Credit: A24 Studio
A24 Studio is one of the best studios currently, and their recent films speak for themselves. It is no surprise that they have become so successful, with a solid track record of discovering talented, relatively unknown filmmakers, providing them with an adequate budget to produce their films without too many concessions, and using their reputation to brilliantly market themselves to a young audience, thus creating a niche for themselves. In today’s article, we will focus on the 10 best movies from A24 Studio.
10. The Lobster (2015)
Credit: The Lobster
An unpredictable movie that almost seems like a parody of our mundane lives, The Lobster tells the story of a divorced man who is staying at a hotel where single people hope to meet their life partner or else be turned into an animal of their choosing. Using deadpan humor and dialogue, The Lobster is a slow burner that takes a dig at modern relationships and compels its audience to reflect on society’s obsession with every person establishing a romantic relationship lest they are treated as outcasts.
9. Ex Machina (2014)
Credit: Ex Machina
Caleb, a talented computer programmer at an internet company that boasts of being a monopoly, wins a lottery that gives him the opportunity to spend a week at the remote compound of the company’s billionaire owner, Nathan. However, Nathan assigns him a task to complete within his one-week residency: to perform a Turing test on his new AI in the form of Ava. Ex Machina delves into the science fiction aspect that seems to become less fiction every day: what happens when you create artificial intelligence that is indistinguishable from a human? What are the ramifications of playing God by creating consciousness?
8. Ladybird (2017)
Credit: Ladybird
Greta Gerwig‘s coming-of-age directorial debut movie tells the story of 17-year-old Christine, a free-spirited high school senior in Sacramento, California, who refers to herself as Ladybird. We follow her life as she goes through the usual identity crisis issues that high school teenagers face and the constant headbutting between her and her mother. Although coming-of-age films have been made to staleness, Greta Gerwig makes a clichéd genre feel refreshing with the approach she takes on Ladybird.
7. Good Time (2017)
Credit: Good Time
Josh and Benny Safdie’s Good Time is an intense crime drama movie that follows the story of two brothers. After a bank heist goes wrong, one of the brothers spends the night trying to free his autistic brother from police custody, where he will eventually be sent to Rikers Island. Good Time is a knockout, edge-of-the-seat thriller that never lets up. It shines a spotlight on Robert Pattinson, who delivers arguably his best performance yet and redeems himself from the shadow of the constant critiquing he’s received due to his Twilight role.
6. Hereditary (2018)
Credit: Hereditary
Hereditary is a perfect blend of old-school and modern horror that tells the story of Annie Graham, a married mother of two who, after her mother dies, struggles to keep her family together through the grief all while trying to comprehend the recently discovered information that her mother might have been involved in the occult. With one of the most unsettling final acts in modern horror, what makes Hereditary a standout film is Toni Colette, whose performance deserved an Academy Award, let alone a nomination, which she didn’t receive!
5. Moonlight (2016)
Credit: Moonlight
The winner of 2016’s Academy Award for Best Picture, Moonlight is a character study film that is broken into three distinct chapters, all cumulatively following the life of Chiron, a black kid growing up in the projects in Miami with a single drug-addicted mom. A timid, scrawny boy with a stutter who is constantly bullied, he meets Juan, a drug dealer who helps him discover himself when he tells him: “At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.”
4. The Lighthouse (2019)
Credit: The Lighthouse
A dark and bizarre psychological horror masterpiece, The Lighthouse boasts of having only two cast members yet delivering one of the best duet film performances in history. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, two familiar faces in A24’s collection of films, star as Ephraim Winslow and Thomas Wake, two lighthouse keepers with conflicting personalities who have to spend a month together in a lighthouse. Filled with a plethora of mythological allegories, The Lighthouse is one of Robert Eggers‘ finest works that deserves more credit than it is given.
3. The Green Knight (2021)
Credit: The Green Knight
Based on a poem from the 14th century, this tale follows King Arthur’s nephew, Sir Gawain, who goes to King Arthur’s round table for a feast. A strange treelike creature known as The Green Knight appears and challenges the court to a game. One of the knights there would have to land a blow on him to win his ax. Thereafter, that person would have to visit the Green Chapel the next Christmas to repay the favor. Gawain accepts the challenge, and so the tale begins.
2. First Cow (2019)
Credit: First Cow
Definitely the least known film entry on this list, First Cow is a poignant tale about friendship and the necessary things we do to make ends meet. It is a ruminative, strolling tale, untroubled by the romanticized gestures of western drama, but more so inspired by a messy, yet honest, peasant perspective. Of all the films in A24’s collection, First Cow is the most underrated masterpiece that needs to be seen by anyone who claims to be a movie lover.
1. Uncut Gems (2019)
Credit: Uncut Gems
Uncut Gems is one of those movies you should go into knowing absolutely nothing. All I can divulge is this: This is the best Adam Sandler performance to ever grace the screen. At certain points in the film, you forget that you’re watching Adam Sandler. We already knew that the Safdie brothers were good, but in Uncut Gems, they really up the ante. To date, it still baffles me how Adam Sandler never won an Oscar for this.A24 Studio
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