Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Alexander Hodge, Angela Elayne Gibbs, Arsema Thomas, D'Arcy Carden, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Edwin Lee Gibson, Hayley Law, Kevin Carroll, Kwame Patterson, Natasha Marc, Taissa Farmiga, Treisa Gary
Director: Nate Edwards
Challenging movies serve beyond entertainment, pushing us to ask new questions about humanity and the world around us. If you’re hungry for some food for thought, here are the best thought-provoking movies and shows available to stream now.
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Alexander Hodge, Angela Elayne Gibbs, Arsema Thomas, D'Arcy Carden, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Edwin Lee Gibson, Hayley Law, Kevin Carroll, Kwame Patterson, Natasha Marc, Taissa Farmiga, Treisa Gary
Director: Nate Edwards
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Natalie Portman, Paula Kahumbu
Fourteen-year-old Segundo dreams of being just like his father Noé, a revered tableau artist in their small Peruvian town. The teenage apprentice follows Noé's every move and instruction, that is until one day, he discovers a shocking truth about Noé's identity. Hurt, angered, and incredibly confused, Segundo starts detaching from his family, as well as from the life he thought he'd wanted to live.
Retablo is a slow but vibrant film, set in Peruvian locales and spoken in the country's indigenous tongue, Quechua. Its limited dialogue smartly reflects the people's own silence when it comes to sex and gender ideas, although the movements themselves—from traditional parties to teenage fights—have a lot to say about masculinity, conservatism, and the dangers of their excess. Retablo might be a difficult watch for some, but it's just as necessary and enlightening.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Amiel Cayo, Claudia Solís, Coco Chiarella, Hermelinda Luján, Junior Béjar Roca, Magaly Solier, Mauro Chuchón
Director: Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L., Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Actor: Anzu Lawson, Go Gyu-pil, Hwang Young-hee, Jang Yoon-ju, Jung Jin-young, Kim Ji-won, Kim Joo-ryoung, Kim Jung-nan, Kim Kap-soo, Kim Shin-rock, Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Young-min, Kwak Dong-yeon, Lee Ju-bin, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Su-ji, Lim Cheol-soo, Moon Tae-yu, Na Young-hee, Nicole Fong, Oh Man-seok, Park Jung-pyo, Park Jung-yeon, Park Sung-hoon, Park Yoon-hee, Yoon Bo-mi
Director: Jang Young-woo, Kim Hee-won
The movie follows Martha (Vanessa Kirby), a young wife who loses her baby in a failed home birth. She tries her best to trudge through the aftermath of loss, but her coping attempts prove to be near impossible, not least because her husband Sean (Shia LaBeouf) and mother Liz (Ellen Burstyn) continually domineer every aspect of her life.
Pieces of a Woman is harrowing and heartbreaking, with the actors giving their all in this realistic and revealing drama. But it's Kirby's performance as the unraveled yet apathetic Martha that is the film's immediate standout, rightfully earning her a Best Actress nomination at the 2021 Academy Awards.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alain Dahan, Benny Safdie, Domenic Di Rosa, Ellen Burstyn, Frank Schorpion, Gayle Garfinkle, Harry Standjofski, Harry Strandjofski, Iliza Shlesinger, Jimmie Fails, Leisa Reid, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, Sean Tucker, Shia LaBeouf, Steven McCarthy, Tyrone Benskin, Vanessa Kirby, Vanessa Smythe
Director: Kornél Mundruczó, Kornél Mundruczó
A unique insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through one case of violence that rocked public opinion in both countries: the abduction of three Israeli boys (hence the show title) and the retaliation by Israeli extremists who abducted a Palestinian boy. This case would eventually spark the 2014 Gaza war. It’s slow, it requires subtitles, and the acting is not always sharp but there might not be a piece of storytelling that reflects how those two societies perceive each other more than this American-Israeli show.
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Actor: Adam Gabay, Johnny Arbid, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Aloni, Shadi Mar'i, Shlomi Elkabetz
Genre: Animation, Drama
Actor: Kent Ito, Manaka Iwami, Megumi Han, Rie Takahashi, Rumi Okubo, Takeo Otsuka, Yumi Uchiyama, Yurie Igoma
Genre: Drama, History
Actor: Aisling Loftus, Barbara Marten, Carolina Giammetta, Chrissie Page, David Wenham, Emily Watson, Geoff Morrell, Greg Stone, Harvey Scrimshaw, Hugo Weaving, Kate Rutter, Lorraine Ashbourne, Mandahla Rose, Marg Downey, Molly Windsor, Richard Dillane, Robert Purdy, Russell Dykstra, Stuart Wolfenden, Tanya Myers, Tara Morice
Director: Jim Loach
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Ben Van den Heuvel, Ella-June Henrard, Eva van der Gucht, Jelle Florizoone, Luk Wyns, Mathias Vergels, Nathan Naenen, Patricia Goemaere, Thomas Coumans
Director: Bavo Defurne
Part sci-fi and part psychological horror, No One Will Save You is an impressive outing that serves as a vehicle for Dever’s one-woman show. She is a powerhouse, a nonstop show of talent that doesn’t seem to run out of fuel. The scenes are grueling and excruciating, they involve a lot of physical, mental, and emotional turmoil, but somehow, Dever rises to the challenge with unbelievable ease. Sure, sci-fi lovers will find much to discuss in these unearthly creatures, and cinephiles will appreciate how the film relies almost solely on sound design and a single line of dialogue. But it’s Dever who does the heavy lifting here, and it’s especially apparent when the film tries, weakly, to delve into Brynn’s psyche and the town’s sociological workings. It’s not as impressive in those regards, but Dever is strong enough an actress to make you forgive the movie’s frailer parts.
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Actor: Bridget Malbrough, Dane Rhodes, Dari Lynn Griffin, Elizabeth Kaluev, Emani White, Evangeline Rose, Geraldine Singer, Kaitlyn Dever, Lauren L. Murray, Zack Duhame
Director: Brian Duffield
Genre: Drama, Romance
Actor: Choi Sung-eun, Heo Seon-haeng, Jo Han-chul, Kang Gil-woo, Kim Sung-ryung, Lee Il-hwa, Lee Sang-hee, Seo Hyun-woo, Song Joong-ki, Waël Sersoub, Woo Kang-min
Director: Kim Hee-jin
The love parents have for their child is powerful, but most parents normally don’t resort to murder for them. Of course, most families don’t actually need to, but like Tetsuo Tosu, they might if their daughter’s yakuza boyfriend plans to murder her first. My Home Hero depicts this scenario, slowly going into the potential sequence of events that could happen, realistically portrayed by Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tae Kimura, and Asuka Saito as the loving family. The family might be a bit cookie-cutter – we’ve seen similar characters in other series before – but they’re relatable enough to make My Home Hero a fairly decent, though generic, crime drama.
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Actor: Asuka Saito, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Kyohei Takahashi, Tae Kimura, Yasushi Fuchikami
Director: Daisuke Yamamoto, Takahiro Aoyama, Takashi Tanazawa
Genre: Drama
Actor: Cole Doman, Devon Ross, Eamon Farren, Eléonore Hendricks, Jane Wickline, Joanna Fang, Odessa Young, Philip Ettinger, Sage Ftacek, Zia Anger
Director: Zia Anger
With most of early January 2024’s slate focused on fantasy, Metallic Rouge is a fairly decent cyberpunk refresher. With fantastic, mostly 2D animation, studio Bones’ 25th Anniversary project has spectacular mecha match-ups between government android Rouge Redstar versus various members of the excellently designed Immortal Nine, as well as humorous, expository banter from Rouge’s human partner Naomi Orthmann. But it’s the mystery that drives interest in the show, as Nean androids and humans share a world, but not the same status, and the origins of the artificial intelligence bots seem to link with a previous alien invasion that pushed humanity into further space exploration. It’s an interesting premise, and the structure is definitely unusual, but with Bones’ track record, we’re expecting that it’ll all come together by the end of Metallic Rouge.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Atsushi Miyauchi, Chiaki Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Kazuyuki Okitsu, Kenjiro Tsuda, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Tomoyo Kurosawa, Yu Shimamura, Yui Ogura, Yume Miyamoto
Director: Yutaka Izubuchi
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Alan Ball, Barbara Steele, Ben Cross, David Bushman, David Selby, Ian McShane, John Karlen, Joseph Caldwell, Lara Parker, Michael Brockman, Nancy Barrett, Roger Davis
Director: David Gregory