Through a high-stakes mission and an unorthodox companionship formed in the depths of outer space, Project Hail Mary strikes a remarkable tonal balance, as Phil Lord and Chris Miller realise the emotional scope of epic and personal narrative stakes through inventive visual designs.
Far from mythologising Mark Kerr’s contributions to mixed martial arts, Benny Safdie treats his body as both an instrument and casualty of the sport’s formation in The Smashing Machine, illustrating its personal cost in intensely tactile, psychological terms.
The greatest films of the 2010s, from the heights of New Mexican cinema to the proliferation of comic book movies.
Through Mary Bronstein’s harrowing focus on motherhood as a state of constant triage, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You directs its anxiety-inducing tension toward a woman stretched to her limits, underscoring the unbearable guilt, crushing responsibility, and relentless pressure that saturates mundane anxieties.
Humanity’s cybernetic ambitions are no match for its darkest impulses in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, as Hiroyuki Imaishi traces one fledgling mercenary’s ascent through Night City’s underworld, and unleashes an assault of neon-lit, hyper-stylised violence.
The greatest films of the 2000s, from the Korean New Wave to the resurgence of the fantasy genre.
One Battle After Another is set for some big wins among the major categories, though Sinners could potentially pull off some major upsets.
Against the political turmoil of mid-century Greece in The Travelling Players, Theo Angelopoulos’ theatrical microcosm captures a fragmented nation caught between competing powers, dissolving time through long takes that conjure a swirling, ceaseless nightmare.
The greatest films of the 1990s, from America’s independent cinema to the rise of the digital age.
Confined to an emergency call centre, The Voice of Hind Rajab narrows in on the conversations between dispatch personnel and a young girl trapped in the Israeli assault on Gaza, using authentic audio recordings to anchor its dramatisation within a procedural, visceral reality.
