\n<\/p>\n
Stream it on Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n The comedian Julio Torres writes, directs and stars in this gleefully absurd, semi-surreal combination of outsider comedy and New York art world satire. The protagonist Alejandro, like Torres, hails from El Salvador, coming to America with dreams of success as a toymaker (his emo-tinged inventions are among the picture\u2019s running comic highlights), but he finds himself trapped in the bureaucratic maze of work visas, immigration sponsorship and under- the-table pay. His makeshift solution is a thankless job helping an art critic (a gloriously unhinged Tilda Swinton) assemble the works of her cryogenically frozen husband (RZA). Torres\u2019s perceptive screenplay scores laughs in manners grand and small, from elaborate fantasy sequences to the deeply relatable frustrations of a boss\u2019s attachment to outdated software. He stages his comic sequences with visual flair \u2014 a too-rare quality these days \u2014 while smuggling in surprisingly poignant moments of truth and wisdom.<\/p>\n Stream it on Hulu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The stubborn insistence, among most mainstream moviemakers, that the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown simply didn\u2019t happen has been one of the most frustrating elements of recent cinema. Thankfully, the writer-director-actor Theda Hammel<\/a> is an exception to the rule, making her feature debut with this raucous, transgressive and frequently uproarious return to the summer of 2020. She assembles an oddball ensemble of weirdos and hangers-on around a Brooklyn brownstone in the depths of lockdown \u2014 chief among them Terry (the comedian John Early), a neurotic worst-case scenarist desperately clinging to his Covid safety protocols, and Karla (Hammel) a cynical massage therapist \u2014 and bounces them off each other, creating what initially feels like a blackout-sketch assemblage before revealing itself as a keenly observed portrait of that blurry, barely-remembered time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There are so very many movies (so few of them good) sold on an image of Liam Neeson holding a gun that one can be excused for not giving \u201cIn the Land of Saints and Sinners\u201d the benefit of the doubt. But this dramatic thriller from the director Robert Lorenz is the best Neeson vehicle in years, deftly merging the current, action-heavy thread of his career with his earlier, heftier work. Neeson stars as Finbar Murphy, a contract killer whose plans to hang up his gun are waylaid by a nasty bit of business with an I.R.A. faction. Neeson is excellent, finding the character\u2019s modest moments of melancholy, and Lorenz surrounds him with stellar Irish character actors like Colm Meaney and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds. But the showcase turn here comes from Kerry Condon (an Oscar nominee for \u201cThe Banshees of Inisherin\u201d), who is utterly ferocious as Neeson\u2019s primary antagonist.<\/p>\n Stream it on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The prickly, knotty humanism and \u201970s vibe of the director Nathan Silver and his writing partner C. Mason Wells, wielded promisingly in their 2017 indie \u201cThirst Street,\u201d<\/a> comes to full flower in this often warm and occasionally uncomfortable comedy-drama. Jason Schwartzman stars as a recent widower, unable to fulfill his duties as a cantor at an upstate New York synagogue. But he\u2019s unexpectedly re-energized by helping his elementary school music teacher (Carol Kane) prepare for her very belated bat mitzvah ceremony. Schwartzman is marvelously morose, putting across the character\u2019s pain and mourning without asking for sympathy, while Kane is a firecracker, juicing every scene with the kind of electrifying unpredictability that\u2019s always made her an M.V.P. in supporting roles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The most recent feature from the gifted independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt pulls off a neat trick. Set in an artists\u2019 community in the Pacific Northwest, it quietly acknowledges the shortcomings and insular nature of such an enterprise, without snickering at the people who inhabit it or the work they do. The stakes are low, in the grand scheme of things, but not to the people involved in them, and especially not to Lizzy (Michelle Williams), a forcefully stubborn sculptor attempting to finish a new batch of pieces amid intense external pressures and annoyances. Reichardt and Williams have been collaborating for over a decade and a half, and Reichardt is beautifully attuned to Williams\u2019s complicated interiority; she also surrounds her with a pitch-perfect ensemble, with Andr\u00e9 Benjamin, Hong Chau and Judd Hirsch making particular impact.<\/p>\n Stream it on Hulu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Viewers impressed by Anna Kendrick\u2019s recent directorial debut \u201cWoman of the Hour\u201d<\/a> may want to queue up this slightly earlier starring vehicle; the styles are divergent (it\u2019s a character-driven drama), but it\u2019s similarly concerned with the daily psychological labor of simply existing as a woman. As the title character, Kendrick adroitly conveys the sense of a young woman who seems<\/em> to have it all together \u2014 good job, good friends, good relationship \u2014 but is quietly withering under the controlling thumb of her domineering boyfriend (Charlie Carrick), from whom she hides an innocent weekend getaway with her girlfriends (Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku), lest he get \u2026 upset. The screenplay by Alanna Francis perceptively replicates the loaded interactions of a toxic relationship, while Mary Nighy\u2019s sure-handed direction capably balances the complex relationships of the nuanced characters at the story\u2019s center.<\/p>\n\u2018Stress Positions\u2019 (2024)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Between the Temples\u2019 (2023)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Alice, Darling\u2019 (2023)<\/h2>\n
\u2018De Palma\u2019 (2016)<\/h2>\n