France
Director Bruno Dumont casts vivacious French star Léa Seydoux as a news anchor who comes to terms with fame and a chaotic life in a narrative that borrows from classic women’s pictures with their twists and turns.
Veteran provocateur Paul Verhoeven's movie about lust and mania in a 17th-century Tuscan convent fulfills its sensationalistic promise.
Two more Radu Jude films torch Romanian ignorance, authoritarianism, and poltroonery. The borderline-bonkers Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn churns with incendiary ideas, while Uppercase Print condemns Ceausescu–era repression with clunky sincerity.
This gentle, lived-in story about a tentative romance between an older man and woman wins you over with low-key, unhurried charm.
Intricate and masterful, strange and heartbreaking, Only the Animals is a great new entry into the multilinear narrative canon.
What does it take to make a new start in a new land, one that lets you earn a living and maintain your self-respect? Such a reinvention is never easy, especially when it takes place in middle age.
How would an algorithm pick an ideal romantic partner? I’m Your Man takes on this question in a bittersweet, witty way.
Overstuffed and often heavy-handed as it is, the movie is beautifully shot and styled, features some very moving scenes, and derives power from its incendiary performances.
