The Florida Project
At the edge of dreams is where filmmaker Sean Baker tells his stories. His last movie, Tangerine, made the daily hustle of two trans sex workers look so much like a heroic fantasy that the fact that it took place in Hollywood felt almost irrelevant. This time, Baker turns his microscopic lens to low-income residents of motels near the dreamland of Disney World. The kitschy motels, filmed lovingly against the blue sky, are a big playground for the cast of little kids, led by the endlessly cute Brooklynn Prince. It’s yet another stunning fantasy where innocence is never lost.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
This tale of violence inflicted upon the innocent transcribes its high concept quite literally. Like in The Lobster and Dogtooth, auteur Yorgos Lanthimos skillfully showcases his trademark maneuver of grotesque narrative and deadpan humor in this straight-up horror movie about a heart surgeon (Colin Farrell) who finds his wife (Nicole Kidman) and children at death sentences at the wrath of a mysterious teenager (Barry Keoghan). The tension is so incredibly suffocating from start to finish that the unthinkable brutality at its climax feels like mercy.
Review Like Nobody's Reading 