WATCH GREAT CINEMA

Textured with russet reds and pollinic yellows, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s spellbinding allegory gleans an atmospheric folk tale from a rural idyll. As landowners sow the seeds of modern capital, Sean Price Williams reaps horror and beauty from the earth with swirling, immersive cinematography.

The second feature from Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, this wicked comedy is a deliciously dark portrait of a toxic relationship. With a delectable pair of performances at its center, Sick of Myself plumbs the merciless depths of its protagonists’ narcissism for an uproarious modern fable.

Things get weird in Amalia Ulman’s kaleidoscopic film, a colorful comedy of errors and an imaginative send-up of millennial media. Starring Simon Rex and Chloë Sevigny, this story of a frantic search for an internet sensation is electrified by wit, subversion, and distinctively fluorescent style.

Spanning the political chaos of 1920s Italy, Benito Mussolini transforms from socialist journalist to Italy’s brutal dictator, starting with his Blackshirts militia to the establishment of an authoritarian rule that would go on to set Europe aflame.

A Locarno prizewinner, Saulė Bliuvaitė’s debut feature is as unsparing as measuring tape and as sharp as high heels. Looking at an exploitative fashion industry through the gaze of determined teenagers, Toxic is a visually striking portrait of girls zigzagging between competition and friendship.

Pastel calm and easy camaraderie are interrupted by leaky reality in Constance Tsang’s beautifully assured debut feature. Starring Tsai Ming-liang favorite Lee Kang-sheng, this tenderly bruising film lets loss and intimacy ripple its serene waters—as if two koi fish swirling in each exquisite frame.

Refracting primetime soap operas and cop shows into a one-of-a-kind cosmic melodrama, showrunners Mark Frost and David Lynch captured lightning in a bottle. Cloaking its dark secrets in a down-home slice of winsome Americana, Twin Peaks is the pop-cultural juggernaut that captivated a generation.

Refracting the iconic image of lo-fi band Pavement into new, hybrid forms, acclaimed filmmaker Alex Ross Perry innovatively distorts the music documentary. Joe Keery stars alongside the ’90s group, toying with their slacker-indie commitment to alternative culture with dazzling, hilarious subversion.

With investigative zeal, VICE alumnus Eddie Huang dives into his former employer’s lawless archives to uncover where it all went wrong. Smoking out tales of legit highs and unholy lows, this gonzo documentary eyeballs the timely comeuppance of a pop-cultural behemoth that flew too close to the sun.