10

Watching Beau Is Afraid felt like a three-hour panic attack, and to ask Ari Aster for anything less would be doing his talents a disservice.

The shift from tension through horror into tension via what is basically a modern take on Franz Kafka’s The Trial was one that paid off massively in showing that Aster has a lot of versatility. The heart-dropping dread that was once reflected in violence and shock has been replaced by a sickly family drama that’s interrupted by psychosis and abuse, and the kaleidoscopic presentation of the film makes Beau Is Afraid perhaps Aster’s most compelling and risky film yet. Believe the hype, but don’t expect another Midsommar, because I don’t believe that’s an approach that the director will ever touch again after this.

Obviously.

Put Greta Gerwig’s name on anything and I’ll be there on day one, and Barbie was clearly never going to be any different. Vastly different from her previous, more personal works (not quite as good, either, but that’s another discussion) Barbie is a film that demanded to be about as tongue-in-cheek and self-aware as films are able to be, and it delivers massively.

There’s little that can be said about Barbie that hasn’t already been said, and there’s equally as few people who haven’t already seen it, so I don’t need to tell you how much fun it is to watch with your pals. Tag yourself, I’m Allan.

Naturally if you stick Godzilla in it, I’m going to be interested, but the way that Godzilla Minus One rewrites the playbook for the appearances of the King of the Monsters makes it one of the most interesting Godzilla movies of the modern era, contending with Shin Godzilla for the top spot.

Using the Second World War as a jumping-off point for the turmoil and loss of identity that Japan suffered in its wake to exploit more suffering to come isn’t new, but using grief and horror in tandem to tie up a story of the indomitable human spirit makes for something incredibly special. Godzilla is absolutely terrifying once again in so many new ways, and their design is unbelievable. I’m a super-nerd when it comes to this character, and the fresh additions that Minus One brings to the table makes their appearance so much more exciting, returning to the past only to declare it dead and establish a whole new era. Impressive barely cuts it - Godzilla Minus One is harrowing, but never stops being truly, truly brilliant.

This was an early contender (it released in the UK in 2023, it counts), but I knew it was going to be one that I didn’t forget about. Ti West doesn’t fuck about, clearly, and I engaged with the aesthetics and old-school horrors of X immediately - I couldn’t have expected that the series’ next instalment would surpass it in almost every way, though. Where X had a Texas Chainsaw-adjacent tension, Pearl finds everything it needs in Mia Goth, who gives the performance of her career as she chops and screams her way through her entire life.

It might be a bit of a meme at this point, but Goth’s Pearl is impossibly good, and the kills are satisfying less as kills themselves, but more as ends to Pearl’s incredible distress. One of the best horrors put to film in recent years, and providing that MaXXXine is half the movie that Pearl is, it’ll be another point of proof that Ti West can do whatever he wants.

I expected good things from John Wick Chapter 4. I couldn’t have expected this.

As Chapter 3 served as a mild lull for the series I’d grown to love alongside my dad, I was nervous about the runtime of its sequel, but it earns every moment with some of the best choreographed action I’ve ever seen and a story that justifies the return of John Wick beyond the fact that I’d watch Keanu Reeves kick ass any day.

So many ridiculous action setpieces stack on top of each other to make sure that the runtime races past, and by the time the credits rolled, I was sure that I’d seen the perfect John Wick movie. It’s easy to be sceptical about the spin-offs of this world could be a little strange, but this film got me ready for anything yet to come. This movie is fucking nuts. I can’t put it any other way.