NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS by Eliza Hittman | Trailer
Her face remains stoic but struggles to conceal a universe of anxiety. Even with the unyielding loyalty of her best friend, the journey from small town Pennsylvania to New York City is a cold and daunting one. This world was simply not designed for 17-year-old girls, especially not one who needs what she needs. Eliza Hittman’s third feature is a masterclass in enduring empathy, a portrait of the bond between two young women in a world that seems to only be trying to break them down.
NOMADLAND by Chloé Zhao | Trailer
This country is blessed with wide-open spaces, stretching beyond the furthest reaches of the horizon. Within that space lies the spirit of the American experience: freedom and desolation, finding and losing oneself, companions eternal and those just passing through. The determination of self-determination, with all of its joys and restlessness, lies at the heart of Chloé Zhao’s meditative elegy, a film of a fervent grace uniquely her own.
POSSESSOR by Brandon Cronenberg | Trailer
A piece of brutal sci-fi psychological horror that takes leaps into the avant-garde in its distressing exploration of losing one’s self, both intentional and otherwise. A singular vision that marries the visceral extreme with high-minded arthouse sensibilities from a burgeoning filmmaker confidently wading into the very genre that his father made famous. Yet writer-director Brandon Cronenberg emerges from the waters with a visual feast of abject ruthlessness that completely stands on its own.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN by Emerald Fennell | Trailer
Thrilling and delectable, Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut is a series of piercing body blows served with a side of ice cream. This dark comedy impressively juggles difficult tones as it takes satirical aim at an issue both timely and depressingly ancient. A wish-fulfillment revenge fantasy that’s unflinching in what it says and how it says it, Promising Young Woman also includes a special bonus of being an all-time best application of two unforgettable pop songs (Welcome back, Britney and Paris).
I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Charlie Kaufman | Trailer
With each addition to his filmography, writer-director Charlie Kaufman pulls his viewers deeper into the tortured, perplexing labyrinth of his psyche, crushed under the weight of all his anxieties. But his newest film-puzzle doesn’t just twist your mind; it contorts the very fundamentals of storytelling. Once the pieces click into place, what at first seems to be a frustrating exercise in artistic indulgence transforms into an astonishing evocation of narrative possibilities.
THE INVISIBLE MAN by Leigh Whannell | Trailer
Never have shots of empty hallways or camera pans toward nothing or seemingly unmotivated tracking shots felt so full of terrifying dread. Horror veteran Leigh Whannell weaponizes our film-viewing expectations in his deep dive into the agony of abuse, gaslighting, and toxic masculinity, while expertly delivering the most elemental of horror filmmaking: that nothing is as frightening as that which we can feel but cannot see.
FIRST COW by Kelly Reichardt | Trailer
Minimalist-realist filmmaker Kelly Reichardt returns to the American frontier to upend our stubbornly persistent worship of Western individualism in this transcendental meditation on friendship and the search for belonging. A spare story of two men, lost in more ways than one and thousands of miles away from anything they might consider home, First Cow composes the lyrics of human connection through its intimately vivid textures: the squish of mud, the sweep of a broom, and, of course, the sizzle of oily cakes.
SAINT MAUD by Rose Glass | Trailer
An immaculately visualized portrait of the perils of religious conviction — of perceiving existence as a plane for spiritual warfare — Rose Glass’s atmospheric feature debut dares to connect purity of faith to the darkness of the human condition (and even to mental illness). Unsettling craftsmanship melded with the wide-eyed, damaged performance of Morfydd Clark help elevate an admittedly simple tale into a parable of psychological horror that clings to the soul.
SOUND OF METAL by Darius Marder | Trailer
A classic tale of a journey to self-acceptance, Darius Marder’s narrative film debut inventively pulls the viewer into the consciousness of its hero in his reluctant battle to make sense of his newly shattered sense of self. Drowning in a sea of soundlessness, a musician — embodied by a simmering, visceral Riz Ahmed — must learn to let go of everything he knew and loved, and breathe for the very first time.
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