Directors of the Monsterverse (2024)

The second film takes us on Peter's journey to be understood.

This year, in light of the pandemic and the inability to gather with our loved ones, a few of our staff members reviewed their favorite holiday films with the hope of recreating some of the sentimentality that reminds us of home.

America is the crux of the storyline: she is the only person in existence with the power to jump between universes. As central as America is to the Multiverse of Madness story, she somehow didn’t get that much to do.

Outer Banks (2020-) knows its audience: young adults in a country that can’t stop romanticizing good ole’ treasure hunts. Add a little of Riverdale’s (2017-) sex appeal, and no one can look away. Forty years after The Goonies (1985) America’s consciousness hasn’t strayed from the same tropes: treasure hunts, a vulnerable white male lead, and the whitewashing of a racially segregated setting.

Shudder’s Host (not a particularly original title, I must say) attempts to bring the spooks to “the quarantine generation” by presenting us with a scary Zoom call during lockdown.

Director and writer, Miles Marti, brilliantly created a film that captures the story of a kid that learns a new reality all within the walls of her classroom. Tears Of Knowing lightly steps into the devastation of loss through a childhood lens, and presents a perspective that is not often acknowledged. Though grief and loss are important aspects, the film also showcases excellent portrayals of trust, innocence, and naivety.