‘Ghostlight’ (2024)
So few films concern the daily lives of the working class, in any meaningful way, that it’s sort of astonishing when one comes along that feels so embedded there. That’s the case with this heart-tugging drama from the directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson (“Saint Frances”), in which a grieving father stumbles into a community theater production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Keith Kupferer is marvelous as the father, beautifully capturing the frustrations and emotional limitations of his class and generation, while Katherine Mallen Kupferer performs modestly as his wife, until a late moment that absolutely clobbers you. And that, in many ways, holds true for the entire movie.
‘Goodrich’ (2024)
“This midlife crisis is no walk in the park, I’ll tell you that,” snorts Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) near the end of this poignant comedy-drama, and while his daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) notes the mathematical improbability that 60-something is “midlife,” the sentiment stands. Andy, the owner-operator of a Los Angeles art gallery that’s seen better days, is in free-fall. His wife has just checked herself into rehab, much to his bafflement (he’s so checked out, he never noticed her addiction), leaving him to care for their elementary-school aged twins himself. Keaton is credited as an executive producer, and it’s easy to see why the project was important to him; the writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer hands him a stellar showcase, a guy who talks fast and thinks faster, and whose inherent likability helps soften his obvious flaws. The result is a poignant examination of getting older and wondering if you’ve lost it — whatever your particular “it” may be.
A fair number of minds were blown by “Love Lies Bleeding,” last year’s mash-up of crime thriller, queer romance and surrealist semi-fairy tale from the writer and director Rose Glass, but those who caught this, her debut feature, saw greatness in her future. This nerve-jangling, Catholic-coded psychological thriller stars the bracing Morfydd Clark (currently starring in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) as the title character, an introverted nurse whose unwavering, self-punishing religious faith coexists uneasily with her own demons and skeletons. Glass’s filmmaking is equal parts intellectual and visceral; she pushes the viewer to consider the full ramifications and implications of such unquestioning faith, while taking pains to place us in Maud’s shoes (literally, at one point, and quite painfully). It’s a debut of striking confidence and exciting, undeniable cinematic skill.
‘Watcher’ (2022)
The haunted, melancholy visage of Maika Monroe, so well used in “It Follows” and “Longlegs,” gets a workout in this deliberately paced, unnervingly crafted thriller from the director Chloe Okuno. Monroe stars as Julia, who accompanies her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), to Bucharest, Romania, for a career opportunity. He’s working all the time, so she’s a stranger in a strange land, and Okuno nails the specific, aching solitude of being alone in a crowd where you don’t even speak the language — and the feeling that you’re being watched and followed. The picture’s tension comes from the commonplace, and Okuno uses the simplest of tools (rumbling on the soundtrack, knocks on doors, sudden movements, incoming texts) to build dread and unease. Most of all, she offers a gutsy female interpretation of the male gaze, a story explicitly about being watched, by men, and all of the dangers that can represent.
This sublime and absorbing adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel takes some of the most durable tropes of pulp literature and film noir — the small-town schlub looking for a way out, the femme fatale whose sexy exterior hides a dark heart — and turns them upside down. Thomasin McKenzie is the title character, a file clerk at a boys’ correctional center who cares for her miserable, alcoholic father (Shea Whigham) and can only escape her drab existence with messy sexual fantasies. One day, a new one arrives: the new counselor Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a blonde knockout who exudes the kind of effortless self-confidence that Eileen can only dream of. Where their attraction goes from there is best left unspoiled; suffice to to say that the director William Oldroyd (“Lady Macbeth”) knows the genre road map, and is keenly aware of when to follow it and when to go off-road.
‘Waitress: The Musical’ (2023)
“Waitress” had quite a circular journey, something akin to those of “The Producers,” “Hairspray,” and “Mean Girls”: it began as a nonmusical film (also streaming on Max), was then adapted into a Broadway musical, and then turned back into a movie. The twist here is that rather than restaging it as a traditional movie musical, the directors Diane Paulus and Brett Sullivan instead captured live performances from its 2021 post-lockdown stage revival, creating something of a cross between musical theater and concert performance. The latter influence is especially strong since the production is fronted by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, who wrote the words and music and periodically played Jenna, the show’s long-suffering protagonist. It’s a risky gambit, but it works; Bareilles is a live performer, first and foremost, and Paulus and Sullivan’s frisky photography gives the scenes a you-are-there immediacy and intimacy.
‘Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin’ (2020)
Werner Herzog’s documentaries are never just about their surface subject, as his own interests and preoccupations are ever-present. That’s especially true in this tribute to his friend and occasional collaborator Bruce Chatwin, a writer and adventurer whose 1989 death clearly left a hole in Herzog’s heart. But this is no cradle-to-grave bio-doc, with Herzog instead serving up a thoughtful rumination on the “wild characters, strange creatures, and big ideas” that fascinated him and this extraordinary man.
