In Yorgos Lanthimos’s wildly audacious Poor Things, Emma Stone leaves it all on the dance floor in one of her funniest and strangest performances. The feminist Frankenstein tale sees her play Bella, a woman reborn from tragedy, with no sense of the deferences and expectations in the society into which she returns. It won Stone a Best Actress Oscar.]
Paul Giamatti is reunited with Sideways director Alexander Payne in a movie set in a 1970s US boarding school. A strict, cranky teacher, Giamatti is tasked with looking after a group of boys who through circumstances have to stay in the school over Christmas. Hilarity and soul-searching ensues in the film, which has the makings of a future Christmas classic.
Following his win for Oppenheimer, Oscar buzz should again be around Cillian Murphy for a beautifully judged performance in this Irish film, which he also produces. Set in a 1980s town and adapted from Claire Keegan’s beloved novel, Murphy is a coal delivery man struggling with a growing sense of disquiet over the women he sees working the laundries of his local convent. A quietly angry film about a dark time in our history and the power the church wielded among decent people who look away.
West Cork filmmaker Pat Collins (Song of Granite) adapts John McGahern’s much-loved novel for the screen. It proves to be an inspired combination – the tale of a couple who return to an Irish lakeside community is intimate, poignant and often very funny. A deceptively simple story that brings big universal truths from little details – and it looks beautiful.
A man is drawn back to his family home, where his parents seem to be living as they were just before they died decades earlier, in a profoundly moving film featuring two Irish actors at the top of their game. Andrew Scott’s Adam embarks on a relationship with a neighbour (Paul Mescal) just as he forms the mysterious connection with his family. Andrew Haigh’s note-perfect film is a powerful rumination on love and life.
Jeffrey Wright is excellent in this imaginative and funny button-pushing dramedy. He plays a sceptical black author who refuses to pander to writing about the racial tropes that publishers expect of and push upon him. In frustration, he pens an outlandish parody about the black experience, only to see it become a massive hit. Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut brings loud laughs in the most thought-provoking ways.
Viggo Mortensen directs and stars in this period Western that tells its story from the point of view of its female protagonist. He and Vicky Krieps are excellent in the drama, set in the Western US frontier in the 1860s. There, the fiercely independent Vivienne fights to make a life for herself in a place of violence and lawlessness in what is a stylish take on the classic genre.
An undercover hit man falls for one of his suspects in Richard Linklater’s very funny and sexy romp. The suddenly everywhere Glen Powell brings his charisma to screen along with Adria Arjona, and they share a great onscreen chemistry. Powell is a straight-laced teacher with a huge side hustle – he helps authorities flush out those willing to pay a contract killer. When he embarks on a passionate affair with one suspect, the stakes are set for a far-fetched but highly entertaining tale.
The year’s most underrated documentary is a fascinating account of the disaster that befell the astronauts of Apollo 13 in the 1970s, and their untried and audacious efforts to get home. British filmmaker Peter Middleton’s excellent film places the audience front and centre as the plight facing the men trapped in space is revealed. Through the use of new archival material and clever editing, it brings a sense of urgency and tension even if you know the outcome.
West Cork filmmaker Damian McCarthy – who shot Oddity on a tiny budget in Bantry House, had an international hit with this smart horror movie. Oddity is an old-school scary movie that builds by knowing the potency and power of letting a viewer’s imagination feed into the scares. Set in the aftermath of a shocking murder, the bereaved woman’s sister, a blind woman and self-professed psychic, pays an unexpected visit to investigate.
Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne give three great performances in this intimate drama. Set in a New York apartment, the film focuses on three adult daughters who have gathered at their father’s home as he goes into palliative care. Their goal is to bond and support each other as their dad approaches the end of his life – but these are three very different women at different stages of their lives.
A Mexican Narcos crime cartel meets melodrama – via a few big-scale musical tunes – in an audaciously ambitious film from Jacques Audiard (A Prophet). The blend of crime thriller and trans story focuses on a burnt-out lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) who is kidnapped and brought before a feared and powerful drugs lord. The task? To help them fake their death so they can be reborn as Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón), the identity they have always wanted.
Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí carry Irish Oscar hopes after Kneecap was shortlisted in both the Best International Feature and Best Original Song for ‘Sick In The Head’. Their film – both critically acclaimed and a box-office hit – tells of the semi-fictionalised rise of the Irish-language rap group. The daring and often hilarious film is a rallying cry to upend preconceptions about language and culture and stand up for your beliefs.
Mikey Madison is earning strong Oscars buzz for playing the film’s title character, a sex worker who meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch. When his family gets wind of the union, they put their henchmen on the case, leading to a wild and unexpected adventure in the streets of New York.
Jonathan Glazer’s film – a winner of Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars – revolves around Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig as they build family life in a house and garden beside the camp. Glazer’s film is a chilling and unsettling account of the banality of evil.
