Richard Brody

RaMell Ross’s first dramatic feature, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, gives the bearing of witness an arresting cinematic form.

The year’s finest works suggest that the art of cinema is expanding.

In Paul Schrader’s latest film—his most audacious religious vision yet—a documentarian on his deathbed confesses, on camera, to a lifetime of misdeeds.

From the daily newsletter: Films for the season. Plus: the triumph of the post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich; arguing about expiration dates; and the birth of American football.

The actress, screenwriter, and novelist’s reviews and essays from 1918-19 display a comprehensive grasp of movie art and a visionary sense of its future.

Despite Angelina Jolie’s passionate performance, this sensationalized story of Maria Callas’s last days neglects the diva’s true art.

A Real Pain

With in-depth interviews and startling reënactments, the director Mosco Boucault details the anguish and the heroism of a mainly Jewish group of French Resistance fighters.

The performances of Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña bring energy and emotion, but the movie never gets beyond its splashy surfaces.

Tyler Thomas Taormina’s comedy drama about a Long Island family boasts some of the year’s sharpest characterizations and a strikingly original narrative form.