3 Best Movies to Watch by Juliet Rylance

1. Frances Ha, 2013

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.

2. Perry Mason, 2023

Set in 1930s Hollywood, a decadent city festering with crime and corruption, Perry Mason is a stylish noir series that fully recalls the crime classics of its era. It has the hallmarks of an old-fashioned mystery, the most prominent of which is the titular detective himself, Perry Mason—a boozy antihero with a heart of rusty gold—but it keeps plenty of secrets up its sleeve, making it fresh and surprising at almost every turn.

Sometimes, it gets ahead of itself and takes on too many plot lines for its own good, but if you can forgive the occasional convolutedness, the show rewards you with shocking twists and rich performances.

3. McMafia, 2018

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.