motives for gene-grooming an eventual messiah. Emily Watson and Olivia Williams are the supple vets leading a fine cast of newcomers amid all the court intrigue, circuitous backstories, and explosive action.
The series has the highest of cinematic production values, with extravagant set design and costumes, all firmly in service to the story. Showrunner Alison Schapker brings an impressively Herbert-ian script complexity and main director Anna Foerster packs the rousing one-hour season finale with more intensity than most films.
• Doctor Who ⇧
The Doctor is In, and Out.
The first full season (plus two Christmas specials) starring Ncuti Gatwa, whose ebullient charm is contagious.
Russell T. Davies, the original showrunner for the 2005 reboot, returns with key writers like Stephen Moffett aboard. Davies (creator of the seismic 'Queer As Folk') always pushed the boundaries of BBC before, but now he sprints unshackled using progressive positivity in sharp political satire against conservative oppression, the war industry, bigotry, and social media trolls. All antidoted with tapdance pace, quickwit one-liners, and eureka reveals.
• Time Bandits 1 ⇧
What's a little stealing from time to time?
A dream project for Jermaine Clement and Taiki Waititi, who use the basic structure of Terry Gilliam’s classic film to expand out thoughtfully with wider possibilities. The rowdy result is more nuanced and inclusive, and a whole lot of fun.
It got one season, but is worth the time.>
See also:
TIME BANDITS (1981)
The ultimate Star Trek comes to its conclusion with grace and triumph.
The final season of what has been the most innovative series in Star Trek history.
Right from the opening credits in 1966, the Star Trek mission statement has been to pursue the new and embrace all possibilities. 'Star Trek: Discovery' sythesized all of the strengths of the previous shows and films, from humane stories to serial arcs to cinematic scope, while pushing harder and further with what hadn't been done before.
The impact of this show is immeasurable. Its production scope was more vast, its inclusion more rich, its chances more risky than any version. In its middle, it literally replaced Federation history with a do-over in a new era. Its stories were so rich that they inspired two new spin-off series and a standalone movie. In fact, every Trek project since 2018 has gained all of their edge, maturity, representation, breadth, style, and fearlessness directly from this show. The boldest.
All hail Captain Burnham and the new future.
✭ Special commendation to Michelle Paradise for her co-showrunning of the revolutionary seasons 3 through 5.
Prodigy
• STAR TREK: Lower Decks 5 ⇧
The final season.
From its first warp, this hilarious animated spoof has been a metatext love letter to everything Trek, from the silly to the sacred. On the way out, it ushers in a wider future of possibilities in one giant leap.
• STAR TREK: Prodigy 2 ⇧
The youth team have to save everything, before time runs out.
This is a consistently excellent series that too many have missed.
Pitched as a kids entry-level show, it is actually an all-ages animated adventure with the most cutting-edge design of any Trek show. Along the way, it is also a direct sequel to 'Star Trek: Voyager', and solves three decades-long Trek mysteries (related to Time) through one character. Prodigious.
A vendetta may begin the end of the Jedi.
STAR WARS (1977) was a prism refracting all of the pop culture that George Lucas grew up on. Because of these cultural touchpoints, any kind of SW can be told in any genre.
It’s well known that Kurosawa’s THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (Japan, 1958) was an influence on that film. But the director first made his international breakthrough with the film RASHOMON (Japan, 1950), where a brutal incident in the forest is told from different points of view. (Hence Luke’s flashbacks versus Kylo’s in THE LAST JEDI.) The subjective approach forces the viewer to make their own conclusions about what happened. Both Kurosawa and Johnson depended on the audience to have the maturity to follow an innovative story and be imaginative enough to track its possibilities.
The entire purpose of this mini-series was to subvert all of the expected rules of SW storytelling, to open up more range in it again. Showrunner Leslye Headland, acclaimed for doing this very thing with the series 'Russian Doll', succeeded at every turn. It is structured unusually as a Film Noir mystery, revealed in flashbacks from varied points-of-view, that evolves into a conspiracy story about corruption by degrees. Following in the pattern started since THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015), it brings shaded nuance to the formerly absolutist Good vs. Evil outlook, bringing empathy for some villains and doubt about some heroes. Expected pillars fall while unknown factors take center stage. Everything expected is undone and the unknown takes sway. This is the story where instability starts to fracture the Republic.
So here’s the upshot. A real Star Wars fan understands the innovation, genre approaches, and series continuity involved, and appreciates the first-rate level of craft in this mini-series. They get that this story, set a century before Episode 1, is specifically revealing the first steps toward Palpatine and the future corrosion of the Republic.
But literalists and reactionaries do not. A person who lacks imagination, or the understandings of how creativity works, will always want things to be objective, to be simple and familiar and explained clearly. Literalists will always complain that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 'doesn’t make sense', that 'Twin Peaks' is too weird, that 'Lost' got too confusing. Reactionaries will always complain from hate, which is why they tried to dox this series for daring to have a black female lead. Ignorance, hate… a Jedi craves not these things.
This is a smart show, made with cutting-edge craft, for progressive fans with intelligence. It is a success in every way.
✭ Special commendation to Carrie-Ann Moss, Dafne Keen, Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, and most especially to the great Amandla Stenberg.
▶ Why The ACOLYTE 'Cancellation Narrative' Is Wrong
See also:
RASHOMON (Japan, 1950); COME DRINK WITH ME (Hong Kong, 1966); 'Russian Doll', seasons 1 and 2 (2019-’22)
▶ How STAR WARS Is Changing Everything!
'The Goonies' go to 'Treasure Island'.
This is actually the SW show where everything could have gone wrong, and it never does.
STAR WARS (1977) became the biggest film of all time very fast because it was a pop culture prism embraced all around the world. It was never, however, solely the province of conservative white boys in American suburbia fantasizing with merch toys.
(see also: Trolls)
So when this series opens like an '80s Spielberg burb-bubble (cue E.T., POLTERGEIST, THE GOONIES, BACK TO THE FUTURE, Zemeckis, Dante, Hughes, Columbus...), it looked like a Kenner Kid taking over the studio again. Alarm klaxons.
But nope. This series rapidly somersaults into one of the most outrageous, surprising, hilarious, and inventive SW stories ever made. It’s impossible not to love this much fun. John Watts and Christopher Ford (SPIDER-MAN: Homecoming) turn every convention about suburban kids, pirates, and fantasy adventures inside out, with every flip a jolt and any upset a whoop: the pegleg droid, the astronomer owl, the cybernetic girl, the crafty stranger, the teen soldier, the mint, the ship in the ship...
Anyone not getting this doesn’t know their AT-AT from their At Attin.
See also:
TREASURE ISLAND (1950)
• STAR WARS: The Bad Batch 3
The final season.
Omega is the key. The marine/mercs framework limits the appeal, but the evolution of the freespirit female clone demands complete attention.
• STAR WARS: Tales Of The Empire
The origin of one villain and the swan song of another.
Fans expecting a second season of the animated 'SW: Tales Of The Jedi' got the flipside instead: the backstory of Ahsoka’s nemesis, and the final fate of an errant Jedi. One of Dave Filoni's strengths in guiding the television shows is continuity, clearing up mysteries and giving closures: his animateds connected the First Trilogy to the Second, and his live-actions are now connecting the Second to the Third.
Orphan Black;
Constellation
• Silo 2 ⇧
The bigger picture emerges.
This is one of the best shows being made.
Howey's book trilogy, about people living in an underground silo for post-nuclear survival, is being adapted across 4 seasons. An unraveling mystery on its surface, a class struggle critique underneath, and a hope for a better future beyond the mistakes of the past in between. Rebecca Ferguson is the unremitting force that holds it together, with fine turns by Tim Robbins, Common, Harriet Walker, Iain Glen, and Steve Zahn.
• Orphan Black: Echoes 1 ⇧
Who are they all?
'Orphan Black' (2013-’17) was perfect, so why would anyone chance doing a sequel?
Because there is a different great story to tell. Admirably, it is an inverse of the original, swapping multiple clones played by one person* for one genetic reprint played by three people. Set a few decades forward, it is fresh and canny at every turn, with great work by Krysten Ritter ('Breaking Bad', 'Jessica Jones'), Amanda Fix, and Rya Kihlstedt.
It got one season, but is worth the time.>
* the peerless Tatiana Maslaney
• Constellation 1 ⇧
The stars realign to chart her course.
After a mysterious and tragic occurrance on a Space station, life on Earth for an astronaut becomes surreal and disturbing. Noomi Rapace is sterling in this parable about second chances, and the special effects for the station sequences are supurbly realistic.
It got one season, but is worth the time.>
The Rings Of Power 2 ⇧
The One that rules above all.
The best show being made.
It is unequaled on every level: nothing comes close to it for cinematic scope, from its majestic worldbuilding and poetic dialogue, to its visual aesthetic grounded in classic paintings and mythic literature. J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have exquisitely crafted an original prequel from Tolkien's expansive appendices to rival the author's real narratives.
If the first season set the characters and the plot momentum, the second multiplied the breadth and depth, ramping the dark intensity while revealing the previously unseen: the secret history and evolution of Sauron; the debut of the Stoors, the Barrow-wights, and the long-anticipated Tom Bombadil onscreen; the court intrigue that turns the tide for Numinor's future; the founding of a key Elven realm; and the identity of the Stranger from the sky.
This is the true strength of 'The Rings Of Power'... pursuing what hasn't been done or seen before. The unflinching and inspired drive to unveil the new, to expand the mythos we all love by reflecting the range of humanity with inclusive representation, to hone the craft higher and wilder, to ignore any restrictions from holdbacks and champion possibility for all.
And also to speak decisively against the rising Fascism of today the way Tolkien that did in his time. The Professor wrote the books as a catharsis and condemnation for the two World Wars. He knew that plurality and unity, where everyone respects and supports each other, was the way to defeat dead-souled dictators. An allied resistance will always win, and Trolls are just empty puppets whose hateful rage means nothing.
United, we are the true ring of power.
✭ Special commendations to the directors Charlotte Brandstrom, Louise Hooper, and Sanaa Hamri; production designer Kristian Milsted and costume designer Luca Mosca; cinematographers Alex Disenhof, Laurie Rose, and Jean-Philippe Gossart; and Bear McCreary’s scores.
▶ LORD OF THE RINGS: The Rings Of Power ⬤ The One Rules All
Outlander;
Interview With The Vampire;
Dead Boy Detectives
• Renegade Nell 1 ⇧
The 1800s outlaw thief gets framed for murder.
Sally Wainwright earned widespread critical cred as showrunner/writer for the gritty cop drama 'Happy Valley' and the progressive historical 'Gentleman Jack'. No one expected this curveball of a Robert Louis Stevenson-style adventure with fantasy elements.
Pirate romp, romance, adventure, comedy, this rollicking frolic has it all. Bounding on the nomadic heels of roguish star Louisa Harland, it stirs in dollops of class satire and populism, to boot. A splendid time.
It got one season, but is worth the time.>
• Outlander 7.2 ⇧
Claire and Jamie's part in the American Revolution.
Usually adaping one of Gabaldon’s books per season, the show made the surprising move to spread one sprawling book across two.
Rather than compress so many plot points, they simply went wider. The result is an emotionally rich journey, with gut-punches from surprise angles, shrewd historical commentary, and welcome inclusion.
This series has consistently been the best romance on television, and whenever it seems it's going to stray or fray, it always proves to be right on course.
• Interview With The Vampire 2 ⇧
The international journey of Louis and the fate of Lestat.
AMC is adapting Rice’s vampire books, each book in two seasons and in sequence. The classic first book is from Louis' point of view, setting the stage for the mythos that follows.
Hindsight is acute. This series bettered the original book by being aware of the total evolving book continuity and weaving it together within this beginning, and by changing the slaveholder lead of the original into an independent Creole with a new perspective. As a revision and expansion of the book, it is a rousing success in every way, from cast to nuance. Jacob Anderson (Louis) and Sam Reid (Lestat) are hypnotic, and Ben Daniels gleefully chews the scenery as a literally theatrical villain.
• Dead Boy Detectives 1 ⇧
Spirit detectives solving supernatural crimes.
Originally created in the mature Vertigo Comics line, this show was a stealth spin-off of 'The Doom Patrol' that also connects to 'The Sandman'. A comedy series with heart moments, much fun lunacy, and some romance.
It got one season, but is worth the time.>
A N I M A T I O N
The finale, like a jackhammer.
'Arcane' has been a revolutionary series for animation, creating a painterly style cohesively throughout both foreground and background. Its meticulous worldbuilding, breakneck action, and blue-streak graphic style became a zeitgeist phenomenon for gamers, animators, Manga and comics illustrators, graf artists, skaters, sporters, SciFi and Fantasy fans, and cosplayers.
Because of production time it took three years to get another season, and because of its budget it only got a second. The end result is like a recap of three full-season storylines crammed into arcs of three episodes apiece. Its clear that the showrunners must have had plots for a second, third, and fourth season worked out, but then had to strobe these plot highlights across one instead.
This ends up working by sheer force of skill. Amid all of the hyperbolic data-blast, there are just enough blurted explantations and character moments to sell the action whirlwinds as a story. They may have done this just to give the fans resolution, rather than be cut off before they could reach the finish line.
It's great, we love it and were lucky to get it, but they should have had four seasons to tell it fully.
(side-eye at Netflix.)
What If?;
Moon Girl
• Batman: Caped Crusader 1 ⇧
The Dark Knight returns.
'Batman: The Animated Series' (1992-’95), made even better.
What the WB had treated as a kids show, HBO retooled as an adult fan show, with less brakes and higher thrust. Original showrunner/designer Bruce Timm returns to create a mature Film Noir procedural with inclusive rethinks of iconic villains and a supporting cast who will become important heroes and villains in the future.
• What If? 3 ⇧
The big picture of the All.
Quietly, the most subversive and integral show of the MCU.
Why? Because the Multiverse allows for deconstruction of any story into the most radical of variations. Covertly, the show has used alternate timelines to secretly build the wider universe beyond the MCU; and to introduce all-new characters that then become live-action; and to set the stage for integrating teams into the MCU which were once liscensed to outside movie studios; and to visually unify everything in the Jack Kirby design aesthetic that singularly defined the Marvel Comics cosmos from the beginning.
(see also: Kirby Krackle)
Jeffrey Wright has been terrific portraying The Watcher, the omniscient narrator who blueprints the big picture for the audience of how everything is connected together. And the long list of name stars voicing their characters is wondrous: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Benedict Wong, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Tessa Thompson, Tom Hiddleston, Oscar Isaac, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Stanley Tucci, Hayley Atwell, Josh Brolin, Kurt Russell, Rachel Wesz, Jude Law, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Lyonne, Michael B. Jordan, and the late great Chadwick Boseman.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.1 ⇧
13yo genius fights Lower East Side crime beside her crimson T-Rex.
The second season came in two parts, with the first in 2024 and the second in 2025. (Should they have just called that the third season? Yeh, but whatevs.)
This visual treat is a potpourri of astounding art styles: Pop Art, graffiti, screenprint textures, graphic design, and psychedelic color. But it's also an all-ages brainy show about ethics, family, school, science, and owning your intelligence. Come for the eye-blast, stay for the heart and the mind.
See also:
fans of the SPIDER-VERSE films should be watching 'Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur', 'Your Friendly Neigborhood Spider-Man', and the live-action 'Ms. Marvel' series
• Terminator Zero 1
There must be an alternative to Doomsday.
There are two 'F words' in creativity - franchise and formula: franchise (shudder) is a greedo's word for exploiting success into an assembly line; formula is the rote repetition that robs out new possibilities. How many great works have been drained of their impact by lesser follow-ups?
THE TERMINATOR (1984) was a surprising B-movie that upgraded with an A-level 1991 sequel, but has had variable results in sequels ever since. Like any sequel, it's always best when it pursues what it hasn't done instead. This anime's value lies in that, charting Tokyo's reaction to Judgment Day and then countering with a new possibility. Renewal is the best pursual.
• Futurama 12
Refreshed delivery.
First debuting in 1999, the show has been around enough (in later revivals) to reap the seeds of itself. The current run works stories out of the long relationships and families of the 30th Century delivery team. If the once cutting-edge has become familiar, well, that's how life evolves and should be appreciated just for being around. It's all still fun and sometimes revelatory.
H E R O E S
Oz Cobb takes over Gotham from below.
When this HBO series was first greenlit as an adjunct expansion to THE BATMAN (2022), audiences must have wondered why. After a long wait, the answer is a gritty street epic in the mode of THE GODFATHER and 'The Sopranos' that stands on its own impressive merit.
Already an acclaimed actor for some years, Colin Farrell (unrecognizable beneath body prothetics) becomes another person entirely here in temperament, voice, movement, and range. His Oz is a streetwise sociopath whose damaged body hinders none of his cannonball trajectory toward total underworld domination.
But the show is stolen by Cristin Milioti as the enigmatic mob heir, Sofia. Her every move sews tension like a weaving python, leaving us tautly unsure what she has done or will do. It is one of the best performances of the year and deserves reward for it.
Showrunner Lauren LeFranc has helmed a hardboiled neo-noir on par with the best, a mature crime saga rooted in character-driven scripts, action blowouts, and sweeping cinematography.
Echo
• Agatha All Along ⇧
Be careful who you trust on the Witches' Road.
When Marvel announced this spin-off of a 'WandaVision' villain, many wondered why.
The answer is an in-joke that gets seriously fun. If the first show had been a deconstruction of television, this is naturally a deconstruction of spin-offs, figuring itself out as Agatha figures out who she is going to be.
Kathryn Hahn throws herself headfirst into a magical mystery/ road trip/ ensemble musical/ ex’n’hex romance/ occult comedy/ drama maze, flashing facets as she goes. It's all worth it alone just to enjoy the crack cast (including Patti LuPone) break out into catchy songs like they're on an eldritch Yellow Brick Road to destiny. ✭ Special note to Joe Locke as the cryptic teen.
See also:
'WandaVision' (2021)
• Echo ⇧
Unsure of her future, a Native American woman goes back to face her past.
Echo, a deaf Cheyenne with formidable athletic skills, was created in the comics as a foil to Daredevil in 1999. She made her live-action debut on the 'Hawkeye' series (2021), portrayed by Alaqua Cox.
In this spin-off, Echo is a Choctow martial artist who escapes the crime world of NYC (The Kingpin vs. Daredevil) to recoup back home in Oklahoma. The result is a stripped-down show on a local rural level, played deliberately low-key and naturalistic, that explores her search for identity and empowerment. Cox, a winning newcomer with real action chops, is supported by an ace Native American cast that includes Devory Jacobs ('Reservation Dogs'), Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, and the ubiquitous Zahn McClarnon.
See also:
BILLY JACK (1971)
Supacell
• The Umbrella Academy 4 ⇧
The finale season for the wiseass super-team.
'The Umbrella Academy' (2007) was rock star Gerard Way's comics rethink of Moore and Gibbons' 'WATCHMEN', with dashes of Lee and Kirby’s 'The X-Men' and Morrison's version of 'The Doom Patrol' in the mix.
The live-action series has been smart fun every minute, only getting better and chancier as it went. Invented postmodern and recent without continuity baggage, the mutant ensemble could be as outrageous and fluid as needed with every weird turnaround and reset. A great cast and a great run. ✭ Special note to Elliott Page and Ritu Arya for their fine work.
• Supacell 1 ⇧
Each is powerless, until the day they all shared an inner power.
Five unconnected young people in London with no ties in common discover that something unique inside bonds them to a higher purpose.
Created by British rapper Rapman, this bracing series takes familiar themes into welcome new expressions, creating an inclusive superhero presence for the UK that critiques the bigoted parameters which cause the criminal underground, class restrictions, and government oppression.
See also:
'Misfits' (England, 2009-'13); 'Black Lightning' (2018-'21); 'Raising Dion' (2019-'21)
C O M E D Y
We Are Lady Parts;
Only Murders In The Building
• Girls5Eva 3 ⇧
Can the reunited Girl Group survive their own comeback tour?
The funniest show on television.
After two seasons off the radar on Peacock, the satire of Pop Idols jumped into the Netflix spotlight for a finale third season. This relentlessly funny show skewered everything in today's prefab cashgrab world: the Pop assembly line, shallow Idols, music videos, Social Media-crity, bad feet, hustle culture, the name Lesley, that thing over there. More crack lines in seconds than good sitcoms manage in minutes, this was the comeback kid all the way.
✭ Special commendations to the cast: Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and MVP Renee Elise Goldsberry.
• We Are Lady Parts 2 ⇧
Can the band make the big time without selling out?
The other funniest show on television.
Creator/writer Nida Manzoor's molotov cocktail of Punk rebellion, a love letter to postmodern Muslim women in London, and a hearty satire drawing correlations between faith constrictions, the record industry, and corporate control. A salvo for freedom and representation with great songs. It's got a great bleat and you can skank to it.
✭ Special commendations to the cast: Anjan Vasan, Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, Lucie Shorthouse, and Faith Omole.
See also:
'The Young Ones' (1982-'84); POLITE SOCIETY (2023)
• Only Murders In The Building 4 ⇧
A good friend disappears, just as a Movie Version of the sleuth trio takes them to Hollywood.
The show's success only serves to better itself, as copious guest stars drop by (Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Eva Longoria, Kumail Nanjiani, etc.), plotlines get more ambitious, and sly joking about itself cascade.
• Fantasmas
The search for the golden oyster earring.
Julio Torres goes even more surreal with this short series, scouring NYC while discovering all of its singular people. The uniquely odd show gets stolen by an elegant turn from performance artist Martine Gutierrez.
See also:
PROBLEMISTA (2023)
B E S T
R E S T O R A T I O N
Classic Films are the timeless canon from which all movies expand. They are essential to be seen, and should be enjoyed at their best.
Here are some of the important film restorations of the past year.
• THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (Germany, 1920)
Robert Wiene • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• PANDORA'S BOX (Germany, 1929)
Georg Wilhelm Pabst • 2k (Criterion)
85th Anniversary Theater Edition (1939) ⇧
Victor Fleming • 4k (MGM)
Frank Capra • 4k (Sony)
• DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
Billy Wilder • 4k (Criterion)
• THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947) ⇧
Orson Welles • 4k (Sony)
• CROSSFIRE (1947)
Edward Dmytryk • 4k (Warner UK)
SALT OF THE EARTH;
PATHER PANCHALI;
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
• VICTIMS OF SIN (Mexico, 1951) ⇧
Emilio Fernandez • 4k (Criterion)
• A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Country, Year)
Brian Desmond Hurst • 2k (Kit Parker)
• SALT OF THE EARTH (1954) ⇧
Herbert Biberman • 2k (Film Masters)
• SEVEN SAMURAI (Japan, 1954)
Akira Kurosawa • 4k (Criterion)
• The Apu Trilogy:
PATHER PANCHALI, APARAJITO, APUR SANSUR Box Set (India; 1955, 1957, 1959) ⇧
Satyajit Rey • 4k (Criterion)
• TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)
Alfred Hitchcock • 4k (Paramount)
• INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1957) ⇧
Don Siegel • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
Alfred Hitchcock • 4k (Paramount)
I AM CUBA;
NOTHING BUT A MAN;
BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL
• PEEPING TOM (England, 1960)
Michael Powell • 4k (Criterion)
• LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (France, 1962) ⇧
Alain Resnais • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• 8 1/2 (Italy, 1963)
Federico Fellini • 4k (Criterion)
• I AM CUBA (Cuba, 1964) ⇧
Mikhail Kalatozov • 4k (Criterion)
• NOTHING BUT A MAN (1964) ⇧
Michael Roemer • 4k (Criterion)
• BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (Brazil, 1964) ⇧
Glauber Rocha • 4k (Criterion)
ARABESQUE;
ROSEMARY'S BABY
• ALPHAVILLE (France, 1965) ⇧
Jean-Luc Godard • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• ARABESQUE (1966) ⇧
Stanley Donen • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968)
Norman Jewison • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) ⇧
Roman Polanski • 4k (Paramount)
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Italy, 1968)
Sergio Leone • 4k (Paramount)
EMITAI;
PAPER MOON;
THE CONVERSATION
• WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) ⇧
Mel Stuart • 4k (Warner Bros.)
• EMITAI (Senegal, 1971) ⇧
Ousmane Sembene • 4k (Criterion)
• McCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971)
Robert Altman • 4k (Criterion)
• AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (W. Germany, 1973)
Werner Herzog • 4k (Shout!)
• PAPER MOON (1973) ⇧
Peter Bogdanovich • 4k (Criterion)
• CHINATOWN (1974)
Roman Polanski • 4k (Paramount)
• THE CONVERSATION (1974) ⇧
Francis Ford Coppola • 4k (Paramount)
• PHASE IV (1974)
Saul Bass • 4k (Vinegar Syndrome)
• BLAZING SADDLES (1974)
Mel Brooks • 4k (Warner Home Video)
WATERSHIP DOWN;
STAR TREK;
APOCALYPSE NOW
• JEANNE DIELMAN,
23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Belgium/France, 1975) ⇧
Chantal Akerman • 4k (Criterion)
• NOT A PRETTY PICTURE (1975)
Martha Coolidge • 4k (Criterion)
• PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (Australia, 1975)
Peter Weir • 4k (Criterion)
• BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS,
or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)
Robert Altman • 4k (Indicator)
• WATERSHIP DOWN (England, 1978) ⇧
Martin Rosen • 4k (BFI)
• STAR TREK: The Motion Picture (1979) ⇧
Robert Wise • 4k (Paramount)
• APOCALYPSE NOW:
The Final Cut (1979) ⇧
Francis Ford Coppola • 4k (United Artists)
STOP MAKING SENSE;
PURPLE RAIN;
REPO MAN
• STIR CRAZY (1980) ⇧
Sidney Poitier • 4k (Powerhouse Films)
• PARIS, TEXAS (1982)
Wim Wenders • 4k (Curzon Film)
• NOSTALGHIA (Russia, 1983)
Andrei Tarkovsky • 4k (Kino Lorber)
• STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) ⇧
Jonothan Demme • 4k (A24)
• PURPLE RAIN (1984) ⇧
Albert Magnoli • 4k (Warner Bros.)
• REPO MAN (1984) ⇧
Alex Cox • 4k (Criterion)
BLUE VELVET;
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY;
THE ABYSS
• STAR TREK III: The Search For Spock (1984)
Leonard Nimoy • 4k (Paramount)
• WITNESS (1985)
Peter Weir • 4k (Arrow)
• BLOOD SIMPLE (1985) ⇧
Coen Brothers • 4k (Criterion)
• BLUE VELVET (1986) ⇧
David Lynch • 4k (Criterion)
• THE LAST EMPEROR (1987)
Bernardo Bertolucci • 4k (Criterion)
• BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989) ⇧
Oliver Stone • 4k (Shout!)
• THE ABYSS (1989) ⇧
James Cameron • 4k (20th Century Fox)
BOUND;
RUN LOLA RUN
• Kurosawa's DREAMS (Japan, 1990) ⇧
Akira Kurosawa • 4k (Criterion UK)
• FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (China, 1993)
Chen Kaige • 4k (Criterion)
• BOUND (1996) ⇧
The Wachowskis • 4k (Criterion)
• LOST HIGHWAY (1997)
David Lynch • 4k (Criterion)
• RUN LOLA RUN (Germany, 1998) ⇧
Tom Tykwer • 4k (Sony)
• ZODIAC (2007)
David Fincher • 4k (Paramount)
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD;
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT;
ANATOMY OF A FALL
• INTERSTELLAR (2014) ⇧
Christopher Nolan • 4k (Paramount)
• MUDBOUND (2017)
Dee Rees • 4k (Criterion)
• THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)
Guillermo del Toro • 4k (Criterion)
• THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (2021) ⇧
Barry Jenkins • 4k (Criterion)
• SAINT OMER (France, 2022)
Alice Diop • 4k (Criterion)
• ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Germany, 2022) ⇧
Edward Berger • 4k (MPI Home Video)
• ANATOMY OF A FALL (France, 2023) ⇧
Justine Triet • 4k (Criterion)
• PERFECT DAYS (Japan/Germany, 2023)
Wim Wenders • 4k (Criterion)
C R I T E R I O N
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH;
BICYCLE THIEVES;
FORBIDDEN GAMES;
FIRES ON THE PLAIN;
ZAZIE Sans Le METRO
Netflix is like the flashy dance club of streaming entertainment, but The Criterion Channel is for the deep cuts of real culture.
It needs to be said. Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hulu impress with their glossy New Now, and they do have many current gems, but they generally lack heritage classics. All width and no depth. That's all fun, but how long can you chew gum for supper? At some point, when you crave for a more well-rounded diet of substance that sustains your mind and soul, there's only one place to get serious about learning full-quality cinema... The Canon Of Great Films That Actually Matter.
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG;
I AN CURIOUS (BLUE);
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW;
SOUNDER;
FANTASTIC PLANET
While other streaming sites are High School, The Criterion Channel is Oxford.
The Criterion Channel film-streaming site is the best cinema from around the world and every decade since film began, along with new indie films and acclaimed documentaries. Plus, Criterion is the vanguard in restoring great films to a precision standard of picture and sound that matches the present. Restored classics now look better than the day they were struck. If you've watched Mark Cousins' "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" documentary series as a primer >, this site is the true library to expand your enjoyment into the most essential film classics. Every fine film we appreciate now branches directly from the roots of these timeless works of cinematic art, whether it's a romance, period piece, character drama, guerilla handheld, Rock film, style fest, rebel indie, or avant garde. Get the whole picture.
Later for sugar, next for substance. Subscribe today.
THE LAST EMPEROR;
THELMA AND LOUISE;
PAN'S LABYRINTH;
A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT MIDNIGHT;
MOONAGE DAYDREAM
(also explore: Fandor, Kino Film Collection, Mubi, Turner Classic Movies, Kanopy, Filmhub, IndiePix, IndieFlix, Ovid, BFI Player (UK), OpenCulture)
Note: The author is not affiliated with Criterion or any other company, and receives no compensation for any expressed views.
© 2025; all text, research, and art graphics by Tym Stevens
See also:
• BEST MUSIC: 2024
• BEST COMICS: 2024
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2023
• BEST MUSIC: 2023
• BEST COMICS: 2023
• BEST MOVIES + TV:: 2022
• BEST MUSIC: 2022
• BEST COMICS: 2022
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2021
• BEST MUSIC: 2021
• BEST COMICS: 2021
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2020
• BEST MUSIC: 2020
• BEST COMICS: 2020
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2019
• BEST MUSIC: 2019
• BEST COMICS: 2019
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2018
• BEST MUSIC: 2018
• BEST COMICS: 2018
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2017
• BEST MUSIC: 2017
• BEST COMICS: 2017
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2016
• BEST MUSIC: 2016
• BEST COMICS: 2016
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2015
• BEST MUSIC: 2015
• BEST COMICS: 2015
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2014
• BEST MUSIC: 2014
• BEST COMICS: 2014
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2013
• BEST MUSIC: 2013
• BEST COMICS: 2013
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2012
• BEST MUSIC: 2012
• BEST COMICS: 2012
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2011
• BEST MUSIC: 2011
• BEST COMICS: 2011
• BEST MOVIES + TV: 2000-2010
• BEST MUSIC: 2000-2010
• BEST COMICS: 2000-2010
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