| TITLE |
Director |
| 13TH |
Ava DuVernay |
| 20th Century Women |
Mike Mills – funny, tender, angry, and deeply affecting tribute to the women who made him a man |
| A BIGGER SPLASH |
Luca Guadagnino – gorgeous shaggy-dog meditation on sex, rock ’n’ roll and the enduring decadence of European art cinema. Tilda Swinton plays a muffled, Bowie-like rock goddess |
| AFERIM! |
Radu Jude – Romanian western |
| AMERICAN HONEY |
Andrea Arnold – paean to the wildness and impermanence of forgotten youth |
| A Monster Calls |
Juan Antonio Bayona – Adapted from the fantasy novel by Patrick Ness, it’s about a lonely teenage boy and his uneasy relationship with an imposing, tree-like ‘monster’ |
| Anomalisa |
Charlie Kaufman –Lancashire voice work of David Thewlis, strange tale of a man who only sees the same face and hears the same voice on everyone |
| Aquarius |
Kleber Mendonça Filho – An intricate, laser-like vision of where Brazil is today, in its latest, neoconservative re-incarnation. |
| ARRIVAL |
Denis Villeneuve |
| Autumn |
Nathaniel Dorsky |
| Bagatelle II |
Jerome Hiler |
| Bone Tomahawk |
S. Craig Zahler – starts as a period western, left-turns into thriller territory, downshifts into breezy comedy, blindsides with shocking gore and chucks in a spot of heart-racing action for good measure |
| CAMERAPERSON |
Kirsten Johnson – a freewheeling overview of the people and places Johnson has captured over the course of a diverse career |
| Certain Women |
Kelly Reichardt – Each of the film’s three chapters speak to a sense of dislocation among working class figures in Montana |
| Chevalier |
Athina Rachel Tsangari – men on deep-sea fishing trip decide they’ll pass time by playing an elaborate “game” |
| Creative Control |
Benjamin Dickinson’s mesmerizing science fiction thriller cleverly envisions a technology-dominated society that’s right around the corner |
| Creepy |
Kiyoshi Kurosawa |
| Demon |
Marcin Wrona – horror movie w/ dark comedic flourishes follows British man as he arrives in Poland to marry his Polish girlfriend at her family’s home |
| De Palma |
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow |
| Don’t Breathe |
Fede Alvarez – superbly sustained suspense doubles as a commentary on the literal, emotional, and psychological decay that’s overtaken modern-day Detroit. |
| Don’t Think Twice |
Mike Birbiglia – bleak ensemble drama that charts the dissolution of a warm improv-comedy ensemble |
| Driving With Selvi |
Elisa Paloschi – unforgettable documentary tells the simple tale of an unflappable Indian girl scarred by marriage and abuse at 14 who escapes to find a new life as a cab driver |
| ELLE |
Paul Verhoeven – lurid thriller – both star Isabelle Huppert |
| EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT |
Ciro Guerra’s fantastical mixture of myth and historical reality |
| Everybody Wants Some |
Richard Linklater’s movie contains many of the best ingredients found throughout his career: A carefree attitude about life paired with sneakier observations about its deeper mysteries. |
| Evolution |
Lucile Hadzihalilovic – the sense of control is essential to the creation of a complete, self-enclosed world, and to a visual aesthetic with its own stilled, enigmatic quality. |
| FIRE AT SEA |
Gianfranco Rosi – documentary set on Lampedusa, residents help rescue desperate African migrants |
| Fireworks Wednesday |
Asghar Farhadi’s quietly explosive look at passion, betrayal, and jealousy among the residents of one Tehran apartment building |
| Free Fire |
Ben Wheatley (Scorsese prod) – deal between two gangs that goes violently wrong, it’s sure to be another intense, brutal movie from one of Britain’s finest directors |
| FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF … |
Robert Beavers considers the nature of cinema |
| Green Room |
Jeremy Saulnier -punk band accepts gig at rural neo-Nazi music club, witness aftermath of a murder & become captives of the resident skinheads |
| Hail Caesar |
Joel and Ethan Coen – throws back to the golden age of Hollywood for a droll, screwball mystery |
| Hell or High Water |
David Mackenzie – two brothers embark on bank-robbing spree to raise enough money to save family farm from foreclosure |
| Hunt for the Wilderpeople |
Taika Waititi – improbable pair embark on an unexpected journey through the New Zealand jungle |
| Hush |
Mike Flanagan – deaf-mute author finds herself menaced by a masked predator |
| I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO |
Raoul Peck documentary of James Baldwin |
| I, Daniel Blake |
Ken Loach – I, Daniel Blake’s depiction of life on the dole makes for a brutal, often uncomfortable watch – particularly for anyone working in the Department for Work and Pensions |
| In the Shadow of Women |
Philippe Garrel – romantic drama is a swift 83 minutes, follows a modelesque married couple that discovers both husband and wife are entangled in affairs |
| Into the Inferno |
Werner Herzog |
| Jackie |
Pablo Larraín |
| Julieta |
Pedro Almodóvar adapts a trio of Alice Munro stories into a terse, emotionally restrained melodrama about a woman staring tragedy in the face without blinking |
| Kaili Blues |
Bi Gan – haunting, elliptical tale where physician travels to his hometown to rescue his nephew |
| Krisha |
Trey Edward Shults – micro-budget debut charts the Thanksgiving family-reunion movie of our nightmares — a virtuoso symphony of bad vibes featuring members of Shults’s own family |
| Kubo And The Two Strings |
Oregon-based animation studio Laika’s Kubo provides martial arts fantasy thrills. Stop-motion animation has never been rendered more confidently, or more beautifully, as Kubo hops between emotional, scary, and comic moments |
| La La Land |
Damien Chazelle – unadulterated cinematic bliss, even if the story it tells isn’t always a happy one. Man & woman’s paths cross in the middle of a massive LA traffic jam, & then again & again, until they set off on a relationship filled with lovely jazz-inflected musical numbers |
| Lemonade |
Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso – Does Lemonade deserve to be on this list? I’m not sure, but I can’t deny its energising rush, its lightning effect on the culture, its blur of the lines between cinema, music video and album, and how explosively it digested the influence of black cultural history. |
| Lion |
Garth Davis – boy becomes an accidental stowaway aboard a train headed to Calcutta, 25 years later, grown under the care of an Australian couple, the expatriate sets out to locate the mother he barely knew |
| Little Men |
Ira Sachs uses the NY real-estate market as a metaphor as well as catalyst for driving decent human beings apart, also examines the budding friendship between two Brooklyn kids |
| Louder Than Bombs |
Joachim Trier – a teacher and his sons try to come to terms with the death of their famous photographer matriarch |
| Love & Friendship |
Whit Stillman’s shrewd Austen adaptation |
| Loving |
Jeff Nichols |
| Maggie’s Plan |
Rebecca Miller – an absolute joy, a whip-smart and frank look at the tribulations of love |
| MANCHESTER BY THE SEA |
Kenneth Lonergan |
| Midnight Special |
Jeff Nichols’ supernatural thriller, an eerie sci-fi tone poem plucks its mood from atmospheric forerunners like Starman and Close Encounters of the Third Kind: a stark Americana of deserted highways and dingy motel rooms |
| MOONLIGHT |
Barry Jenkins – coming-of-age tale of homosexual African-American boy |
| Mountains May Depart |
Jia Zhangke – A story split in three, each chapter concerns three friends caught in a love triangle on the eve of the millennium |
| Mustang |
Deniz Gamze Ergüven – riveting, visually glorious film about young women on the cusp of grand discoveries, five Turkish sisters are trapped inside their family home after their uncle decides it’s time they were married off |
| MY GOLDEN DAYS |
Arnaud Desplechin |
| NEON BULL |
Gabriel Mascaro – vaquejada rodeo sport |
| Neruda |
Pablo Larraín – a mesmerizing depiction of national identity and literary intelligence |
| Nocturama |
Bertrand Bonello – completely defies binary categorisations of good and bad, the one I have absolutely no idea of whether I loved or loathed, but have pretty much thought about it every day since seeing it. |
| Nocturnal Animals |
Tom Ford – flits between a glossy LA high-life and a gritty Texan murder mystery, the lines of fiction and reality blurred |
| NO HOME MOVIE |
Chantal Akerman |
| O.J.: Made in America |
Ezra Edelman – epic tale of race, crime, and sports in 20th century America |
| Our Little Sister |
Hirokazu Kore-eda – a wise, scalpel-sharp child’s-eye view of the ways modern families fit together. teenage girl meets her three carefree grown-up half-sisters for 1st time at father’s funeral |
| Passengers |
Morten Tyldum – story of a spaceship carrying thousands of people in hypersleep. Only, as circumstances progress, two of them are awake. |
| Paterson |
Jim Jarmusch – minimalist mesmerizer about NJ bus driver & poet (Adam Driver) named Paterson who lives in Paterson |
| Personal Shopper |
Olivier Assayas – Kristen Stewart is an enigmatic, warily frayed-yet-unafraid presence, almost as if she’d be happy to step over to the ‘other side’ at any moment. |
| Raw |
Julia Ducournau – Examines the dynamics of sisterhood and pressures of female identity, with violent helpings of humour and horror … an energetic tale of cannibalistic desire.” |
| SAUSAGE PARTY |
Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan |
| Sieranevada |
Cristi Puiu – A film analysing what it means to grow up believing in living-room myths and legends, and the discomfiting mix of terror, disappointment and guilt at realising that being an adult means propagating them at the risk of losing face. |
| Silence |
Martin Scorsese’s austere and sublime adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel about Portuguese Catholic priests who travel to 17th-century Japan |
| Sing Street |
John Carney – inspiring film about a couple of Irish teenagers who dream of musical stardom |
| Son of Saul |
László Nemes – follows a member of the Sonderkommando whose task it is to assist in the massacre of his fellow Jews. |
| Sunset Song |
Terence Davies -With WWI brewing and her family scattered across the countryside, a Scottish farm girl struggles to find her way. |
| Swiss Army Man |
Daniels’ beautifully strange blend of slapstick and musicality is a surreal buddy movie energized by a few innovative uses of flatulence |
| Tale of Tales |
Matteo Garrone – This ornate, grotesque, enchanting fantasy is an authentic fairytale nightmare, deep and dark. |
| The Academy of Muses |
Jose Luis Guerin – portrait of romantic drama through a scholarly lens |
| The Childhood Of A Leader |
Brady Corbet – account of a small boy who grows up to be a megalomaniacal fascist dictator (Story by: Jean-Paul Sartre) |
| The Death of Louis XIV |
Albert Serra has made a film somewhat in the contained, stately, solemn manner of Straub-Huillet. Extremely beautiful and even moving, in a rigorously detached way |
| The Dreamer |
Nathaniel Dorsky |
| The Fits |
Anna Rose Holmer – expressionistic snapshot of young girl trying to transcend her estrangement, define her identity, and find a place for herself in the world. |
| THE HANDMAIDEN |
Park Chan-wook |
| The Illinois Parables |
Deborah Stratman |
| The Lobster |
Yorgos Lanthimos – deadpan dystopian comedy that also functions as a bizarro-world examination of love, relationships, marriage, and the basic human desire for connection |
| The Meddler |
Lorene Scafaria – film is partly about grief—the everyday experience of mourning a loss and trying to move on with positivity and optimism |
| The Nice Guys |
Shane Black – 1970s neo-noir comedy Crowe / Gosling |
| The Ornithologist |
João Pedro Rodrigues – A fevered reverie, beginning as a National Geographic showreel and morphing with rugged elegance into a fable of erotic transcendence. |
| The Pearl Button |
Patricio Guzman links scientific exploration – this time a look at water and its role in human lives – with an angry, emotional elegy for the victims of Pinochet’s cruel regime |
| The Treasure |
Corneliu Porumboiu – Romanian comedy about down-on-his-luck office drone, who joins his neighbor, a professional metal detector, to hunt for fortune buried beneath family estate |
| The Wave |
Roar Uthaug – pits small Norwegian village against a fjord-enabled tidal wave. When the townsfolk realize their fate, and only have 10 minutes to evacuate, not since Titanic has underwater photography looked so terrifying |
| The Witch |
Robert Eggers |
| THINGS TO COME |
Mia Hansen-Love – meditative domestic drama – both star Isabelle Huppert |
| TONI ERDMANN |
Maren Ade – sublime & squirmy comedy about fatherhood, daughterhood, joke-shop false teeth, Bulgarian folklore, German humor, workplace sexism |
| Tower |
Keith Maitland – animation recreates events from the limited perspective of people near University of Texas at Austin clock tower on 8/1/66 |
| Triple Nine |
John Hilcoat -elaborate heist involves the execution of a rookie cop on one side of town and a high-stakes robbery on the other |
| Uncle Kent 2 |
Todd Rohal – meta-romp through the mind of “Uncle Kent” star & “Adventure Time” animator Kent Osborne results in the most cinematically inspired sequel in ages. |
| Under the Shadow |
Babak Anvari – taut, terrifying horror movie set in war-torn Iran. About alienated young mother whose rights have been stripped away following the Islamic Revolution. Politically astute, emotionally complex and genuinely scary |
| Victoria |
Sebastian Schipper – starts at 4am in the depths of a dingy Berlin nightclub & doesn’t stop until the sun is coming up, a good 2.5 hours later. But what’s remarkable about Victoria is how quickly you forget about the technical achievements of its single-take gimmick. The 1st hour of this unique German indie is an ode to youthful late-night mischief and drunken flirting; the second half, morphing into a thriller barely without warning, is more kinetic than a jaunt down the autobahn. Cinema as theatre: alive, visceral, and electrifying. |
| Weiner |
Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg – The candidate’s humor, misguidance, and determination make Weiner one of the greatest political portraits |
| Wiener-Dog |
Todd Solondz – Four vignettes comprise this wickedly comical, existentially provocative look at life with pets |
| Zero Days |
Alex Gibney documentary details the genesis of super computer virus dubbed Stuxnet, created by U.S. & Israel to disable Iran’s chief nuclear facility |
DAILYFLICKNY 