Movie Lists

Thrillers free on Prime

by
Photo caption: RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

If you have Amazon Prime, you currently have free access to some top-rate thrillers:

Riders of Justice:  This overlooked gem finished #2 on my Best Movies of 2021. Mads Mikkelsen stars in a character-driven story that has been inadequately described as a revenge thriller and as an action comedy. It is gloriously satisfying as entertainment, but the more I think about it, Riders of Justice explores grief, revenge and mortality – they’re all in here. And it’s still very, very funny.

Locke: An extremely responsible guy (Tom Hardy) has made one mistake – and he’s trying to make it right. But trying to do the responsible thing in one part of your life can have uncomfortable consequences in the others. The title character drives all night trying to keep aspects of his life from crashing and burning. The story is actually a domestic drama – there are no explosions to dodge, no one in peril to rescue and no bad guys to dispatch. But it’s definitely a thriller because we care about whether Locke meets the two deadlines he will face early the next morning.

Blue Ruin: In this entirely fresh take on the revenge thriller, we are following a homeless man (Macon Blair) and observing his survival tactics; once we’re hooked, we learn that a traumatic incident led to his homelessness.  Then we watch him methodically prepare for an entirely different mission.  There is very little dialogue in the first 30 minutes.  And then we have 60 minutes of lethal cat-and-mouse, with intense suspense about which of the characters will survive and how.  As a thriller, this is first class.

The Hunt (Jagten): In a terrifyingly plausible story, Mads Mikkelsen plays a man whose life is ruined by a false claim of child sexual abuse. It’s a magnificent performance by Mikkelsen.

The Hit: Terence Stamp plays a London gangster who, after ratting out his colleagues, is ten years into a new life in sunny Spain. His former associates track him down and send a determined professional killer (John Hurt) and his goofy young sidekick (Tim Roth in his movie debut). A tense road trip ensues.

Terence Stamp in THE LIMEY

The Limey: This time, Terence Stamp plays a tenacious British hood who shows up in Los Angeles to investigate the death of his daughter. He suspects foul play on the part of a wealthy record producer (Peter Fonda) who hunkers down in a guarded compound in Big Sur.

The Last Seduction: I just wrote about this 1994 neo-noir as part of my The Last Movie Title series. Linda Fiorentino dazzles in a career-topping performance as delicious performance as a sociopath more outrageously devious than any character that Barbara Stanwyck, Audrey Trotter, Jane Greer or Claire Trevor ever got to play.

The Conversation: At the height of his powers, Francis Ford Coppola directed The Conversation in 1974 between The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, and The Conversation is every bit the masterwork as the others. In a role just as iconic as in The French Connection, Gene Hackman plays an audio surveillance expert entangled in a morally troubling assignment – and then obsessed. The most significant achievement in The Conversation, however, is the groundbreaking sound editing by Walter Murch. After experiencing The Conversation, you’ll never again overlook movie sound editing.

Gene Hackman in THE CONVERSATION

The Last Movie Title

by
Timothy Bottoms, Ben Johnson and Sam Bottoms in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

This will sound random – because it IS random. I realized that there have been a wide range of movies with “Last” in the title, and was surprised to learn that, since 2010, I had written about SEVENTEEN of them myself. What really struck me was how disproportionately good these “last” movies have been. Among the very best in their genres:

  • The Last Picture Show – among the most evocative coming of age dramas.
  • The Last of the Mohicans – on anybody’s short list of great adventure movies.
  • The Last Waltz – one of the top four concert films of all-time.
  • The Last Emperor – an epic that won Best Picture and nine total Oscars.

And then there’s The Last Detail (Jack Nicholson at the height pf his powers), The Last Samurai (Tom Cruise), The Last Movie Star (Burt Reynolds’ poignant farewell), The Last King of Scotland (Forest Whitaker won an Oscar), The Last Vermeer, Last Action Hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Suddenly Last Summer, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Last Days (with Michael Pitt’s haunting performance as the doomed Kurt Cobain). And Jeff Bridges followed The Last Picture Show with The Last Unicorn and The Last American Hero.

Just recently:

Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Rick Danko, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson in THE LAST WALTZ

Now, I must point out that there are “last” movies, even iconic ones, that I don’t like:

  • Last Tango in Paris: There’s no question that Marlon Brando’s performance as a man imploding in despair and self-loathing is one of most searing in cinema. But, ultimately, why should we care about him? After reading Maria Schneider’s account of the shoot, where Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci contrived a situation where she felt raped, I just can’t bring myself to watch it.
  • Last Year at Marienbad: it’s part of the cinema canon, but it’s so pretentiously abstruse that I’ve hated it since my college film class; four decades later, I watched it again to see whether I had missed something about it and I came to the same conclusion.
  • The Last Tycoon: This film had lots going for it – an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel directed by Eli Kazan, starring Robert De Niro and with a cast including Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell, Dana Andrews, Ray Milland, Peter Strauss, Donald Pleasance, Angelica Huston, John Carradine, Jeff Corey and Seymour Cassell. Unfortunately, the filmmakers bet big on Ingrid Boulting as an ingenue who would obsess De Niro’s studio exec, and she just wasn’t leading lady material. Boulting, a South African model, went on to make only two more forgettable features. I just rewatched The Last Tycoon, and it really drags,

But some of the “last” movies are grievously overlooked. So, over the next two weeks, I’ll be featuring four of the most underrated “last” movies, including, notably, The Last Movie itself.

Jonathan Majors and Jimmie Fails in THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO.
Photo: Peter Prato/A24

Best Movies of 2025 – So Far

by
Photo caption: Tao Zhao in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES: Photo courtesy of Janus Films.

I’ve posted my Best Movies of 2025 – So Far page. Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my list of Best Movies of 2024 and Best Movies of 2023. To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

Of course, I still haven’t seen many of the most promising movies still to be released, including Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Lynne Ramsey’s Die My Love, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-handed Girl, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 and the Palm d’Or winner at Cannes, It Was Just an Accident.

Here’s the first incarnation of this year’s list:

  • Caught by the Tides: China evolves, she persists. Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango, Criterion.
  • Pee-Wee as Himself: a man hidden in his own invention. HBO Max. (just won two Emmys for director Matt Wolf.)
  • Twinless: smart, funny, satisfying. In theaters.
  • No Sleep Till: turbulent weather, turbulent lives. Was in arthouses, streamed on Metrograph; will let you know when it streams

This year I’ve created an additional separate category in the list for those films that, to this point, haven’t been available to see in a theater or online. These are films that I’ve screened at US film festivals this year and qualify as among the best films of the year. I’m reluctant to tease my readers with a list of movies that they can’t see, so I created this new Festival Films category (follow the link and scroll down). When they get theatrical distribution or a streaming platform, I’ll move them up to the regular list.

Here’s the trailer for Caught by the Tides.

NYT’s The Best 100 Movies of the 21st Century (part 2)

by
Photo caption: Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD.

Earlier this week, I reveled in ruminating on the New York Times’ recently published The Best 100 Movies of the 21st Century. Of course, I can’t resist weighing in myself on the best movies of the century so far. I just couldn’t take the time to get to 100, but here are The Movie Gourmet’s 50 best movies of the 21st Century.

  1. Boyhood (2014, Richard Linklater, US)
  2. Parasite (2019, Bong Joon Ho, South Korea)
  3. 25th Hour (2002, Spike Lee, US)
  4. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch, US)
  5. Oppenheimer (2023, Christopher Nolan, US)
  6. Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet, France)
  7. Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyasaki, Japan)
  8. In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong)
  9. Best in Show (2000, Christopher Guest, US)
  10. Nomadland (2020, Chloe Zhao, US)
  11. Nope (2023, Jordan Peele, US)
  12. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino, US)
  13. Before Sunset and Before Midnight (2004 and 2013, Richard Linklater, US)
  14. Lost in Translation (2003, Sophia Coppola, US)
  15. Sideways (2004, Alexander Payne, US)
  16. Winter’s Bone (2010, Debra Granik, US)
  17. Stories We Tell (2012, Sarah Polley, Canada)
  18. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher, US)
  19. A Serious Man (2009, Joel and Ethan Coen, US)
  20. Barbie (2023, Greta Gerwig, US)
  21. Hell or High Water (2016, David Mackenzie, US)
  22. The Hurt Locker (2008, Kathryn Bigelow, US)
  23. Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg, US)
  24. Ex Machina (2014, Alex Garland, UK/US)
  25. The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion, New Zealand)
  26. Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuarón, US)
  27. Ida (2013, Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland)
  28. Shoplifters (2018, Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan)
  29. Million Dollar Baby (2004, Clint Eastwood, US)
  30. Riders of Justice (2020, Anders Thomas Jensen, Denmark)
  31. Talk to Her (2002, Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
  32. Broken Embraces (2009, Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
  33. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven, France)
  34. The Shape of Water (2017, Guillermo del Toro, US)
  35. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001, Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico)
  36. Past Lives (2023, Celine Song, US)
  37. Wendy and Lucy (2008, Kelly Reichardt, US)
  38. Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow, US)
  39. Memento (2000, Christopher Nolan, US)
  40. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheim, UK)
  41. 49 Up, 56 Up and 63 Up (2005, 20012 and 2019, Michael Apted, UK)
  42. Ash Is Purest White (2018, Jia Zhang-ke, China)
  43. Roma (2018, Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico/US)
  44. Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher, US)
  45. Take Shelter (2011, Jeff Nichols, US)
  46. Incendies (2010, Denis Villenueve, Canada/France)
  47. The Big Short (2015, Adam McKay, US)
  48. The Secrets in Their Eyes (2009, Juan José Campanella, Argentina)
  49. Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan, US)
  50. The Aura (2005, Fabian Bielinsky, Argentina)

About half of these are American movies, with contributions from South Korea, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Mexico, China, Argentina and the UK). Ten of the fifty have female directors, all since 2008.

I am aware that I admire Stories We Tell, Elle and Hell or High Water more than most folks, but I really see them as great movies. The one movie that you won’t find on any else’s list is Riders of Justice – but just give it a chance.

By the way, I took a swing at this list in 2017, rand I see that my list this year is pretty consistent.

OK, that’s me – what do you think?

Isabelle Huppert in ELLE

NYT’s The Best 100 Movies of the 21st Century (part 1)

by
Photo caption: Song Kang-Ho in PARASITE, justifiably on the NYT’s Best Movies of the Century.

Naturally, The Movie Gourmet has thoughts about the New York Times’ recently published The Best 100 Movies of the 21st Century. First of all, I’m glad that the NYT did it – it demonstrates that one of our most credible institutions thinks that cinema is important to the culture and that people should take it seriously. Movies matter.

And, it’s a pretty good list. I can weigh in because I’ve seen all 100 except for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (#38), Let the Right One In (#70) and Interstellar (#89), and I’ve written about most of them. There’s solid representation of animated films and international cinema, with a few comedies and only one comic book movie (The Dark Knight). Parasite is a worthy choice for #1 on the NYT list, although I would place it at #2 behind Boyhood (#23 on the NYT list).

ACCOLADES

I am absolutely delighted to see some deserving films on the list that aren’t often included in the Great Movies conversation: In the Mood for Love (#4), Children of Men (#13), Memories of Murder (#99), Spirited Away (#9), A Serious Man (#36), Y Tu Mama Tambien (#18), Anatomy of a Fall (#26), Her (#24), A Prophet (#35), Aftersun (#78), The Act of Killing (#82) and Grizzly Man (#98). Lately, In the Mood for Love has been getting more buzz from cinephiles.

Identifying good filmmaking is one thing, but personal taste is pivotal in ranking films. I rank the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man (#36) higher than their There Will Be Blood (#3), Jordan Peele’s Nope higher than his Get Out (#8), Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…(#44) than his Inglorious Basterds (#13), Denis Villaneuve’s Incendies higher than his Arrival (#29), Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces higher than his Volver (#80), Greta Gerwig’s Barbie higher than her Lady Bird (#39). I can’t imagine how the NYT panel overlooked Adam McKay’s The Big Short and Don’t Look Up in favor of his Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (#85).

SOME QUIBBLES

A few movies should have been ranked much higher: Before Sunset (#49), Best in Show (#57), Oppenheimer (#65), Minority Report (#94).

There are only two lousy movies on the whole list: The Tree of Life (#79) and The Favourite (#52). And the panel generally resisted including Eat Your Broccoli Movies, except for Yi Yi (#40) and The Gleaners & I (#88). I just don’t like The Royal Tenenbaums (#21), Frances Ha (#90), Inside Llewyn Davis (#83), Melancholia (#84) and City of God (#15).

With only three documentaries (The Act of Killing, Grizzly Man, The Gleaners & I), the list is pretty light on docs. On any list of 100 films, I would have added An Inconvenient Truth, They Shall Not Grow Old, Stories We Tell, and the three films in the Seven Up series (49 Up, 56 Up and 63 Up).

BIG MISSES

The NYT panel whiffed on six movies that should be in the century’s top 30, let alone 100, films: 25th Hour, Million Dollar Baby, Nomadland, The Power of the Dog, Shoplifters and Sideways. What were they thinking?

And there’s not a single film from Clint Eastwood (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima), Spike Lee (25th Hour), Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska), Debra Gralnik (Winter’s Bone, Leave No Trace), Sarah Polley (Away from Her, Take this Waltz, Stories We Tell), Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy) the Dardennes brothers (The Son, The Kid with the Bike), Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters, Broker), Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Chloe Zhao (The Rider, Nomadland), or Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, The Bikeriders). Given the inclusion of work from Yorgos Lanthimos, Lars Von Trier and the way overrated Wes Anderson, that’s pretty shocking.

THE CONVERSATION BEGINS

Thanks, NYT. Now it’s our turn. I’m working on my own list (much shorter than 100) of the century’s best. Watch this space.

Edward Norton in Spike Lee’s 25TH HOUR – regrettably not on the NYT list..

Best Movies of 2023

by
Photo caption: Cillian Murphy in OPPENHEIMER. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my Best Movies of 2022 and Best Movies of 2021 lists. To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

I’ve seen 130 2023 films so far, but I have yet to see a few promising prestige films like Zone of Interest and American Fiction. Pretty sure some of those will end up high on my list when I finalize it in a couple months. (BTW that 130 total for 2023 doesn’t include the 89 festival submissions that I’ve screened (those will be 2024 films) nor the 121 movies from earlier years that I watched this year.)

I almost always pick an international film like Drive My Car or Incendies or an indie like Winter’s Bone, Hell or High Water or Leave no Trace as my top movie of the year. This year, my top pick is a big summer blockbuster, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. I especially admired Oppenheimer for these reasons:

  • Christopher Nolan’s imagination in threading together two riveting stories. The first is the Manhattan Project, the mastering of all the scientific and technological challenges in developing the first nuclear weapon, in a race with the worst villains in the history of the world – that’s fodder for an epic movie in itself. The second is the psychological study of a man who was brilliant enough to lead the development of the first atomic bomb, but who could not grasp that he would then lose all control on its use.
  • The brilliant performances of Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon and Benny Safdie.
  • Oppenheimer is visually thrilling, thanks to the collaboration of Nolan, Dutch-Swedish cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and editor Jennifer Lame. Ludwig Göransson’s music is pretty great, too.
  • Together the filmmakers have made a movie that runs for three hours without a single slow or dry moment, despite spending two hours on nuclear physics. I am confident in predicting that Oppenheimer will receive (and deserve) at least ten Oscar nominations and could challenge the record of fourteen.

My number two film, Anatomy of a Fall, is good enough to have been my top in almost any other year.

ANATOMY OF A FALL. Courtesy of NEON.

Here’s the entire list:

Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in PAST LIVES. Courtesy of A24.

Best Movies of 2022

by
Daniel Kaluuya in NOPE. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my Best Movies of 2021 and Best Movies of 2020 lists. To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

I’ve seen one hundred-and-three 2022 films so far, but I have yet to see promising prestige films like Women Talking, Broker, The Son, Empire of Light and The Whale. Pretty sure some of those will end up high on my list when I finalize it in a couple months. (BTW that 103 total for 2022 doesn’t include the 86 festival submissions that I’ve screened (those will be 2023 films) nor the 79 movies from earlier years that I watched this year.)

I almost always pick an international film like Drive My Car or Incendies or an indie like Winter’s Bone, Hell or High Water or Leave no Trace as my top movie of the year. So, readers may be surprised that my top choice his year was Nope, a sci fi and horror film -a popcorn movie. (I did pick a science fiction movie, Ex Machina, as my top movie of 2015.) I especially admired – and recommend – Nope because of:

  • Jordan Peele’s ingenious take on our current culture – instead of seeking to battle or befriend space aliens, Peele knows many would ask, how can we monetize this?
  • The deep, textured and fresh characters of OJ, Emerald, Angel and Jupe – unusual for a popcorn movie.
  • Nope’s reflection of Peele’s love of movies with its combination of the horror, sci fi, western, comedy and show biz movie genres.
  • My hopeful thought. Will Jordan Peele bring young moviegoers to theaters for horror thrills and teach them to expect SMART movies?

Here’s the complete list:

Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in AFTERSUN. Courtesy of A24.

THE BEST OF 2022

Nope: an exceptionally intelligent popcorn movie. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

Aftersun: who’s coming of age is this? In theaters.

Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

Decision to Leave: he’s obsessed, and she asks, “Am I so wicked?”. In theaters.

The Fabelmans: a mom, a dad and their genius kid. In theaters.

Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

The Eternal Daughter: consumed by mom. In theaters.

Armageddon Time: coming of age – right into a moral choice. In theaters.

Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.

Owen Teague in MONTANA STORY. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.
Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in POSER. Photo courtesy of the Nashville Film Festival.

Best Movies of 2021

by
Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in DRIVE MY CAR. Courtesy of The Match Factory.

The Oscars are coming up this weekend, and I’m standing by my first thoughts on the Oscars.

Anyway, after catching up with some 2021 straggler movies, I have finalized my own list of the Best Movies of 2021 (follow the link for full reviews, images, trailers and how to find them, plus some bonus picks). Here are my top fifteen movies of last year:

Also keep watching this space for my annual Oscar Dinner.

A scene from RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

The best movies of 2021

by
Photo caption: Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in DRIVE MY CAR. Courtesy of The Match Factory.

somehow managed to watch 137 2021 movies (and another 170 movies from earlier years). Here are the ones that I most admire and engage with. (Note: I still haven’t seen The Tragedy of Macbeth or Parallel Mothers.)

To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

THE BEST OF THE YEAR

The entire list, with some bonus recognition, is at Best Movies of 2021.

A scene from RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

Best Movies of 2021 – So Far

by
Photo caption: RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my Best Movies of 2020 and Best Movies of 2019 lists.

To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

THE BEST OF THE YEAR

Here’s the running list as of mid-July:

  • Riders of Justice: A character-driven comedy thriller, embedded with deeper stuff. Marvelous. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): Questlove’s magnificent revelation of the long-overlooked 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival – glorious musical performances at an important moment in our history and culture. In theaters and streaming on Hulu.
  • Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: An unusually profound, revealing and unsentimental biodoc of a complicated man – a shy bad ass, an outwardly cynical romantic, a brooding humorist. A triumph for director Morgan Neville, Oscar-winner for 20 Feet from Stardom.
  • About Endlessness: The master of the droll, deadpan and absurd probes the meaning of life. One of the best movies of the year, but NOT FOR EVERYONE. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Slow Machine: An incomprehensible art film that is surprisingly engrossing.
  • Special mention: Lune: This Canadian indie, the Must See at this year’s Cinequest, is an astonishingly authentic exploration of bipolar disorder. A mother and teen daughter must navigate the impacts of the mom’s illness. Played by writer and co-director Aviva Armour-Ostroff, the mom Miriam is the most singular movie character I’ve seen recently. Miriam’s streams of manic speech have the rhythm of poetry. On the festival circuit and not yet available to stream.

Note that you see Summer of Soul and Roadrunner in theaters this week, and you can stream Summer of Soul and Riders of Justice at home.

There’s still plenty of room for more excellent 2021 movies. I’m especially eager to see the new works from directors Sean Baker, Asgar Farhadi, Joachim Trier, Hong Sang-soo, Todd Haynes, Joanna Hogg, Pedro Almodovar, Jacques Audiard, Emmanuelle Bercot, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Arnaud Deplechin, Leos Carax, Francois Ozon, Paul Verhoeven, Ruben Ostlund and Valdimar Johannson. Stay tuned.

Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson in SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)