\n<\/p>\n
Stream it on Hulu<\/a>.<\/p>\n So few films concern the daily lives of the working class, in any meaningful way, that it\u2019s sort of astonishing when one comes along that feels so embedded there. That\u2019s the case with this heart-tugging drama from the directors Kelly O\u2019Sullivan and Alex Thompson (\u201cSaint Frances\u201d), in which a grieving father stumbles into a community theater production of \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d Keith Kupferer is marvelous as the father, beautifully capturing the frustrations and emotional limitations of his class and generation, while Katherine Mallen Kupferer performs modestly as his wife, until a late moment that absolutely clobbers you. And that, in many ways, holds true for the entire movie.<\/p>\n Stream it on Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis midlife crisis is no walk in the park, I\u2019ll tell you that,\u201d snorts Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) near the end of this poignant comedy-drama, and while his daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) notes the mathematical improbability that 60-something is \u201cmidlife,\u201d the sentiment stands. Andy, the owner-operator of a Los Angeles art gallery that\u2019s seen better days, is in free-fall. His wife has just checked herself into rehab, much to his bafflement (he\u2019s so checked out, he never noticed her addiction), leaving him to care for their elementary-school aged twins himself. Keaton is credited as an executive producer, and it\u2019s easy to see why the project was important to him; the writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer hands him a stellar showcase, a guy who talks fast and thinks faster, and whose inherent likability helps soften his obvious flaws. The result is a poignant examination of getting older and wondering if you\u2019ve lost it \u2014 whatever your particular \u201cit\u201d may be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A fair number of minds were blown by \u201cLove Lies Bleeding,\u201d last year\u2019s mash-up of crime thriller, queer romance and surrealist semi-fairy tale from the writer and director Rose Glass, but those who caught this, her debut feature, saw greatness in her future. This nerve-jangling, Catholic-coded psychological thriller stars the bracing Morfydd Clark (currently starring in \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power<\/a>\u201d) as the title character, an introverted nurse whose unwavering, self-punishing religious faith coexists uneasily with her own demons and skeletons. Glass\u2019s filmmaking is equal parts intellectual and visceral; she pushes the viewer to consider the full ramifications and implications of such unquestioning faith, while taking pains to place us in Maud\u2019s shoes (literally, at one point, and quite painfully). It\u2019s a debut of striking confidence and exciting, undeniable cinematic skill.<\/p>\n Stream it on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The haunted, melancholy visage of Maika Monroe, so well used in \u201cIt Follows\u201d and \u201cLonglegs,\u201d gets a workout in this deliberately paced, unnervingly crafted thriller from the director Chloe Okuno. Monroe stars as Julia, who accompanies her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), to Bucharest, Romania, for a career opportunity. He\u2019s working all the time, so she\u2019s a stranger in a strange land, and Okuno nails the specific, aching solitude of being alone in a crowd where you don\u2019t even speak the language \u2014 and the feeling that you\u2019re being watched and followed. The picture\u2019s tension comes from the commonplace, and Okuno uses the simplest of tools (rumbling on the soundtrack, knocks on doors, sudden movements, incoming texts) to build dread and unease. Most of all, she offers a gutsy female interpretation of the male gaze, a story explicitly about being watched, by men, and all of the dangers that can represent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This sublime and absorbing adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh<\/a>\u2019s 2015 novel<\/a> takes some of the most durable tropes of pulp literature and film noir \u2014 the small-town schlub looking for a way out, the femme fatale whose sexy exterior hides a dark heart \u2014 and turns them upside down. Thomasin McKenzie is the title character, a file clerk at a boys\u2019 correctional center who cares for her miserable, alcoholic father (Shea Whigham) and can only escape her drab existence with messy sexual fantasies. One day, a new one arrives: the new counselor Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a blonde knockout who exudes the kind of effortless self-confidence that Eileen can only dream of. Where their attraction goes from there is best left unspoiled; suffice to to say that the director William Oldroyd (\u201cLady Macbeth<\/a>\u201d) knows the genre road map, and is keenly aware of when to follow it and when to go off-road.<\/p>\n Stream it on Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWaitress\u201d had quite a circular journey, something akin to those of \u201cThe Producers,\u201d \u201cHairspray,\u201d and \u201cMean Girls\u201d: it began as a nonmusical film (also streaming on Max<\/a>), was then adapted into a Broadway musical<\/a>, and then turned back<\/em> into a movie. The twist here is that rather than restaging it as a traditional movie musical, the directors Diane Paulus and Brett Sullivan instead captured live performances from its 2021 post-lockdown stage revival<\/a>, creating something of a cross between musical theater and concert performance. The latter influence is especially strong since the production is fronted by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles<\/a>, who wrote the words and music and periodically played Jenna, the show\u2019s long-suffering protagonist. It\u2019s a risky gambit, but it works; Bareilles is a live performer, first and foremost, and Paulus and Sullivan\u2019s frisky photography gives the scenes a you-are-there immediacy and intimacy.<\/p>\n Stream it on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Werner Herzog\u2019s documentaries are never just about their surface subject, as his own interests and preoccupations are ever-present. That\u2019s especially true in this tribute to his friend and occasional collaborator Bruce Chatwin<\/a>, a writer and adventurer whose 1989 death clearly left a hole in Herzog\u2019s heart. But this is no cradle-to-grave bio-doc, with Herzog instead serving up a thoughtful rumination on the \u201cwild characters, strange creatures, and big ideas\u201d that fascinated him and this extraordinary man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Goodrich\u2019 (2024)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Watcher\u2019 (2022)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Waitress: The Musical\u2019 (2023)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin\u2019 (2020)<\/h2>\n