The Oscars are done and over with and 2023 is officially off the books. That means we’re ready to start prepping our list of the best movies of 2024 for next year, and there are already plenty of standouts worth noting.
Festivals like SXSW and Sundance kicked things off strong (though we’re only considering features that have been released. Sorry, “Thelma”). But even at the multiplex we’ve seen big-budget dazzlers like “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” shake audiences in their seats. On the horror front, features like Michael Mohan’s Sydney Sweeney-fronted “Immaculate” have already made a mark. And don’t forget some of the movies that entranced people sitting on their living room couches, including the new “Road House.”
We’re looking at some of the best films that have come out over the last few months of 2024.
“Cobweb” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Sony Pictures Classics picked up the latest film from Korean auteur Kim Jee-woon after it premiered out of competition at Cannes last year. And then … they decided to dump it in early February, directly to PVOD, with little (if any) promotion. What a shame.
Wild, wacky and warm, “Cobweb” is one of director Kim’s very best, most big-hearted movies. The movie gamely toggles between two narratives – a film shoot in the early 1970’s in Seoul, led by an obsessive filmmaker (played by a remarkable Song Kang-ho) who strives for perfection; and then the footage from what they shot, which appears in black-and-white. The movie piles on the layers of meta-textual mischievousness without ever losing the plot, a sort of “Ed Wood” on psychedelics.
While critics were mixed on the movie (with some suggesting “Cobweb” falls into the trap of becoming too entangled in itself), it feels like an obvious highlight. It’s a movie in love with both the limitations and oversized ambition of filmmaking and it’s proof that Kim Jee-woon is still one of the world’s most exciting filmmakers. To paraphrase one of his earlier films, “Cobweb” contains the good, the bad and the weird; it’s all delightful. –Drew Taylor
“Love Lies Bleeding” (A24)
Rose Glass’ pulp noir “Love Lies Bleeding” is a movie that grabs you by the lapels and never lets go with its dark 1980s story involving lovers Jackie and Lou (Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart, respectively) who become embroiled in murder. Glass skillfully blends body horror with drama, her camera showcasing Jackie’s massive muscles, many of them straining so much you’re worried she’ll burst. But what makes the movie work so well is how O’Brian and Stewart craft a dirty, complex romance between two people whose baggage threatens to destroy them. It’s dark, it’s nasty and it can be sexy as hell. I haven’t stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it. –Kristen Lopez
“Road House” (Amazon MGM Studios)
To some, the idea of a “Road House” remake is sacrilegious. After all, the rowdy Patrick Swayze-led original from 1989 is something of a cult classic. (And for good reason – it rules!) But this new movie, directed by Doug Liman and starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the Swayze approximation, might be even better.
In this new version Gyllenhaal plays a disgraced UFC fighter who takes a job bouncing at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys. A local tough (Billy Magnussen) has been harassing the bar and its owner (Jessica Williams), and Gyllenhaal’s Dalton not only wants to temper the violence but also discover what’s behind the antagonism. Aggressive, in-your-face and almost pornographically violent (we mean that in a good way), this new “Road House” is a shit-kicking masterpiece.
Liman, always willing to experiment, stages the action with a you-are-there virtuosity and Gyllenhaal, for all his pretty boy trappings, boldly inhabits the character, a laconic hero who doesn’t want to end things in force but will anyway. Written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, proteges of the great Shane Black, “Road House” crackles and sparks. It might be too slick to embody the same infamous legacy as the original but the movie is just as good, if not better. A triumph. –Drew Taylor
“Lisa Frankenstein” (Focus Features)
Zelda Williams made her directorial debut this year with the snappy, neon-tinged horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein,” a movie everyone’s going to pretend they always loved 20 years from now.
Kathryn Newton stars as Lisa, a high school oddball navigating life after tragedy when a freak accident resurrects a long-dead corpse (Cole Sprouse) who might be the man of her dreams … if they can find him all the right body parts. What I love most about “Lisa Frankenstein” is that it’s unabashed: silly, sweet, twisted, colorful, grotesque, playful and disturbed — often all at once and always without flinching. Newton makes big, bold choices with her performance and she’s perfectly suited to the strange brew of Williams’ irreverent ’80s throwback.
This one’s been more or less written off by critics, but it has the air of a film that’s going to age into its audience. The script comes from the always excellent yet consistently divisive Diablo Cody, who famously penned the zero-to-hero early aughts horror-comedy “Jennifer’s Body.” That film has had a hell of a redemption tour in recent years, and I expect it will be much the same for “Lisa Frankenstein” in the decades to come. -Haleigh Foutch
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (Warner Bros.)
If you saw 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” a rare pandemic-era hit despite its simultaneous release on HBO Max, and thought, “Haven’t we said all that needs to be said about Godzilla battling King Kong?” The answer is an emphatic no. Adam Wingard returns from the earlier film, eager to make something wackier and with more personality. Mission: accomplished.
In this entry, both Godzilla and King Kong are threatened by a new giant ape known as the Scar King and the Space Godzilla-like monster he has control over. (There’s too much to get into now but he could trigger a new ice age.) Wingard fully gives over to the monsters; there are whole stretches of the movie where the only characters you see on screen are towering creatures. It’s one of the movie’s biggest surprises and its biggest pleasures.
Not that the humans are wasted here; new addition Dan Stevens as a colorful kaiju veterinarian is the most delightful human character in the entire MonsterVerse. He’s introduced on screen singing along to Greenflow’s 1977 single “I Got’Cha” as he extracts an inflamed tooth out of Kong’s jaw, Hawaiian shirt blowing in the wind. Priceless. Wingard, again working with longtime collaborator Simon Barrett, stages the monster mayhem with an even more impish, more artful sense of play. This movie is more fun than spending the entire day at a theme park. And significantly less expensive. –Drew Taylor
“Immaculate” (Neon)
We’ve all seen horror films focused on nuns and pregnancy. In April we’ll have two movies featuring both topics between 20th Century’s “The First Omen” and Neon’s “Immaculate.” But it’s the latter, starring Sydney Sweeney as a nun who discovers she’s the vessel for a possible immaculate conception, that stands out.
What makes “Immaculate” work is the mutual fearlessness of its director, Michael Mohan, and Sweeney. Inspired by Italian giallo and Ken Russell’s “The Devils,” Sweeney’s Sister Cecilia is one the audience immediately bonds with, particularly once she’s considered a holy vessel and a group of men are hellbent on deciding her fate. For much of the film, the movie parcels out its scares deliberately, more content to emphasize the growing sense of dread – both in that Cecilia isn’t being told something concurrently with just being a pregnant woman in general.
The final scene, though, is one for the ages that has shocked and angered certain people and left others cheering. That final scene, for me, was one where I was throwing my arms in the air, celebrating Cecilia’s need for autonomy. Mohan was right when he said the movie could only end one way. –Kristen Lopez
“The Greatest Night in Pop” (Netflix)
A fastball straight down the middle, “The Greatest Night in Pop” recounts the recording of “We Are the World” in 1985. How does that make for a compelling documentary? Well, thanks largely to archival footage and new interviews by organizer Lionel Ritchie but also Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Dionne Warwick, Sheila E., Cyndi Lauper and technicians and musicians that were also there that night, it really does spring to life.
There were hurt feelings, weird machinations, and Waylon Jennings showing his ass when Stevie Wonder suggested they might want to do a take in Swahili. (Wonder was then reminded that the single was meant to help out in Ethiopia and the language was wrong. Jennings was already gone.) Director Bao Nguyen moves things along briskly, never ruminating over one part of the evening for too long (and wisely sidestepping thornier issues like Michael Jackson and whatever drugs were being done in the bathroom that night). Nguyen presents a somewhat mythologized, brightly colored account of a night that still resonates today. How many times has somebody told you about the “Leave Your Egos at the Door” sign that hung above the recording studio’s entryway that night? Exactly. “The Greatest Night in Pop” proves that sometimes the greatest stories are also true. Mostly. –Drew Taylor
“Dune: Part 2” (Warner Bros.)
Denis Villeneuve has pulled off nothing short of a cinematic miracle, transforming what for decades stood as the most unadaptable sci-fi novel ever written into an epic tragedy that has captured the pop culture zeitgeist in a way no one ever thought possible.
Yet that is exactly what “Dune: Part Two” pulls off, bringing together all of the setup of Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s novel and paying it off with one incredible scene after another. At its center is Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides, the man who fears that his quest to avenge his father will lead him to become a tyrant, yet chooses that dark path out of fear of losing everything else he values. As Paul’s beloved Fremen companion Chani, Zendaya puts on the best performance of her career as a warrior who goes from being a loyal follower of Paul in Herbert’s book to being the sole voice of reason as she watches the man she once believed had the best interests of her people at heart turn into a religious manipulator.
Combine that with thrilling battle sequences across the deserts of Arrakis, a delightfully sadistic performance from Austin Butler as the villainous Feyd Rautha, a surprisingly funny performance from Javier Bardem as Paul’s most devoted follower Stilgar, and possibly the best film score ever from Hans Zimmer, and you have a film that feels like the culmination of Villeneuve’s sparkling career. –Jeremy Fuster
“Hundreds of Beavers” (SRH)
Explaining a film like “Hundreds of Beavers” feels like a disservice to its genius. One would be better served by looking at its trailer, which does a perfect job of encapsulating its 108 minutes of slapstick brilliance. While it premiered at Fantastic Fest back in 2022, “Hundreds of Beavers” is only getting a public release now via a roadshow theatrical run and a digital on-demand release.
Directed by Mike Cheslik, who co-wrote it with lead star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the film follows a man named Jean Kayak who loses his successful applejack business when his trees and distillery are destroyed by a horde of beavers. Left with practically nothing, Jean finds a new life as a fur trapper, as the film follows his utterly wacky battles against the beavers, bunnies and wolves of the Great White North, all of whom were played by friends and families of the crew in animal costumes.
“Hundreds of Beavers”could have easily ended up as an idea for a cartoon-length short film that outstays its welcome as it stretches out to feature length, but Cheslik and his team manage to come up with one brilliant slapstick gag after another as Jean goes from struggling to find a way to survive, to engaging in a full scale war against an army of beavers. The influences, from Looney Tunes and Buster Keaton, will be obvious, but younger audiences may also see parallels to video games, as the film keeps count of Jean’s travels across the forest, the tally of beaver pelts he’s racked up and the goods he purchases from the nearby merchant as he tries to win the hand of the merchant’s daughter. –Jeremy Fuster
“Orion and the Dark” (Netflix)
One of the year’s best animated films, “Orion and the Dark” is an odd, endearing story written by Charlie Kaufman and based on a children’s book by Emma Yarlett.
Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is an anxious little kid. Everything scares him, especially nighttime. That’s when he meets Dark (Paul Walter Hauser), the physical embodiment of night. Together they go on an adventurous and comical journey, meeting other “night entities” like Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), Insomnia (Nat Faxo) and Quiet (Aparna Nacherla). He also learns that Light (Ike Barinholtz) might not be all that he makes himself out as.
Sure, both the concept and the characters (many fashioned as Muppet-y creatures) feel vaguely Pixar-ish, but thanks to Kaufman’s script, which always throws zigs where you’ll imagine a zag, and the fresh direction and design choices of filmmaker Sean Charmatz, “Orion and the Dark” feels genuinely new, apart of everything that’s come before. It’s a dream of an animated feature, one that everyone can enjoy. –Drew Taylor
Problemista (A24)
For anyone who has ever worked as an assistant, “Problemista” might hit a little too close to home. Julio Torres’ directorial debut sees him play Alejandro, a soft-spoken Mexican immigrant who, in a desperate attempt to find a new visa sponsor, takes a job as an assistant for a neurotic art critic named Elizabeth who is determined to open a gallery on behalf of her cryogenically frozen husband.
Through surreal imagery, Torres satirizes the kafkaesque journey that immigrants must take to stay in the U.S., needing money to pay for the immigration and visa process but unable to take jobs that don’t pay cash-in-hand because they are not citizens. Things as mundane as a job search on Craigslist or a phone call about bank fees turn into a headfirst dive into absurdism.
But the centerpiece of “Problemista” is Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth, a woman who makes Miranda Priestly look like an angel as she rants at tech support about why her iPad doesn’t work (it does, but she’s just not using it right with her acrylics) and demands to know why Alejandro isn’t using the needlessly complicated Filemaker Pro as a database for her husband’s work instead of Excel. She is a pure nightmare who lashes out at everyone around her, yet Swinton keeps her humanity present even at the center of her rants, showing how even monsters are just looking for love. –Jeremy Fuster
“Longlegs” (Neon)
The year’s scariest movie is also one of its most ingenious. Osgood Perkins, the son of Anthony Perkins and the shadowy auteur behind “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” and “Gretel & Hansel,” turns his unique sensibilities on the tried-and-true serial killer subgenre. This type of movie has been worked and reworked so many times its lost all of its elasticity. Or so we thought. Perkins tackles the genre (and all of its tropes) head-on, as we follow a young FBI agent (Maika Monroe), who may or may not be psychic (another hallmark), as she hunts for a serial killer that murders entire families. The movie is set in the 1990s, the golden era of the serial killer movie, but is suffused with satanic dread and a creeping unease that are recognizable from Perkins’ earlier, less accessible work. The resulting film is both challenging and deeply entertaining; a thriller with much more than just thrills on its mind. And Nicolas Cage, playing the titular killer, is a shape-shifting tour de force. “Longlegs” is proof positive that Perkins is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today – in horror or any other genre – and that his singular point of view can resurrect a subgenre that had become completely exhausted. What will he do next? – Drew Taylor
“The First Omen” (20th Century)
Did we really need a new “Omen” film in the year of our lord 2024? Probably not. But now that “The First Omen” is here, we are very exciting that it exists at all. Co-written and directed by Arkasha Stevenson, “The First Omen” is set directly before the original film. In 1971 an American novitiate named Margaret Daino (a terrific Nell Tiger Free) arrives at an orphanage in Rome. She begins to make a connection with a strange young girl who she fears the church is targeting in some way. Of course we know, having watched several “Omen” films, that there is something far more sinister going on. The magic trick of “The First Omen” is creating an atmosphere that is both familiar and totally new, with an almost confrontational political undertone (double-underlined by one of the great shock scares in recent memory), genuine emotion and a rich, ornate visual palette that makes what could have been a stock prequel into something far more rewarding. And what a treat it was seeing a grown-up chiller in the theater again. Turns out that getting scared with a bunch of strangers is actually quite fun. – Drew Taylor
“Hit Man” (Netflix)
Richard Linklater’s sly comedic thriller had been making the festival rounds since last fall, where it was rapturously received and quickly snapped up by Netflix for a tidy sum. They decided to release it this summer, where it got a muted response. It’s a shame, too. Because “Hit Man” is one of Linklater’s very best films and its lead performances, by Glen Powell and Adria Arjona, are so good that they should transform them into superstars. (Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen.) Based on a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth, with a script co-written by Linklater and Powell, “Hit Man” focuses on a dweeby college professor (Powell) who moonlights as a fake hitman for the local police department. (Filming incentives meant swapping in New Orleans for Houston.) Of course things take a turn when the fake hit man falls for a real girl (Arjona), who first contacts him about killing her husband (who eventually winds up dead). Full of genuine chemistry between Powell and Arjona and interspersed with Linklater-ian philosophical pontifications, it is easily the sexiest film that Linklater has ever made and one of his most impressively alive (particularly in its dynamite third act). It’s a shame more people didn’t watch on the service. But we also know how hard it is to pull yourself away from “Selling Sunset.” – Drew Taylor
“The Fall Guy” (Universal)
The movie David Leitch was born to make, “The Fall Guy” smartly reinvents the 1980s TV series, with Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who works to help save the movie being made by the woman she loves (Emily Blunt). Leitch, a former stuntman, lends the movie credibility, embroidering the movie with little details that add texture and never feel too inside baseball. Gosling and Blunt feel like real people, just trying to make their way in an industry largely overseen by madness, and their chemistry is palpable. (“The Fall Guy” is one of the rare movies that cites “Romancing the Stone” as an inspiration but actually feels like “Romancing the Stone.”) And the action sequences are, as expected, spectacular – from a chase through Sydney streets to a car flip that actually set a world’s record, the sequences enrich the overall movie, adding necessary characterization and giving the narrative form. It’s disappointing that audiences couldn’t get behind a movie this entertaining and sophisticated, although it did play in theaters for a while and eventually recouped its budget. (It might not have made money, but it still could one day.) “The Fall Guy” is a love letter to a largely unsung aspect of filmmaking. If “The Fall Guy” doesn’t convince the powers that be that a Best Stunts Oscar category is necessary, we don’t know what will. – Drew Taylor
“Young Woman and the Sea” (Disney)
When people say “they don’t make them like that anymore,” they are talking about “Young Woman and the Sea.” There’s a stately classicism to this Jerry Bruckheimer production, an against-all-odds, can-do true sports story about Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle (an great Daisy Ridley), who in 1921 became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. But its old-fashioned-ness is a feature, not a bug. There’s something deeply stirring about the movie – the performances, led by Ridley, are unshowy but uniformly terrific (Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Graham play her coaches); the stately production design and cinematography, which still manages to dazzle; and the way that the movie brings history, and a deeply inspirational story, to life. (Joachim Rønning continues to be one of cinema’s most underrated stylists.) It’s a shame “Young Woman and the Sea” had such a brief theatrical run in so few theaters. (It played on 200 screens and made less than half-a-million dollars.) This could have been the feel-good movie of the summer, a more tactile alternative to all of the season’s grandiose blockbusters. It’s a true underdog. – Drew Taylor
“The Bikeriders” (Focus Features)
Originally meant to come out last year, thanks to a partnership between production company New Regency and Disney’s 20th Century, it was first delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and then unceremoniously taken off the calendar altogether. When “The Bikeriders” re-emerged, it had been given a plum summer release date, thanks to a new partnership with Universal’s Focus Features. While the movie only had a cursory theatrical run (it’s already available to buy on PVOD), it will undoubtedly find its audience sooner rather than later. It’s just that good. “The Bikeriders” is based on a series of photographs by Danny Lyon, who chronicled biker culture in the 1960s, with writer/director Jeff Nichols putting an emphasis on mood and atmosphere over traditional narrative mechanics. Austin Butler plays a young biker, with Jodie Comer as his devoted partner and Tom Hardy as the macho leader of the club. As the movie progresses from the mid-1960s into the late 1960s, the ideals become corrupted and the emphasis becomes more heavily focused on illegal activity and violence. Where does the freedom of the open road go when you’re running guns and trying not to get stabbed to death? Anchored by a trio of superb performances, plus wonderful supporting turns by Michael Shannon, Mike Faist (as Lyon) and Norman Reedus, “The Bikeriders” makes you long for the glory of the good old days, even if you’ve never gotten onto a motorcycle, worn leather or punched a guy in the face. Bonus points are awarded to “The Bikeriders” for having one of the best, most unforgettable final shots in recent movie history. Rev those engines. – Drew Taylor
“Furiosa” (Warner Bros.)
Don’t let the disappointing box office returns for “Furiosa” fool you, George Miller’s latest trip to the wasteland, set before the events of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” is every bit as powerful as the earlier movie – maybe more-so. “Furiosa” unfolds at its own pace, with a very distinct tempo and mood. It follows a younger Furiosa (played largely by Anya Taylor-Joy, taking over for Charlize Theron), as she’s discovered by a motorcycle horde (led by an unrecognizable Chris Hemsworth), how she winds up at the monstrous Citadel and how she plans to make her escape – and have her revenge. The movie is broken up into chapters, with charmingly oddball titles like “The Pole of Inaccessibility,” which gives the movie an agreeably episodic feeling and contributes to the fact that, among other things, “Furiosa” is a coming-of-age tale, with striking emotional resonance. The fact that “Furiosa” doesn’t even attempt to recapture the go-for-broke action movie free-for-all feeling of “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a testament to Miller’s confidence as a storyteller and the movie’s audaciousness as a whole. There are some that might not align with this new sensibility, but adventurous viewers were rewarded. And the chapter known as “The Stowaway,” which took 76 days to shoot, is one of the most breathless action set pieces this side of the train chase in “The Lone Ranger.” The fact that, at 79, Miller is making movies more complicated and thrilling than filmmakers a third his age is a testament to his singular power. May he never cease. – Drew Taylor
“Civil War” (A24)
The online discourse around “Civil War,” the latest feature from “Annihilation” and “Ex Machina” filmmaker Alex Garland, was so pervasive and so obnoxiously loud, that it obscured the fact that “Civil War” was a really, really great movie. In particular, people were outraged that the titular conflict wasn’t explained. Why were Texas and California aligned? How did it start in the first place? And honestly, all of this is beside the point. Garland’s commentary is always there but never overbearing. Instead of explicitly stating his political preference, he crafts an edge-of-your-seat road movie, where four journalists (played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson) attempt to make it from New York City to Washington, D.C. in the hopes of securing an interview with the president (Nick Offerman) before he is executed by opposing forces. The movie’s narrative engine is sleek and unstoppable; the misadventures they get into along the way are visceral and unsettling (including a run-in with Jesse Plemons playing a terrifying psychopath) and the whole thing feels indebted to the ruthless efficiency of early John Carpenter movies. By the time it reaches its bleak, bittersweet ending, “Civil War” has rattled and bruised you. You’ve survived the battle and feel strangely charged by the experience. – Drew Taylor
“Challengers” (Amazon MGM)
After a pair of thrilling horror movies (“Suspiria” and “Bones and All”), Luca Guadagnino returns with a kicky romantic drama more aligned with his earlier “A Bigger Splash.” And what a return it is. “Challengers,” which stars Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as a trio of tennis prodigies who are intertwined, romantically and professional, through their young adulthood, is a dynamic, utterly thrilling triumph. Part of it is the whip-smart script by Justin Kuritzkes, which volleys between the present and a low-tier tennis match between former besties-turned-enemies (Faist and O’Connor) and the past, where we explore how the relationship between these three got so complicated (spoiler: Zendaya). The structure of the movie gives unexpected momentum and surprise to a story that, if told straightforwardly, would have been a much more traditional sports yarn. But it’s really Guadagnino’s direction – his dynamic camerawork, the way that he poses his actors, the crackling sexual chemistry that underscores every scene – that makes “Challengers” a grand slam. Well, that and the score by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ immortal score. The fact that Guadagnino decides to score even the quietest domestic scene with that pulse-pounding dance music also elevates the entire movie into something else. It’s a choice that only he would make. And it adds so much to the “Challengers” experience. It’s not just a rip-roaring good time, as artful as it is entertaining (the audience at our press screening was audibly engaged), but it’s proof that Guadagnino can turn any story in any genre into a must-see masterpiece. – Drew Taylor
“Twisters” (Universal)
A long-overdue sequel to “Twister,” nearly 30 years after the Helen Hunt/Bill Paxton original, could have felt more cynical than inspired. But a strange thing happened on the way to “Twisters,” the rare blockbuster as interested in soulfulness as it is in spectacle – Lee Isaac Chung, the director behind the Oscar-nominated “Minari,” was hired. Chung is from Oklahoma and knows both the people and landscapes intimately and he lends “Twisters” a level of authenticity (and sympathy) that would have been missing had anyone else tackled the material. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are adorable and engaging, as our new storm-chasers who, along with Anthony Ramirez, are trying to change the way that we study and assess tornadoes. (Edgar-Jones is more by-the-books, with an innate sense of storms, while Powell is a raucous cowboy.) Sure, the tornado sequences, with more advanced visual effects, are towering achievements (there’s a sequence at a nighttime rodeo that is particularly awe-inspiring). But it’s not the storms that you will leave talking, it’s the relationship between the fully dimensional characters and the moments where Chung takes a moment to pause and embrace the beauty of the storms, in scenes that border on the Malickian. “Twisters,” like the first film, was produced by Steven Spielberg and it’s one of the rare moments to capture the alchemy of those early Amblin movies that made them so powerful – a canny mixture of awe and terror, plus real emotional heft, encased in a delectable high concept package. Hopefully Chung makes many more thoughtful, beautiful Hollywood epics. The world would be better off. – Drew Taylor
