‘Ghostlight’ (2024)
So few movies concern the day by day lives of the working class, in any significant means, that it’s form of astonishing when one comes alongside that feels so embedded there. That’s the case with this heart-tugging drama from the administrators Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson (“Saint Frances”), during which a grieving father stumbles right into a group theater manufacturing of “Romeo and Juliet.” Keith Kupferer is marvelous as the daddy, superbly capturing the frustrations and emotional limitations of his class and technology, whereas Katherine Mallen Kupferer performs modestly as his spouse, till a late second that completely clobbers you. And that, in some ways, holds true for the complete film.
‘Goodrich’ (2024)
“This midlife disaster is not any stroll within the park, I’ll let you know that,” snorts Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) close to the tip of this poignant comedy-drama, and whereas his daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) notes the mathematical improbability that 60-something is “midlife,” the sentiment stands. Andy, the owner-operator of a Los Angeles artwork gallery that’s seen higher days, is in free-fall. His spouse has simply checked herself into rehab, a lot to his bafflement (he’s so checked out, he by no means seen her habit), leaving him to care for his or her elementary-school aged twins himself. Keaton is credited as an govt producer, and it’s simple to see why the mission was vital to him; the writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer palms him a stellar showcase, a man who talks quick and thinks sooner, and whose inherent likability helps soften his apparent flaws. The result’s a poignant examination of getting older and questioning when you’ve misplaced it — no matter your specific “it” could also be.
A good variety of minds had been blown by “Love Lies Bleeding,” final yr’s mash-up of crime thriller, queer romance and surrealist semi-fairy story from the author and director Rose Glass, however those that caught this, her debut characteristic, noticed greatness in her future. This nerve-jangling, Catholic-coded psychological thriller stars the bracing Morfydd Clark (at present starring in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy”) because the title character, an introverted nurse whose unwavering, self-punishing non secular religion coexists uneasily together with her personal demons and skeletons. Glass’s filmmaking is equal components mental and visceral; she pushes the viewer to contemplate the total ramifications and implications of such unquestioning religion, whereas taking pains to put us in Maud’s sneakers (actually, at one level, and fairly painfully). It’s a debut of hanging confidence and thrilling, plain cinematic ability.
‘Watcher’ (2022)
The haunted, melancholy visage of Maika Monroe, so nicely utilized in “It Follows” and “Longlegs,” will get a exercise on this intentionally paced, unnervingly crafted thriller from the director Chloe Okuno. Monroe stars as Julia, who accompanies her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), to Bucharest, Romania, for a profession alternative. He’s working on a regular basis, so she’s a stranger in a wierd land, and Okuno nails the precise, aching solitude of being alone in a crowd the place you don’t even converse the language — and the sensation that you just’re being watched and adopted. The image’s stress comes from the commonplace, and Okuno makes use of the only of instruments (rumbling on the soundtrack, knocks on doorways, sudden actions, incoming texts) to construct dread and unease. Most of all, she presents a gutsy feminine interpretation of the male gaze, a narrative explicitly about being watched, by males, and the entire risks that may symbolize.
This chic and absorbing adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel takes among the most sturdy tropes of pulp literature and movie noir — the small-town schlub on the lookout for a means out, the femme fatale whose attractive exterior hides a darkish coronary heart — and turns them the other way up. Thomasin McKenzie is the title character, a file clerk at a boys’ correctional heart who cares for her depressing, alcoholic father (Shea Whigham) and might solely escape her drab existence with messy sexual fantasies. Sooner or later, a brand new one arrives: the brand new counselor Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a blonde knockout who exudes the form of easy self-confidence that Eileen can solely dream of. The place their attraction goes from there may be finest left unspoiled; suffice to to say that the director William Oldroyd (“Woman Macbeth”) is aware of the style highway map, and is keenly conscious of when to observe it and when to go off-road.
‘Waitress: The Musical’ (2023)
“Waitress” had fairly a round journey, one thing akin to these of “The Producers,” “Hairspray,” and “Imply Ladies”: it started as a nonmusical movie (additionally streaming on Max), was then tailored right into a Broadway musical, after which turned again right into a film. The twist right here is that relatively than restaging it as a conventional film musical, the administrators Diane Paulus and Brett Sullivan as an alternative captured dwell performances from its 2021 post-lockdown stage revival, creating one thing of a cross between musical theater and live performance efficiency. The latter affect is very robust for the reason that manufacturing is fronted by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, who wrote the phrases and music and periodically performed Jenna, the present’s long-suffering protagonist. It’s a dangerous gambit, but it surely works; Bareilles is a dwell performer, before everything, and Paulus and Sullivan’s frisky pictures provides the scenes a you-are-there immediacy and intimacy.
‘Nomad: Within the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin’ (2020)
Werner Herzog’s documentaries are by no means nearly their floor topic, as his personal pursuits and preoccupations are ever-present. That’s very true on this tribute to his good friend and occasional collaborator Bruce Chatwin, a author and adventurer whose 1989 demise clearly left a gap in Herzog’s coronary heart. However that is no cradle-to-grave bio-doc, with Herzog as an alternative serving up a considerate rumination on the “wild characters, unknown creatures, and massive concepts” that fascinated him and this extraordinary man.
