Misunderstood when first released, this is one of Assayas’ most prophetic works, a cyber spy-thriller dealing with corporate espionage in the disturbing milieu of the burgeoning dark web and manga porn.
There is a kind of wide-eyed charm in seeing Haroun’s accessible early effort unfold as two boys try to find their missing father who inexplicably leaves the family one day.
Favouring a gritty aesthetic, Park’s ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’ first instalment of his Vengeance trilogy is a brutal and convoluted tragedy of interlocking fates as a child kidnapping goes awry.
Soderbergh’s take pales in comparison to Tarkovsky’s superior 1972 adaptation—it feels too cold and lacklustre overall though it does grow more inwardly emotional by its final act.
Spielberg’s biopic about one of America’s most notoriously successful conmen might seem like a breezy affair with largely captivating performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, but it does overstay its welcome at some point.
Featuring one of A.R. Rahman’s most outstanding songs (the title track), this is a generally solid work from Mani Ratnam about the complicated dynamics of family, with parts of it set against the context of Sri Lankan militancy.
Fantasy encroaches into reality in this slight if charming little anime from Studio Ghibli that might just finally make non-feline lovers realise why cats are to be fussed about.
One of the defining highlights of the New French Extremity canon, Noe’s reverse-chronological film about the repugnant extremes of toxic masculinity belies the fact that it is not just an incredible work of formal brilliance but a deeply human treatise on the permanence of action and consequence.
It runs a little out of steam by the end, but Kiarostami’s breakthrough experiment with the digital video camera is a revelation as the private, unfiltered conversations in a car become wrestling bouts against patriarchy, served with ten ‘dings’ of the bell.
This underrated Philip K. Dick adaptation is an absolute sci-fi gem by Spielberg and a legitimate contender for the most entertaining, cerebral sci-fi thriller of the 2000s decade.
Eternality Tan 