Though some of the larger, existential questions raised by the film may remain resolutely unresolved (for better and worse), this is a feature debut that proceeds with a forthright intelligence, moving in the exact thrilling and wonderfully bewildering manner that D’Ambrose wishes.

Slow-paced and meditative, Hotel by the River is a director’s plunge into a milieu where chuckles go hand in hand, often to ambiguous and conflicting extents, with a melancholic bracing for death.

It is difficult to find comparisons on a formal scale, and that the plot relies on a few reliable tropes does not distract from how clearly this is the work of a master.

Where the new entry lacks in bloodshed and bone-splintering violence, it still confirms Zahler’s penchant for complicated characters, and conjures up a bad cops action movie which, despite blips in tension and a second half far superior to the first, crystallizes Zahler’s as a key name to watch for lovers of the genre.

At Eternity’s Gate is a film made by an artist (“plates painter” Schnabel) less concerned with a painter, more with the way a painter saw the world. In its rupture from traditional biographical narratives, it does not merely stand out as unconventional biopic–it also comes close to resuscitating the idea of cinema as moving pictures.

Leigh translates the defining moment–and those in the immediate lead-up–to the screen with tremendous weight and great clarity, making the sense of tragedy all the more potent.

Where Lenz’s film fails is in its inability to remark upon anything in the abstract qualities of Kusama’s work beyond talking about it only in its historical importance or the most obvious interpretation.

It’s an immersive poetic-realist dive into the artist’s fractured memories of his parents during the time he spent growing up in Birmingham in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Individual scenes absorb, and the film lives and dies by its performances, but the macro problem seems to be that The Sisters Brothers can’t quite transcend its imitation atmosphere. Audiard and his cinematographer Benoît Debie nail the Western aesthetic, but neither can grasp the feeling. This wouldn’t be an issue if Audiard had postmodern aspirations, but The Sisters Brothers wants to be in conversation with the genre while still retaining a sincere, unwinking approach.

It is a film of surfaces, admittedly, but one made by perhaps our era’s best director of surfaces.

A great deal of Buster Scruggs might ultimately be a touch undercooked by the mercurial siblings’ standards, but dagnabbit if there isn’s a whole lot to like.

Credit for A Star is Born‘s heartwarming aura is owed less to Cooper’s own directing (assured and judicious a debut as it may be) than to the freshness and credibility brought by his fellow superstar. Believe the pre-premiere hype: Lady Gaga is nothing short of extraordinary.

Despite the echoes of Fellini, the result feels almost new in a way and given the immersive nature of Roma it doesn’t seem so radical to consider experiencing its cinematic beauty with a clunky headset on.

Whether or not the thought of following a self-absorbed wannabe filmmaker for 136 minutes has you buzzing with excitement, A Paris Education is a wonderfully anachronistic homage to a timeless, New Wave-style world filled with cinephiles, lovers, and great films. It’s a universe as self-centered as it is endlessly fascinating.

Endlessly quotable and serendipitously timely — all the more so considering the whole project was conceived nine years ago — The Favourite is a zany, piercing close-up on three women so replete with swagger as to reduce their male counterparts to disposable extras.

It fails as an insightful look at the class system in England because it sees every party with utmost contempt.

In its tragic undertones, complex psychological edifice, and claustrophobic visuals, First Man stands out, in both content and form, as a remarkable, jaw-dropping departure from anything Chazelle has previously made.

Structurally, Hale County This Morning, This Evening does not do much to distinguish itself from other contemporary vérité documentaries which focus on quotidian details within a certain milieu. But even so, it still finds value in the unique incidents it captures.

This is one of the more truly strange visions from narrative cinema in the past few years, one that dares and succeeds as much as it fails. To call it bizarre would be an understatement.

For die-hard genre fans looking for a disturbed and relatively brief affair, there may be enough here to enjoy. However, if you want a consistently engaging thrill ride packed with enough ideas to contend with the bloodshed, perhaps look elsewhere.

The Oslo Accords represent one of the most frustrating missed opportunities in recent world politics, though The Oslo Diaries is more frustrating for how it both simplifies the political complexities of the situation and dilutes the drama of the story.

What appears to be a run-of-the-mill drama that will surely fall into the usual clichés of perseverance and eventual victory about a woman standing up to a small town of bullies that sees her as an outsider is actually much more complex.

The result is at times quite thrilling, and clocking in at 90 minutes, refreshingly concise.

As a movie that has positioned itself as the first in a hypothetical wave of representation, Crazy Rich Asians is blatantly diminished by its status. Such a burden is too much for almost any movie, especially one as intellectually, aesthetically, and sociologically featherweight as this, but its flaws are magnified in the face of its goals.

By fast-forwarding through the initial carnage and fallout of what civilization’s destruction wrought, Mendoza is able to create a fresh environment of extremes.

This film is about ownership of one’s actions. It’s about accepting that which you cannot run from. No matter how dark that reality appears, however, The Ranger is also very funny.

Littlest Reich is almost passionately gory. It’s essentially a series of murders, strung together by the most simplistic method imaginable: a cut.

We the Animals is most effective when it breaks free from conventional storytelling and relies on image, sound, emotion, and mood.