Noah Baumbach immortalizes the big spirit and small life of a lovably goofy and idealistic young woman, adrift and alone in N.Y. Shot with past-tense tenderness in evocative monochrome, a millennial spirit ignites this new classic, which was both led and co-written by a luminous Greta Gerwig.

Powered by an avid love for Blaze Foley, a forgotten yet hugely influential country music legend, Ethan Hawke’s golden-hued biopic breaks all the rules. Featuring a stellar cast including Alia Shawkat, this heartfelt ode to a star that burned too brightly basks in the poetry of artistic expression.

Delightfully playful, this postmodern portrait explores an offbeat life of invention by rejecting conventional biopic form. With stylistic whimsies ranging from omniscient narration to an anachronistic synthpop performance, Michael Almereyda’s rich meditation on legacy is positively electric.