The Best Movies to Watch by Jennifer Jason Leigh

Possessor announces a visionary new voice in Brandon Cronenberg, and is one to watch for the concept alone, brilliantly melding science fiction and horror into one. Cronenberg’s direction is reminiscent of a cross between Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, but has more than enough originality to stand well on its own. […]

A fast-paced thriller, and “actually dangerous” movie as envisioned by its directors, Good Time is about a bank robbery gone wrong and one brother trying to get his other brother out of jail in its aftermath. It’s a deep and fast dive into New York’s criminal underworld that will not give you the time to […]

Everybody loves a good coming-of-age movie, but they have their trappings. Their youthful characters are often cartoonish, or perfect, or insanely inept. This is where The Spectacular Now achieves something that is indeed spectacular: it feels incredibly real. The film features Miles Teller (from Whiplash) as a charming, but slightly lost, heavily partying high-school senior […]

Putting the inherent eeriness of stop motion animation to perfect use, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Anomalisa create a legitimately disturbing experience of a man’s paranoid delusions, as he tries desperately to make a real human connection while perceiving everyone around him as the same person. It’s that (unfortunately) rare animated film that understands that […]

On the surface, Fast Times at Ridgemont High looks like a raunchy teen film. It’s best known for that one scene of Phoebe Cates emerging from the pool in her red suit, and for Sean Penn’s perennially baked character. But to say that it’s a sex comedy, and not much else, is a disservice to […]

Raymond Carver’s short stories don’t just come to life in Robert Altman’s poignant adaptation of middle-class malaise: they intertwine seamlessly, so much so that it only takes a few minutes for the film’s setting to feel familiar, like you’ve been to this part of LA and seen these people in the peripheral your whole life. […]