Our take
This exploration of the complex and loving relationship between a mother and her son will take you through a variety of emotions: it’s uplifting, disturbing, provocative, sad, and hopeful. We don’t get many of these middle-class-budget films anymore, and this one might be one of the category’s best.
A kidnapped girl (Brie Larson) has a son after being raped by her abductor. She tries to provide a “normal” environment for the kid in the room where they’re being held captive until they can escape. Brie Larson won an Oscar for Best Actress in Room, so make sure to also check out Short Term 12, an equally impressive performance by her in an equally amazing movie.
What it won
Other
1 nom
The story
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Elsewhere
"Room ... is not a thriller, but a moving feminist tract which explores questions of what it means to be a mother, what it means to give love, and what it means to receive it."
— David Jenkins
"Room is astonishing: It transmutes a lurid, true-crime situation into a fairy tale in which fairy tales are a source of survival."
— David Edelstein
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Bilal Zouheir is the founder of A Good Movie to Watch. He is based in the US and a member of the Nevada Film Critics Society. He grew up in Morocco, where he learned English from watching movies. Bilal's work with A Good Movie to Watch is focused on offering an alternative to streaming algorithms, which are often used as commercial tools by streaming services.
