Loving is based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who spent almost a decade in courts fighting for their right to marry while risking significant jail sentences. At the time the state of Virginia, where the Lovings resided, deemed all interracial romantic relations illegal (Virginia Is For Lovers my ass). Pros: On top of a moving story and a great performance by Ruth Negga, it’s an informative and educational flick, one that I wouldn’t be surprised teachers wheel in the TV for in the future. Cons: The pacing of Loving is kind of brutal, which kept me from putting it higher. I understand it was never going to be “Loving: Fury Road” but it seemed like Joel Edgerton and his distractingly weird haircut silently stares for 5 seconds before every sentence he speaks. Tier 5

Rated Greg’s All Time Favorite Alien Invasion Movies – Ranked

1. Edge of Tomorrow
2. Signs
3. Attack the Block
4. War of the Worlds Arrival
5. The Faculty  War of the Worlds

Alien invasion movies tend to follow a pretty consistent formula.  Within the first ten minutes, aliens and/or UFO’s show up seemingly out of nowhere on a bright and sunny day. For the next fifteen minutes, chaos ensues and people lose their shit, wondering whether they are dealing with a bunch of E.T. sweethearts or, more likely, beings with sinister intentions.  The two parties inevitably throw hands, with the bulk of the film featuring the space invaders going HAM on all earthlings that happen to be slower than Tom Cruise, Hollywood’s all-time rushing leader.  In the last ten minutes, an actor billed lower down on the poster figures out the chink in the enemy armor by sheer luck and the aliens are immediately toast (kinda like the first time you stumbled upon the correct combination to defeat King Hippo in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out). Roll credits.

So usually my anticipation for yet another alien invasion movie would be limited because of the predictable nature, but I had a strong feeling Arrival would bring something new to the table.  It’s directed by Denis Villeneuve, who’s coming in on a 3-movie hit streak  (Prisoners, Enemy, SICARIO) each of which is exciting, compelling, and just the right amount of weird.  I figured in his hands Villeneuve would put a different spin on the tropes mentioned above, and he certainly delivers. Arrival is about as smart and mature as a sci-fi movie can get, replete with metaphors to the current division of humanity.

Of course it doesn’t hurt to have Amy Adams as the front and center of your film.  She brings unequivocally my favorite actress performance of the year thus far and I have a hard time seeing that changing.  Co-stars Jeremy Renner & Forest Whitaker try their best to keep up, but Adams is just on one from start to finish.  One thing that I’ll admit did catch me completely off guard was just how freakin’ emotional this film is for an “alien movie.” The story alone is powerful but it’s also very much bolstered by its music.  I’ve joked before that using an M83 song in your movie is a cheat code to my emotions, and Max Richter is another such artist that elicits this effect. You may not recognize the name but if you watch HBO’s tearjerker series The Leftovers you’ve heard his stuff.  Tier 1 – RATED GREG

Ten months into 2016, this is unexpectedly the funniest movie of the year.  Seriously.  I assumed Popstar would just be one long SNL skit, and it is to an extent, a mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of a Justin Bieber-type…..for lack of a better word…..jackass, but regardless the jokes are about as consistent as it gets in a brisk 85 minutes. The movie’s early focus is Andy Samberg’s brash and entitled celebrity character Conner4Real, but it expands to a great satire of 2016 fame in general.  I counted 41 different cameos of actors, comedians, and musicians, my favorite being Will Arnett in a SPOT-ON spoof of that obnoxious TMZ TV show.

Someone that I wasn’t familiar with is Popstar’s unsung hero Chris Redd who plays Hunter the Hungry, a hilarious take on rappers in the vein of Tyler the Creator. Apparently Redd is a very new cast member to SNL, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up more often going forward.  Anyways, solid straight up comedies like this are few and far between these days and I would put Popstar up against any of the genre in the past two years (probably best since 2014’s Neighbors).  Tier 2 – Runner Up

I saw six worthwhile movies this month, highlighted in bold above, and as always you can read spoiler-free blurbs on each below.  You’ll notice I also added a Don’t Bother section due to popular demand.  Some of these I hated (really Burnt? really?) and some of these I just thought were “meh” (Money Monster).

Speaking of “meh,” I have a few notes for WB on The Accountant.  When accountants are speaking amongst one another, we don’t say “Profit and Loss Statement,” we say “P&L.”  We don’t say “Earnings Before Interest, Tax, and Amortization,” we say “EBITA.”  And also, we own more than one set of utensils (insinuating that we never have company over).  How dare you.

The first frames of 13th, a Netflix documentary from Selma’s Ava DuVernay, present four matters of fact.  The fact that the US contains 5% of the world’s population.  The fact that the US contains 25% of the world’s incarcerated population.  The fact that African Americans make up 14% of the US population.  And finally, the fact that African Americans make up 40% of the US incarcerated population.  DuVernay uses the rest of this fast moving, 100-minute doc to examine exactly how those extremely lopsided and ludicrous percentages came to be, starting with the adoption of the 13th Amendment in 1865, ending with this year’s shitshow election, and the 150 years of steps forward and steps backward in between.  Specifically in terms of the election, both candidates take some well-deserved hits.  The Clintons are admonished for their very direct involvement in discriminatory mass incarceration tactics during the 90’s.  As for Trump…well…he doesn’t come off great to say the least.  Tier 2 – Runner Up

Amanda Knox is a thoroughly intriguing Netflix documentary recounting the Seattle native’s arrest and trial for the 2007 murder of her roommate while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. As Making A Murderer proved last Christmas break, Netflix knows how to make true crime content. But what sets stuff like Making a Murderer and HBO’s The Jinx a part from this documentary is that those subjects were relatively unknown by the general public, whereas Knox’s ordeal was heavily covered in real time by the American media and was even considered Italy’s “trial of the century.” Personally, I was too preoccupied with Xbox Live and Whitlow’s on Wilson dollar drafts back in 2007 to pay much attention to this developing story, so a lot of the film is brand new to me.  But for some of you this may be more of a refresher as opposed to learning anything new.  Tier 4

The Birth of a Nation, a film about preacher Nat Turner and the slave rebellion he orchestrated in 1831 Virginia, won the top prizes at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently sold to Fox Searchlight for a record deal. Like the 2013 Best Picture Winner 12 Years A Slave, the horrific nature of the times that the film encompasses includes scenes that are extremely troubling to watch, but being uncomfortable is necessary sometimes to fully grasp an auteur’s point. Also like 12 Years A Slave, this is a very well made and exceptionally acted film.  Tier 2 – Runner Up