Five years, 515 films.
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This article has been updated through the end of 2020.
Its a real movie, and by my count, a pretty good one.
The second film they released was the one where a donkey explosively sharts all over Adam Sandler.
514.Oh, Ramona!Are there just no rules in Romania?
But wait, theres more!
(Fun fact: the original title wasSuck It, Ramona!Wonder why they changed it?)
513.The Do-OverLets start the ranking with the most noxious entry in Sandlers fruitful collaboration with Netflix.
while in a full-on fist fight with yet another untrustworthy female.
510.Game Over, Man!What kind of kompromat does Adam DeVine have on Netflixs board members?
(Spoiler alert: Flying Lotuss head explodes,Scanners-style.
Also: Jillian Bell soils herself.)
To quote Carmela Soprano: that is not a match made in heaven.
An embarrassment of douche riches, truly.
505.The OutsiderMaybe you already know this film as the Jared Leto yakuza Netflix movie.
Maybe you heard the word SUMO!?
When will Jared Leto be stopped, and who among us can do it?
Up until Lohanian Lohanesque?
The kids have no idea what theyre doing.
Get off my sexy, homicidal lawn!
503.True Memoirs of an International AssassinQ: When is an Adam Sandler movie not an Adam Sandler movie?
A: When its a showcase for his regular associate Paul Kevin James Blart, Mall Cop.
More to the point, this film presents a grossly inaccurate depiction of the writers creative process.
For starters, who deletes a sentence by repeatedly pressing the delete key for each individual letter?
Highlight and delete, man, or at least hold the key down!
Whos got that kind of time?
Theyre all just reading the words on the page.
Bless these peoples hearts, every last one of them.
On top of everything else, it just means the least.
This film ladles an oversized (this thing is 131 minutes!)
serving of expired anti-feminism onto the tray in a splatter, and the next ones already on the way.
Another sequel will come in 2021, whether we like it or not.
Let it instead die the natural death awaiting it.
Its the kind of movie that makes you think you could probably write a movie.
496.The Ridiculous 6Sandler stretched himself a little bit by getting into genre work with this Western.
The dead giveaway: It was written bya guywho made his name penning rip-offs.
Hell, given the countrys more casual relationship to the strictures of political correctness, theyre probably even better.
The satire just writes itself!
Though, in a much more real way, it does not.
On the bright side,Brights mastery of allegory appears subtle in comparison.
493.A Christmas Prince: The Royal WeddingHeavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say.
(If were willing to give him the benefit of that particular doubt, that is.)
491.MuteYou cant fault Duncan Jones for believing in himself.
Its the rare film thats impossible to describe without making its badness sound more entertaining than it actually is.
Its pathos is so disingenuous and suffocating that not even Human Embodiment of Charm Paul Rudd can salvage it.
He plays a depressed writer (red flag No.
whos going through a divorce (red flag No.
following the untimely death of his son (red flag No.
3), and coping by taking new work as a live-in caregiver (red flag No.
- for a smart-aleck teen (red flag No.
Together, they set out on a cross-country road trip (red flag No.
7), who is also Selena Gomez (red flag No.
In actuality, hes a moving embodiment of that immortal Onion articleRomantic-Comedy Behavior Gets Real-Life Man Arrested.
Goes to show: if youre gonna make a bad joke, just make it.
The worst thing it’s possible for you to do is backpedal.
487.The Holiday CalendarUntil you give it a quick Google, this ones a stumper.
except for leading actress Kat Graham.
486.Father of the YearOur world is full of unknowable mysteries: How does the aurora borealis form?
What happened to D.B.
This film is the equal and opposite reaction to theera of the Hot Dad.
In every sense, the center cannot hold for this sequel seemingly thrown together over a long weekend.
So begins a sexual coming-of-age narrative (coming-of-age!)
At least its notOh, Ramona!, but it tries to be, which is almost worse.
(Which is French, but you get the point.)
But even then, the greater message still seems to be broads, am I right?
This theoretical person would take it all at face value and love it.
Sadly, we cannot be so naive.
Why is there so much trouble in the world?
478.The Larva Island MovieWeve been sold a false bill of goods.
Not even the fleeting frames of hardcore fish sex spliced into this childrens entertainment can help it along.
It is, at least, slightly less unpleasant thanThe Do-Over, though not for lack of trying.
The almost-too-telegenic graduates that this film follows for three magical months before college an ensemble led by K.J.
473.BlockbusterWhere did the French get their reputation as masters of romance?
July Hygrecks tone-deaf rom-com could singlehandedly rewrite the national caricature, so repellent is its approach to courtship.
Has any movie relationship begun under false pretenses evernotbloomed into the real thing?
Rom-coms come alive in execution, and this one does not rise to be the best version of itself.
(Rapping grandpa: Still A Thing, Apparently!)
It cant even cough up a real ending; our couple just decides to be poor and happy together.
Though, of course, if she calls her dad, he could stop it all.
In this aspirationally moronic comedy from (where else!)
One-timeHitmandirector Xavier Gens is simply too accommodating to the men making all the accommodations.
468.Fatal AffairNo, youre not having a stroke and misreading the wordsFatal Attraction.
There goes all the spice the erotic thriller genre once held, and indeed, all the eroticism.
Williams, as Toms inevitable love interest, is fine.
is Mr. Khaleds advice, words the film itself wouldve been smart to heed.
But praising the best Adam Sandler movie for Netflix is like choosing your favorite dental procedure.
Either way, by the time its over, you wont be able to feel part of your face.
A film so brazenly lazy and slapdash doesnt qualify for full sentences, so: Butt jokes.
Hell, evenThe DUFF.
I pray that todays teens, for their own sake, will get better nostalgia objects than this one.
as she and her colleagues inadvertently shoot themselves into an unpredictable parallel dimension.
458.Work ItAnother brick in the wall of dance-team titles.
Bad acting, bad writing, sure but what of the dancing, presumably the reason anyones watching?
Where have you gone, Julia Stiles?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Slavery, genocide, and now this?
The script and camerawork frame leading lady Sofia Carson as a movie star she simply cannot be.
It contradicts itself too many times to make any lucid point.
(Then he blows that too, moving on having shown no growth.)
Suggestible young men, dont try this at home.
452.The Week OfAnything setting up Rachel Dratch to do a long-form Lawng Eyeland accent cannot be all bad.
(Not all funny voices are created equal.)
Blame writer-director Jared Stern, the guy responsible forThe Internand the short-lived sitcomDr.
The film gets to the conclusion that some relationships arent worth struggling for about 80 minutes after everyone else.
Though the facts may be real and the stunts authentic, her pain is all fake.
Only the most dedicated horse girls will be able to make it through this rough ride without getting thrown.
it is also proof that an effects-driven film can look heavily produced without looking polished.
The heroically distasteful Gervais ofThe Officefeels so far away.
Regular people will wonder how a film ostensibly dealing with First Amendment rights could possibly generate zero original insight.
Their unendurable trip to a still-standing art museum will make you sympathize with the gaseous cloud.
It doesnt seem like what they have could be all-consuming enough to drive Angel down the path to hell.
This is what happens when a Scorsese imitator lacks the good Christian guilt of the O.G.
435.Sierra Burgess Is a LoserThe insidious influence of the almighty algorithm feels more palpable in some movies than others.
Her scheme to win the man of her dreams involves deceiving him and intentionally humiliating her one friend.
DO YOU GET IT?!)
Its all very weird and pretty terrible.
For all intents and purposes, you have now seen the filmXOXO.
like, let this be the full extent of the relatives.
Young is, at best, conscious.
Call me when this gets theDisaster Artisttreatment by the mid-2030s.
429.How It EndsDirector David M. Rosenthal takesThe Roadless traveled by, and unfortunately, it makes all the difference.
The poor judgment extends to casting as well, with Whitaker acting circles around James.
I demand to know who lovedPassengersenough to have planted the seedling for this emergent trend.
They are also in for a whole lot of Marlon Wayanss bare ass.
Korn-knockoff nu-metal, screamo, idiot-rawk like Andrew W.K.
without the ebullient stage presence all grating noise, from front to back.
If this came out in America, some PR flack would have known enough to work the proudly un-PC!
angle, but because it comes from our less optics-conscious Gallic neighbors, its just plain old racist.
421.The OccupantAd man Javier (Javier Munoz) can feel himself getting edged out of his industry.
Is this what Christmas is all about: subliminal advertising for a product weve already purchased?
Is this what Jesus died for?
(And Ive got some questions about your way of seeing the world.)
Everyone whos seen thatsnazzy Levis commercialknows!
At least, thats the record that this pathetic work of geri-action wants to set straight.
I give them a year!
It is truly a remarkable thing, how little chemistry a man can have with himself.
Love your children, love yourself, and just go withGnomeoif the offspring insists on diminutive-sized fun.
409.Secret ObsessionWhats so secret about this obsession, really?
406.Suzzanna: Buried AliveSomeone up there (at Netflix HQ) likes Rocky Soraya.
However rooted in regional culture, this looks and moves like the least-attended title playing at your local AMC.
(Tyler Rake is retrieving a drug lords kidnapped son, but dont worry, that doesnt matter.)
Its all just distracting and effortful and incoherent, like the rest of the movie.
Its shallowness masquerading as emotional depth.
401.OtherhoodEveryone talks about the city that never sleeps.
What about the mothers who never sleep, because their sons move to the city and never call?
investigated by our gal Amaia Salazar (Marta Etura).
But otherwise, Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Coimbra contributes nothing novel to the conversation.
When that doesnt happen, the result looks a lot like this draining goof-about from Italys risible Marco Risi.
Without Netflix, it wouldve lived and died in obscurity, bothering nobody and wowing the same.
Only the most cultured of tykes will squeal, Mama, listen, itsNymphomaniacs Jeff Burrell!
or Is that cockney character actor Eddie Marsan?
as a band of misfit mammals ventures beyond their metropolis to rescue their humans.
Economic crises and a tsunami have washed it all away, however, and now theres hell to pay.
The actors seem to have paid their travel agents as much as their talent agents.
Knowing that the Hulk was at one point grey is pretty Week 1 in the grand scheme of nerdery.
Its not theBeforetrilogy, but as what it is, its not even HBOs recently shutteredRun.
(Of course Glenn Close did it.
Glenn Closealwaysdid it!)
Weve all seen too much to buy its pitch.
It does not help that the writing is punishingly unfunny.
Its okay if you didnt, because this isnt based on that, though it might as well be.
(Dont worry, Universals got an authorized adaptation coming down the pipe.)
He puts a brave face on while withstanding suffering, both within and without the context of the film.
), and lands with a splat.
382.Youve Got ThisFor this disorderly dramedy, Mexicos Salvador Espinosa has mushed together three different movies of contradictory tones.
For the remainder, its about as fun as a crucifixion.
Even longtime fans of theBrningmovies must draw the line somewhere, between the barrel-bottom acting and writing.
Surely there are less taxing ways to look at muscle cars than this.
She leaves the film no more enlightened than she started it, as do we.
As always, the original title tells the true story; this one was calledCorazon Loco.
Carnevale doesnt know whose heart is the crazy one.
or several decades (kids loveChariots of Firehumor!)
Theres really nothing there.
369.YucatanI swear, Im getting closer and closer to solving the riddle of Netflixs business model.
For the eighteen-year-old Ostra, its just sweeps-week ratings gold.
366.AnonI was rooting for you,Gattacadirector Andrew Niccol, we were all rooting for you!
Substitute teachers looking to keep eighth-graders busy for an hour would be better off with anotherGattacarewatch.
365.ClosePlease, the term bodyguard is so passe.
But without sufficient funding and off-screen talent, she never stood a chance.
364.Hillbilly ElegyTo those worried that Ron Howards adaptation of J.D.
361.MercyAdult children tend to show their true colors when their parents reach their deathbed.
As witchcraft possessions go, its on the tamer side, several ear-shattering screams away from Italias finest.
It is a slight step down from his last feature effort,Threat Level: Midnight.
Repeat.just come out, like, last month?
(Which was, itself, following the trail ofThe Rider.)
Have some mercy, directors, and cease beating a dead oh, well, you know.
Will they find love?
Shes young and famous and gorgeous, and hes … the main character.
Erotic-thriller sex should be scary in a hot way, not scary in a50 Shades of Greyway.
As Uziels clear inspiration Marge Gunderson might say, And for what?
A little bit of money.
Without the required aesthetic polish, all thats left is a scrawny weakling flexing technical muscles it doesnt have.
A pitchy lead performance, in conjunction with a punitively jammed-up concept, consign this Infante to cinema hell.
Read the room, Jodi!
341.To All the Boys: P.S.
A jumbled union of the medical thriller and psycho-terror, its a waste of a perfectly good movie title.
(Or even of betting it all on a championship game, if youreHoward Ratner.)
337.Candy JarHes a young paragon of black excellence with a pristine sense for matching sweaters to ties.
Shes a key in-A flibbertigibbet with an internal monologue that just wont quit.
Let me put it this way: Is there a peppy gettin stuff done!
On both counts, the answer is a confidently intoned yes.
The title is an enigma more engrossing than the film containing it.
Send it back to hell!
Shes biting and inviting as a young artist in recovery for an intense eating disorder.
He turns what could have been Spains reply toAdaptation.into something both Charlie Kaufman and Charlie Kaufman would sniff at.
It is, regrettably, an apt pairing of auteur and subject.
(Also theres a unicorn.
Its a metaphor or is it?)
Theres a paradox to the idea that some true stories are perfect for cinematic adaptation, however.
also enforce cliched, ordinary writing indistinguishable from fiction.
Its all rather plain for a movie about extreme sports.
The Layla montage fromGoodfellasshould charge royalties.
This is the happy ending we were holding out for?
326.Bomb ScaredYou thought eating disorders were a testy source for laughs?
Heres the terrorism spoof you asked for!
But because everyone gets their own special power from Power (hence the name!
), it turns into something more like a magic Whatever-The-Plot-Demands machine helping out the characters as needed.
What better setting for a trip between amigos, the meat of this Spanish-language comedy on the move?
Like most food for old people, its soft and goes down with minimal difficulty but lacks in spiciness.
321.The RuthlessAs neo-mafioso flicks go,Gomorrahthis is not.
Santo eventually getting a mullet does not help.
The boys an abstraction, and a crudely drawn one at that.
319.BattleWith the notable exception of Wim WenderssPina, dance movies are never really about dance.
There is only one Tyler Durden.
316.A Babysitters Guide to Monster HuntingIts October the 31st do you know where your children are?
(These puckish monsters hew closer to the likes ofAaahh!!!
Real Monsters, only with the edges sanded off.)
Its a box of raisins in your pillowcase, not the king-size candy bar.
a bit redundant here.
A scene depicting dogfighting feels out of place in a film so mushy.
(The title pretty much translates toLost Girl.)
Its just a lost kid, man.
There will be plenty more.
Amato works harder to earn his tears than most of the guys behind merciless melodramas such as this.
Even so, the homespun pathos fueling this road-trip movie isnt premium-grade.
), likeSystem Crasherand so many other Netflicks.
That movie had some entry-level commentary on race, too, and a nifty soundtrack from Pharrell.
The most a critic can say is that its pop-culture references are very of-the-moment.
This made it a perfect fit for Netflix, and a business model that subsists on word-of-mouth over marketing.
The script has been, at most, a quarter thought-through.
301.When Angels SleepTheres this horror-comedy calledTucker & Dale vs. 300.The Last Thing He WantedJoan Didion.
(In any case, Didion will be fine.)
But Schindel, sadly, cant get inside his leads head, or under our skin.
296.The Perfect DateTheres a morsel of genius at the center of this otherwise nothing-special rom-com.
Hes portraying the concept of Noah Centineo, a palimpsest on which lonely people can inscribe their fantasies.
The most pressing mystery of all, then, is why this film isnt funnier.
and his lumpen wordsmithing.
291.The DeclineTheres a great short to be carved out of this Quebec-set game of manhunt with sniper rifles.
Shamefully so for a film passing itself off as steeped in arcana and lore, its lacking in magic.
The primary problem is that this has already been done sans Scott, in 2014s thoroughly middling send-upHell Baby.
The mystery meat theyre treated to at the beginning of the performance?
One guess where that comes from.
Gotta keep that one in the pocket for future use.
The few scenes articulating this concept get closest to recapturing the observational spirit of its source.
284.MILFAre they putting something in the water in France?
Slightly coercive sex and cuckolding: the cure to a flagging marriage?
Hopefully, powerhouse star Bruce Khan will find more sure-handed tutelage elsewhere, and soon.
(Even if the visual profile looks more like an HBO prestige movie.)
277.Get InIts been said that only when a weak, ineffectual man loses everything can he regain his manhood.
While he and his bratty children move back in with family (auntie Darlene Love!)
For some, the minute-by-minute predictability will be a bug, but others, a feature.
Thats a lot of track to lay, and for what?
A film in which no one comes out looking so good, least of all women.
With such a natural feel for the banlieue, any falseness within it jumps right out.
As a cultural presence, sure, I get the appeal.
Youre telling me a movie about the EDM wonderland hidden on the Balearic islands had to shoot inCroatia?
For camera-ready Rumi (Prit Kamani), the Bollywood big time.
265.Bad SeedsOh, Catherine Deneuve, whats become of you?
Nowhere outside Pinterest have canned aphorisms ever carried this much clout.
If only it was funnier.
If nothing else, the specter ofLong Duk Dongwill have been forever dispelled.
How do you say diminishing returns in Swedish?
Were all literate here!
257.RebirthThe first rule of this anti-corporate psychological thriller is do not talk aboutFight Club.
Not even the broad shoulders of Ugarte can carry a film so poorly thought-through.
It might sound like a lesser sibling ofThe Irishman(TheSpanishman!
He couldve made it with the standoff of the soul at the films center.
How else to account for the absolute absence of any signs of life whatsoever in each and every performance?
Vincent DOnofrio?!)
A viewer gets the impression that nobody in this motley troupe was in contact with one another during shooting.
As Yuletide counter-programming goes, it aintTangerine.
While the music suffers fromRepo!
Ethical rot has tainted this structure designed for empowerment, but its still too valuable to write off entirely.
During the 80s (when else?
Even a fresh, culturally specific angle cant totally revitalize the long-in-the-tooth genre of the libidinous-teen-com though.
Thearchitectwith the well-manicured beard has swept Ana off her feet.
246.JefeJefe is Spanish for boss, a position thats more of a lifestyle than a job in machismo-heavy Spain.
In America, it feels like the Sundance-industrial complex gives us another one of these every couple of years.
Language and setting notwithstanding, its just another day at the office.
By that point, weve already forgotten that that was supposed to command our attention.
He casts a bold silhouette as the image of gallantry, oftentimes to disbelief-testing extents.
Not even a sensitive turn as an AIDS-positive organist from the unerring Lakeith Stanfield can earn this film salvation.
TheTimecrimesswag-jacking begs for a nextNacho Vigalondo descriptor, but Calparsoros left plenty for himself to prove.
238.Lost BulletDom Toretto must be seething with jealousy.
demolition derbies all the more jaw-dropping for featuring minivans and easily-crumpled compact cars as much as Maseratis and Lamborghinis.
While not a Fredo, this ones still as flawed as a Sonny, and far from a Michael.
tension on its head by asking instead, how could it possibly go right?
But what the film lacks in cohesion, it makes up for with moment-to-moment entertainment.
227.Lust StoriesDown in India, the times they are a-changin.
(Behold, the first onscreen appearance of a vibrator in the history of Indian film!)
Four separate stories revolve around women in various states of dissatisfaction carnal, sure, but more frequently emotional.
Her edge in the plan to get a foot in the door of his heart?
That all-feline Xanadu gives a lick of the humor and imagination somewhat lacking in the rest of the film.
An original score from Chicagos proudest son Young Chop doesnt hurt, either.
808s and heartbreak, in equal measure.
223.Imperial DreamsA curious specimen, this film was made and released in two dramatically different worlds.
But hackneyed dialogue and predictable plotting get in the way of this films bid for true excellence.
Two days later, this Spanish tribute to real-life perseverance popped up under a nearly identical title.
But subtract the finesse of127 Hoursor the genre hook ofGeralds Game, and theres not much left.
217.Kidnapping StellaSometimes, the less said in a movie, the better.
Exhibit A would be this German rework of British thrillerThe Disappearance of Alice Creed.
Sieben challenges himself in the first act but discards that extra-mile spirit once hes proven hes got it.
(That, and a weirdly deep Billy Dee Williams voice.
(As the wayward babys thoroughly unfit original guardian, Tammy Blanchard completes the triumvirate of bad moms.)
Janney takes it in a walk, naturally.
(See also: Emily Ratajkowski, Jamie Dornan.)
The constant flips into vertical-phone-cam and other tech-forward gimmickry dont help, either.
Bosemans an endlessly watchable performer, and Luke Evans holds his own as the primary baddie.
You know the old saying before you embark upon a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Black/white kink roleplay pushes the envelopes that Perrier wants to push when the sister-sister standoffishness cant.
), pitting our lovers against circumference and basic physics as well as cultural stumbling blocks.
This ones fun, dammit!
Koo misses the three, but sinks the layup.
Later, he realizes that he can only defeat a boss by slashing it in its weak-point eyeball.)
197.The Christmas ChroniclesIve taken to referring to this Yuletide romp asDILF Santa, a nickname both reductive and not.
At least well always have RPattz bellowing DEELEWJINS!
Hes the only one in the cast who understands what movie theyre supposed to be making.
193.TheKingTimmy does Shakespeare what could go wrong?
Quite a few things, as fate would have it.
and wide-scale (though at least this flaming trebuchet looks better thanOutlaw Kings) engagement.
It is a stack of blunders without any core of purpose to hold it together.
190.The DiscoveryIn the vast gulf between conception and execution, we have this down-tempo thought experiment from Charlie McDowell.
And thats not even as enjoyable or as liberating as actually belting 9 to 5 in the car yourself!
The family that divulges hair-curlingly frank erotic specifics together, stays together.
(Steve Coogan is an egotistic treat as Thorncrofts old castmate.)
183.BarryBarack Obama is the coolest commander-in-chief to have ever graced the Oval Office this is fact.
Remember back when those were qualities the president had?
180.And Breathe NormallyIsold Uggadottir wants us to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Heres another nice movie, and thats not a diss, either.
(Mall Christianity, we could call it.)
As a cinematic pole-vaulter, hes still peerless in the agility with which he goes over the top.
One cross word leads to another, and in no time theyre outing each others darkest secrets.
Not a high bar to clear, admittedly, but Geraldine Viswanathan makes it look easy.
(Hand to God, memories ofSpeedcrossed this critics mind.)
Batman has grounds to sue!
Wed watch her do pretty much whatever, the true marker of a good romcom heroine.
Dont forget your barf bag.
166.CalibreThe forbidding Scottish highlands provide a spooky backdrop for a back-to-basics horror movie of sorts.
In the opening moments, a scientist wakes up beside his ex-lover.
(But only within highly specific parameters.)
It is aGroundhog DayPrimerbastardization full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It has its fun with the sound and fury, though.
164.Nobody Knows Im HereTo attain the highest level of stardom, a person needs talent and a salable image.
Everyone ends up right where they belong, a millennial happily-ever-after of free tolerance and self-discovery without torment.
(Sexy, unnaturally muscular in their humanoid physiology, tomato, tomahto.)
while pumping every part of that template full of squishy weirdness.
157.Mowgli: Legend of the JungleTo employ an age-old critical parlance: a lot going on here.
153.Love Per Square FootQuarters are cramped in India, exponentially more so in metropolitan areas.
152.Triple FrontierAlas, J.C. Chandor showed such promise.
147.Tyler Perrys a Fall From GraceGod bless you, Tyler Perry.
Netflix doesnt really put out this key in of bad movie, the most devilishly gratifying of all.
Hes living proof that entering that rarefied realm isnt just a matter of not giving a shit.
It requires vision and dedication.
Its more useful as a document, attesting to the climate in Basque country.
The soundtrack, an ear-assaulting playlist of abused guitars, belongs to a lower-budget Starz blood-n-skin series.
But by the usual formal and narrative criteria, its still lesser-than.
143.7 AnosThe bad news is that this drama engages in the cardinal sin of chess metaphors, my No.
1 writerly pet peeve.
The good news is that the rest of it is smart enough that we can fairly expect more.
It is, first and foremost, an empathetic film.
Shrivastava has room to grow as a director, but its clear shes growing in the right direction.
By now, Adams would be slated for a Marvel movie in 2021 and an Oscar nomination by 2025.
128.MaktubA brush with death has a way of putting the zap on a guy.
Their associates, naturally, have other notions.
Call it the Yadav touch.
(Sometimes even with parental consent!)
On a few different occasions, this film actually puts the horniness-money ofBlockerswhere its mouth is.
Rarely has sin been so delicious.
(If were lucky.)
It all congeals into a thick, sludgy, and yet commendably out-there oddity.
113.1922Killing is easy; its the living with it afterward thats hard.
Though he only wrote the script, some of the Duplassian glibness endemic to his directorial projects seeps through.
(You know, likeParadox.)
Serious kudos to Zengel, whos not just doing a one-note demon-child act.
(YourBabylon Berlins, yourMan in the High Castles, what-have-you.)
In both narrative and style, theres an agreeably unrestrained muchness to de la Torres filmmaking.
If its a false step, its quickly righted on the way back to loony Body Horror 4 Kidz.
A broken-down Ben Mendelsohn slips into the role of Anders Hill, a man taking a shot at reinvention.
This films various pieces may have been repurposed, but the rush it elicits will be all new.
Who could watch the slow, pitiless death of a police horse and not feel its pain?
A bit typical in its band-of-heroes narrative, but never in the stylistic means employed to tell it.
90.PsychokinesisAt long last, a superhero movie that doesnt take itself so gosh-darn seriously.
and even then, Yeon refuses to grant his character any stony-faced gravitas.
Not everything has to be the end of the universe.
Newcomer Zach Woods, by the by, walks away with the MVP honors.
Theres a gentle quiver in his voice when he mutters, Do you prescribe antidepressants?
That quiver is art.
83.All Day and a NightJoe Robert Cole, co-writer ofBlack Pantherand the O.J.
Simpson season ofAmerican Crime Story, makes sense of gang violence by laying out centuries of context.
(That the film passes with only a handful of words spoken aloud reinforces this elemental mood.)
), but thats where youll find this audacious challenge to Taiwanese cinema convention.
80.I Dont Feel at Home in This World AnymoreThis is how its done,Shimmer Lake.
At least for performers, this all-in two-hander is worthy of study like Scripture.
78.What We WantedAnother one of Netflixs well-feted and minimally advertised festival acquisitions, this ones in from Austria.
Koflers just getting started, however, so some freshman-film hesitance can be forgiven.
Parents, as ever, just dont understand.
(Hes the one who made last yearsLos Espookyson HBO look so good.)
Refraining from imposing order.
Its an invertedNightmare on Elm Street, with a script more intellectually curious about how dreams transmute fear.
64.Catching FeelingsAh, yes, heres the South African takeoff on Luca GuadagninosA Bigger Splashthat you were waiting for.
63.6 UndergroundTurn off your mind, relax, and float downstream on the coursing rapids of Michael Bays cinema.
Sure, the whole script falls apart if you poke it.
And the punch-ups, courtesy of theDeadpoolwriting team, aim for wit but land on smarm.
But God, it just feels good to see an action filmmaker giving this much of a shit.
Kill!that includes Alia Shawkat and Stephanie Beatriz.
57.The Breaker UpperersDo you want out of your relationship?
Are you hesitant to cause pain to someone you still are about?
Alternately, is your fundamental cowardice preventing you from having the difficult conversation?
And look at that executive produced by Taika Waititi.
pizzazz that screenwriters Larry karaszewski and Scott Alexander once brought toEd Wood.
But hes not some by-the-book dork like Max von Sydow inThe Exorcist.
Its salvage ethnography in the finery of character study.
Films like this were supposed to be the norm instead, they ended up the glaring exception.
It makes you want to get on a train and return a cute strangers smile.
His lasting psychical wound stands as a living example of how fascism does harm long after its quashed.
Bottom
38.A SunNetflix has done a mitzvah by supporting todays torch-bearers of the Taiwanese New Waves legacy.
His work is typical of its movement, but only in the best ways.
May the entertainment industry continue to bankroll whatever minutiae-obsessed pet project these guys come up with next.
Altogether, a name-making feat for a filmmaker to keep an eye on.
Dont mind the hand this is a film about the heart.
Shes erected a tribute to suffering that doesnt wallow or look for hope where there was none.
It soldiers on, survives, and leaves us the pain.
Shepards raw chutzpah alone will be sufficient to ensorcel garbage connoisseurs.
28.MudboundBehold, the rare example of the film industry functioning properly as a meritocracy.
Replicating the narrative structure of the source text, Rees freely drifts between voice-overs from six different characters.
This is the coronation of a vital new voice in American filmmaking.
25.Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin ScorseseBut you said you werent doing documentaries!
I can already hear you saying, your voice nasal with pedantry.
Scorsese finds more truth in his own lies than he possibly couldve in our puny reality.
24.On Body and SoulAt a dreary workplace, an office crush can get you through the day.
23.Set It UpCould it be true?
The most generously enjoyable romcom of the past decade is hiding on Netflix?
Were the ones on the arc, not her.
May the phrase we gotta be the Coen sisters be doodled in notebook margins for years to come.
Shell be attracting best of her generation praise in no time, and it will be richly deserved.
10.Private LifeTamara Jenkins does all that she does perceptively.
(An acutely unromantic masturbation session at the fertility clinic is sterile, uncomfortable, and side-splitting.)
Liberal sensibilities, as Jenkins ultimately rules, cannot overwrite biology.
Six sepia-toned snatches of goings-on beyond the Mississippi (their first picture shot digitally looks mighty purty!)
3.Da 5 BloodsSpikes gotta be Spike.
The result is three-and-a-half hours of elegiac masterpiece material from an artist in a class of his own.
There will never be another Martin Scorsese.
1.The Other Side of the WindIts a new movie from Orson Welles.
Like, an entire feature-length movie.
Directed by Orson Welles.
Is this real life?
Theres so much unchecked genius overflowing from Welles unfinished (until now!)
Its a historical artifact with a restless avant-garde streak permanently placing it in the present.
