Looking for a cinematic escape as the year draws to a close? For a list of some of the year’s biggest and best films — and a few hidden gems you might have missed — Jeffrey Brown talked with Mike Sergeant, host of the podcast Brown and Black and co-president of the Black Film Critics Circle, and Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour.

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“Wicked”

“I was not necessarily looking forward to [‘Wicked’] but I was very impressed… It is absolutely a film you should see in theaters… with as big an audience as you can. It was absolutely something. It’s an event, and there’s a reason why it’s doing so well.”

— Mike Sargent

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“Conclave”

“It’s essentially about finding the next pope and what that whole process is. It is quite a ride and it brings you inside how all of that goes on. There are so many twists and turns and such great performances from literally three Oscar nominees, Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.”

— Mike Sargent

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“The Fall Guy”

“My action movie heart this year went out to ‘The Fall Guy,’ which has Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who is working on a movie being made by his ex, who is played by Emily Blunt. It is an action comedy, little bit of a rom-com. I found it so big-hearted, it’s also got a lot of great stunts.”

— Linda Holmes

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“The Brutalist”

“The Brutalist, which stars Adrien Brody, is a big, long, heavy three-and-a-half-hour film. It’s a beautiful story about an artist post-Holocaust kind of making his way, trying to realize his art. It’s a great film about art and artists.”

— Linda Holmes

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“Nickel Boys”

“It’s based on a school that actually existed for over 100 years. And it really centers on two boys who go through, let’s just say, all the cruel things that they were doing at this school… It’s really an interesting way of storytelling in terms of what the director does. Everything you see is from the point of view of the two young boys, and it’s a very, very powerful story.”

— Mike Sargent

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“Anora”

“Sean Baker is a director who always does interesting work. He focuses on the people who often get ignored in our society. ‘Anora’ is about a sex worker from Brooklyn who gets a chance at what she thinks is essentially a Cinderella story… This is a film that takes many twists and many turns… It’s very, very compelling and you won’t be bored for a minute.”

— Mike Sargent

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“Sing Sing”

“‘Sing Sing’ is a story about the theater program for incarcerated people at Sing Sing Prison and it’s based on a true story. Not only that, but a lot of the people who are in the film are formerly incarcerated people from Sing Sing who were in this program, who naturally are trained in theater and have some background.”

— Linda Holmes

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“His Three Daughters”

“This one was sold to me on the cast, which is Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen, three just enormously different, but enormously reliable actors. It’s about these three sisters who come together at their father’s apartment because he’s at the end of his life. It’s a wonderful story about how the aging of parents complicates sibling relationships and can bring people closer, but also can really bring up a lot of family stuff.”

— Linda Holmes

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“Piece by Piece”

“It’s a documentary about Pharrell Williams and it’s animated, but not just animated, it’s done in Legos, and that’s such an interesting and original way of approaching a documentary. It works perfectly for how the story is being told because there are a lot of aspects of his life that are fantastical, but also you need to visualize what he visualizes.”

— Mike Sargent

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“Girls State”

“There was a film a couple of years ago called ‘Boys State,’ which is about the Boys State program where high school boys are brought together and they create a mock government and they have elections. This year, they did Girl State. This was filmed just as the Supreme Court was considering reproductive rights and the girls are very focused on that. How different it is for girls to be in a program like that, at least for these girls, is explored.”

— Linda Holmes