Zhao's fifth feature, Hamnet, likewise finds a synthesis between the natural world and the interiority of her charactersin telling a story of creation in every sense of the word - the genesis of new life and the mysterious place within where creativity and artistic processes emerge. An adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's eponymous book, the filmdepicts how William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) embarked on his most ambitious and iconic play after the loss of his titular son. More so, it's the story of his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a loving mother of two who has a profound connection with the nature that surrounds her in the English countryside. Much like her other films, Zhao is looking here for a synthesis between the natural world and the rich interiority of her characters. Gorgeously shot by Łukasz Żal, and edited by Zhao herself alongside Affonso Gonçalves, Hamnet aspires to near-Malickian transcendence in its depiction of how life on earth inevitably crosses over to the afterworld.
For the past few years, horror cinema has sometimes felt as fraught with toxic romance as a particularly cursed dating app. From manipulated meet-cutes (Fresh; Companion) to long-term codependence (Together) to the occasional success story (Heart Eyes), it's clear that romantic relationships are mostly blood-stained hell, and a couple going to a secluded location together is a fresh level of it.
He's been behind the lens for more than 20 years, documenting everything from World Championship wins to late-night garage sessions; Joonas is a creative who's career has been built on caffeine, duct tape, and pure stoke. Before he was Kona's in-house cinematographer, Joonas was a rider himself - a European Kona Clump athlete who lived for the same sketchy lines and photo worthy moments that he now captures on film.
"Fire of Wind" is a movie of images, and its attention to light and shadow, to the texture of faces and of tree bark, of foliage and terrain, is among the most careful and most daring that I've ever seen. (Mateus and Vítor Carvalho did the cinematography.) Although "Fire of Wind" is drastically different from other films in recent release, it nonetheless harks back to a venerable tradition in political filmmaking.
From National Geographic's exploration of the sea in " Ocean with David Attenborough," to Hulu's documentation of the life of Sly Stone in " Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)" and ESPN's ongoing "30 for 30" series, the CCDA honors a wide range of topics, bringing together leading filmmakers and industry professionals from all circles. "The nominated films and series this year remind us how documentary storytelling can illuminate truth, inspire empathy, and deepen our understanding of the world," said Christopher Campbell, Critics Choice Association's VP, Documentary.
Set the titular time after the virus that decimated England, Boyle shot his film on iPhones, included more prosthetic penises than seems reasonable, and even embedded a Brexit commentary in his action flick. At its core, it's a traditional coming-of-age action narrative about a young man who discovers that not only is the world unsafe but that adults in it will betray you, but it's also just a visually stunning piece of work, a movie that looks like nothing else that played in a multiplex this year.
Though 1974's Carrie marked Stephen King's first published novel, The Long Walks holds the distinction of being the earliest opus penned by the horror author. The story of a contest in which 100 teenagers march until only one is left alive, King began as a college freshman at the University of Maine in the late 1960s amid the Vietnam War and the looming threat of its televised draft.
First off, the film is beautifully shot, from the opening scene, which tracks back from a hallucinatory landscape until we see the source of a strange sound: a riffled deck of cards in a desperado's hands. And its central conceit a little girl (Emily Katherine Ford) whose touch is fatal flowers into an intriguing metaphor for the consequences of the white man's burden. Except here the girl is, initially, a black woman's burden. Formerly enslaved Sarah (DeWanda Wise) runs a homestead
Nothing about Francis Lawrence's take-no-prisoners adaptation of Richard Bachman's (aka Stephen King) staggering novel offers one shard of hope for any of us to wrap our bloodied fingers around. Nor should it, given the hellish America landscape it envisions, an undefined time where a rotting-to-its-core nation goads 50 male teens into a grueling contest that demands participants walk at a 3-mile-an-our pace or get a bullet through the head delivered by The Major (Mark Hamill) or his military goons.
The documentary takes viewers on a 'deep dive,' going behind the scenes with never-before-seen footage and newly-filmed interviews, revealing the legacy of 'Jaws.'
