Justin Chang

Close Your Eyes is the first feature he's directed in roughly three decades, and it's an intensely personal work about a long-retired filmmaker trying to solve the mystery of what happened to an old friend who vanished years earlier.

Close Your Eyes is the first feature he's directed in roughly three decades, and it's an intensely personal work about a long-retired filmmaker trying to solve the mystery of what happened to an old friend who vanished years earlier.

What begins as a kind of cinephile detective story gradually morphs into an emotionally transcendent drama about the power of love, the agony of loss, and the pleasures of getting lost in the movies. The next two movies on my list are both indictments of corporate greed, with faintly apocalyptic vibes.

What begins as a kind of cinephile detective story gradually morphs into an emotionally transcendent drama about the power of love, the agony of loss, and the pleasures of getting lost in the movies. The next two movies on my list are both indictments of corporate greed, with faintly apocalyptic vibes.

What begins as a kind of cinephile detective story gradually morphs into an emotionally transcendent drama about the power of love, the agony of loss, and the pleasures of getting lost in the movies. The next two movies on my list are both indictments of corporate greed, with faintly apocalyptic vibes.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is a bracingly foul-mouthed comedy from the Romanian director Radu Giuda about an underpaid production assistant driving from one thankless gig to the next. Evil Does Not Exist is Rusuke Hamaguchi's haunting follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is a bracingly foul-mouthed comedy from the Romanian director Radu Giuda about an underpaid production assistant driving from one thankless gig to the next. Evil Does Not Exist is Rusuke Hamaguchi's haunting follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is a bracingly foul-mouthed comedy from the Romanian director Radu Giuda about an underpaid production assistant driving from one thankless gig to the next. Evil Does Not Exist is Rusuke Hamaguchi's haunting follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car.

It's set in a remote Japanese village that comes under environmental threat from the construction of a glamping site. Up next are the two most daring and inventive American movies I saw all year.

It's set in a remote Japanese village that comes under environmental threat from the construction of a glamping site. Up next are the two most daring and inventive American movies I saw all year.

It's set in a remote Japanese village that comes under environmental threat from the construction of a glamping site. Up next are the two most daring and inventive American movies I saw all year.

One of them is A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg's audacious and assured horror comedy, starring Sebastian Stan as a man whose face is covered with tumors due to a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis. he experiences a miraculous recovery, which is when his nightmare really begins.

One of them is A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg's audacious and assured horror comedy, starring Sebastian Stan as a man whose face is covered with tumors due to a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis. he experiences a miraculous recovery, which is when his nightmare really begins.

One of them is A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg's audacious and assured horror comedy, starring Sebastian Stan as a man whose face is covered with tumors due to a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis. he experiences a miraculous recovery, which is when his nightmare really begins.

The other terrific American movie on my list is Nickel Boys, Rommel Ross's stunning adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about two black boys living in horrific conditions at a reform school in the Jim Crow South. In this scene, one boy's grandmother, beautifully played by Anjanue Ellis-Taylor, is heartbroken at not being allowed to see him.

The other terrific American movie on my list is Nickel Boys, Rommel Ross's stunning adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about two black boys living in horrific conditions at a reform school in the Jim Crow South. In this scene, one boy's grandmother, beautifully played by Anjanue Ellis-Taylor, is heartbroken at not being allowed to see him.

The other terrific American movie on my list is Nickel Boys, Rommel Ross's stunning adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about two black boys living in horrific conditions at a reform school in the Jim Crow South. In this scene, one boy's grandmother, beautifully played by Anjanue Ellis-Taylor, is heartbroken at not being allowed to see him.

She expresses her sadness to one of his friends and asks him to please give her grandson a package of letters.

She expresses her sadness to one of his friends and asks him to please give her grandson a package of letters.

She expresses her sadness to one of his friends and asks him to please give her grandson a package of letters.