Genre: Drama
Actor: Caroline Berg, Dani, Dominique Blanc, Evelyne Didi, François Cluzet, Guillaume Foutrier, Henri Attal, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Michel Noirey, Lolita Chammah, Marie Bunel, Marie Trintignant, Nils Tavernier
Director: Claude Chabrol
One of the cinema’s most noble roles is to challenge pre-conceived perceptions and tackle difficult questions about humanity and the world. Here are some of the most important and topically challenging movies to stream right now.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Caroline Berg, Dani, Dominique Blanc, Evelyne Didi, François Cluzet, Guillaume Foutrier, Henri Attal, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Michel Noirey, Lolita Chammah, Marie Bunel, Marie Trintignant, Nils Tavernier
Director: Claude Chabrol
It’s a bold move, centering a drama around a creature as docile as a donkey, but EO pulls it off without ever leaning on the crutch of CGI. Instead, the film makes ingenious use of a hundred-year-old film technique: the Kuleshov effect. By splicing the image of the titular donkey’s placid, expressionless face against visual stimulus, the illusion of a genuine reaction is produced.
But don’t be mistaken: this is no twee Disney-esque tale of anthropomorphism. Inspired by the classic Au Hasard Balthasar, EO tracks the haphazard journey of a former circus donkey across Europe — one that is often depicted in surreal psychedelic reds instead of idyllic picture-book tones, and punctured by more horrors than joys (though we do, thankfully, get to see him munch away on some well-deserved carrot treats). EO’s docility frames him as a kind of holy innocent, making the cruelty meted out to him feel all the more like a grave violation of something sacrosanct. Seeing the world through his oft-neglected perspective also makes this a movie about humans by proxy — a fresh, empathetic approach that, even in its obvious dramatic liberties, makes us meditate on both the depth of experience that may be unfolding in our animal neighbors and our role in shaping it.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Isabelle Huppert, Kateřina Holánová, Lolita Chammah, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kościukiewicz, Sandra Drzymalska, Tomasz Organek, Waldemar Barwiński
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
At two hours and nearly 30 minutes, Stonewalling is quite long. The third film from spouses Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji takes place in slow, slice-of-life moments, centered around a female lead that mostly doesn’t actively make choices for her own life, so it can feel frustrating to watch. But as the film unfolds, Lynn’s passivity turns out to be the tragically familiar surrender of today’s working class. Lynn tries to make choices to pay out her mother’s debt, to ensure that she’s not indebted herself, through jobs that commodify her youth, her beauty, and even her body, but each move consequently limits her next options. She tries to bargain for other solutions, but it turns out these solutions were never there in the first place. All she can do is quietly adapt, with each failed promise culminating into a baby’s cry.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Cui Chu, Huang Xiaoxiong, Liu Long, Xiao Zilong, Yao Honggui
Director: Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka
Genre: Drama
Actor: Andy Serkis, Joe Tucker, Kate Byers, Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Margo Stanley, Mark Benton
Director: Mike Leigh
A group of male friends become obsessed with a group of mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents after one of them commits suicide. Sofia Coppola does a great job taking the novel and turning it into a full featured movie. The movie is admittedly a bit slow, but it paints such a great picture into the characters lives and everyone around them, that your attention will quickly be turned to that. The casting is spot on and even though it may seem like a very dark subject matter, the film is very enjoyable to watch no matter your taste in movies.
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: A.J. Cook, Allen Stewart-Coates, Amos Crawley, Andrew Gillies, Anthony DeSimone, Chelse Swain, Conor Dean Smith, Courtney Hawkrigg, Danny DeVito, Dawn Greenhalgh, François Klanfer, Gary Brennan, Giovanni Ribisi, Hanna Hall, Hayden Christensen, James Woods, Joe Dinicol, Joe Roncetti, John Buchan, Jonathan Tucker, Jonathan Whittaker, Josh Hartnett, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Kristin Fairlie, Leslie Hayman, Melody Johnson, Michael Paré, Michael Pare, Michèle Duquet, Murray McRae, Neil Girvan, Noah "40" Shebib, Robert Schwartzman, Roberta Hanley, Sally Cahill, Sandi Stahlbrand, Scot Denton, Scott Glenn, Sherry Miller, Suki Kaiser, Thomas Mars, Timothy Adams, Tracey Ferencz, Хейден Кристенсен
Director: Sofia Coppola
There's a mysterious, urgent power to Ear for Eye that survives the project's movement from the stage to the screen. Against moody, bare backgrounds, debbie tucker green's script becomes both story and setting—with words upon words overlapping, being repeated, and being used against each other, expressing the anxiety of entire generations of Black people trying to figure out how to endure all their persecution. What unfortunately <i>doesn't</i> translate well to the screen is the film's editing and its inability to take full advantage of the medium of cinema. Despite the importance of the things being discussed, the end product is a movie that feels like it gets in its own way too much, but still delivers plenty to think about.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Arinzé Kene, Carmen Munroe, Claire Driver, Danielle Vitalis, Danny Sapani, David Gyasi, Demetri Goritsas, Ilirian Bushi, Jade Anouka, Jamal Ajala, Kayla Meikle, Lashana Lynch, Nadine Marshall, Rochelle Rose, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, Sharlene Whyte, Sule Rimi, Tosin Cole
Director: Debbie Tucker Green