the @popcollin reviews

THE TOP 5
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
As excellent a movie as you’re liable to find this year, this dark and terribly twisted tale of a friendship gone bad reunites ‘In Bruges’ stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson with writer-director Martin McDonagh. Exquisitely written and even more beautifully acted (including the supporting cast of Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan), it may not be the thing for anyone with a queasy stomach, but there’s no denying the powerful and sneaky punch with which it wallops you. A true instant classic.

2. All Quiet on the Western Front
Perhaps the most horrific and (presumably) realistic war movie ever made, this German feature from director and co-writer Edward Berger (adapted from Remarque’s classic novel) will shake you to your core and leave you feeling dead on the battlefield. As intense and graphic as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was for its first half-hour, ‘Quiet’ digs in and never lets up, showcasing the fantastic debut of Felix Kammerer as Paul, along with James Friend’s gorgeous and haunting cinematography and Volker Bertelmann’s unconventional but compelling score. It’s a true masterpiece, if you can make it through it.

3. Decision to Leave
A gorgeous and moving thriller, this South Korean slow-burn will keep you guessing and may ultimately leave you crumpled on the floor at what you’ve just witnessed. Directed and co-written by Park Chan-wook (‘Oldboy’, ‘The Handmaiden’), it was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes back in May, and deservedly so. The story of a detective investigating and then falling for the key suspect in a mysterious death, ‘Decision to Leave’ is at once powerful and beautiful—a feast for the eyes, the brain, and, ultimately, the heart.

4. Avatar: The Way of Water
He still occasionally has a hard time writing dialogue that doesn’t sound like how adults think tweens speak, but damn, James Cameron can spin a yarn and, more importantly, create a true motion picture experience. An epic wonder of visual effects, this ambitious follow-up to the 2009 original brings us back to Cameron’s wholly immersive world, trading the forests of Pandora for the beach and ocean. It clocks in at three hours and change (just two minutes shorter than ‘Titanic’), but that’s not a bad thing—it actually gives the characters and plot some much-needed time to breathe. A stunning masterpiece of cinematic wonder.

5. She Said
Chronicling the birth of the ‘Me Too’ movement and the simultaneous downfall of Harvey Weinstein, this fact-based drama stars Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan as the ‘New York Times’ reporters who brought everything to light. Very much in the vein of ‘Spotlight’ and ‘All the President’s Men’, it’s an absolutely riveting film about the power of the press and the struggles of women to have their voices heard and, more importantly, believed. Easily among the best of the year.

THE REST

6. The Quiet Girl
7. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
9. Triangle of Sadness
10. TAR
11. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
12. Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me
13. The Stranger
14. The Trapped 13: How We Survived the Thai Cave
15. Slumberland
16. Into the Deep
17. The Princess (documentary)
18. Thirteen Lives
19. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
20. Nope
21. From Where They Stood
22. Spirited
23. Capturing the Killer Nurse
24. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
25. The Good Nurse
26. Joyride
27. Four Samosas
28. Troll
29. White Noise
30. The Menu
31. My Father’s Dragon
32. Causeway
33. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
34. Enola Holmes 2
35. Till
36. 5-25-77
37. Vesper
38. Nothing Compares
39. Lou
40. See How They Run
41. Do Revenge
42. I Used to Be Famous
43. McEnroe
44. Bullet Train
45. Vengeance
46. Honor Society
47. My Old School
48. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
49. Your Christmas or Mine?
50. Violent Night
51. The Fabelmans
52. A Christmas Story Christmas
53. Catherine Called Birdy
54. The Whale
55. Meet Cute
56. Day Shift
57. Wedding Season
58. The Gray Man
59. Thor: Love and Thunder
60. The Pale Blue Eye
61. Something from Tiffany’s
62. Holiday Harmony
63. Strange World
64. Disenchanted
65. Ticket to Paradise
66. The Good House
67. About Fate
68. Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
69. Look Both Ways
70. I Love My Dad
71. The Princess
72. Christmas with the Campbells
73. Rosaline
74. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone
75. Luckiest Girl Alive
76. Samaritan
77. I Believe in Santa
78. Christmas at the Drive-In
79. Falling for Christmas
80. Halloween Ends
81. The Greatest Beer Run Ever
82. Don’t Worry Darling
83. Patton Oswalt: We All Scream
84. Confess, Fletch
85. Back to the Drive-In
86. Luck
87. Persuasion
88. Where the Crawdads Sing
89. Minions: The Rise of Gru
90. The People We Hate at the Wedding
91. Raymond & Ray
92. Me Time
93. Not Okay
94. Christmas with You
95. Amsterdam
96. Dead for a Dollar
97. Pinocchio
98. Out of Office
99. Spin Me Round

THE BOTTOM 5
100. Not Just a Girl
The latest in the long line of useless rock-docs that play out like a greatest hits Wikipedia entry, Not Just a Girl gives us a ho-hum Shania Twain career retrospective. Even for mild fans, there’s nothing here you didn’t already know, precious little you haven’t already heard, and only a few clips of things you haven’t already seen. What could have been a raw and intimate portrait is instead a 90-minute montage of concert clips and gushy praise from celebrity fans. And, no, that don’t impress me much.

101. Babylon
The latest from writer-director Damien Chazelle continues to make me wish he had quit after ‘Whiplash’. Sure, ‘First Man’ had its moments, but I’ll never come around on ‘La La Land’, despite the critical acclaim. ‘Babylon’, without a doubt, is the worst of the bunch—a messy and disjointed epic (clocking in at three hours and nine minutes) that completely wastes the deep, assembled cast, which includes Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, and Diego Calva. It’s apparently supposed to be a love letter to the ultra-hedonistic Hollywood days of yore but instead comes off as a meandering film chock full of moments whose sole purpose is to make you squirm, cringe, and/or wonder what the heck you’re watching.

102. A Hollywood Christmas
Ugh. Shame on me for even giving this thing a try. In theory, the premise is okay—a Hollywood director (Jessika Van) finds out that her studio is axing the Christmas film division, so it falls on her assistant (Anissa Borrego) to frame her life as a holiday movie in the hopes that the day can be saved. Ample opportunities for meta-humor abound and are right there for the taking, but nothing ever materializes. It’s not even worth putting on in the background as a catalyst for a post-turkey nap.

103. My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Over the course of 13 years and 1,400 reviews, I’ve obviously run into quite a few stinkers along the way. (2011’s ‘Your Highness’, 2018’s ‘The Happytime Murders’, and 2019’s ‘Serenity’ stand out.) Let’s add this piece of ridiculously awful garbage to the list, too, shall we? Based on the (admittedly great) YA book by Grady Hendrix, this film is a sloppy, all-over-the-place mess that has no clue what it wants to be. Pseudo-horror? Tween girls slumber party event? Goofy comedy? Here’s a hint: none of the above. It’s poorly written, poorly directed, and an absolute mess from the first frame onward.

104. Black Adam

Oh my heavens, can DC just stop? Even when not being compared to their vastly superior rivals over at Marvel, the DC Extended Universe has just been one colossal mess after the other, and ‘Black Adam’ may just be the worst of the bunch. A horribly muddled plot, a laughably juvenile script, and mumbly, uninspired performances across the board (including from stars Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan) combine to make this an unwatchable catastrophe. Unwatchable.