Ben Glidden

While this is compelling, urgent, and essential storytelling—a warning for a conservative blueprint being used across the country—the film leaves us with a glimpse of hope.

It’s really the stunning performance at the center of the film that gives it so much heart and life.

Hagen’s performance makes it hard to distinguish between character and reality. Isabel feels so lived in, likely because much of the role is crafted with Hagen’s actual life experience.

The people involved in the rescue weren’t risking their lives for medals, money, or fame, but because their community needed them to step up. Without them, this story would’ve ended much differently.

This film solidifies Jane Schoenbrun as a singular voice in modern filmmaking.

Remake isn’t as much a film as it is a eulogy that took a decade to write. It’s a tribute crafted the only way McElwee knows how–through deeply vulnerable, intimate, visual storytelling that pulls the audience through his cycle of grief right alongside him. This is not only his goodbye to Adrian, it’s his way of immortalizing him. While his life was cut short, his memory is now preserved forever.

There are rarely happy endings when dissecting America’s systematic struggle with recidivism. But at the center of Ricky is a man trying his best. The world around him is unhelpful and often cruel, but hope shines through in the shreds of momentary compassion from strangers, friends, and family members. It’s in that empathy that Ricky finds the strength to move forward.

Murthy cobbles that footage together into a heartfelt, personal portrait of her relationship with her father. She chronicles his journey to America from India and his turbulent quest for a successful, stable life.

As the film builds to its sentimental resolution, it becomes clear that the differences between mother and daughter aren’t issues to be solved, but quirks to be embraced.

Lina is one of the most compelling characters in cinema this year. In González-Sola’s raw, grounded portrayal, we find a woman doing everything she can to mask her struggle.