New York Times Critics' Picks

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  • Ham on Rye

    Directed by Tyler Taormina • Drama • With Haley Bodell, Audrey Boos, Danny Tamberelli • 2020 • 85 minutes

    Ham on Rye, a coming-of-age comedy centered on the nervous excitement of youth and the strange horror of entering adulthood uses an expansive ensemble of over one hundred performers, includi...

  • Francine

    Directed by Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky • Drama • With Melissa Leo • 2012 • 74 minutes

    After years of incarceration, a quiet, lonely woman, Francine (Academy Award® winner Melissa Leo), is released to start a new life in a small, rural town. But despite opportunities for warmth and conn...

  • The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

    Directed by David Russo • Drama • With Marshall Allman, Jeanette Maus • 2009 • 97 minutes

    After losing his cubicle job as a data manager in Seattle, spiritually confused Dory feels like his life is going down the drain. He plummets from white collar to brown collar when he is forced to take a jo...

  • The Messenger

    Directed by Oren Moverman • Drama • With Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi • 2009 • 113 minutes

    Co-written by Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon, THE MESSENGER is a powerful and tender story about a returned war hero making his first steps toward a normal life. In his f...

  • Billy the Kid

    Directed by Jennifer Venditti • Documentary • With Billy P, Penny Baker, Heather Pelletier • 2007 • 84 minutes

    A provocative coming-of-age story, Jennifer Venditti's debut film, BILLY THE KID (2007), is an acclaimed odyssey into the soul of an American teenager. Venditti follows Billy as he navi...

  • Until the Light Takes Us

    Directed by Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell • Documentary • With Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell, Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes, Harmony Korine • 2010 • 93 minutes

    Until The Light Takes Us tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in...

  • Sun Don't Shine

    Directed by Amy Seimetz • Drama • With Kate Lyn Sheil, Kentucker Audley • 2013 • 80 minutes

    Written and directed by Amy Seimetz, Sun Don't Shine follows Crystal and her boyfriend Leo on a tense and mysterious road trip through hauntingly beautiful landscape of central Florida. The purpose of the...

  • By the Grace of God

    Directed by François Ozon • Drama • With Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud • 2019 • 137 minutes

    BY THE GRACE OF GOD tells the story of three men—Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), François (Denis Ménochet), and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud)—who band together to expose the code of silence that cont...

  • Searching for Ingmar Bergman

    Directed by Margarethe von Trotta • Documentary • With Liv Ullmann, Olivier Assayas, Ruben Östlund • 2018 • 99 minutes

    On the 100th anniversary of his birth, internationally renowned director Margarethe von Trotta examines Ingmar Bergman’s life and work with a circle of his closest collaborators...

  • The Bridesmaid (Claude Chabrol)

    Directed by Claude Chabrol • Drama • With Benoit Magimal, Laura Smet, Aurore Clement, Bernard Le Coq, Selene Bouton, Anna Mihalcea • 2004 • 110 minutes

    It's love at first sight when bridesmaid Senta falls into the life of handsome young Philippe at the wedding of his younger sister. As their pa...

  • You Go to My Head

    Directed by Dimitri de Clercq • Drama • With Delfine Bafort, Svetozar Cvetkovic, Arend Pinoy, Omar Sarnane, Laurence Tremolet • 2018 • 120 minutes

    This award-winning, critically lauded thriller begins in a desolate stretch of the Sahara, where a mysterious car accident leaves a young woman lost ...

  • Sita Sings the Blues

    Directed by Nina Paley • Animation • 2008 • 82 minutes

    Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully ...

  • Alleluia

    Directed by Fabrice Du Welz • Drama • With Laurent Lucas, Lola Dueñas • 2014 • 95 minutes

    Based on notorious real-life “lonely hearts killers” who make victims of their romantic liaisons, Alleluia is a dark and fascinating love-story-gone-wrong from Belgian horror maverick Fabrice du Welz. Miche...

  • The Woodmans

    Directed by C. Scott Willis • Documentary • With Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, Charles Woodman George Woodman • 2010 • 83 minutes

    The Woodmans are a family of well-known artists bonded in their belief of art-making as the highest form of expression. But for their daughter Francesca — one of ...

  • Long Day's Journey Into Night

    Directed by Bi Gan • Drama • With Wei Tang, Jue Huang, Sylvia Chang • 2019 • 140 minutes

    Bi Gan follows up his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, with this noir-tinged stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang, Lust, Caution). Following leads acr...

  • Belly of the Beast

    Directed by Erika Cohn • Documentary • With Kelli Dillon, Cynthia Chandler • 2020 • 82 minutes

    When a courageous young woman and a radical lawyer discover a pattern of illegal sterilizations in California’s women’s prisons, they wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections...

  • Starlet

    Directed by Sean Baker • Drama • With Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson • 2012 • 103 minutes

    Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21 year-old aspiring actress Jane (Dree Hemingway) and elderly widow Sadie (Besedka Johnson) after their worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley....

  • Keep the Lights On

    Directed by Ira Sachs • Drama • With Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth; Julianne Nicholson • 2012 • 106 minutes

    Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt)...

  • Aferim!

    Directed by Radu Jude • Drama • With Teodor Corban, Toma Cuzin, Luminita Gheorghiu • 2016 • 108 minutes

    Eastern Europe, 1835. Two riders cross a barren landscape in the middle of Wallachia. They are the gendarme Costandin and his son. Together they are searching for a gypsy slave who has run awa...

  • Araby

    Directed by João Dumans & Affonso Uchoa • Drama • With Aristides de Sousa • 2017 • 98 minutes

    Andre, a teenager, lives in an industrial town in Brazil near an old aluminum factory. One day, a factory worker, Cristiano, suffers an accident. Asked to go to Cristiano’s house to pick up clothes and ...

  • Our Time Will Come

    Directed by Ann Hui • Drama • With Eddie Peng Yuyan, Zhou Xun, Wallace Huo Chienhwa • 2017 • 131 minutes

    1941. Hong Kong is under Japanese occupation. The anti-Japanese Dongjiang guerilla unit is tasked with rescuing cultural figures and extracting them from the besieged city. Primary school tea...

  • The Great Flood

    Directed by Bill Morrison • Documentary • 2013 • 80 minutes

    The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in American history. In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its earthen embankments in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles. Part of its legacy was ...

  • Dawson City: Frozen Time

    Directed by Bill Morrison • Documentary • 2017 • 120 minutes

    This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson Ci...

  • The Clay Bird

    Directed by Tareque Masud • Drama • With Nurul Islam Bablu, Jayanto Chattopadhyay, Rokeya Prachy • 2002 • 95 minutes

    Set against a 1960's backdrop leading up to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, THE CLAY BIRD tells the story of Anu, a boy sent away by his father to an Islamic school. Far...