Lists

Top SXSW 2025 Films

This was my very first time at SXSW and I had an absolute blast. Each of the three screenings we caught were watched in a span of 24 hours but had such great energetic audiences and engaging filmmakers here are the best films I saw, ranked from worst to best. 3. Together Directed by Michael…
Top Sundance 2024 Films

As always, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off the movie new year, and this edition, which concludes today, maintained both the in-person and online options. Like any film festival, the quality of the films tend to be uneven and largely dependent on personal taste, but it captures the sense of adventure and excitement in discovering…
Mission: Impossible Movies, Ranked

There are few things in life more reliable than a money-making Hollywood movie franchise churning out picture after picture. This usually comes at the expense of quality, but a few of them have figured out how to maintain their standards and even thrive and grow over time. And when you have an ageless, HALO-jumping, cliff-scaling,…
Scream Opening Scenes, Ranked (SPOILERS)

One of the very first things that comes to mind when you think of a Scream movie is its opening scene. Ever since the very first Scream came out in 1996, each film works hard to come up with something new, creative, and to subvert audience expectations in the opening pre-title card scene which often…
Top Sundance 2023 Films

This was the first year since the pandemic when the Sundance film festival was in-person again, although it also retained the virtual option for the majority of the films playing at the festival. Here’s a list of the Sundance films I saw, ranked. 5. Jamojaya Directed by Justin Chon; starring Rich Brian and Yayu A.W.…
Ranking the Top Gun Call Signs, From Worst to Best

There are a lot of memorable things about Top Gun: the aviators, the old-school leather jackets and motorcycles, the Danger Zone song, the wet, slicked-back hair and baby-oiled male physiques… but arguably the coolest and most iconic are the call signs. Say “Maverick”, “Iceman” or “Goose” and almost anyone within earshot will suddenly start feeling…
Top Sundance 2022 Films

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up just a few days ago. After gearing up to have both in-person and virtual components, the omicron surge forced it to go completely virtual just like last year, but there was no shortage of worthy films to see from the comfort of your home. Here’s a list of…
Top Sundance 2021 Films

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up just a few days ago. Like so much of our lives over the past year, it went largely virtual this year. Without the snow and freezing Utah cold weather, the hustle and bustle of Main Street, and the waiting in long lines, Sundance this year was… in some…
Top 10 Long Movies

One thing that many of us have been given during this pandemic is time – staying at home and not being able to do our usual social activities means… more time to sit around and watch movies. Without those long work commutes or the endless friends’ birthday parties, now is the perfect time to finally…
Feast Your Eyes! Top Food Movies

Thanksgiving weekend is wrapping up, a time for being with loved ones and being grateful. It’s also the American holiday that most focuses on food. At a time when not everyone can get together as usual, the traditional Thanksgiving fare of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberrry sauce, candied yams, and pies can all bring comfort…
Top Isolation Movies

With quarantining and sheltering at home being a fact of life in 2020, we’ve all had to get used to being much more isolated than ever. If you’re looking for some commiseration (and some assurances that it could be a lot worse), here are my top 10 favorite isolation movies, in order: Honorable Mentions Castaway;…
10 Black Movies to Stream For Free

In the wake of the George Floyd murder, the Black Lives Matter movement and racial inequality has surged to the forefront of our social consciousness in a way that hasn’t happened since at least the Rodney King riots, and arguably since the late 1960s. Educating ourselves, and learning and unlearning, has been the process that…
19 Best Streaming Documentaries (Quarantine Edition)

With the pandemic going on, there’s been a delay on big new narrative releases, which has meant that the biggest new pop culture phenomena have been documentaries like The Tiger King and The Last Dance. In fact, even pre-covid, we’ve been living in the golden age of documentaries for the past few years. There’s so…
20 Underrated Streaming Movies (Quarantine Edition)

One small upside of all the craziness that’s been going on with this pandemic is that there is more streaming content than ever, with plenty of new options. There are tons of extended free trials, things for kids to watch, HBO’s biggest free content release in its history, and even SXSW film festival selections. With…
The Films I Saw at Sundance 2020, Ranked

Here’s a list of the films I saw at this year’s Sundance film festival, from worst to best (or in Sundance speak, from “fair” to “best”): 1. Spree Spree is an interesting high-concept film, even if it was poorly executed. The idea of an Uber driver going on a serial-killing spree in order to go…
Best Movies of the 2010s

As we’ve brought another decade to a close, here are my favorite movies of the decade, listing my favorite movie of each year, plus some honorable mentions. 2010 – The Social Network Honorable Mentions: The Fighter, Winter’s Bone, Boy 2011 – The Raid Redemption Honorable Mentions: Drive, Tomboy, Moneyball, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, A Separation…
35 of the Best Under-The-Radar Movies on Netflix (as of January 2019)

Everyone knows about The Godfather, Making a Murderer, Breaking Bad, No Country for Old Men, Good Will Hunting, Black Mirror, or even Birdbox. But here are some titles that you may have missed, and likely won’t show up in the “Trending Now” section, along with a Netflixian subgenre descriptor (and more usefully, here are the…
Top 10 Anticipated Films – Fall 2018

This was a really tough list to come up with – I typically try to find out as little as possible about my most anticipated films until I watch it, to avoid any semblance of spoilers. But here goes: Honorable Mentions: Widows (Steve McQueen); First Man (Damian Chazelle); Burning (Lee Chang-dong); Creed II (Steven Caple…