10. The French Dispatch - Director Wes Anderson achieves maximum quirk. If that's your thing, then this loving collection of character portraits revolving around a newspaper is the shit.
9. Mogul Mowgli - Terrible title. Great drama. An up and coming rapper played by the awesome Riz Ahmed encounters disease in his body, which leads to dis-ease in his mind as visions of his cultural heritage come a' callin'.
8. Belfast - The critical praise seemed a bit tepid at first, but currently this excellent family portrait set amid bad times in Northern Ireland is a Best Picture nominee lock for the Oscars. Ken Branagh directs a perfect cast.
7. Drive My Car - It's in Japanese--and other languages. It's three hours. A dude is grieving for his dead wife. He's directing a Chekov play. He drives his car. Then someone else drives his car. A lot. And somehow it's all fucking great.
6. Nightmare Alley - Only Ron Perlman is here to remind us that this is a Guillermo del Toro film. I wouldn't say it's a hard "R" movie but it's definitely hard noir. Someone better nominate Bradley Cooper for Best Actor or the Oscars are bullshit.
5. The Courier - A 2020 film but not released in theaters till 2021. I liked The Power of the Dog, but if you can only see one film from last year starring ol' Cumbersnatch (to use Gary's nickname), let it be this Cold War potboiler.
4. Luzzu - I didn't expect a character study about a Maltese fisherman to be riveting for all 94 minutes of, y'know, fishing and stuff in Malta. But somehow it wuz.
3. Summer of Soul - Director Questlove undoes a cultural memory hole with this fine documentary about the "Black Woodstock" of 1969. As much as anything else, it's a great concert film.
2. The Green Knight - Let's trip balls on sum medieval mushrooms and go on a quest with Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur (at least in this movie). Various trials await, and the Green Knight looms at the end at a green chapel. An unbeatable adaptation of a literary classic.
1. Inside - Bo Burnham's masterpiece of pandemic pantomime. Funny, sad, rousing, biting…as though the comedian was, like so many of us, some trapped animal looking for anything to distract himself enough to keep madness at bay. Luckily, for both Burnham and for us, he found a LOT of distractions in some great songs with lots of yuks and many poignant observations to boot. There's even a bit about a pirate.
