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INDIE PICK:
The sale of independent company HanWay Films might seem like yawn-worthy news, but it was behind movies directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Campion, David Cronenberg, Todd Haynes and many more. To commemorate the end of a creatively rich era, we recommend one of its best films: Steve McQueen’s Shame (2011), about a wealthy sex addict (Michael Fassbender) who receives an unexpected visit from his sister (Carey Mulligan). Hulu.
HOLLYWOOD PICK 1:
Before Tatiana Maslany was She-Hulk, she starred in David Gordon Green’s Stronger (2017), about the Boston Marathon bombings. With grit and grace, she embodies Erin Hurley, a runner who helps her future husband, Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), recover physically and emotionally after he loses his legs. It’s a profoundly moving film—and it honors its real-life characters without resorting to jingoistic theatrics. Roku.
HOLLYWOOD PICK 2:
Before Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski was a filmmaker, he was an architect—and it shows in his post-apocalyptic action film Oblivion (2013). Tom Cruise is good as a lonely drone technician, but he’s dwarfed by the monumental sets created by production designer Darren Gilford (The Force Awakens), including a glass house suspended in the sky. Interestingly, the film is based on a graphic novel that Kosinski wrote but never published. HBO Max.
CLASSIC PICK:
Four European oilmen. Two nitroglycerin-filled trucks. One harrowing movie. When you need a reminder of the difference between action and tension, watch Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953). It’s an exhilarating and exhausting workout for the adrenal glands—and an inspiration for the in-the-moment thrills of modern epics like Dunkirk (whose director, Christopher Nolan, screened Clouzot’s film for his crew). HBO Max.