Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +5

[Pizza!Pizza!]

Angry Birds 2
7/10


Great movie, not as good as the first movie but funny and better than expected considering it is a sequel to a movie that should have been terrible but surprisingly was not.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Dune. The type of movie that's tempting to look at with the benefit of time and ask: Is it REALLY that bad? And yeah, I think it is. It's stiffly written and surprisingly poorly acted given the otherwise talented cast. Manages to both fail the source material and not succeed on its own. It still feels super weird that David Lynch did this. For the most part I think it is an interesting experience, especially through that lens, but it's not a good one. I do very much dig the set and production design though. And I kinda like the very 80s Toto score as well.

Bad Education. A really good awards-caliber performance from Hugh Jackman here as a walking charm bomb. He's a sociopath, but a financial one, not a violent one and he makes for a surprisingly sympathetic villain. The filmmaking is interesting here too. It's a true story so I imagine most people watching are doing so knowing he's a criminal, but the scheme and details are patiently unfolded over the running time. You learn a lot more about him personally than the actual crime, which is an interesting and effective choice. This could easily have been handled as a corruption movie or a journalism/investigative movie — and it has those elements — but it's really more of a pointed character study and I think it's better for it.

In Search of Darkness. A four hour-plus look back on 1980s horror. There aren't any real insights or new learnings shared, but as an "oh yeah I remember that" nostalgia machine, it works nicely. Like if VH1 did "I Love 80s Horror." Very broad, not very deep, but it does mindlessly scratch a certain itch. (And helped me somewhat plan Halloween season viewings).

Enter the Dragon. Just a big ol' bucket of fun. James Bond was still top of mind for me because of my recent rewatches, but I think I'd be drawing this parallel anyway. The skeleton of a Bond story adorned with some wonderful action. The climactic hall of mirrors fight is pretty rad.

 

[kihei]

Before We Vanish (2018) Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa 8A

As a precursor to an all-out invasion, three aliens come to Earth and inhabit human bodies—one adult and two teenagers—and begin to do their job, stealing “conceptions” from human minds by touching the forehead of the victims who in turn forget the meaning of what they have just lost. In this way, at great emotional cost to the earthlings, the aliens can learn more about out species. Thus, the aliens will better know how to cope on their new planet after eradicating all humans, save for a few "samples." The aliens need guides to help them, and they find a reluctant pair in the form of Narumi, the wife of her “inhabited” husband and in Sakurai, a magazine writer who gets caught up with the two teens, who are, respectively, a homicidal girl who shoots first and asks questions later and a laid back kid who is as easy going an alien invader as there ever was. The husband alien becomes too sensitized to the conceptions of this new species and is in danger of becoming human himself. The younger pair don't have that problem. Before We Vanish totally engaged me in its story. It made me wonder how good some science fiction movies could have been if they possessed a sense of humour and invested more time in character development. Though I guess you need to have the right characters to begin with, which this movie does in spades. Although the movie respects the conventions of the genre, I had no idea of what was going to happen next. As invasion movies go, it is the rare movie that generates delight, but Before We Vanish managed to do exactly that.

subtitles

MUBI

 

[Langdon Alger]

Philadelphia - 1993

Tom Hanks plays lawyer Andrew Beckett who has AIDS and is fried from his job as a Lawyer. Denzel Washington plays the lawyer who defends Beckett, who argues he was wrongfully terminated from his job. His employer tries to argue he almost blew a big case, but Beckett claims he was purposely sabotaged because he is a gay man living with aids.

This is one of Hanks finest performances and he won an Academy Award for this role. Washington is very good as he always is, and there are very nice supporting performances from Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen and Antonio Banderas.

I’ve seen this film a number of times, and find it to be very rewatchable.

9/10

 

[kihei]

An Easy Girl (2019) Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski 7A

Good French coming-of-age movies are a dime a dozen, but An Easy Girl certainly takes an unexpected approach to an often tired genre. During a golden summer in Cannes, Naima no sooner turns 16 years old when her bombshell beautiful cousin Sofia comes to visit from Paris. Sofia, a few years older than Naima, is a free spirit--she's not looking for commitment, she's looking for "sensations." She is aware of her own sexual attractiveness and sees it as a currency she can use to enjoy herself, to collect some of those "sensations." The girls become friends with two older men on an uber-expensive yacht. Dashing Andre is sort of older version of a male Sofia whereas his pal Philippe is basically his gofer but a really nice guy. We just follow the four around as they have fun and interact with others--the odd power game sometimes in evidence. Sofia and Andre spend a lot of time in bed, with the too young Naima left to her own devices. Naima has a sort of boyfriend her own age who she has deserted for a while. And the summer unfolds. It is easy to think what a male director, say, Francois Ozon, would have done with this material. Director Rebecca Zlotowski takes a different approach. It is not so much that the female gaze here is much different than the male gaze would be--this is a sensual, sultry movie from any perspective. However the attitude is very different--Zlotowski is completely non-judgemental about the proceedings. The rich guy is quite likeable, not a complete lecher--he just has more money and power than he knows what to do with. His pal, Philippe, is a man of principle in a subservient position, but he has a real backbone. Sofia knows exactly what she is doing and having a good time doing it. And Naima is left to observe all this, trying to figure out her own feelings and what she wants from life. Last year's Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes and a rare hometown pick, An Easy Girl is a breath of fresh air from a director with a lot to offer.

subtitles

Netflix


Best of 2020 so far (includes some recent movies available for the first time in Canada this year)

First Cow, Reichardt, US
Seducio da Carne, Bressane, Brazil
Before We Vanish, Kurosawa, Japan
The Portuguese Woman, Gomes, Portugal
The Load, Glavonic, Serbia
A Land Imagined, Siew, Singapore
The Day after I'm Gone, Eldar, Israel
An Easy Girl, Zlotowski, France
Echo, Runarsson, Iceland
Da 5 Bloods, Lee, US

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Dune. The type of movie that's tempting to look at with the benefit of time and ask: Is it REALLY that bad? And yeah, I think it is. It's stiffly written and surprisingly poorly acted given the otherwise talented cast. Manages to both fail the source material and not succeed on its own. It still feels super weird that David Lynch did this. For the most part I think it is an interesting experience, especially through that lens, but it's not a good one. I do very much dig the set and production design though. And I kinda like the very 80s Toto score as well.

Bad Education. A really good awards-caliber performance from Hugh Jackman here as a walking charm bomb. He's a sociopath, but a financial one, not a violent one and he makes for a surprisingly sympathetic villain. The filmmaking is interesting here too. It's a true story so I imagine most people watching are doing so knowing he's a criminal, but the scheme and details are patiently unfolded over the running time. You learn a lot more about him personally than the actual crime, which is an interesting and effective choice. This could easily have been handled as a corruption movie or a journalism/investigative movie — and it has those elements — but it's really more of a pointed character study and I think it's better for it.

In Search of Darkness. A four hour-plus look back on 1980s horror. There aren't any real insights or new learnings shared, but as an "oh yeah I remember that" nostalgia machine, it works nicely. Like if VH1 did "I Love 80s Horror." Very broad, not very deep, but it does mindlessly scratch a certain itch. (And helped me somewhat plan Halloween season viewings).

Enter the Dragon. Just a big ol' bucket of fun. James Bond was still top of mind for me because of my recent rewatches, but I think I'd be drawing this parallel anyway. The skeleton of a Bond story adorned with some wonderful action. The climactic hall of mirrors fight is pretty rad.

I don't know if this is a weird opinion, but I think David Lynch's first good film was Blue Velvet. I tried to re-watch Eraserhead a few weeks ago and outside of some utterly gorgeous shots thought it was a formidable bore. I have not seen Dune, but I also find The Elephant Man to be mediocre and Twin Peaks to be very hit and miss. Thinking back on it, there are probably more pieces that I don't love from Lynch as compared to the opposite, even if Mulholland Drive is now one of my favorite films of all-time.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I don't know if this is a weird opinion, but I think David Lynch's first good film was Blue Velvet. I tried to re-watch Eraserhead a few weeks ago and outside of some utterly gorgeous shots thought it was a formidable bore. I have not seen Dune, but I also find The Elephant Man to be mediocre and Twin Peaks to be very hit and miss. Thinking back on it, there are probably more pieces that I don't love from Lynch as compared to the opposite, even if Mulholland Drive is now one of my favorite films of all-time.

I also am not a fan of Eraserhead. It prods and provokes, so I reluctantly concede it's effective, though unpleasant.

I am a staunch defender of The Elephant Man though. It's sad and beautiful, one of the rare times Lynch has exposed a softer side. Added bonus is that it's shot like and often feels like classic horror. Like Dune, it's another odd outlier from most of his work, but it's one that works. At least to me.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I also am not a fan of Eraserhead. It prods and provokes, so I reluctantly concede it's effective, though unpleasant.

I am a staunch defender of The Elephant Man though. It's sad and beautiful, one of the rare times Lynch has exposed a softer side. Added bonus is that it's shot like and often feels like classic horror. Like Dune, it's another odd outlier from most of his work, but it's one that works. At least to me.

Have you seen the Disney film he made in the late 90s? I can't remember the title but I remember being flabbergasted to learn that he did one of those. It got some acclaim but I wonder.

 

[McOilers97]

Have you seen the Disney film he made in the late 90s? I can't remember the title but I remember being flabbergasted to learn that he did one of those. It got some acclaim but I wonder.

The Straight Story must be what you're talking about. I really want to see it. Apparently it is on Disney+ in the US, but not up here in Canada yet.

 

[Chili]

The Count of Monte Cristo-1934

The only version I've seen, I know there are several others. Would like to get around to the book some day. The classic story of wrongfully imprisoned man returning one day to seek some pay back. Another of Robert Donat's strong performances (The 39 Steps, Goodbye Mr Chips, ...). Enjoyed it.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

An American Pickle (2020) - 7/10

Pretty damn solid for what it is, a fairly quaint low-key Seth Rogen movie. It's pretty stupid in parts but it does what it's trying to well for the most part. The way that people react is a bit too on the nose in terms of parody, the actual premise isn't even the most unrealistic part of the movie as a result. It gets a bit too sappy in the end and predictable but it's a good 1.5ish hour watch.

Belle de Jour (1967) - 7.5/10

I'm really tired of Brunuel films and their fantasy scenes, he overdoes it to an idiotic extent. But the actress and whatever the f*** she's going through is pretty captivating to watch nonetheless even with the weird rhythm.

 

[Osprey]

The Old Dark House (1932) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

Two sets of strangers seek shelter from torrential rains in a spooky mansion that harbors family secrets. This picture was director James Whale's second horror film after the 1931 classic Frankenstein. Boris Karloff returns in a similar role (that's him with the beard below), Charles Laughton plays one of the strangers and Melvyn Douglas plays another. I found it to be very atmospheric and genuinely suspenseful, which surprised me, considering its age. It's also quaint in that 1930s Hollywood way, especially with the addition of a romance story in the midst of the unnerving events, which wasn't so surprising. Despite being old fashioned, it held my attention very well. Part of that was the collection of interesting and different characters and part was the mystery. The ending wasn't quite as horrifying or climactic as I was expecting, but it was satisfying enough. Anyways, it's an early horror classic that holds up well and is recommended if you like old-fashioned, atmospheric, "spooky house" movies.

Full movie:

 

[kihei]

Farmageddon (2019) Directed by Richard Starzak 7A

Anyone familiar with Great Britain’s Aardman Animations will know what they are getting into here. The stop-motion clay animation company has produced some wonderful films such as Chicken Run; Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; Shaun the Sheep; and Arthur Christmas. The movies are kid friendly but appeal equally to adults because of their wit and charm. In Mossy Bottom Farms, a now familiar cast of characters including the Farmer, Bitzer, the sheepdog who looks nothing like a sheepdog, Shaun and his fellow sheep, and assorted farmyard animals find that their lives have been turned upside down by an alien invasion. Though, to be honest, it is not much of an alien invasion. One small alien has landed in a space ship; later we find out how she got there. The resulting fuss inspires the Farmer to try to make a quick buck by creating a theme park, Farmageddon, that he quickly constructs. He and Bitzer, his long-suffering pooch, are outsmarted every step of the way by Shaun the Sheep and his woolly cohorts who find a way to eventually make things turn out all right. That this marvelous animation is delivered without words, using only grunts, squeals, sighs, giggles and so on to communicate adds to the fun. Despite the obviously limits of the claymation process all the characters have distinct personalities and some wonderful oddball peculiarities. It is also neat to catch the plentiful references to other science fiction films as they roll by, sometimes in a flash. Farmageddon is a blast for everybody.

Netflix

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Faster (Tillman Jr., 2010) - This was common and flat, and then he let the preacher live and it just made me angry. 2.5/10

Une fille facile (An Easy Girl, Zlotowski, 2019) - Kind of like a 7th moral tale, only made after Rohmer's lobotomy. 4.5/10

An Easy Girl (2019) Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski 7A

Good French coming-of-age movies are a dime a dozen, but An Easy Girl certainly takes an unexpected approach to an often tired genre. During a golden summer in Cannes, Naima no sooner turns 16 years old when her bombshell beautiful cousin Sofia comes to visit from Paris. Sofia, a few years older than Naima, is a free spirit--she's not looking for commitment, she's looking for "sensations." She is aware of her own sexual attractiveness and sees it as a currency she can use to enjoy herself, to collect some of those "sensations." The girls become friends with two older men on an uber-expensive yacht. Dashing Andre is sort of older version of a male Sofia whereas his pal Philippe is basically his gofer but a really nice guy. We just follow the four around as they have fun and interact with others--the odd power game sometimes in evidence. Sofia and Andre spend a lot of time in bed, with the too young Naima left to her own devices. Naima has a sort of boyfriend her own age who she has deserted for a while. And the summer unfolds. It is easy to think what a male director, say, Francois Ozon, would have done with this material. Director Rebecca Zlotowski takes a different approach. It is not so much that the female gaze here is much different than the male gaze would be--this is a sensual, sultry movie from any perspective. However the attitude is very different--Zlotowski is completely non-judgemental about the proceedings. The rich guy is quite likeable, not a complete lecher--he just has more money and power than he knows what to do with. His pal, Philippe, is a man of principle in a subservient position, but he has a real backbone. Sofia knows exactly what she is doing and having a good time doing it. And Naima is left to observe all this, trying to figure out her own feelings and what she wants from life. Last year's Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes and a rare hometown pick, An Easy Girl is a breath of fresh air from a director with a lot to offer.

subtitles

Netflix


Best of 2020 so far (includes some recent movies available for the first time in Canada this year)

First Cow, Reichardt, US
Seducio da Carne, Bressane, Brazil
Before We Vanish, Kurosawa, Japan
The Portuguese Woman, Gomes, Portugal
The Load, Glavonic, Serbia
A Land Imagined, Siew, Singapore
The Day after I'm Gone, Eldar, Israel
An Easy Girl, Zlotowski, France
Echo, Runarsson, Iceland
Da 5 Bloods, Lee, US

Some of the dumb must have been lost in translation (the poor Bardot imitation by the bimbo too). I disagree with pretty much everything, especially the rich guy being likeable, as he's very clearly a life lesson to the young gold diggers in rethinking who's using who (he fakes a robbery to blame them and get them thrown off his yacht like garbage - not really likeable to me!). Signed by a man, this film would be wiped out as mysoginistic, Zlotowski takes the mother and the whore simplification of women to its limits. You've got a young girl becoming a woman (just turned 16, how sweet) and faced with two possibilities: either going as planned doing an intership at the hotel where her mother works (becoming her mother), or following her cousin into getting payed with gifts for sex (becoming the whore - and the casting is probably the only real interesting thing here, Zahia Dehar literally being a real life teenage prostitute). 'Of course' (and that's where no man would have gotten away with this), the young girl would prefer to be the whore, get the trashy tattoo, and f*** the old man. Luckily, that one old man was a real gentleman and saves the young girl, setting her on the right track. That's all kinds of despicable, but it's still a nice-looking film, and there's enough material to make a reading of it, so it's not absolute trash.

 

[kihei]

Faster (Tillman Jr., 2010) - This was common and flat, and then he let the preacher live and it just made me angry. 2.5/10

Une fille facile (An Easy Girl, Zlotowski, 2019) - Kind of like a 7th moral tale, only made after Rohmer's lobotomy. 4.5/10



Some of the dumb must have been lost in translation (the poor Bardot imitation by the bimbo too). I disagree with pretty much everything, especially the rich guy being likeable, as he's very clearly a life lesson to the young gold diggers in rethinking who's using who (he fakes a robbery to blame them and get them thrown off his yacht like garbage - not really likeable to me!). Signed by a man, this film would be wiped out as mysoginistic, Zlotowski takes the mother and the whore simplification of women to its limits. You've got a young girl becoming a woman (just turned 16, how sweet) and faced with two possibilities: either going as planned doing an intership at the hotel where her mother works (becoming her mother), or following her cousin into getting payed with gifts for sex (becoming the whore - and the casting is probably the only real interesting thing here, Zahia Dehar literally being a real life teenage prostitute). 'Of course' (and that's where no man would have gotten away with this), the young girl would prefer to be the whore, get the trashy tattoo, and f*** the old man. Luckily, that one old man was a real gentleman and saves the young girl, setting her on the right track. That's all kinds of despicable, but it's still a nice-looking film, and there's enough material to make a reading of it, so it's not absolute trash.

Yeah....no.

Try this take from Another Gaze, a feminist film journal:

Rebecca Zlotowski’s 'Une fille facile' ('An Easy Girl') takes on the cliché of the woman of leisure – Cannes - Another Gaze: A Feminist Film Journal

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Yeah....no.

Try this take from Another Gaze, a feminist film journal:

Rebecca Zlotowski’s 'Une fille facile' ('An Easy Girl') takes on the cliché of the woman of leisure – Cannes - Another Gaze: A Feminist Film Journal

Apart from trying to pass this mess as a feminist discourse, I don't really see how this article contradicts what I posted: Andrès was not supposed to be a likeable figure, and the fact that the actress was a known teenage prostitute is pretty much the only interesting thing about it all (it's a film review and if you cut the required story résumé, you have half of what's left that's more about the tabloids than the film).

Feminism all you want, put a guy's name on this and he gets trashed.

 

[kihei]

Apart from trying to pass this mess as a feminist discourse, I don't really see how this article contradicts what I posted: Andrès was not supposed to be a likeable figure, and the fact that the actress was a known teenage prostitute is pretty much the only interesting thing about it all (it's a film review and if you cut the required story résumé, you have half of what's left that's more about the tabloids than the film).

Feminism all you want, put a guy's name on this and he gets trashed.

I hardly think you and the article are in agreement and to suggest that you are is disingenuous. To me the key point of the article is "When we look at Sofia, we’re not looking at a person but our own sublimated fears of what a woman can be and do. It may be more interesting to ask not at whom we always find ourselves looking, but who is doing this looking. Une fille facile is just as much an excavation of the emptiness of a cliché as it is a meta-commentary on the unequal hypocrisies that sustain it."

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I hardly think you and the article are in agreement and to suggest that you are is disingenuous. To me the key point of the article is "When we look at Sofia, we’re not looking at a person but our own sublimated fears of what a woman can be and do. It may be more interesting to ask not at whom we always find ourselves looking, but who is doing this looking. Une fille facile is just as much an excavation of the emptiness of a cliché as it is a meta-commentary on the unequal hypocrisies that sustain it."

Yeah, I don't think it works, mostly because the main subject of the gaze is the young girl and that she clearly uses her as a model opposite to her mother. The male figures don't give a shit about her, Philippe and Dodo completely ignore her charms, and Andres disposes of her without a care. You have two gazes on her: idolatry through her cousin, and judgment through the older, non-chirugicarly reconstructed "dangerous woman" (another thing the young girl openly aspires to).

But even so, a man would use a reconstructed young prostitute to show 'our fears of what women can be or do", you think it would be read as a feminist position?

 

[kihei]

Yeah, I don't think it works, mostly because the main subject of the gaze is the young girl and that she clearly uses her as a model opposite to her mother. The male figures don't give a shit about her, Philippe and Dodo completely ignore her charms, and Andres disposes of her without a care. You have two gazes on her: idolatry through her cousin, and judgment through the older, non-chirugicarly reconstructed "dangerous woman" (another thing the young girl openly aspires to).

But even so, a man would use a reconstructed young prostitute to show 'our fears of what women can be or do", you think it would be read as a feminist position?

A) You're not taking into account Sofia's agency in the goings on (which is part of the point I think the director is making); B) could a male get away with it? I don't care either way. Again I think you are missing the point. Zlotowski gets away with it--that's all that concerns me; C) "Non-chirugicarly" What on f***ing earth? Do you mean non-surgically reconstructed "dangerous woman." Doesn't make any sense to me either way; D) I'm done on this one.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

A) You're not taking into account Sofia's agency in the goings on (which is part of the point I think the director is making); B) could a male get away with it? I don't care either way. Again I think you are missing the point. Zlotowski gets away with it--that's all that concerns me; C) "Non-chirugicarly" What on f***ing earth? Do you mean non-surgically reconstructed "dangerous woman." Doesn't make any sense to me either way; D) I'm done on this one.

Ahahah, yeah I was in the car and I knew I franco-butchered that word. But yeah, that's what I meant, the natural older lady judges and attacks her on her surgeries, but not a single man seems to care. As for the rest:

A) I know it has to be part of the point, but what agency? (and to what result?) She's only an archetype. She is pretty much introduced as a girl who doesn't mind being called a whore. And afterwards is showned to be an amazing gold digger, who doesn't need to take money when going out, who expects the most expensive gifts and is living as a leech on other people's wealth in exchange for sex. She's in the film as an alternative - and the alternative the young girl is aiming for, letting her real friend and her mother down to slowly but seriously start to incarnate that whore persona (the bag, the tattoo, the advances to the older man). The "feminist" episode, when she shows off she's not as dumb as (not the men, but) the other woman expects, with the Duras name-dropping, is kind of painful (as was - to me anyway and that's what I meant by maybe lost in translation - every attempt at philosophy, about death or anarchy... painful, with muggy dialogues and a pretty bad actress).

B) Well, it should, because if it's a feminist discourse, it should mean something that's intelligible. It must be saying something feminist because a woman who's a known feminist made it, I'm not sure I am comfortable with that.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Battlefield Earth is now on Netflix. Don't watch it.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Battlefield Earth is now on Netflix. Don't watch it.

This post reminds me of that time I told my cousin to never drink bleach.

 

[Osprey]

Battlefield Earth is now on Netflix. Don't watch it.

Too late. I watched it for the first time (and reviewed it) a few months ago. It's an experience that I'll never forget.

 

[Langdon Alger]

This post reminds me of that time I told my cousin to never drink bleach.

I’d drink bleach before I watched Battlefield Earth.

 

[nameless1]

First Cow (2020) Directed by Kelly Reichardt 8B

Otis (John Magaro), nicknamed Cookie for good reason, and Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese guy on the run, meet in the woods in 1820, and decide to join forces. Given the rugged, often brutal nature of the West at this time, these two guys seem like fish out of water, being likeable and gentle men. Otis worked in a bakery back East, and when the first cow in the territory is introduced into their scruffy little community, he gets an idea. The two begin to steal milk at night and Otis begins to make delicious biscuits and cookies for Lu. Soon they begin to sell them to the locals, and the money piles up. Then the owner (Toby Jones) of the cow comes into the picture, and this amiable movie takes a not completely unexpected turn. Okay, Reichardt makes really slow movies, but First Cow is such a good one that people should develop some patience. The story is as fresh and original as any Western since McCabe and Mrs. Miller, with whom it shares a wonderful sense of atmosphere. There are themes here, but treated in a low key way, about money and capitalism, but the heart of this movie is the relationship between Otis and Lu. Are they gay? Maybe, maybe not--Reichardt's clear position is "Who cares?" With every movie her skill as a director grows. First Cow is her best film since Wendy and Lucy. So far, it's the best movie of the year by a wide margin.


Best of 2020 so far (includes some recent movies available for the first time in Canada this year)

First Cow, Reichardt, US
Seducio da Carne, Bressane, Brazil
The Portuguese Woman, Gomes, Portugal
The Load, Glavonic, Serbia
A Land Imagined, Siew, Singapore
The Day after I'm Gone, Eldar, Israel
Echo, Runarsson, Iceland
Da 5 Bloods, Lee, US
Infinite Football, Porumboiu, Romania
Family Romance, LLC, Herzog, US/Japan

I recommend this one as well. This one is a strange experience for me, because it has all the qualities that should be seen as deterrents, but somehow, it works, and I really enjoyed it in the end.

Apparently, Reichardt also teaches film, and based on the comments from her ratemyteacher page, she is apparently a better filmmaker than a teacher. That might be a good sign, because as the saying goes, "Those who can't, teach."