2020s

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.

Just as Richard Williams is patient with his young daughters, Serena and Venus, so too is director Reinaldo Marcus Green patient with him in this character study of holistic mentorship, peeling back the layers of a father whose guidance of two future star tennis players is both frustratingly stubborn and gently self-assured.

As Gary and Alana run down the streets of 1970s San Fernando Valley all through Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson takes great pleasure in peeling back the layers of their flaws, passions, and mannerisms, building out a complicated friendship that leads us to wonder not whether they will find romantic feelings for each other, but…

Steven Spielberg’s broad, sweeping style of iconographic filmmaking is well-suited to such classical Shakespearean stories as that which West Side Story takes its own spin on, as in this vibrantly artistic adaptation New York becomes a dystopian wasteland of gangs and hopelessly star-crossed lovers.

The psychological drama that Maggie Gyllenhaal unravels in her directorial debut The Lost Daughter has no inhibitions in peeling back the sensitive and thorny layers of motherhood, crafting an uneasy atmosphere of paranoia that consumes the mind of two troubled women torn between their families and the allure of freedom.