‘Aftersun’ (2022)
Charlotte Wells writes and directs this stunning memory play, which begins as a wandering account of a divorced father (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter (Frankie Corio), on holiday for his birthday; the mood is languid and mellow, capturing the carefree dreaminess of vacation, with nowhere to be and nothing to do. But this is no mere hangout, and Wells expertly deploys brief but affecting flash-forwards to snap the story she’s telling into focus, juxtaposing glowing, nostalgic memories with the cold, tough present. It’s a tour-de-force of instinctive, emotional filmmaking, anchored by the dazzling acting of Mescal (deservedly Oscar-nominated) and Corio (who turns in one of the best performances by a young actor in recent memory).
‘Anomalisa’ (2015)
The surrealist screenwriter and filmmaker Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich,” “Synechoche, New York”) directed this puppet-populated comedy-drama with the stop-motion animation specialist Duke Johnson — but this is no “Muppet Movie,” or even a “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Kaufman’s screenplay is populated with his signature brand of neurotic malcontents, here in the form of a depressed motivational speaker (voiced by David Thewlis) on a business trip who meets a sunny young woman (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh) and decides she is the answer to his ennui. Kaufman and Johnson transcend the potential gimmickry of the puppetry artifice, deftly driving home the picture’s delicate themes of isolation and loneliness in a hermetically-sealed world.
‘A Love Song’ (2022)
Dale Dickey has been acting onscreen since 1995, accumulating more than 130 credits in those years, and she’s the very definition of a character actor: a name you may not know but a face (expressive, weathered, distinctive) that you place immediately. This modest drama, the feature debut of the writer and director Max Walker-Silverman, marks Dickey’s first leading role, and she invests the entire picture with her offhand, lived-in authenticity. She plays Faye, a widow who wanders the country and lives out of her camper. She has set up a tentative meet-up with an old friend (Wes Studi), which provides some drama, and when Dickey and Studi share the screen, it’s a delightful opportunity to watch two old pros at work. But what hits hardest are Dickey’s riveting, solitary moments, including a close-up near the end of her simply listening to a song, filling in the entirety of a life in the tears in her eyes and the lines on her face.
‘Life After Beth’ (2014)
Aubrey Plaza snagged one of her first opportunities to show her considerable range — she can do much more, we discovered, than the bone-dry wit of her breakthrough “Parks & Recreation” role — in this gleefully ramshackle horror comedy from the writer and director Jeff Baena (“Horse Girl”). Plaza plays the title character, a young woman who comes back from the dead for reasons unknown (most of all to her), prompting her moony boyfriend (Dane DeHaan) and grieving parents (Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly) to accept the new peccadilloes of her personality … up to a point. Anna Kendrick also makes a charming appearance as a potential new romantic interest, and therefore a potential target for the bloodthirsty Beth.
‘Spa Night’ (2016)
Eighteen-year-old David Cho (Joe Seo) lives a life of quiet servitude; though a handsome high school senior, he has few friends and few ambitions, spending most of his time working in the Koreatown restaurant of his immigrant parents. But his world is upended when the restaurant goes under, forcing him to re-evaluate how he feels about his family, his future and most important, himself. Andrew Ahn’s debut feature grapples with homosexuality, financial insecurity and immigrant culture, but it is first and foremost an intense and unflinching character study, with Ahn’s camera keeping his protagonist in tight close-ups that convey his aching discomfort with the world around him, and within his own skin. It’s a subtle picture, quietly observational in style, but operatic in emotion.
‘The Benefactor’ (2016)
Richard Gere has quietly embarked on a daring third act for his formidable career, turning away from the easy paychecks of franchise films and nostalgia plays that have tempted his contemporaries, instead spending his time on knotty, difficult character turns in under-the-radar independent films. This drama from the writer and director Andrew Renzi is one of the least known, but it features one of Gere’s finest performances, as an ultrawealthy, and thus ultrapowerful, Philadelphia philanthropist who turns nasty when he discovers exactly what his money can’t buy.
‘Hail Satan?’ (2019)
The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 less as a religion than a troll — an attempt to take the Constitution’s promise of religious equality seriously, and to push back against the ever-increasing erosion of the separation of church and state. This witty and thought-provoking documentary from the director Penny Lane (“Our Nixon,” “Listening to Kenny G”) functions as both a chronicle of the group’s exploits and an exploration of their ethos, with frequent and fascinating diversions and detours (once you learn about the film-promotion origins of Ten Commandments monuments, you’ll never forget it).
‘Amazing Grace’ (2018)
Over two days in January 1972, Aretha Franklin took over the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts to record “Amazing Grace,” which would become both her biggest-selling album and the best-selling gospel recording of all time. Those live concerts were also captured by a film crew (led by the director Sydney Pollack), intended for simultaneous release later that year, but shelved instead because of technical difficulties. It finally landed in theaters 46 years later, as not only a time capsule of its moment in music and culture, but an exhilarating testament to the versatility, presence and sheer vocal force of the Queen of Soul.
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