Robert Eggers exhumes the rotting corpse of a legendary vampire, Hollywood’s beauty standards are grotesquely warped in a thrillingly repulsive body horror, and Steven Zaillian’s calculated take on literature’s most famous con artist elevates television to cinema.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist odyssey ventures into the surreal heart of womanhood, Chad Stahelski lifts the John Wick franchise to transcendent new heights, and Barbenheimer draws crowds to the cinema for a double feature of conflicting blockbusters.
The Daniels ponder the maximalist absurdity of all existence, Alejandro Iñárritu composes a surreal interrogation of artistic ego, and Cate Blanchett leads an exacting character study of elitism and exploitation.
Wes Anderson dedicates an enchanting piece of nostalgia to old-fashioned print journalists, Denis Villeneuve films an unfilmable science-fiction classic, and Jane Campion conducts a sensitive study of masculinity through the western genre.
Charlie Kaufman confounds viewers with his eerie study of depression, Steve McQueen unites several stories of Black empowerment in twentieth century London, and Emerald Fennell delivers a thrilling, feminist tale of vengeance.
Pedro Costa’s meditative camera lingers in the decaying home of a recent widow, Bong Joon-ho takes a scalpel to South Korea’s class system, and Martin Scorsese’s epic gangster film wrestles with his long-time fascinations of sin and guilt.
Alfonso Cuarón cements his status as an all-time great director with a black-and-white memory piece, Ari Aster takes the horror genre to a new level with fresh artistic sensibilities, and a hyper-kinetic animation deconstructs decades of superhero stories.
Christopher Nolan shakes up the war genre with his tremendous editing, Denis Villeneuve astoundingly builds on a decades-old classic with a phenomenal sequel, and Paul Schrader’s theological character study features Ethan Hawke in a self-destructive spiral.
Damien Chazelle’s ode to Hollywood musicals becomes one of the genre’s best, Jim Jarmusch’s impressively formal work celebrates the beauty of routine, and Denis Villeneuve finds a new linguistic spin on the alien science-fiction film.
Leonardo DiCaprio transforms into a spirit animal in Alejandro Iñárritu’s awe-inspiring revisionist western, George Miller makes a high-octane career comeback, and Adam McKay turns the Global Financial Crisis into an audacious piece of cinema.
