THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
Almost 100 years after it was made, 1926âs The Adventures of Prince Achmed still astonishes. Itâs the oldest feature-length animated movie that still exists, but itâs completely timeless, using German animator Lotte Reinigerâs intricate cutout technique to create gorgeous silhouettes that depict a gripping, surreal adventure from the Arabian Nights, populated by sorcerers and demons. NED LANNAMANN
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
Mere weeks away from the release of All the Money in the World, director Ridley Scott decided to erase every trace of Kevin Spacey from his movie following disturbing allegations of that actorâs sexual assault and harassment. Scott quickly re-filmed large sections with Christopher Plummer, who replaced Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty, founder of Getty Oil and one of the richest men of the 20th century. I can see why Scott went to such extremes: He knew he was sitting on top of a taut, exciting thriller about the 1973 Italian kidnapping of Gettyâs grandson, John Paul Getty III, and damned if he was gonna let Spacey torpedo it. That Scott pulled off the switcheroo relatively seamlessly is an achievement unto itself; that All the Money in the World works on its own merits is another altogether. NED LANNAMANN
BABE
If ever youâve wondered, âWill that do, pig?â, wonder no longer: this film holds the answer you seek.
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CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
There arenât many films that can paint a picture of the extravagant turmoil of young romance without lapsing into clunky clichĂŠ. But Call Me by Your Name is such a filmâand it succeeds by seamlessly juxtaposing the lush Italian countryside with the burgeoning desires and tumultuous emotions of a lovesick teen, creating a sumptuous world of dreams and romantic loss. WM.⢠STEVEN HUMPHREY
DOWNSIZING
In Downsizing, Alexander Payneâs big idea is to try to treat his filmâs title as literally as possible, positing a world where a Norwegian scientist has invented a shrink ray that can reduce organic matter to a thousandth of its original size. Why? Well, since we canât enlarge the Earth and its finite resources, maybe we can shrink ourselves to make them last longer. Weâre conditioned these days to assume that the stakes of any story are the whole world, which goes double in a story with an environmentalist conceit. But Downsizing isnât about saving the world. Downsizing is neither an environmental screed nor a skewering of environmentalist rhetoric; it simply builds a world and tries to imagine Matt Damon living in it. VINCE MANCINI
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I, TONYA
In a sport that worshipped a retrograde notion of femininity, Tonya Harding was considered a freak, even though she was arguably the most technically skilled skater of her time. In the wake of the infamous 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Harding was further ostracized, transformed by the nascent 24-hour news cycle into a white-trash demonessâso itâs important that any fictional depiction of her life acknowledge that she was also a real person who suffered. I, Tonya, is a solid attempt, largely thanks to Margot Robbieâs portrayal of a very human, very sympathetic Tonya. Without sugarcoating Hardingâs personality or her life, I, Tonya tells a familiar story of a woman whose life was ruined by hapless, cruel men and sexist gatekeeping. In a moment of heightened awareness around sexual abuse and workplace harassment, Hardingâs story couldnât be more timely. She wasnât a perfect victim, but her suffering was real. And due to associations with awful men who undermined her career, she lost the one constant in her chaotic life: figure skating. MEGAN BURBANK
ITâS A WONDERFUL LIFE
The holiday classic beloved by those valiantly fighting the slow, crushing, and inevitable truth that their lives have not mattered at all.
JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
This movie wasnât made for me. Iâm an adult, and this movie is for children. Iâm also not a huge fan of Kevin Hart or the Rock, but a lot of people areâtheyâre very popular! Many humans whose blood runs as red as mine could find a lot to enjoy in this movie. Did this movie need to be made? No, but does any movie need to be made? Or like, hey, maybe call this something other than Jumanji, since itâs OBVIOUSLY something different (Jumanji was a board game, and now itâs a video game, and thereâs barely even any animals in this thing). And doesnât this all seem like a cynical exploitation of our nostalgia for â80s books and â90s movies? Sure! But if theyâd called it something different, theyâd have to use a different font for the posters, and itâs a good font, so why not? Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle harms no one. ELINOR JONES
MOLLYâS GAME
After writing several wordy screen plays and a few endearingly verbose TV shows, Aaron Sorkin sits down in the directorâs chair for an uneven but entertaining lark about Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a former Olympic hopeful who puts off law school and ends up running a high-stakes underground poker game. It is every inch An Aaron Sorkin Film. Walking and talking? Earnest speeches? Social justice? Daddy issues? You bet! ERIC D. SNIDER
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MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
The word âgeniusâ gets batted around with regard to filmmakers with a numbing, reductive frequency. But if Hayao Miyazaki doesnât qualify for that title, who does? Since making his directorial debut with 1979âs The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki has blazed his own distinct trail, blending atomic-clock action timing with an awe-inspiring, hand-rendered sense of the infinite. Nobody else can balance exhilarating weightlessness with moral gravity in quite the same proportions. ANDREW WRIGHT
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ONG BAK
Someone steals a Buddhist statue from Tony Jaaâs village. Tony Jaa travels to Bangkok to get it back. On the way he knees the fuck out of anyone who gets in his way. You will witness about 150 stuntmen getting their underpaid shit wrecked with no wires or CGI assistance for about 90 minutes. It will be glorious. BOBBY ROBERTS
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PITCH PERFECT 3
The Pitch Perfect universe feels like a 1989-era Taylor Swift Instagram experience, before she deleted all her âgrams to get all self-serious and boring. Itâs a shiny, flawless, and highly-edited world of pretty girls having curated fun, and if I could live in it, you bet your ass I would, because it is a delightful land to inhabit for a fast-paced, totally ridiculous 90 minutes. ELINOR JONES