The Angel (2018) director Luis Ortega returns with another weirdly funny, cool, and sexy thriller where we follow a star jockey, his girlfriend and partner in crime, and a mobster on his tail. Remo’s talents cannot save him from his self-destructive behaviors, and after an unfortunate accident on the most important race of his career, he will walk out of his life to become free. Like a wild horse fleeing from a predator, the unique and surreal tale of Dolores (née Remo) the fugitive is deliciously weaved in a non-judgmental and unapologetic manner. With perfectly timed tongue-in-cheek humor, dreamlike mating dance sequences, and a grand finale where everything comes to full circle, Kill the Jockey declares that Luis Ortega is one of the most intriguing auteurs of contemporary Argentinean cinema. (Karen PARK)

In the near future of the mid 21st century, the United States has fallen into a Second Civil War, with Texas and California seceding and forming the Western Forces militia, and Florida creating its own alliance. The nation’s authoritarian, three-term President makes a speech over the WF about taking a severe hit from the Loyalist states, calling it a major victory. Photojournalist Lee Smith watches the speech from her hotel room in New York City, while she sees a bombing occurring downtown. Civil War is a 2024 dystopian thriller film written and directed by Alex Garland, starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman. In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $18–24 million in its opening weekend. The film made $10.8 million on its first day, and it went on to debut to $25.7 million, surpassing Hereditary as the biggest opening weekend in A24’s history as well as the studio’s first film to top the box office.

Junyeong works part-time at a pub while also making a documentary about laid-off workers. She is losing her confidence, wondering if she is making a film that no one will see, let alone change the world. The simple, unadorned plot amplifies its relatability in this film about film. (KANG Sowon)

The Last Day is the story of a mother whose son is in prison. While they console their grief by sharing the last meal she brought, outside the room, bored prison staff are preparing the execution. (PARK Sungho)

There are several journeys in The Room Next Door. The first is the journey of Pedro Almodóvar, who is now considered synonymous with Spanish culture, to the United States to make his first English-language feature film. The filmmaker still captivates audiences with his aesthetic sensitivity and scripts full of secrets. The second is a journey towards death, where a woman asks her friend to accompany her in her final moments. The last is an aesthetic journey; through captivating colors and the still image of female characters, the director leads us into a world reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s masterpieces. World-renowned actresses Julianne Moore, playing the role of the bestselling author, Ingrid, and Tilda Swinton as Martha, who suffers from an incurable disease, form a wonderful ensemble. Julianne Moore’s deep eyes, unfathomable as the abyss, convey all the emotions of the world—love, wonder, compassion, admiration, and sorrow. Director Almodóvar offers Tilda Swinton one of the best roles of her career with the luminous yet fragile character of Martha. With The Room Next Door, a melodrama dealing with illness and death in a serene manner, the Spanish master adds one of the most beautiful films to his filmography. (SEO Seunghee)

Twenty years after doomsday, one of the last remaining families on earth are hiding in a luxurious bunker concealed deep inside salt mines. But the sudden arrival of a Girl seeking asylum shakes their seemingly perfect life, and the Son starts to question the life that his family survived before, and in the years since, the apocalypse occurred.
In his long-awaited fiction debut, Joshua Oppenheimer continues his interest in people haunted by ghosts from their past. Those who remember Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014) will recognize not only the recurring theme, but also the continual emphasis on singing and dancing, as The End is a musical with compelling lyrics that express the insurmountable guilt followed by resorting to denial. The film is supported by a strong ensemble cast including Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, and Moses Ingram. (Karen PARK)

26-year-old Yong-jun (Hong Kyung) is troubled by his lack of dreams when he falls for the same-age Yeo-reum (Roh Yoon-seo) at first sight. Yeo-reum takes care of her little sister Ga-eul (Kim Min-ju), a swimmer with hearing impairments, regarding her sister’s Olympic aspirations as her own dream. While youthful feelings seem to blossom between Yong-jun and Yeo-reum, she finds herself unfamiliar with these emotions and feels guilt toward her sister. In Hear Me: Our Summer, the youth are wholeheartedly attentive to each other’s voices. Rather than relying on spoken language, they use sign language, gestures, body language, and written text. The film persuasively shows that falling in love involves understanding and sharing the other’s language, discovering a unique form of intimacy, and ultimately, rediscovering themselves. It captures the intersection of romantic youth and coming-of-age drama with a refreshing vitality, brought to life by the energetic performances of Hong Kyung, Roh Yoon-seo, and Kim Min-ju. The eponymous Taiwanese film has gained great popularity in Korea. (JEONG Jihye)

There are four characters: Jeong-ho, Su-jin, In-ju, and Yu-jeong. They are all involved in the arts. Jeong-ho and Su-jin are lovers, but Su-jin is seeing another man without Jeong-ho’s knowledge. In-ju has a crush on Jeong-ho and wants to confess it to him. Yu-jeong also has her own story. The film calmly develops each of their stories until the middle. After the midpoint, it seeks a significant structural change. In this film, time no longer flows in order. Merely Known as Something Else is the second feature by director Jo Heeyoung, who debuted with The Continuing Land (2022). The film features characters crossing paths in the same space without knowing each other, time from today and yesterday intervening in each other’s dimensions, which makes the distinction between fact and truth ambiguous. The solid cinematography is excellent, and the virtue of the film lies in its attempt at a complex, multi-dimensional structure, which enhances the emotional resonance rather than the narrative. (JUNG Hanseok)

Agathe Riedinger’s debut feature Wild Diamond, which competed at Cannes, portrays a girl in the midst of the social network society. Liane, a 19-year-old girl from southern France, lives in the era of TikTok and Instagram. She is determined to become a reality TV star by any means necessary. For Liane, whose future is bleak this is the only way out of poverty. With thousands of followers, she goes to great lengths to make her appearance resemble that of a famous beauty influencer through cosmetic surgery and makeup. Just before stepping into the world eager to exploit youth, Liane meticulously applies her makeup and dons a tight dress like armor, á la an Amazoness preparing for battle. Through references to myths and Cinderella fairy tales, and dreamlike scenes of a nightclub with blinking blue neon, the director allows the protagonist to escape from reality. The director states, “I criticize sexism and the consumerist culture of reality TV, but I do not judge Liane, her dreams, or her environment.” (SEO Seunghee)

After the success of Tabu in 2012, director Miguel Gomes planned to shoot his next film in Mexico. However, due to a sudden economic crisis, he had to cancel the project. Witnessing the rapid political and economic changes in Portuguese society in the face of the crisis, Gomes decided to make a portrait of what was happening in his own country. For about a year and a half, he collected local news and interviewed people to create stories based on reality. He borrowed the structure of Arabian Nights, the collection of tales where Queen Scheherazade must tell stories every night not to die, to organize his narratives. The first part of Gomes’ masterpiece trilogy, Arabian Nights, uses the original narrative structure itself as a metaphor for the present, setting the direction for the entire trilogy and gradually revealing clues to understand the film. (JO Ji-hoon)

Born for the Spotlight, the third drama series directed by renowned Taiwanese actor, writer and director Yen Yi-wen, after her previous two-part drama series The Making of an Ordinary Woman Parts 1 and 2. The series follows the lives of women working in various roles within the show business industry. Featuring Taiwanese actors who are familiar to Korean audiences, it showcases a diverse cast of vibrant characters: an actor frustrated by typecasting, an actor attempting a comeback after an unwanted hiatus, a director preparing for her first feature film, a passionate supporting actor, a rookie dreaming of her big break while juggling part-time jobs, and a small-time talent manager whose overzealousness drives others away. Born for the Spotlight depicts their lives as they fiercely pursue their dreams and passions, intertwined with ambitions and desires, shining a spotlight on the affectionate bonds of solidarity that the women forge. (PARK Sun Young)

Kirill Serebrennikov, director of Leto (2018) and Petrov’s Flu (2021), adapts Emmanuel Carrère’s biographical novel to portray Eduard Limonov, the Russian writer born in 1943 who caused a stir in Russian literature and politics. The film vividly follows Limonov’s turbulent life: from his impoverished existence in Russia during the late 1960s, to his time in New York during the 1970s, to his emergence as a famous writer in Paris in the 1980s, and finally, his return to Moscow where he formed an extremist political party. Serebrennikov recreates New York streets and Siberian prisons in the studio and delves into the writer’s chaotic inner world, evoking the style of Federico Fellini. Through the character of Limonov, brilliantly portrayed by Ben Whishaw, the director reflects on the painful history of Russia, spanning from the communist dictatorship to Putin’s nationalism. (SEO Seunghee)