The film takes a dark turn, with outrageous twists and turns throughout. With feminist themes and serious artistic vision, The Handmaiden demonstrates the mesmerising talent of Park Chan-Wook. Stalin is dead and now every bad man going wants the Soviet Union's top job.
Based on a graphic novel of the same name, The Death of Stalin is a farcical and darkly comic take on the days, weeks and months after Stalin's death. When people think of director Christopher Nolan, they tend to remember his blockbuster epics The Dark Knight , Inception and Interstellar , but his film The Prestige is worthy of equal acclaim.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as warring magicians in 19th century London, whose rivalry escalates to unhealthy and dangerous levels. There are great performances throughout, including a small and important one from David Bowie playing Nicola Tesla, as Nolan weaves a complex, non-linear story, but the genius is this isn't just a film about magic, the film itself is a magic trick.
It's a must watch for any Nolan fan and a useful touchstone for his later work. Instead he spends his time moving from one town in Texas to the next and makes his way by reading people the news of the day. However, life is upturned when he runs into ten-year-old Kiowa person Johanna Helena Zengel. Her people have been killed and her only living relatives are hundreds of miles away.
Set against the backdrop of a Britain on the brink of war, The Dig chronicles one of the greatest archeological finds ever discovered in the Isles, the Sutton Hoo excavation. When wealthy landowner Edith Pretty Carey Mulligan hires archeologist Basil Brown Ralph Fiennes to dig up large mounds on her property, the pair make a startling discovery - a ship from the Dark Ages that turns out to be the burial site of someone of tremendous distinction.
An intricate study of a cinematic masterpiece or two hours 11 minutes of Gary Oldman lying around and getting tanked in bed? Mank is both. Mankiewicz, otherwise known as the guy who wrote Citizen Kane with Orson Welles. Or, more accurately, as the film is interested in, for Orson Welles. All that old Hollywood fancy and snappy dialogue is here but Fincher's also interested in movie moguls, fake news, the women behind the men and creative credit.
And Amanda Seyfried is wonderful as actress Marion Davies. Oscar voters will be beside themselves. There's been an explosion of interest in true crime content in recent years, and David Fincher's film Zodiac helped set the tone — based on the true story of the Zodiac killer, who sent cops cryptic clues after his crimes and evaded capture for decades. It stars Mark Ruffalo as the beleaguered police officer in charge of the investigation, and Jake Gyllenhaal as a newspaper cartoonist who gets drawn into the case.
As he makes more money and his lifestyle races to catch up, he sets up a firm, Stratton Oakmont in the early s and starts to swindle wealthy financiers out of their fortunes, even as the authorities close in. It's all the more compelling because the film is based on the memoirs of the real-life Jordan Belfort, who is now a motivational speaker.
The movie has been a colossal hit in China. The film sees a group of astronauts, sometime far into the future, attempting to guide the Earth away from the Sun, which is expanding into a red giant.
Jupiter is also in the way. While the Earth is being steered by 10, fire-blowing engines that have been strapped to the surface, the humans still living on the planet must find a way to survive the ever-changing environmental conditions.
Watch it here. Davis delivers a stellar performance, perfectly reflecting the tensions of the time. As anti-war, civil rights, and general hippie activists involved in the protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Seven theoretically eight were picked as convenient scapegoats after the unrest was crushed at the behest of mayor Richard Daley, and arraigned before a judge whose views and demeanour put him to the right of Vlad the Impaler.
The film seems to wholeheartedly embrace its tropes rather than getting too mired down in them, and the costumes and locations make for very enjoyable viewing. Queue an incredibly uncomfortable dinner with parents Toni Collette and David Thewlis both excellent and a confusing journey that flits through the time. On paper, The Peanut Butter Falcon looks like a sickeningly schmaltzy film.
Zack Gottsagen plays Zak, a young man with Down's syndrome who busts out of the care home he has found himself in to pursue his dream of attending a wrestling school run by his hero. Along the way, he runs into Tyler Shia LaBeouf who is escaping from his own sad backstory, and the pair buddy up to take a raft trip along North Carolina's Outer Banks. The powerful chemistry between the two leads elevates this film far above its cheesy road-trip roots and the swampy hinterland provides a sweat-drenched backdrop to the action as Eleanor Dakota Johnson follows hot on Zak's trail.
The lead role was written for Gottsagen, who delivers a persuasive central performance that turns this dramedy into a something far more emotionally engaging. Former US army captain Nathan Algren Tom Cruise regrets taking on the responsibility for training the newly created Imperial Japanese Army when he is captured during its first battle.
But instead of killing Algren, his samurai capturers spare his life and send him to live in their village. Over time Algren earns the respect of the samurai and comes to understand their way of life. He becomes a staunch defender of Japanese tradition and rallies against attempts to radically modernise society by standing alongside samurai soldiers in battle. But just how good of a watch is it? Charlize Theron leads a group of immortal mercenaries who use their self-healing powers to help those in need.
But when a new immortal joins their crew, they find themselves being chased down by scientists who want to experiment on them. So though it may not be especially original in its plot, The Old Guard is a solid action film that certainly entertains. You can't look away but you can't look. Alejandro Landes' Monos is about as far as you can get from a 'Netflick'.
It's a frenetic war thriller about a cult of guerrilla child soldiers in Colombia that's as unsettling as that description suggests. There's debate over an underlying allegory but just know there's edge of your seat hostage and rebellion plots and some stunning mountaintop and jungle visuals.
But most of all: the teens are terrifying. We know what you're thinking: Netflix commissioned a bunch of short films in lockdown, avoid at all costs. Well, we couldn't make it all the way through the Kristen Stewart entry — seemingly an homage to Personal Shopper — but a few of the 7 to 11 minute shorts are just perfect.
Pablo Larrain's nursing-home-Zoom film is hilarious, Maggie Gyllenhaal directs her husband Peter Sarsgaard to sci-fi weirdness in the woods, Ana Lily Amarpour shows us locked down LA and Paolo Sorrentino somehow manages to achieve his signature melancholy, humour and majesty with figurines of the Pope and the Queen placed around his house. Some gags land better than others, but the acting is uniformly good, and the film speaks to a very real debate currently ongoing across La Manche.
As you would expect, a film that focuses so closely on these difficult themes is no easy watch, and there are moments of intense brutality. But at the heart of Da 5 Bloods is an incredibly human story of friendship, humanity and the inherited trauma our main characters experience.
If you Google the cult classic that made Alicia Silverstone a 90s icon, the most-typed question is this: "Is Clueless a good movie? Let all doubt be cast aside — it really is. This loose interpretation of Jane Austen's Emma drops us into the life of spoiled year-old Cher Horowitz Silverstone ; a privileged, beautiful and popular girl who seemingly has it all.
Armed with unspeakable wealth and privilege, her life is dominated by power-shopping, cell phones and semi-successful matchmaking. When Cher gives grungy transfer student Tai Brittany Murphy a makeover, she triggers her own downfall.
What would I bring to the relationship? Every now and again a foreign film transcends its boundaries and becomes an international hit. Predictably, there's a western live action remake in the works, produced by J. J Abrams, but don't let that deter you from watching the charming and fun original first.
Kiki is a witch. She runs a delivery service. This is a coming of age film where complex themes are handled with confidence and style. The animation is classic Studio Ghibli: rich, detailed and fascinating, while the characters of Kiki, and her sarcastic cat Jiji, are impossible not to like.
Flight opens with one of the most spectacular air crash scenes ever put to film — it's worth watching the first 15 minutes alone if you've never seen it.
But what follows is equally worthy. Denzel Washington plays the genius pilot responsible for saving hundreds aboard his flight, but his predilection for booze and drugs is tearing his life apart and makes him a target for investigators.
Washington excels as the arrogant, flawed pilot who is determined to avoid the truth about himself. Almost all Studio Ghibli films are now available to watch on Netflix, and Princess Mononoke should definitely be near the top of your list. Released in , the film follows a young prince who is cursed by a demon boar and leaves his village to search for a cure — and try to find out what is causing upset to the forest and its creatures.
His travels draw him into a conflict between the animals and spirits of the forest and the human inhabitants of a nearby mining town, with the eponymous princess existing somewhere between the two. Director Hayao Miyazaki is known for environmentalist themes, and Princess Mononoke explores the relationship between humans and the planet with a greater level of complexity than some of his other works.
The film has an adult sensibility, with a fair amount violence and death, but there are plenty of cute animated creations too. Mari Gilbert is at war with the police. It's based on the true events around the excavation of Sutton Hoo, yielding a priceless trove of Anglo-Saxon artefacts hidden in a burial ship. Romantic, intellectual and moving, The Dig is a full sweep of elegance.
Step back into Old Hollywood, with beautiful cinematography and take in the behind-the-scenes of how studio systems functioned in a different time.
Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried are among the exceptional cast of this biographical drama filled with the lightness and darkness of its hero's life. An Aaron Sorkin drama based on a true story? The Trial of the Chicago 7 lives up to its pedigree, following the real-life trial of a group of anti-Vietnam War protestors charged with conspiracy to incite riots.
A movie about divorce might not sound like the best viewing experience, but Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story is a journey you'll want to take. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver give two of the best performances of their careers as Nicole and Charlie, a couple who embark on the emotionally and logistically complicated legal processes involved in prying a partnership apart.
Painted with an emotional complexity that includes poignantly funny moments along with the painful ones, this is happy-sad at its best. It's as fascinating as it sounds. The Two Popes carves up a slice of real-life drama with a first-class two-hander featuring Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins.
Alfonso Cuaron's semi-autobiographical snapshot of the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City tells a small story with staggering prowess. Let Cuaron steer you through the ups and downs of a live-in housekeeper of a middle-class family. His lens captures intricately beautiful scenes in an album that quietly envelopes you with wonder and grace. This Italian film has the seal of approval from Bong Joon-ho, so let's listen to the Oscar-winning director of Parasite and add it to this list.
Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, Happy as Lazzaro is set in the '70s on a tobacco farm, where good-hearted young peasant Lazzaro dutifully works. When a nobleman convinces him to help him fake his own kidnapping, a story of friendship, innocence and social commentary unfolds. A gorgeously shot, cinematic fairytale.
This elegant Spanish film will steep you in its rich imagery and phenomenally good performances from its two leads. The precision of the filmmaking here is worthy of soaking up for those who're partial to deliberately paced meditations on pain, love and loss. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a career best performance in The Kindergarten Teacher, a drama about, yep, a kindergarten teacher.
Lisa is dissatisfied with her own life, which leads her to make some questionable decisions regarding one of her young students. When Jimmy exhibits child prodigy levels of poetry writing talent, Lisa may or may not take credit for it. The Kindergarten Teacher's slightly disturbing character study might leave you feeling conflicted, but there's no question about Gyllenhaal's mesmerizing performance.
Mudbound gives you a historical look at class struggle through the lens of a Black veteran and a white veteran who both still have one foot stuck in World War II. A psychological thriller that dives deep into the surreal. I'm Thinking of Ending Things definitely won't be for everyone, but it connects you to the frustrations of the young woman Jessie Buckley at its heart, who grapples with breaking off her seven-week-relationship with her boyfriend Jake Jesse Plemons.
While it overstays its welcome a little, I'm Thinking of Ending Things always keeps you on your toes, with atmospheric cinematography and strong performances from Toni Collette and David Thewlis as Jake's fairly odd parents.
Fans of director-writer Charlie Kaufman will be pleased. Two movies named The Call came out in Watch the South Korean one, a time travel thriller revolving around, yep, a phone call. Twenty-eight-year-old Seo-yeon finds a phone buried in a closet in her childhood home. It rings -- and the caller, it turns out, is living in the same house 20 years earlier. Twists right up to the final moment, plus a wild cat-and-mouse chase that alters the past and present make this a must-watch.
This taut thriller set in the remote Scottish Highlands is far from an idyllic getaway. Prepare for a full on nerve-wringing nightmare that its protagonists are desperate to wake up from. Vaughn and Marcus set out on a lads' weekend hunting trip, but after a night of drinking, they find themselves facing events they never could have planned for. Calibre lives up to its name, delivering a slick package of grim, gripping drama.
Let the full force of this one wallop you. The fifth and latest film on Angelina Jolie's directing CV turned out to be her best. Based on Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung's memoir, the biographical thriller recounts the horrors Ung suffered as a child under the rule of the deadly Khmer Rouge.
With an empathetic lens framing a shocking story from the perspective of a child, First They Killed My Father is a unique war movie made with control and finesse. If you've had a bad day, this might be the movie for you. When the police refuse to help with a robbery, nursing assistant Ruth and her weird neighbor Tony take matters into their own hands.
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore spots the idiosyncrasies of everyday life, before escalating its story into dark places with even darker humor. With a touch of Coen Brothers' flair, its perfectly packed 96 minutes will leave you surprisingly emotional. From Netflix's impressive stash of international films comes Spanish sci-fi horror The Platform. Its high-concept story centers on a tower that delivers food to people on each of its many levels via a platform.
Those at the top get the best and most abundant spread, which is devoured as the platform lowers down the levels. Social commentary rings throughout this dystopian thriller, which takes shocking, occasionally gruesome turns all the way to the bottom. After her son Walter is kidnapped, Christine gets the call of a lifetime: they've found him. But the boy she's given is not her child. One mother must fight a crooked police force to try to get her son back, in this chilling true story. Y'all know I love a music industry biopic.
Straight Otta Compton outlines the meteoric rise of one of hip-hop's most influential groups N. After a heartbreaking divorce, one family tries to recover and understand the complexities of love. With a surprise twist ending to rival The Sixth Sense also on this list , this creepy film will haunt you long after you finish watching. Fans of cults, horror, and chilling plots will love this one.
Easy A will forever stand as one of the best teen movies to come out of the early '00s and, no, I will not be taking questions. Emma Stone plays a regular girl, skyrocketed into high school infamy when lies about her nonexistent sex life become the hottest gossip.
Government climatologists are predicting a series of natural disasters so severe, they could end mankind for good. A group of teens become trapped in the New York Public Library and must fight to survive the storm.
While investigating the disappearance of a patient from Ashcliff, a mental hospital for the most violent offenders, US Marshal Teddy Daniels uncovers horrifying secrets. This thriller comes with a mind-blowing plot twist to rival The Sixth Sense.
I'm pretty sure the "name a more iconic duo" meme was first said about Monica and Quincy. This famed love story is packed with romance, twists of fate, and, yes, plenty of basketball as the couple follows their dreams of becoming pro players.
A strange airborne virus is sweeping the globe, causing it's victims to suddenly kill themselves in strange and unusual ways. One group of travelers attempts to escape with their lives. Elliot meets an adorably squishy extra-terrestrial and an unlikely friendship blossoms. But when the government finds out he's housing an alien, Elliot and his friends must help E. See the real story of how Facebook started in Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room on the campus of Harvard.
It isn't a nice story, but the film is one of the best dramas you'll ever see. A disconnected group of college friends decide to relive their youth on a wild girls weekend.
This movie will have you cackling, thanks to the hilarious leading ladies. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. How to Watch 'After We Fell'. Courtney Chavez. Parasite English Subtitled. The Sixth Sense. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Stream it on Netflix.
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