the @popcollin reviews

THE TOP 5 1. The Holdovers Paul Giamatti re-teams with ‘Sideways’ director Alexander Payne for this wonderful 1970-set film that takes place at a New England boarding school. Giamatti is the outcast Professor Hunham, made to stay behind over Christmas break with any students who must remain on campus. What […]

THE TOP 5 1. Past Lives This brilliant and oh-so-moving American-Korean film is an instant candidate for best of the year. Spanning decades, it’s the story of two Koreans (Greta Lee and Teo Yoo) who are best friends as kids but who grow apart, only to reconnect years later when […]

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 […]

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 […]

THE TOP 5 1. Drive My Car A three-hour-long, heady, Oscar-nominated Japanese film about a widower attempting to stage a version of ‘Uncle Vanya’ may not sound like riveting stuff, but ‘Drive My Car’ is as close to a game-changer as anything that has come down the pike in recent […]

THE TOP 5 1. Minari The story of a Korean family struggling to stay afloat on a makeshift Arkansas farm is a beautiful and touching bit of subdued and nuanced filmmaking. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung has crafted a character-driven masterpiece with Steven Yeun and Han Ye-ri leading the way as […]

THE TOP 5 Promising Young Woman “A mind-blowing and brilliant masterpiece of moviemaking about a woman bent on revenge after her best friend is raped in college. Built on the foundation of a career-best performance by Carey Mulligan, this is the kind of thought-provoking and game-changing film that, by itself, […]

THE TOP 5 1. The Vast of Night (review) “Though steeped in easter-eggy homages to everything from The Twilight Zone to The War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the film is undeniably still a one-of-a-kind original (along with being wildly entertaining… and worthy of not one but multiple viewings). It is also, […]

1. Brooklyn – 2015 (review) “With a rare, endearing sense of grace and tenderness, Brooklyn tells a very simple love story. But underneath the surface is a film of such emotional depth and complexity that its poignancy lingers for a long time after the credits roll.” 2. Black Swan – 2010 “There are terrifying […]

1. The Happytime Murders – 2018 (review) “The trailer gave us obscene amounts of hope that The Happytime Murders would be a raucous and hilarious way to close out the summer. But the trailer is the only thing this crass, unfunny, and tedious exercise has going for it. Plus, it gives Melissa McCarthy […]