166 Best Movies to Watch With Class (Page 11)

Ambitious and sincere, Where the Tracks End is a sweet coming of age centered on a tender community and mutual aid in the face of worker exploitation. Alternating between the young son of a traveling worker adjusting to a new town and an inspector tasked with informing small schools of an initiative that will force their doors closed, the film loses the chance to be impactful with either. This love letter to teaching and the importance of education is admirable as it holds together the community element of the script. Although the impact goes off-track due to its lack of commitment to one solid narrative, the heart behind it (and the children's innocent will to live a better life) shines through every so often.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Actor: Adriana Barraza, Blanca Guerra, Clementina Guadarrama, Fátima Molina, Frida Sofía Cruz Salinas, Gabriela Cartol, Guillermo Villegas, Jero Medina, Kaarlo Isaacs Barria, Leonardo Alonso, Memo Villegas, Norma Pablo, Nova Coronel, Tete Espinoza, Victoria Díaz

Director: Ernesto Contreras

If you love archeology and prehistory, you’ll love that this documentary is packed with mesmerizing footage of the infamous caves, as well as close-ups of the 130,000 year old skeletal remains that are in pristine condition. If you don’t, you might appreciate discoveries like how neanderthals held burials for their dead and things of that nature, but with a cold open that couldn’t pack any less heat if it tried, I wouldn’t blame you if you just dipped. This documentary is de-energizing and plodding, and that pace can make for a soothing portrayal of archeology at times, but other times it makes for a very run-of-the-mill broadcast.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Caroline Colomei, Gabriel Andreu, Ibbi El Hani, Kareem Alexander, Patrick Stewart, Paula Parunov

Director: Ashley Gething

Rating: PG

This is a nostalgic, ethereal memory like a childhood yearning, which can be credited to the soundtrack and friendly characters. Its got a lovely message about unspoken or repressed feelings, but the journey there unravels quickly. The second act enters filler side quest territory and loses the energetic pace and tight direction of the exposition. In the end, the premise and pretty visuals feel almost wasted on an ill-paced bloated story, one that tries to capture a wistfulness or magic but ends up feeling forced and manufactured. This is one of those movies you wish was the first movie you ever watched as a child. You won’t have a clue what it was about, but you'll remember it was nice.

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy

Actor: Aya Yamane, Hisako Kyoda, Kensho Ono, Mio Tanaka, Mitsuho Kambe, Miyu Tomita, Noriko Hidaka, Satoshi Mikami, Satsuki Yukino, Shintaro Asanuma, Shirou Saitou, Shouzou Sasaki, Tomoko Shiota

Director: Tomotaka Shibayama

Rating: PG-13

The set starts off rather harmless, as Koy puts over New York as a racially diverse island, and other wholesome sentiments marinated with cussing. He makes a genuine effort to directly connect with his audience, like he’s really lubing them up for something big, but nothing ever comes of it. He just corners his audience into laughing and tells them that laughing is good, and in fairness it kind of works. After a cult-y opening salvo, we get the rest of the Jo Koy staples: the cartoon voices, the patronizing, some questionable stuff. He settles nicely into age-related topics like chronic pains and back-in-the-day diatribes, where his timing and material really come together, and see the performance through to an admittedly abrupt end.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Jo Koy

Director: Shannon Hartman

Rating: R

This is your bare minimum, bog-standard Netflix true crime documentary covering the infamous Jennifer Pan case. The film focuses on Pan's interrogation tapes, with detectives walking us through their thought process at the time, providing evidence and chilling head nods in reaction to her statements. The value of the film is its micro dissection of the tapes, examining it minute by minute, even line by line, which is an interesting way to learn about the case for the first time. But it feels so banally straightforward without adding anything new or being more informative, that it feels like it was just made to dig up old bones and make a bloated made-for-Netflix docu.

Genre: Crime, Documentary

Actor: Alan Cooke, Bill Courtice, Deborah Gladding, Fernando Baldassini, Samantha Chang

Director: Jenny Popplewell

Rating: R

The beginning text is enough to make you wonder what kind of demonic BS you’re about to get yourself into. Thank God for the juicy family drama then for grounding the story well, and distracting our emotions in between the paranormal craziness. At the same time that we’re connecting with the family on a real life level, the film does a good job making the house feel alive and malicious, like an animal slowly losing its patience before it all escalates into an agonizing epidemic. Still, one could come out of this horror movie and feel that some loose religious aspects, as well as its climax-resolution altogether, really drag down the initial mystique it did so well creating. Either way, it's not the worst thing in the world.

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Actor: Andra Day, Anthony B. Jenkins, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Caleb McLaughlin, Colleen Camp, Cynthia Dallas, Demi Singleton, Glenn Close, Jeff Hochendoner, Juanita Jennings, Kimberly Russell, Malieek Straughter, Miss Lawrence, Mo'Nique, Omar Epps, Tasha Smith, Todd Anthony

Director: Lee Daniels

Rating: R

The tags raunchy and irreverent get thrown around on Netflix like I throw around the word fascinating. But make no mistake about it, this was disgusting right off the bat. There’s not a lot to the jokes, though, other than terrible accents and caricatures and small dick references. It feels like a reenactment of a mid standup comedy bit that went on too long. It's a fun bro movie that tells conservative Pinoy culture to suck it, but it’s a visual and narrative mess, and it has the balls to try and end on a meaningful note when it never attempted any semblance of it throughout.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Ashley Rivera, Caira Lee, Donna Cariaga, Enrique Gil, Kenneth Won, Kumron Jivachat, Miguel Almendras, Mihk Vergara, Nikko Natividad, Pepe Herrera, Red Ollero, Sahatchai Chumrum, Sunshine Teodoro, Vern Kaye, Wipawee Charoenpura

Director: Victor Villanueva

Amid energetic lights and obnoxious airhorns, Katt Williams makes his way to the stage and quickly greets you with the gospel of crass. His descriptions and premises aren’t anything to write home about as his style is more a boisterous NSFW style that resembles a night of gossip. But for most of this set, you’ll just be thinking about how his performer voice sounds like a cartoon grandma, a southern Spongebob, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage preaching to you all at once. The set had a touchy mental health bit that sucked the life out the room for a moment, but would take an empowering turn in its final third as Williams talks about racism in 2024. It’s a mess, but it finishes strong, at least.

Genre: Comedy, Documentary, TV Movie

Actor: Katt Williams

Director: Troy Miller

Rating: R

The inheritance murder mystery concept is played out, especially in recent years. You only really bother with it if you enjoy the formula, which is essentially all we’re getting here. It begins with character introductions and a heavy dose of didacticism, and the crazy family soap opera turns into a whodunnit with all the interviews and the jumping timelines and the red herrings that get no rise out of you. You know how it goes, you know where the twists come in. Some plot points do hit the mark by their sheer ridiculousness alone, but for the most part, getting from trope A to trope B is terribly corny and dragging. Ultimately nothing outstanding, nothing new.

Genre: Comedy, Mystery

Actor: Adam Ferency, Franciszek Słomiński, Gabriela Muskała, Jan Peszek, Joanna Trzepiecinska, Józefina Karnkowska, Maciej Stuhr, Mateusz Król, Piotr Pacek, Piotr Polak, Piotr Żurawski

Director: Sylwester Jakimow

The film takes us into the mind of a performative teenager trying to convince us, or an imaginary cameraman, of his coolness and wisdom. The second-person device may evoke teen comedy series from the 2000s (at best), but it is incredibly disorienting in this 100-minute movie. It is a slog of straightforward punchlines and tired cliches, which picks up a little too late in the final act where the central idea finally reveals itself: the harder you try to maintain control, the more easily it slips away. Similarly, the less brain power you use for this film, the better it gets.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Charithra Chandran, Charles Camrose, Daisy Jelley, Dhanushka Anson, Guz Khan, Judith O'Dea, Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Punch, Madeline Holliday, Maisie Peters, Nick Frost, Russell Streiner, Sebastian Croft, Tanner Buchanan, Tim Downie

Director: Alex Pillai