Nightmare Alley (2021)

The full-circle final scene of this moody morality tale doesn’t fully repair the separation between the first act and the rest, and there are other script stumbles too (see the Carlisle-carny tension that goes nowhere), but every piece compels in spite of the whole; the cinematography and design is showstopping, the cast’s got panache a-plenty, and the violence and deception is shut-eye(s) thrilling (“When a man believes his own lies… people get hurt… And when the lies end, there it is”).

Don’t Look Up (2021)

Some of its satire is cringe-y (see post-credits), but the loud, busy edit is info age-appropriate and at its core is a poignant picture of how we face the inevitability of our end: some ignore it, cut to commercial, or dream of utopia; others turn to hashtag activism at concerts or nihilist stickers on skateboards. But when death actually arrives at the door, our fear is made plain and all we can do is hold hands and pray and talk about all the small things that made up the “everything” we had.