A24 has come to be a household name that you can trust. Whether it be The Florida Project, First Reformed, American Honey, 20th Century Women, or Moonlight, if you’re a fan of indie genre film and you’ve fallen in love with a movie that came out within the last ten years, there’s a good chance that A24 released it. They have a habit of diving into the world of myriad movie gems and picking stellar film after stellar film to show the world – the epitome of finding the needle in the haystack. And they make it look easy.
Up next from this ridiculously successful production company is the gut-punching Hereditary from first-timer Ari Aster, which feels like less of a movie and more of a roller coaster that dares you to keep watching. It’s not for everyone, but you will truly be missing out if you decide to skip this one on the basis of it being too much to take. Opening up the film with a funeral and only growing bleaker as the feature drags on, this horrific take on a family cursed with tragedy is just as meticulous and beautifully composed as it is guttural and unnerving. It might just be the best movie A24 has ever had their hands on, which is why it comes as no surprise that the entertainment company has already gone into negotiations with Aster for his next movie, tentatively titled Midsommer.
In the meantime, while you’re waiting for Hereditary to boggle your mind and rip your heart out of your chest, there’s plenty of other worthy A24 titles to feast your eyes on. Read on, and get these great gems in your eyeballs, before you cover them with your hands in a darkened theater for Aster’s directorial debut on June 8th.
EX MACHINA
Known previously for writing 28 Days Later and Dredd, Alex Garland’s directorial debut tells the story of a tech-savvy young man named Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) who wins a competition at his Google-esque company to spend the weekend away at his CEO’s exclusive estate, to work on a secret project with the elusive Nathan (Oscar Isaac). From the outside looking in, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime – Caleb gets to meet the man who put this entire mega-successful search engine into motion, Nathan reveals his next big project to the young up-and-comer, and Caleb experiences his first ever interaction with a real, live artificial intelligence being named Ava (Alicia Vikander). But all is not as it seems. Little does he know, Caleb is interacting with a prisoner, and Ava is not the first woman made within these walls with the intention of becoming Nathan’s love slave – and she won’t be the last. Built to fulfill sci-fi fantasy thrills and brimming with social commentary, Ex Machina is a highly stylized, wholly inventive look at what makes us human, and calls into question the methods with which we make scientific advancements in the name of research.
GOOD TIME
Robert Pattison can act! Who knew? And all it took to bring out those chops was a modern day, Paul Schrader-esque, heist-gone-wrong, race-against-time thriller like Good Time to show us what he can do. Pattinson may have gotten his start in melodramatic made-for-tween vampire romance movies, but where he really shines is as a down-on-his-luck smooth-talking criminal who uses his mouth and his quick wit to maneuver himself out of every sticky situation and into the next. Written and directed by the Safdie Brothers, Good Time is not to be missed – a true white-knuckling adrenaline-fueled fiery ride from start to finish. Movies as tense as this one are hard to come by.
THE WITCH
Back in the 1600s, in the time of early Protestant settlers being brought over to the New World, people used to believe that the woods were full of sin – for they were the only place untouched by man, and therefore, never cleansed with the purification of Christianity. Perhaps that’s why when William and Katherine lead their five children away from the busy colony and out into the barren wilderness, something reaches out from the trees and claims their youngest, Samuel, an unbaptized babe. Maybe that’s why their crops begin to fail, and the family begins to turn on one another. Maybe it was the woods that brought them all of this melancholy. Or maybe, it was the witch hidden within its hovel. Written and directed by first-timer Robert Eggers, this is simply an astonishing directorial debut. Taut, purposeful, and period accurate, this surreal New England nightmare is arguably the best movie A24 has released thus far, bringing with it an air of originality and uncompromised vision.
IT COMES AT NIGHT
Despite the madness, Sarah and Paul live peaceful lives. The world outside may be falling apart, but this couple, along with their son Travis, have mostly held it together during the end times – mostly. It seems like the oxygen masks and taped-shut doors and cautionary, aloof lifestyle has kept them safe from the sickness stretching itself across the globe thus far — but suddenly, outsiders arrive. A shy family of three has come to join their little hideaway in the woods. Although they seem good-hearted at first, as time goes on and suspicions arise, paranoia begins to creep into every corner of this little house, choking and suffocating the inhabitants within – until somebody snaps, and chaos ensues. Brilliantly directed by Krisha filmmaker Trey Edward Shultz, this hypnotic portrait of two families unraveling in the face of adversity is a haunting meditation on how sickness can turn good people into monsters.
GREEN ROOM
They may have been a couple of gas stealing, record blaring, anti-establishment types, but this little punk band didn’t deserve a fate like this. Donning themselves ‘The Ain’t Rights’, Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole), and Tiger (Callum Turner) find themselves trapped within the confines of an ever-shrinking green room after they witness a murder in a Nazi-owned nightclub. Now, with nowhere left to turn and their bandmates being brutally offed one by one, these kids must find a way out of this skinhead infected territory – lest they want this to truly become their final tour. The follow-up to his indie sensation Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier proves himself as a visionary filmmaker with Green Room, his surprisingly timely foray into the world of extreme nationalism, using the power of film to prove that the power of rock and roll can defeat nearly any evil, even the kind that stems from racist bigotry.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER
After his father passes expectantly on the operating table, Martin clings to surgeon Steven Murphy – a father figure to fill the void growing within his soul. Although it starts small, with little guilt-ridden gifts passed from Steven to Martin, and the occasional dinner date here and there, eventually, Martin begins to latch onto the Murphy family, and grows a little too close for comfort. Like a festering tumor, Martin inserts himself into the Murphy’s daily lives, and spreads his sickness from within – a child in pain turned parasite. Before they know it, the whole family has seemingly fallen prey to some sort of invisible sorcery, as paralysis befalls each of them one by one, with no motivation in sight. This wicked tale of guilt and blame and revenge not only plays as a horrible nightmare, but also provides a sobering look at human behavior, and our natural tendency to detach ourselves from any unwanted emotions to the extent of rendering ourselves sociopathic. Coming off hot from the success of The Lobster and back with his new twisted The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos is a name every cinephile should know.
ENEMY
Have you ever woken up out of a dream and gone straight into another one? Remember that strange, eerie feeling of being trapped within some surreal place that you couldn’t quite shake yourself from? Think about that hazy hallucination and you’ll feel a little bit of what it’s like to watch Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy for the very first time. Look into this one as little as possible before you see it for guaranteed maximum suspense and whimsical wonder. No trailers, no synopsis – just dive in.
SWISS ARMY MAN
It takes a special kind of filmmaker to take a story about a man befriending a corpse on the beach and turn it into an endearing light-hearted comedy about love and relationships and life and loss, but somehow, with their powers combined, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert manage to pull it off. Because of its somewhat silly premise is instigated to handle somewhat serious subject matter, the result is a movie with a perspective of enjoying and appreciating life, while also allowing the leeway to not take it all so seriously. This is one you’ve got to see, if for no other reason than to watch Paul Dano ride a lifeless, farting Daniel Radcliffe across the ocean like a gas-powered dolphin straight into the sunset.
SPRING BREAKERS
This is an A24 release that gets a lot of unwarranted hate from film critics and cinema connoisseurs alike, with most people claiming that it’s nothing but a shallow and vulgar display of young, good-looking girls in skimpy bikinis. Here’s the thing – in a way, they’re right. But at the same time, what’s so wrong with that? Film isn’t limited to narrow Ivy League points of view. It’s not always going to be family-friendly, and it’s not always there to make a statement, or to save the world from its own blind self-destruction, or to create a commentary about the current political climate. Film is an art, a media of expression, and sometimes, that just means watching hazy, neon-infused oiled skin bounce just right to the beat, a portrait of unhindered youth and freedom and the unexplainable high of doing what you’re not supposed to be doing while you’re away from home on spring break. Sometimes, heightened simplicity is just as beautiful as cutthroat commentary.
UNDER THE SKIN
An extraterrestrial falls to earth and inhabits the body of a beautiful young woman. Slowly learning how to be human, she then begins sweeping the Scottish countryside, preying on unlucky men with her newfound powers of seduction. It always goes the same way – she flirts, she whisks them away to her private little home, and then she literally sucks the life out of them. Sure, it’s an easy game at first – like taking candy from a baby, as they say – but being human comes at a price. Over time, it begins to take its toll on this otherworldly vixen. There are only so many men she can meet, seduce, and discard before she finally comes across one that puts butterflies in her belly, makes her heart skip a beat. Now, suddenly, capturing and killing isn’t so easy. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, this futuristic masterpiece begs the question of what it means to be a human being – and doesn’t necessarily reflect back our greatest traits.