Party Girl

Nicholas Ray, 1958, 99 minutes

Sneakily lurid.

House of Bamboo

Samuel Fuller, 1955, 102 minutes

Tough-minded and very pretty.

Film Socialisme

Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, 102 minutes

Repays disconnection from traditional viewing modes.

2 Days in the Valley

John Herzfeld, 1996, 105 minutes

Engaging fun.

Topsy-Turvy

Mike Leigh, 1999, 160 minutes

Big-hearted and entertaining.

Contempt

Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, 101 minutes

Faithful to, while stretching, the source novel by Moravia.

Quintet

Robert Altman, 1979, 118 minutes

Leaden.

Pickpocket

Robert Bresson, 1959, 75 minutes

Cool, intelligent, ultimately moving.

Beast

Michael Pearce, 2017, 106 minutes

Effective thriller.

The Crowd

King Vidor, 1928, 98 minutes

In a league with Sunrise and Greed, beautifully structured and shot.

Moonage Daydream

Brett Morgen, 2022, 140 minutes

Visually arresting and thematically repetitive.

Peppermint Frappé

Carlos Saura, 1967, 92 minutes

Artful depiction of obsession.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Nicolas Roeg, 1976, 138 minutes

Strange and thoughtful, with a perfectly cast Bowie.

City Lights

Charlie Chaplin, 1931, 87 minutes

Funny and poignant without an ounce of flab.

A Kind of Loving

John Schlesinger, 1962, 112 minutes

There is a pinpoint of light in this visually and narratively bleak landscape.

Kimi

Steven Soderbergh, 2022, 89 minutes

Rear Window plus Blow Out plus Run Lola Run with a soupçon of Severance.

George Carlin's American Dream

Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, 2022, 217 minutes

Thorough and thoughtful.

The Outfit

Graham Moore, 2022, 106 minutes

Satisfyingly twisty plot.

Fury

Fritz Lang, 1936, 92 minutes

Chilling indictment of the mass mind.

Cop Land

James Mangold, 1997, 105 minutes

Erratic but with several appealling over-the-top scenes.

And God Created Woman

Roger Vadim, 1956, 95 minutes

Tennessee Williams on the Riviera.

La Piscine

Jacques Deray, 1969, 124 minutes

Cool, calculating, beautiful.

Suspicion

Alfred Hitchcock, 1941, 99 minutes

Weak tea.

Elvis

Baz Luhrmann, 2022, 159 minutes

Gaudy and surreal.

What Price Hollywood?

George Cukor, 1932, 88 minutes

Brisk, sharp pre-telling of A Star Is Born.

Pain and Glory

Pedro Almodóvar, 2019, 114 minutes

A feast for the eyes with an emotional gut punch.