Jia Zhang-ke’s elegiac and poetic feature revolves around a woman (Zhao Tao) who journeys from her home in a fading industrial city in search of a vanished former boyfriend. The movie looks back on China’s recent history, but also on Jia’s filmography, echoing themes, geographical features, techniques and structural elements while incorporating footage shot at various intervals from 2001 through 2023 — an approach that gives it a kind of kinship with Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. — David Rooney
Centering on a Syrian exile tracking down his former torturer in France, Jonathan Millet’s film is a work of visceral intensity and formidable control. Millet has a shrewd grasp of paranoid-thriller mechanics; a refreshing preference for intimacy and clarity over distancing stylistic or narrative fussiness; and two fantastic actors: soulful, movie-star-magnetic lead Adam Bessa and Tawfeek Barhom as a villain whose humanity is the most chilling thing about him. — Jon Frosch
The first part of a thematic trilogy (the second part, Sex, just hit theaters, and Dreams will be out in the fall), Norwegian writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud’s dramedy is a delight — honest, thoughtful and daringly talky. Observing dating customs in the age of apps through the gently symmetrical arcs of two colleagues (a woman doctor and her male nurse), the film makes interesting points about friendship and romance. — Leslie Felperin
Deceptive marketing aside, playwright-turned-filmmaker Celine Song’s glossy, good-looking follow-up to 2023 Oscar nominee Past Lives is a refreshingly complex look at modern love, self-worth and the challenges of finding a partner in an unaffordable city. Song again treats three points of a romantic triangle — Dakota Johnson plays a matchmaker, Pedro Pascal her wealthy new beau and Chris Evans her struggling actor ex — with equal integrity and compassion. — D.R.
In Rungano Nyoni’s disquieting, deeply absorbing second feature, a Zambian family reckons with accusations, confessions and resurfaced secrets after the death of a problematic uncle. The filmmaker confidently swerves between tones, filling the tragic frame with comic moments, hints of surrealism, stretches of mystery and pockets of rage. The result is a chilling exploration of complicity. — Lovia Gyarkye
Directed by Lawrence Lamont, this hilarious buddy comedy follows two L.A. friends (Keke Palmer and SZA, a charismatic duo) on a race to avoid eviction. As the women conjure increasingly outrageous plans to pay rent by the end of the day, their story morphs into a quintessential American tale of survival under capitalism. It’s the kind of big-laughs, midbudget theatrical comedy we need more of. — L.G.
In one of his finest efforts to date, Kevin Macdonald traces an eventful year in the life of the ex-Beatle and the artist. Remarkable archival material combined with footage of a 1972 benefit concert yield a doc that’s both tender and galvanizing. Summoning a you-are-there energy, it delivers a fresh slant on a generation’s countercultural awakening and a reminder of the hopeful future kids once imagined. — Sheri Linden
It’s invigorating to know early in a film that you’re in confident hands, and Steven Soderbergh conveys that assurance instantly in his nail-biting ghost story. Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Eddy Maday and Callina Liang play a family on the brink of implosion when they move into a new home. It’s clear from the start that the house will be a key character. Even more significant, and chilling, is the point of view behind the subjective camera that gives this masterfully executed horror film its title. — D.R.
The latest collaboration between star Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler is a portrait of life in the Jim Crow South; a pulpy blast of vampire horror; a reflection on the power of the blues; an allegory for the struggle for freedom. As much art house as grindhouse, it’s a blood-drenched mix tape that shouldn’t work but does, thanks to muscular direction, a terrific cast (MVP: Wunmi Mosaku), enveloping visuals and music that stirs the soul while setting the pulse racing. — D.R.
A stacked cast of young actors like Charles Melton, Cosmo Jarvis and Kit Connor lead this viscerally immersive 90-minute real-time account of a 2006 mission in Ramadi, Iraq, as a U.S. sniper unit negotiates a hotbed of al-Qaeda insurgency. Co-written and directed by Alex Garland with Ray Mendoza, a former Navy SEAL who was part of the mission, the film earns its spot alongside combat-themed nail-biters like The Hurt Locker and Black Hawk Down. — D.R.
This story appeared in the June 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
