The Disappearance of Shere Hite
Dir. Nicole Newnham
Feminism has made plenty of strides in multiple areas, but even in the era of free love, talking about sex…
Bad Axe
Dir. David Siev
Bad Axe is an intimate documentary that follows the Sievs, a tight-knit family that runs a restaurant in the city…
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…
Three Identical Strangers
Dir. Tim Wardle
This is a documentary with a dark underbelly. When Bobby Shafran goes on his first day at college, everyone seems…
Undefeated
Dir. Daniel Lindsay & T. J. Martin
Undefeated won an Oscar but since it’s a documentary, few sadly paid attention to it. It tells the story of…
Beijing Watermelon
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
Kindness is universally considered as a virtue, but so too is it considered a weakness– Reciprocation isn’t necessarily guaranteed and…
The Tracker
Dir. Rolf de Heer
At first, The Tracker seemed to be a straightforward Australian Western with three white men tracking down a murderer, with…
Chinese Odyssey 2002
Dir. Jeff Lau Chun-Wai & Jeffrey Lau
While produced by Wong Kar Wai, Chinese Odyssey 2002 isn’t a moody, melancholy drama that we’re used to. Instead, the…
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Dir. Paul Schrader
Shattering the rules for how a biographical drama can look and be told, Paul Schrader’s Mishima rejects the usual character…
Sidewalls
Dir. Gustavo Taretto
A Spanish 500 Days of Summer mixed with a more urban and up to date You’ve Got Mail. I liked…
King Creole
Dir. Michael Curtiz
While best known for his music, Elvis Presley occasionally appeared on film, mostly, of course, in roles that got him…
Raining Stones
Dir. Ken Loach
Light-hearted and compassionate, Raining Stones is one of Ken Loach’s lesser-known films. It’s also one of his funniest, telling the…
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…
Bottle Rocket
Dir. Wes Anderson
Before he developed his signature dollhouse visual style, Wes Anderson made his feature debut with this lowkey, heartwarming, and decidedly…
We Are the Best!
Dir. Lukas Moodysson
We Are the Best! is one movie that may be overlooked largely by viewers, though it perfectly captures counterculture, and relates to…
Hard Eight
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Already featuring some of the desperation and melancholy that would go on to characterize most of his work, Paul Thomas…
Night on Earth
Dir. Jim Jarmusch
An absolute delight of a gem starring a young Winona Ryder as well as an amazing cast. Arguably Jim Jarmusch’s…
Read My Lips
Dir. Jacques Audiard
In my own wished-for parallel universe, French actors Vincent Cassell and Emanuelle Devos are voted the sexiest actors alive. I…
Vagabond
Dir. Agnès Varda
Even before Agnès Varda pivoted to documentary filmmaking, she was a pioneer of French cinema. Her film Sans toit ni…
Bagdad Café
Dir. Percy Adlon
This quirky 1988 adventure drama is newly available on Amazon Prime. It’s the classic that never was, the story of…