Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Buried underneath the headlines for Leo’s big moment and Mad Max’s technical awards cleanup, one of the better storylines of the 88th Academy Awards this February was that it served as a coming out party for small upstart production and distribution company A24 Films. The three-ish year old New York-based distributor made good on their massive potential when each of their three films nominated – Amy, Ex Machina, and Room – was able to nab some gold.
A24 has quickly achieved notoriety for bidding aggressively on notable festival fare – The Witch, Spring Breakers, and The End of the Tour among them. Many of their films are bold and artistic, packed with bankable stars and driven by a singular vision – the kind of box office-spurning fare should excite anyone who has grown weary of sequels, spin-offs and goddamn superheroes. That their strategy is paying off with Academy Award nominations bodes well for the future A24 Films, and that the company has an exclusive streaming deal with Prime Video is a boon for Amazon subscribers. With a library boasting 30 films – 20 of which are available to stream now – it’s time to get acquainted with A24.
'Ex Machina' (2015)
A24 golden boy Oscar Isaac commands the screen as a kind of Park Slope reimagining of Elon Musk in this sci-fi thriller about the cost of technological progress. The film’s built around one question – does Ava, a robot designed by Isaac’s Nathan Bateman but brought to life on screen by Alicia Vikander, possess true artificial intelligence? Domhnall Gleeson plays the everyman programmer meant to answer it, but director Alex Garland ultimately lets the audience decide for themselves. A deserved winner for Best VFX at the Oscars this year.
'Amy' (2015)
Even before Amy claimed the title belt as Best Documentary at 2016 Oscars ceremony, it was essential viewing for any fan of Amy Winehouse or the documentary genre at large. The film lingers on the consequences of celebrity and fame, and the cruelty of the public eye – but does so in its own voyeuristic way that feels like watching a train wreck for a second time, in slow motion, and with commentary. It’s not to be missed.
'Obvious Child' (2014)
Jenny Slate kills it as a twenty-whatever comedian who, on the heels of a bad breakup and a one-night stand, finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy. But Obvious Child manages to escape its surface-level similarities to Judd Apatow projects by resolving its set-up in more affecting ways than Knocked Up ever attempted. Jake Lacy is solid here in the role he was born to play – a guy you feel like you probably already know from somewhere.
'The End Of The Tour' (2015)
Twitter had endless jokes to make about the pairing of Eisenberg and Segel in a film about David Foster Wallace, but The End of the Tour gets the last laugh with each of them pulling off remarkably interesting and endearing performances in a film that feels more than anything like two writers waxing vulnerably about staving off impostor syndrome. Might just be good enough to get you to dust off that copy of Infinite Jest on your shelf and tackle another 100 or so pages.
'Locke' (2013)
Locke is a claustrophobic 90-minute ride in the title character’s BMW, as he confronts past mistakes through a series of phone calls that threaten to destroy relationships with both his family and his coworkers. It’s a wholly original approach to storytelling, and the fact that it succeeds by using little else other than gripping dialogue and a brooding Tom Hardy (the only on-screen character here) is reason enough to add Locke to your Watch List.
'A Most Violent Year' (2014)
It’s gritty, ridiculously well-casted, and almost painfully stylish; but A Most Violent Year is also kind of, well, boring. When it’s really moving forward – or anytime Jessica Chastain is on-screen – it’s a gripping family drama about an American Dream threatened, but when it lags it can feel a little too much like a thriller about a man who sells heating oil.
'Slow West' (2015)
The western seems to be one of the least likely genre films for a reinvention that works, but somehow first time writer-director John M. McLean does it beautifully – creating a whole new thing out of a collection of old-feeling pieces. Better still, its breezy runtime means you can be acquainted with one of the brightest directorial debuts of 2015 in less than an hour and a half. Watch it now.
'Mississippi Grind' (2015)
What the film lacks in clear purpose it makes up for in having cast Ben Mendelsohn in a leading role. The Australian’s stellar performance – and Ryan Reynolds’ Teflon charisma – save Mississippi Grind from being “just” a gambling movie or “just” a buddy movie or “just” a road trip movie, and makes all of its meandering a detour worth taking.
'Life After Beth' (2014)
Life After Beth unfolds the way you might expect any movie about a teenager torn apart by the death of his girlfriend to do. Until that girlfriend comes back from the dead, and the boyfriend’s the only one in town who thinks that’s strange. Yes, it’s another damn zombie movie, but Life After Beth still manages some new ideas and is saved – as A24 films so often are – by dedicated performances from a talented cast (Aubrey Plaza! Molly Shannon! John C. Reilly!).
'Under the Skin' (2014)
Director Jonathan Glazer is well-known for his work in music videos and commercials – so it makes sense that Under the Skin functions mostly as a beautiful-but-metaphor-heavy string of ideas half-explained. It’s bleedingly artsy, and an interesting departure from Scarlett Johansson’s typical work, but beware… It’s ultimately a challenging watch.
'Enemy' (2014)
Sicario director Denis Villeneuve goes all in on quiet metaphor in this unexpected turn from Jake Gyllenhaal, in which he plays an average college professor shocked to happen across his exact double. What unfolds is an understated story full of menace, worth a look for anyone who appreciates films that let the audience do most of the unpacking in their own mind.
'Tusk' (2014)
A respectable entry into the genre of “I Can’t Believe This Thing Got Made” cinema, Tusk follows a podcaster to Nowhere, Canada where he’s promptly kidnapped by a disturbed man with machinations to turn him into a walrus. For real. A nearly-unrecognizable Johnny Depp steals the show – for better or worse – with a truly bizarre performance as detective Guy Lapointe. Watch it just to say you have.
'While We’re Young' (2015)
Probably the victim of a poorly-cut trailer, While We’re Young was sold to audiences as a lighthearted tale of a young couple breathing new life into an older one. In reality, it’s an awkward film that explores journalistic ethics and the authenticity of trendy millennials, for some reason. It’s still worth a watch, if only for Adam Driver’s knack for keeping the audience wondering whether or not he’s a “good” guy ‘til the end.
'Laggies' (2014)
If you’re capable of buying into the idea that a world could exist in which Keira Knightley is an unremarkable twenty-something stuck in a dead-end relationship, there’s a lot of fun to be had in watching her attempt to escape that fate in Laggies – with the help of an unlikely teenage friend (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her father (Sam Rockwell).
'Son of a Gun' (2014)
Is it a prison-break movie? A crime thriller? A father/son drama? I guess, sure. But Son of a Gun kind of sucks at being all of the three. Its high energy does redeem some of the less-than-likely plot points, though, and so does the always-great (and now, Oscar-winning) Alicia Vikander.
'Dark Places' (2015)
The second Gillian Flynn book to get the big-screen treatment, Dark Places falls well short of 2013’s also-largely-disappointing Gone Girl. It splits its time between the past and the present, as well as between murder mystery and family drama but it never manages to be anything but underwhelming. Even having not read the book, it ruined the book for me.
'The Captive' (2014)
A24’s first Ryan Reynolds acquisition makes the mistake of not letting Ryan Reynolds be Ryan Reynolds, and it pays dearly – trading his unrelenting popular guy act for two hours of despair that never works in the way it needs to.
'The Rover' (2014)
A post-apocalyptic film with big aspirations and ideas about honor, The Rover takes its sweet time getting where it’s going – and when it gets there, you’ve already lost interest in the destination. Watch it if you miss a world in which Guy Pearce is a leading man, or if you’ve just gotta see anything Robert Pattinson is in… For whatever reason.
'Barely Lethal' (2015)
The plot synopsis begins “Megan Walsh is a teenage special ops agent who yearns for a normal adolescence. After faking her own death…” and if you’re still interested at that point just go ahead and watch the thing. Not many people were, though, as even Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba’s names on the poster couldn’t draw more than $5,000 in total box office haul.
'Revenge of the Green Dragons' (2014)
A big swing and a huge miss (one of few) for A24, Revenge of the Green Dragons is a straightforward and crass mob movie following a pair of brothers scaling the ranks of a legendary Chinatown gang in 1980’s New York. The most noteworthy aspect of Revenge of the Green Dragons is Martin Scorsese’s name appearing on the poster for a producer credit.
[Where to stream Revenge Of The Green Dragons]
Kevin McGraw is a copywriter and creative strategist living in Chicago. Everyday that he wakes up and the original soundtrack to Josie and the Pussycats isn’t on Spotify is a bad day. Follow him on Twitter at @fkashark.
