Cinematic signs of the times Winnipeg Free Press [Video]

It’s hard to do a comprehensive Top 10 movie list when Winnipeg cineastes are once again at that frustrating annual juncture: We’re hearing about some of the buzziest films of the year — titles like The Brutalist, The Nickel Boys, even Universal Language, the much-awarded feature from former Winnipegger Matthew Rankin — but still waiting on them to sneak into our town some time in 2025.

Maybe we can’t be exhaustive. We can, however, be exhausted. This was a wearying, chaotic year out there in the real world, and a lot of those anxieties — about environmental devastation, artificial intelligence, civil strife, political polarization — seemed to have seeped onto the big screen.

Here are some random observations on the movie year that was — the best, the worst and the most nervous.