"This year's release calendar has been so loaded with feature-length wonders, many of which push the boundaries of art form, that even as we head straight into the belly of the "awards season" beast, our usual edict remains intact: Anyone who thinks this has been a bad year for movies simply hasn't seen enough of them. And there are only more goodies to come.
Our list of the best movies of the year so far follows the same basic rules: In order to qualify, a film must have been released in North American theaters for at least a week or on a VOD platform in the same territory. That means we've got the usual festival leftovers from last year that finally made their way to audiences, new titles from earlier festivals that have already been released, all alongside a handful of titles that materialized in recent months."
