Why should you watch it? It feels like it’s powered by neon-coloured space dust, the kind you see sprinkled behind jagged ‘80s words.
What is it? The sequel to the bonkers joy-ride through space where Peter Quill and his team of Guardians try to find out more about Quill’s father. It’s all helped along by simply some of the best motion capture seen to date, with Andy Serkis and Weta continuing to push the boundaries of what digital effects can do. Ceaser and the Colonel are clearly polar opposites, but in-between are apes and human alike, betraying each other or forming relationships that don’t fit into the delineated ideals of their respective leaders. Narratively, this plays hugely on the frayed edges of its ideas of good and bad. While on the other side there’s the ape leader Ceaser, still trying to broker peace despite having plenty of reasons to jump feet first into a genocidal war. The worst of humanity represents our side - fronted by Woody Harrelson’s Colonel on a ‘holy war’ to eradicate the apes, and humans devolving into a mute state from the simian virus. Why you should watch it: Not only does this final (for now) installment bring the movies to a resolution, it does so in a very morally chewy way. What is it? The final part of the current Apes trilogy, following the man vs monkey battle as it escalates into all out war. Pitch Perfect 3 knows not to take itself too seriously and that’s why it’s higher on this list than some Oscar-contenders because there’s nothing wrong with just being a really good feel good comedy… with singing.
Full to the brim with laugh out loud moments, meta-commentary, and incredible acapella covers, it’s ridiculous and hilarious in equal measure and just… works. But, if you’re a full-on, 100% obsessed Pitch Perfect fan, then this third outing is everything you’ve been dreaming of. If you’re a mild Pitch Perfect fan, you’ll probably enjoy it, but it might seem a bit tired the third time around. Why should you watch it? Because it’s aca-amazing! Let me get this straight, if you’re not a Pitch Perfect fan, you definitely shouldn’t watch this movie.
What is it? The third (and supposedly final) movie in the Pitch Perfect franchise sees the Bellas reunite for one last singing gig, which turns into a competition to see who will open for DJ Khaled on his world tour. This is a master storyteller taking on one of the most unbelievable events in human history, and Nolan delivers a triumph. There's limited dialogue, and none of the sentimentality that so often rose-tints war movies. There's tension here, and desolation - the shots of the men quietly huddled on the beach are more affecting than any explosion - but also a nobility and human decency that pull you through the darker moments. Dunkirk allows each story to breath, whether it's Tom Hardy's fighter pilot flying with limited fuel or the civilian boat, the Moonstone, heading towards Dunkirk to try and help the stranded soldiers, or Kenneth Branagh as Commander Bolton desperately trying to manage the evacuation as the beach is bombarded by the enemy. Why should you watch it? If the layers of time and narrative sound confusing in print, they're not in practice. And yes, it's the one with Harry Styles in. What is it? Christopher Nolan's take on the dramatic evacuation of Dunkirk beach in WW2, told across three stories on land, sea, and air, each following a different timeframe. Be warned though: it’s viscerally and emotionally uncompromising like a hammer to the skull.
That twisting, winding, escalating, belligerently bamboozling facade of a story is actually talking about something else entirely, and while it might infuriate you before you crack the code - and possibly afterward as well - the film’s relentless commitment to its aim, and abject refusal to provide an easy on-ramp, make it one of the bravest and more arrestingly constructed films of the year. This film’s meaning comes through pure allegory, and allegory alone. Taken on its surface level, Mother! makes no logical sense at all, but it doesn’t care.
Ostensibly, initially, a strange, domestic drama with uneasy horror overtones, delivered with the focus of well-polished, two-hander stage play, Mother! steadily, seductively peels off its skin to reveal something far stranger, smarter, uglier, and entirely more potent underneath. Why should you watch it? You know how some films fall into that ‘Not for everybody, but beloved forever by those who get them?’ category? Mother! feels like an attempt to crystalise the definition into kryptonite.