I put up a list of my top 10, so far, earlier this year (well, two lists, actually), and now it’s time for the real deal, the definitive list of my favorite movies of the year. To avoid tying myself in knots over rankings, I’m eliminating the numbering (and honestly I think there’s like twelve here) and posting my favorite movies of the year in no particular order. It’s been a fantastic year for film.
THE FANATIC
If I were to tell you that Fred Durst made a horror film—wait, come back! Hear me out. I get that Fred Durst is best known for rap-rock [legends?] Limp Bizkit, and considering their improbable success it’s fair to assume that making rap-rock music is the thing he’s best at (a talent comparable to chugging beer or doing Bill Cosby impressions in 2020), but no! He’s actually a pretty talented director, and he’s put together a movie that’s way better than it has any right to be. John Travolta kills it, KILLS IT, in his best performance since FACE/OFF. The movie’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s like nothing else you’ll see this year, I guarantee it.
PARASITE
I went into PARASITE knowing absolutely nothing about it other than the title and the director, and that’s the best way to watch it. I won’t say anything specific here other than this movie is gorgeously shot, funny, compelling, heartbreaking, surprising, and incredibly well-acted. Everybody involved brought their A-game and I can’t say enough great things about this film.
BELZEBUTH
Holy fucking FUCK, that opening. And the next scene. And the next. Terrifying, unflinching, ballsy, and with a hell of a lot of heart, BELZEBUTH is a fucking knockout punch of a movie. Just when I thought you couldn’t do anything novel with demonic possession, too. Underneath the scares, the movie’s ultimately about the power of international cooperation and never becomes heavy-handed or preachy, and considering how extreme it gets I’m still amazed I ended the film on my feet, literally fucking cheering, and full of hope.
TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID
I’d been hearing great things about this film ever since my friend Alia Smith caught it at the Telluride Horror Festival last year, and let me tell you, the hype is totally justified. Issa Lopez’s camera finds beauty in devastation and gets hall of fame performances from some incredibly gifted child actors. The story flirts with the familiar monkey’s paw build but is so much more. This movie shows me things I’ve never seen, and goddamn I’m grateful to Lopez for what she’s pulled off here.
I’M JUST FUCKING WITH YOU/PILGRIM/A NASTY PIECE OF WORK
Blumhouse/Hulu lumps these all together so why can’t I? All three are terrific fun, especially the bookending entries, and PILGRIM has one of the grooviest premises I’ve seen in a long time. INTO THE DARK continually impresses me. Not every one connects, but they’re taking some serious swings, and I appreciate that.
HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U
HDD2U joins the proud pantheon of sequels that actually justify their own existence. The first fifteen minutes brilliantly recontextualizes the end of the first film, highlights a scene-stealing minor character, and deftly sets up the rest of the film. The way the film revisits the events of HAPPY DEATH DAY, adding depth and pathos, is to be much admired. The film addresses the emotional fallout from the first movie head-on, and the fact that it doesn’t shy away from examining how one might deal with killing someone else in self-defense is fascinating. The film also balances horror and comedy well, a difficult feat. Best watched in a double-feature with the first one.
MIDSOMMAR
Ari Aster is the greatest music video director of all time. The guy knows how to craft a compelling visual, that’s for sure, and the music is top-notch. Despite the legion of dipshits in my theater that laughed at literally everything, I found the movie to be almost unbearably tense (in a good way), disturbing, and consistently fascinating. Narratively there’s almost nothing going on, and if you’ve ever seen a pagan cult movie there are zero surprises. Every character that’s not Florence Pugh or her boyfriend feels like an NPC, and maybe that’s by design, but I can’t get behind that approach. The execution is brilliant but expected—while it’s a sterling example of what it is, I’ve seen this movie before. For a new twist on the pagan cult movie, check out Gareth Evans’ Apostle. I’m not saying that’s a better movie than Midsommar, but narratively I found it the superior movie of the two.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
I really loved THE VVITCH (yeah, I put the V’s in there, what?), and couldn’t wait to check out Robert Eggers’ follow-up. Like MIDSOMMAR, the movie turns more on performances, cinematography, and set design than plot—while the craftsmanship here is stellar, I can’t say the movie ever really surprised me. Like Aster’s sophomore effort, Eggers’ chugs ahead to a conclusion that’s inevitable but still hurts to watch. Similarly, both movies are packed with such depth that they merit repeat watchings.
VELVET BUZZSAW
Nightcrawler is one of my favorite movies EVER, and getting the band back together was a fantastic idea. I had a hell of a lot of fun with this movie. Incredibly compelling, I never felt the urge to check my phone which is my measuring stick for how good a movie on NetFlix is (regardless of how bored I am in a theater, I’m not pulling out my fucking phone like an asshole). If the movie had just been about pretentious art douchebags trying to out-douche each other over Henry Darger’s Gold, I would have liked the movie even more. The supernatural horror element felt tacked on and unnecessary, and this movie is the ultimate example of an all-time great title having fuck-all to do with the story. Still, I loved the hell out of this thing despite its flaws.
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE
USL was a fun, captivating joy ride through hipster Hollywood (both past and present). Yes, Andrew Garfield is kind of a mopecore asshole creep and no, I wouldn’t want to be friends with him, but I also don’t need a likeable protag to enjoy a movie. Not all of the elements come together in a satisfying way in the end, but the individual scenes are well-executed and some deliriously-haunting imagery has stuck with me the past week. The scene with the Songwriter is truly terrifying on an existential level, and the mystery of whether Topher Grace’s unnamed “Bar Buddy” character is actually supposed to BE Topher Grace still has me intrigued. If you go into this movie with expectations, you're probably going to hate it, but if you let the movie do it’s thing it’s a wild bit of what-the-fuck.
ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
There’s fifty-six years of movie-loving and movie-making in every last frame of this thing. I can see this sliding up in my rankings over the next couple months for sure. Full disclosure, I just watched this last night but the movie’s managed to grow on me even more in those few hours. Part love letter to a bygone area of cinema, part bold challenge to anyone working in the true crime genre, OUTH asks and answers some pretty interesting questions while simultaneously telling a couple small, touching, human stories. After watching this I half-suspect QT hasn’t actually been making movies for the past twenty-five years; he’s been weaving a spell on a global scale, and when his tenth film is finished the circle will be complete and we’ll all be sucked into a new reality where everybody’s got a handy quip and a Red Apple cigarette between their lips.
KNIFE+HEART
A contemporary, ‘70s-set take on the giallo. Moreso than last year’s Suspiria, I thought Knife perfectly nailed the atmosphere and look of the ‘70s. Everybody looks kind of sweaty and gross. I found myself forgetting all the characters were speaking French because I was so invested in the story. Anne Pareze is such a fascinating, morally-questionable creation. Her creation of a pornographic film to both exploit and cope with the tragedy surrounding her is jaw-dropping, both in how some scenes are played for painful laughs but also in what it says about her as a person—insight and indictment in equal measure. Is she trying to make a buck off the deaths of her friends, looking for catharsis in all the wrong places, or a little bit of both? Either way, watch this fucking movie, it’s amazing.
THE BANANA SPLITS
Pure. Fucking. Joy. Taking the Banana Splits and making a legit horror movie is tough to pull off, and yet Danishka Esterhazy absolutely rose to the challenge. The jokes land, the gore is on point, the child actors aren’t annoying and the adult actors nail the shit out of their roles. Perhaps it’s not high art, but it’s a perfect example of a well-crafted, batshit-insane horror flick. The care and attention to detail is evident throughout (ex. and SPOILER the way one Split is taken out mirrors their first kill almost exactly). It’s a shame this movie is consigned to VOD/Blu-ray, because it’s the perfect flick to tie one on with your friends and go see on the big screen. Hoping it hits the midnight movie circuit one of these days. Goddamn incredible and I can’t see anything topping it this year.
HONORABLE MENTION: MASKED MUTILATOR
Holy fucking fuck. FUCK. If you’re a Troma fan, go check this thing out. Started in the ‘90s, finished last year and starring my man Brick Bronsky of CLASS OF NUKE’EM HIGH 2 and 3 fame, it’s about a wrestler who accidentally kills an opponent in the ring and then is somehow allowed to run a home for troubled youth. When said troubled youth start getting bumped off one-by-one, the newest deliquent must harness the power of karate and his sweet ‘90s bowl cut to save the day. I can’t say enough good things about this movie. It’s a fucking gift.
Movies That Just Missed This List: READY OR NOT, MA, CHILD’S PLAY, THE HEAD HUNTER, NEKROTRONIC, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, THE IRISHMAN, GIRL ON THE THIRD FLOOR, DANIEL ISN’T REAL, HAUNT, GAGS THE CLOWN, WOUNDS (holy fuckballs there were a lot of great movies this year, and I’m sure I missed a few).
Movies I Missed and Need to Catch Up On: DOCTOR SLEEP, CRAWL, SATANIC PANIC, DEPRAVED, SWEETHEART
Best Movies That Came Out Last Year That I Didn’t Watch Until This Year: APOSTLE, MONSTER PARTY, SUSPIRIA