Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)

I didn’t think there was anything new under the sun when it came to music documentaries. Then I saw Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements. Scene by scene, I found myself gasping in wonder and absolute disbelief that a film like this even exists. That’s largely because much of it doesn’t. Except in the ways that it does.

In it, Perry meets up with the iconic college rock band as they’re coming back together to prepare for a post-pandemic reunion tour. Alongside footage of their rehearsals and archival footage of the band’s origins, he also conceives (and then actually stages) a Broadway jukebox musical called Slanted! Enchanted!that repurposes their catalogue to tell a story of a young man’s 1990s coming-of-age story. While that’s going on, Hollywood gets in on Pavement Mania with a prestige music biopic starring a murder’s row of young A-list talent like Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, Fred Hechinger, Logan Miller, and Griffin Newman as the band. There’s also a possibly-real-but-also-staged pop-up retrospective of the band’s ephemera at MoMA that coincides with the band’s tour stop in New York. While the members revisit their memorability, contemporary acts like Soccer Mommy play covers of Pavement songs. The multi-hyphenate-hybrid film unspools over each element’s multiple timelines, poking fun at genre conventions along the way (Keery going Deep Method and getting stuck with Malkmus-voice is a laugh riot; Slanted! Enchanted!’s similarity to the similarly earnest Sufjan Stevens musical Illinoise!is allegedly a happy coincidence), and culminates into something surprisingly potent. It is both the funniest thing I’ve seen all year and a surprisingly potent as an earnest appreciation. It’s a perfect tribute to a band I don’t even care that much about. — Josh

Pavements is in limited theatrical release and available rent VOD.

Harbin (Woo Min-ho)

Historical dramas can really be a mixed bag. How true to real events is it, what emotional impact are the writer and director conveying, from which perspective is it being told, etc etc. Harbin, while probably dramatized to make it easier to digest on the big screen, tells a story that I imagine didn’t even register in the American consciousness when it happened much less any time after. While the story itself is complex it’s entirely engrossing, framed well, and acted with a depth that’s absorbing and brings the characters to life. — Morgen

Harbin is streaming on Hulu/Disney+ & other VOD

The Count of Monte Cristo (Comte de Monte-Cristo)(Alexandre de La Patellière; Matthieu Delaporte)

Alexandre Dumas’s 1200 page novel is one of my very favorite book, and this adaptation is the only one I’ve seen that isn’t underwhelming. This ultimate tale of revenge is done justice here. Plus Pierre Niney makes an excellent Edmund Dantes. — Chris

The Count of Monte Cristo is available to rent via VOD.

Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

After making a run of film franchises his own with Black Panther and Creed, Ryan Coogler got a studio to give him a giant pile of cash to make something entirely original. Sinners tackles the birth of the Delta Blues and toxic legacies of cultural appropriation through a story of scheming twin brothers who return home from both the war and the North to finally build something to call their own. That attitude infuses the whole expansive, indulgent, cosmic gumbo. Although the spotlight’s on Michael B. Jordan in dual roles and the menacing Lord of the Dance antagonist played by Jack O’Connell, the film is so richly textured that it’s easy to imagine a standalone film for every character and side quest (please give us the Choctaw prequel). With one of the most epic musical centerpieces committed to film, eye-popping IMAX cinematography, and so many bloodthirsty vampires, it was the year’s most astonishing box office sensation. — Josh

Sinners is in theaters and available to rent VOD.

The New Year That Never Came (Bogdan Mureşanu)

Since this is the second historical dramatization I’m mentioning in my list, I have to admit it’s one of my favorite genres, especially when it’s about other countries or communities that I’m wholly unfamiliar with. Storytelling is reason The New Year That Never Came was so affecting. Six stories, some intertwining, some not, but all suffer in unique ways painting a broader picture of how the fallout of unchecked power doesn’t appear overnight but takes a toll that has even longer to recovery. — Morgen

The New Year That Never Came is streaming on Prime Video

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie)

Likely the final installment in Tom Cruise’s 30-year running Mission Impossible franchise, this one goes out with a bang. It’s this summer’s best blockbuster, with one cool action scene after another. Take a bow, Ethan Hunt. You earned it. — Chris

Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning is currently in theaters.

The Wedding Banquet (Andrew Ahn)

Amidst many depressing indie films, revolutionary stories and horror flicks, I’m glad I managed to grab a few comedies here and there because our current climate could use a bit more levity. The Wedding Banquet is a retelling of the brilliant 1980’s film of the same name. I’m not a huge fan of remakes, but in this case director Andrew Ahn took the opportunity to add nuance both to the characters and the story. When the original was made, Americans knew substantially less about Asian culture as a whole and were barely avoiding racist slurs on the regular. The film’s viewers will have matured a bit (or that’s the hope) and Ahn wanted the nature of the film to mature with them. — Morgen

The Wedding Banquet is available to rent VOD.

Better Man (Michael Gracey)

I called this Robbie Williams biopic “the greatest movie ever made about a singing and dancing monkey,” which, truth be told, is damnation through faint praise, I know. But this is an excellent warts-and-all from one of the UK’s biggest pop stars. There is no shortage of excellent song-and-dance scenes. — Chris

Better Man is currently streaming on Paramount+ and available to rent on VOD.

28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)

Danny Boyle modulating an Alex Garland script to take on post-Brexit England through the lens of an isolated island overrun with zombies? I was in no matter what, but was stunned by the multitudes contained within. From a harrowing first-act mythmaking (and breaking) coming-of-age hero’s quest to a world-expanding journey to put away childish things, the innovatively filmed epic satisfies while leaving us eager for more. Alfie Williams is a miracle of kid-casting; Ralph Fiennes was born to be drenched in iodine to wax philosophically about mortality. The soundtrack by Young Fathers rips. No one can stop talking about the infected’s endowments. The coda’s divisive, but those who call it a disaster are dead wrong. My boots are on the ground, marching right into the Bone Temple sequel. — Josh

28 Years Later is currently playing in theaters

DJ Ahmet (Georgi M. Unkovski)

I struggled to find films that I’ve most enjoyed that have been released or are available for streaming. So I just threw up my hands and went with my favorite anyway and I can’t imagine DJ Ahmet won’t make it onto a big (or little) screen near you. It’s a pithy, relatable dramedy about a young man of meager means finding joy in music. Not only that, he finds first love and the strength to stand up for himself and those he cares about even when grown ups are ashamed of uniqueness and passion. It’s sweet, funny, silly, heartbreaking and empowering. I hope it’s available for a wider audience to see soon. — Morgen

DJ Ahmet is currently unavailable for viewing. Will update when this changes

Mickey 17 (Bong Joon Ho)

After his internationally beloved hit Parasite, Bong Joon Ho’s latest is a sort of return to form with this offbeat sci-fi film, recalling Snowpiercer, among others in his filmography. This is well-acted, well-written, visually stunning, and well-paced. It’s not perfect, or universally beloved, but this Bonghead appreciates the ambition. — Chris

Mickey 17 is currently streaming on Max and available for rent via VOD.

The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)

Myself, I feel perfectly safe in crowning Benicio del Toro’s industrialist Zsa-Zsa Korda as the least-lovable scoundrel in Wes Anderson’s growing pantheon of Bad Dads. Set in the middle of the previous century in a semi-fictional land, it feels starkly relevant for that reason alone. A break-but-don’t-bend swindler who’s survived countless assassination attempts has a come-to-religion moment, less because of a forced reunion with his novitiate nun daughter or visions of the afterlife than out of despair that someone else could profit from his life’s work. Over a visually delightful, meticulously constructed series of episodes in a fairly straight-ahead quest comedy, each character’s armor and sharp edges are barely softened, which (on repeat viewing) made the power of where the film ends all the more effective and better earned. If none of that’s enough, Michael Cera’s hilarious as an entomologist and Benedict Cumberbatch’s beard must be seen to be believed. — Josh

The Phoenician Scheme is currently playing in theaters

Hi-Five (Kang Hyung Chul)

Covering Asian films, specifically but not limited to Korea, is a growing trend in my review lists. There are a lot of things I’m enjoying from that part of the world and the cheekiness with which they tell comedic stories through film is among the top. Hi-Five has cheesy effects, it’s true, and not all the characters get the attention they deserve, but there’s a positive message, satisfying ending (though I suspect they were setting us up for a sequel) and even when things looked bleak, a positivity that makes you feel good when all is said and done. While most folks know of Bong Joon Ho and his incredible Parasite, I highly recommend start setting your sites to the East for entertainment in general starting with Hi-Five, you won’t be disappointed. — Morgen

Hi-Five had a limited run in Seattle and will be on VOD soon