THE TOP 5
1. RRR
Trust me when I say you’ve never seen anything like this before… and may never again. Set in 1920s India, this epic extravaganza tells the fictionalized story of two real-life revolutionaries and their battle against British rule. It is already the most watched non-English film ever on Netflix and deserves every second of your attention. Where else can you get a rousing dance-off, a bloody flogging, gobs of Zack Snyder-esque violence, and dueling heartfelt love stories mashed together into a Tollywood epic that will get you jumping up off your couch to cheer, cry, and demand more (even after three hours)? It’s brilliant, masterful filmmaking, and easily the best of the year so far.
2. Official Competition
This Spanish-language, minimalist skewering of the motion picture industry is a brilliant, expertly shot and written masterpiece from Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn. Starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez, it’s as good as they come, full of career-best performances along with dazzling cinematography by Arnau Valls Colomer. It’s truly a work of art in every sense of the word and subtly hilarious at the same time.
3. The Worst Person in the World
This fantastic dramedy, starring Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve, takes everything Hollywood has taught you about rom-coms and flips it all upside down, as it tells the story of one young woman’s journey through life, death, and love. It’s beautifully written, smart, and fascinating and will make you wonder where films like this have been all your life. Co-written and directed by Joachim Trier, ‘Worst Person’ is unequivocally one of the best of the year.
4. Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sit down, strap in, and brace yourself for an acid-trip thrill ride like you’ve never seen before. Written and directed by Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert), the film defies explanation or description—so let’s just go with… “Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) discovers she has superpowers and ventures into a multi-verse to battle evil.” But there’s something about a bagel, a raccoon, and hot dog fingers. Plus, there’s Jamie Lee Curtis as a frumpy IRS agent with mad karate skills, and Ke Huy Quan returns to the screen after 20 years to shepherd Evelyn through the whack-a-doo, brain-melting absurdity. It’s flat-out fantastic and begs to be watched over and over… just so you can attempt to wrap your head around it.
5. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nicolas Cage is Nicolas Cage in this ultra-meta action-comedy about a burned-out actor, a Spanish superfan, and a kidnapped teen being held by arms traffickers. Credit to co-writer and director Tom Gormican for somehow pulling all the madness together in a ridiculously fun, tongue-in-cheek helluva good time. Cage is all in, and Pedro Pascal matches him step-for-step. If you’re a Cage superfan yourself (and who among us isn’t?), it’s a must-see.
THE REST
- Downton Abbey: A New Era
- George Carlin’s American Dream
- The Duke
- Turning Red
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
- Hustle
- The Phantom of the Open
- The Valet
- Operation Mincemeat
- The Bad Guys
- Until the Wheels Fall Off
- 7 Days
- The Outfit
- The Batman
- Cyrano
- Bigbug
- The Fallout
- Belle
- Small Town Wisconsin
- Jerry and Marge Go Large
- Cha Cha Real Smooth
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Dual
- As They Made Us
- Metal Lords
- Ambulance
- Infinite Storm
- The Lost City
- The Adam Project
- Marry Me
- Death on the Nile
- The 355
- Elvis
- Lightyear
- We Are the Thousand
- Senior Year
- The Northman
- Moonshot
- Windfall
- Uncharted
- I Want You Back
- The Man from Toronto
- A Perfect Pairing
- Anaïs in Love
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
- The Bubble
- The Weekend Away
- No Exit
- Blacklight
- Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- All the Old Knives
- Tollbooth
- Against the Ice
- Jackass Forever
- Spiderhead
- Memory
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Scream
THE BOTTOM 5
66. a-ha: the Movie
What might have been a reasonably hard-hitting, revelatory, and nostalgic documentary about the band most of the world only knows for ‘Take on Me’ instead leaves more questions than answers. Watershed moments are glossed over, and minor squabbles are never fully explored. It’s almost as if directors Thomas Robsahm and Aslaug Holm know something we don’t and simply decided to keep it to themselves. It’s an exercise in frustration, and you may well finish feeling like you know even less about the band than you did when you went in.
67. Book of Love
It’s got a clever-ish premise (boring British novelist finds his staid novel shooting up the charts in Mexico, only to discover it’s because the Spanish translator turned it into a bodice-ripper) and highly charismatic stars (Sam Claflin and Verónica Echegui), so there are plenty of reasons this should have emerged as an at least halfway decent rom-com. Alas, all the promise in the world can’t overcome an almost criminal lack of chemistry between its leads. Skip it and wait for the inevitable remake starring two people who actually seem like they want to be in the same room with each other.
68. Supercool
It may have a title very close to a famous 2007 movie with Jonah Hill, but that’s where the similarities end. This post-pubescent bit of idiocy centers around a high school loser who makes a Zoltar-like wish to become handsome and cool. Of course it works, and of course he has 24 hours to realize he just needed to be himself all along. And of course you need to forget this film ever existed… if you even knew about it in the first place.
69. Home Team
Based (presumably verrrry loosely) on what New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton did during his year-long suspension from the NFL, this goofball ‘Bad News Bears’ ripoff (and Netflix original) starring Kevin James is a clunker from the get-go. Projectile vomiting, ditzy blondes, and fat kids are all played for laughs, and even if this weren’t the era of political correctness, it would still be stupid and insulting. Even though he’s only listed as a producer, Adam Sandler’s fingerprints are all over this thing, if that gives you any indication.
70. Deep Water
Anyone hoping for another ‘Fatal Attraction’-style bit of excellence from director Adrian Lyne will be sorely disappointed, especially when they realize they just spent two hours sitting through this slogging mess of a supposed psycho-sexual thriller. The story never moves at a pace quicker than a hobbled snail, and the characters are all varying levels of awful. Sure, Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas have talent, but it would have been better put to use in declining to sign on for this disaster in the first place.