The overcrowded “unraveling woman” subgenre gets a shot in the arm with this lush, hypnotic character study from Swiss-Argentinian filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler. Conjuring the troubled inner life of a young, successful Buenos Aires fashion designer with an uncommon mix of stylistic rigor and feeling, the film frays your nerves. But it also stirs your emotions, deploying bold colors, an immersive soundscape and a lead performance of riveting translucency by Isabel Aimé González-Sola. — JON FROSCH
Steven Spielberg’s spellbinding sci-fi — a return to what he does best — asks, “What if we discover we’re not alone in the universe as our own world teeters toward destruction?” The result is full of febrile energy, visceral chase sequences and superbly choreographed action set pieces. But the heart of the film, as with all the best Spielberg work, is the human drama, channeled in deeply felt performances from Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, with Colin Firth effectively playing against type as the villain of the piece. — DAVID ROONEY
Four years after his bio-drama Elvis, Baz Luhrmann doubles down, having unearthed 59 hours of unseen footage from the Warner Bros. archives — painstakingly restored — including material from two ’70s concert films. It’s a transcendent viewing experience, an exhilarating party, a giddying visual and sonic blitz that will be an elixir to the Elvis faithful and an unparalleled primer for those who have never quite grasped what all the hysteria was about. — D.R.
Keke Palmer and Demi Moore lead Boots Riley’s blisteringly funny anti-capitalist satire, which follows a band of Bay Area shoplifters who get swept up in a global scheme. As usual with the writer-director’s work, the plot swerves and somersaults; part of the pleasure is flying blind into whatever’s in store. Watching the film feels less like being transported into a different universe than putting on X-ray goggles to look at our own — and finding, under the despair, an unruly sense of hope. — ANGIE HAN
French cinema is littered with sexual coming-of-age films, but occasionally one comes along that cuts through the crowd with its confidence and texture, its erotic charge and lingering nostalgic ache. Hafsia Herzi’s study of a Paris-area Muslim teen’s lesbian awakening is such a film. Vibrantly felt yet impressively controlled — and blessed with a stone-cold stunner of a lead turn from newcomer Nadia Melliti — it’s an instant queer classic, as moving as it is sexy. — J.F.
A young man (Michael Johnston) faces dire consequences when his wish that his crush (a virtuosic Inde Navarrette) fall in love with him comes true in Curry Barker’s bracing blast of horror. The film traffics a well-worn theme — the classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” the exemplar of the concept, dates back to 1902 — but makes it fresh via a superbly orchestrated blending of dread, jump scares and dark comedy. — FRANK SCHECK
The excellent first nonfiction feature from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel focuses on the killing of an Indigenous community leader by white landowners in northwest Argentina. It’s a searing chronicle of murder, bigotry and robbery on a massive scale. It’s also — and this is rare for a true-crime doc — filled with visual splendor, as the camera rises to reveal the scope of the land in question, reminding us that what’s at stake is not only an entire people’s culture but nature itself. — JORDAN MINTZER
Documaker Gianfranco Rosi returns to his native Italy for this stunning look at life at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, then and now. The film surveys Pompeii’s prized ruins; ventures into the tunnels beneath them, dug by tomb robbers selling antiquities on the black market; visits a call center as residents fear the worst after an earthquake; and hops back outside to find local youths setting fire to the streets. It’s a portrait of a place forever on the brink of disaster. — J.M.
The first feature in 12 years from co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller shows their facility for buoyant humor and heartfelt emotion very much intact. Even if this adaptation of an Andy Weir novel — about a science teacher who finds an unusual ally in a mission to save two worlds — at times leans a bit hard into sentiment, the movie’s natural sweetness is disarming. And star Ryan Gosling’s low-key comic timing has never been better. — D.R.
The latest from the two-time Palme d’Or-winning Dardenne brothers is a tender ensemble piece, providing unfiltered emotional access to the anxieties and hopes of five vulnerable working-class teenage women and the babies requiring their love and care — often when they can barely care for themselves. There’s never a false note from the young actors, all of whom have deeply moving scenes. — D.R.
This story appeared in the June 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Credit: Source link