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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
As far as storytelling in the MCU goes, the creative tonal balance and cartoonish playfulness of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 makes for a terrific send-off to the franchise’s most colourfully eccentric series, as James Gunn faces his oddball characters up against painfully tragic pasts.
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All These Women (1964)
Men are but faceless idols cycling in and out of fashion in All These Women, hiding with infatuated fanatics behind facades of highbrow culture, and pulling at least one absolute truth from Ingmar Bergman’s sumptuously irreverent satire – art has no real relevance to the narcissistic pretensions of artists.
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The Silence (1963)
In place of open dialogue between characters in The Silence, Ingmar Bergman leaves an apathetic void of love and communication, formally manifesting his long-running existential fears of an unresponsive, godless universe within a stifled relationship between estranged sisters.
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Infinity Pool (2023)
Brandon Cronenberg’s overarching metaphor in Infinity Pool may not be particularly subtle, but it is overwhelmingly visceral in its technicolour, cyberpunk nightmares, centring a cabal of reckless vacationers who psychologically dehumanise themselves through the masochistic torture of locals – and their own clones.
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High and Low (1963)
Akira Kurosawa’s riveting narrative in High and Low may start small with an agonising moral dilemma, but by the end of its criminal hunt it feels as if we have touched every corner of a sprawling city wracked with class warfare, forcing the rich and poor into bitter games of twisted revenge which turn both…
