Morgan Rojas

10. Isle of Dogs

In his second foray into stop-motion animation, the twee-minded Wes Anderson sets out to answer the question: “what does a Japan-set dystopian world that banishes all dogs to a series of inter-connected refuges known as Trash Island look like?” It’s not news that Wes Anderson has invented entire worlds unto themselves in almost all of his films, but Isle of Dogs is one of this year’s clearest achievements in total ground-up creation and imagination. By not only realizing such a visually intricate world full of detail-rich locations but finding the heart in every mangy dog’s sneeze, Anderson and his team of animators pull off one of the year’s greatest feats in film-making. I loved every frame of it.

9. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

As time goes by and people continue to be divided by generation, more and more the idea of having cultural “icons" who are able to cross-over and connect multiple generations becomes a more unlikely thing, which in turn might make for more isolated human experiences. Perhaps it was perfect, then, to watch Morgan Neville’s (Jane, xx) latest documentary about one of these last-of-his-kind national figures who was adored by audiences of all types. Beyond being a beautiful and gentle handling of the life of Mr. Rogers, showcasing his values of love and self-acceptance, hearing older audiences sing along to the "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" theme song showed the tear-jerking beauty in shared emotional catharsis and connection that, these days, feels too few and far between.

8. Border

I had near-zero knowledge of what I was getting myself into before settling in to see Sweden’s official entry for Best Foreign Film, and that’s exactly how I recommend going into this film. What might best be described as a fairy tale set in modern day, Border follows an unsightly but uniquely gifted customs agent (Eva Melander, in incredible make-up) in which the arrival of a mysterious man leads her into discovering the shocking truths of a vile human – and not so human – underworld. One of the most daring and wildly conceptual film I saw all year, Border delivered a profound feeling that has resonated with me ever since.

7. Hereditary

Hereditary stood tall this year as a brilliant display of auteur-minded horror, showing the arresting power that cinema can waver so powerfully over its audiences. Seeing this A24-produced horror film during its opening weekend with a theater full of audience members was one of the most thrilling and exhilarating movie-going experiences I had this year, the whole room jumping out of our seats and holding breaths through the film's tensest moments. While I might have wished that some of Hereditary's many ideas were further fleshed out, and even that some ideas were pulled back on (to say the film's final coven-inspired sacrificial ceremony was too "conventional" might be an odd thing to say), but with its jaw-dropping nighttime photography and Toni Collette’s chilling, trauma-inducing performance, this film had no problem burning itself into my psyche.

6. Vox Lux

The thing about pop culture is that for all its commercial fantasy and celebrity-worshiping, that there must be reasons and needs for why society feels the need to escape, and which harsh realities society doesn't wish to face. It's a relationship that director Brady Corbett examines in this portrait of a Gaga-esque pop star's rise to fame, from center of national tragedy through Madison Square Garden headlining fame. Shot with imaginative style with Terrence Malick-like sobriety, commenting and showing its horrific and tragic American events, it's a timely and necessary reflection and reminder of the sound of a burst when it pops.

5. Eighth Grade

Another film that handled the duality between invented reality and the less satisfying, more anxiety-ridding real one, was the directorial debut of stand-up comedian and former YouTube sensation Bo Burnham. Like an unexpected front-facing flash from a camera selfie, Burnham turns the camera on a generation that, at his young twenty-eight years of age, that he is now removed from: Gen Z, the first generation of kids to grow up in a totally internet-connected world. The identity crisis of a girl going through her final year of eighth grade feels perfectly of-the-moment with what feels like a universal existential crisis that's being experienced, impressively captured with understanding, sympathy, and wisdom.

4. Minding the Gap

While the story of young skateboarders who seek to escape their dysfunctional family upbringings by goofing off together was brought to the big screen this year in Jonah Hill's semi-autobiographical directorial debut Mid90s, it was the Hulu original documentary Minding the Gap that proved to be the deeper and more affecting examination of the same subject for me. What starts off as a skate video following the fun hang-outs between a group of Illinois kids slowly takes shape into something much bigger; an examination of issues like job-insecurity, race, and domestic abuse that they each experience first-hand. Most impressively, this years-long ranging story (of which comparisons to Boyhood have been attributed) are all captured by one of these kids himself – Bing Liu – who applies his one-man movie-making skills to write, shoot, direct, edit, and interview all of his friends in what was one of the most unexpectedly affecting films of the year for me.

3. American Animals

Somewhat embarrassingly, I had not seen Bart Layton's critically acclaimed first feature film, The Imposter, before seeing his second film, American Animals. So when I saw the film in theaters, I was stunned and transfixed by the way Layton used an array of tools and techniques to tell the real-life story of four young undergrads who set out to steal some of the nation's most prized art books. Infusing documentary-style interviews and meta elements of memory and perceived truths (much like what is on display in The Imposter), Layton re-writes the rules of what is possible to do in movies and one that I praised and recommended any chance I got this year.

2. Cold War

I'd heard great things about director Pawel Pawlikowski's follow-up to his 2013 black and white historical drama Ida (I was aware the film was nominated for a Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, with Pawlikowski walking away with the award for Best Director). And after seeing the film I can both understand and join in the film's praise. A historical drama centered around Poland's post-World War II efforts to strengthen its national identity by celebrating its music through concert performances, at its heart the film is a love story between the Polish music director (Tomasz Kot) and a beguiling, transfixing singer (Joanna Kulig). Spanning multiple years that sees the pair kindle and then re-kindle their relationship amidst national anxieties and struggles (the film was based on the director's own parents' story), Cold War is one of the best films I saw this year or any other.

1. Roma

It seems like the best film of any year somehow ends up linking to the present moment of social politics and culture. The film that had the most profound effect on me, that stands in dignified defiance to the loud, shouting discourse that leads American politics today, is a story about a quiet, humble and sympathetic Mexican maid that does nothing more than tend to her family. Alfonso Cuarón comes off of his space-survival film Gravity to make this visually and beautifully rich autobiographical film. Roma is also a triumph for breaking from traditional narrative film, furthering its themes of total liberation. Shot in black and white 65mm film, there are a number of striking images that transcend the film. Roma opens up like a flower, blooming throughout until it finally reaches beautiful emotional catharsis. Credit the streaming giant Netflix for putting stock in this auteur director’s original film.