Music & Films for
Common People
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TOY STORY 4
Dir. Josh Cooley
25
After the great closure that Toy Story 3 was to the saga, nobody really needed a fourth installment that seemed only designed to generate more money. Yet, Toy Story 4 is an outstanding appendix about friendship and letting go. It also helps that Bo Peep is a badass empowering character.
ANDIð EðLILEGA
(And Breathe Normally) Dir. Isold Uggadóttir
24
When the discourse of the European alt-right has been framing the immigrants as responsible of the disgrace of the working class, Uggadóttir brings a film full of humanity that brings both groups closer and finds the parallel oppression they live by the system that confronts them.
EL REINO
(The Candidate) Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
23
Sorogoyen is getting a name for his exciting thrillers, and in El Reino he goes fully political by denouncing the rotten corrupt system of political parties. An agile storytelling that keeps you interested in the complicated threads, it might very well be a Spanish answer to House of Cards.
DRONNINGEN
(Queen of Hearts) Dir. May El-Toukhi
22
El-Toukhi defies our expectations, and is able to twist her film from an infidelity drama to something darker and more complex. Trine Dyrholm is superb in creating such a layered character, and the cold atmospheres that are created to surround her help to set the intriguing tone.
AT ETERNITY'S GATE
Dir. Julian Schnabel
21
Before being a filmmaker, Schnabel is a visual artist, and his sensibility is fully on display on his newest film. Just like Kurosawa a few decades ago, he achieves to recreate Van Gogh's pictorial style in film, and paired with his unique sense of rhythm, he gets an artful masterpiece.
THE FAREWELL
Dir. Lulu Wang
20
Besides being a funny and emotional little piece about family and traditions, The Farewell is quite an interesting and sincere explorations of broken identities and a very welcomed film about the Asian-American experience. Awkwafina is delightful in her role, and Shuzhen Zhou is adorable.
LE JEUNE AHMED
(Young Ahmed) Dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
19
Although the idea of two white men doing such a big criticism of radical Islam in times of growing white supremacism is questionable, the film by itself is powerful and gives great insight in how a young person could be radicalized to the extreme, with the effective realism of the directors.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Dir. Robert Eggers
18
A demential descent to hell for two lighthouse keepers in a tiny island, with an outstanding cinematography in black and white, a great sense of rhythm, and the portentous performance of Willem Dafoe. You'll probably get lost in the narrative, but who cares when the design is so artful.
SYSTEMSPRENGER
(System Crasher) Dir. Nora Fingscheidt
17
What a hurricane it is Helena Zengel, the young actress that stars in Nora Fingscheidt's first fiction film; she brings brutal intensity to the emotional rollercoaster her character experiences. But beyond that, Systemsprenger is a heavy social film that deals with mental health and poverty.
PAPICHA
Dir. Mounia Meddour
16
Meddour exposes how painful it is to be a woman in the North of Africa with the rise of extremism religion. Powerful at many levels, it empowers as much as it outrages; and even when it is deeply sad, the emphasis that it is put in sorority brings a light of hope in the middle of such desolation.
FAMILIA SUMERGIDA
(A Family Submerged) Dir. María Alché
15
Clever, original and puzzling, Familia Sumergida is certainly a film not for those who are averse to cryptical open cinema. Alché creates an intimate surreal world to explore a middle-aged woman process after the death of her sister, where the borders of real and imaginary are blurred.
GENÈSE
(Genesis) Dir. Philippe Lesage
14
A sweet and sad coming of-age tale of two siblings and their first missteps in love and sex. Great character development and a cute appendix to finish on a sweet note. It avoids clichés about youth love, and finds the right tone to speak about the highs and lows of falling in and out of love.
LA GOMERA
(The Whistlers) Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
13
A good traditional mafia thriller with enough adrenaline and intrigue to keep you hooked, and adds an original element to the mix that it is the whistling. It would have ranked much higher if it wasn't because keeps showing hyper-sexualized women more as eye-candy than as complex characters.
VIVARIUM
Dir. Lorcan Finnegan
12
If finding a new house is already a dreadful experience, Finnegan makes it the material of nightmares. One of the creepiest experiences of the year, Vivarium is strange and disconcerting, but extremely effective at giving you a good dose of scare while questioning life in the suburbs.
LES MISÉRABLES
Dir. Ladj Ly
11
In a year that was full of social protests against power structures around the world, Les Misérables is merciless in saying that when a system is designed to step in your rights and keep you as the weakest link in a chain of corruption, some fire needs to burn to actually change things.