Tem sido difícil encontrar pontos positivos para o futuro do cinema na última década. O público teatral luta para recuperar o ímpeto após a pandemia, e os títulos que as pessoas desejam assistir geralmente tendem a franquias baseadas em propriedade intelectual. O surgimento do distribuidor A24 como uma marca potente que indica qualidade premium é nada menos que um milagre.
O desconexo estúdio batizado com o nome, improvável, de uma rodovia italiana tem trilhado o caminho rápido do crescimento desde seu primeiro lançamento em 2013 A24 perfurou a consciência cultural com rajadas de energia cinemática juvenil como Spring Breakers e The Bling Ring, e então começou a marcar alguns sucessos cruzados com Ex Machina e Room. Em seus primeiros cinco anos, conquistou o maior prêmio do cinema-uma vitória de Melhor Filme, por Moonlight, de 2016-e arrecadou um segundo para os prêmios improváveis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, em sua década de fundação.
A24 ocupa uma espécie de status de “autor” entre um certo tipo de cinéfilo. Sua produção repleta de estrelas e do diretor destaca uma variedade eclética e excêntrica de histórias humanas que os grandes estúdios quase esqueceram como fazer. Isso não quer dizer que a gravadora não tenha produzido nada além de bangers: especialmente em alguns de seus filmes de meados de 2010 lançados em parceria com a DirecTV, há alguns que não estão à altura da estatura alardeada da empresa.
Mas quando você lança mais de 120 filmes, é provável que haja alguns ruins. E, em suma, um lançamento A24 intermediário ainda será melhor-ou, pelo menos, mais interessante-do que a maioria dos filmes feitos hoje. Estamos classificando cada um deles, de mediocridades a obras-primas, para seu benefício e educação cinematográfica!
123
DIRETOR: Kevin Smith
ESTRELAS: Michael Parks, Justin Long, Genesis Rodriguez
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Um crime absoluto contra o cinema pelo qual Kevin Smith deveria ser julgado em Haia. Você não pode deixar de ver Tusk, especialmente uma imagem final absolutamente depravada. Apenas nem se preocupe com esse abominável recurso de criatura canadense que reencena Misery com um podcaster e um recluso obcecado por morsas. Se houver alguma curiosidade mórbida, basta fazer uma pesquisa de imagens do Google — por sua conta e risco.
122
Coleção Everett
DIRETOR: Atom Egoyan
ESTRELAS: Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson
AVALIAÇÃO: R
A cada vez daqui a pouco, você pode desejar que Ryan Reynolds fizesse algo fora de seu sarcástico e sarcástico truque de Deadpool e aumentasse o alcance de seus talentos de atuação. Então, você pode assistir a algo como The Captive e negar-se a essas noções. Faz sentido que o ator canadense queira unir forças com um dos diretores mais aclamados de seu país, Atom Egoyan, mas a colaboração deles neste thriller de criança desaparecida é um fracasso.
121
A24
DIRETOR: William Monahan
ESTRELAS: Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, Mark Wahlberg
AVALIAÇÃO: R
William Monahan SABE como escrever homens reprimidos-ele ganhou um Oscar por escrever Os Infiltrados, pelo amor de Deus! Mas nenhuma dessas habilidades aparece em Mojave, um thriller taciturno e moribundo sobre doppelgangers no deserto. Quando nem mesmo Oscar Isaac pode animar este filme de ser uma chatice, você está em apuros.
120
DIRETOR: Shawn Christensen
ESTRELAS: Logan Lerman, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Faz sentido no papel que um filme sobre um romancista siga uma estrutura um tanto novelística. O problema com The Vanishing of Sidney Hall é que ele está completamente despreparado para esse nível de complexidade não linear. Este conto de mistério se torna uma bagunça que nenhum jovem ator talentoso pode resgatar.
Onde assistir O desaparecimento de Sidney Hall
119
DIRETORA: Pamela Romanowsky
ESTRELAS: James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard
AVALIAÇÃO: R
A maior audiência que isso terá-e merece ter-são os completistas de Timothée Chalamet querendo ver uma versão bebê do megastar. Caso contrário, The Adderall Diaries é uma adaptação auto-engrandecedora de memórias que não consegue lidar com todas as histórias que deseja contar. Tem todo o aspecto de um projeto de James Franco da década de 2010, começando com intenso interesse e gradualmente desaparecendo.
Onde Assistir The Adderall Diaries
118
foto: Everett Collection
DIRETORA: Kate Mulleavy, Laura Mulleavy
ESTRELAS: Kirsten Dunst, Pilou Asbæk, Joe Cole
CLASSIFICAÇÃO: R
Os críticos geralmente descrevem os filmes de enredo como tendo uma estética de”comercial de perfume”, ocasionalmente como um elogio indireto, mas geralmente como um pejorativo. É o último caso para os Mulleavys, que fundaram a linha de moda Rodarte, por sua aventura no cinema com Woodshock. Este psicodrama sobre uma mulher (Kirsten Dunst) ocupando um estado liminar entre a dor e a ilusão movida a drogas é muito nebuloso para seu próprio bem. Vai bem além da linha em que você pode generosamente atribuir a confusão à imitação da mentalidade do personagem. Este filme está perdido em suas próprias vibrações.
117
DIRETOR: Matt Shakman
ESTRELAS: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Genuinamente curioso se as pessoas da Marvel que contrataram Matt Shakman para fazer WandaVision realmente viram seu longa-metragem Cut Bank. Nada neste aspirante a noir rural dos irmãos Coen jamais indicaria que ele era capaz da série penetrante do zeitgeist que ele fez para eles. Mas ei, todo mundo tem que começar em algum lugar!
116
Foto: Coleção Everett
DIRETOR: Stephen McCallum
ESTRELAS: Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee, Simone Kessell
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Outlaws quer o que Sons of Anarchy tem. Há muita coisa acontecendo aqui-brigas internas, gritos, fornicação com raiva-e não muito interessante. O filme tem muitas cenas, histórias e personagens, mas eles nunca se somam. Além de uma performance de aço de destaque de Abbey Lee (que os cinéfilos reconhecerão por seus papéis em Mad Max: Fury Road e The Neon Demon), este drama de gangue de motoqueiros australiano não consegue ligar o motor.
115
Foto:
DIRETOR: Austin Vesely
STARS: Chance the Rapper, Zazie Beetz, Paul Scheer
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Assistir Slice agora parece um monumento estranho a uma época em que a sociedade estava tão apaixonada por Chance the Rapper que simplesmente deixamos ele faça qualquer coisa. Reunir um elenco repleto de estrelas para fazer um longa-metragem inteiro baseado em uma ideia incompleta sobre o assassinato de entregadores de pizza em uma cidade fantasma? Claro, por que não! Zazie Beetz inocente.
114
DIRETOR: Julius Avery
ESTRELAS: Ewan McGregor, Brenton Thwaites, Alicia Vikander então aquele jovem (Brenton Thwaites) ajuda seu mestre (Ewan McGregor) a escapar desses limites-deve ser muito mais emocionante do que Son of a Gun. O thriller de Julius Avery é pesado em pontos da trama, mas leve em todas as coisas que realmente importam. Temas, caracterização, estilo… tudo aparentemente escondido em suas células.
113
DIRETOR: Atom Egoyan
STARS: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Dean Norris , um excelente conceito para um filme. Isso se prova duplamente quando você considera que seus alvos são os nazistas que assumiram a identidade de judeus exterminados para fugir das consequências de sua depravação. No entanto, Atom Egoyan está muito disposto a permitir que Remember se torne apenas um thriller padrão. É decepcionante que tantos tópicos temáticos sejam deixados inexplorados.
112
DIRETOR: Guy Nattiv
ESTRELAS: Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Daniel Henshall
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Embora o curta-metragem vencedor do Oscar de mesmo nome seja inegavelmente mais irritante em sua política racial, o longa-metragem Skin não deveria passar por limpar tal uma barra baixa. Este conto de um neonazista que finalmente decide deixar o movimento supremacista branco e apagar todas as suas tatuagens faciais cria um conto de redenção bizarro. O sempre empático Jamie Bell faz de tudo para dar um pouco de ânimo ao projeto, mas nem ele pode salvar este filme de si mesmo.
111
Into the Forest, dirigido por Patricia Rozema
Rozema traz um ar de desespero e pavor ao cenário pós-apocalíptico vagamente renderizado de Into the Forest. Esta história, sobre as irmãs Ellen Page e Evan Rachel Wood, que devem se defender sozinhas depois que a energia acaba e nunca mais volta, é tão dependente do humor, é uma das joias escondidas que estão à espreita e disponíveis para transmissão nestes dias de declínio de 2016.
[Onde fluir para a floresta] Foto: Everett Collection
DIRETORA: Patricia Rozema
ESTRELAS: Elliott Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Os filmes de colapso social costumam ser sensacionais demais, sim. Mas quando o pêndulo oscila muito para o outro lado, isso não é necessariamente melhor. Into the Forest é um drama distópico monótono e monótono sobre duas irmãs tentando sobreviver em uma floresta sem energia elétrica. A diretora Patricia Rozema consegue contrabandear algumas notas intrigantes sobre feminilidade e sororidade em tempos de perigo, mas essas notas graciosas lutam para emergir em uma composição monótona.
110
DIRETOR: Gus Van Sant
ESTRELAS: Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts, Ken Watanabe
AVALIAÇÃO: PG-13
Um cara branco vai tirar a própria vida em uma floresta japonesa famosa por cometer tais atos… quem achou isso uma boa ideia? O Mar de Árvores sofreu uma das piores surras críticas de todos os tempos em sua estreia no Festival de Cinema de Cannes, tanto que é quase impossível para quem assistiu a este filme não entrar nesse contexto. O filme de Gus Van Sant é um pouco mais empático e consciente do que o conceito sugere, mas não muito. Este filme profundamente equivocado é uma verdadeira falha de ignição para todos os envolvidos. Quando os historiadores olham para o McConaissance, este filme pode muito bem ser o começo do fim.
Onde Assistir O Mar de Árvores
109
DIRETOR: Kevin McMullin
ESTRELAS: Keean Johnson, Jaeden Martell, Alex Neustaedter
AVALIAÇÃO: R
A maré não é a única coisa que está baixa aqui-é o Valor de entretenimento. Low Tide de alguma forma consegue transformar uma caça ao tesouro adolescente em algo pesado e previsível para assistir. Isso esgota a alegria e a aventura de sentir a onda de emoção ao confiar tanto nas batidas previsíveis da trama.
108
DIRETOR: Daniel Scheinert
ESTRELAS: Michael Abbott Jr., Virginia Newcomb, Andre Hyland
AVALIAÇÃO: R
A morte de Dick Long é uma criação de metade do Oscar-dupla vencedora Daniels (apenas Daniel Scheinert), e esperançosamente, é a última vez que eles se separam. Este perverso conto gótico do sul tem um grande sabor local quando um par de amigos tenta encobrir um segredo desagradável. Há um ótimo esboço de comédia ou curta-metragem enterrado no conceito, mas é um recurso inchado e desajeitado.
Onde Assistir A Morte de Dick Long
107
Everett Collection
DIRETOR: Andrew Lau
ESTRELAS: Justin Chon, Kevin Wu, Harry Shum Jr.
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Andrew Lau deu a Martin Scorsese seu filme Infernal Affairs para refazer como The Departed, que finalmente rendeu ao mestre americano seu primeiro Oscar de Melhor Diretor. Scorsese retribuiu o favor produzindo e colocando seu nome em Revenge of the Green Dragons, de Lau, um filme de gangues da cidade de Nova York ambientado nas comunidades de imigrantes sino-americanos dos anos 80 e 90. Se você acha que algo como Boogie Nights é apenas uma dieta de Scorsese, precisará de uma nova palavra para descrever o quanto este filme é uma fraude. Mas, novamente, há destinos piores do que assistir a imitação de Scorsese.
Onde assistir Revenge of the Green Dragons
106
Foto: Everett Collection
DIRETOR: Mat Whitecross
ESTRELAS: Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Paul Arthurs
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Talvez… [este filme] NÃO vai ser o que me salvará. Este biodoc da grande banda Oasis é um documentário da Wikipédia anotado pelo Spotify. Supersonic parece um filme estritamente para os superfãs da banda. Mas, novamente, eles já não deveriam saber essas coisas?
105
Coleção Everett
DIRETOR: Jeff Baena
ESTRELAS: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Life After Beth cobra a si mesma como um zom-dram-rom-com. Isso é talvez um dois muitos”om”s para este filme lidar. Definitivamente, é divertido o conceito de ter Aubrey Plaza como um zumbi que volta para buscar o ex-namorado. Mas Jeff Baena ainda não tem controle sobre o tom aqui, algo que mais tarde ele faria mais sucesso em filmes como The Little Hours e Spin Me Round.
104
Foto: Everett Collection
DIRETOR: Oz Perkins
ESTRELAS: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Oz Perkins tem a estranheza correndo em seu sangue-ele é descendente de Anthony Perkins, que interpretou o arrepiante Norman Bates em Psicose de Alfred Hitchcock. Um dia, ele provavelmente fará um trabalho excepcional no gênero. The Blackcoat’s Daughter, um conto sobrenatural ambientado entre duas garotas presas em um internato, tem fragmentos de algo grandioso. Mas o filme nunca é totalmente coerente, talvez devido a suas linhas de tempo divididas.
Onde Assistir A Filha do Casaco Preto
103
DIRETOR: James Ponsoldt
ESTRELAS: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Kyle Chandler
AVALIAÇÃO: R
O primeiro ato de The Spectacular Now é a excelência do romance colegial. O convencido de Miles Teller, Sutter Keeley, começa a se apaixonar inesperadamente por Aimee Finecky, de Shailene Woodley, e está certo… até que eles se beijam pela primeira vez. A partir daí, o filme perde a noção do que torna esses personagens únicos e os retrata como arquétipos preguiçosos. Esse começo forte deve contar para alguma coisa, mas o diretor James Ponsoldt desperdiça algo ótimo no final.
Onde assistir The Spectacular Now
102
DIRETOR: Roman Coppola
ESTRELAS: Charlie Sheen, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray
AVALIAÇÃO: R
Você pode reconhecer o nome Roman Coppola-se não por sua linhagem impressionante, então certamente de suas colaborações de escrita com o grande Wes Anderson. A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III é a prova de que Sofia recebeu mais dos genes de direção de Francis Ford Coppola. É uma coleção de peculiaridades no estilo Wes Anderson em busca de história, temas e personalidade.
Onde assistir Um vislumbre da mente de Charles Swan III
101
Coleção Everett
DIRETOR: John Maclean
ESTRELAS: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn
AVALIAÇÃO: R
É muito fácil dizer que o Slow West é, bem, lento. Mas às vezes a descrição mais simples é a mais adequada. O filme de gênero faroeste revisionista de John Maclean apresenta um elenco forte e, ocasionalmente, ataques sólidos de humor. Mas ele cede sob o peso do que parece indecisão enquanto oscila descontroladamente entre diferentes sabores de comédia.
100
Getty Imagens
DIRETORA: Sally Potter
ESTRELAS: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Annette Bening
AVALIAÇÃO: PG-13
“Filmes sobre amadurecimento” e “A Crise dos Mísseis de Cuba” com certeza combinam como manteiga de amendoim e geléia, não é? Esse é o golpe duplo de Ginger & Rosa, de Sally Potter, uma história de dois adolescentes descobrindo os limites de seu ativismo e afeto em um cenário volátil. O pior pecado do filme é ser totalmente esquecível-não é necessariamente um relógio desagradável.
99
Foto: Everett Coleção
DIRETOR: Kyle Newman
ESTRELAS: Hailee Steinfeld, Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Alba
AVALIAÇÃO: PG-13
Barely Lethal parece mais um precursor do “conteúdo” centrado na juventude da Netflix do que um verdadeiro filme A24. (Embora tenha o logotipo, o filme fazia parte de sua peça de volume em meados de 2010 em parceria com a Directv.) Esta comédia de ação leve com Hailee Steinfeld como uma agente especial enfrentando sua tarefa mais difícil-os corredores do ensino médio-é diversão frívola.
98
DIRETORA: Susanna White
ESTRELAS: Jessica Chastain, Michael Greyeyes, Sam Rockwell
CLASSIFICAÇÃO: R
É difícil não transferir a persona fora da tela de Jessica Chastain, uma proponente vocal de muitas variedades de justiça social, para sua personagem Catherine Weldon em Woman Walks Ahead. Como uma pintora de Nova York que se aventura nas Dakotas na década de 1890, ela se vê envolvida nas lutas pela terra do povo Lakota. É um drama político inegavelmente sério… mas definitivamente um pouco óbvio.
Onde Assistir Woman Walks Ahead
97
Foto: Cortesia Everett Collection
DIRETOR: Dan Krauss
ESTRELAS: Nat Wolff, Alexander Skarsgård, Adam Long
AVALIAÇÃO: R
A adaptação narrativa de The Kill Team se apresenta como o drama mais urgente de 2006… pena que foi lançado em 2019, muito depois de os conflitos dos EUA no Oriente Médio terem saído da primeira página. Há um drama decente do conflito entre o recruta obediente de Nat Wolff e o sargento imprudente de Alexander Skarsgård, especialmente porque o primeiro pondera relatar o último. Mas parece um drama familiar e reformulado, mesmo que você não tenha visto o documentário exemplar no qual o filme foi baseado.
96
Foto: Everett Collection
DIRETOR: Ti West
ESTRELAS: Mia Goth, Kid Cudi, Jenna Ortega
AVALIAÇÃO: R
O X de Ti West pode estar entre os iniciantes de franquia mais improváveis de todos os tempos. Nada sobre este filme de terror ambientado entre aspirantes a artistas adultos fazendo uma filmagem pirata no sertão do Texas grita sequência ou prequela. Mas West encontra uma nova rainha do grito na estrela Mia Goth, desempenhando papéis duplos aqui como uma jovem estrela de cinema adulta e uma proprietária idosa. Mesmo que o filme siga as regras, o gótico nunca é nada menos do que fascinante de se ver na tela.
95
Foto: A24
DIRECTOR: Valdimar Jóhannsson
STARS: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
RATING: R
There is a moment in Lamb, a contemporary Icelandic fairytale, that offers a clear “will you or won’t you” follow the movie in an absolutely bizarre and unhinged direction. Judging by its placement on this list, you can probably guess how this reviewer felt. But if you’re willing to follow it off a real cliff, perhaps you’ll enjoy the narrative free-fall.
94
DIRECTOR: David Leveaux
STARS: Lily James, Jai Courtney, Christopher Plummer
RATING: R
A deposed German monarch in exile during World War II begins to suspect a mole in his midst. With such a dynamite concept, The Exception has to deliver on some of the good as the Kaiser tries to prevent a feared assassination. All the same, it’s fair to expect this to be a little more … compelling beyond its conclusion? Maybe that’s what you get when only Jai Courtney, a black hole of charisma, is available to be your leading man.
93
Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
STARS: Joe Cole, Vithaya Pansringarm, Panya Yimmumphai
RATING: R
Prison movies don’t get much more brutal than A Prayer Before Dawn. This true-life tale of a British boxer detained in Thailand is as grueling to watch as it is for the subject to endure. If you can tolerate watching the defiling of the male body, then this might be the movie for you. Others who aren’t horrified might need a little more plot than just a parade of indignities.
Where to Watch A Prayer Before Dawn
92
Photo: A24/Associated Press
DIRECTOR: Lukas Dhont
STARS: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne
RATING: PG-13
If you just need a good cry and don’t care where it’s coming from, then by all means, fire up the Belgian melodrama Close. But if you want to exhibit a modicum of critical faculties, then you’ll want to steer clear. This tragic drama about a friendship between two sensitive young boys is mawkish and maudlin to the extreme. Lukas Dhont does not earn his shameless weaponization of self-harm for both plot engine and character development.
91
DIRECTOR: Adam Rifkin
STARS: Burt Reynolds, Ariel Winter, Clark Duke
RATING: R
Twenty years before The Last Movie Star, the legendary Burt Reynolds got the kind of tribute to his stardom that he deserved in Boogie Nights. Paul Thomas Anderson knew what specifically made Reynolds such a sexual dynamo in the cultural imagination and wielded that to his film’s advantage. Here, this last hurrah of an aging icon feels a bit copy-and-paste. Adam Rifkin’s film probably could have used any actor who said yes and changed a few details.
Where to Watch The Last Movie Star
90
Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Trey Edward Shults
STARS: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo
RATING: R
It’s almost like Trey Edward Shults knew what was coming in COVID times with It Comes at Night, his uneasy thriller set in a world ravaged by an infectious disease. He gets the way people instinctively mistrust strangers in such a paranoid climate, even when that conflicts with their natural capacity for empathy. As a family tentatively agrees to let a young couple stay in their wooded home, these sentiments play out agonizingly. Shults goes a little too heavy on the atmosphere at the expense of other elements, but it’s impressively unnerving.
Where to Watch It Comes at Night
89
Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Elijah Bynum
STARS: Timothée Chalamet, Maika Monroe, Alex Roe
RATING: R
Before he became the A-lister we now know, Timothée Chalamet did normal teen fare like Hot Summer Nights. This crime caper about an outsider who gains status by bringing business acumen to marijuana dealing on Cape Cod packs the style with a good deal of substantive class analysis. While it’s got a lot of the pitfalls of a first feature, Chalamet’s winning screen presence helps paper over many of the flaws.
Where to Watch Hot Summer Nights
88
DIRECTOR: Drake Doremus
STARS: Nicholas Hoult, Kristen Stewart, Guy Pearce
RATING: PG-13
Yes, Equals is a film set in a world of automaton-like humans who don’t show emotion and are stripped of sexual agency. Yet even in such circumstances, you’d expect some more sparks to fly between stars with the raw magnetism of Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart as their characters experience an illicit yearning for each other. Drake Doremus’ film is intriguing in concept but stumbles in execution as it juggles various tones.
87
Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Elegance Bratton
STARS: Jeremy Pope, Gabrielle Union, Brandon Kyle Goodman
RATING: R
Elegance Bratton’s feature directorial debut The Inspection is undeniably well-meaning. Drawing on his own experiences, he tells the story of a young gay soldier enduring military training to impress his disapproving mother. There are moments of real grace and conviction, especially when Ellis (Jeremy Pope) finds a sympathetic ear in Rosales (Raúl Castillo). But the film is ultimately a toothless confrontation of homophobia, trying to reach for wider resonance while remaining heavily locked within its singular story.
86
DIRECTOR: Jared Moshe
STARS: Bill Pullman, Peter Fonda, Joseph Lee Anderson
RATING: R
The aging gunslinger narrative has a pretty strong topper in this Western subgenre: Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Jared Moshe’s The Ballad of Lefty Brown falls well short of that high-water mark — and not because it’s that bad, just that it’s operating in the shadow of a legacy that large. It is nice to see a sturdy supporting player like Bill Pullman get the spotlight, and he’s the real highlight of a delightful (if largely disposable) film.
Where to Watch The Ballad of Lefty Brown
85
Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Steven Knight
STARS: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson
RATING: R
The setup of Locke doesn’t get much simpler: it’s one man (played by Tom Hardy), in real-time, taking phone calls as he drives a stretch of highway in the wee hours of the morning. Director Steven Knight always keeps the film visually interesting to break up the monotony of the concept. Yet the film falls a little flat in the content of the story itself. There’s some mystery at first around what exactly motivates such a trip, and then … the big reveal is an underwhelming cliché.
84
DIRECTOR: Per Fly
STARS: Theo James, Ben Kingsley, Jacqueline Bisset
RATING: R
Want a little more Theo James in your life after his turn in The White Lotus? He’s working in slightly less edgy leading man territory in Backstabbing for Beginners, a boilerplate geopolitical thriller where he stars as an idealistic U.N. analyst who uncovers massive corruption by way of his boss (Ben Kingsley). James is up to the task, sure, but it’s a reminder of how bland a good actor can be without a more visionary director guiding their star power. It’s a fine film if you want a little bit of intrigue, but don’t expect anything that reinvents the wheel.
Where to Watch Backstabbing for Beginners
83
Amazon
DIRECTOR: Lee Cronin
STARS: Seána Kerslake, James Quinn Markey, Simone Kirby
RATING: R
If you need a creepy kid movie and any will do, you could do worse than the Irish genre flick The Hole in the Ground. It all goes down when a single mother moves with her young son out to the countryside and begins to suspect some psychic connections between his strange behavior and a mysterious sinkhole. And it’s 90 minutes, to boot!
Where to Watch The Hole in the Ground
82
DIRECTOR: Noah Baumbach
STARS: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver
RATING: R
While We’re Young is still Noah Baumbach, so it’s going to have some moments of brilliantly realized comedy and drama as a given. But those insights into human behavior really struggle to peek through this screed against millennials delivered an aging Gen X-er. It’s not that younger generations should be immune to criticism and older ones should not have an outlet to vent. But Baumbach’s veil of faux neutrality tries to pass this intergenerational adventure off as some kind of dispassionate observation rather than his own midlife crisis.
Where to Watch While We’re Young
81
Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: John Cameron Mitchell
STARS: Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman
RATING: R
John Cameron Mitchell’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a bit unwieldy as it tries to both conjure the time and place of London’s punk scene of the 1970s … and introduce an alien played by Elle Fanning into the mix. It’s got immaculate craftsmanship, particularly in the vibrant costumes, but isn’t as strong in storytelling despite coming from a Neil Gaiman short story. There are many eye-catching moments in the film that make it worth a watch — including Nicole Kidman’s most insane wig to date, which is really saying something.
Where to Watch How to Talk to Girls at Parties
80
DIRECTOR: Richard Eyre
STARS: Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead
RATING: R
The logline for The Children Act is the stuff of knotty courtroom drama. If you’re a judge, how do you handle the case of a 17-year-old trying to defy doctors’ orders for a life-saving blood transfusion due to religious convictions? It’s a bummer that the film chooses the path of least resistance in countless ways, but even that version of the story still proves gripping to watch unfold.
Where to Watch The Children Act
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DIRECTOR: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
STARS: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks
RATING: R
Among Gillian Flynn’s killer trio of novels, Dark Places is the clear bronze-medal taker in terms of screen adaptations. But when the competition is David Fincher’s feature Gone Girl and Jean-Marc Vallée’s miniseries Sharp Objects, it’s going to be tough to stand out. This mystery featuring the survivor of a murder (Charlize Theron) reinvestigating the crime is still gripping to watch unfold. Flynn’s subtle critique of true crime aficionados feels quite prescient now.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Halina Reijn
STARS: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la Herold, Rachel Sennott
RATING: R
Was there some kind of screenwriting competition designed to see how many Gen Z buzzwords someone could stuff in a single script? If so, Bodies Bodies Bodies clearly would win. At least there’s some cleverness and humor to this mystery of a seeming murderer on the loose among twentysomethings caught in a palatial manor during a power outage. Rachel Sennott’s line delivery of “your parents are upper…middle…class” alone is worth a watch, even if the rest of the movie can never quite latch onto her satirical frequency.
Where to Watch Bodies Bodies Bodies
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Stephen Karam
STARS: Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Amy Schumer
RATING: R
Stephen Karam is very, very aware of the easy critique of a playwright directing his own work as a movie — it’s just filmed theater. Yet somehow in trying to avoid the lazy trap, The Humans feels even more self-conscious of its own roots. There’s a lot of compelling family drama taking place over this Thanksgiving table in a run-down New York City apartment, but the overly studied form proves all the more distracting. The acting and the writing still shine through even in spite of the odd craftsmanship.
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THE WHALE, Brendan Fraser, 2022. © A24/Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky
STARS: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton
RATING: R
Good thing Brendan Fraser got the Oscar for this because otherwise … what was the point of The Whale, really? This story of a morbidly obese man trying to make some kind of human connection before he passes is little more than self-satisfied trauma porn. It’s an odd fit for director Darren Aronofsky, a normally kinetic director who has never made a movie so lacking in vibrancy and imagination.
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DIRECTOR: Adam Smith
STARS: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshal
RATING: R
The title of the film Trespass Against Us alludes to a prayer beginning with “Our Father, who art in heaven.” But for the film’s subject, the striving Chad (Michael Fassbender), he’s much more concerned with an earthly father. His family’s patriarch Colby (Brendan Gleeson) brings everyone into his family business of criminal enterprise. Chad finds out quickly what it means to break away, a conflict rendered vividly by these two paradigms of Irish on-screen excellence.
Where to Watch Trespass Against Us
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Alex Garland
STARS: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear
RATING: R
Alex Garland has all the subtlety of a shotgun in Men, his overloaded metaphorical horror film tackling the various strains of so-called toxic masculinity. Though the radiant Jessie Buckley is always capable of holding the frame, it’s really the Rory Kinnear show that makes the film watchable in spite of Garland’s worst tendencies. Kinnear plays countless characters in the film, each of which portrays a slightly different side of his gender’s fragility. He can manage what Garland cannot: maintaining a foot in both the personal and the universal.
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DIRECTOR: Lynn Shelton
STARS: Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell
RATING: R
We’ve seen how many tales of manchildren going through prolonged adolescence … and how often is that same luxury afforded to women? Lynn Shelton’s Laggies lets its protagonist be as aimless as any schlubby bro, but that’s not the only point of the film. Her characterization of Keira Knightley’s idling Megan is revelatory because it reveals the mechanics of why she’s drawn to hanging out with teenagers. She wants to leech off their youth to avoid growing up like some kind of normcore Peter Pan. Shelton’s knack for observation sometimes outstrips her penchant for narrative ingenuity, but the film is overwhelmingly pleasant all the same.
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Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
STARS: Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Yvonne Landry
RATING: R
Mississippi Grind, the Ben Mendelsohn-Ryan Reynolds buddy poker movie, has such a lovable “Guys Being Dudes” energy. So much so that you might easily forget that the two leading characters are sadsacks who are trying to outrun their problems on a Southern road trip. Mendelsohn is predictably great, but Reynolds is MVP for showing some vulnerability for a change.
Where to Watch Mississippi Grind
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DIRECTOR: Joshua Z. Weinstein
STARS: Menashe Lustig, Yoel Falkowitz, Ruben Niborski
RATING: PG
You could be forgiven for thinking Joshua Z. Weinstein made a documentary with Menashe, a masterfully observed tale of the titular widower in New York’s Hasidic Jewish community trying to make a home suitable to regain custody of his son. The film feels cut from the cloth of everyday life, in part because Weinstein spent so long enmeshed in the community. The story’s familiarity can be a bit tedious, but it also feels like a part of the point Weinstein is trying to make. Menashe is just like any other American father, even if it feels like he lives in a different place altogether.
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Claire Denis
STARS: Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Benny Safdie
RATING: R
Things get hot and heavy between an American journalist (Margaret Qualley) and a British businessman (Joe Alwyn) in Stars at Noon. As they traipse around Central America asking for trouble, the political dimensions of their misadventures emerge from director Claire Denis’ keen eye for neo-colonialism. The film can be a bit ploddingly slow, not to mention somewhat bumbling, but it’s mostly a winning proposition by the end when it abandons the trappings of an erotic thriller.
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Joanna Hogg
STARS: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton
RATING: R
The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg’s metafictional tale of her own artistic awakening, is worth watching if only to better appreciate its complementing half. (More on that later.) This tale of her alter ego Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) getting caught up in the tempestuous world of a mysterious older man (Tom Burke) is a meticulously realized doomed romance. It can be a bit obvious at times, so it helps that Hogg frequently finds the most interesting way to frame any given moment.
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Mike Mills
STARS: Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, Woody Norman
RATING: R
It is to Mike Mills’ immense credit that he’s able to capture a child-like view of the world in C’mon C’mon. Joaquin Phoenix’s childless radio journalist travels the country capturing youthful perspectives, but he loses that sense of distance once he has to start taking care of his nephew Jesse (the impossibly precocious Woody Norman) on the road. That perspective ends up becoming somewhat limiting as the film can feel a bit pat. Nonetheless, there’s still an undeniable sweetness to the project that proves entirely winning even as it leaves you wanting a little more.
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Augustine Frizzell
STARS: Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney
RATING: R
Augustine Frizzell essentially makes a Superbad for gorgeous, gorgeous girls in Never Goin’ Back. But it’s not just lazy gender-swapping that proves women can be in the same stories as men. This crass comedy captures the desperation of two working-class teenage waitresses trying to scrounge together enough money to beat the heat and go to the beach. It’s a wild stoner flick that is refreshingly unafraid of grossing its audience out.
Where to Watch Never Goin’Back
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Yorgos Lanthimos
STARS: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan
RATING: R
There’s a moment in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer that feels like somewhat of a betrayal of the director’s surreal affectation: Nicole Kidman’s character cries in earnest responding to an unsettling plot development. It feels like the movie is blinking in the face of the depravity being shown as a troubled teen (Barry Keoghan) begins tormenting a surgeon (Colin Farrell) and his family. The singular vision of Lanthimos still makes this mythically-tinged tale worth watching, but this disruption of the force field by breaking the tacit code of the cinematic universe.
Where to Watch The Killing of a Sacred Deer
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Gaspar Noé
STARS: Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub
RATING: R
Gaspar Noé’s Climax starts off with an ecstatic high as his acrobatic camera captures a jaw-droppingly accomplished dance rehearsal … and it’s all downhill for the dancers from there! Someone spikes the punch, leading the gathered participants into an absolute mania. Watching what jarring turn comes next proves propulsive and terrifying.
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The Monster
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%
This small indie horror film from director Bryan Bertino flew under the radar when it came out in 2016, but it’s a hidden gem that’s now streaming on Netflix. It’s a simple set up: Zoe Kazan plays an alcoholic single mother named Kathy, and Ella Ballentine plays her 10-year-old daughter who would rather live with her dad. Then one night, Kathy hits a wolf with her car. Or is it a wolf at all? (Spoiler: It’s not. It’s a monster.)
[Stream The Monster on Netflix] Photo: Netflix
DIRECTOR: Bryan Bertino
STARS: Zoe Kazan, Ella Ballentine, Aaron Douglas
RATING: R
Before *every* horror movie just became a metaphor for trauma, The Monster did some exciting things in the space. Bryan Bertino’s film keeps it simple: a mother (Zoe Kazan) and her daughter (Ella Ballentine) encounter some terrifying and unknown creature tormenting them while stranded along a secluded road. It’s an effectively spare use of “metaphor-ror” that provides the opportunity for chills and catharsis alike.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Saulnier
STARS: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart
RATING: R
Remember when there was insane discourse around whether or not it was OK to punch Nazis? Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room falls emphatically on the side of needing to fight back, especially because his central punk rocker characters find themselves trapped inside a club operated by neo-Nazis. It’s a gruesome, gory battle of attrition that does not shy away from the epochal nature of its microcosmic conflict. This one is absolutely not for the faint of heart.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Sebastián Lelio
STARS: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera
RATING: R
Sometimes we all need to just watch nice people being nice, and Gloria Bell is happy to provide such entertainment. That doesn’t mean that the story of Julianne Moore’s titular divorcee is one ignorant of life’s ups and downs. It’s just a film that lets her find the joy of discovering herself and her priorities through the pain. She comes out smiling, and so should we.
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Everett Collection/Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: James Franco
STARS: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen
RATING: R
You don’t need to see The Room, Tommy Wiseau’s worst movie ever turned cult classic, to enjoy The Disaster Artist, the fictionalized account of its making. It might help you catch a few more references, sure. But at its core, this is a story about artists coming together to make something they believe in — and keeping that faith even in spite of public ridicule.
Where to Watch The Disaster Artist
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Ari Aster
STARS: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey
RATING: R
Kudos to A24 for giving Ari Aster carte blanche to make a three-hour epic picaresque of his mommy issues as expressed through Joaquin Phoenix’s stunted titular man-child. Beau is Afraid is an undeniably virtuosic piece of filmmaking with confidence in its vision. But when covering so much ground in a single film, it’s inevitable that stronger pieces emerge. It just so happens that here, those mostly come at the beginning when Beau interacts more with Aster’s vividly realized dystopian urban hellscape. The broad dark comedy slowly gives way to more intimate interactions that lack Aster’s flair for the absurd. At the very least, don’t turn it off until he makes you hear Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” like you’ve never heard it before!
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Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Lenny Abrahamson
STARS: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen
RATING: R
There’s a deceptively high degree of difficulty in adapting the novel Room to the big screen. The subject matter is grim given that it involves a young woman (Brie Larson) and her child (Jacob Tremblay), the product of her abuser, as they are held captive within a single room. That setting is also a tough visual challenge to make interesting. Lenny Abrahamson pulls it off with simplicity and sincerity, making a film that’s affecting if not overwhelming.
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‘Free Fire'(2017)
https://decider.com/movie/free-fire/
Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Ben Wheatley
STARS: Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson
RATING: R
If it’s rip-roaring fun you seek, Free Fire is your movie. Ben Wheatley’s film proves there is truth in advertising given how the bullets fly during this action film centered around a shootout. Add in the ‘70s period trappings as IRA members and arms dealers face off in an abandoned warehouse, and you’ve got all the makings of enjoyable entertainment.
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Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
STARS: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett
RATING: R
Hot take alert! While it’s becoming a useful comparison for stressful situations among cinephiles, Uncuh Jams — sorry, Uncut Gems — is a very good and accomplished film. Still, it’s the second best that the Safdie Brothers have made. Bless them for giving the people what they deserve: Adam Sandler fully in his bag as both a dramatic and comedic force of nature.
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DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve
STARS: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon
RATING: R
Leave it to the bold, brooding vision of Denis Villeneuve to unlock the true terror in the concept of the doppelganger. Enemy gives us a double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal, starting with his sheepish college professor Adam Bell and extending to the actor Daniel Saint Claire who looks just like him. Subtly but surely, the knowledge of their counterpart begins to eat away at their understanding of the universe. Villeneuve amplifies the gnawing dread further with a giant tarantula looming in the distance.
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Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Ari Aster
STARS: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro
RATING: R
There’s nothing scarier in this world than family, if you want to take Ari Aster’s word for it. Hereditary engages with a world of dark forces and satanic spirits, but the film’s most tense and terrifying moments come at the hands of angry parents and neglectful siblings. The bit is overdone at this point but bears repeating all the same: Toni Collette’s snub by awards bodies for this committed, chilling performance is inexcusable.
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Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow
STARS: Brian De Palma
RATING: R
While it’s a bit random that droll dramedy maker Noah Baumbach of all people co-directed a documentary about genre master Brian De Palma, the filmmaker in front of the camera matters most here. De Palma just lets the New Hollywood legend cook, getting his unfiltered opinions and observations about his singular career. It’s a must-watch for fans of film both as art and commerce.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers
STARS: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
RATING: R
Robert Eggers’ folk horror tale The Witch pays such keen attention to period detail that it could make Wes Anderson blush. This doesn’t feel like a contemporary fiction about a family’s haunting that happens to be set in colonial New England. It feels like Eggers somehow had a camera in the 17th century and managed to record this scary saga as it unfolded.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Ari Aster
STARS: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren
RATING: R
Men will literally make an elaborate Swedish folk horror story instead of going to therapy. Midsommar is the ultimate breakup revenge movie, and you can feel the raw and cathartic anger dripping from Florence Pugh’s Dani as she navigates the betrayal of the men closest to her. At no point during this journey to the film’s literal barn-burner of an ending will you know what’s coming next.
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Sean Baker
STARS: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, Suzanna Son
RATING: R
There’s something both slippery and prickly about Sean Baker’s Red Rocket. This 2016-set comedy follows the raucous exploits of Simon Rex’s Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who ends up in his Texas hometown after hitting a rough patch. As Trump looms large in the background on TVs, he begins grooming a 17-year-old who works at the counter of a donut store. And yet the film is a raucous comedy that challenges how much you are willing to empathize with and enjoy the presence of Mikey!
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Peter Strickland
STARS: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill
RATING: R
Peter Strickland’s off-kilter horror film will make you think twice before ever calling a piece of clothing “killer” again. His ‘70’s-set tale In Fabric centers on a haunted red dress that seems to be a mystical harbinger of doom for all those who come into possession of it. Just in case you needed a new thing to fear! Strickland finds a way to infuse the capitalistic enclaves of Britain with a giallo flair as well as a dash of unsettling comedy.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Celine Song
STARS: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
RATING: PG-13
Celine Song’s Past Lives provides a different kind of love triangle, one centered around longing rather than lust. Korean-American Nora (Greta Lee) lives happily with her husband Arthur (John Magaro) in New York City, but the re-emergence of her childhood crush Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) begins to throw that delicate balance into question. The film’s delicate, tender touch revolves less around the question of “will she or won’t she?” and more around the notion of choices and opportunity costs at large. All the same, Nora’s final decision devastates.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Joanna Hogg
STAR: Tilda Swinton
RATING: PG-13
The concept of a frustrated writer taking their family to a secluded (and potentially haunted) hotel might evoke The Shining, and Joanna Hogg is certainly aware of the sandbox she’s playing in with The Eternal Daughter. That otherworldly element figures quietly and ominously into the background of this film, which is Hogg’s extension of the autobiographical character from her Souvenir films. Her dabbling in genre enhances a mother-daughter story by elevating their interactions from the mundane to the mystical, raising powerful questions about legacy in its wake.
Where to Watch The Eternal Daughter
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Charlotte Wells
STARS: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio
RATING: R
While I didn’t find Aftersun quite as emotionally devastating as many who left the film in a puddle of tears, there’s no denying that Charlotte Wells’ debut feature storms out of the gate in a burst of virtuosic style. The film’s structure revolves around a series of videotapes from a childhood vacation of Sophie and her young father Calum, which then intermingle with the vagaries of her memory. By the finale, Wells cleverly collapses all boundaries between time and space, dancing alongside the demons and delights of the past.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Owen Kline
STARS: Daniel Zolghadri, Matthew Maher, Miles Emanuel
RATING: R
If you’d like the phrase “comic book movie” to mean more than just shlocky superhero fare, then step right up for Owen Kline’s Funny Pages. This anarchic comedy harkens back to the world of irreverent underground comic strips, both in inspiration and in its aesthetic. The film’s protagonist Robert (Daniel Zolghadri) so desperately wants to throw off his suburban New Jersey trappings and embrace the edginess of that scene, so much so that he sets in motion a series of ludicrous events through his own choices and dealings. It all comes to a head on a Christmas morning back at his parents’ home that’s one of the best comic set pieces in years.
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: David Lowery
STARS: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton
RATING: R
David Lowery was all set to premiere his take on the Arthurian legend The Green Knight in 2020. Then, COVID happened, and he had more time to play around with the form and narrative content. What ultimately came to pass from his visionary mind is something that captures the mysticism of myth in awe-inspiring ways.
Where to Watch The Green Knight
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: David Robert Mitchell
STARS: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace
RATING: R
A24 sat on David Robert Mitchell’s unwieldy Under the Silver Lake for nearly a year after its polarizing premiere at Cannes before dropping it unceremoniously in a few theaters. The film deserves a second chance, in part because its conspiratorially-inclined comic trappings have only become more relevant as the fever dreams of the Internet become our reality. Mitchell’s modern noir pastiche is gonzo in the best possible way as Andrew Garfield’s wannabe City of Angels gumshoe Sam investigates the disappearance of his neighbor. It might not entirely make sense, but then again … does Chinatown, really?
Where to Watch Under the Silver Lake
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Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Rose Glass
STARS: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Frazer
RATING: R
Religious fervor to the point of possession is usually something associated with a villain or side character in horror films. Rose Glass’ Saint Maud asks what happens when that force lives within the protagonist. Morfydd Clark’s titular character, a new convert to Roman Catholicism, approves her work as a nurse with a truly religious fervor. Maud’s vision of palliative care becomes increasingly less restorative and more fire-and-brimstone, a descent (or ascent, depending on your perspective) that Glass charts masterfully in just 84 minutes.
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Big Beach Films
DIRECTOR: Lulu Wang
STARS: Awkwafina, Zhao Shu-zhen, Tzi Ma
RATING: PG
The cultural differences between the West and East rarely get such a sensitive, nuanced treatment as they do in Lulu Wang’s The Farewell. This poignant drama, drawn from the filmmaker’s own experiences, follows a Chinese family as they weave an elaborate fabrication to hide the extent of a medical diagnosis from their matriarch Nai Nai (Zhao Shu-zhen). The Chinese-American granddaughter Billi (Awkwafina) struggles to understand why her family wants to avoid grappling with their emotions honestly, and her objections are quickly met with a crash course in the many different ways people can deal with their grief. Wang avoids maudlin emotionality, and her film is all the more moving for it.
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DIRECTOR: Alex Garland
STARS: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
RATING: R
Ex Machina is the best Black Mirror episode Charlie Brooker never made. Computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins the opportunity to come to the secluded mountain home of an eccentric tech CEO (Oscar Isaac) and administer a Turing test on his humanoid robot Ava (Alicia Vikander). It feels simple in concept and setup, which is why writer/director Alex Garland is ultimately able to make such a sneakily compelling techno-thriller. The audience, like Caleb, is a proverbial frog in boiling water. The danger isn’t evident until realizing that Garland has slowly ratcheted up the temperature with each scene.
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: Kogonada
STARS: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min
RATING: PG
Writer/director Kogonada cut his teeth on making video essays about legendary filmmakers, and that knowledge and reverence for classical composition show in his own feature filmmaking work. After Yang builds on his love of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, bringing his somber and sincere silliness into a future where a family tries to save its malfunctioning humanoid robot.
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Ti West
STARS: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright
RATING: R
The most horrifying thing in Ti West’s Pearl has nothing to do with any bloody murder. Instead, this 20th-century origin story of Mia Goth’s aged X character is at its most bone-chilling when simply forcing you to stare into Pearl’s eyes as she tries to explain herself. Goth’s climactic extended monologue, shot in one unbroken take, makes it impossible to escape from her … just as she finds it impossible to escape from her life through stardom or any other means. That forced identification with a villain proves queasy, just as West intends it.
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Photo: Jeong Park/ A24/Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Nicole Holofcener
STARS: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins
RATING: R
The elevator pitch for You Hurt My Feelings is simple: what if your spouse secretly hated your work? But as with all things written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, the droll dramedies are never so cut-and-dry. Without pretenses of political posturing, the film explores the limits of the little white lie. When is it coddling, and when is it encouraging? Leave it to the great Julia Louis-Dreyfus to make every moment of it hilariously well-observed.
Where to Watch You Hurt My Feelings
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Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Trey Edward Shults
STARS: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell
RATING: R
Trey Edward Shults will absolutely bring you down into the deepest depths of despair in Waves as he charts a teenager’s self-destruction as he buckles under the pressure of paternal expectations. But that’s not the end point of this family drama, only the hinge point. It has to go so low so you can recognize what it’s really like to feel high. An emotional phoenix rises from the ashes of this quasi-movie musical. It soars.
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DIRECTOR: Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer
STARS: Emily Watson, Paul Mescal, Aisling Franciosi
RATING: R
Do NOT watch this film if you want to hold onto your image of Paul Mescal as only playing gentle soft boys. In God’s Creatures, he’s an actively insidious presence upon returning to his small Irish fishing village. He’s left a lot of destruction in his wake, but his mother Aileen (Emily Watson) is often there running behind him to pick up the pieces. The inciting incident here, though, involves an allegation of severe misconduct with an old flame that may just prove a bridge too far for her.
Where to Watch God’s Creatures
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Lee Isaac Chung
STARS: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan S. Kim, Yuh-jung Youn
RATING: PG-13
“Minari is truly the best,” explains Yuh-jung Youn’s grandma Soonja. “It grows anywhere, like weeds, so anyone can pick and eat it.” It’s an open question throughout the film Minari whether the Korean-American Yi family can live up to the legacy of the titular plant. Director Lee Isaac Chung never shies away from the real struggle of immigrant assimilation, especially in the rural heartland during the early 1980s. But be it through Steven Yeun’s devastating performance or Emile Mosseri’s swelling score, the poignant emotionality always peeks through the pain.
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Beth Garrabrant/Courtesy of Sundance Institute
DIRECTOR: Jesse Eisenberg
STARS: Julianne Moore, Finn Wolfhard, Finnegan Oldfield
RATING: R
This is probably not the parent-child comedy of errors you might be expecting when pairing Juliane Moore and Finn Wolfhard. The mother is a passionate social worker, and her son is an aspiring musician chasing clout online. The standard formula would find a way to bridge their differences, but Jesse Eisenberg goes a different route in his feature directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World. It’s a film that leaves its audience to dwell in the depressing reality that perhaps some divides, be they generational or familial, might be irreparable. This might not be comforting, but it always rings true.
Where to Watch When You Finish Saving The World
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Kelly Reichardt
STARS: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones
RATING: PG-13
What a moo-vie! Jokes aside, Kelly Reichardt’s Pacific Northwest parable First Cow is as incisive a tale about masculinity and capitalism on the frontier as you’re likely to find. But the film never feels like an overloaded allegory because it never departs from the tender friendship at its core. Two outsiders, the cook Cookie (John Magaro) and the immigrant fugitive King Hu (Orion Lee), find an ideal match between skill and salesmanship to begin a successful entrepreneurial venture for Cookie’s biscuits. The catch? The milk necessary for the recipe must be stolen from a new cow in the region.
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Photo: Everett Gallery
DIRECTOR: Joe Talbot
STARS: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover
RATING: R
“They say that often a filmmaker’s first film can be his or her best,” filmmaker Alexander Payne once posited.”Por que? Because he or she has been waiting 30, 35 years to tell that story.” That unfiltered verve emanates from Joe Talbot’s debut The Last Black Man in San Francisco, an aching tribute to his hometown that he feels is pushing his history out. Like any city symphony, it bustles with life even as it fears the death of what it loves. Talbot’s freshman feature is messy and rough around the edges, but those imperfections are what give it such vibrant texture.
Where to Watch The Last Black Man in San Francisco
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Photo: Everett Collection/Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Claire Denis
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin
RATING: R
This is not your parents’ space adventure. Claire Denis’ High Life could care less about your sci-fi genre expectations. The French auteur paints across her grandest canvas yet, but the violence and vulnerability are still as submerged as ever here. Like many Denis films, this might appear inscrutable at first blush — but give it a chance. Denis has a way of teaching you how to watch her movies if you let her guide you by sensation more than story.
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DIRECTOR: J.C. Chandor
STARS: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo
RATING: R
1981. That was the most violent year in New York City’s history, and it was also when Oscar Isaac’s entrepreneurial Abel Morales has the misfortune of trying to expand his business. A Most Violent Year sets its sights on nothing less than a Godfather-like a parable of capitalistic choices — if the thematic parallels don’t grab you, maybe Bradford Young’s cinematography channeling Coppola’s muted hues will. But it’s a clever inversion: whereas the Corleones’ mob operation signals the success of immigrants achieving the American Dream from the shadows, Abel’s constantly thwarted quest for legitimacy shows the limits of legitimacy within formal business institutions.
Where to Watch A Most Violent Year
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DIRECTOR: Trey Edward Shults
STARS: Krisha Fairchild, Olivia Grace Applegate, Bryan Casserly
RATING: R
And you thought your Thanksgiving table was stressful? Trey Edward Shults’ microbudget first feature Krisha turns the holiday into a horror show as estranged aunt Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) comes back for the family feast. Everything that can go wrong does. Every temper that could flare rages. And poor Krisha, who has good intentions but stumbling execution, falls back into a pit of anxiety that the swirling camerawork captures breathtakingly.
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DIRECTOR: Chad Hartigan
STARS: Markees Christmas, Craig Robinson, Carla Juri
RATING: R
It’s rare to find a movie as earnest as Morris from America in the A24 catalog. But this spunky coming-of-age story (which also doubles as something of a fish-out-of-water tale) earns its place among the distributor’s top titles thanks to its bursts of stylistic flair. It’s a great window into the world of the titular Morris (Markees Christmas), a teenager full of confidence in his own talents but unsure of his surroundings thanks to his soccer coach father (Craig Robinson) uprooting them to go live in Germany. Chard Hartigan finds what might be the evenest ratio of hilarity and heartwarming in the distributor’s catalog.
Where to Watch Morris from America
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DIRECTOR: Azazel Jacobs
STARS: Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aidan Gillen
RATING: R
When we meet Debra Winger and Tracy Letts’ long-married characters in The Lovers, they’ve all but given up on their union. Each other’s affairs are an open secret. And just on the precipice of leaving, they rediscover the sexiest thing of all in the truly forbidden fruit: each other. This dry, wry comedy from Azazel Jacobs recaptures the spirit of early studio rom-coms, which were often known as “comedies of remarriage” that had to use a couple’s rediscovery of their old flame to get around censorship requirements.
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DIRECTOR: Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan
STARS: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
RATING: R
Ah, the Daniels’ “farting boner corpse movie” that had to run so their later Everything Everywhere All at Once could multiverse jump. Swiss Army Man is a feature directorial debut that shows the duo already in full control of their powers. All the humor in this bizarre tale of a depressed man (Paul Dano) finding a new lease on life through a sentient corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) feels like it shouldn’t work because it is just that sophomoric. And yet, the Daniels already knew the boundaries they could push so long as they let their big beating hearts lead the way.
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DIRECTOR: Gillian Robespierre
STARS: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann
RATING: R
Many stories play abortion as a tragic endpoint or obstacle in a character’s plot development. Obvious Child calls out the game and refuses to play it through the journey of Jenny Slate’s stand-up comic Donna, who decides to terminate the unwanted pregnancy that results from a one-night stand with Max (Jake Lacy at peak nice guy). This is just simply a thing that happens, and Gillian Robespierre’s extraordinarily ordinary rendering of abortion feels quietly radical.
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DIRECTOR: Dean Fleischer-Camp
STARS: Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp
RATING: PG
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On makes the jump from YouTube short to feature film with few problems, even if it does feel a bit like watching an extended playlist of 3-minute bits. Director Dean Fleischer-Camp and lead vocal talent Jenny Slate create a world of wonder on a microscopic scale as Marcel shows us the dignity among the detritus of everyday life. If you let the film work its movie magic, you’ll find yourself seeing the world through a freshly renewed lens of optimism.
Where to Watch Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
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DIRECTOR: Kelly Reichardt
STARS: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, John Magaro
RATING: R
What it means to make art, really make it in a tactical and craftsmanlike sense, rarely gets such a clear-eyed spotlight as it does in Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up. The filmmaker strips artistry of any lofty, idealized notions of creative flow to show just how hard it can be to make space in your life for the thing you love — and the struggle it entails just to persevere. The title can thus be read as both the bare minimum and a laudable achievement in its own right. And don’t let the setting among a group of academically-based artists fool you, either, because this is an absolutely hysterical film in its own right as well.
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Moonlight
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
Barry Jenkins’beautiful drama tells the life story of gay man (Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, and Alex Hibbert) in a not-so-nice part of Miami, and all the hardship and heartache that comes with coming out. The film earned Mahershala Ali an Oscar for his performance as Chiron’s father figure and the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture (after the whole La La Land mix-up).
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DIRECTOR: Barry Jenkins
STARS: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe
RATING: R
A24’s first Best Picture winner Moonlight forever changed what that category could be and do. Barry Jenkins’ tale of queer Black love trying to find a way through the harsh climate of Floridian masculinity frees his narrative from simple social realist tropes. His triptych pulls freely from Asian masters like Hou Hsiao-Hsien and French iconoclasts like Claire Denis, yet even amidst this swirling of unique influences, something emerges that feels entirely new. That Jenkins portraiture, a face in slow-motion framed dead-center in shallow focus, feels possessed of the power to stop time altogether. It feels as if we are only just understanding how seismic an impact this film made.
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DIRECTOR: Janicza Bravo
STARS: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo
RATING: R
“Twitter is not real life,” they say, and yet here’s Zola to prove my straw-man haters wrong. Director Janicza Bravo and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris find a way to adapt the narrative logic of a viral Twitter thread about one CRAZY Florida weekend into the language of cinema. It’s one of the few films from the social media age to understand how these tools affect the way we experience and recount the events of our lives.
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DIRECTOR: Sean Baker
STARS: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe
RATING: R
Sean Baker discovers we learn about America by looking in the shadow cast by its dream factory in The Florida Project. The film takes place in an Orlando motel just outside of Disney World, a realm of post-Great Recession poverty that stands in stark contrast to the Mouse House’s opulent fantasy world. But don’t expect some kind of gritty, hardscrabble social realism here that looks down on the characters in pity. Baker is clear-eyed about their conditions, but he also tells the story through 7-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who processes her surroundings like a Little Rascals adventure. It’s all fun and game with the motel kids … until it is most decidedly not, and Baker sure knows how to drop that devastating emotional hammer.
Where to Watch The Florida Project
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DIRECTOR: Joanna Hogg
STARS: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade
RATING: R
Here’s the Wikipedia page for The Souvenir if you just want to skip to the superior portion of Joanna Hogg’s self-reflexive diptych. The star-crossed romance of the first film comes under the microscope as the protagonist Julie examines the relationship’s impact through her studies as a filmmaker. It’s nothing short of revelatory to watch her work through the raw emotions and then refract them through her art.
Where to Watch The Souvenir: Part II
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Photo: A24
DIRECTOR: David Lowery
STARS: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, McColm Cephas Jr.
RATING: R
From an unbroken shot of a grief-stricken Rooney Mara slowly taking down a chocolate pie to an edit that elides centuries of time, one thing is clear about David Lowery’s A Ghost Story: it’s about time. This supernatural tale of a phantasm lurking under a bed sheet with two eye slits (Casey Affleck) engages with the cosmic questions of what our brief existence means in the grand scheme of the universe. To tackle a subject this big, Lowery digs into the tactical details of a single plot of Texan land — examining how our lives are but one link in a chain that precedes us and will extend far beyond us.
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DIRECTOR: Jonah Hill
STARS: Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges
RATING: R
There’s a physiological response that happens in mid90s when the young Stevie (Sunny Suljic) gets the hang of riding his skateboard down a busy Los Angeles street. Director Jonah Hill begins swelling up the chorus of The Mamas & The Papas’ “Dedicated to the One I Love” to hit right as a skater in full bloom emerges within the frame. It doesn’t only look like that first blossom of freedom we all felt as teenagers coming into our own. It feels like rediscovering that sensation from our own youth, as if uncovering an old memory buried in our brains.
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DIRECTOR: James Ponsoldt
STARS: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Chlumsky
RATING: R
Whether you’re a true David Foster Wallace enthusiast or that copy of Infinite Jest is still sitting unread on your bedside table, there is something for you in The End of the Tour. It’s an unusual take on the biopic, focusing on the acclaimed author (portrayed by Jason Segel) at a moment of unusual vulnerability as the press cycle for his magnum opus comes to a close. As he’s proved by the slightly jealous journalist profiling him (Jesse Eisenberg), both men’s writerly insecurities emerge unexpectedly. While their journey stops short of catharsis, there’s some value in their twinned realizations that their observational prowess does not always extend to their own selves.
Where to Watch The End of the Tour
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DIRECTOR: David Michôd
STARS: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy
RATING: R
The bleak, unsparing terrain of the Australian outback has made for many a wild adventure on-screen. But few find such similarly barren terrain inside their characters like David Michôd’s The Rover. This dystopian road movie follows a stoic loner (Guy Pearce) as he hunts down the men who stole his car … with a little help from a simple American southerner (Robert Pattinson, delivering the first of many transformative performances under the A24 banner). If you find yourself wondering why on earth a man feels such a violent urge to regain his vehicle, wait until the simultaneously underwhelming and overwhelming ending to find out why. It will all make sense.
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DIRECTORS: Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan
STARS: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong
RATING: R
There should just be no more multiverse movies after Everything Everywhere All at Once dropped the mic. The Daniels’ Best Picture-winning triumph lives up to its title by corraling a maelstrom of cinematic energy into a genre-defying package. Yet amidst all the inventiveness and imagination, they never lose sight of the sweet immigrant mother-daughter story at its core. It might sound like a clichéd concept to center a film around the idea that love can connect the universe, but the Daniels earn their right to earnestness.
Where to Watch Everything Everywhere All at Once
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DIRECTOR: Andrew Haigh
STARS: Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel
RATING: R
Have those tissues ready for Lean on Pete. This tender tale of the young Charley (a devastating Charlie Plummer in a breakout performance) just looking for anything he can call his own in the world is a real heartbreaker. The bond he shares with the titular horse represents the rare piece of purity amidst the backdrop of a ruggedly individualistic Pacific Northwest landscape. Take a guess what happens to Lean on Pete, and then saddle up anyways for this achingly beautiful movie.
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DIRECTOR: Sofia Coppola
STARS: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson
RATING: R
Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring deserves a full reappraisal. The audience receiving her 2013 chronicle of fame-obsessed teens who robbed Hollywood celebrities was simply not ready. The film fictionalizes real events, but Coppola writes about the past in the present tense. This is not a story that is done. We’re still living in the world of commodity envy and lazy clout-chasing that the film’s subjects epitomized.
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DIRECTOR: Mike Mills
STARS: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig
RATING: R
Many movies can have smarts. Possessing wisdom takes a special class, and Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women has that in spades. This ‘70s-set tale of an adolescent boy learning to be a man as women of all ages raise him is an intergenerational wonder. Anything the characters learn about themselves and the world gets humbled by the film’s omniscient narration about all the things they do not — and cannot — know. But that’s not meant to be scary to the characters or the audience. Rather, it’s an invitation to love all the more deeply from whatever small vantage point on the world we do have.
Where to Watch 20th Century Women
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DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe
RATING: R
Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse makes a convincing case for why you can’t just leave two men alone together and trust everything will be fine. Two 19th-century lighthouse keepers, the experienced Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and the neophyte Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), descend into an abject madness fueled by jealousy and cabin fever. It’s a horrifying journey toward insanity with shadings of hilariousness and horniness that make for one wicked storm of fear and fun.
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Amy
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
Amy Winehouse was one of the most talented chanteuses to ever strike the music world. Unfortunately, she was also one of the most haunted. Amy is the Oscar-winning look at the singer’s troubled past, rise to glory, and horrific fall. Intimate, kind, troubling, and haunting, this film is definitely a must-see.
[Stream Amy] Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Asif Kapadia
STARS: Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Mitch Winehouse
RATING: R
Asif Kapadia’s empathetic memorial to the late Amy Winehouse is the cure for the common talking head biodoc. Amy is not only the story of the great singer-songwriter taken from us too soon at just 27 years old. It’s the tale of a world that created the conditions that drove her despair-riddled verses, devoured her work, and then devoured her. You’ll come away awed by Winehouse’s prodigious rise and implicated in her downfall.
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DIRECTOR: Bo Burnham
STARS: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson
RATING: R
Euphoria, hold Eighth Grade’s retainer. Bo Burnham’s tale of middle school is far scarier and more dramatic than anything because it feels so real. That’s not to say this chronicle of adolescent awkwardness is some kind of cinema verité project. Burnham’s filmmaking language just makes it feel as momentous as it does to be that age. Especially given the dearth of films set between childhood and teenage years, it’s an act of radical empathy to give this age group the spotlight — even if it does make their braces and acne all the more visible.
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DIRECTOR: Jonathan Glazer
STARS: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay
RATING: R
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a film where it’s changed so much over the course of getting to know it,” Knives Out director Rian Johnson said of his love of Under the Skin, “so this is very unique in that regard.” Jonathan Glazer’s singular sci-fi tale may well be one of the most quietly influential movies of the past decade. The stark formalism of this tale of an unnamed alien being played by Scarlett Johansson raises potent questions about what makes us human. Add in the other-worldly score by Mica Levi, and Glazer concocts an experience that gets exactly where its title says.
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DIRECTOR: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Taliah Webster
RATING: R
By this point, Robert Pattinson is basically the bard of A24, and he’s never been better than he is in the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time. As Connie, a schmoozing con artist who never met a situation he couldn’t wriggle out of, Pattinson has never been more slippery or scintillating a presence on the screen. The film derives its propulsive energy from a madcap New York night as Connie seeks to secure the funds to spring his brother Nick (Benny Safdie) from Rikers after a stick-up gone south. Though it’s easy to lose sight of the film’s subtle message during the adrenaline rush, watch out for who ultimately faces consequences at each turn.
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DIRECTOR: Paul Schrader
STARS: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer
RATING: R
Terms like “urgent” or “the movie we need right now” are often lazily applied as hyperbole for pull quotes … when they really should be describing Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. This effortless bridging of classical cinema to contemporary issues brings back the filmmaker’s favorite trope: the danger of a man alone in a room with his thoughts. Here, that’s Ethan Hawke as the tortured Reverend Ernst Toller, a man whose conviction in God’s ultimate mercy begins to slip as he witnesses the destruction of the planet before him. When he puts “Will God Forgive Us?” on his church marquee, it’s clear that Schrader is not going to give us any answer — nor should he in a film that grapples with the thorniness of divinity and damnation.
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DIRECTOR: Yorgos Lanthimos
STARS: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden
RATING: R
The so-called “Greek Weird Wave” reached its absolute peak with Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, a satire of singleness and courtship rituals that is both pitch-black and pitch-perfect. The warped worlds of the film’s complementary halves — a hotel where uncoupled people must mate in 45 days or be turned into an animal, a forest where escaped singles plot sabotage — feel like places that could only occur in the twisted minds of Lanthimos and co-writer Efthimis Filippou. And yet the film resonates precisely because they are but a funhouse mirror of how our own society’s absurdities that we accept as normal. The film’s open-ended conclusion serves as one of the best litmus tests for how someone views love, so be sure to watch it with someone near and dear to your heart!
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DIRECTOR: Andrea Arnold
STARS: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough
RATING: R
The end credits of American Honey just list off the names of everyone involved, with no indication of rank or role among the group. It’s the perfect cherry on top of a thoroughly egalitarian work of art, one that follows how a lost protagonist — named Star, no less — absorbs herself into a community (and capitalism) in the American heartland. Andrea Arnold’s effortlessly naturalistic epic of the everyday takes its audience on an observational yet absorbing journey along with its characters. As they discover the country and their own group dynamics, so does Arnold and cinematographer Robbie Ryan’s camera. It’s nothing short of soul-stirring to breathe in her poetry.
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DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
STARS: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts
RATING: R
Last year, I took to Decider to make the case that you should watch Lady Bird every Thanksgiving due both to a scene set at the holiday and its general spirit of gratitude. Now, I’m here to make the modest proposal that you should just watch Greta Gerwig’s instant coming-of-age classic every day. Por que não? In these tight 90 minutes, you get the full spectrum of emotion in tears — of laughter, of joy, of loss — all delivered with the utmost sincerity. While this film’s modest aims and unobtrusive composition might make it seem simple, further viewings only reinforce just how much thought goes into every single choice so it feels honest and heartfelt. It may very well be a perfect movie, not only for its immaculate construction on screen but for the genuine grace Gerwig inspires in the world through all who watch the film.
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DIRECTOR: Harmony Korine
STARS: Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, James Franco
RATING: R
Since my first piece in Decider over five years ago, my bio has closed with the statement “Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.” The time is NOW. A24’s first cinematic sensation deserves to be the emblem of the company’s footprint on our culture. It’s a genuinely playful yet provocative film that isn’t afraid to both indulge and critique the ethos of a generation of young people who flock to catch the studio’s latest release. Harmony Korine’s elliptically edited millennial masterpiece manages to float in a liminal state between the drunken debauchery of the “spring break” mindset and delusional daydreams of America’s dark twisted fantasies. It’s still edgy, exciting, and energizing to watch Korine develop a language of his own to portray the youthful energy that has powered this brand for over a decade of excellence. SPRANG BREAK FOREVA!
Where to Watch Spring Breakers