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When legendary screenwriter Leigh Brackett (known as “the Queen of Space Opera” and for her collaborations with Howard Hawks on films like Rio Bravo (1959), The Big Sleep (1946), and others) joined forces with Robert Altman, who was coming off acclaimed films like MASH (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and Images (1972), to adapt Raymond Chandler’s dense, complex, and layered 1953 noir novel The Long Goodbye, the result was a bold, raw, and unconventional revisionist neo-noir masterpiece.

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Sam Peckinpah’s 1974 film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a gritty, nihilistic, uncompromising, and dreary neo-western that takes us on a strange and violent journey through Mexico’s underbelly. When the film was released, it was panned critically and commercially. Yet, critics like Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and Pauline Kael saw its brilliance long before many others did, and today it’s rightly considered one of the director’s most personal and powerful films.

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Historical action epics continue to captivate viewers by transporting them to distant places, past eras, and tumultuous times when kingdoms clashed, empires collapsed, and ordinary people rose as heroes in the face of overwhelming odds. Historical action epics are defined by their setting in real historical periods, sweeping narratives, grand-scale battles, character-driven dramas, and emotional journeys that span landscapes, cultures, and centuries. By exploring themes like loyalty, corruption, greed, revenge, redemption, the consequences of warfare, and more, these films bring the historical action epic genre to life in its most cinematic, immersive, and emotionally resonant form.

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John Woo’s The Killer is a landmark film of Hong Kong’s golden age of action crime cinema and one of the defining works of the “Heroic Bloodshed” genre, a style characterized by balletic gunfights, emotional storytelling, and recurring themes of brotherhood, loyalty, and honor. The genre first emerged with Woo’s A Better Tomorrow in 1986 and flourished throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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The Western genre has always fascinated me, not just because of cowboys and shootouts, but because it reflects the myths, contradictions, and evolving identities of the societies it portrays. I originally planned to compile a list of the greatest Westerns of the twenty-first century, but as I researched, I realized the 2020s alone have produced enough outstanding films to deserve their own list. From revisionist dramas and crime thrillers to horror and sci-fi hybrids, the modern Western continues to reinvent itself while exploring themes like violence, morality, capitalism, identity, and the fading frontier. Here's my list of what I think are the essential Westerns of the 2020s so far.

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A chilling journey into the mind of a serial killer as well as the psychological unravelling of its protagonist, making it one of the most disturbing psychological thrillers ever made.

Cinema has given us plenty of heroes, but the ones that truly haunt us are the movies where the villain wins, and the audience is left carrying the discomfort home. These films stay with us long after the credits roll, leaving us uncomfortable, emotionally overwhelmed, and unsettled since they don’t provide solace, closure, or happy endings. This list is not limited to one genre. It moves through political thrillers, neo-noir mysteries, psychological horror, folk horror, westerns, crime dramas, and more. Alongside widely celebrated masterpieces, you will also find overlooked gems, cult favorites, and newer films that deserve far more attention than they get.

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Kung Fu movies are a subgenre of martial arts films with a rich history and a significant global impact. Their rise began in the Hong Kong film industry in the early 1970s, when fierce competition among production companies like Shaw Bros., Golden Harvest, and Seasonal Films prompted each studio to try new storylines, bring in new stars, experiment with new and different fighting styles, and employ bold cinematic techniques. Yet, for all its evolution, the genre has remained mostly about action (as its main attraction), with the act of fighting itself serving as the primary draw and narrative engine. This list, however, is a celebration of movies that use the art of kung Fu as a tool to explore deeper emotional, cultural, and philosophical issues.

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