Genre: Crime, Documentary, Thriller
Actor: Craig Cobb
Director: Christopher K. Walker, Michael Beach Nichols
Chasing the feel of watching Joker ? Here are the movies we recommend you watch right after.
Genre: Crime, Documentary, Thriller
Actor: Craig Cobb
Director: Christopher K. Walker, Michael Beach Nichols
There is a great deal of disbelief to suspend with this film, arguably the weakest of Japanese animation director Makoto Shinkai’s oeuvre. It follows Hodaka, a broke high school student in Tokyo looking for a job. The story kicks off when he meets Hina, a cheerful girl who lives with her younger brother and has the power to control the weather.
Again, as with all of Shinkai’s work, it’s remarkably beautiful. Rainfall, skies, and cityscapes are eye candy here, probably more than in any piece of animation ever. But this has every high school romance trope elevated to an extreme level, like Shinkai’s best known film Your Name but on steroids—a teenage boy and cute girl fit together like pieces of a puzzle, a grand adventure starts, forces beyond their control threaten to separate them, and the standard anime couple seemingly never see each other again, until they dramatically meet years later.
For the sake of an against-all-odds romance, Weathering with You downplays its insane plot devices. It glosses over runaway kids wielding firearms, an underage girl almost going into sex work, and a climate disaster potentially displacing millions of people—all for a love story.
Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Actor: Aoi Yuki, Ayane Sakura, Chieko Baisho, Hidekatsu Shibata, Kana Hanazawa, Kana Ichinose, Kanon Tani, Kotaro Daigo, Masako Nozawa, Mone Kamishiraishi, Nana Mori, Ryo Narita, Ryohei Kimura, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Sakura Kiryu, Sei Hiraizumi, Shinjirou Gouda, Shun Oguri, Sumi Shimamoto, Tsubasa Honda, Yuki Kaji, Yuki Ominami
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Inspired by her own mother, director Hilda Hidalgo tells the story of Violeta, a 72-year-old woman with an enviable appetite for life. After divorcing her husband of more than forty years, Violeta now lives alone in the beautiful home in which she grew up. When she discovers that the bank is threatening to repossess her beloved house, she is determined to hold on to it against her children's wishes, and no matter the cost.
Violeta at Last is, above all, a movie about a woman determined to face the future on her own terms.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alejandra Portillo, Álvaro Marenco, Arnoldo Ramos, Eugenia Chaverri, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Ivette Guier, Olger González
Director: Hilda Hidalgo
A deeply affecting and meaningful documentary, directed by the woman who it revolves around. Jennifer Brea, a Harvard Ph.D student, begins suffering from unusual symptoms: prolonged and extreme fatigue, mental confusion, full-body pain, etc. When she goes to the doctor she is dismissed for being dehydrated and depressed. Later she finds an extended community suffering from her exact same symptoms, all of which fall under the umbrella of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, more widely known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She decides to tell their stories from her bed, and as such this movie is a collection of videos from her and her partner, added to the stories of others living with the disease. An important and inspiring movie that sheds a light on the lives of the millions affected by CFS around the world. Watch the trailer.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Jennifer Brea, Jessica l e Taylor, Jessica Taylor-Bearman, Omar Wasow, Patricia E. Gillespie, Samuel Bearman
Director: Jennifer Brea
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Charles Hallahan, Deborah Offner, Gerry Bamman, Graham Beckel, James Woods, Joel Polis, John Snyder, Kurt Fuller, Kurtwood Smith, Luis Guzman, Margaret Colin, Miguel Fernandes, Richard Fancy, Robert Downey Jr., Sully Díaz, Thomas Wagner, Tom Bower, Woody Harrelson, Yuji Okumoto, 柯特伍德·史密斯
Director: Joseph Ruben
Nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature. On the day before Hurricane Katrina, a young aspiring rap singer in the 9th Ward turns her new video camera on herself and her neighbors. She keeps shooting as the water rises, neighbors struggle to rescue each other, people panic and flee. Weeks later she returns to her neighborhood and records the death and decay left behind. Raw and real, worth watching.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: George W. Bush, Julie Chen, Julie Chen Moonves, Michael Brown, Ray Nagin, Shepard Smith
Director: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin.
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Actor: Deane Berg, Mymy Nguyen
Director: Phyllis Ellis
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the mix of ideas and aesthetics that gave us Her has roots in Japan. Borrowing from the country’s poeticism, attention to detail and just appreciation for beauty; Tony Takitani is Her’s quiet and delicate elder brother-film, and one of the best this genre has to give. After spending a solitary childhood, a Japanese kid with the American name Tony grows up to be a successful technical illustrator. Without the time for the outside world or any luck with it, Tony indulges in his work and by extension his loneliness until he suddenly falls a distinctive young woman. Tony Takitani is a slow film, which quickly becomes a memorable experience due to its profound study of loneliness.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Issei Ogata, Issey Ogata, Miho Fujima, Rie Miyazawa, Shinohara Takahumi
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Thithi is a 2015 Kannada film from India that begins with the death of 101-year old Century Gowda, and follows his family as they prepare for his funeral celebration 11 days later. The story-line focuses on 3 generations of his descendants, as his son, grandson and great-grandson are caught up in individual dramas related to the impending funeral as well as their own personal aspirations. His son Gaddappa, an elderly wanderer, absconds with a traveling family of shepherds, his grandson Thammanna hatches an elaborate plan to claim the family land for himself, and his great-grandson Abhi becomes enamored by a young shepherd girl whom he pursues doggedly. Filmed using non-professional actors recruited from villages in the southern Karnataka state of India, Thithi is a humorous and enjoyable portrait of life in a rural part of South Asia rarely seen by the world-at-large. As a realistic slice-of-life, the film gives the viewer an outsider’s glimpse into not just the lifestyle of many residents of rural India, but also their elaborate customs and rituals related to death according to Hindu tradition. Thithi is the type of film that moves at its own deliberate pace, but ultimately provides a winning experience in both its storytelling and its cultural significance.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Abhishek H.N., Channegowda, Pooja, Pooja S.M., Singri Gowda, Thamme Gowda, Thammegowda S.
Director: Raam Reddy
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Adil Brkovic, Gabriel Salazar, Gabriela Paterito, Patricio Guzman, Raul Zurita
Director: Patricio Guzmán
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Actor: Jay Reinke, Keegan Edwards
Director: Jesse Moss
Fans of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit might be curious about its writer/director Scott Frank's first feature, this small, suspenseful thriller about a young man with anterograde amnesia and the eccentric cast of characters he encounters leading up to a bank heist. These people are brought to life by a number of high-profile actors doing relatively unusual work outside their wheelhouses: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, and an almost unrecognizable Matthew Goode as a scheming robber. It might be a little unclear what The Lookout is trying to say, exactly, but it works as a brief look into a fractured mind trying to hold on to something good in his life.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Aaron Berg, Alberta Watson, Alex Borstein, Brian Edward Roach, Bruce McGill, Carla Gugino, Charles Crossin, Chuck Robinson, Courtney-Jane White, David Huband, Greg Dunham, Harry Nelken, Isla Fisher, Janaya Stephens, Jeff Daniels, John Bluethner, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kalyn Bomback, Laura Vandervoort, Leslie Bais, Marc Devigne, Martin Roach, Matthew Goode, Morgan Kelly, Sergio Di Zio, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Suzanne Kelly, Thanya Romero, Tinsel Korey, Toni Reimer
Director: Scott Frank
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Andrea Crosta, Ian Stevenson, Kief Davidson, Prince William, Richard Ladkani
Director: Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani
This documentary is about a unique program in Chicago called CeaseFire whose sole aim is to stop violent deaths in poor urban areas. CeaseFire is staffed by ex-gang members and ex-convicts who try to intervene in conflicts in their community, particularly those that may escalate into extreme violence or death. In these neighborhoods though, violent conflict can result from something as minor as someone making a funky comment about someone else’s shoes. This makes total success for a project like CeaseFire nearly impossible. It is not a totally depressing film though as the program and its practitioners are all pretty amazing, and director Steve James (who made Hoop Dreams) has unparalleled access to these struggling communities.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Amanda Palmer, Ameena Matthews, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Steve James, Tio Hardiman
Director: Steve James
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Barack Obama, Betty Chism, Bill Clinton, David Simon, Dennis Whidbee, Eugene Jarecki, George H. W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mark W. Bennett, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Jr., Michelle Alexander, Nancy Davis Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Nannie Jeter, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Rudolph Giuliani
Director: Eugene Jarecki