The film has more coherence and gravity than the recent offerings the MCU has been able to muster over the last few years.

Ryan Coogler’s horror/comedy/musical/race drama treatise presents more ideas to chew on in its 137 minute run time than some entire summers worth of Hollywood ‘tentpoles.’ 

Bong Joon Ho is like an avant garde chef who’s opened a pop up kitchen in some strange part of the city you don’t know very well. You don’t know what to expect, but when you try the food, it’s a brilliant combination of disparate ingredients you never would have thought to put together

As a filmmaker, octogenarian Sir Ridley Scott has opted toward the bombastic: spectacle-laced CGI effect showcases, attempting epic sweep with a fulcrum of bombardment.

Sean Baker’s pronounced humanism is one of his strongest superpowers as a director. Whether they are trans sex workers (Tangerine), young children living in a motel (The Florida Project), or con artists new to town (Red Rocket), his generosity with his characters always shines.

The title refers to a singular fluid, but there are actually a great many other substances at play.