Ema
From its first shot of a traffic light on fire, Pablo Larrain’s Ema (with cinematography by Sergio Armstrong) is a go for stunning visual after stunning visual. The plot, too, is sensational, following a Reggaeton dancer (Mariana Di Girólamo) through the aftermath of giving back a problem child she’d adopted with her husband (Gael García Bernal), with all the remorse, regret and scrutiny that comes with that decision.
But this isn’t just some heavy emotional character study. The titular Ema sets out on a devious and masterfully mad plan that is best left undisclosed. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of electric dance choreography, some punk rock flamethrower activity, and a number of sexy moments that are even hotter than all of that. Ema is an alluring and exciting film that will seduce you and then leave you unsure of how to feel in the end, save for having the desire to see more of Di Girólamo and for being reminded that Larrain is one of the most impressive and surprising filmmakers working today. (Christopher Campbell)
First Cow
Kelly Reichardt has never made a movie quite like First Cow. She calls it her heist film, and you can’t really argue the label. Two outsiders find their fortune in the 19th century American frontier by concocting the most delicious oily cakes and selling them to those sweating in the dirt for gold dust. The crime occurs every night when Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) scurry into the yard of the Chief Factor (Toby Jones) and rob his cow of her milk. First Cow is a saga of friendship, love, and the American fantasy. It’s as warm, affirming, bitter, and brutal as it should be. (Brad Gullickson)
The Half of It
A smart teen in a small town stands out from the crowd both in her ethnicity and romantic interests, and things only grow more complicated when she finds herself in a Cyrano de Bergerac situation. This Netflix film is a gem, funny, honest, smart, and fresh despite its literary inspiration, and delivers as a romantic comedy unlike most in both its intelligence and outcome. Watch this movie, share it with your family, and then join me in lobbying Netflix for more from writer-director Alice Wu. (Rob Hunter)
The Invisible Man
After the failed Dark Universe experiment, the Universal Monsters have been rebooted once again. And instead of trying to shoehorn them into an action-driven shared universe, the new approach is to give talented genre filmmakers modest budgets to return the monsters to their horror roots.
Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man is a terrifyingly urgent update on the classic H.G. Wells story as it reimagines the titular unseen scientist as a domestic abuser. He’ll stop at nothing to make the world think his ex-girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) is insane, going out of his way to alienate her from her friends and family in an effort to control her. It’s a disturbingly topical take on the lore that’s anchored by Moss’ outstanding performance as a survivor who refuses to let her abuser silence her.
The film does a great job of convincing viewers that the invisible menace is there when he’s not. Cinematographer Stefan Duscio’s camera makes every empty space seem alive, which enables the film to squeeze moments of maximum tension out of nothing. When the surprises do arrive, they achieve their desired effect, and some of them are truly shocking. (Kieran Fisher)
The Lodge
A father brings his kids on a weekend trip with his new girlfriend, and they don’t exactly hit it off together. This is horror of the grim, mean, and downer variety, and it is glorious. The filmmakers behind 2014’s divisive Goodnight Mommy up their game with a beautifully shot winter nightmare that sees people at their most fearful. It’s a devastating watch that gets to the heart of the horror genre. (Rob Hunter)
Related Topics: Mid-Year Report
