Honourable Mentions: The Substance, Transformers One, The Fall Guy, Furisoa: A Mad Max Saga, Kinds of Kindness, Alien: Romulus, Saturday Night, Venom: The Last Dance, Gladiator II, Civil War

10. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

A documentary about the life of actor and activist Christopher Reeve, that bounces between two distinct phases of his life; before and after the tragic horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed. By showing his life beforehand, his childhood, family and most importantly being cast as Superman, and then frequently flashing forward into his post-accident life, it conveys the enormity of what happened to Reeve. There are a lot of really cool behind-the-scenes facts about his run as Superman and struggles in acting, the heartfelt story of his family, the amount of effort he had to live his new life after the accident, and him setting up a foundation of paralysis research and more. This film shows that Reeve was a hero in all stages of his life.

9. A Real Pain

Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, this follows two cousins, David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), who go on a Holocaust site tour of Poland to memorialize their deceased grandmother. The two drifted apart but this offers them a chance to reconnect.  But while David is neurotic about every detail, Benji is looser with no filter to his various random pronouncements. The two leads have fantastic chemistry with some great back and forth banter. As the trip goes on there are dramatic revelations about what happened with Benji as he has some choice quips about the flippant attitude of the tour guide and what they are experiencing. For a movie that deals with some heavy subject matter, it is very funny with terrific performances by Culkin and Eisenberg that make an extremely chatty movie extremely watchable.

8. Love Lies Bleeding

A bleak, harrowing, surrealist, and sometimes darkly funny crime thriller involving body building, corpse disposal, abuse and murder. In 1989 New Mexico, Lou (Kristen Stewart) is a gym manager that strikes up a relationship with a determined body-builder, Jackie (Katy O’Brien). The amateur body-builder is training for a big competition in Vegas, and she gets a job as a waitress at a gun club run by Lou’s estranged criminal father (Ed Harris). When Lou’s abusive brother-in-law, JJ (Dave Franco), goes out of control a showdown with Jackie leads to a big mess. Featuring a twisted love story of obsession and steroids, there are surrealist bits that show how Jackie’s worldview is shattering, and lots of intentional and accidental murders, with a final shot that is both darkly amusing and gritty noir nihilism.

7. Rebel Ridge

Terry (Aaron Pierre) is a Marine veteran who is knocked off his bike by some crooked cops and has a bundle of cash stolen. As he needs that money to bail out his cousin, he is desperate to get the cash back but corrupt Police Chief Burnne (Don Johnson) wants Terry to leave town. With the assistance of a kind courthouse worker, Summer (AnnaSophia Robb), they uncover a larger conspiracy in the small town all while Terry tries to stop his cousin from going to jail. The amount of condescension and abuse Terry takes from the cops is enraging which makes the moments when he’s able to fight back feel positively cathartic. Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room) it has a great ratcheting up of tension and some inventive action scenes that make for a slow burn leading to righteous, vengeful violence.

6. My Old Ass

Elliot (Maisy Stella) is hanging out at Lake Muskoka and going on a shrooms trip with her friends when suddenly an older version of herself (Aubrey Plaza) appears. Elliot thinks it was just a bad shrooms trip when her old ass disappears, but she is shocked when the old version of herself rings her up on the phone. The older version tells her younger self things like being nicer to her family and to stay away from the young man, Chad (Percy Hynes White). With gorgeous visuals of the Lake Muskoka, Ontario, Canada setting, some really funny bits, like the glimpses into the older version’s future are fascinatingly weird (there’s no more salmon, everyone runs from air raid sirens to the basement), and dream scenes like Elliot singing Justin Beiber, it is a fantasy coming of age story that has a emotionally powerful ending that feels tragically beautiful.

5. Nosferatu

Writer and director Robert Eggers’ (The Witch) remake of the 1922 film is a revelation where it precisely recreates shots and moments from the silent film but still has its own distinct vibe. Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to the castle of the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) which leads to the vampiric Orlok to descend upon Thomas’ home and his wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), who has been tormented by visions of the vampire for years. The film is gothic horror perfection, with wonderfully blood splattered cinematography and menace to anything Orlok does. Featuring some insane moments by Depp as she descends into madness as Orlok distorts everything to darkness. Every shot has some perverse insanity that draws the viewer into a twisted world and doesn’t let go.

4. Anora

A dark comedy, drama, thriller and doomed romance sex worker film, there is a lot going on here, including multiple dumb folks making multiple dumb mistakes like classic crime dramas like Fargo. Erotic dancer Ani aka Anora (Mikey Madison) takes up with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a rich Russian billionaire, and while at first he is paying for her services, eventually he says he is in love and they get married in Vegas. This sends the goon squad from Vanya’s parents in to break up the marriage and leads to a long night of chasing people down, hostage taking, and lots of surly attitude for Anora towards her captors as she is sure her love with Vanya will win. The various blunders are darkly funny and the twists of who feels for who is surprising. Ultimately, it is sort of a Disney Princess Makeover film but with a lot more illicit drugs and sex.

3. The Wild Robot

An amazing animated sci-fi film about environmentalism, self aware robots, parenting and surviving in the wild. Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) is a service robot that has landed on a planet populated by wildlife, and she ends up caring for a lone young goose, Brightbill (Kit Connor). With the help of the red fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), who must stifle their urge to eat the young goose, and various other animal friends, Roz helps raise Brightbill but must hide a terrible truth from him. And things get more complicated when Brightbill joins a migration and Roz’s emotionless metallic associates find her. Nyong’o fantastic vocal performance that is hilariously robotic and dimwitted but also a slow burn of emotions coming to the surface. The film looks beautiful with nifty sci-fi action bits and lots of cuddly animals coming together to save the day as the robotic Roz grows a heart.

2. Deadpool and Wolverine

The superhero cinematic team-up several years and corporate mergers in the making. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is grabbed by the sinister TVA Agent Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) and told he must let his home universe die, so Deadpool finds the iconic X-Man Logan aka the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Unfortunately, this is the worst Wolverine and the pair end up in an interdimensional trap heap overseen by the powerful mutant Casandra Nova (Emma Corrin). On a meta level, Paradox wanting to take Deadpool and destroy his universe is basically Disney buying 20^th Century Fox and the Merry Marvel Mutants into the MCU. Jackman is always fantastic as Logan as him unretiring from the role sees him putting another different spin on Logan. The film is constantly hilarious with amazing action beats, geek joy buzzer multiverse variants, buddy road trip beat downs and lots of carnage, it’s a foul mouthed fast paced Marvelous comic extravaganza.

1. Dune: Part Two

The second half of Director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the sci-fi epic Dune has scope and emotional resonance. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) joins with the Freemen to liberate the desert world of Arrakis from the nefarious House Harkonnen. While Paul falls in love the Freemen warrior Chani (Zendaya) he is disturbed by visions of a galaxy spanning Holy War, and every time he tries to turn away from this fate, he gets closer to it. Meanwhile, the vile Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) sends in his nephew, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to stop Paul. The way Paul keeps trying to disentangle himself from his destiny is watching an epic tragedy, and there are some truly spectacular visual moments like when Paul first rides a Sandworm, and lots of great character bits, and a finale that is both a cliffhanger for Part 3 and a satisfying ending. The climactic fight between Paul and Feyd has the fate of the galaxy balance on a knife as Paul must finally decide to lead them to paradise.