A reimagination of Oz through the lens of ‘70s New York, blending dazzling production design with soulful and disco-infused music, as an all-Black cast led by Diana Ross and a young Michael Jackson take center stage.
Hovering between introspection and narcissism, Allen channels Fellini’s ‘8½’ in this self-reflexive work that sees a filmmaker at his own retrospective wrestling with fans, fame and failed relationships, shot artfully by the great Gordon Willis.
This confirms Aster as one of America’s most provocative auteurs, as he uses a fictional town on the brink of the coronavirus to capture the post-2020 zeitgeist of rage-baiting politics, the toxicity of social media and post-truth nihilism, backed by a sensational turn by Joaquin Phoenix.
The US version features clunky news segments that spell out the spectacle, but when the two kaijus are pitted like pro-wrestlers with comical moves, the movie somewhat works on a childlike level with its reliance on rear projection and miniature toys.
Cox’s astonishing genre-bending masterpiece satirically and anachronistically lays bare the dark shadow of American imperialism across time, shot in Nicaragua during the Contra War, and featuring Ed Harris as 19th-century mercenary leader William Walker.
Despite its lack of style and the textbook-esque approach to conventional documentary filmmaking, this is quite rightly one of the finest of its kind—a galvanising and sensitive work on the LGBTQ legacy of Harvey Milk and his tragic assassination.
Welles’ butchered studio film remains a remarkable showcase of his storytelling prowess, one that is haunted by deep regrets and vicious jealousies, as an aristocratic family faces inevitable decline in a modernising world.
Cuaron’s first Hollywood project is shot like a fairy tale, adopting a child’s imaginative perspective, as she must try to find a way to adapt to worsening personal circumstances in a boarding school run by a mean-spirited headmistress.
Beers, drugs, hazing rituals, and unchecked rebelliousness mark the last day of high school circa May 1976, Texas, as Linklater expertly drops us in the middle of the chaos, with a killer rock soundtrack to boot.
Borden’s radical ‘sci-fi documentary’, put together in a gritty, agitprop style, imagines an alternate universe USA, where black lesbian ‘terrorists’ fight for justice for women and the oppressed.
Eternality Tan 