11. The Testament of Ann Lee
From the creative partnership of Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet comes The Testament of Ann Lee, a companion piece to their highly acclaimed previous film, The Brutalist. Directed by Fastvold and co-written with Corbet, this ambitious historical epic is also shot on 35mm film and follows a European introducing radical ideas to 18th-century America. Amanda Seyfried stars as the real-life Ann Lee, who journeyed from being a cotton-mill worker in Manchester, England, to becoming the pioneering leader of the Shaker religious sect in New York.
The film is also a musical, with a score by Daniel Blumberg (who composed the Oscar-winning score for The Brutalist) and songs performed by Seyfried. Radhika Seth of Vogue writes that the film’s “music, cinematography, costumes, and production design all deserve attention… as does Seyfried, who has always been excellent, but here finally gets a big-screen leading role worthy of her talent.”
The film is scheduled for release on December 25 in the US and December 26 in the UK.
12. No Other Choice
From Park Chan-wook, the acclaimed director of Oldboy and The Handmaiden, comes No Other Choice—reportedly the best-reviewed film of his celebrated career. Adapted from a Donald Westlake novel, the satirical thriller stars Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game‘s Frontman) as a South Korean family man whose perfect life unravels when he loses his job.
As his savings dwindle, he faces the prospect of selling his home to a neighbor he despises. When a suitable new job opportunity arises, he takes extreme measures to secure it, deciding to eliminate all other qualified candidates. The film has earned comparisons to Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite, with Nick Schager of The Daily Beast calling it “a masterclass of lithe, silky, sumptuous storytelling.” Schager adds, “Park locates just the right strain of zaniness for his quasi-Parasite critique of the modern fight to stay afloat, and his command (of tone and narrative) never wavers.”
The film is set for release in the US on December 25.
