Zola (2020)

It’s tweet-sized in its story, too often feeling like a short film stretched thin with gaps where deeper character or theme development should be. The scattered script pieces are excellent though, provoking in their subject matter, plot thrills, and relational dynamics, and Paige’s great Zola provides a steady emotional core throughout. Its construction is also amazing: the film grain, fades, and freeze frames, the unique camera angles, the vocalized texts, the unnerving sound design and score.

7

Mudbound (2017)

Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. (IMDb)

There’s a billion different plot threads here over a years-long time span but the potent mixture of blood (see Jamie and Ronsel’s harrowing experiences abroad and at home), sweat (see the farm work scenes throughout), tears (see Laura’s breakdown), and mud (see the gritty landscapes) adeptly sticks them all together to form a powerful meditation (literally–see the multi-perspective narration throughout) on the poverty and racism of rural 40s Mississippi. Strongly acted, shot, and directed.

8.5/10 (Amazing)