Synopsis

Inspired by the book of the same name and narrated by its bestselling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be An Antiracist), Stamped from the Beginning explores the roots of anti-Black racist beliefs and practices and how they’ve become enshrined in American culture. The film brings history to life through vivid animated sequences recounting the often little-known achievements of Black women thinkers such as 18th C. poet Phillis Wheatley, memoirist Harriet Jacobs, and journalist Ida B. Wells, while also exposing the whitewashed legacies of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Directed by Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams (The Apollo) and featuring such leading activists as Dr. Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham, the film is a bold and searing account of how past and present are entwined in an insidious mix of white supremacist and anti-Black ideologies.

Synopsis

From writer-director Jeff Nichols (Loving, Midnight Special, Mud), 20th Century Studios, and New Regency, The Bikeriders is a furious drama following the rise of a fictional 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club through the lives of its members, starring Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, The Last Duel), Austin Butler (Elvis), and Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant).

Inspired by Danny Lyon’s iconic book of photography, The Bikeriders immerses viewers in the look, feel, and sounds of the bare-knuckled, grease-covered subculture of ’60s motorcycle riders. Kathy (Comer), a strong-willed member of the Vandals who’s married to a wild, reckless bikerider named Benny (Butler), recounts the Vandals’ evolution over the course of a decade, beginning as a local club of outsiders united by good times, rumbling bikes, and respect for their strong, steady leader Johnny (Hardy). Over the years, Kathy tries her best to navigate her husband’s untamed nature and his allegiance to Johnny, with whom she feels she must compete for Benny’s attention. As life in the Vandals gets more dangerous, Kathy, Benny, and Johnny are forced to make choices about their loyalty to the club and to each other.

The cast, most of whom did their own riding on an array of period-correct bikes, also includes Michael Shannon (Bullet Train), Mike Faist (West Side Story), Boyd Holbrook (Logan), and Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead).

Synopsis

In the heart of battle-ravaged Ukraine, a minivan picks up civilians, each with their own unique story, as they journey away from their homes to safer points unknown. Filmed almost entirely inside his vehicle, Polish aid worker-turned-filmmaker Maciek Hamela eschews depictions of carnage in order to capture the psychological costs and tragic consequences of the Russian invasion. Squashed in Hamela’s backseat, a family sheds tears over abandoning their cow. A young man speaks stoically about being tortured by Russian soldiers. Five-year-old Sanya has stopped speaking. As Hamela’s taxi navigates checkpoints, minefields, and Russian attacks, In the Rearview displays faces — young and old, devastated and resilient — offering a moving and sublime reflection of humanity in the midst of war.

Synopsis

Jack Delroy, a fictional ’70s talk show host played by rising horror star (and Chicago native) David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad, Oppenheimer), is in trouble. Jack and his show Night Owls were once the biggest names in late night. But now, with his personal life marred by tragedy and his ratings in free fall, he’s struggling to keep up. So Jack and his producers cook up a controversial plan for their 1977 Halloween special: A live possession, as performed by parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and 13-year-old Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a Satanic mass suicide. What could possibly go wrong?

Told in a found-footage style that purports to cobble together rediscovered master tapes with dailies from a French documentary crew, Late Night with the Devil harnesses the anything-goes excitement of live television and combines it with the sinister aura of ’70s exorcism movies to unleash a demon into the airwaves.

Synopsis

Detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives in a small mining town in the Australian outback to investigate the unsolved murder of an Indigenous girl twenty years in the past. Armed with little evidence, he must attempt to gain the trust of the reclusive community. But the girl’s jaded family is reluctant to talk to any cop — especially a white one. Traversing the bleak stretches of road between the town’s opal caves and caravans, Hurley’s own demons combine with the traumas of the community to forge an unlikely and intimate bond.

In Limbo, Indigenous Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen exhibits a masterful eye for stunning black-and-white cinematography, illuminating the vast and unforgiving landscape and setting an eerie and desolate tone. This remote outback noir is both a detective story and a nuanced study of the prejudices faced by Australia’s Indigenous communities.