June Again
June Again is a pretty good movie that’s headlined by the first excellent performance of the year.
Drama
Red Rocket
By: Jolie Featherstone By beautifully capturing the stories of American communities that are rarely seen on screen, Sean Baker has the makings of a modern auteur.
House of Gucci
By: Jolie Featherstone Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci brings glitz, glam, star power, and seduction to the big screen. Decadent and grandiose, House of Gucci is chock-full of big hair, big glasses, and even bigger scandals set in the high fashion world of excess in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gaza Mon Amour
Written and directed by Dégradé filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser, Gaza Mon Amour is a sweet, subdued love story set in present-day Gaza.
The Humans
The Humans is the type of movie that makes you want to jump through the screen. Not because the film has transported you and swallowed you up, but rather because you want a better seat and you want to tell everyone to speak up.
The Pebble and the Boy
Written and directed by Chris Green (Strangeways Here We Come), The Pebble and the Boy is a sweet, quirky coming-of-age story that is as much a celebration of mod culture as it is a story of grief and growing up.
13 Minutes
13 Minutes jostles my pet peeve with disaster movies; almost as if the movie is trying to push me over the edge.
Nine Days
Written and directed by Edson Oda, Nine Days is a metaphysical film that follows a lonely man named Will, played by Winston Duke (Black Panther, Us), who is tasked with interviewing human souls and deciding which one will be given a chance to live. One soul in particular, Emma (Zazie Beetz), is an independent thinker who resists the tasks Will assigns and forces him to examine his own existence.
Mass
One of the most compelling movies of the year is the minimalist drama Mass, a bottle drama led primarily by its four outstanding leads (Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Reed Birney). The actors portray parents from two families, reeling from a tragedy involving their sons. After prior detached conversations, they decide to convene at a mutually chosen location – a church basement – while a mediator is stationed outside.