Never has Park Chan-wook wielded his fatalistic irony with such a darkly comedic edge as he does in No Other Choice, sending one unemployed paper specialist on a murderous trail against rival job candidates, and sharply exposing the bureaucratic nihilism of modern capitalism.
The cerebral pleasures of Wake Up Dead Man’s painstakingly plotted mystery may captivate the mind, yet Rian Johnson’s careful attention to the spiritual stakes within a guilty church congregation resonates with haunting ambiguity, unravelling the impossible, locked-room murder of a vindictive priest.
Although the uneven pacing of Wicked: For Good blunts its dramatic urgency, Jon M. Chu delivers a finale steeped in fantastical, kaleidoscopic ambition, subverting cinematic canon with lavish worldbuilding, impossible designs, and freshly layered characterisations.
Uneven pacing and plotting aside, The Running Man imperfectly thrives in Edgar Wright’s stylish, sardonic thrills, charting a fugitive’s desperate odyssey through a dystopian America where survival is broadcast for mass entertainment.
When a pair of conspiracy theorists kidnap a CEO they believe is an alien, neither zealots nor capitalists can escape the misanthropic aspersions of Lanthimos’ cosmic joke, as Bugonia spirals into an absurdist satire of power, paranoia, and humanity’s self-inflicted ruin.
Through Nouvelle Vague’s homage to cinema’s boldest revolution, Richard Linklater reaffirms his place among those who champion the thrill of raw creation, recounting the feverish, spontaneous inspiration that erupted on Jean-Luc Godard’s chaotic production of Breathless.
The pragmatic systems of our modern dating economy severely distort romantic expectations in Materialists, yet as one professional matchmaker learns through her choice between status and connection, it is only inevitable that they should crumble under the primal insistence of human nature.
Penguin Bloom’s bland adaptation of one paralysed athlete’s companionship with an injured magpie is far more a sentimental tribute than a cinematic portrait, edging towards inspiration through its overworked animal metaphor, yet never quite taking flight.
There is a radical passion to Paul Thomas Anderson’s storytelling in One Battle After Another which matches the unruly spirit of the characters themselves, hurtling revolutionary chaos and reactionary absurdity towards impact on a dizzying rollercoaster, and sending one washed-up activist on a desperate mission to save the only family he has left.
Where a better Spike Lee film would consistently swing hard for audacious set pieces, Highest 2 Lowest teases us with glimpses of the Kurosawa adaptation that could have been, settling for a bland remake of a once-thrilling crime plot and moral dilemma that severely flattens whatever tension remains.
