Most movies give you their point upfront, while others make you think it’s about a specific topic, then reveal that the story is about something else. Pink Lady belongs somewhere in the middle of those two categories.

Although Tuner is technically a heist movie, music and sound are woven into almost every aspect of Niki’s story. That’s what made Tuner such a pleasant surprise. I expected a film about music and discovered a heist movie, only to find that music was still at the heart of it.

The Brazilian filmmaker Alexandre Alonso’s Hunter is a film with a lot of ideas, but with very little holding those ideas together.

Coralie Fargeat once said that “Being a woman is body horror,” and when you think about the ways we are taught to experience our own bodies, it becomes almost impossible to argue with her.

On the Road captures the bleak, hyper-masculine world of long-haul trucking in Northern Mexico, where anything can and will happen. A hard-boiled, neon-noir romantic thriller, it shows the gritty reality of roadside diners, truck stops, and truck cemeteries alongside the expansive, breathless beauty of the Mexican desert highways.

The Chronology of Water is a raw, honest, and unforgiving portrayal of how an abusive childhood ripples throughout one’s life. It is definitely the best movie I’ve seen Imogen Poots in. And even though Kristen Stewart has a long acting career for her young age, her directorial skills in this film show a lot of promise. Her feature debut as a director, an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch's critically acclaimed 2011 autobiographical memoir, is fully immersive, mesmerizing, and impressive.

In Deaf, the Spanish director Eva Libertad explores pregnancy and motherhood from the perspective of a deaf woman. Her movie examines how the world imposes the notion of disability on her main character while she actually does not feel disabled herself.

Unrelentingly funny, highly entertaining, and ridiculously absurd, My Movie Starring Paul Dano is, according to its creator, Joe Bartone, a tribute to the willful ignorance of independent filmmaking found in the late '70s in New York City. Developed through open discussions with the cast at the reading table, the mockumentary follows a delusional and fame-starved indie director, Herman Rumowicz, through the process of making his very first feature movie starring Paul Dano.

Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus is a beautiful, poignant, enraging, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking film about the trauma and harm conversion therapy inflicts on young queer people. Even though its classification as horror holds, the emotional bond between the two main characters, Naim and Ryan, elevates the story into a realistic romantic drama on par with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Carolina Caroline follows Caroline (Samara Weaving), a bored young woman dreaming of escaping a small Texas town where nothing ever happens. When she meets Oliver (Kyle Gallner) at her workplace while he is conning the owner, she sees her perfect opportunity to get out. Their whirlwind romance strongly echoes Bonnie and Clyde, as the two quickly embark on a bank-robbing spree.

Stylish, slow, and somewhat standoffish, Human Resource examines corporate life from the perspective of a female HR employee as she interviews job candidates while also deciding whether to keep her newly discovered pregnancy.

Adapted from a 2014 novel by Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life is the feature film debut of documentary filmmaker Bing Liu. With the help of screenwriter Martyna Majok, he paints a realistic and somber portrayal of Aishe, a Uyghur immigrant, as she struggles to make a living while undocumented in the United States.