‘Roofman’ (2025)
There’s a tension at the heart of Derek Cianfrance’s latest movie, which finds the director of intense indies helming a high-concept romantic comedy like a ’70s crime drama. It’s so incongruent that it shouldn’t land, yet it somehow does. Cianfrance’s unconventional approach grounds the potential wackiness in genuine melancholy and working-class ethos, and his unconventional casting choices (top-tier character actors Melonie Diaz, Ben Mendelsohn, and Juno Temple all turn up in small roles) give it a nice, messy edge. Yet it’s mostly successful because of its stars, Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. Tatum is enormously likable even while he’s lying and stealing (a tough balance to strike) and Dunst’s heart is so on her sleeve that their relationship becomes real-deal emotional, particularly in a tremendous scene where a whole conversation plays out between them in tentative yet telling looks, and a final conversation as raw and unguarded as you’d expect from the director of “Blue Valentine.”
‘Oh, Hi!’ (2025)
Molly Gordon, so memorable on “The Bear” and in “Shiva Baby” (among others) teams with the talented director and screenwriter Sophie Brooks (“The Boy Downstairs”) for this sharp-edged story of a romance that goes awry during a weekend away. Gordon and Logan Lerman play Iris and Isaac, an attractive young couple who head upstate for some romance and relaxation, only to discover midway through that they have very different ideas about the state of their relationship. Complications ensue (to put it mildly), and Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds eventually show up to intervene, adding more comic sparks. Brooks wrote the script from a story devised with Gordon, and it plays to the charming actor’s strengths; she can put a little spin on a funny line to make it even funnier, and her chemistry with Lerman is convincing enough to make the story’s wild swings credible.
‘Italian Studies’ (2022)
Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
Adam Leon is an old-school New York City filmmaker, capturing (as Sidney Lumet and Spike Lee did before him) the vibrancy of the city and the shifting moods of its boroughs, neighborhoods and suburbs in fleet-footed indies like “Gimme the Loot” and “Tramps.” He writes and directs the dreamlike story of Alina (Vanessa Kirby, always compelling), a young author drifting through Manhattan in the midst of a bout of amnesia or, perhaps, a psychotic break. There’s not much more to the plot than that, which is as it should be; “Italian Studies” is less about narrative movement than observation and anthropology, as Alina falls in with a group of teenagers (some played by nonprofessional actors, all believable) and, lacking a perspective of her own, begins to see the city through their eyes.
‘Infinitely Polar Bear’ (2014)
Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldaña have starred in so many blockbusters that it’s easy to lose track of how quietly devastating their intimate work in small movies can be. This character-driven comedy-drama from the writer-director Maya Forbes (“The Polka King”) stars Ruffalo as Cam, a warm and gentle father of two with bipolar disorder, and Saldaña as Maggie, the wife and mother who must provide financial and emotional support for the entire family when Cam has a manic episode. What could have been movie-of-the-week fodder is instead insightful and genuine, thanks in no small part to the sensitive work of its talented leads.
‘While We’re Young’ (2015)
With Amanda Seyfried looking like an Oscar contender for “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” working the awards circuit as well, it’s a fine time to check out their sole collaboration to date. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts star as partners approaching middle age whose stagnant relationship, and careers, get a shot in the arm when they befriend a younger, hipper couple (Adam Driver and Seyfried) and are drawn into their Brooklyn bohemian lifestyle. Baumbach expertly mines the situation for generational laughs and sticky ethical dilemmas; it’s the kind of movie where everyone is granted complexity.
‘Let Him Go’ (2020)
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane (who previously co-starred as Superman’s parents in “Man of Steel”) craft bravura performances as a long-married couple whose grief over the loss of their adult son shifts to paranoia and fear when his wife’s remarriage seemingly puts their young grandson in danger. Adapting the novel by Larry Watson, the screenwriter and director Thomas Bezucha (“The Family Stone”) deftly pivots the ruminative drama of its searing, mournful opening scenes into a nail-biting, menace-loaded thriller, as unpredictable as it is powerful.
‘The Stringer’ (2025)
It’s one of the most indelible and evocative photos of the Vietnam War: “The Terror of War,” a.k.a. “Napalm Girl,” the horrifying image of several children, including a naked girl named Kim Phuc Phan Thi, running from their village after a napalm attack. For over 50 years, the photo has been credited to The Associated Press photographer Nick Ut; this documentary argues that Ut’s credit was an AP misattribution, and it was in fact the work of a Vietnamese freelance photographer named Nguyen Thanh Nghe. The director Bao Nguyen follows the photographer Gary Knight as he investigates the claim of an Associated Press whistle-blower looking to set the record straight, tracking down eyewitnesses and analyzing photographic evidence to make a persuasive case with wide-ranging implications. It has the form and some of the stylistic flourishes of a typical Netflix true-crime doc, but the thorny subject matter and Nguyen’s dogged curiosity make for riveting viewing.
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