The Lesson
Dir. Alice Troughton & Female director
Appropriately for its literary focus, The Lesson feels, in places, like the gripping adaptation of a bestselling psychological thriller. Unfortunately,…
How to Have Sex
Dir. Molly Manning Walker
While named as a “how-to”, How to Have Sex is less of an instruction manual, and more of a collection…
Godland
Dir. Hlynur Palmason
On the one hand, Godland is a film about nature’s unforgiving beauty. Like the photographs the priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset…
Captain Miller
Dir. Arun Matheswaran
Set in the British colonial era, Captain Miller is more unapologetically violent than its counterparts, but it’s not mindlessly so.…
LaRoy, Texas
Dir. Shane Atkinson
Sometimes, especially when you’ve gone without it for so long, you would do anything for a shred of respect. LaRoy,…
Other People's Children
Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
Other People’s Children wrestles with some very tricky life experiences: bonding with a partner’s child in the agonizing knowledge that…
Murina
Dir. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
A young woman’s coming-of-age threatens to topple the uneasy hierarchy of her family in this striking debut from Croatian director…
The Ugly Stepsister
Dir. Emilie Blichfeldt & Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt
There are plenty of versions of the Cinderella story, but none as brutal and nauseating as The Ugly Stepsister. For…
Return to Seoul
Dir. Davy Chou
In both documentaries and films, adoptees meeting their biological parents for the first time is an event often painted in…
Rental Family
Dir. Hikari
Since the 1990s, Japan has offered the service of pretending to be one’s family, friend, or lover. Rental Family isn’t…
Our Father, the Devil
Dir. Ellie Foumbi
There are horrors in the world that people have faced, and if they survive, they live with the trauma for…
Rohan at the Louvre
Dir. Kazutaka Watanabe
As an adaptation of a story written to commemorate the Louvre’s comics-focused exhibit, Rohan at the Louvre expands the short…
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic
Dir. Teemu Nikki
You’ll probably never find a film like The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic. The camera is…
Utama
Dir. Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Before anything else, Utama will knock you off your feet with its breathtaking beauty. Set in the Bolivian highlands, it…
Luzzu
Dir. Alex Camilleri
In Luzzu, tradition and modernity — plus principles and necessity — come crashing up against each other like waves in…
Yuni
Dir. Kamila Andini
Education is a human right, but for many girls around the world, this isn’t necessarily guaranteed– especially if they want…
Small Things Like These
Dir. Tim Mielants
Small Things Like These is the kind of film that doesn’t have a grand resolution, a dramatic climax, or a…
The Duke
Dir. Roger Michell
In 1961, Francisco de Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington was stolen from London’s National Gallery, but the theft…