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So glad to finally have a film that answers the question, “what if Indiana Jones was exceptionally pleased with himself?”

BRING HER BACK is a bold swing from the Philippou brothers. Gorgeously shot, unrelentingly bleak, deeply upsetting, and just a huge bummer overall.

TALK TO ME was an intense movie but it was a crowd pleaser. This is not a crowd pleaser. It's probably safe to call it a crowd dis-pleaser! Highly polarizing and I'm impressed they chose to use their resources in this way.

ired it more than I enjoyed it.

If you’re going to make a short film that’s at least partly commenting on wealth inequality maybe don’t pay Mr Beast to be in it

FRIENDSHIP is a funny, upsetting movie that asks the question: what if a character from I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE existed for longer than an 8-minute sketch?

The answer? Their existence would be dark, hellish, and confusing, like that of a perpetual child unable to function in an adult universe, worthy of our pity and also, somehow, our fear.

The Final Reckoning is 171 minutes long and it takes about half of that runtime for it to really get going. There is endless exposition in the opening half, with many scenes of many characters at long tables explaining exactly Cruise and team are trying to even accomplish. These early acts are rough and the movie is frequently verbose and ponderous — tough to follow, and even harder to enjoy. But when the action finally kicks in during the second half, the results are spectacular. There are several major set pieces in this film that not only qualify as the best in the franchise; they may be among the best ever put to film. And there, through it all, is Cruise, trying to show us something we’ve never seen before and ultimately succeeding.

Read my review at Decoding Everything

Had my own Final Destination moment anticipating my impending death when I realized that we are now as far away from the release of the first FINAL DESTINATION as FINAL DESTINATION was from the release of JAWS.

Better than Late Stage Fast and Furious movies

Everything that involves Josh Hartnett fighting people was great. Everything else not so much.

Hot take: I think the decline of media literacy and dramatic increase in terrible takes on movies is directly attributable to studios not making nearly as many of these types of BTS docs and allowing them easily available anymore (obviously related to the decline of physical media). It’s harder to snipe at movies when you understand how any movie whatsoever just barely gets across the finish line.

We used to get a doc like this all the time on Disc 2 of a DVD digipack. We used to be a society.

One of the opening scenes had this spectacular visual of hundreds of people typing shit onto paper to preserve the knowledge base of the US government and basically: we should’ve done that for real before DOGE took over

This movie did Seraphites better than LAST OF US II

This review may contain spoilers.

Yeah sex is cool but have you ever watched SINNERS in true IMAX during one of those scenes when the aspect ratio slowly changes from widescreen to 1.43:1 in order to fill the whole screen

Stunned to report that I really enjoyed this and that it may in fact be one of my favorite post-ENDGAME MCU films. It looks great, the action rocks, and Florence Pugh really brings a lot of heart to it.

Its biggest issue is the villain’s arc, which feels like it was put on ultra fast-forward. Otherwise, this reminded me of old-school Marvel films with characters you care about that have great chemistry together.

Officially excited for FANTASTIC FOUR!

Sad that it is surprising these days to watch a Marvel film that doesn’t look like crap but this fits the bill.

A good primer for those completely unfamiliar with this tragedy, featuring some powerful first-hand s.

But otherwise almost completely devoid of any insight or meaningful connections to what’s happening in politics, even up through today.

Didn’t love the flimsy CG or the fairly generic story.

But it has two of the best action scenes in recent memory and it shows that Gareth Evans has still got the juice.

Always refreshing to watch a movie whose depiction of autistic people feels like it came out of the 1980s. Some real throwback energy going on here.

This review may contain spoilers.

A horror film that spends an entire hour setting up characters, place, and time so that when people start dying you actually give a shit. 

Pretty sure this entered “classic” status in my heart when the Asian characters opened their mouths for the first time in a film set in 1932 and spoke with a southern accent.

Starting to think war might be bad, actually

By far the best movie that’s ever been made based on a feature that was introduced in iOS 7 (and it’s not even close btw)

Y’know how some horror movies will begin with an over-the-top campy slasher sequence, but then all of a sudden it’ll cut to someone WATCHING the thing you just saw and it turns out you were just watching is a ridiculous movie-within-a-movie because of course you can’t make a whole movie like that?

HEART EYES starts the same way only that’s the whole movie. On the bright side, you can tell in the first 10 minutes whether or not you’ll find this unbearable or not.

The movie equivalent of one of those TikToks that has half the screen taken up by someone playing Subway Surfers so you don’t swipe away

Read my review at Decoding Everything

Shockingly solid.

Underwater scenes looked incredible. A bit more character work and this would’ve been a home run.

(Spoilers I guess)

Pretty weird that in my entire life I never watched a single movie starring Steve Park that’s a satire of oblivious rich people with a climax that involves offering a wounded baby creature up to its protectors, and then in the span of one month in early 2025, I watched two of them.

FLYING LOTUS? more like TRYING TO-GIVE-US a sci-fi thriller with stylish visuals and a great score that’s a predictable slog for the first half and that really picks up in the second (and mostly succeeding).

Super disappointing.

Errol Morris is one of my favorite directors of all time but this doc scattershot in its storytelling, lacking in momentum, unclear in its explanations of critical events, and doesn’t bring much new to the table.

Had a blast with this movie.

We used to get a fun studio actioner with great characters like this every two weeks in theaters. 

Nowadays the movies are set at an airport and the main character is a TSA agent and it’s about Jason Bateman trying to release a chemical weapon and it’s called CARRY ON and it’s streaming on Netflix. 

We used to be a society.

Incredibly sloppy on a technical level, edited in a way that makes it frequently incomprehensible, lacking in any narrative momentum or general storytelling sense, and a movie that absolutely did not need to be two hours long.

Having said all that: it’s rare to get this much access to any major poker player and you do get to see the results of that on screen.

Holy shit this movie was a blast. A whodunit starring ridiculously good looking people that crackles with great chemistry and an unflagging momentum. 

Loving this phase of the Soderbergh/Koepp collabs.

I loved MICKEY 17. Yes, this movie gets extremely chaotic and messy towards the end and its satirical sensibility is not subtle. But it’s still a thrillingly directed epic sci-fi space adventure that occasionally makes you question the nature of humanity. That makes it better than 95% of most other movies out there.

I legit think this has ROUNDERS potential to be a cult classic in the poker community. Its writers clearly love the game and the scenarios depicted show a deep knowledge of modern day GTO and other techniques. It also doesn’t feel the need to explain jack shit to you.

That said: I have to imagine this is pretty much incomprehensible and boring AF if you’re not into poker.

This got me so pumped for GTA VI

About 15 mins in a character speaks the line: “Mayor was the mayor in the sequel. That’s the lesson from JAWS.”

Possibly one of the truest lines ever spoken in a movie.

Overall, a shockingly solid police procedural/thriller.

Corporate profit maximization sure creates a lot of unforeseen consequences and human misery, let’s use generative AI to demonstrate that point without any irony

Look how they massacred my girl

This is a well-made, gut-wrenching film that made me ponder the ethics of dramatizing an event like this. There’s a reason the media doesn’t generally publish shooter manifestos (I’m aware all the characters in the film are fictitious).

That aside: There’s a few moments when the shooter is carrying a rifle and walks inside a totally packed room at the school and like, no one does anything. People see the creepy guy has a gun, on some level they probably understand he’s not supposed to, but they kind of carry on with their day until something changes in their situation.

To acknowledge that the horrifying thing is horrifying would mean acknowledging a bunch of other stuff that you probably aren’t ready to.

I liked the part where Whiplash and Queen’s Gambit teamed up

At least they based this movie off the three most beloved Marvel properties of all time: The Eternals, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and The Incredible Hulk

Read my review at Decoding Everything

Extremely well done “one night in hell” style thriller. The protagonist is smart, capable, and gets shit done. A character you really want to root for.  

Duct tape has never been used in such a sinister fashion.

It’s true, boba straws are super sharp

Gut-wrenching documentary about how sometimes laws are complicit in creating injustice.

The combination of real-life people and actors in a docu-drama hybrid never really works for me in general, but otherwise this is a beautiful film. A quintessential Sundance movie.

Tabatha is an incredible screen presence and I understand why a filmmaker would meet this person and conclude, "I have to make a movie about you."

What started out as a straightforward compelling mystery with some commentary about masculinity becomes something else entirely about halfway through.

Some people might appreciate the Lynchian-dynamics within, but if you’re gonna do something like what this movie does, you gotta go full Lynch, not the half measures you see here.

Make Documentaries Spite-Based Again

Spectacular performances by the three main leads can’t elevate this movie beyond a what’s mostly a languorous emotional wallow.

Also: the ending plays like way too much of a twist in a way that cheapens what this movie is trying to do.

Me at the beginning of this movie: Hooray! A movie with an interesting premise that’s only 84 minutes long!

Me 10 minutes into this movie: I can’t believe there’s another 74 minutes left of this movie.

Documentary filmmaking of the highest order. An incisive look at what happens when justice and entertainment get their incentives intertwined. And an artifact of a society that has become irreparably sickened by the types of media it consumes and demands more of.

Calling the movie Predators also invites you to ask who the predators being referred to really are.

Didn’t love the pacing or the flashy aesthetics but the central performance by Tom Blyth, which is loaded with pain, pathos, and desperation, made the journey worth it.

As an exploration of trauma and its aftermath, I found this to be moving and insightful at times.

As a dramedy, this basically did not work for me at all, sadly.

Holy shit COMPANION is amazing. A sci-fi thriller with some fun concepts, great surprises, and solid performances by the two leads. Plus: some sharp commentary about gender roles and specifically modern toxic masculinity.

By default, my favorite film of 2025 so far.

I hope when I face death I can do it as André does: By turning it into some beautifully filmed content.

• Wolfs
• The Instigators

• The Dark Knight
• Oppenheimer

• War Pony
• War Horse
• Warhorse One

Every year The Filmcast podcast does a "top ten movies of the year" episode. This list compiles each list going back to 2014. Last updated 1.12.2023.

Thanks for Kevin T. on the Filmcast Slack for compiling the data. Thanks to Brandon Taitt for assembling this list on Letterboxd.

Listen to the podcast: theFilmcast.com

• The Babadook
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Nightcrawler
• The Raid 2
• Gone Girl
• Under the Skin
• Blue Ruin
• Edge of Tomorrow
• The Grand Budapest Hotel

...plus 173 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Read all about my top 10 films here: www.decodingeverything.com/p/david-chens-top-10-films-of-2022

• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• TÁR
• Triangle of Sadness
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Babylon
• Prey
• RRR
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Fire of Love
• Athena

• BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Babylon
• The Fabelmans

• La La Land
• Collateral
• Whiplash
• Chicago
• The Talented Mr. Ripley

You can watch me count down this list here: 
youtu.be/kk3IT1Ijd0g

• Nine Days
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• The Last Duel
• Dune
• Benedetta
• Drive My Car
• Mass
• The Card Counter
• Flee
• Plan B

Films this year tried to tell you to do things a lot.

• Help
• C'mon C'mon
• Don't Look Up
• Flee
• Drive My Car
• No Sudden Move
• Free Guy
• Venom: Let There Be Carnage
• Boogie
• Rumble

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A list by @davechensky

• King Richard
• After Earth
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• I Am Legend
• Independence Day
• Six Degrees of Separation
• Suicide Squad
• Seven Pounds
• Shark Tale

A list by @davechensky

• Dune
• Spencer

A list by @davechensky, inspired by @richardrushfield

• Dear Evan Hansen
• Clifford

• Joker
• To Die For

• Riders of Justice
• Another Round

A list by @davechensky inspired by @daanishsyed

• Army of the Dead
• Blade Runner 2049

Inspired by @patrickhwillems and @steven536

• Knives Out
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

• Your Sister's Sister
• The Five-Year Engagement
• The Jane Austen Book Club

A list by @davechensky

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Bill & Ted Face the Music

A list by @davechensky, inspired by @jeffgrubb

• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Justice League

A list by @davechensky (and all you cool people on the internet)

• Pay It Forward
• The Bucket List
• Sophie's Choice
• The Full Monty
• Gaslight
• Catfish
• Groundhog Day
• The Baxter
• Inception
• Weekend at Bernie's

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Rachel McAdams is a national treasure.

A list by @davechensky, inspired by @_daanishsyed.

• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
• Game Night

As listed and described by Atlantic writer and Letterboxd David Sims www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/05/30-singular-films-watch-quarantine/611956/

• The Act of Killing
• Cameraperson
• Daughters of the Dust
• Dave Chappelle's Block Party
• Dick Tracy
• Dogtooth
• Enemy
• Girl Walk // All Day
• Happy Feet Two
• Heaven Knows What

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A list by @davechensky. Thx for the inspiration, @patalo! letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/patalo/list/movies-in-which-george-mackay-finds-a-crying/

• 1917
• True History of the Kelly Gang

A list by @davechensky

• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
• Return of the Jedi
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

A list by @davechensky

• Bad Education
• The Front Runner

A list by @davechensky

• 21 Bridges
• Extraction

A list by Dave Chen (twitter.com/@davechensky)

• Aquaman
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks

• Marriage Story
• Lost in Translation
• Her

• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Dangerous Minds
• Tammy
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

• Moulin Rouge!
• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

• Men in Black: International
• Independence Day: Resurgence