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49 of 49 films
In the Mood for Love
✓Dir. Wong Kar-wai · 2000
with Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
The most beautiful film ever made. Longing, restraint, and the tragedy of timing.
Past Lives
✓Dir. Celine Song · 2023
with Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
In-yun. The paths we take and the ones we don't.
The Drama
✓Dir. Kristoffer Borgli · 2026
with Robert Pattinson, Zendaya
Pattinson carries the absurd, witty script. Zendaya's brow at the end does the real work: two people at the table wishing they could go back before everything got so complicated.
Minari
✓Dir. Lee Isaac Chung · 2020
with Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Youn Yuh-jung
The American Dream through a Korean-American family. Water celery and perseverance.
If Beale Street Could Talk
✓Dir. Barry Jenkins · 2018
with KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
Baldwin's prose brought to life. Love as resistance.
The Brutalist
✓Dir. Brady Corbet · 2024
with Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce
Architecture as art and obsession. The immigrant experience and creative vision.
American Fiction
✓Dir. Cord Jefferson · 2023
with Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae
Sharp satire on race and publishing. Percival Everett's wit.
The Substance
✓Dir. Coralie Fargeat · 2024
with Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley
Body horror and beauty standards. Grotesque and unforgettable.
Interstellar
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2014
with Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
Love transcends time and space. Hans Zimmer's organ.
Parasite
✓Dir. Bong Joon-ho · 2019
with Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong
Class warfare as a genre-defying masterpiece.
Burning
✓Dir. Lee Chang-dong · 2018
with Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo
Slow-burning mystery. Murakami adapted to devastating effect.
Phantom Thread
✓Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson · 2017
with Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
Fashion, control, and twisted love. DDL's final performance.
Moonlight
✓Dir. Barry Jenkins · 2016
with Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, Janelle Monáe
Identity, masculinity, and tenderness. Three chapters of becoming.
The Shape of Water
✓Dir. Guillermo del Toro · 2017
with Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer
Cold War fairy tale. Del Toro's love letter to monsters and outsiders.
Spotlight
✓Dir. Tom McCarthy · 2015
with Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams
Journalism as it should be. The Boston Globe exposes systemic abuse.
Birdman
✓Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu · 2014
with Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone
One continuous shot. Keaton's comeback about comebacks.
Argo
✓Dir. Ben Affleck · 2012
with Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman
Fake movie, real rescue. Hollywood saves the day.
12 Years a Slave
✓Dir. Steve McQueen · 2013
with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender
Solomon Northup's memoir. Unflinching and essential.
The Lobster
✓Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos · 2015
with Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux
Find a partner or become an animal. Lanthimos at his most absurd.
Poor Things
✓Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos · 2023
with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe
Frankenstein meets feminist awakening. Maximalist and joyful.
The Favourite
✓Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos · 2018
with Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz
Queen Anne's court. Three women, zero trust, seventeen rabbits.
The Big Short
✓Dir. Adam McKay · 2015
with Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling
The 2008 crash explained with celebrity cameos and rage.
Little Women
✓Dir. Greta Gerwig · 2019
with Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet
Gerwig's structural genius. The March sisters, non-linearly.
The Pianist
✓Dir. Roman Polanski · 2002
with Adrien Brody
Szpilman's survival. Brody's gaunt, devastating performance.
Bottle Rocket
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 1996
with Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, James Caan
Where it all began. The Wilson brothers rob a bookstore.
Rushmore
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 1998
with Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams
Max Fischer's extracurriculars. Murray's career revival starts here.
The Royal Tenenbaums
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2001
with Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow
Prodigies grown up and broken. Needle drops and raccoon coats.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2004
with Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett
Jacques Cousteau meets midlife crisis. Portuguese Bowie covers.
The Darjeeling Limited
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2007
with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman
Three brothers, one train, too much baggage. India in pastels.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2009
with George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray
Stop-motion Roald Dahl. Different, but cussing good.
Moonrise Kingdom
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2012
with Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis
Two kids, one island, scout camp chaos. Pure and strange.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2014
with Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan
Gustave H. and Zero. Anderson's most beloved, for good reason.
Isle of Dogs
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2018
with Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton
Japanese dystopia, exiled dogs. Stop-motion political fable.
The French Dispatch
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2021
with Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand
New Yorker magazine as film. Three stories, maximum Anderson.
Asteroid City
✓Dir. Wes Anderson · 2023
with Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks
Desert, aliens, grief. A play within a film within a broadcast.
Following
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 1998
with Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw
$6000 budget, shot on weekends. The DNA of everything after.
Memento
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2000
with Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Reverse chronology. Can you trust your own memory?
Insomnia
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2002
with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank
Alaska, no darkness, no sleep. Williams against type.
Batman Begins
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2005
with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson
Why do we fall? The grounded Batman we needed.
The Prestige
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2006
with Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson
Rival magicians. Are you watching closely?
The Dark Knight
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2008
with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart
Ledger's Joker. Chaos as ideology. A superhero crime epic.
Inception
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2010
with Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Dreams within dreams. The spinning top never stops.
The Dark Knight Rises
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2012
with Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Bane's voice, broken Batman. The trilogy ends.
Dunkirk
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2017
with Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance
Three timelines, pure survival. Zimmer's ticking clock.
Tenet
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2020
with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki
Time inversion. Don't try to understand it, feel it.
Oppenheimer
✓Dir. Christopher Nolan · 2023
with Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr.
The father of the atomic bomb. Three hours of dread.
Whiplash
✓Dir. Damien Chazelle · 2014
with Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons
Not quite my tempo. J.K. Simmons as a jazz tyrant.
Hereditary
✓Dir. Ari Aster · 2018
with Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro
Family trauma as horror. That dinner scene. That car scene.
The Farewell
✓Dir. Lulu Wang · 2019
with Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Zhao Shuzhen
Based on an actual lie. East meets West through a fake wedding.
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