2020s

The personal evocations of Kenneth Branagh’s own childhood in Belfast endows this memory piece with a certain level of authenticity, but it is also the emotional nuance that he finds through his elegant camerawork and staging that fully consumes us in young Buddy’s journey, giving endless thanks to those who planted seeds of growth within…

Through the volatile performances of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, the imposingly austere sets, and ghostly greyscale cinematography, virtually every minute of The Tragedy of Macbeth feels as if it is teetering on the brink of mortality, attacking existential questions of destiny, chaos, and violence with an artistic precision that remains remarkably in tune with…

Besides Michael Showalter’s occasional stylistic flourishes of freeze frames and glitzy titles, The Eyes of Tammy Faye is largely a showcase of one remarkable performance from Jessica Chastain, embracing the wholesome perspective of the unorthodox 1970s televangelist brought down by the moral and spiritual failings of her fellow Christians.

The captivatingly eerie atmosphere that Guillermo del Toro builds through his delightfully expressionistic aesthetic in his psychological thriller Nightmare Alley is a wonder to behold, luring us into a haunting underworld of carnies, con artists, and psychics in 1940s America.

In Mikey Saber, a charismatic, manipulative ex-pornstar on a steady path of self-destruction, Sean Baker paints out a perfect image of vapid coastal elitism shamelessly pre-empting a victory that will never manifest, as well as an authentic foundation for the social satire that Red Rocket conducts with great humour.