2026 has reached its halfway point, so we've polled our critics on their favorite films so far. With 12 ballots and 45 unique titles submitted, here's our consensus Top Six along with every individual list:
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POLL: First Half of 2026 — The Best Films
Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace in PROJECT HAIL MARY, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo by Jonathan Olley. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved. Our members were polled about the…
![From press kit:
A NOIR MASTER REDISCOVERED
She had the resourcefulness of the mother, the domestic woman, accustomed to emergencies. - Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, The Blank Wall
As vitally contemporary as THE DEEP END feels, writer/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel found their inspiration for the riveting tale from a little-known 1940s novel: The Blank Wall, written by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. Like Jim Thompson and other noir writers before her, Holding's powerful tales of unremitting nightmares - in her case centered around women characters -- are just now being rediscovered.
When she first burst onto the scene in the '40s, Holding was celebrated by no one less than Raymond Chandler, who said: "For my money, she is the top suspense writer of them all ... her characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm that I find very attractive." Holding seemed to have an innate understanding that true heart-stopping suspense emerges not just from murders and mysteries but from the fabric of ordinary life. She wrote with searing honesty about women, marriage and motherhood. The New York Times enthused about Holding's characters: "With the best intentions in the world, [they] quietly wreck each other's lives."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dkzukfm7jchuhrikq4rb7xxn/bafkreigezczfwsgg5gccqenqwlnq6efzbs4dg7hripoc3otkkt57m3wuk4)
