843 Contributions by: Renee Cuisia (Page 7)

Renee Cuisia is the lead curator at A Good Movie to Watch. In her spare time, she likes to watch K-dramas and analyze them to death. She’s also seen You’ve Got Mail one too many times but is still convinced it’s one of the greatest films out there.

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91. Masters of the Air, 2024

	
It’s hard not to be swept away by the epicness of Masters of the Air. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, with the first four episodes directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time to Die, True Detective), it’s made sure to flex its massive $250-million budget. Everything is accounted for here, from the sweeping and historically accurate production design to the stacked cast of rising male stars (Oscar nominees Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan easily steal the show). Even the rousing score and sound design, while bordering on melodrama at times, build up tension and add a premium air to it. It’s a visual and sonic feast bolstered by upstanding performances and an endearing show of brotherhood. Whenever it risks being propagandistic or misguidedly patriotic, it’s the believable relationship between the boys and their grave understanding of war that ground it and give it heart. And of course, the air combats are edge-of-your-seat thrilling. Like Band of Brothers and The Pacific before it, it’s a visceral entry in the genre of World War II must-sees.Genre: Drama, War & Politics
Actor: Anthony Boyle, Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner, Edward Ashley, Elliot Warren, Nate Mann, Ncuti Gatwa, Stephen Campbell Moore
Rating: TV-MA

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92. La Chimera, 2023

	
La Chimera is often meandering. Scenes flitter about and move at different paces, resembling dreams more than they do reality, but they’re hardly trivial. Just the opposite, they enchant you with their beauty and confront you with deep, existential questions that haunt you long after the film’s run. You won’t find obvious answers here though, and you might even leave more perplexed than when you began. But that is the beauty of a film like La Chimera, it cracks you open to different realms and possibilities.Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Actor: Agnese Graziani, Alba Rohrwacher, Alessandro Genovesi, Carlo Tarmati, Carol Duarte, Elisabetta Anella, Elisabetta Perotto, Francesca Carrain, Gian Piero Capretto, Giuliano Mantovani, Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Julia Vella, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Luca Chikovani, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Milutin Dapčević, Piero Crucitti, Ramona Fiorini, Sofia Stangherlin, Vincenzo Nemolato, Yle Vianello
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Rating: NR

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93. Hacks, 2024

	
The initial charm of Hacks is in watching sparks fly between its sharp-tongued leads. Neither the elderly Deborah nor the young Ava holds back the digs, both of them cutting to the core of their insecurities. Part of what makes their tension so watchable is that they’re stand-ins for different generations. Deborah represents the all-hustle culture of the boomers, while Ava represents burned-out millennials. Lock them in a scene together and you get endless (and endlessly funny) observations about the modern world.

Eventually, however, their relationship deepens into something more meaningful than that. As Deb and Ava bond over their shared hopes and flaws, the show transforms into a clever and tender two-hander about their prickly but profound relationship. They’re two sides of the same coin, and even though no one can bring them down like the other can, the opposite is also true: no one else can lift them and push them to new heights like the other can.Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hannah Einbinder, Jean Smart, Mark Indelicato, Megan Stalter, Paul W. Downs
Rating: TV-MA

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94. Godland, 2022

On the one hand, Godland is a film about nature’s unforgiving beauty. Like the photographs the priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) takes, these quietly superb scenes speak for themselves. The Earth moves in mysterious and harsh ways, and we are but mere specks, organic matter to be folded in and absorbed, in the grand scheme of things. It would’ve worked with just this message alone, but Godland also treads on political ground. Through Lucas, who is Danish, and his travel guide Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson), who is Icelandic, we sense a palpable tension that electrifies the film with a colonial strain. There are layers to their deep aversion (and dependence) on one another, and director Hlynur Pálmason does well to pair this with imagery that is just complex, profound, and packed with meaning.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Elliott Crosset Hove, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Ingvar E. Sigurðsson, Jacob Ulrik Lohmann, Vic Carmen Sonne, Waage Sandø

Director: Hlynur Palmason

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95. Fallen Leaves, 2023

Simple but lovely movies like Fallen Leaves are hard to come by these days. While others rely on complicated dialogue or overly ambitious premises to be deemed deep or important, Director Aki Kaurismäki trusts that his material is strong enough. After all, its silence speaks volumes; the characters don’t say much but when they do, you can be sure it’s something hard-hitting or funny. The plot doesn’t contain a lot of surprises, but when it makes a turn, it moves you instantly. And the leads, Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) barely move their features, but their eyes convey more emotion, more longing and ache and joy, than one can hope for. Some movies can be challenging, exhilarating, or exhausting to watch. This one is simply delightful.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alina Tomnikov, Alma Pöysti, Anna Karjalainen, Eero Ritala, Erkki Astala, Evi Salmelin, Janne Hyytiäinen, Juho Kuosmanen, Jussi Vatanen, Lauri Untamo, Maria Heiskanen, Martti Suosalo, Matti Onnismaa, Misha Jaari, Nuppu Koivu, Olli Varja, Sakari Kuosmanen, Sherwan Haji, Simon Al-Bazoon

Director: Aki Kaurismäki

Rating: NR

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96. Dickinson, 2022

Dickinson takes more than a few creative liberties in telling the story of one of America's greatest poets, Emily Dickinson (played here by the effervescent Hailee Steinfeld). As soon as the first pop song blasts in the background, followed by more than a few expletives blurted by the characters, it becomes clear that the series is more interested in making Emily's life story not just understandable to a new generation, but timeless and universal too; it's a tale about freeing oneself from the constraints of gender and society, and how regardless of whether you succeed or not, it's the attempts that keep us human.

The series is funny and tender and vivacious, kept afloat by its modern sensibility and desire to showcase a whole new side of Emily. Here, she's a fighter, a (queer) lover, and an intellectual. But she's also spoiled, narrowminded, and selfish—she is after all, still a growing girl. Dickinson succeeds on two counts: as an enlightening biopic, artistic license notwithstanding, and as an energizing coming-of-age series, complete with awkward epiphanies and inspiring character developments.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, History

Actor: Adrian Enscoe, Amanda Warren, Anna Baryshnikov, Chinaza Uche, Ella Hunt, Hailee Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Toby Huss

Rating: TV-14

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97. Another Round, 2020

	
Director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt) reunites with Mads Mikkelsen to tell the story of four teachers going through a mid-life crisis. They’re not sad, exactly—they have homes and jobs and are good friends with each other—but they’re not happy either. Unlike the ebullient youth they teach, they seem to have lost their lust for life, and it’s silently eating away at them, rendering them glassy-eyed and mechanic in their everyday lives.

Enter an experiment: what if, as one scholar suggests, humans were meant to fulfill a certain alcohol concentration in order to live as fully and present as possible? The teachers use themselves as the subjects and the tide slowly starts to turn to mixed effects. Are they actually getting better or worse?

With an always-satisfying performance by Mikkelsen and an instant classic of an ender, it’s no surprise Another Round took home the award for Best Foreign Film in the 2020 Academy Awards.Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Christiane Gjellerup Koch, Diêm Camille G., Dorte Højsted, Frederik Winther Rasmussen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Lars Ranthe, Mads Mikkelsen, Magnus Millang, Magnus Sjørup, Maria Bonnevie, Martin Greis-Rosenthal, Mercedes Claro Schelin, Michael Asmussen, Morten Thunbo, Niels Jørgensen, Per Otto Bersang Rasmussen, Silas Cornelius Van, Susse Wold, Thomas Bo Larsen
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Rating: Not Rated

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98. The Wild Robot, 2024

	
Beautiful in its painterly compositions and gut-wrenching in its storytelling, The Wild Robot has been dubbed one of the best animated features in a while, and rightly so. The film, which is a bit like if Tarzan were a robot, or if Stitch had to assimilate in the wild instead of the city, is a classic tale of an outsider learning to love and be accepted by her community. It’s about many other things, too, like the violence of nature, the supreme power of kindness, and the complexities of parenthood (it’s deeply humanistic for a film that features almost no humans at all). But for all the themes it tackles and the colorful multitude of characters it covers, it feels incredibly light and easy to watch. Perhaps that’s due to its hand-drawn aesthetics, which recall Studio Ghibli films more than anything, and to the voices who bring the characters to life, most notably that of Lupita Nyong'o, who gives the robot Roz so much warmth and depth despite her electronic limitations. All these and more make Wild Robot a must-watch, if not an instant classic.Genre: Animation, Family, Science Fiction
Actor: Bill Nighy, Catherine O'Hara, Dee Bradley Baker, Keston John, Kit Connor, Lupita Nyong'o, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Max Mittelman, Paul-Mikél Williams, Pedro Pascal, Piotr Michael, Randy Thom, Raphael Alejandro, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames
Director: Chris Sanders
Rating: PG

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99. The Staircase, 2022

The bizarre case of Kathleen Peterson's death, which has yet to be fully resolved to this day, has been the subject of many a media article. The press covered it relentlessly when it all started in 2001, then a critically-acclaimed documentary was released in 2004. This was followed up with a sequel in 2018, and now more than 20 years after the deed, a dramatization has come out in the form of a miniseries. You'd be forgiven for thinking the latter couldn't possibly have anything new to offer, but you would also be wrong. In fact, the series is a masterclass in storytelling. Led by an a-list cast (of which Colin Firth is the absolute standout) and told with such layered depth, The Staircase is a must-watch not just for true crime but for film and TV fans everywhere.

Utilizing time jumps and crafty transitions, The Staircase isn't set at one particular time, which is fitting considering the trial lasted for 16 years. It also isn't centered on just the mystery or the family, but instead is just as interested in the making of the 2004 documentary that introduced (and humanized) the case to an even wider sect of people. If you're looking for a neat ending or some form of satisfying retribution, you won't find it here. But you will be getting an engrossing meditation on truth and its elusiveness

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Colin Firth, Dane DeHaan, Juliette Binoche, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sophie Turner, Tim Guinee, Toni Collette

Rating: TV-MA

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100. The Last Dance, 2020

There’s no point denying it: Michael Jordan is one of, if not the greatest of all time. What he did to place the Chicago Bulls on the map, to inspire his teammates to a three-peat championship, and to constantly reinvent himself and grow his name as a currency—all that continues to be a template for NBA stars across generations. The Last Dance is a fittingly grand docuseries that captures Jordan’s once-in-a-lifetime shine.

Even if you know little to nothing about basketball, the miniseries does an impressive job of making every detail about Jordan and his game compelling. We follow him from his early days in college basketball up to his nonstop rise in the Bulls to his stint in baseball, and we end at a dramatic high, as the title suggests, during the Bull’s triumphant 1997-1998 series—Jordan’s final season with the team.

But the series isn't all Jordan. In clever and comprehensive ways, we get to learn more about his teammates (especially defense rockstar Dennis Rodman and reliable ally Scottie Pippen), his coaches, and his closest friends, all of which makes for a well-rounded and truly riveting watch.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr

Director: Jason Hehir

Rating: TV-MA

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101. The Fabelmans, 2022

The Fabelmans is often described as director Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical movie about his inauguration into filmmaking, and while it certainly is that, I’d venture to say that it also functions as a universal coming-of-age tale, with protagonist and Spielberg stand-in Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) learning harsh truths about identity, family, and passion for the first time.

Here, we see how so much of filmmaking is intertwined with his life, and how the movies inspire his personality (and vice versa). Whether you’re a fan of Spielberg or not, this movie will surely win you over with its beautiful imagery, impressive technique, and big, big heart.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Adriel Porter, Alejandro Fuenzalida, Alex Quijano, Alina Brace, Ari Davis, Art Bonilla, Brinly Marum, Cameron Hennings, Carlos Javier Castillo, Chandler Lovelle, Chloe East, Cody Mitchell, Connor Trinneer, Cooper Dodson, Crystal the Monkey, David Lynch, Ezra Buzzington, Gabriel Bateman, Gabriel LaBelle, Greg Grunberg, Gustavo Escobar, Harper Dustin, Isabelle Kusman, James Urbaniak, Jan Hoag, Jared Becker, Jeannie Berlin, Jonathan Moorwood, Judd Hirsch, Julia Butters, Julyah Rose, Kalama Epstein, Keeley Karsten, Kendal Evans, Lane Factor, Larkin Campbell, Mason Bumba, Max David Weinberg, Meredith VanCuyk, Michelle Williams, Nicolas Cantu, Oakes Fegley, Orion Hunter, Paige Locke, Paul Dano, Rob Shiells, Robin Bartlett, Sam Rechner, Seth Rogen, Sophia Kopera, Stephen Matthew Smith, Taylor Hall, Tia Nalls, Trang Vo, Vera Myers

Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: PG-13

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102. The Devil’s Hour, 2024

	
Part police-procedural and part supernatural thriller, The Devil’s Hour is the perfect show to binge if you love solving complicated puzzles and don’t mind being spooked by the occasional jump scare. It's also co-produced by Steven Moffat, who was the brain behind equally mind-bending thrillers Sherlock (BBC) and Doctor Who.

The six-parter follows social worker Lucy Chambers as she looks after potential victims, a behaviorally challenged son, and a schizophrenic mother—and this is on top of her personal problems, which include bloody hallucinations and waking up every day at exactly 3:33 am, or what she dubs the devil’s hour. There are a lot of moving parts in The Devil’s Hour, but aside from the intricate world-building, it’s the powerful performances from Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi that truly anchor this ambitious show.Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Alex Ferns, Jessica Raine, Nikesh Patel, Peter Capaldi, Phil Dunster
Rating: TV-MA

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103. The Day of the Jackal, 2024

	
Watching The Day of the Jackal feels like watching a film; it’s taut, fast-paced, and flashy, featuring incredible dual performances by Redmayne and Lynch. Like many thrillers before it, The Day of the Jackal centers on a cat-and-mouse chase between an official and a transgressor, but the series smartly blurs the line between good and evil. Redmayne’s Jackal is by all accounts the bad guy—he’s a hitman after all—but we’re shown his humane side and the lives he works hard to protect. Meanwhile, Lynch’s Bianca is a government agent, but her hands are dirtied with just as much (if not more) blood than the Jackal. Who’s really at fault here? Part of the fun in watching this is figuring that out, but it’s also just as enjoyable to see what disguise the Jackal whips out, and what moral quandary Bianca finds herself deep in, next.Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Charles Dance, Chukwudi Iwuji, Eddie Redmayne, Eleanor Matsuura, Khalid Abdalla, Lashana Lynch, Lia Williams, Puchi Lagarde, Richard Dormer, Sule Rimi, Úrsula Corberó
Rating: TV-MA

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104. Mars One, 2022

Mars One is a tender, wholesome drama that centers on The Martins, a family of four living on the fringes of a major Brazilian city. Their lower-middle-class status puts them in an odd position—they’re settled enough to have big dreams and occasionally lead lavish lives (the mother and the daughter like to party) but they barely have the means to pursue that kind of lifestyle. As a result, they’re always searching and wanting, aiming high but almost always falling flat on the ground.

There is no actual plot in Mars One. Instead, it studies its characters in a leisurely and almost offhand manner. The approach is so naturalistic, you’ll almost forget you’re watching a movie. But it’s still gorgeously shot and staged, Brazil being an inevitably striking background. At once gentle and vibrant, this big-hearted film is a must for those who are suckers for well-made family dramas.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Camilla Damião, Carlos Francisco, Cícero Lucas, Dircinha Macêdo, Hélio Ricardo, Kelly Crifer, Rejane Faria, Renato Novaes, Russo Apr

Director: Gabriel Martins

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105. Fellow Travelers, 2023

	
In just eight episodes, this densely packed miniseries manages to be a beautifully told queer romance, a riveting political thriller, and an important snapshot of 20th-century America. It’s nothing short of an epic. Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey effortlessly carry the series on their backs. Their chemistry is undeniable, but they shine just as well in their political scenes. McCarthyism and the Lavander Scare in the ‘50s, the rampant protests in the ‘60s, the carefree parties of the ‘70s, and finally the AIDs crisis in the ‘80s, where present-day Hawk and Tim live in—all are consistently compelling thanks to the actor’s powerful, decades-spanning performances and showrunner ​​Daniel Minahan’s stable direction. The end may be (unsurprisingly) tragic, but it’s nonetheless moving because of the strong storytelling that preceded it.Genre: Drama
Actor: Allison Williams, Jelani Alladin, Jonathan Bailey, Linus Roache, Matt Bomer, Noah J. Ricketts
Rating: TV-MA

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