1. Enola Holmes.
Enola Holmes is one of the best and most charming Netflix original movies released thus far. Based on the book series of the same name by Nancy Springer, the period mystery follows Millie Bobby Brown’s titular character, who is the youngest Holmes sibling and has been raised nearly in solitude by her single mother. But when she awakes one day to find her mother is missing, she takes matters into her own hands and sneaks into London to solve the case. The film is tremendously fun as Enola fearlessly follows leads and hunts for clues, but it’s also a surprisingly touching mother-daughter story with legitimately feminist themes. The script actually takes time to consider what it means to be a woman in a man’s world in a way that’s organic to the story at hand. It’s one of Brown’s best performances, but Henry Cavill is also a delight as Sherlock Holmes himself. Once the movie ends you’ll be begging for Netflix to make many more sequels.
2. Django Unchained.
Quentin Tarantino’s most financially successful film to date remains his 2012 Western epic Django Unchained, which is set in 1858 and tells the story of a freed slave’s Jamie Foxx quest to save his wife Broomhilda Kerry Washington from the clutches of a ruthless plantation owner Leonardo DiCaprio – all with the help of a German bounty hunter Christoph Waltz. Django Unchained is tremendously unsettling in terms of providing an unflinching glimpse at the lives of slaves in America (and the cruelty inflicting upon them), but it also has that Tarantino touch that makes it wildly entertaining – a combination that may strike some as odd or in poor taste. However you fall, DiCaprio’s menacing performance is undeniably among his very best, Foxx’s arc is particularly impressive, and it’s hard to argue with Waltz’s Oscar win for his supporting turn.
3. Lady Bird.
This movie to be a very good example of a coming-of-age dramedy. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are both amazing as they relish both the highs and lows of their mother-daughter relationship and watching Lady Bird’s rocky senior year of high school, complete with all the honest missteps a teenager makes, turns Gerwig’s debut into an unforgettable feature.
4. A Knight's Tale.
A Knight’s Tale is one of those purely joyful movies. Heath Ledger is at the height of his heartthrob phase, unleashing that megawatt charm with, frankly, reckless abandon and showcasing the commanding screen presence that would make him an awards favorite before his untimely death. And he’s surrounded by an ace ensemble, with Paul Bettany, Alan Tudyk, Laura Fraser, and Mark Addy keeping up the comedy while Ledger smacks down the swoons. Brian reimagines the classic underdog sports tale in the realm of lords, ladies, and jousting knights, positively pumping up the jam with an anachronistic soundtrack full of bops and bangers, from Queen to David Bowie to Heart.
5. Spider-man: into the spider-verse.
“Anyone can wear the mask.” That’s the theme of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which makes it not just one of the most inspiring superhero movies ever made, but also one of the most important. While the film’s protagonist is Miles Morales, a mixed-race high school student living in New York City who gets bit by a spider and gains superpowers, the movie expands the world into a “multi-verse” as various Spider-People from other dimensions come into Miles’ life. Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir all have different backgrounds and motivations, but they all rose above adversity to become the hero their world needed. The crux of the film is the relationship between Miles, who’s not yet ready to lead, and an alternate universe Peter Parker, who’s going through a mid-life crisis and reluctantly mentors the young, new Spidey. It’s an endearing, hilarious, and touching relationship, and the film is packed with themes of friendship, heroism, and family that make it a tremendously positive viewing experience for youngsters.
6. How to train your Dragon.
I've seen many movie franchises where the sequel actually outgrossed its earlier installments but rarely a film where the sequel places the franchise to a whole new genre. How to Train Your Dragon 2 has taken the franchise from a coming-of-age comedy to a matured fantasy drama. The story is average (which is actually the only flaw with this film), but who cares because what actually matters is the storytelling. Some of the world's greatest films have okayish storylines but that was
easily overridden with their expertise in storytelling and the same happens with How to Train Your Dragon 2 also. This is one of the coolest animated flicks of recent times. The events of this movie are happening 5 years from that of the prequel.
Many things happened to Berk during these years. If you're following the animated TV series called 'Dreamwork Dragons' ( the show is based on the prequel and features the events that happened between these two films), you will get a clear-cut idea about them. But that doesn't matter because the opening sequence which showcases an exhilarating dragon chase serves as a good crash course for the same and offers you a smooth slide in. The movie is relatively dark when compared to contemporary animated films. The tragic death of a major character and ships burials are not so common among animated films. Actually, that's the point where the movie breaks itself from the chains of a coming of age comedy to a mature drama. Unlike the prequel which had little room for character development, this sequel takes enough time to root- not only for the major human characters but even for the dragons. Each of them got a personality for themselves and gets enough screen space. And here's the best part - they never turned it into a mess !! You witness some of the finest ever done aerial shots in this animated movie (Roger Deakins was served as the visual consultant and you can't expect anything less ) and also the best use of 3D. The heroic intro of Hiccup is one of the coolest and breathtaking character introductions I ever seen in films. Also thumbs up for John Powell's emotionally telling music (though I felt the ones from the original movie as more riveting )Dreamworks never had a dreamlike opening like Pixar's. They started low, worked on their mistakes, and catapulted to the last lap. With this movie, they made sure that they are going to be the forerunner of the future animation industry!
7. Da 5 Bloods.
Da 5 Bloods is an instant classic. It harkens back to the war epics of old, updating them to the modern age and adding a
special Spike Lee spin.
Although, it is worth noting that it suffers some of the problems from those classic war adventures. The film, sitting at two and a half hours, is overlong. The movie was best when it focused on its band of brothers instead of various other characters or subplots.It feels like a product of these old war epics instead of a product of war. The movie feels very
Hollywood. The deaths in battle are without consequence, each character goes down in a pool of blood with all the pain of a video game NPC. At the end of the climax, there is even the ‘villain monologues over the defeated hero before getting destroyed by an unseen force cliche. It is very clear that Lee learned about war from movies, not men.
8. The Florida Project.
The Florida Project is a film of contrasts. The contrast between a magic castle and the very magicless people. A contrast between children who one day have fun and the next daylight a house on fire.
Most of all, it’s a conflict between childhood innocence and adult worries; one that plays out through two perspectives. A young girl playing the summer away and her neglectful mother, who prostitutes herself while her daughter sits in the bathtub.
Yet the film doesn’t treat her as a neglectful mother, that’s the impressive part of it all. The film treats every one of its characters with nuance. Nowhere is this more clear than in the adults, who are fully formed. The mother Halley goes from being a loving mother to a horrible person in seconds. The film doesn’t say the tragedy is that she’s a bad mother, the tragedy is that she is a mother. She’s trying her best, but due to her situation, age, and maturity she never stood a chance.
The motel owner, who would be reduced to an obstacle in a lesser film, is a good man who slowly has enough of Halley’s bullshit. The climactic shots of him are heartbreaking for this reason. Her problems are plentiful and they are mostly placed on the daughter. Played wonderfully by 6-year-old Brooklyn Prince. She summons a lot of talent from a very little body.
But watching the movie, I wondered how much her scenes actually mattered. It felt like the true story was of the poverty and chaos at The Magic Castle, not of this little girl running around. Her scenes felt like they were serving a thematic purpose without having any substance in them. I certainly understand what Director Sean Baker was saying, I just think he could have said it much more concisely. There is one point where the film attempts to be poignant with a scene at a tree, yet it is laughably bad. The line ‘My favorite tree is tipped down but still growing’ (Paraphrasing) sounds like something that would be on the back of a Dove Chocolate wrapper. When exploring the troubles of the lower class, the film is wonderful. When it tries to tackle too much more, it falls flat on its face.
8. The taxi driver.
Deeply disturbing and well-made movie. Entire books have been written about it, so I won’t waste your time with a long diatribe. Suffice it to say, it illustrates a somewhat believable mental collapse of a low-intelligence individual from a goofy weirdo into a violent murderer. If you ever wondered how school shooters become the bad guys they are, watch this movie. There is a moment where it’s like a flip has been switched in his brain; he changes from chasing the girl to wanting to commit violence. It’s very, very disturbing.
9. The Irishman.
The last 45 minutes of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is some of the most brilliant filmmaking of the master’s career. It shows Scorsese as he strips the genre he had a significant part in creating down to its bones, telling a wonderful new story in the process.
This section follows Robert DeNiro’s Frank Sheeran in the twilight of his career as he deals with the consequences of being the rarest form of Scorsese gangster: A survivor. Here we notice the end of his life isn’t nearly as bright as you may expect from a man who once was the most important person in most rooms he entered. The things that are truly important, like Sheeran’s daughter, were sacrificed for youthful power.
It is this way the film is an achievement, this is how Scorsese is really innovating. It uses the entirety of its long runtime to show the full life of a gangster. Not just the interesting parts — full of murder and intrigue — but the entirety of his existence.
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