164 Best Releases From the Genre Romance
Música
SimilarAlmost Famous (2000), Ice Age (2002),
As the director, co-writer (alongside American Vandal’s Dan Lagana), executive producer, and composer of Música, Rudy Mancuso’s filmmaking debut suggests he’s carrying a certain “do it all yourself” energy over from his previous career as a prolific YouTuber. Impressively, it does not feel insular or self-involved despite his hands being in nearly all aspects of the process. That isn’t to say, however, that it all works.
Mancuso plays, well, Rudy, a college student barreling towards graduation with little semblance of a plan for what comes next. His dedication to puppetry and music shows great creativity, but it doesn’t seem like a promising moneymaking venture if his occasional busking is any indication. Further complicating matter is his synesthesia, a condition that underlines every aspect of his day with a constant beat. It may be great for his musicality, but it also creates a distance between him and others. Often distracted, sometimes overwhelmed, by the music only he can hear, he frequently misses out on what others are trying to tell him.
Rudy Mancuso explains the "What's up Brother" meme to Camila Mendes. (Prime Video)
His perceived lack of ambition proves too much for his girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale), leading to a break-up at the film’s start. This clears the decks for Rudy’s mom (Maria Mancuso, the filmmaker’s real-life mom) to start playing matchmaker with every Brazilian-American girl around his age she can find and for Rudy to fall for Isabella (Camila Mendes), an employee at a local seafood counter. When Haley returns, things fall apart quickly, thanks in no small part to advice from Anwar (J.B. Smoove), a food truck entrepreneur and seemingly Rudy’s only friend. Continue Reading →
Love Lies Bleeding
SimilarAliens (1986), Basic Instinct (1992),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Caché (2005), Catwoman (2004), Con Air (1997), Desert Hearts (1985), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Die Hard (1988), Fargo (1996), Monster (2003), Oldboy (2003), Paris Can Wait (2016), Strange Days (1995), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Usual Suspects (1995), True Romance (1993), Vertigo (1958),
StudioA24, Film4 Productions,
The word for Rose Glass (Saint Maud) and Weronika Tofilska's Love Lies Bleeding is "precise." From the individual and combined performances of leads Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian (whose turn as a cunning Imperial agent was a bright spot in the often dreary third season of The Mandalorian) to DP Ben Fordesman's chameleonic camera work and hair department lead Megan Daum's wide-ranging design work, everyone on the project knew exactly what they wanted to do and how to get it done. The result is a bracing, clear-eyed noir thriller, and a fraught, swoon-worthy romance. It's my favorite movie of 2024 so far.
It's the late 1980s. The reserved and insightful Lou (Stewart) manages a grimy bodybuilding gym in a sunbleached western suburb. She does not talk to her father, the cruel, cunning crime lord Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). She loves her sister, fraying housewife Beth (Jena Malone), and hates that she will not leave her loathsome slimeball husband JJ (Dave Franco). The closest person Lou has to a romantic partner is the aggressively cheerful Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), and their on-off something or other boils down to, in Bart Simpson's words, "geographical convenience, really." Enter Jackie (O'Brian), a drifting bodybuilder aiming for a Las Vegas contest where victory can leap passion into profession. The sparks are immediate.
Jackie (Katy O'Brian) strives for bodybuilding stardom. She's doing the work, but the events of Love Lies Bleeding bend the barrier between her reality and her dream. A24.
Jackie's drive lights a fire in Lou, and Lou's methodical care grounds Jackie. Simultaneously, Lou's desire to help Jackie achieve her dream and Jackie's desire to make Lou happy lead them to make bad calls—the sort of bad calls that lead to worse calls that lead to blood. And neither JJ's venality nor Lou Sr.'s mercilessness should be discounted. Continue Reading →
Love
Engage in holiday self-care with some movies that put a stake in the heart of romance.
Even if you're in a content, stable relationship, Valentine's Day can often feel like a bit of a joyless slog. Like a lot of holidays in the internet era, it's become less a day of celebration, and more another excuse to engage in conspicuous consumption and endless games of one-upmanship. Who got the biggest flower arrangement at the office? Who cares?
Whether single or not, you may understandably feel as if all the fun and romantic flair has been squeezed out of the day. In keeping with that, consider this short list of bleakly funny, sad, or just plain horrifying cinematic takes on romance to get you in the anti-spirit. Continue Reading →
Of all the romcom tropes, “the amicable breakup” might be the most misunderstood, yet cathartic.
When you break down the tropes of the romantic comedy, a handful immediately come to mind: friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, the sassy best friend, the makeover sequence. But one of the least discussed (and most misunderstood) rom-com tropes is “the amicable breakup.” Normally, there comes a moment when the film needs its heroine to leave her current partner to run off with Prince Charming. If the partner is a jerk (a la Glenn in The Wedding Singer), there’s no issue—the only thing to do when a leading lady dumps a jerk is to applaud. But if he’s not a jerk, the amicable breakup can be easily written off as a measure of expediency. He’s there to provide an obstacle to the romance, and the breakup needs to happen to make room for the romantic fantasy. But this view of the trope misses that the amicable breakup is an intrinsic part of the romantic fantasy itself. To see it plainly, look no further than the films of the romantic comedy's grande dame, Nora Ephron.
In Sleepless in Seattle, we have one of the clearest and most memorable amicable breakups of all time, but also one that is often severely misinterpreted. Annie (Meg Ryan) is head over heels for Sam (Tom Hanks), or perhaps more accurately, his voice on the radio when she hears him on a late-night call-in show. She’s on a mission to meet him, obsessed less with the man himself than with the idea of what could be. So when she realizes that she must end things with sweet, slightly dopey fiancé Walter (Bill Pullman), the audience is prepared for heartbreak only to discover that Walter… gets it. Looking out at the Empire State Building, where Annie has asked Sam to meet her, Walter says gently, “So he could be up there right now,” expressing a level of optimism even Annie can’t bring herself to utter aloud. Continue Reading →
One Day at a Time
SimilarA Little Princess,
Black Books Cleopatra, Fallen, Florida Man, Flower Boy Next Door, Hyperdrive, Love, Timeless, More Tales of the City, Nine: Nine Time Travels, Off Centre, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,
Planet of the Apes Pride and Prejudice Queen Cleopatra, Silo, Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan, Tales from the Neverending Story, That '70s Show, The Family Game, The Gangster Chronicles,
The John Larroquette Show The Shining, Tientsin Mystic, Two and a Half Men, Unorthodox, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,
Netflix’s new romance limited series offers a thoughtful, warm adaptation of the 2009 novel.
The hook of author David Nicholls’ 2009 novel is irresistible. Readers catch up with two former classmates who are something more than friends but not quite lovers on the same day, July 19, every year from 1988 to 2008. It’s no wonder it has managed two adaptations in the 15 years since its release—first as a 2011 movie directed by Lone Scherfig from a script by Nicholls himself and now as a limited series created by Nicole Taylor, with only one Nicholls’ script among the fourteen episodes.
Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) is handsome, charismatic, and just rich enough not to worry about making a plan for his future. Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) is also quite attractive—although she can’t (or won’t) see it—and from a working-class background that makes her feel as though she can’t pursue her clear goal for the future: to become a writer. They travel in different circles, but on the night of graduation, they end up falling into her bed. While they kiss plenty, it never goes further, Emma preferring to chat despite her massive and evident crush on Dexter. Continue Reading →
Maestro
Similar9 Songs (2004), A Beautiful Mind (2001), A History of Violence (2005), Alex Strangelove (2018), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Annie Hall (1977), Apollo 13 (1995), Belle de Jour (1967), Ben-Hur (1959),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Billy Elliot (2000),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Crash (1996), Desert Hearts (1985), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), East of Eden (1955), Enough (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Manhattan (1979), Match Point (2005), Random Harvest (1942),
Rebecca (1940) Schindler's List (1993), Sissi (1955), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Elephant Man (1980), The Pianist (2002), The Science of Sleep (2006), The Straight Story (1999), The Tin Drum (1979), Titanic (1997), True Romance (1993),
Watch afterAmerican Fiction (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Leave the World Behind (2023), Napoleon (2023), Poor Things (2023), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), The Killer (2023),
Bradley Cooper pays respectful homage to Leonard Bernstein in this lavish passion project.
The problem inherent to most biopics is one of balance. Err too far on the side of worshipful and you get nonsense like Oliver Stone’s The Doors. Or you could swing in the other direction and you end up with an “oops, all warts” camp disaster like Mommie Dearest. Most linger somewhere in the middle, at a respectful distance, so that they’re ultimately kind of boring, and offer nothing new or particularly insightful about its subject matter.
Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, about the life of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, isn’t boring. It’s too visually dazzling for that. It does not, however, leave one feeling like they’ve really gotten to know more about Bernstein other than he was a complicated, workaholic genius who struggled with his sexuality, which is all information that could be gleaned from his Wikipedia page. But it sure is lovely spending time in his world for a little while. Continue Reading →
Poor Things
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007), 9 Songs (2004), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Aladdin (1992), Aliens (1986), Amélie (2001), Annie Hall (1977), Armageddon (1998),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Blade Runner (1982), Contact (1997), Contempt (1963), Cruel Intentions (1999), Desert Hearts (1985), Dirty Dancing (1987), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), M*A*S*H (1970), Manhattan (1979), Mars Attacks! (1996), Mary Poppins (1964), Match Point (2005), Metropolis (1927), Mystic River (2003), Once Upon a Time in America (1984),
Rebecca (1940) Shrek the Third (2007), Stalker (1979), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Holiday (2006), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Party (1980), The Science of Sleep (2006), True Romance (1993), Vertigo (1958), War of the Worlds (2005), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Wild at Heart (1990), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterAnatomy of a Fall (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Killer (2023),
StarringWillem Dafoe,
StudioFilm4 Productions, Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment,
Yorgos Lanthimos directs a sumptuous adult fairy tale featuring Emma Stone at her very best.
Here’s the thing about Yorgos Lanthimos: you’re either on board with him, or you’re not. Even in The Favourite, arguably his most accessible film, there’s a sort of joyful grotesqueness to it, leaving the audience laughing and wincing simultaneously. His latest offering, Poor Things, is his most visually dazzling film yet, with moments of stunning beauty and bittersweet insight, but still isn’t afraid to test the audience’s sensibilities. It’s a film about what it means to be alive, every little disgusting aspect of it.
Based on Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, Poor Things opens in dreary black and white London, where eccentric scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is overseeing an experiment that’s both miraculous and horrifying. Baxter, whose face looks like it was carved into several pieces and then put back together the wrong way, has brought a woman back to life after she committed suicide. The woman, whom he’s renamed Bella (Emma Stone, with a magnificent pair of eyebrows), initially has the mind of a toddler, but she’s learning and maturing at an astonishing rate. Bella refers to Godwin as “God,” and so far knows no one and nothing else but him and their home together. Continue Reading →
Napoleon
SimilarA Beautiful Mind (2001), A Real Young Girl (1976), Almost Famous (2000), Apollo 13 (1995),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Brubaker (1980), Copying Beethoven (2006), Dances with Wolves (1990), Erin Brockovich (2000), Freedom Writers (2007), Gandhi (1982), GoodFellas (1990), Manhattan (1979), Mississippi Burning (1988), Monster (2003), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Paris Can Wait (2016), Raging Bull (1980), Schindler's List (1993), Sissi (1955), The Elephant Man (1980), The Last Emperor (1987), The Pianist (2002), The Straight Story (1999), Titanic (1997),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023),
Barbie (2023) Killers of the Flower Moon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Society of the Snow (2023), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), The Marvels (2023), Wonka (2023),
StudioApple Studios,
Ridley Scott’s surprisingly hollow biopic of the French military commander falters as a character piece and comes shy of victory as an epic.
For a film with as many contradictions as Napoleon, it’s odd for it to be so straightforward. It covers 28 years, but it never feels like a lot of changes. It’s over two and a half hours, which, while not a herculean runtime, never entirely slows down. Perhaps it’s because it never really gets started. Ridley Scott’s latest opens with a public decapitation of Marie Antoinette (Catherine Walker), giving way to the 1793 Siege of Toulon. The violence is often unsparingly graphic, so why, then, does it feel so cosmetic? Shouldn’t a live horse eviscerated by a cannonball to the chest do something to the viewer?
Maybe not when there’s such little context. If Napoleon is one thing, it’s episodic—ahistorical, even. David Scarpa’s script begins in the trenches and is content on staying there. Everyone and everything are simply window dressing. That includes Napoleon Bonaparte himself (Joaquin Phoenix), whom the film oversimplifies from intrinsically flawed leader to wholly externalized man-child. After the Siege, he wins the affections of Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby). The two soon marry. Continue Reading →
Songbirds
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 2046 (2004), Blade Runner (1982), Brazil (1985), Desert Hearts (1985), Die Hard (1988), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), Mars Attacks! (1996), Metropolis (1927), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Random Harvest (1942), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Strange Days (1995), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Twelve Monkeys (1995),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Napoleon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Thanksgiving (2023), The Marvels (2023), The Nun II (2023), Wonka (2023),
StudioLionsgate,
Despite a challenging premise and an overlong runtime, the Hunger Games prequel makes the most of the hand it’s been dealt.
The character of Coriolanus Snow is an odd choice for a Hunger Games hero. In the original books and films, as played by screen giant Donald Sutherland, Snow was a cold-hearted, cruel dictator clearly meant to echo real world fascist leaders. Here, in the prequel story The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (say that five times fast), Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) is just a sensitive, emotional teen dreamboat whose main goal is to provide for his family in the wake of the violent revolution that tore apart Panem, the country formerly known as the United States of America.
It’s difficult to understand why author Suzanne Collins, who wrote the novel Songbirds is based on, made the decision to try to humanize a violent authoritarian when a core theme of the original Hunger Games books and movies was lashing back at systemic oppression. Nonetheless, director Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, I Am Legend) and his enthusiastic cast of talented performers make the best of the rather thematically confused story arc they’ve been given, turning in one of the most exciting, emotionally arresting entries in the franchise. Continue Reading →
Miraculous - le film
SimilarArmageddon (1998), Batman Begins (2005), Batman Forever (1995), Batman Returns (1992), Ben-Hur (1959), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Constantine (2005), Enchanted (2007), Fantasia (1940), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), I've Always Liked You (2016), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Mary Poppins (1964), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Paris Can Wait (2016), Princess Mononoke (1997), Shall We Dance? (2004), Strange Days (1995), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Science of Sleep (2006), True Romance (1993), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), You Only Live Twice (1967), Zatoichi (2003),
Watch after1917 (2019),
Barbie (2023) Oppenheimer (2023) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Flash (2023), The Suicide Squad (2021),
StarringAyane Sakura, Hisako Kanemoto, Junko Minagawa, Kotono Mitsuishi, Marina Inoue, Mariya Ise, Megumi Hayashibara, Sayaka Ohara, Shizuka Itoh, Shoko Nakagawa,
Studiodentsu, King Records, Studio Deen, Toei Animation, Toei Company,
When I was around thirteen, two classmates, Christina and Taylor (their real names, it’s not like they’re going to read this), played a prank on me that resulted in my eating dog food. In retrospect, it could have been worse: nobody else saw it happen, and for whatever reason they kept it to themselves. But when I think about my teenage years (and I try not to much at this point in my life, other than at a superficial pop culture level), my mind often goes to that moment. Continue Reading →
Priscilla
SimilarAli: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Annie Hall (1977), Belle de Jour (1967), Billy Elliot (2000), Blood and Chocolate (2007),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Contempt (1963), Crash (1996), Dead Poets Society (1989), Desert Hearts (1985), Dirty Dancing (1987), Enough (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Gandhi (1982), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Lost in Translation (2003), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Raging Bull (1980), Shall We Dance? (2004), Solaris (1972), Strange Days (1995), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Elephant Man (1980), The Irishman (2019), The Last Emperor (1987), The Science of Sleep (2006), The Tin Drum (1979), Wonder Boys (2000),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), Thanksgiving (2023), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), The Killer (2023), The Marvels (2023), Wonka (2023),
StarringDagmara Domińczyk,
StudioAmerican Zoetrope,
As daybreak bleeds from within the walls, Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) wakes up next to her husband, Elvis (Jacob Elordi). Her water’s broken and, as he calls for a car, she goes to the bathroom, where she applies the perfect fake eyelashes in silence. Continue Reading →
Dear David
Similar9 Songs (2004), Aladdin (1992), Annie Hall (1977), Ben-Hur (1959), Cruel Intentions (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Forrester (2000), Let the Right One In (2008), Manhattan (1979), Match Point (2005), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Stand by Me (1986), The Science of Sleep (2006), Titanic (1997), True Romance (1993), Wild at Heart (1990),
Watch afterAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),
Outside of Janicza Bravo’s Twitter thread turned feature film Zola, viral social engagements have rarely yielded great art. Nonetheless, Buzzfeed Studios wades into the fray with the horror film Dear David. Based on a series of Twitter threads from their former comic artist Adam Ellis, the story chronicles Ellis’s experiences with a possible supernatural presence in his New York apartment. That may seem like a fresh idea, but the film traffics in standard scary movie tropes, a stunted look, and an overreliance on the concept. Continue Reading →
She Came to Me
Watch afterBullet Train (2022), Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), The Killer (2023), The Marvels (2023),
Seven films into her career as a filmmaker and Rebecca Miller is still a perplexing study. From 1995’s Angela, her symbolic unpacking of a lost childhood (presumably her own) to 2015’s Maggie’s Plan, a symbolic study of a desire for independence (presumably her own), she's made female pain and pleasure her subject without ever settling on a formal approach. Miller is an auteur in the sense that the peculiar combination of confrontational sexuality and highly personal discursiveness seem like the province of someone who both knows exactly what kind of things she wants people to think about, even if she’s never decided the way she wants us to think about them, other than “immediately.” Continue Reading →
Fair Play
Similar9 Songs (2004), A Real Young Girl (1976), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Basic Instinct (1992), Belle de Jour (1967),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Boys Don't Cry (1999) Cape Fear (1991), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Contempt (1963), Copying Beethoven (2006), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Lost in Translation (2003), Memento (2000), Raging Bull (1980), Secret Window (2004), Shall We Dance? (2004), Talk to Her (2002), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), The Holiday (2006), The Shining (1980), Vertigo (1958), Volver (2006),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Leave the World Behind (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), The Killer (2023),
StudioMRC,
Fair Play is all about the rules of engagement—in business, in bed, in relationships—and the chaos that ensues when someone who lives and dies by those rules suspects his partner is breaking them. However, it isn’t the fairness of the righteous or the just she’s violating. No, it is the unwritten rules he believes everyone should play the game by. Continue Reading →
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Similar2046 (2004), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Annie Hall (1977), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Caché (2005), Enchanted (2007), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Ghostbusters (1984), GoodFellas (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), King Kong (2005), Léon: The Professional (1994), Manhattan (1979), Maria Full of Grace (2004), Match Point (2005), Men in Black II (2002), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Muriel's Wedding (1994), Pi (1998), Sissi (1955), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Sliver (1993), Stalker (1979), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Taxi Driver (1976), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Good German (2006), The Terminal (2004), The Usual Suspects (1995), Vertigo (1958), Wonder Boys (2000),
John Carney's new drama is just one of a diverse collection of features at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the works being covered here wouldn't exist.
Irish filmmaker John Carney made his big breakthrough in 2007 with Once, a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. This was followed by Begin Again (2013), a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. After that came Sing Street (2016), a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. Continue Reading →
Love at First Sight
Similar2046 (2004), A Real Young Girl (1976), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Apocalypse Now (1979), Ben-Hur (1959), Blade Runner (1982), Contact (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), Dances with Wolves (1990), Desert Hearts (1985), East of Eden (1955), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Finding Forrester (2000), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Gone Baby Gone (2007), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), I've Always Liked You (2016),
Jackie Brown (1997) Manhattan (1979), Metropolis (1927), Mystic River (2003), Once Upon a Time in America (1984),
Primal Fear (1996) Random Harvest (1942),
Rebecca (1940) Rosemary's Baby (1968), Sahara (2005), Schindler's List (1993), Shooter (2007), Sissi (1955), Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979), Stand by Me (1986), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Green Mile (1999), The Handmaid's Tale (1990),
The Name of the Rose (1986) The Outsiders (1983), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Silent Partner (1978), The Tin Drum (1979), To Die For (1995), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Wild at Heart (1990),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Blue Beetle (2023), Elemental (2023), The Equalizer 3 (2023),
StarringJameela Jamil,
As an avid consumer of romance—be it in book, film, or television format—you learn to level expectations when a beloved story is adapted. That’s particularly the case amongst the recent spate of mid-to-low budget adaptations across the gamut of streaming services. Usually, the best-case scenario is they’re mildly enjoyable but ultimately forgettable. For example, there’s Prime Video’s recent adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue. More often than not, they’re absolutely dreadful. The less said about Netflix’s take on Austen’s Persuasion, the better. What is true, though, is that they’re very seldom genuinely good. Continue Reading →
Sitting in Bars with Cake
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Blue Beetle (2023), Elemental (2023), The Marvels (2023),
StudioMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
(Editor's note: A previous version of this review included the full name of the presumptive real-life inspiration for the film; upon a subsequent request to maintain their privacy, we have removed that sentence.) Continue Reading →
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
SimilarBen-Hur (1959), Contact (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), East of Eden (1955), Finding Forrester (2000), Forrest Gump (1994), I've Always Liked You (2016),
Jackie Brown (1997) La Haine (1995), Manhattan (1979), Maria Full of Grace (2004), Random Harvest (1942),
Rebecca (1940) Schindler's List (1993), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Irishman (2019),
The Name of the Rose (1986) The Silent Partner (1978), The Tin Drum (1979),
Watch afterSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Thanksgiving (2023),
In cinema, water is a site of birth, rebirth, and drastic transformations. In movies ranging from Sansho the Bailiff to Moonlight to Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, characters walk into vast bodies of liquid one person and exit another (if, that is, they resurface). It tracks, then, that the romantic drama Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe kicks off its central relationship at a community pool. A conversation between the film’s titular leads, set against the blue, kicks off a life-changing connection. Continue Reading →
Rebecca
“Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again…” So begins Daphne du Maurier’s gothic masterwork Rebecca, one of the most famous opening lines in fiction. Rebecca proved a hit upon release in 1938 and has remained in print ever since. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation, coming just two years later, netted him his first Best Director nomination. That interpretation of the text has come to be considered a classic, and with good reason. Its misty black-and-white photography and mysteries hypnotize. Continue Reading →