Chris here. Thank you to all of you wonderful readers that keep TFE alive and well, year in, year out! This year, I am especially thankful for...
- my new spiritual guru, Baby Yoda.
- the reunion of Salvador and Federico in Pain and Glory.
- the funny and furious female ensemble of Parasite: So-dam Park, Yeo-jeong Cho, Hye-Jin Jang, Jeong-eun Lee, and Ji-so Jung.
- p28 in Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
- Lorene Scafaria's grace, turning a true crime film into the most compassionate film about the 00s financial crisis that's also about the need to connect with one another that's also the year's most entertaining movie.
- Every Hustlers song cue. "Control", "Criminal", "Love in This Club", "Club Can't Handle Me", and especially "Miss You Much."
- the clang of piano keys in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (not to mention the work of the film's miniatures team!).
- Lupita Nyong'o utterly unnerving laugh as Red in Us.
- a showcase role for Alfre Woodard that rewards the darkness and depths of the soul in Clemency.
- Elisabeth Moss' possessed Becky Something in Her Smell, one of the decade's performances.
- Robert Pattinson's sense of humor (and foxiness) cracking through the severe exoskeletons of High Life and The Lighthouse.
- Underrated blink-and-you-miss-them treasures: Frankie, Peterloo, Climax, Ready or Not.
- Mati Diop's sparkling genre explosion in Atlantics.
- the folk paintings of MidSommar.
- Ma not drinking alone.
- Marielle Heller, Claire Denis, Melina Matsoukas, Céline Sciamma, Lulu Wang, Chinonye Chukwu, Greta Gerwig, Alma Har'el.