This time of year, we find ourselves in a lame-duck period on the movie calendar, with much of Hollywood’s energy directed toward Academy Award–nominated titles in the run-up to the March 2 ceremony. But there are indeed ambitious, compelling films in theaters at the moment to be enjoyed—and debated. Here’s a look at a few favorites out now and in the coming weeks.
Armand
Winner of the best first feature at Cannes last year and shortlisted for best-international-film Oscar this year, the hothouse chamber psychodrama Armand sprung from the mind of Norwegian writer-director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Swedish cinema titans Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve, in a role written for her, plays a single mother and well-known actor who’s summoned to an elementary school after-hours to be confronted by disturbing allegations involving her six-year-old son and pressure from a classmate’s parents and school faculty to find a solution. As the plot unspools, we glean that this is just the tip of a twisted history among the adults, with the film veering into horror with touches of surrealism. The empty hallways and classrooms are made menacing and claustrophobic as insinuations, assumptions, and accusations fly. Reinsve’s performance, including a seven-minute laughing fit and a couple of choreographed dance interludes, is worth the price of admission alone, solidifying her formidable talent in her native tongue after a string of recent thankless English-language roles. In select theaters now.
