20 Best Releases From Film4 Productions Studio
Love Lies Bleeding
SimilarAliens (1986), Basic Instinct (1992),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Caché (2005), Catwoman (2004), Con Air (1997), Desert Hearts (1985), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Die Hard (1988), Fargo (1996), Monster (2003), Oldboy (2003), Paris Can Wait (2016), Strange Days (1995), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Usual Suspects (1995), True Romance (1993), Vertigo (1958),
StudioA24, Film4 Productions,
The word for Rose Glass (Saint Maud) and Weronika Tofilska's Love Lies Bleeding is "precise." From the individual and combined performances of leads Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian (whose turn as a cunning Imperial agent was a bright spot in the often dreary third season of The Mandalorian) to DP Ben Fordesman's chameleonic camera work and hair department lead Megan Daum's wide-ranging design work, everyone on the project knew exactly what they wanted to do and how to get it done. The result is a bracing, clear-eyed noir thriller, and a fraught, swoon-worthy romance. It's my favorite movie of 2024 so far.
It's the late 1980s. The reserved and insightful Lou (Stewart) manages a grimy bodybuilding gym in a sunbleached western suburb. She does not talk to her father, the cruel, cunning crime lord Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). She loves her sister, fraying housewife Beth (Jena Malone), and hates that she will not leave her loathsome slimeball husband JJ (Dave Franco). The closest person Lou has to a romantic partner is the aggressively cheerful Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), and their on-off something or other boils down to, in Bart Simpson's words, "geographical convenience, really." Enter Jackie (O'Brian), a drifting bodybuilder aiming for a Las Vegas contest where victory can leap passion into profession. The sparks are immediate.
Jackie (Katy O'Brian) strives for bodybuilding stardom. She's doing the work, but the events of Love Lies Bleeding bend the barrier between her reality and her dream. A24.
Jackie's drive lights a fire in Lou, and Lou's methodical care grounds Jackie. Simultaneously, Lou's desire to help Jackie achieve her dream and Jackie's desire to make Lou happy lead them to make bad calls—the sort of bad calls that lead to worse calls that lead to blood. And neither JJ's venality nor Lou Sr.'s mercilessness should be discounted. Continue Reading →
The Zone of Interest
SimilarAli: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Almost Famous (2000), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Apocalypse Now (1979), Apollo 13 (1995), Belle de Jour (1967), Ben-Hur (1959), Blade Runner (1982), Blood and Chocolate (2007),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Contact (1997), Contempt (1963), Cruel Intentions (1999), Dances with Wolves (1990), Desert Hearts (1985), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), East of Eden (1955), Enough (2002), Finding Forrester (2000), Gandhi (1982), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), I've Always Liked You (2016),
Jackie Brown (1997) Just Cause (1995), La Haine (1995), Metropolis (1927), Oldboy (2003), Raging Bull (1980), Random Harvest (1942),
Rebecca (1940) Shall We Dance? (2004), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Elephant Man (1980), The Good German (2006), The Last Emperor (1987),
The Name of the Rose (1986) The Outsiders (1983), The Pianist (2002), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Straight Story (1999), The Tin Drum (1979), To Die For (1995), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Wonder Boys (2000),
Watch afterAmerican Fiction (2023), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Napoleon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Poor Things (2023),
StudioA24, Film4 Productions,
Jonathan Glazer's first feature in 10 years is a near-unclassifiable work of patience and intentional distance from its historical horrors.
What am I to say here? What can I say?
I feel as if I’m to say nothing at all. My mind has gone and I feel sick, and while that’s due to the film in question, another degree of it comes from a deeper truth. I feel wrong in my reaction to it; it can’t help but feel inadequate. The Zone of Interest has leveled me like few things ever have, but that’s not the point. That’s not its point. Continue Reading →
Poor Things
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007), 9 Songs (2004), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Aladdin (1992), Aliens (1986), Amélie (2001), Annie Hall (1977), Armageddon (1998),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Blade Runner (1982), Contact (1997), Contempt (1963), Cruel Intentions (1999), Desert Hearts (1985), Dirty Dancing (1987), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), M*A*S*H (1970), Manhattan (1979), Mars Attacks! (1996), Mary Poppins (1964), Match Point (2005), Metropolis (1927), Mystic River (2003), Once Upon a Time in America (1984),
Rebecca (1940) Shrek the Third (2007), Stalker (1979), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Holiday (2006), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Party (1980), The Science of Sleep (2006), True Romance (1993), Vertigo (1958), War of the Worlds (2005), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Wild at Heart (1990), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterAnatomy of a Fall (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Killer (2023),
StarringWillem Dafoe,
StudioFilm4 Productions, Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment,
Yorgos Lanthimos directs a sumptuous adult fairy tale featuring Emma Stone at her very best.
Here’s the thing about Yorgos Lanthimos: you’re either on board with him, or you’re not. Even in The Favourite, arguably his most accessible film, there’s a sort of joyful grotesqueness to it, leaving the audience laughing and wincing simultaneously. His latest offering, Poor Things, is his most visually dazzling film yet, with moments of stunning beauty and bittersweet insight, but still isn’t afraid to test the audience’s sensibilities. It’s a film about what it means to be alive, every little disgusting aspect of it.
Based on Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, Poor Things opens in dreary black and white London, where eccentric scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is overseeing an experiment that’s both miraculous and horrifying. Baxter, whose face looks like it was carved into several pieces and then put back together the wrong way, has brought a woman back to life after she committed suicide. The woman, whom he’s renamed Bella (Emma Stone, with a magnificent pair of eyebrows), initially has the mind of a toddler, but she’s learning and maturing at an astonishing rate. Bella refers to Godwin as “God,” and so far knows no one and nothing else but him and their home together. Continue Reading →
Eileen
SimilarAnatomy of a Murder (1959), Apocalypse Now (1979), Basic Instinct (1992), Ben-Hur (1959), Blade Runner (1982), Blue Velvet (1986), Brubaker (1980), Con Air (1997), Contempt (1963), Crash (1996), Cruel Intentions (1999), Cube Zero (2004), Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2 (1990), Don't Bother to Knock (1952), Dr. No (1962), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Fargo (1996), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), From Russia with Love (1963), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Goldfinger (1964), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Just Cause (1995), Memento (2000), Metropolis (1927), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969),
Primal Fear (1996) Schindler's List (1993), Scrooge (1951), Solaris (1972), Talk to Her (2002), The 39 Steps (1935), The Devil's Rejects (2005), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Tin Drum (1979), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), War of the Worlds (2005), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Watch afterAnatomy of a Fall (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Poor Things (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023),
StudioFilm4 Productions,
Thomasin McKenzie & Anne Hathaway burn up the screen in William Oldroyd’s unsettling thriller.
Eileen will likely be lost in the holiday season shuffle among such spectacles as the upcoming Wonka and awards-friendly fare like Ferrari. On the other hand, it’s unclear under what circumstances Eileen would make a big splash. It’s an odd, occasionally off-putting little film that wouldn’t work as well as it does if not for the scorching chemistry between its two leads.
Based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s (also odd and occasionally off-putting) novel of the same name, Eileen stars Thomasin McKenzie as the titular character, a lonely young woman stuck in a miserable rut. Living in the most depressing town in Massachusetts circa 1964, Eileen is forced to take care of her alcoholic, mean-spirited father (a chilling Shea Whigham, still somehow not one of Hollywood’s biggest stars), a former cop who’s taken to waving his gun at their neighbors. Working as a secretary at a juvenile detention center, though she’s in her twenties she comes off as someone much younger, a meek and awkward child merely dressing up as an adult. Eileen also has a child’s taste for doing things like ignoring her hygiene, stuffing herself with candy, and compulsively masturbating, while maintaining a rich fantasy life involving rough sex with a detention center guard, or murdering her father. Her boredom has reached pathological levels. Continue Reading →
Free Fire
The plot of Free Fire, in many ways, could not be more straightforward. A mix of thugs, gun runners, and revolutionaries meet up to exchange weapons in a Boston warehouse in the 1970s. Things go wrong in a hurry. Continue Reading →
High-Rise
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn't exist. Continue Reading →
A Field in England
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn't exist. Continue Reading →
Sightseers
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn't exist. Continue Reading →
Kill List
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn't exist. Continue Reading →
Holy Smoke
During her appearance on Inside the Actors Studio, actress Kate Winslet reenacted a day on the set of Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke! in which Harvey Keitel was a dog. As part of an improvisational exercise to “deepen the intimacy” between the actors, Winslet’s objective was to help the dog to die. Despite her very English hesitations, after many minutes of whimpering and yowling soundtracked by Enya, the canine Keitel finally “dies.” Winslet gracefully excused herself, found a secluded place, and burst into laughter. Continue Reading →
Last Night in Soho
Similar28 Days Later (2002), Cube (1997), Cube Zero (2004),
Shaft (2000) Watch afterNightmare Alley (2021), tick tick... BOOM! (2021),
Has any other director in recent years had as frustrating a creative decline as Edgar Wright? Discounting his feature debut—the 1995, no-budget A Fistful of Fingers—his streak was white-hot. Two series of Spaced both developed and prefaced his earnest eye for nerd culture, leading up to what would become his Cornetto Trilogy. His work was so loving, so finely tuned, and, especially in the case of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, some of the most pop-culturally keen around. However, Baby Driver couldn’t help but sit in neutral; it was a pet project missing heart. With that out of the way, perhaps there was something more substantial to come next. Continue Reading →
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
SimilarBack to the Future Part III (1990), Copying Beethoven (2006), Metropolis (1927), The Elephant Man (1980),
StarringSophia Di Martino,
StudioFilm4 Productions,
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is an alternatively madcap and melancholic retelling of the artistic and personal life of the peculiar Louis Wain by making a lot of noise but not saying much. Biographical films have to tread a very difficult line. They must tell their central characters’ life and accomplishments while humanizing them through their rituals and quirks. And they must do this all without turning the movie idealization or fetishization of such things. Narratively, what Louis Wain gets right is that focusing on the man as a deeply troubled individual and melds his artistic work along with the afflictions that he suffered. What it gets wrong is its inability to dig deeper into Louis Wain beyond his whimsies and mannerisms and the surrounding greater Victorian English culture. Continue Reading →
The Forgiven
StudioBFI, Film4 Productions,
Despite its top shelf cast & capable direction, this drama about tourists behaving badly is nothing we haven't seen before.
The Forgiven is a story about fantastically rich white people behaving badly in an “exotic” location, told by slightly less rich and hopefully better intentioned white people. So soon after HBO’s The White Lotus, it might be tempting to call this a new trend. But it’s probably more accurate to consider it business as usual.
This is not to say that it’s a bad film. The Forgiven is thoroughly competent in its writing, direction, and performances. It also happens to be — from its first scenes and the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-esque dynamic it establishes between its protagonists, to its ending which is strongly foreshadowed to the point of telegraphing — an obvious one. Continue Reading →
Mothering Sunday
Eva Husson directs Odessa Young to a stupendous performance of a young woman's birth as a writer in a story about the lingering impact of love.
An adaptation of Graham Swift's 2016 novella of the same name, Mothering Sunday begins as a story about wartime loss and forbidden love. Directed by Eva Husson from a script penned by Alice Birch, it mostly takes place over one spring day in 1924 England, just five years after the end of the first World War. It's Mother's Day and the orphaned Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), who works as a maid in the Nivens (Olivia Colman and Colin Firth) household, is given a day off. Since she doesn't have a mother to celebrate the holiday with, Jane decides to spend the day with the only person in her life, her secret lover Paul Sheringham (Josh O'Connor).
The couple makes plans to meet at Paul's house. But on this very special day, Jane doesn't have to sneak in from the backdoor like usual. Paul's parents are not home—they're lunching with the Nivens and the Hobdays, whose daughter Emma (Emma D'Arcy) will marry Paul in about two weeks. As the three families gather at the lunch table near a beautiful river, Jane and Paul seize the opportunity to express their love for each other. They're aware that this afternoon will most likely be the last time they get to be in each other's company, so they make the most of it. Continue Reading →
Dream Horse
SimilarBring It On (2000), Brubaker (1980), Freedom Writers (2007), Mississippi Burning (1988), Raging Bull (1980),
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022),
StudioFilm4 Productions, Ingenious Media,
Toni Collette has recently made a name for herself in the broader movie-going culture as a queen of creepy, suspense cinema, with her fantastic performances in Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Charlie Kaufman’s dark and whimsical I’m Thinking of Ending Things. It’s fun to see this resurgence of popularity nearly two decades after she gave what I consider her best performance of her career in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. Continue Reading →
A Most Wanted Man
Before he passed away at the age of 46, Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in 52 feature films. Starring roles, character pieces, chameleon work—he left a legacy nearly unmatched in both quality and quantity. Now, with P.S.H. I Love You, Jonah Koslofsky wafts through the cornucopia of the man’s offerings. Continue Reading →
Passing
Watch aftertick tick... BOOM! (2021),
StudioFilm4 Productions,
Rebecca Hall adapts Nella Larsen's novella about Black social mobility (and its corresponding resentments) to haunting effect.
(This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.)
Nella Larsen's 1929 novella Passing is a fascinating text, a frank but elegant discussion of the intersections of race, class, and gender as cold and delicate as its subject matter. It makes sense, then, that Rebecca Hall's adaptation is similarly airy and ominous, an intimate portrait of resentment and racial/social mobility set amid the stifling backdrop of 1920s New York. Continue Reading →
Saint Maud
StudioBFI, Film4 Productions,
When it comes to suffering, no one does it like Catholics. Consider Opus Dei, the secretive branch of Catholicism that still allegedly practices self-flagellation, or the hardcore worshipers who recreate Christ’s crucifixion every Easter, rather than dyeing eggs or baking a ham. Even when mortification of the flesh isn’t involved, no other religion promotes the idea of misery as the pathway to salvation. Rose Glass’s nightmarish Saint Maud digs deep into the pathology of that mindset, and is something you won’t likely forget for a long time. Continue Reading →
Censor
Niamh Algar learns the price of prurience in Prano Bailey-Bond's neon-soaked ode to the video nasty.
(This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.)
It's England in the 1980s - poverty is high, Thatcher is in office, and the so-called moral majority is sounding the alarm about the increasing ubiquity of "video nasties", gory, violent films that, as the hysteria goes, tap into the seediest, most antisocial impulses of the British people. Think Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer, or Cannibal Holocaust: eerie exercises in sociopathy that thrill their fans and terrify their detractors. For Enid (Niamh Algar), a film censor, her job isn't about protecting a sensitive public from the disturbing films she's shown (ones with titles like Deranged and Beast Man), but merely to do her job well. Even so, she's buttoned up in more ways than one, from her uptight clothing to her lack of chemistry with her coworkers. Much of that is due to years of trauma sustained from the disappearance of her sister as a teenager, which she was present for but can't remember a thing about; her parents only recently chose to declare her dead and begin to move on with their lives. Continue Reading →
Salaam Bombay!
For a nation that produces hundreds of films a year in a multitude of languages, India’s presence at the Academy Awards is almost shockingly muted. India has submitted films every year since 1957, where K. Asif’s epic melodrama Mother India scored a nomination but lost to Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. Since then, only two other films made it to the ceremony: Mira Nair’s 1988 debut feature Salaam Bombay! and Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2001 cricket drama Lagaan. That’s three films over six decades, with no nominations since 2001. Continue Reading →