I wrote about my top 20 of 2020 on my website — read the full list here! And I also wrote about the best non-2020 movies that I watched for the first time this year — that list is here.

Small Axe, as a complete project, topped my list of 2020 wide releases because it’s so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a gorgeous encapsulation of the beauty and the struggles of West Indian life in London. Not…

At this point, you’re either with Lin-Manuel Miranda or against him. Indifference toward his projects seems nearly impossible, and ignorance of their existence is even unlikelier. He’s a natural poster boy for Broadway because the unabashed, accessible emotion of his work (and public persona) represents the greatest strength that popular American theatre has to offer, while his ambitiously dense songwriting style pushes the medium in unique new directions. In many ways, his shows embody the very essence of Broadway musicals —…

If you don’t think Sal is a racist, you should probably rewatch this movie. His climactic use of racial slurs can’t be chalked up to a lapse of judgement. He repeatedly clarifies that he only tolerates black people because they haven’t done anything bad to him, and because they provide his livelihood. His respect for the black community is entirely conditional and transaction-based — as soon as his “terms” of respect (essentially not having any major negative encounters with any…

Despite a great cast and an intriguing premise, The New Mutants is a lifeless gallery of clichés from both the superhero and horror genres. Combine It and X-Men, then strip that combination of anything remotely worthwhile, and you get this movie. The paper-thin characters don’t even have interesting powers, save for Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik, who has a strange combination of several abilities that make absolutely no sense together. And there’s basically no story to speak of. Nothing happens for 90 minutes and…