‘The Luckiest Man in America’ (2025)
This behind-the-scenes television tale dramatizes a real-life nail-biter: the 1984 appearance on the daytime game show “Press Your Luck” by Michael Larson, whose quick accumulation of the biggest cash tally in the program’s history raised alarms as the cameras rolled. The director Samir Oliveros assembles “Luckiest Man” like a “Quiz Show” in miniature, keeping the action uncomfortably confined to the CBS studios and letting the events play out in something akin to real time, with the show’s producers (led by David Strathairn and Shamier Anderson, both excellent) and host (a deliciously oily Walton Goggins) piecing together Larson’s shady motives and back story. Paul Walter Hauser, so memorable as the title character in “Richard Jewell,” pulls off the neat trick of making Larson both undeniably unsettling and deeply sympathetic.
‘Camp X-Ray’ (2014)
When the “Twilight” film series concluded in 2012, Kristen Stewart set her sights on the indie scene, starring in a series of small, daring movies that may well have never been made without her participation. This was among the earliest of those efforts, a modest character drama with Stewart as a Guantánamo Bay guard whose indifference about her work grows into distaste, thanks in no small part to her interactions with a detainee (Payman Maadi). The writer and director Peter Sattler tackles existential questions of geopolitical importance with the intimacy and intensity of a chamber piece, telling most of his story in the extended duets between these very fine actors. Maadi, best known for his harrowing work in “A Separation,” is appropriately spiky, while Stewart reveals herself as one of our finest physical actors, telling us more with the smallest of gestures than most actors can with pages of dialogue.
‘Danny Collins’ (2015)
Al Pacino has kept himself so busy over the past decade or so that the occasional gem gets lost in the shuffle — and that’s certainly the case with this charming comedy-drama from the writer and director Dan Fogelman. Pacino plays the title character, a once-exciting singer-songwriter who has morphed into a parody of his former self, playing the hits for easy paychecks to his aging fan base. (There is perhaps a bit of self-awareness to the performance). The very-late delivery of a long-lost letter of admiration from John Lennon, Danny’s idol, prompts a re-evaluation of both his life and his career, resulting in a reunion with his long-estranged son (a soulful Bobby Cannavale) and a flirtation with a kind hotel manager (Annette Bening, sparkling). It’s as narratively predictable as the day is long, but Pacino and the supporting cast (which also includes Jennifer Garner and Christopher Plummer) exude so much genuine warmth and good cheer that you’ll hardly mind.
‘The Crime is Mine’ (2023)
Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
Much of the great French writer-director François Ozon’s recent output has been serious-minded, which makes this period comedy a delightful outlier. Loosely adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, it concerns an aspiring actress (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) falsely accused of murdering a lecherous producer, and her aspiring attorney roommate (Rebecca Marder), who convinces her to claim not innocence but self-defense — turning her into a folk hero, a surprisingly profitable enterprise. When the real killer (the one and only Isabelle Huppert) turns up, further screwball complications ensue, and one of the pleasures of “The Crime Is Mine” is how Ozon’s Swiss watch of a script reorients itself around every snappy new wrinkle.
‘Digging for Fire’ (2015)
The writer and director Joe Swanberg made his name with a cascade of micro-movies, low-budget wonders with small casts and minimal locations. But in the early 2010s, he began working with (comparatively) bigger budgets and name actors, culminating in this 2015 effort, which has the narrative scope and sprawling cast of a vintage Robert Altman movie. Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt star as house-sitting parents who make a disconcerting discovery in their temporary backyard. Various friends, exes and strangers float in and out, brought to life by an impressive assortment of up-and-comers and character actors, including Mike Birbiglia, Orlando Bloom, Sam Elliott, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Ron Livingston, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Sam Rockwell and Jenny Slate.
‘Bone Lake’ (2025)
The marketing campaign for this indie four-hander took advantage of the recent nostalgia for ’80s and ’90s erotic thrillers, but to their credit, the director Mercedes Bryce Morgan and the screenwriter Joshua Friedlander aren’t interested in empty homage. Their story, of a longtime couple (Maddie Hasson and Marco Pigossi) intrigued and even tempted by the sexy pair (Alex Roe and Andra Nechita) that’s accidentally been booked into their same vacation rental, isn’t just about sex and violence. At its best, it’s a thoughtful character study, examining the psychological mysteries of attraction and jealousy. But don’t despair — there’s plenty of sex and violence too.
‘Tura!’ (2025)
Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
Tura Satana was an icon — a burlesque dancer-turned-actress who led the cast of the cult classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” — and also an enigma, appearing in only two more films before disappearing from public view for the better part of three decades. Cody Jarrett’s affectionate documentary fills in the gaps of her life before and after her fling with fame, and it’s a wild ride, full of fascinating plot twists (including a real-life rape-revenge story that rivals anything in “Faster, Pussycat”), famous faces (Elvis Presley, Billy Wilder and Harold Lloyd all show up) and the heartwarming details of her unexpected late-career revival. Jarrett doesn’t paper over her personal flaws, particularly as a mother, so it’s not an all-out valentine. But “Tura!” is informative, well-assembled and (through most of its running time) quite a lot of fun.
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