
(Streaming exclusively on Hulu)
If you are not familiar with the works and stylings of Director Chloe Zhao you need to know that she is a filmmaker with a style unique to her. She is infatuated with the "wild west," she tells slice-of-life stories of ordinary people, and her films feel like they are part narrative movie and part documentary.
Simply put, this is one of the best movies of the year. Carey Mulligan, who is typically amazing in everything she is in, gives the best performance of her career to this point. She plays a woman set on revenge, but she doesn't just charge ahead without thinking. No, she is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.
Imagine a movie that opens with the first four minutes being barely more than two establishing shots. One, a shot of the outside of the main character's house, and one, through the window, of the main character while he talks on the phone, (with no audible dialogue for us to hear). Between those two shots is another, long establishing shot of a close up of the main character before 20 seconds of "action", which is him dialing and talking on the phone.
18 TO PARTY