New York Film Festival — A–Z of films

It’s the multiple layers of mystery – which have less to do with actual events than with what different characters are thinking – which make the film compelling.

Protagonist Adam (Andrew Scott) lives in a neatly furnished home, no longer feels the need to hide his sexuality, and tells himself he’s fine, but the music says otherwise.

Hüller has always been an unfussy actress, who allows a character's flaws to shine out in interesting ways.

The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are so desperately relevant today that it leaves one breathless.

The hand-drawn beauty of the images always connects to ideas, something grander that we have yet to find out about.

Rohrwacher’s visually eclectic style is well suited to exploring the contrasts between present and past, natural and artificial, poverty and wealth.

A meditation on both memory and movies as well as ageing and a hankering for the past that is informed by the melancholic knowledge that nostalgia is inevitably rose-tinted.

Moreno isn’t shy about his use of symbolism...What this effects to disguise, however, is the degree to which [the men's] own thinking has been shaped by symbols and by the belief system which surrounds them.

Jude masterfully keeps the audience attached to the screen for almost three hours without relying on heightened tensions or conventional plot twists.

Characters come and go between these different worlds, emerging and re-emerging in different forms, as we explore different aspects of colonialism, responses to it, and survival strategies at personal and cultural levels.

Hamaguchi isn’t scared to completely change the rhythm of his film on a dime, something that is likely to frustrate as many people as it delights.

An amuse-bouche of a film, Aki Kaurismäki’s latest comedy romance may leave you wanting more but it’s also a fully rounded, good looking experience packed with all the flavours we’ve come to expect from the master of deadpan down the years.

The car racing scenes are the best in the history of cinema.

Essential, urgent and damning.

There’s a freshness to this world, as if one had just stepped out of one’s own door and arrived in an unexpected place.

This cinematic exploration, a manifestation of Christian bigotry, speculates with cinematic icons and religious imagery, laying bare the power-hungry clergy.

Maestro is a starry affair on all fronts.

The film is compellingly, playfully wayward, a documentary-leaning piece so sincere you might not entirely believe it to be a fictional construction until the credits roll.

The balance held between creepiness and fascination, sheer fun and lingering disturbance is held throughout.

It's never a difficult watch, both because of, and despite its refusal to sit with anything too long.

Capturing the experience of living in a world where one’s gender doesn’t fit better than almost any other film to date, Preciado’s work is all about claiming space and present day narrative.

The 4:3 format, preferred by Yasujirō Ozu, is the perfect frame for paying attention to the small mysteries that are often overlooked.

These are the nooks and crannies where the ghosts still hang out, whistling in the dark, eager to haunt anew a crowd.

Lanthimos skillfully transforms this lustful carnival into a coming-of-age drama, emphasising the protagonist's mastery of sexuality as a connotation of her mental evolution.

While much of the visual humour works perfectly thanks to good timing and framing, some of the running gags seem more suited to a sprint than the marathon Rejtman takes them on.

Coppola paints pictures of mid-century Americana and the codes and moral shortcomings that go with it.

While the end result is important, Hùng’s film is all about savouring the moment, something that becomes more urgent as it progresses - although talk of speed has little place in a film that unfolds with the pace and beauty of a flower.

On the visual front, the camera moves harmoniously with the workers' unpredictable gestures.

There are no shortcuts in this film, no conventions and nothing careless.