15: SIRĀT

Sirāt is what I used to think Mad Max: Fury Road was: a long road trip with pulsating music heading towards no real destination. It’s the film equivalent of an EDM song, which means it’ll work for many people, I’m just not one of them. Swaths of scenes drag for unending minutes as dreary desert landscapes make our protagonists’ situation bleaker and more burdensome with each passing mile. The focus that puts on the ensemble does allow for some endearing moments, but not enough to really say more than “oh shit” for a fleeting second before not caring once more.

14: MOTOR CITY

I’m not going to go say I disliked Motor City, but the big swings it takes don’t always land. There are some great action sequences, including in one location that is quickly becoming a genre staple (you’ll know it when you see it), but the minimal dialogue lends itself to too many slow-motion dramatics that drag the pacing down to lethargic levels. Instead of a cohesive film, it was multiple scenes stitched together, some that dragged and some that rocked, but not at all the intense ball of energy it could have been.

13: NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE

Watching such a Toronto-centric film with such a Toronto-filled audience definitely helped my viewing of Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of jokes that I laughed at all on my own, but the communal experience informing me when I missed a very specific joke allowed for director/star Matt Jones and Jay McCarrol’s charm to naturally grow on me. It’s silly and ridiculous in plenty of the right ways, and while it didn’t necessarily fully hit my funny bone, there was an endearing story of friendship to help boost the laughs I both caught and missed.

12: THE CHRISTOPHERS

Here is one thing I didn’t think I would say about The Christophers: it’s adorable. Or more appropriately, Sir Ian McKellen playing devilishly adorable makes the film an entertaining watch. He’s a one-man wrecking crew of brash insults and hilarious narcissism. Michaela Coel, conversely, plays off him tremendously with just a piercing look, and both performers needed all the charm they could muster to dive deeper into the messages of adequacy and affirmation the surface-level script couldn’t quite grasp. The leads prove there’s something to this film, and you could feel that every time the story just escaped beyond that something’s reach.

11: THE FURIOUS

The Furious is absolutely bonkers. Director Kenji Tanagaki found the best ways to use the different fighting styles linked to the who’s who cast of cinematic martial arts masters, putting together tremendously unique, mind-bending, and jaw-dropping choreography. It’s a gloriously violent affair with gasp-worthy moments, made all the better with its pulpy reverence to the camp that makes many martial arts films a goofy and hilarious time. Story-wise, it does nothing we haven’t seen before, but what we really want to see is the marvelous things that our minds could never imagine the body doing. The Furious delivers that in spades.

10: THE LOST BUS

There is no way to truly capture the devastation that 2018’s deadly Camp Fire caused in California, but director Paul Greengrass’ expertise with the shaky handheld does a damn good job getting audiences to that place. Surprisingly, his use of drone shots to mimic the dangerously fast-flowing ferocity of high-wind fires is just as harrowing. Matthew McConaughey’s gritty emotion fits perfectly to infuse genuine despair into The Lost Bus, and while some of the beats are heavy-handed, the gravity of his situation juxtaposed to found-footage of the actual fire ensured that anything less punchy would seem dramatically insufficient.  It’s cliché and intense, but it works.

9: THE SECRET AGENT

You can feel every bit of The Secret Agent’s almost three-hour runtime, but it interestingly never takes you out of the film. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho creates beautifully colorful shots and builds great character depth with his meticulous pacing. That slow-build simultaneously has you lost and locked into its disjointed narrative, which has you anticipating the final puzzle piece that clicks the film’s mysteries into place. Much of this is due to a terrific cast, with Wagner Moura continuing to catapult to must-see status, not to mention a standout performance from Tânia Maria. It took a while to get through, but The Secret Agent is worth the payoff.

8: POETIC LICENSE

Whether Poetic License was fully scripted, fully improvised, or somewhere in between, director Maude Apatow’s directorial debut fully utilizes Leslie Mann and the entire cast’s awkward energy to successfully point the camera and say “go!” Mann is excellent in her element, but it’s the fantastic duo of Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman, who look like Second City veterans “yes, and-ing,” that anchor this heartfelt yet face-coveringly embarrassing story. It takes some time to find its footing, but the longer it goes, the more awkward it gets, and the funnier and steadier Apatow’s genuine debut becomes.

7: FUZE

Director David Mackenzie wastes no time putting Fuze’s fun machinations into motion, and there isn’t an ounce of dead weight in its 98-minute well-oiled, military crime, cat-and-mouse games. Like clockwork, each scene meticulously moves at a pace that keeps you guessing (sometimes correctly, sometimes not), but never bombastically so. Once you’re dropped in, your eyes never stop looking for the next exit, the next deception, or the next sleaze ball maneuver from a fully game Theo James. Fuze is a ticking time bomb that never feels out of control yet keeps its players and its audience continuously looking around the next corner.

6: RENTAL FAMILY

Rental Family is a sweet story that digs deeply into our inherent need for human connection, doing so with sincerity and an open heart. And it's apropos that Brendan Fraser, the sweetest man in Hollywood, is the catalyst of that honest wholesomeness. He was made for this role, embodying a level of truly inspirational empathy. Director Hikari’s smart use of her entire ensemble, through which she successfully delivers this unique story without a drop of saccharine frivolity, also is remarkable. Some emotional beats needed more time to breathe, but the smile on my face the entire runtime was genuinely undeniable.

5: HEDDA

Before you know it, Hedda (both the film and Tessa Thompson’s character) has you completely wrapped around their finger. Thompson is scandalously mischievous in an enthralling lead turn, Nia DaCosta is somehow improving her already bewitching directorial vision, and Hildur Guðnadóttir ensnares it all together with her playfully mysterious score. By the time Nina Hoss’ Eileen lights a match to the gunpowder trail of a wandering first act, you look around wondering when this team completely snatched your attention. Hedda is a wonderfully mesmerizing train wreck of twists, lies, love, and lust that holds your heart in one hand just to snatch your throat with the other.

4: THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT

Nadia Latif’s directorial debut is a darkly meditative look into family legacy, history (specifically surrounding Black people in the U.S.), and self-worth that uses spooky imagery and sinister blocking to create an eerie tone. But truthfully, her great direction is merely a runway to showcase a career-best performance from Corey Hawkins. It’s very hard to make you forget about Willem Dafoe, but Hawkins’ commanding desperation (which, of course, is elevated by Dafoe being Dafoe) is the lynchpin on which every aspect of this film turns. It’s a tremendously shattering performance that delivers a remarkably thought-provoking movie.

3: DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Learning that they shot this movie in only nine days further solidifies that Dinner with Friends is a spectacular feat. Depictions of adult friendships usually aren’t the centerpiece of films dealing with the emotional weight of growing up, but the way in which the entire cast felt like they had known each other for decades proves how much that relationship lens shapes each of our lives. Through the laughs, arguments, pettiness, joy, messiness, and truth that conversations with friends create in ways conversations in romantic relationships do not, director Sasha Leigh Henry makes the camera, and audience, the ninth friend in this endearingly authentic story.

2: WASTEMAN

We all (should) know that David Jonsson is on the precipice of greatness, but it’s Tom Blyth to whom I owe an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game, sir. Wasteman is a two-man tour-de-force wrapped in director Cal McMau’s visceral encapsulation of the hellish conditions of prisons everywhere. His hard-hitting mix of close-quarter camera work and found-footage prisoner videos sets the foundation for Jonsson to showcase a vulnerability not many actors can manage while Blyth hits a level of menace and intensity I didn’t know he could reach. This one hits hard, and it will leave you in a breathless sweat from start to finish.

1: NO OTHER CHOICE

I’ve not seen much of Park Chan-wook’s filmography, but it did not take long to recognize his masterful direction while watching No Other Choice. This dark comedy is a masterclass in comedy of error, effortlessly finding the humor in bleakness and the ridiculousness in desperation. Lee Byung-hun masters the descent into madness when no option is your only option, but it’s Son Yejin that surprisingly holds the heart of this story surrounding class disparity and the despair capitalistic systems can create. I was mesmerized by this beautifully macabre artistic wonder, and it’s no wonder that Chan-wook has the word “masterpiece” thrown around every time he drops something new.