Super 8

Super 8 is the best Steven Spielberg movie JJ Abrams ever made. It feels so much like the kind of film Spielberg would have created in the 80s that I had to do a double take more than once. All the signs are there, including all the filters that you'd expect from Spielbergian cinema. The story of a group of kids who are making their own movie (using a Super 8 camera!) when a train derails and something is unleashed on their little town. That Story should feel pretty familiar, it's E.T. meets Close Encounters meets War of the Worlds and Jurassic Park. The way the story is told, with nods not to the direct ancestors, but to the feeling and connections those films of the 1980s made in all of us, that is so satisfying. It's not just a nostalgia trip, it's a well-made, well-told, and touching story about what it means to grow up loving film, and understanding the impact it can have on the world. It makes sense that it feels like Spielberg: the man himself produced it! Why it's on the list: It's equal parts Stranger Things and The Thing, and just a great popcorn movie.