Features

Multi-tasking: Edward Yang’s 1994 ensemble piece, A Confucian Confusion, wryly weaves references to the ancient philosophy into a relentlessly busy big-city network narrative

Leaky ship: Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is high on rhetorical acrobatics but lacks the humanist curiosity of his earlier films

Ambient environment: dark “plumes,” musical flourishes, and semiotic quandaries abound in Noah Baumbach’s sweetly astringent satire, White Noise

Mirror mirror: Andrew Dominik’s heavily fictionalized Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde is ultimately only image, no insight

Frame rate: a long-awaited translation of the late French critic’s writings reveals a fascination with what’s included in the frame and what’s left out, and the moral and political stakes of that choice

Light work: the Japanese filmmaker’s tireless curiosity allowed him ever new and different angles from which to tackle questions about the singularity of each cinematic moment

Form and function: Kiro Russo’s El gran movimiento weaves together bravura camerawork and a simple story about a mysteriously ill laborer to create a pulsating portrait of La Paz, Bolivia

Flickering myth: at a plein air cinema up in the Greek mountains, cine-pilgrims gather every four years for the ongoing premiere of Gregory Markopoulos's Eniaios

Love on the rocks: Both Sides of the Blade is Claire Denis’ latest exploration of the dissonances between body and language—or, as critic Leo Goldsmith puts it, “discourse and meatspace”

Whole lotta shakin’: Elvis is predictably overstuffed, but not even Baz Luhrmann’s blinding glitz can overshadow the singer’s tragic legacy