I was going to do an overview of the movies so far this year, but, being that the start of this year is like any start to any this year this decade, I wanted to talk about the essence of the first half of the year in film.

There's a decent chance none of these films make the top ten at the end of the year, and maybe that's because of quality, but I think it also has to do with us just forgetting about how much we forgot about them when we saw them. In many people's eyes, movies aren't seen in a linear, straightforward concept. They're seen as how many days, weeks, or months it is from February, when the Oscar's are. If you don't already know, many of the Oscar nominated movies come out in November and December, along with all the other movies that thought they were going to be Oscar nominated (we still remember you, The Judge.) The Academy will pay more attention to those films, regardless of whether or not they're better, and people, in turn, will do the same, as the early year films fall into the abyss. So, before we enter that abyss, I present you the five best films of the year so far, something no one can take away...until later in the year, of course .

5. Sing Street

I feel great contempt for feel-good movies. The resounding music. The unrealistic emotions and conclusions. Morgan Freeman's chuckle at something silly a character did. I just felt I couldn't find anything that would stare me straight in the face and go "we're going to manipulate your emotions so you feel something other than the bitter disdain you feel toward the world." However, I have found Rom-Coms that I have liked, I have found Action movies that I have liked, and now, with the discovery of John Carney, I have found feel-good movies I have liked. Sing Street is even an improvement on 2013's Begin Again, and, both being tonally very similar, it doesn't feel like he's regurgitating his aesthetic, but, instead, as I said, improving it. It only makes me wonder what he'll come out with next.

4. 10 Cloverfield Lane

If there's one thing we've learned from Paranormal Activity, it's that it's not the scare itself that scares us; it's the anticipation of the scare that scares us. I think that's makes 10 Cloverfield Lane so good. Blockbuster action these days go all out for the action. It becomes a given instead of a gift. 10 Cloverfield Lane gives us the action whenever it needs to, not whenever the audiences wants it to happen, and it's ironic that, if you talk to someone that was in that audience, they'll tell you it was better that way.

3. Born To Be Blue

What is the role between drugs and making music? Is it there for creativity, to handle the pressure, or is the effect actually negative, something that will destroy your career and your life as they have to many other musicians? Born To Be Blue examines the relationship between drugs and performance in objective detail, and you yourself might have a different opinion once you see this movie.

2. The Lobster

Remember when I said, in the intro, that these movies will be forgotten come the end of the year? Of course not because you skipped the intro. Anyway, The Lobster will be that anomaly, as, for better or worse, this will be a movie that sticks with you. Any why not? Every other movie we see is just a continuation of a series of movies, just something that will keep you going until you look forward until the next one, that we never really use our brain muscles to look back. For those who loved it, you will spent the next months and years settling its bizarreness until it becomes minor eccentricity. For those who hated, don't be surprised if, one day, you'll look back and might want to see it again.

1. Everybody Wants Some!!

I walked into the movie theater playing Everybody Wants Some!! very nervous. After his overall stellar filmography, though more specifically his recent triumphs, 2013's Before Midnight and 2014's Boyhood, I was afraid this was going to be my first dud of auteur Richard Linklater. The trailer seemed funny, but I wasn't sure what to think or, really, how to think about this. How do you make a movie about a baseball team as sprawling and enlightening as any movie of Linklater's past? Sure enough, he does it with ease, and I think that's the key: ease. Whether it's through watching him in interviews or understanding him through his dialogue, writer-director Richard Linklater makes these movies look so easy to be great, and that's because of the honesty of his craft. A movie about a team of baseball players in college sounds like a shoe-in for a dumb sex comedy, but is that honestly how life really would go for these characters? It's not. What you would get is what you see, and it makes sense because Linklater calls this movie semi-autobiographical (which one doesn't he?) What you get, in turn, is that ease because everything is so down to earth, relatable, and honest. You know how people tell you to be yourself because everyone else is already taken? If that saying were a movie, it would be Everybody Wants Some!!.