Photo Credit (Pixeles)

1. Omer, Saint

Saint Omer, the first narrative film by French documentarian Alice Diop, is set during a trial where a French-Senegalese immigrant mother is charged with intentionally drowning her kid. It is not so much underappreciated as it is understood. The movie, which was inspired by Diop’s personal experience of witnessing Fabienne Kabou’s trial in real life, stars Kayije Kagame as Rama, a professor of literature who hopes to use the trial as inspiration for a book on the Greek heroine Medea. Rama is compelled to examine her own complex relationship with her mother and her sentiments toward her unborn child while watching the trial against the accused mother, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda).

2. The skinamarink
   You either adored Skinamarink, detested it, or sadly missed it when it was released in theaters earlier this year (it’s currently accessible on Shudder). Both YouTubers and critics praised director Kyle Edward Ball’s feature debut as one of the scariest films they had ever seen, and it debuted amid a flurry of viral curiosity. The story of two kids trapped in a house without a door by a dark-voiced monster left you with a certain feeling, regardless of whether you were captivated by the film’s vibes—forward, dread-centered horror or confused by it all. The entire film, which was shot digitally and features a grainy home-video texture superimposed on top of the dark imagery, seems inappropriate to view.
3. The Final Dance of Magic Mike
   The third Magic Mike film, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, left fans of Steven Soderbergh’s first two Magic Mike films unsure of how to react. Last Dance felt different from the happy, sensual fun of the earlier installments. Perhaps this was due to the film’s melancholic tone or its clumsy theatrical release (Warner Bros. originally intended it to be a streaming-only feature). While working as a bartender for a catering business, Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) meets wealthy London socialite Max Mendoza (Salma Hayek), who intends to host a strip show in her recently purchased theater. In a subtler, more subtle way, Last Dance is seductive and happy. (That is, up until the film’s last musical strip performance.)
4. Among Thieves: Honor in Dungeons & Dragons
   Despite all the odds, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was shockingly good, making it perhaps the year’s biggest blockbuster surprise. Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a medieval bard who, in typical D&D fashion, must assemble a group of outcasts to embark on a journey for a magical object in order to save Edgin’s young daughter. Tragic backstory revelations and battles with roly-poly dragons are common. With a strong emphasis on realistic makeup and special effects, the film is both amusing and stunning, and its vintage vibe blends in well with the tabletop game it was inspired by.
5. Men of Enys
   Even though Enys Men was hard to find this year, it’s still worth looking for because folk horror is so popular right now. A Cornish horror story directed by Mark Jenkin takes place on a windswept coastal island where the only resident, a nameless wildlife volunteer (Mary Woodvine), is taken on a metaphysical journey through her own mind after encountering a strange, sinister lichen growing on a rare flower. The picture, which was shot on 16mm film, has a dreamy, grainy look to it, with visuals that appear to have been cut together from a number of non-chronological nightmares. Enys Men’s crackly, windy atmosphere and startling visuals will stay with you long after the film’s conclusion, even if its plot is difficult to understand.
6. Arriving
   The best director for brief moments of straightforward transcendence is Kelly Reichardt. Michelle Williams plays Lizzy, a sculptor and art instructor who is always at odds with her friend, rival, and landlady Jo (Hong Chau) in her subtly paced drama Showing Up. Lizzy copes with a damaged water heater, a missing pigeon, family members in difficult circumstances, and her own feelings of inadequacy and listlessness while creating a series of sculptures for an upcoming display. It’s a warm film with intensely felt but hardly hidden emotions, much like Reichardt’s past work. It’s also a fantastic film on what it’s like to never have time for yourself.
7. Lake Falcon
   This year, Falcon Lake, a French-Canadian ghost thriller set on a bright lakeside vacation, was the most shamefully overlooked film on this list. When 13-year-old Bastien and his family move into a lakeside cabin in Quebec, they immediately become friends with 16-year-old Chloé, who is also on vacation with her own family. Chloé tells Bastien that their cottage is haunted by a ghost because she is infatuated with horror stories and local folklore. With one of the year’s most unexpected endings, the movie unfolds like a deftly spoken horror story around a fire, tinged with teenage angst and a childhood crush.
8. Cobweb
   If you were aware of Cobweb, it was most likely in relation to its overwhelming popularity on VOD following a poor theatrical run earlier this fall. In his first directing role, Samuel Bodin tells the story of a dysfunctional family with a delightfully spooky supernatural twist. Because of his domineering parents (Anthony Starr and Lizzy Caplan), little Peter (Woody Norman) is extremely shy. He is also prohibited from trick-or-treating on Halloween due to a terrible incident that occurred to a youngster on their street a few years prior. Peter starts to wonder that there is more to the narrative and his family than what he has been taught as he starts to hear noises coming from inside his home’s walls. You’ll adore this one if you enjoy the feelings that Trick ‘r Treat and Malignant have going on.
9. Dream Situation
   Another year, another strange, but better-than-expected Nicolas Cage film. Cage portrays Paul Matthews in Dream Scenario, a bland college lecturer with an equally dull life and demeanor. As a result, it is stunning when he begins to show up in people’s dreams all across the world, showing up as an uninvolved spectator to startling, humorous, or terrifying subconscious happenings. Because everyone is wondering, “Why this guy?” he becomes somewhat of a strange international celebrity. Paul’s life plunges precipitously into the phantasmagoric as the dreams begin to tilt more and more sinisterly. It’s an entertaining idea, and Cage gives another outstanding, sometimes outrageous performance that is ideal for the kind of narrative that thrives on the unexplainable.
10. Eileen
    You should watch Eileen, the feel-bad film of the winter, even if you haven’t become an Ottessa Moshfegh fan by now. Thomasin Mackenzie plays Eileen Dunlop, a mousy, timid assistant in a boys’ correctional facility in 1960s Massachusetts, in the film, which is based on Moshfegh’s 2015 novel. One cold, snowy night, Eileen becomes enamored with Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a gorgeous blonde-haired psychiatrist who comes from the big city to work at the clinic. Their relationship is forever changed. It’s dark, humorous, surprising, and intense, and Hathaway gives a chilling supporting performance.
11. Deleted
    It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish real streaming films from the phony movie posters that show up in the background of Hollywood productions. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas as a mismatched couple in an action comedy? Despite playing Captain America, he is an inept fool. Does she work for the CIA? They must be headed for a collision with absurdity! Apart from the two stars’ overall appeal, Ghost has nothing at all to suggest. (Calling this a movie almost seems kind; it has never been more appropriate to reduce a film to “content.”
12. The Nine Mischievous
    A group of mischievous kids committing an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist at the North Pole may seem like a funny premise for a children’s film, but this story is very steamy. Additionally, for much of the whole movie, the primary kids are unredeemably annoying. I mean, it happens right at the end. At one point, I started to really root against these annoying kids—and especially against the ridiculously attractive cargo pilot who basically kidnaps the tykes and flies them to the Arctic Circle to steal presents from Santa. The next hour of The Naughty Nine would follow the young burglars on their futile quest for Santa’s Workshop until they disappeared into the frozen wilderness, never to be heard from again. By the thirty-minute mark, I started to indulge in illusions that the show may suddenly transform into existential horror. Happy Christmas!
13. Hustlers of Pain
    This is yet another terrible Chris Evans streaming film. (He could do this all day?) The article in the New York Times that served as the basis for this Netflix movie presents a far more negative picture of its subject: dishonest pharmaceutical representatives who disregarded all the rules in order to make a quick profit. Emily Blunt’s character in Pain Hustlers, who is simultaneously a stop-at-nothing salesperson who will cut any corner for a commission and a wide-eyed believer in the power of the life-saving drugs she is peddling using all sorts of dishonest methods, is undoubtedly the most Pollyannaish character in the non-fiction story. She joyfully brags about the vital work she’s doing to help people after helping to start a blatantly immoral plan to pay doctors to prescribe her products. What?)

I can’t think of a single reason to create such an unrealistic heroine for a movie based on real events, but the director refers to Blunt’s Liza as an “invention, a single mom with a daughter struggling with health issues, a dreamer, undervalued but incredibly capable” in the press notes for the movie. Did someone in the upper echelons of Hollywood decide that the woman who sold painkillers to combat veterans and cancer sufferers needed to remain likeable?

12. I hope
    Originally intended to celebrate a century of Disney magic, Wish is a much better summary of all the problems plaguing Disney (and many of its corporate subsidiaries) in its centennial year: the company’s self-deprecating obsession with Easter eggs, its attempts to appeal to modern audiences only by reserving their nostalgia for the past, and its hollow self-mythologizing. As a Bob Iger substitute, who will be the first Disney executive to write a lengthy analysis of this film that examines King Magnifico—an all-powerful monarch who hoards his subjects’ desires like magical currency?
13. The Exorcist: Devout
    The Exorcist: Believer, a legacyquel based on the timeless horror classic about faith and spirituality, was one of the few films that drove me crazy in 2023. The mother of the young girl who was possessed in the first film, Chris MacNeil, played by Ellen Burstyn, is the primary link between it and William Friedkin’s Exorcist. I was really annoyed that Burstyn returned for this insignificant role because she hadn’t been in any of the earlier Exorcist movies. This was the best they could think of for Burstyn to do, even though I’m sure she got paid much for it and deserves more credit.

Apart from the fact that Burstyn is wasted in the movie, is it too much to expect a major character who is an exorcist in a picture called The Exorcist? That request doesn’t seem out of the question.

10. The hypnotic
    Because Hypnotic is nothing but constant rug pulls, it might become your new favorite awful movie if you enjoy story twists. What a cop Ben Affleck is! Hold on, perhaps not! Perhaps he is a man with hypnotic abilities! Who wiped his memory? Additionally, it’s possible that many of the characters’ memories have been lost! Furthermore, the entire film might not be as good as it seems! There are so many fake-out levels in the movie that none of it is authentic. On the plus side, Affleck’s decision to make another incredibly absurd criminal film to commemorate Gigli’s 20th anniversary was quite considerate.
11. Of the Zodiac Knights
    When someone creates a “live-action” adaptation of a famous manga or anime and substitutes hideous computer-generated imagery for the beautiful animation and artwork, is there anything more annoying? It’s the worst, and one of the biggest offenders in this respect was Knights of the Zodiac. Plus: Rather than passionate voice actors, there are checked-out Hollywood types. How much better than the original content.
12. Mine or Your Place
    Another streaming film that seems to have lost its inventiveness the moment it signed two well-known and likeable actors, in this case Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon. For a one-week accounting course, Witherspoon’s character drives across the country from Los Angeles to New York. In Los Angeles, they don’t teach accounting? The universe in which this film is set is devoid of online accounting courses. When her son’s babysitter leaves, Kutcher, her closest friend from New York, with whom she has nothing at all in common, offers to come watch him for a week. However, Tig Notaro, a close friend of hers with children, constantly seems to be hanging about doing nothing. Why didn’t she keep an eye on Reese’s son?

That’s just one of the minor but significant ways that everything is wrong. But it’s a movie; come on. If there was any chemistry between Witherspoon and Kutcher or the writing was humorous, none of this would matter. Nope, the excitement of the initial take is evident in every scene. Even the pleasant ending of these two characters’ reunion is uncertain to me. They don’t appear to be very compatible!

7. Quick X
   In the past, the popular franchise that rewarded fans who paid attention was Fast & Furious. It punishes them now. Having a strong emotional attachment to the characters just makes one wonder why some of them behave so differently in Fast X than they did in earlier editions. Is John Cena suffering from amnesia? Does Jakob Toretto? What transpired between F9 and Fast X to transform him from a sulky, murderous killer to a gregarious, witty, entertaining uncle? And contemplating the story will only make you crazy as you attempt to make sense of this uninteresting but perplexing revenge story and its sluggish pacing. However, I guess Fast X also functions as a letter grade evaluation in its own right.
8. Stone’s Heart
   There’s a hilarious idea hidden here somewhere: a double agent in a group of spies who don’t realize their “rookie” computer professional is actually James Bond. A funny actor who reads like a nebbish is necessary to capitalize on that notion, though, so that their unexpected transformation into Ethan Hunt surprises us and allows them to perform some real physical comedy when they’re in awkward mode. (For example, consider how Nobody employed Bob Odenkirk.) That’s what you need.) Naturally, Wonder Woman was cast in that role by the film’s writers.

This could be the reason why Stone loses its one brilliant idea around 40 minutes in and turns into a rote blockbuster about artificial intelligence, basically utilizing the same broad ideas as Mission: Impossible—Dead Recoking Part One, but without Tom Cruise’s outrageous showmanship or any of the insightful analysis of practical versus digital effects. (A.I. is portrayed as a simple force for good in Heart of Stone”,” and the action is suitably but sadly, primarily CGI rubbish.)

5. Unnoticed Strike
   I was particularly disappointed to see Jackie Chan, the contemporary king of physical stunts, in a film that was so grotesquely and unnaturally digital (not to mention a blatant, low-budget copy of Mad Max: Fury Road). It’s unbelievable that this was left on a shelf for five years before being removed from Netflix.
6. Spendables
   The idea of a group of classic action heroes getting together to kick ass one last time (or, uh, four last times) is undoubtedly a wonderful marketing hook, and The Expendables has always been a better marketing hook than a true franchise. The movies themselves have ranged from “meh” to “mostly crummy” in reality, and this one is the worst to date. Stallone and Lundgren are the only remaining old school action guys in Expend4bles, and they play largely supporting parts, so it hardly lives up to its own concept.

Aside from one far too short altercation between Statham and Iko Uwais, this isn’t even an exciting action film. In addition to being awful to look at, the effects are cheap computer-generated imagery garbage that completely detracts from the film’s intended homage to the realistic blood-and-guts spectacles of the 1980s. These films’ titles have never felt more fitting.

3. Punishment
   To what extent have Liam Neeson’s latest action films been forgettably generic? Retribution is the title of this one. The following list of titles from other recent Liam Neeson cars would be just as appropriate:

We adore you, Liam. Is there anything else we could try? This one showed how bored you were. These days, the audience’s hard-earned money is the only thing stolen in a Liam Neeson film.

2. Meg 2: The trench
   Jaws wasn’t the first Meg, but neither was Jaws: The Revenge. In 2018, I reviewed that movie favorably. While the protagonists investigate an illicit mining operation at the ocean’s bottom, this punishingly dull sequel allows an eternity to pass without a single glimpse of a Meg (short for “megalodon,” as in a big prehistoric shark). The shark slasher part of the film doesn’t start for more than 90 minutes, and by then, I was too bored to enjoy it.
3. Winnie the Pooh: Honey and Blood
   This infamous cheapie horror film is partially based on the original A.A. Milne book that just became public domain, which made derivative ripoffs like this one possible. It is completely unsuitable for use as a slasher movie or as a parody of children’s books. Ironically, it only functions as a highly twisted argument against the idea of a public domain. (Maybe copyright protection isn’t such a bad thing if it keeps garbage like this from being produced and pushed on the unwary public.) Blood and Honey is an unimaginable abomination.