Love Story
Let’s get this out of the way: Love Story isn’t an accurate retelling of the marriage between John F. Kennedy…
Four Daughters
Dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
Normally, a film like this would be a straightforward documentary with archival footage and key interviews with experts in the…
303
Dir. Hans Weingartner
A sweet and romantic German movie about two Berliners who meet randomly and go on a road trip to the…
Howards End
Is a TV adaptation necessary when we already have a novel and film version of Howards End? Probably not, but…
The Mission
Dir. Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss
In this documentary about John Allen Chau — the American Christian missionary reportedly killed when he tried to preach the…
Minari
Dir. Lee Isaac Chung
Minari is a film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, about a Korean-American family in search of the so-called…
12 Angry Men
Dir. William Friedkin
Even a director of William Friedkin’s caliber had his work cut out for him with this remake of the towering…
Spellbound
Dir. Jeffrey Blitz
There’s a natural competitive thrill to this chronicle of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee and eight of its bright…
My Life as a Dog
Dir. Lasse Hallström
This Swedish surprise hit captivated viewers across the Atlantic because of one thing: the lead’s perspective. Okay, well, the performances…
Tender Mercies
Dir. Bruce Beresford
Tender Mercies is mostly a musical drama. There’s no score at all, only performances of guitar-strung songs, mostly original, which…
The Sweet Hereafter
Dir. Atom Egoyan
The Sweet Hereafter is the kind of movie that feels very different from the one you might imagine when reading…
Fargo
Taking the violence and offbeat comedy of the original movie and adding constantly expanding narratives on top of it, Noah…
A Woman Under the Influence
Dir. John Cassavetes
It’s been decades since director John Cassavetes released this film about a dysfunctional marriage and family, yet it still feels…
Atlantic City
Dir. Louis Malle
At first glance, Atlantic City is indistinguishable from most other crime films. It’s led by a charming gangster (Burt Lancaster)…
The Brutalist
Dir. Brady Corbet
Just a few minutes in, you can already feel the immensity of The Brutalist. The rousing score stirs you. The…
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Dir. Héctor Babenco
Sometimes, all you need to make a good movie is to get two vastly different characters and force them to…
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Dir. Richard Brooks
Given the Hays Code, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has toned down an important part from the original play,…
Reversal of Fortune
Dir. Barbet Schroeder
This gripping legal drama is based on a case we still don’t know the truth of — which might make…
Foxcatcher
Dir. Bennett Miller
From the director of Moneyball, Foxcatcher is a true-story-based thriller centered around Olympic wrestlers and brothers Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and…
Quiz Show
Dir. Robert Redford
Long before we became accustomed to oxymorons like “scripted reality” shows, there was a time when viewers could expect to…
Belfast
Dir. Kenneth Branagh
Belfast stars Outlander’s Caitríona Balfe as the mother of a working-class Northern Irish family during The Troubles. Religious tension and…
The Last Picture Show
Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
These days, most coming-of-age films tend to have a comic or hopeful tone to them. It’s hard being a teenager,…
Short Cuts
Dir. Robert Altman
Raymond Carver’s short stories don’t just come to life in Robert Altman’s poignant adaptation of middle-class malaise: they intertwine seamlessly,…