5. The Banshees of Inisherin
“How’s the despair?”
The Banshees of Inisherin’s theatrical origin is escapable. Two characters- Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, equally excellent – and one simple question: what happens when someone simply doesn’t want to be friends anymore? The answer is as funny as it is bleak, and interpretations of it may reveal as much about the audience as they do about the movie. Basically, go see it with your friends.
4. Tár
“You must, in fact, stand in front of the public and god and obliterate yourself.”
Like the title conductor herself, Tár will not be for everyone. This is a difficult, thorny film, as cold and sparse as the main character’s apartment. It is also, if the opening ten-minute interview scene doesn’t clue you in, slow; Tár demands you fit its rhythm, and punishes those who don’t. But what a wonderful rhythm it is. Led by an astonishing Cate Blanchett, Tár knows exactly what it wants to do, and moves with a musician’s preciseness. .
3. Marcel the Shell with Shoes on
“Guess why I smile a lot? Cause it’s worth it.”
You don’t go into Marcel the Shell with Shoes On expecting to cry. For the first hour, you might not even consider it, laughing along to Marcel’s (Jenny Slate) charmingly animated observations about the world and his relationship with his grandma Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini). You might catch moments of loneliness- a lantern floating into the night, or a quiet comment about a divorced partner- but Marcel’s cheerfulness and humor quickly moves the moment past, like the ticking hands of 60 Minutes. Marcel is a movie about community, in finding, losing, and needing to be alone from it, and while it deals with profoundly heavy subjects, it never loses that buoyancy.
2. RRR
“Your friendship is more valuable than this life, brother.”
RRR is more. More action, more dance scenes, more friendships, more violence. It is impossible to describe and impossible to hate. Those describing RRR for the first time often struggle to capture this 3-hour Telugu epic, resorting to sound-effects and child-like wonder. It is a sharp rebuke to IP-driven blockbusters, and spectacular.
1.Everything Everywhere All At Once
“ I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.”
Everything Everywhere All At Once shouldn’t have worked. A low-budget sci-fi action-comedy, with a multiverse concept somehow even crazier than Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schneidt’s previous farting corpse movie. Somehow, they pulled it off. EEAAO is, well, everything: much like our #2, it embraces maximalism, providing laughs, heart, and cosmic horror in equal measure. Most media about the multiverse shy away from its true possibilities. By embracing it, EEAAO transforms from creative to mind breaking. It is supremely confident, overwhelmingly stylish, and unquestionably the best movie of the year.
