4 Best Movies to Watch by Juliet Rylance

Staff & contributors

Frances (Greta Gerwig) lives in New York – but not the glamorous NYC of Woody Allen movies. Taking place primarily in the gritty and rapidly gentrifying North Brooklyn, the black and white film paints a picture of an extended adolescence. Focusing on the goofy and carefree Frances, who loses her boyfriend, her best friend and her dream of being a dancer. She moves in with two guys, both of whom are more successful than her, and becomes even more determined to fulfil her goals, impractical as they may be. Fans of HBO’s Girls and other odes to not being a “real person” yet will love this film.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Adam Driver, Britta Phillips, Charlotte d'Amboise, Christine Gerwig, Cindy Katz, Daiva Deupree, Dean Wareham, Eleanor Smith, Finnerty Steeves, Gibson Frazier, Gordon Gerwig, Grace Gummer, Greta Gerwig, Hannah Dunne, Isabelle McNally, Josh Hamilton, Juliet Rylance, Justine Lupe, Laura Parker, Lindsay Burdge, Marina Squerciati, Maya Kazan, Michael Esper, Michael Zegen, Michelle Hurst, Mickey Sumner, Noah Baumbach, Patrick Heusinger, Peter Scanavino, Ryann Shane, Teddy Cañez, Vanessa Ray

Director: Noah Baumbach

Rating: R

James Norton plays a Russian-British banker who has stayed away from his family’s links to organized crime. When his fund is threatened, he accepts a shady investor recommended by his uncle, which introduces him to the world of international crime as a money launderer.

It’s very well-made, and successfully juggles many stories at once. However, its weakness might ironically be that the main storyline, as well as Norton’s character, are less interesting than a lot of the other stories that are going on.

The series is written by Hossein Amini, who also wrote the script for Drive.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Aleksandr Dyachenko, Aleksey Serebryakov, Anna Levanova, Atul Kale, Caio Blat, David Dencik, David Strathairn, Faye Marsay, James Norton, Juliet Rylance, Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Kirill Pirogov, Maria Mashkova, Mariya Shukshina, Merab Ninidze, Oshri Cohen, Sofia Lebedeva, Yuval Scharf

Director: James H. Watkins, James Watkins