EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE by Daniels | Trailer
It’s been more than ten months since the year’s defining film first assaulted my psyche, and I am still exhausted by the unrelenting inventiveness of it all. So obliterated were my preconceived notions of what cinema can be that I was left with only one question: after a film like this, where can the Daniels possibly go from here?
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh | Trailer
My knee-jerk reaction when I first came across the trailer was how utterly mundane the plot seemed to be. But through the simplicity of the setting and situation, Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) explores with unvarnished wit the uncomfortably murky depths of our humanity in, by far, the funniest film of the year.
AFTER YANG by Kogonada | Trailer
A rich work of meditative sci-fi poetry that can only emanate from a soulful filmmaker like Kogonada. Driving the film is a deeply thoughtful performance from Colin Farrell (Banshees of Inisherin), who made as strong a case as any in 2022 to be considered one of the best actors working today (without even mentioning his wild turn as the Penguin in The Batman).
THE FABELMANS by Steven Spielberg | Trailer
The camera carries with it the potential for a certain kind of truth. A truth that can be manipulated and shaped, cut and edited, but still a truth that can’t be escaped. Even when everything in front of the lens is just make-believe, even when the collection of images holds the ability to create and destroy, the pursuit of that truth is an obsession, a drug, an illness that can’t be ignored.
RRR by S.S. Rajamouli | Trailer
The bromanciest bromance to ever bromance in one of the splashiest injections of pure entertainment to hit our shores in recent memory. When movies start feeling stale Stateside, let’s be thankful that there is still so much audacious ingenuity that can be found elsewhere.
PREY by Dan Trachtenberg | Trailer
In a world dominated by remakes and reboots and rehashes, sequels and prequels and requels, Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) has demonstrated an uncanny ability to find surprisingly fresh angles into tired franchises, like he does with the dead-horse Predator, in the year’s smartest IP exercise.
X by Ti West | Trailer
I guess there’s still some life left in the well-trod slasher genre in Ti West’s queasily funny and surprisingly sympathetic tale about our destructive obsession with youth, beauty, and fame.
TÁR by Todd Field | Trailer
Tár is at times annoyingly self-indulgent, but Todd Field’s first film in sixteen years is mostly an exemplar of undeniable directorial command and craft, anchored by a magnum opus performance by Cate Blanchett.
THE REHEARSAL by Nathan Fielder | Trailer
This is my cheat. Technically a TV series but one that can be viewed in its entirety in about three hours. A spiritual extension of his groundbreaking series Nathan For You but surpassing its predecessor in shocking ways, Nathan Fielder blew my mind with each successive episode in what I can only say is one of the greatest artistic achievements I’ve ever experienced.
Possibly Interesting 