When Brazil’s plague of forced disappearances reaches a beloved father in I’m Still Here, it is up to his resilient wife to keep the shattered pieces of her family’s lives together, transforming her sorrow and trauma into a testament of selfless, compassionate resistance.
The unity of art and politics was not exactly a new concept in the 1960s, but Bob Dylan’s refreshing brand of celebrity that is both radically outspoken and mysteriously private inspires awe in A Complete Unknown, soulfully capturing the countercultural icon’s elusive, inscrutable essence.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s fixers require a certain independence to get their criminal work done, so when their reluctant partnership threatens to steer a job off track in Wolfs, a snarky buddy dynamic emerges that pulls them through the seedy underbelly of Manhattan.
Featuring a vast array of natural locations and rich characters, Kevin Costner announces a project so majestically bloated in Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 that it threatens to dilute its own focus, yet which still etches out a sprawling, Western mythology refusing to be defined by a single perspective.
Through an attempted escape from corporate servitude and an unnatural distortion of biology, Alien: Romulus disturbingly examines the treacherous magnitude of human ambition, as well as the inhumanity which ironically threatens to cannibalise us in the process.
The splendid combination of musical and cinematic talents behind Wicked effectively claims its iconic cultural status within cinema as well as theatre, expanding this whimsical fable of friendship and prejudice to elaborate, epic proportions fitting of its grand narrative stakes.
Smile 2 does not quite diverge from its predecessor’s steady, downward slide into tortured psychosis, and yet Parker Finn’s cinematic ambition has nevertheless grown with this horror sequel, pushing his demonic metaphor for deep-seated trauma into the world of celebrity, substance abuse, and self-image.
Patience, discernment, and cunning are virtues embodied in veteran Terry’s violent pursuit of justice in Rebel Ridge, and as he fights to save his imprisoned cousin and expose a corrupt police force, so too are they superbly carried through in Jeremy Saulnier’s tense, brooding storytelling.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes may not possess the rich character work of the other prequels, yet Wes Ball’s development of this majestic, tribal world through the legacy of its ancestors is admirable, examining splintered ideological factions that exploit sacred doctrine for their own selfish purposes.
The psychological horror of I Saw the TV Glow turns a discerning eye towards the false identities and duplicitous illusions thrust upon queer communities, as Jane Schoenbrun casts a surreal, Lynchian filter over the journey of two nostalgic outcasts searching for truth in their favourite childhood show.
