5. “Dune” (Denis Villeneuve)
The book that, in large part, inspired “Star Wars” finally gets a worthy film adaptation, pleasing critics and fans alike. Filled with an amazing blend of practical and digital effects, gorgeous cinematography, outstanding performances, and a breathtaking Hans Zimmer score, “Dune” is a near-impossible triumph that only someone of Denis Villeneuve’s caliber could wrangle into existence. It’s a game-changer in the world of big-budget cinema that ensures filmmakers can indeed create artful, moving science fiction films that satisfy wider audiences. Best of all, while the film plays wonderfully at home, “Dune” celebrates and elevates the spectacle that can be achieved in the theatrical experience. Have no fear (for it is the mind-killer), “Dune” will set your mind free! – Mike DeAngelo (Our review of “Dune”)
4. “Titane” (Julia Ducournau)
Perhaps the most visceral movie of the year, Julia Ducournau’s bombastic Palme d’Or-winning horror film-induced full-body cringes from audiences throughout the festival season. A star is born with newcomer Agathe Rousselle, whose blank-slate face dares viewers to empathize with Alexia, the motor show model turned serial killer with a titanium plate in her head. The plate is not the only remnant from a childhood car accident; she also has an erotic fascination with automobiles, which climaxes in the most bizarre unplanned pregnancy in film history. After a killing spree puts her on the radar of the cops, “Titane” transforms into an ode to chosen families with Alexia now posing as Adrien, the long-lost song of a soulful fire chief (Vincent Lindon). As tender as it is gruesome, Ducournau expertly uses body horror to explore the physical and emotional toll of pregnancy, while also showing the transformative power of deep human connection. – Marya E. Gates (Our review of “Titane”)
3. “The Green Knight” (David Lowery)
A glorious reimagining of the chivalric romance, David Lowery’s Arthurian head-trip unmakes one myth at its center—that of integrity gained through acts of martial gallantry—while drawing its own smart, surprising conclusions about the roles nobility and self-sacrifice can play within lives that will end, regardless of such subjective moral codes. Indeed, though this medieval soul search meditates on the questions of honor and legacy that compel impulsive young Gawain (Dev Patel at his most scorching) to accept a verdant challenger’s game of “a blow for a blow,” it’s the specter of mortality, of death in due time—its enormity, its permanence, its cruelty—that most clouds Lowery’s vision. Expanding mere stanzas from the tale into sequences of bracing power and poetry, the film treats Gawain’s journey toward his fate as an apocalyptic fugue. Headless ghosts, talking foxes, and other shrouded wonders populate the dread-steeped wastelands outside Camelot, but “The Green Knight” is most the high fantasy of a man preparing to face himself, aware there is no surviving such an encounter and struggling to summon his courage all the same. – Isaac Feldberg (Our review of “The Green Knight”)
2. “The Power of the Dog” (Jane Campion)
Despite exaggerated reports, New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion did not vanish for 12 years (“Bright Star” is 2009, but she made two mini-series during that time). Regardless she returns with a vengeance and cements her status as one of the best filmmakers in the world with “The Power Of The Dog.” Reductively, one could call it her “There Will Be Blood,” featuring dusty, Western settings, and a toxic male lead that haunts his loved ones with bitterness and rancor (and Jonny Greenwood does a somewhat similarly ghostly score). But Campion’s latest is also evocative, even erotic in its ideas of conflicted masculinity. Either way, it’s her most rugged film, but it’s also mysterious, stealthy, and concludes like a black widow trap. Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t the first person who comes to mind as Daniel Day-Lewis like a tyrant, but, in a career-best turn, he totally astonishes in Campion’s mesmerizing drama about family, yearning, resent and never underestimating your seemingly fey, deceptively shrewd opponent. – Rodrigo Perez (Our review of “The Power of the Dog”)
1. “Licorice Pizza” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film reads like someone who doesn’t care that you think he’s going back to the San Fernando Valley well one too many times. A carefree, sweet, whimsical, and unbothered look at love and romance in the 1970s valley, “Licorice Pizza” may sound a little like “Boogie Nights” superficially, but it’s actually much more loose, playful, easy-going, and wild like a shaggy Hal Ashby film or “American Graffiti.” PTA’s drama centers on an ambitious, overachieving teenage hustler (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper Hoffman), and the older 20-something girl (a luminous Alana Haim from the pop band Haim), who is perplexed, grossed-out, but also enchanted and beguiled by this young kid’s chutzpah and effervescent energy. With a terrific soundtrack of groovy pop cuts, “Licorice Pizza” is in no hurry to get where it’s going, but it’s effervescent, and intoxicating nonetheless. – Rodrigo Perez (Our review of “Licorice Pizza”)
That’s wrap, thanks for reading, sharing, and being a continued patron of our site!
Voting body and Contributors: Carlos Aguilar, Nick Allen, Jason Bailey, Charles Barfield, Ned Booth, Charles Bramesco, Andrew Bundy, Lauren Coates, Max Covill, Andrew Crump, Robert Daniels, Mike DeAngelo, Brian Farvour, Isaac Feldberg, Christian Gallichio, Marya E. Gates, Roxana Hadadi, Asher Luberto, Oliver Lyttelton, Rodrigo Perez, Brynne Ramella, Rafa Sales Ross, Marshall Shaffer, Griffin Schiller, Chance Solem-Pfeifer, Jake Sweltz, Brian Tallerico, Drew Taylor, Valerie Thompson, Brianna Zigler.
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