Film
Anora
NEON
This is the gonzo story of two households, unalike in dignity. One star-crossed lover is a scrappy, headstrong sex worker from Brooklyn; the other’s the bratty rich kid of a Russian oligarch. A strip club transaction leads to a quickie impulsive marriage and stirs up a farcical family feud. Director Sean Baker’s surprising rom-dramedy gifts us an ensemble for the ages, led by its ferocious breakout Mikey Madison as Ani, the one who falls hard for that spineless man-child Vanya, and soon comes to regret it. — Aisha Harris
Film
Dahomey
Les Films du Bal / Fanta Sy
French filmmaker Mati Diop’s latest blends documentary and dramatization to present a blunt indictment of history: France’s plundering of artifacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey, only a handful of which are finally being returned to modern-day Benin. The first act is told in voice-over from the perspective of one of those objects; the second act captures a spirited debate among university students in Benin about France’s repatriation. The entire exercise deftly interrogates the devastations of colonialism. — Aisha Harris
Film
Love Lies Bleeding
A24
Rose Glass’ weird, sexy, and ultra-violent thriller casts queer icon Kristen Stewart as Lou, a gruff gym owner in 1989 New Mexico. Her life’s turned upside down when hot body builder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) drifts through town on her way to a competition, and gets roped into Lou’s family drama. The leads have amazing chemistry, the synth-pop soundtrack is killer, and Ed Harris (playing Lou’s dad) is creepy as hell. Ideal double-feature: This and the Wachowskis’ 1996 erotic neo-noir Bound. — Aisha Harris
Film
Sing Sing
A24
Inspired by a long-running arts program at the infamous maximum-security prison, there are many ways this drama could’ve turned out reductive and tired. But it sidesteps them all beautifully, with help from Colman Domingo, giving one of the best performances of the year. Even more notably, it features moving turns from formerly incarcerated men, and those men drew on their own experiences to help tell a story that finds humanity in a place designed to do the exact opposite. — Aisha Harris
Film
Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat
Kino Lorber
In Johan Grimonprez’s electrifying Cold War documentary there are no talking heads, only the words of global leaders like Nikita Khrushchev, and the sounds of jazz luminaries like Louis Armstrong. The astoundingly edited archival footage unpacks the international plot to assassinate Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba – and reveals how the U.S. State Department dispatched its unwitting jazz ambassadors to Africa as a means of distraction from the coup that was underway in the Congo. — Aisha Harris
Film
The Room Next Door
El Deseo/Sony Pictures Classics
In Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, Martha (Tilda Swinton) and Ingrid (Julianne Moore) are long lost friends who reconnect after Martha is diagnosed with a terminal illness. The director has adapted Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through for his first English-language feature, and none of his renowned sensibilities are lost in translation. Swinton and Moore are unsurprisingly captivating here, and the collaboration brings to life a sweet and wistful meditation on death and friendship. — Aisha Harris
Film
Tuesday
A24
Daina O. Pusić’s impressive directorial debut is a big swing that connects on every level, if you allow it to. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives a career-best performance as Zora, a single mother living with her terminally ill daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). One day, Tuesday is visited by death in the form of a talking parrot who can change size, voiced in a magnificent baritone by Arinzé Kene. Zora tries everything to keep him at bay, but is forced to confront her greatest fear. Have tissues ready. — Aisha Harris
TV
Industry Season 3
Simon Ridgway/HBO
After bubbling under the radar, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay’s pulpy melodrama finally had its Brat moment, and it couldn’t have happened in a more bonkers season. The fictional investment bank Pierpoint faced rocky institutional challenges, while Gen Z upstarts Yas (Marisa Abela), Harper (Myha’la), and Robert (Harry Lawtey) all encountered death in a myriad of ways. In a show about strivers, there were obvious winners and losers; by the end of the season, it was less clear who, if anyone, maintained any semblance of a soul. — Aisha Harris
TV
Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show
HBO
Any therapist worth their salt would strongly advise against coercing estranged family members to help process your childhood trauma for a prestige docuseries. But Jerrod Carmichael admits that the camera has always been his security blanket, and for that, we get this fascinating, maddening portrait of a Black queer artist who wants desperately to repair his familial relationships. It’s unclear whether this was good for Carmichael, but it just might have helped someone else watching at home. — Aisha Harris
TV
Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special
JC Olivera/Getty Images
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t all that long ago, but the passage of time can lend itself to forgetting or ignoring. Rachel Bloom’s poignant special is a necessary reminder that the scars from that period never fully disappear. In it, through humor and musical numbers (of course), and with a little help from a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend co-star, she candidly addresses becoming a mother in the early days of lockdown and the sudden passing of her friend and collaborator Adam Schlesinger. — Aisha Harris
TV
A Man on the Inside
Colleen E. Hayes/Netflix
Michael Schur knows how to balance heartwarming comedy with sharp, irreverent observations, and this project is no different. Here he reteams up with his The Good Place star Ted Danson, who plays Charles, a lonely retired widower hired by a private investigator to be a mole at a senior living facility. Charles is meant to be on the hunt for stolen jewelry, but he befriends the quirky residents while learning to cope with aging and grief. Great cast (including Sally Struthers!), delightful, and moving. — Aisha Harris
Film
Dune: Part Two
Warner Bros. Pictures
Dune: Part Two delivered what we expect of a sci-fi epic – big stakes, big conflicts, big explosions – but it did it all in a clear and rigorously consistent visual language that served the story. Even in the biggest battle scenes, Villaneuve’s camera kept us focused on what matters most – the human cost of it all. He closed in on eyes, hands, on individual bodies in motion. At the same time, the sequel added texture by undercutting the first film’s Chosen One storyline in a satisfying way. — Glen Weldon
Film
I Saw the TV Glow
A24
The premise of this film is cool – teens obsessed with a Buffy-esque television show realize it isn’t just a TV show — but it’s the film’s otherworldly vibe that haunts you. Justice Smith plays a kid who knows they’re trapped in a world, and in a body, where they don’t belong, but they refuse to take action — they’re a hero who never accepts the quest. Yet the film ends on a note of hope – we watch them spiral into despair, but a message chalked on the street reminds them (and us): It’s not too late. — Glen Weldon
Film
Kinds of Kindness
Searchlight Pictures
The title of Yorgos Lanthimos’ anthology film is ironic, because if these three short stories have anything in common, it’s their depiction of cruelty in various forms: A boss and his employee are locked in a psychosexual relationship. A man becomes convinced his wife is an imposter. And a woman in a cult is confronted by her former life. Lanthimos’ outlook on humanity is, as ever, a bleakly funny one, and here he’s dispassionately showing us the violent extremes we all too easily resort to. — Glen Weldon
Film
Problemista
A24
Julio Torres wrote and directed this gently odd film about a would-be toy designer who takes a gig as personal assistant to a frazzled art critic played, with finely-wrought ferocity, by Tilda Swinton. The comedy targets are broad – institutions like banks, credit card companies, and the U.S. immigration system – but the jokes themselves are precise and perfect, from the light on Swinton’s phone (it’s always on), to the numerous sketchy side-hustles Torres’ character throws himself into. — Glen Weldon
Film
The Substance
MUBI
As satire, The Substance’s subjects feel broad and dated – a daytime aerobics show, and the ratings thereof, are the scaffolding upon which hangs our tale – but the result is a gloriously grotesque gobbet of body-horror camp. Demi Moore plays a youth-obsessed TV aerobics instructor who takes a black market drug that grows a younger her (Margaret Qualley) straight from her body, in a hilariously squelchy fashion. It’s a funny, angry movie with absolutely no use for subtlety or nuance, and you gotta respect that. — Glen Weldon
TV
Agatha All Along
Disney+
The best Marvel TV show (WandaVision) got the best follow-up to date, as the great Kathryn Hahn reprised her role as the evil (or at least wildly self-involved) witch, Agatha Harkness. From the Mare of Easttown parody that kicked off the season, to the brilliant and moving episode which sent Patti freaking LuPone’s Lilia ping-ponging through her own memories, AAA delivered a small, specific and highly idiosyncratic peek into one dark corner of the Marvel Universe. — Glen Weldon
TV
Fantasmas
HBO
Gay hamsters. A cowgirl toilet. A litigious North Pole elf. Julio Torres’ comedy series Fantasmas is ostensibly about his character’s search for an earring he lost at a NYC nightclub. But it’s also stuffed with absurd characters and situations that have no business cohering — that would, on any other show, fight for our attention. Not so here, because every aspect first passes through the filter of Torres’ comic sensibility. Happily, that sensibility turns out to be an offbeat and idiosyncratic one. — Glen Weldon
TV
Interview with the Vampire Season 2
Larry Horricks/AMC
AMC’s smart, thrilling and gratifyingly queer version of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles improves on the books in ways large and small. Season 2 proved that while the chemistry between Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Lestat (Sam Reid) crackles, the show still works even when they’re apart. Credit the writers for finding new tensions between the cast to play with, especially Daniel (Eric Bogosian) and Armand (Assad Zaman), who each know more than they’re saying. — Glen Weldon
TV
The Penguin
HBO
On the surface, it’s still yet another Batman-without-Batman show. But spend even a few minutes with it, and it starts to reveal new, satisfying depths. The central performances of Colin Farrell (as mob underboss Oz Cobb) and Cristin Milioti (as the would-be head of a crime family) are given room to breathe, and complicate, and surprise. The world of Gotham is pulpy but psychologically complex in ways that have nothing to do with a weirdo who dresses up at night to punch crime in the face. — Glen Weldon
TV
What We Do in the Shadows Season 6
Russ Martin/FX
The funniest show on TV – FX’s vampire mockumentary – is going out with a bang, as the world’s most feckless vamps are seized with a renewed sense of purpose. Their new focus takes them variously into corporate America, monster-making, flailing attempts at world conquest and (shudder) the world of Airbnb. These characters aren’t the sort to learn and change, but the final season is making room for small moments of sweetness amid the ever-growing body count. — Glen Weldon
Film
Challengers
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
The buzz about Challengers gave the impression that the movie was sexy — which it is. But this study of three people who love and hate each other is a lot more than that. Zendaya does great work as a former tennis phenom who now coaches her husband (Mike Faist). And when her former love (Josh O’Connor), who’s also a hotshot in the sport, reappears in their lives, everything goes haywire. A pounding score, adventurous editing and one of the smartest weird endings in recent memory completes a movie not quite like any other. — Linda Holmes
Film
Girls State
Apple TV+
The 2020 documentary Boys State followed high school students who create a mock government, complete with campaigning and fiery speeches. This year, Girls State showed a parallel program, but with a very different feel. Here, the girls talk about reproductive rights, what it even means to be political – and about why the program for boys seems to be so clearly favored over theirs. It isn’t always easy to watch, but seeing how these girls think about leadership is fascinating. — Linda Holmes
Film
His Three Daughters
Sam Levy/Netflix
Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne play three sisters who come together in their father’s apartment as he’s dying. Not only are all of the actors as brilliant as you’d expect, but the movie is beautifully observed as these women cope with the way a parent’s death can both strengthen and threaten sibling relationships that have been complicated for decades. The film plays close attention to the roles of guilt and obligation, as well as the blessing of simply being present for people. — Linda Holmes
Film
The Fall Guy
Universal Pictures
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt sparkle in this very funny, loosey-goosey love letter to stunt performers. Barely based on the ‘80s TV series with the same name, the film stars Gosling as a stuntman working on a set with his ex as she directs her first big movie. He wants to do a great job for her (and maybe win her back), but he gets drawn into a strange mystery involving her leading man. Buoyant and hilarious and made with nothing but good vibes, The Fall Guy was the action rom-com every summer needs. — Linda Holmes
Film
Woman of the Hour
Leah Gallo/Netflix
Anna Kendrick directed and stars in this tense thriller based on the true story of a serial killer who made an appearance on The Dating Game — and won a date. Kendrick plays an actress who goes on the show — reluctantly at first — and ultimately trusts her gut enough to call off her date with a guy who might otherwise have killed her. While this is a true crime story, it’s really about the many ways that violence is facilitated by systems that rarely face consequences. — Linda Holmes
TV
Disclaimer
Apple TV+
Cate Blanchett is dynamite as a woman who receives a mysterious self-published novel in the mail and realizes the story is based on a terrible memory she’s tried to forget. She struggles to keep the incident from resurfacing and destroying her life with her husband and son, while unbeknownst to her, the man who sent the book to her (Kevin Kline) closes in. The series explores the slipperiness of what’s true and false, and the notion that people live in different realities based on the information they have. — Linda Holmes
TV
Hacks Season 3
HBO Max
This may have been the strongest season yet of Hacks, because it stepped away from the idea that Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) are constantly at war and made them — for now — allies and friends. The sharpness of the dialogue continues to delight, and the fact that both women are lovable and flawed (and less mean to each other) goes a long way. While a twist at the end of the season seems to risk a disappointing reset in their relationship, this show has earned the benefit of the doubt. — Linda Holmes
TV
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Prime Video
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine have developed distinct comic identities, including on their respective shows Atlanta and PEN15. Here, they play a pair of spies who don’t know each other but are recruited for a project that sends them undercover, posing as a married couple. As they complete missions, a real relationship emerges, but it’s constantly imperiled by all that they don’t know about each other. A cool and sexy comedy-drama-thriller that’s delicious throughout. — Linda Holmes
TV
Ripley
Netflix
This new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley relied on outstanding work from star Andrew Scott as well as stunning black-and-white cinematography. This is an older, darker Tom than the one Matt Damon played in 1999, but he’s just as frightening and manipulative. A stretch of almost 20 wordless minutes in the third episode that deals with the logistics of murder was one of the most inventive and darkly funny things I saw this year. — Linda Holmes
TV
Baby Reindeer
Ed Miller/Netflix
Star and creator Richard Gadd turned his autobiographical one-man-show into an affecting nightmare of a series about a delusional woman who stalks a bartender and terrible aspiring comic. Where it gets complicated is in the details, including the fact that Gadd’s character was sexually abused by a male mentor in ways that reverberate through his life, raising questions about his own actions and the long reach of trauma. On top of all that, a woman who says she inspired the show’s stalker character has sued. — Eric Deggans
TV
Fight Night: Million Dollar Heist
Fernando Decillis/Peacock
Pulling together a blaxploitation-inspired, gangster-fueled series with heavyweights like Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Hart is an achievement. But using them to tell the true story of the dopest heist you never heard of – when powerful Black gangsters got robbed after watching a 1970 Muhammad Ali fight in Atlanta? With Jackson as a fire-breathing Black Godfather and Hart as a fast-talking hustler? That is pure, uncut TV genius. — Eric Deggans
TV
Photographer
Anand Varma
For those tempted to dismiss National Geographic shows as televised coffee table books, this series shatters those assumptions with revealing tales on the lives and work of seven astoundingly talented visual artists. My favorite story: Paul Nicklen, who was raised among Inuit people in the Arctic, and Cristina Mittermeier, who grew up in Mexico City and faced down racism and sexism throughout her career, have become a couple hailed as iconic ocean photographers, fooling oil rig workers to get crucial, breathtaking photos. — Eric Deggans
TV
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV
Warner Bros
It was inevitable that the flurry of documentaries revisiting ‘90s pop culture would reach Nickelodeon’s kids TV empire. Investigation Discovery’s series explored allegations of toxic work environments fostered by superstar producer Dan Schneider on series like All That and The Amanda Show. It also sparked headlines as former Drake & Josh star Drake Bell detailed the sexual abuse he suffered by a dialogue coach at the channel. (Schneider has since apologized for some behavior, but also denied other allegations and sued the series producers and Warner Bros. Discovery for defamation, claiming the show unfairly implies he was involved in abuse.) — Eric Deggans
TV
Shōgun
Katie Yu/FX
This was the biggest swing the TV industry took this year: A sprawling series, set in feudal Japan, centered on the politics of the time, while de-centering the perspective of the British sailor at the heart of the James Clavell novel and 1980 miniseries. Thanks to towering performances from Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada, along with note-perfect work from an army of writers, artisans and technicians, Shōgun is an affecting, landmark drama about duty, love, culture and changing times. — Eric Deggans
TV
Shrinking Season 2
Apple TV+
This affecting comedy moved beyond the simple pleasures of its first season, which unleashed ace players like Jessica Williams and Michael Urie while deftly leveraging Harrison Ford’s legendary crustiness. For Season 2, we got a potent take on forgiveness, as Jason Segel’s psychotherapist character meets the guy who killed his wife in a drunk driving accident, played by Ted Lasso alum Bret Goldstein. That doesn’t sound particularly sidesplitting, that’s true. But somehow, they found the funny to accompany the painful reach toward acceptance. — Eric Deggans
TV
Slow Horses Season 4
Apple TV+
No other series on TV can make as much out of a fart joke. But it’s not just the flatulence from Gary Oldman’s deliberately slovenly MI-5 agent Jackson Lamb that is so compelling; it’s how he uses that sloppiness to disguise his dedication to the misfit agents under his command, especially Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright. When River’s granddad, a magnetic Jonathan Pryce, is caught in crisis while suffering dementia, the only thing that could ratchet up the drama actually happens: Hugo Weaving appears as River’s toxic dad. — Eric Deggans
TV
The Diplomat Season 2
Alex Bailey/Netflix
Set in a fantasy world where hyper-competent government officials fight disaster free of toxic partisan politics, Netflix’s series found new territory this year. West Wing alum Allison Janney was a surprisingly sharp vice president, complicating efforts by Keri Russell’s no-nonsense ambassador to uncover a conspiracy inside the British government. With scene-stealing performances from Rory Kinnear as the U.K.’s insufferable prime minister, it all built to a diabolically transformative twist ending. — Eric Deggans
TV
True Detective: Night Country
HBO
Rising above this anthology’s inconsistent history and some inexplicably ungrateful critiques from its creator, Nic Pizzolatto, director/showrunner Issa López crafted a brilliant fourth season centered on indigenous culture and women, while tipping a hat to the origins of a notoriously male-centered franchise. López also gave us the spellbinding team of Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as two misanthropic officers forced to rely on each other in a way that was groundbreaking and indelible. — Eric Deggans
Film
A Real Pain
Searchlight Pictures
Filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg cast himself and Succession’s Kieran Culkin as cousins in an uproarious – and ultimately rending – odd-couple road-trip comedy based on his own family’s history. On a Holocaust tour of Poland, they trade quips and memories while looking for their late grandmother’s home (shot at a house once owned by Eisenberg’s family). Opinions will differ as to which cousin is the bigger pain in A Real Pain, but by the end Eisenberg’s made sure that you’re feeling both of them. — Bob Mondello
Film
Didi
Focus Features
An awkward 13-year-old befriends some older cool kids by claiming to be expert at filming skateboarders in Sean Wang’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age dramedy. He does not, in fact, know his way around a camera … yet, though Wang clearly learned. The film’s portrait of being the kid brother in an immigrant family has plenty to say about social media changes and cultural identity, and ends up feeling a lot like its pintsized hero – cute, charming, exasperating, promising. — Bob Mondello
Film
Emilia Pérez
Shanna Besson/Netflix
Jacques Audiard‘s offbeat, genre-defying musical thriller involves a lawyer (Zoe Saldana) hired to help a ruthless cartel boss make a clean break from a life of crime and also from life as a man. (Karla Sofía Gascón, who is trans herself, plays both the before and after.) Gunshot-riddled and sometimes campy, the film is hardly a model of sensitivity – it trades in stereotypes about Mexico, and reduces the trans journey to a plot device. But it’s fervent about showbiz, and anchored by Gascón’s downright charismatic title character. — Bob Mondello
Film
Flow
Janus Films
Near the outset of Gints Zilbalodis’ exquisite animated feature, a grey cat is swept up by a flood that seems to have whisked away all of humanity, and finds itself marooned with a few other animals on a tiny ark of sorts. Telling a story of cross-species cooperation in the face of a climate crisis, the filmmaker works miracles with computer graphics sending what look like hand-drawn animals into gorgeously photorealistic backgrounds. Playful enough to delight kids, yet sure to intrigue adults. — Bob Mondello
Film
Kneecap
Helen Sloan/Sony Pictures Classics
Imagine a politicized cross between The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night and an Irish version of Trainspotting. Though their story is fictionalized, Kneecap is a real Irish-language hip-hop group who play themselves through sex scenes, police beatings and drug-fueled jam sessions. The film is raunchy, often a riot, and steeped in the anger of the troubled Ireland the Kneecap lads inherited. Releasing the softer power of their own pop culture revolution, they opt for change without casualties. — Bob Mondello
Film
My Old Ass
Amazon MGM Studios
A teen (Maisy Stella) meets her wisecracking, advice-dispensing 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) while tripping on mushrooms in Megan Park’s amusingly resonant coming-of-age rom-com. The time travel initially seems like a gimmick, but it sets up the realization that the exciting cusp of adulthood is also a moment of loss. Filled with the energy and spirit of youth, it’ll definitely strike chords in more mature audiences, however old their derrieres. — Bob Mondello
Film
Nickel Boys
Orion Pictures
The story of two teens trying to survive a racist Jim Crow-era reform school is adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel, and told in RaMell Ross’ piercingly moving film entirely from alternating characters’ points-of-view. That is, we see what each person sees, and in those moments, we don’t see the person himself. For audiences brought up reading emotions in on-screen faces, this is crazily disorienting. It also proves a bizarrely effective way to make an audience walk a mile in a character’s shoes. — Bob Mondello
Film
The Brutalist
Lol Crawley/A24
The first half of Brady Corbet’s magnificent epic is so persuasively authentic, I spent the intermission (yup, it’s a briskly watchable 3 ½ hours) Googling to find out which majestic brutalist project Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrian Brody) is building. It doesn’t exist, but if it did, it would be fashioned of concrete, tears, and blood. Gorgeous, conceptually stunning, and dizzying in its savagery about cracks in the foundation of the American dream. — Bob Mondello
Film
The Piano Lesson
David Lee/Netflix
Denzel Washington’s passion project is filming all ten plays in August Wilson’s monumental Century Cycle. This year, while Machiavelling in Gladiator II, he turned sons Malcolm (director) and John David (charismatic leading man) loose on the most supernatural of the ten – the saga of an upright piano carved with the history of an enslaved family, and the meanings it has for the current generation, from sacred to sellable. Warm, funny, heartbreaking, and the language sings. — Bob Mondello
Film
Thelma
Magnolia Pictures
A phone scammer (Malcolm McDowell) gets more than he bargained for when he dupes June Squibb’s 93-year-old title character in the most Sundance-ian comedy since Little Miss Sunshine. Thelma’s family is appalled when she pays a ransom for a grandson (Gladiator II emperor Fred Hechinger) who’s not actually kidnapped. But the frailties of age barely slow Thelma down as she enlists the aid (and electric mobility scooter) of old pal Richard Roundtree, and sets off on a geriatric Mission Impossible. — Bob Mondello
Film
The Wild Robot
Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation
One of the most gorgeous movies of the year, and also one of the most affecting. Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) is a robot who washes up on an island’s shore. At first, her presence unwittingly wreaks havoc on the animal population, but over time, she adopts an orphaned gosling (Kit Connor) and befriends a wily fox (Pedro Pascal). Kids will find much to love and be entertained by here, but the story’s themes on parenthood and the existential questions the movie raises will resonate for the adults. — Aisha Harris
Film
September 5
Paramount Pictures
An ABC Sports crew accustomed to covering volleyball and swimming competitions was the only news organization with cameras on the scene when terrorists struck the 1972 Munich Olympics. The logistics of how they went live globally in a pre-digital age, working with walkie-talkies, enormous studio camera rigs, and journalistic smarts, makes for riveting cinema in German director Tim Fehlmaum’s down-to-earth thriller. — Bob Mondello
Film
Nosferatu
Focus Features
Ravishing, repulsive, erotic, mesmerizing – Robert Eggers’ feverish take on the Dracula legend is a film possessed. It nods to previous versions, but claims Bram Stoker’s tale for a new era with deep shadows, plagues of rodents, suffocating atmospherics, and performers (Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, and Nicholas Hoult) who seem to open fresh veins of passion in every line. — Bob Mondello
Film
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
NEON
Blending real footage of Tehran street violence with the story of a family exploding from misogyny and mistrust, Mohammad Rasoulof has created a searing thriller that’s also a metaphor for a nation coming apart. Given the constraints – ever scrutinized by Iranian authorities, he directed from afar as his crew shot in secret – this production counts as near-miraculous. (Rasoulof fled the country as the film was about to premiere at Cannes, having been sentenced to flogging and eight years in prison). — Bob Mondello