30 DAYS OF CINEMA

With an artful eye and jazzy unpredictability, Kelly Reichardt unravels the threads of the heist film in this standout from Cannes. As an antihero kicking about on the brink of the ‘70s, Josh O’Connor is unmissable, lending rumpled discontent to this ironic, wry vision of American individualism.

Instincts both maternal and carnal clatter like shards of glass in a blender in this uncompromising portrait of a woman on the edge from director Lynne Ramsay. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in a frenzied pas de deux, Die My Love inflames the exposed nerves of delirium and desire.

Iconic auteur Jim Jarmusch’s acclaimed return to anthology filmmaking abounds with wryly resonant observations on the family unit. Sketching finely detailed portraits with its starry ensemble cast (including a gloriously rumpled Tom Waits), this offbeat triptych finds universals in idiosyncrasies.

Writer-director Carmen Emmi handcuffs obsession to power in this confident debut set in ‘90s New York, detecting erotic fixations in homophobic policing. With one furtive eye on William Friedkin’s cult classic Cruising, Plainclothes searches fuzzy videotape surveillance footage for forbidden desire.

Unfolding within the splendorous walls of grand palaces and presidential homes, Paolo Sorrentino’s stylish drama ruminates on fatherhood, legacy, and doubt. Winner of the Best Actor prize at Venice, Toni Servillo captivates as a national leader shaken by the weight of an impossible moral dilemma.

In this seductively twisted, modern romantic thriller, obsession is taken to wondrous and vertiginous extremes. Without a doubt one of the most electrifying minds working in cinema today, Park Chan-wook won the Best Director award at Cannes for his sumptuous, Hitchcockian masterwork.

With sharp wit and cathartic intensity, Coralie Fargeat turns toxic beauty culture inside out in her Oscar®-winning latest feature. Powered by a career-best performance from Demi Moore, The Substance fearlessly bulldozes its way into the midnight-movie pantheon and the feminist canon.