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New York Post
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
'Real Women Have Curves' on Broadway: Where to buy tickets, thoughts
Vivid Seats is the New York Post's official ticketing partner. We may receive revenue from this partnership for sharing this content and/or when you make a purchase. Featured pricing is subject to change. Broadway musicals typically don't receive mid-show standing ovations. However, sometimes songs within these professional productions are so good, so powerful and so raw, the only defense the audience has is to stand and cheer. Nearly three quarters of the way in to the show-stopping 'Real Women Have Curves,' our ensemble busts out the show's title track while ahem busting out of their tops while working in a sweltering factory. They're doing everything they can to finish an order to complete 200 dresses in time to meet an impossible deadline. Advertisement While the scenario is tense, our heroines are having a blast. At the show I attended, the crowd was too. When the tune concluded, a wave of appreciative fans stood and emphatically cheered. Then, we took our seats and the show continued. That was just one of many unforgettable moments in this boisterous, crowd-pleasing musical at the James Earl Jones Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. 'Real Women Have Curves,' which is based on the 2002 film starring America Ferrera and George Lopez, opened on Broadway this past April. In the month since its opening, the musical has netted two Tony nominations for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Justina Machado and Best Original Score yet that undersells the jubilant, uplifting energy emanating from director Sergio Trujillo's stage. What's it like to see this emotionally satisfying one-of-a-kind show live? Advertisement Well, let's start before the curtain comes up. The James Earl Jones Theatre Upon entrance at the recently-renovated James Earl Jones Theatre, one quickly notices how intimate the 1,082-seat space is. The seats in the balcony are spacious but they're all close to the stage. Even if you're in the last row, you're not too far from the action. That's hardly the venue's best feature though. According to Playbill, 'the newly constructed wing off the building's western face with a grand staircase, elevator, accessible bathrooms, concession areas, lounge, dressing rooms, and rehearsal space' are just a few of the Theatre's features that got a facelift. Advertisement Once you've taken stock of the amenities, you'll notice a colorful, tropical backdrop onstage that evokes a sunny summer day. The mood has been set. 'Real Women Have Curves' summary 'RWHC' tells the story of 18-year-old Los Angeleno Ana Garcia (the magnetic Tatianna Córdoba). She dreams of attending Columbia University in NYC, which she has been accepted into on a full scholarship. The only problem is her mother, Carmen (Tony-nominated Justina Machado), wants her to stay and work with her and her older sister Estella (pitch-perfect Florencia Cuenca) tailoring dresses. Another sticking point? Ana is the only U.S. citizen in the family and is needed for handling the bureaucratic issues of everyday life. The tension boils to a fever pitch when a buyer asks Estella — who runs the business — to accepts an offer to produce 200 dresses in just two weeks. This seemingly impossible task forces the family to look deep within and figure out what they really want. While that workmanlike plot provides a narrative engine, the charming immigrant characters and body-positive, empowering message is what makes the timely story resonate. Thoughts on 'Real Women Have Curves' Advertisement We'll be honest. The hero's journey within 'Real Women Have Curves' is nothing to write home about. Yet, the stock story flies by thanks to emotive performances, lively songs and heavy-hitting social weightiness. In this case, the 'finish a job by a deadline!' plot is a blank slate to draw upon; 'Real Women Have Curves' is all about the artistry in the margins, which elevates the tale at hand here. What we loved All throughout the show, multi-cam sitcom-type jokes hit hard. When Pancha (Carla Jimenez delivering a breakout star-making performance full of gravitas and panache) says 'say adiós to Andres' when Mrs. García realizes she's going through menopause, the James Earl Jones Theatre erupted. This wasn't just a laugh, this felt more like a gut-busting conversation with a friend. These characters weren't just stand-ins. They're real, relatable people who could be your neighbors, cousins, pals. It's that verisimilitude that kept the crowd engaged for the two-hour-plus runtime. As lived-in as the show is, it should be noted that 'Real Women Have Curves' is also a dynamic musical. The production's opening tune, the 'Make It Work,' is a singalong 'In The Heights'-esque ear worm and brings the text to life through song. Not only do we get a sense for how these dressmakers have to make things work with their limited resources, we feel it through the energy coursing through the theater, which at times felt more like a concert than a Broadway musical. And let's not forget the amazingly executed sequences within the musical. A punchy back-and-forth between young Ana and the blonde buyer wasn't original — we won't spoil why — but plays out so effectively, it's hard not to marvel at how well-constructed the dialogue and blocking is. On a technical level, 'RWHC' makes the most of its charming, DIY sets. The factory, house and restaurant roll in and out effortlessly taking us from scene to scene without a hitch. While other productions rely on outsized theatrics, this musical proves you don't need spectacle to deliver top-notch drama (and comedy). Final verdict 'Real Women Have Curves' is an effectively told crowd pleaser that the cast and crew really 'make work.' Universal themes like family, dreams, youth, generationally trauma pulse throughout the heartwarming, emotionally satisfying musical that overcomes its pitfalls and most hackneyed ideas (and slightly overlong runtime) thanks to excellent performances, laugh out loud punchlines and party-starting, dance-floor ready songs that will melt even the most cynical of audience members. Advertisement The good here is great and more than outweighs my minor quibbles with the musical. Given the opportunity, you should actually go. Just be wary, you may be moved to deliver a standing ovation mid-show. 'Real Women Have Curves' schedule As of now, 'Real Women Have Curves runs eight nights a week from Tuesday through at New York City's James Earl Jones Theatre. Matinees go down Wednesdays (2 p.m.), Saturdays (2 p.m.) and Sundays (3 p.m.). The production goes dark on Mondays. Advertisement At the time of publication, the show will run until Oct. 5, 2025. If you'd like to snag seats to the show of your choosing, you can find seats for all upcoming 'Real Women Have Curves' shows here. The show runs two hours and 20 minutes with a 15-minute intermission. 'Real Women Have Curves' cast For those that want to match names to faces, here's a bit about each of the five biggest players in the 'Real Women Have Curves' cast, courtesy of the musical's website. Advertisement Tatianna Córdoba (Ana García) Tatianna is SO excited to be making her Broadway debut! This Bay Area native is a proud Latina/Filipina who received a BFA in Musical Theater from Boston Conservatory. HUGE thank-you to the DGRW family, the Córdoba 5, Joe, and the RWHC team for believing in her. Justina Machado (Carmen García) A talented and versatile actress, Justina Machado continues to endear audiences and earn critical acclaim working on stage, television, and film. She stars in Netflix's upcoming 'Pulse' and was previously in Prime Video's 'The Horror of Dolores Roach.' She is best known for her work in 'One Day at a Time' and 'Six Feet Under.' On stage, Machado previously held roles in A Free Man of Color and In the Heights. She was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for her role in Real Women Have Curves by the Latino Chicago Theatre Company. Florence Cuenca (Estela García) Broadway debut! First Mexican immigrant to originate a co-leading role in a Broadway musical. Original Real Women Have Curves ART cast. Off-Broadway: A Never-Ending Line, Children of Salt. Projects: Broadway en Spanglish (Concord), Lincoln Center, Little Island, MASS MoCA. Gracias, IKIGAI Management. Para mi familia. Jaime & Alonzo los amo todo siempre. Mauricio Mendoza (Raúl García) Notable roles include regional theater: Addams Family, Nine, Anna in the Tropics, In the Heights. TV/Film: 'Resurrection Blvd.', 'Matlock,' 'The Oval,' 'Reboot,' 'The Santa Clauses,' 'Criminal Minds,' 'NCIS,' Blow, Ruthless. Proud member of Actors Equity, AFTRA-SAG, and PGA. Co-Owner of True Form Films with his wife, Yeniffer Behrens. Advertisement Jennifer Sánchez (Rosalí) A few of Sánchez's biggest parts include work on Broadway: Elf, The Rose Tattoo, Pretty Woman, Sunday in the Park With George, On Your Feet!, Spider-Man, Ghost, Women on the Verge, West Side Story. Off-Broadway: The Alchemist. Film: Kiss of the Spider Woman. 'Para mi familia, Sánchez y Padilla.' Tony-nominated Broadway musicals Hoping to catch a few more musicals in Midtown before Tony Sunday? In that case, here are just five you absolutely won't want to miss live these next few months. • 'Death Becomes Her' • 'Sunset Boulevard' • 'Maybe Happy Ending' • 'Dead Outlaw' • 'Just In Time' Still need even more? Take a look at our list of all the 2025 Tony-nominated shows on Broadway to find the one for you. This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Trump Tariffs Help or Hurt U.S. Garment Workers?
As garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lesotho and Vietnam brace themselves for some of the most expansive of President Donald Trump's so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs, currently on hold, their counterparts in the United States are feeling the pressure from the stiff levies that are already in place, including an extra 145 percent—perhaps 245 percent?—punitive tax on Chinese goods. They include women like Maria, a Los Angeleno who asked that only her first name be used because of potential retaliation. If the trade war drags on—or worse, escalates—the American businesses and workers that the president claims to want to put 'first' will be hit hard as the rising cost of necessary imports such as fabric, buttons, zippers, threads and machinery wipe out any advantage that increased orders from companies looking to avoid hefty tariff payments may afford. Already, the 10 percent 'universal' tariff that will serve as a baseline while the 90-day pause is still in effect is beginning to add up. More from Sourcing Journal Tariffs Weigh on Trucking Giants Old Dominion, Knight-Swift and TFI Earthquake Rattles Istanbul, While Turkish Industry Looks Ahead California Ports Brace for Sharp Tariff-Driven Volume, Traffic Drop 'Many people may not know this, but garment workers typically have to bring their own tools to work, and most of these tools are made in other countries, so this will take more money out of garment workers' pockets because our tools—trimmers, feet, sewing tweezers, bobbins—will become more expensive,' she said. 'Tools like sewing feet get worn down quickly and we have to replace them often. It's going to be hard to afford to replace them if they become much more expensive.' As is the case elsewhere in the world, it's the worker at the supply chain's lowest rung that ends up bearing the brunt. Maria expects her already meager paycheck to shrink further still. Despite a 2021 law requiring Californian factories to pay the people who stitch their clothes the minimum wage, violations are still widespread. She pointed out that while factories may gain more work, they may also lack the wherewithal to take it on. 'Basically, all the textiles we use to make clothes will also become more expensive,' she said, adding that the additional costs will end up hurting everyone, whether employer or employee. They could even lead to layoffs, which would have the opposite effect of what Trump said he wants. A 2022 Department of Labor survey of 50 randomly chosen garment manufacturers in the Southern California area, for instance, found that half of them were illegally paying their workers off the books, including through the outlawed piece-rate system. In what investigators called a 'particularly egregious' case, one garment contractor paid its workers as little as $1.58 per hour. Garment workers elsewhere in the country have even fewer protections, though it hasn't been for a lack of trying. 'While tariffs are often framed as a way to protect American jobs, they can actually backfire when it comes to apparel by increasing jobs for brands without addressing the root causes of why domestic apparel manufacturing has declined,' said Katrina Caspelich, executive director of Remake, a fashion advocacy group that has been lobbying for federal legislation in the form of the Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change—or FABRIC—Act. Like its California predecessor, the FABRIC Act wants to end piece-rate payments, albeit at a national level. But it also proposes giving domestic manufacturers a leg up through a $50 million-a-year support program, administered by the Department of Labor, that would dole out grants and technical aid to help manufacturers with facilities and equipment upgrades, workforce development and safety training and improvements. Caspelich said that fashion made in the United States can be part of a thriving future, but only if it's people-first. If the Trump administration wants to bolster local production—and in a way that's ethical and sustainable—it needs to pour in real investment, including expanding workforce development programs, bolstering labor protections, enforcing existing laws against wage theft and unsafe workplace conditions and offering tax incentives and grants to businesses that commit to fair labor practices at home. 'If we truly value 'made in America,' we have to value the people who make it possible,' she added. 'Instead of blanket tariffs, we need policies that directly invest in rebuilding the infrastructure for responsible domestic manufacturing.' The fact of the matter is that the strength of domestic apparel manufacturing isn't what it used to be. After the advent of free trade and China's entry into the World Trade Organization sent production fleeing to cheaper climes overseas, only 2 to 3 percent of clothing sold in the United States is also cut and sewn in the United States. The sprawling ecosystem of cotton ginners, yarn spinners, textile mills and dyeing and finishing houses that once underpinned any semblance of self-sufficiency has mostly been broken up and sold for parts. And the rest have been struggling to hang on, with more than a dozen textile plants permanently shuttering in 2024, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations, a lobbying group. But Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, still can't help but feel a twinge of indignation whenever she reads takes that dismiss the existence of an American labor force. Roughly 100,000 garment workers still toil in the United States, most of them concentrated in downtown Los Angeles and New York City's Garment District. 'It's really important that the impact on workers doesn't get lost,' she said. 'It's also really important that there is a growing ecosystem of sustainable, ethical, high-road fashion businesses that are trying to change the industry from within, and they're directly impacted by this. Without attention to what it takes to support and bolster and build up domestic industry, we're going to see the negative impacts of these tariffs.' Leaner paychecks aren't the only concern for garment workers. As the prices of groceries spiral upward, adding to the higher-than-average cost of living in cities like Los Angeles and New York, the squeeze is going to come from both sides, creating more financial duress. Garment workers also tend to be of immigrant extraction, with many of them undocumented women from Latin America and Asia. The White House's aggressive push to apprehend and deport as many people as it can has created a climate of fear and uncertainty over potential sweeps of their factory floors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 'It's an absolutely terrifying time,' said Nuncio, whose organization has held at least half a dozen 'know your rights' workshops in the various regions in L.A. County since November, complete with free consultations with immigration lawyers. 'We speak to our members; they have a lot of questions: what does this particular news or this executive order mean?' she said. 'We've heard from multiple members who said we had a real increase in ICE activity in the south L.A. region, where a lot of our members are, where our factories are. And we've heard from members who said, 'I didn't go to work today. I'm scared to go out.' That's a real direct impact. Folks need to be able to live their lives.' Thousands of miles west in Brooklyn, where Roopa Pemmaraju, founder of Refugee Atelier, helps equip refugees and asylum seekers with the tailoring skills that will allow them to seek fair-paying jobs, the mood is one of resigned acceptance. These are people, she, said, who are used to being taken advantage of because of their desperation for a better life. 'They just say that if they have to get picked out, that's the reality and nobody can change that,' Pemmaraju said. 'But meanwhile, I'll continue to help them fill out their paperwork and get the right wages, connect them with affordable housing. That's what I'm focusing on now.' Garment workers frequently skew older, too, said Jennifer Guarino, president and CEO of the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, or ISAIC, in Detroit, which trains young people in the fundamentals of advanced and automated apparel production at its 'factory classroom.' Especially with technology in play, the problem isn't so much the labor force, she said, but whether there is a long-term commitment to sustain it. Consider, for instance, the rise and then collapse of the domestic personal protective equipment sector during the Covid-19 pandemic. As soon as China resumed exports of masks and gowns, the American businesses that rallied on a shoestring were abandoned en masse. The same fear infuses the industry today. What if American suppliers threw everything they had at expanding their capacity, only to see tariffs dissipate and orders dwindle once more? 'I think businesses have to get beyond this reactionary hair-on-fire response to tariffs and say, 'Oh, you know what? If it's not this, it's going to be another,'' Guarino said. 'What we really need to do is commit to a transformative supply chain that will be good no matter what happens with tariffs. And that it'll be better for us in the long term, for our business and the environment.' ISAIC sees its trainees as more than just future bodies on a production floor. It's not just training sewing operators, she said, but 'flexible product fabricators' that, yes, can sew, but they can also run digital cutting machines or interface with digital embroidery and printing. Making jobs higher-skilled and higher-wage will make it more appealing to the next generation, but it also requires reassessing talent development. 'When I hear manufacturers say, 'We can't find enough sewers,' well, it's just not the right answer. It's just doing it the old-fashioned way,' she said. 'So, at least from our perspective, the talent will be there, but you have to present a different career value proposition. You need the dedicated commitment that the jobs will be there.' That the online shopfront for the L.A. Olympics in 2028 has, as far as he can tell, no products that are made in Los Angeles, is a sign that larger impediments are involved, said Daniel Cardazo, CEO of Ethix Merch, a responsibly sourced swag merchant that founded the Alliance for Responsible Apparel Manufacturing & Purchasing—ARAMP, for short—with the Garment Worker Center, the Sweat-Free Purchasing Consortium and others to provide a vetted marketplace of high-road L.A. manufacturers that 'take care of their workers the right way.' 'I can't tell you how many labor unions there are that we talk to—that we lose business to—because they go and they buy imports for their rallies, events and giveaways without any kind of labor regulations behind them, because it's written into the DNA of the economy at this point that you just get the best deal, and you don't have to do the work to identify the impact that your purchases have,' he said. 'And now there's no system in place for the Olympics to support its own garment industry whatsoever.' Cardazo thinks that the tariffs, done properly, could bring some clothing manufacturing back to the United States. The problem is that he has little faith that this is the case. He wouldn't be surprised, in fact, if most of the new work ends up going to sweatshops. 'There's no prep work being done to invest in the industry on the front end so that we can have the capacity to take advantage of these opportunities,' he said. 'There's no guarantee that these tariffs are going to last. The administration has been extremely capricious about it. They're coming, they're being lowered, they're being raised, they may be paused, etc. It doesn't give the industry the opportunity to invest because you don't know what's coming down the road.' Then there's the fundamental flaw that Christian Birky, founder of Because Capital, a firm that focuses on reducing overproduction in fashion, and co-founder of ISAIC, sees as that reason many garment workers, including those in the United States, have to grapple with near-, if not below-poverty wages. For reshoring to take, he said, brands will have to recognize that the current tack of massive overproduction, followed by selling off the surplus at deep discounts, is not a viable financial strategy. 'The capital that we need to invest in better wages and to treat people fairly in this industry is tied up in huge amounts of clothing being produced that we don't need,' he said. 'That's the reality of it. And until we address that, we're going to be playing in the margins. We make too many garments for the number of garments that we sell.' Nuncio agreed. The notion that tariffs are going to rebuild American apparel manufacturing is an incomplete analysis, especially from a worker organizing standpoint. And ARAMP, she said, is getting close to being able to run a pilot to see what 'forward-looking' partnerships and solutions might look like. Otherwise, fashion production will continue to be a race to the bottom, whether in the United States or overseas. 'Workers are the backbone of the industry,' she said. 'They're the ones who can articulate what are the needs of the industry. And for us that that needs to be a focus in this conversation: What's needed to keep good, dignified jobs present and growing for them?' New York and California are among the states suing the Trump administration for 'illegally imposing' tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which imbues the president with extraordinary economic powers during a national emergency. But the cities where garment workers are concentrated, like Los Angeles, could do more to help garment workers, too, Maria said. 'The city would have the power to price things at the necessary level for the workers to make what they should be making,' she said. 'The city could make the choice to invest taxpayer dollars in good-paying jobs. In the end though, it's not just our tools and materials that will increase in cost, but likely everything in our lives will go up: cost of food, everything. And this will cause more financial stress in our lives.'
The Independent
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
A24: The best of the cult studio's films ranked, from Moonlight to Lady Bird
There are few companies across the entire entertainment industry that evoke more brand loyalty than A24. Over the past decade, the hip distributor has taken the world of film fanatics by storm, releasing a host of the most acclaimed indie films in recent memory, among them Aftersun, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Midsommar, The Zone of Interest and Ti West's X trilogy. While the phrase 'an A24 film' has almost become a term with a specific set of stylistic connotations, the fact is that the company has released a multitude of different films, spanning all sorts of styles and genres. From coming-of-age comedies to sweeping period epics, here are the 15 best A24 movies ranked... 15. Climax (2018) A great workout playlist disguised as a grimy, slimy psychosexual thriller, Gaspar Noé's Climax plays out in a series of long takes (one is 42 minutes long), with a troupe of French dancers spiralling out of control after imbibing spiked sangria. Like the best of Noé's films (among them the 'stoner in film class' fave Enter the Void and the distressing Irreversible), Climax is practically designed to be divisive, and its striking mix of horror, psychedelia and pure aesthetic razzle-dazzle make it peak A24. Adam White 14. Under the Silver Lake (2018) Another divisive A24 cult classic, Under the Silver Lake tends to inspire groans as often as it does praise – and that's really OK! Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell seemed to be given creative carte blanche after the success of his 2014 micro-budget horror It Follows, and voila: a chaotic, romantic neo-noir conspiracy tale that wears its inspirations, notably Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, on its sleeve, tosses in a great fake-band song ('Turning Teeth' by the fictional Jesus & The Brides of Dracula), and boasts an irresistibly committed performance by Andrew Garfield as an aimless Los Angeleno investigating his neighbour's disappearance. What a weird, wondrous pleasure. AW 13. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth was the first answer to the decades-old hypothetical, 'What would a Coen film be like if Joel and Ethan separated?' (The second answer was, Ethan's 2024 romp Drive-Away Dolls.) This Macbeth is a pretty compelling answer, and remains one of the best, and most cinematic, Shakespeare adaptations put to screen. Denzel Washington is magnificent as the scheming king-to-be, while Frances McDormand sizzles as his poisonous paramour. Louis Chilton 12. Eighth Grade (2018) Heartbreakingly honest when it comes to coming-of-age, Eighth Grade is anything but easy viewing. We follow young Kayla (a revelatory Elsie Fisher) as she transitions between years in school, her fears and anxieties rising to the surface while she desperately attempts to mask them. The specificities here – vlogging, iPhones, the internet – feel decidedly of the 2010s, but there's a universal melancholy to Eighth Grade that will strike a chord with audiences of any age. Shamefully, director Bo Burnham – a graduate of internet comedy – has yet to make his follow-up feature. AW 11. The Brutalist (2024) Brady Corbet's architecture epic was a frontrunner for many of the major 2025 Academy Awards, and will partially be remembered as the film that birthed the most interminable Best Actor speech of all time (Adrien Brody's). Thankfully, The Brutalist is sure to be remembered for other things too: it's a film of staggering ambition, rich in meaning and audaciously stylish. It's one of the best films A24 has released, and one of the best films in recent memory. LC 10. Janet Planet (2023) While A24 has certainly increased its commercial aspirations in the last year or two (most notably via films including Alex Garland's Civil War and indistinct horror comedies such as Death of a Unicorn and Opus), they are also a company still eager to make films like Annie Baker's tender, intimate Janet Planet. Zoe Ziegler is the quiet 11-year-old of the title, a girl trapped in a cycle of odd father figures and endless existential yearning courtesy of her mother (a spellbinding Julianne Nicholson). AW 9. Lady Bird (2017) Greta Gerwig's debut feature as a solo director is a charming and specific coming-of-age story following 17-year-old Sacramento misfit Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson (Saoirse Ronan). It's by turns funny, moving, world-wise, and wonderfully shot, with Laurie Metcalf turning in career-best work as Lady Bird's combative mother. This is the movie that really put Gerwig on the map as a filmmaker; it's no less than she deserved. LC 8. High Life (2018) High Life is an utterly unique sci-fi drama from French maestra Claire Denis. Robert Pattinson plays a prisoner on board a spaceship bound for a black hole, alongside Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth and Andre 3000. Some clunky, stylised dialogue only heightens the weirdness of this film, which is all things to all people: vibrant, tactile, philosophical, sexually perverse and even, at times, quite moving. LC 7. Hereditary (2018) Much like Robert Eggers's A24 folktale The Witch – which just missed a spot on this ranking – Hereditary felt like the birth of an incredibly special horror visionary. Ari Aster's haunting and genuinely scary feature debut revolves around a fractured family (led by Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne) seemingly cursed by ancient evil. The film travels to ghoulish places consistently, notably in a shock end-of-act-one plot twist involving a telephone pole that entirely upends where you think Hereditary is going. AW 6. 20th Century Women (2016) Mike Mills's 2016 drama is a warm hug of a film, bursting with such lived-in feeling that it wouldn't be too surprising if you burst into tears repeatedly while watching it. Annette Bening is the free-spirited yet overbearing, wise yet drifting single mother determined to raise her young son right at the tail end of the Seventies, and roping in friends and lovers to help her. AW 5. Under the Skin (2013) Jonathan Glazer boggles the mind. The British director has made just four films – each of them a masterpiece and each entirely distinct from what's come before. Under the Skin is an arthouse horror starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien who assumes the appearance of, well, Scarlett Johansson in order to lure randy Scottish men into some kind of lair. It's a completely singular piece of work, endlessly inventive and both emotionally and philosophically profound. LC 4. American Honey (2016) British filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank; Red Road) turned her attention to US poverty with American Honey, a vivacious and poignant film about love on the road. Then-newcomer Sasha Lane is utterly transfixing as Star, a teenager who flees her home to join a band of travelling magazine hustlers. (Shia LaBeouf, as her rough-and-tumble love interest, gives an unexpectedly brilliant performance too.) There is life in every crevice of this film: a total triumph. LC 3. Moonlight (2016) It's still remarkable that Moonlight, from a then-unknown director named Barry Jenkins and a nascent film studio with only so much awards campaign money to their name, won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2017. But it's deserving of its acclaim in every frame, this being a richly human triptych of tales in the coming of age of a gay Black man from childhood to adulthood. Sensationally acted and absolutely gorgeous to look at, it's deservedly something of a modern classic at this point. AW 2. I Saw the TV Glow (2024) Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow revolves around two teenage loners drawn together by an alluring fantasy series – a Buffy -like Nineties horror hit – and finding their own lives mirroring its strange, surrealist twists. Primarily, though, it's about growing up trans, and the trauma of ultimately living a life that doesn't fit right. This is dazzling, beguiling filmmaking, Schoenbrun conjuring a dream-like suburban fantasia full of purple neon, moon men and Caroline Polacheck wailing on the soundtrack. Glorious. AW 1. Uncut Gems (2019) A film with tension so thick that you'd need a machete to cut through it, Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems is the story of Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a New York diamond dealer consumed by his chaotic gambling addiction. It's brilliant and transformative work from Sandler, in service of one of the funniest, tensest, and altogether best films the 21st century has yet produced. LC
