The collaboration between Isabelle Huppert and Claire Denis the world had been dreaming of, arrived with this powerful story about the death throes of white colonialism. Denis—who grew up in French Africa—returns to her roots with this sublime, poetic yet nightmarish exploration of racial conflict.

Arnaud Desplechin’s whirlwind dramedy doesn’t fully reject Christmas joy, but it does give the undersung holiday traditions of dysfunction and discomfort their time in the spotlight. Starring a formidable French cast, this festive film’s thorny exterior makes way for little glimmers of tender hope.

Gregg Araki’s deliciously screwed-up foray into science fiction, Kaboom delves deep into the mind of a hallucinating freshman to make its own wicked twist on the college campus sex comedy. This is indie cinema at its most sexually provocative, salaciously silly, and riotously debauched!

Mathieu Amalric and Benicio del Toro are brilliant in Arnaud Desplechin’s period piece about the serendipitous pleasures of cross-cultural friendship and the talking cure. Co-written by veteran critic Kent Jones, the chatty characters of this offbeat film tickle both the funny bone and the heart.