Although not exactly emotionally resonant, Joel Coen’s adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s seminal texts is as dark and brooding as they come, a unique balance of theatrical artifice and cinematic vision.
Any film about the Holocaust is always essential viewing—this Oscar-winning documentary details the testimonies of five Hungarian Jews who survived the concentration camps during the time when the Nazis brutally intensified their extermination plan despite knowing they were losing the war.
An extraordinary work of hard-hitting social realism that recalls the Dardennes’ ‘Rosetta’ and Mungiu’s ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’, set in the harsh wintry conditions of Moscow as a young Kyrgyz woman abandons her baby to find work to pay off insurmountable debts.
Stillman’s accomplished comedy (his debut feature) tackles a particular class milieu in America—what the young, well-to-do Manhattanites deem as ‘urban haute bourgeoisie’—with a wry and sardonic tone that is uniquely his.
Inspired by Kiarostami’s ‘Taste of Cherry‘, this standout American indie about a young effervescent Senegalese taxi driver befriending a suicidal old man features two extraordinary, emotionally affecting performances from Souleymane Sy Savane and Red West.
The Oscar-winning directors of ‘Free Solo’ tackle with lucidity and suspense the incredible international rescue efforts of a group of Thai boys trapped deep in a flooded cave back in 2018.
Visually engaging, narratively sparse and occasionally surreal, this unique portrait of the lonely and the poor through the nearly silent interactions between a Nigerian man and four Vietnamese women ultimately peters out.
This quaint self-reflective piece by Oliveira doesn’t always work, but it is an introspective glimpse into the filmmaker’s mind, his life experiences and awareness of his mortality.
This is an extraordinary documentary about an even more astonishing feat of mankind—the landing on the Moon in 1969—primarily using archival footage, some never seen before, as it details the still mind-boggling journey, one suspenseful step at a time.
Wakamatsu mixes exploitative sex with subversive politics, but the film doesn’t really compel and is too long-winded.
Eternality Tan 