A culmination of dozens of strong personalities and deep histories is difficult to contain coherently in a movie, even in a 3+ hour one, but Endgame manages to be a satisfying conclusion to the Avengers saga that feels flawless. Of course Endgame has the advantage of 923859 preceding films to shape its characters, but connecting them all is still a challenging endeavor. One critical way they succeeded in this is the pitch-perfect casting throughout the series. Can you see Tony Stark as anyone else other than RDJ? And who isn't happy that Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton and made The Hulk so much more charming and likable? What surprised me the most was the first portion of the film, which is largely a rumination on loss. It depicts the somber struggles that superheros and common people alike are facing since the snap. Some attend therapy sessions, some drink the pain away, and some move to lakeside cottages to forget it all and focus on their families. This segment of the film felt more like an Oscar-contending drama than a blockbuster superhero film. Endgame manages to be a good comedy film too. Peppered with one-liners that make you exhale through your nose and gags that make you self-conscious because you're laughing a little too loudly, it's obvious the filmmakers took notes from the fiercely entertaining Thor: Ragnarok. The action sequences, the major crowd-drawing power of superhero films, are all delightfully unique. The setup, style, and scale of each fight is different from the last. You will see impeccably choreographed one vs. one hand-to-hand combat and also planet-scale war, all finely orchestrated as you'd expect if you paid attention to any of the discourse on this marvelous film.

After my wife and I watch a movie, it's our routine to sit by the theater windows to discuss it. We'd talk about what's good, what's bad, our favorite parts, etc. Following The Farewell, we still settled next to the windows, but we sat in silence. Without saying a word, we mutually agreed to postpone talking about the movie. We wanted it to let it sit with us for a moment, for we knew we just watched something special. The characters in The Farewell are so believable that I didn't need to read Lulu Wang's interviews to confirm that she remained diligently faithful to her true life. The film's personalities heavily invest you in the movie with charming nuisances, relatable dialog, and wonderful performances. Because the cast feels like an actual living family, the audiences' laughs are harder, the pains deeper. The Farewell is proof that a movie doesn't have to be clever to be affecting, it just needs to be real. There's a quiet commentary on Chinese modernization in The Farewell with its gorgeous glimpses of copy-and-pasted stark residential skyscrapers imposed against foggy skies, scintillating streets, and portraits of ordinary people living with such naturalness that they become extraordinary. At one point Billi (Awkwafina's character) laments the disappearances of sites that she used to know and love, but you don't get the sense that the film is criticizing this progress. Its tone is one more akin to acceptance, as if the film's citizens are tacitly saying "our home is changing, but it's still ours." The Farewell starts in New York, then the majority of the film takes place in China, and finally it brings us back to New York again. I get the feeling that even if you've never been to China, by the time Billi comes home you still might start to miss China and the constant feasting around lazy Susans. This is the power of the film - it imbues in you a longing for the feeling of togetherness, a value Western countries often replace with individualism. When you see Billi back, walking through the diverse crowds of New York, the difference is palpable. The Farewell is the best cultural lesson on China that I can think of, and to Asian Americans living abroad like me, it's the warmest reminder of home.

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How does Animal Collective do it? How does one come up with the sounds that they come up with and concoct them into such bizarre but beautiful melodies? Drugs? Probably (definitely). When I look at the tracklist of Feels it's hard to believe how many songs from this album I consider my all time favorites. If you only listen to one song in your life (and I mean truly listen - remove all other audible distractions and turn the volume of your sound listening apparatus way up), let it be Banshee Beat.

Lazy script, meandering focus - Tarantino made this for himself to fulfill his fetishized vision of late 60s with not enough payoff to justify its length. Quentin made his first boring film.