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jseobsky · 1 year

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I don't know if you're currently open to requests or another but can you do like, bf!Winnie headcannons? (Love your writing btw)

Winnie bf head cannons

a/n here you got it!! hope you enjoy it <333 THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REQUESTING AND FOR READING MY THINGS !!/gen

main master list ! nine.i masterlist

winnie is a full on softie that tries to act though, specifically with feelings. sure, he’ll always help you with anything physical stating how he can easily do them even when you might be stronger than him. but the way he’ll blast about how that sad movie isn’t going to make him cry, and talking about how you can cry on his shoulder just for him to end up curled on your lap crying so hard.

he’ll try to do everything for you. you want that toy on that claw machine? he got it. you want to eat something specifically? he got it. one day you were even talking about wanting something that came out recently, he told you to close your eyes, and he placed it in your hands?

TALKING ABOUT THAT. he’ll remember everything about you, it could be the smallest detail ever but he’ll remember it. definitely keeps a notebook of things you said and things you like. AND HE WRITES ON A DIARY THE THINGS YOU DO TOGETHER, and he’ll be so cheesy as well 😭 “dear diary, y/n today looked so cute, their eyes shinned so bright, and their smile brightened my day” writes winnie on his bed while giggling and swinging his feet.

if you want to learn any of the languages he knows he’ll teach you asap! and if you speak a language he doesn’t, specifically if it’s your native language, he’ll learn it in secret to surprise you, expect one day for him to just appear in front of you and say a pickup line in that language JSHDKJFH Quisiera ser joyero para poder apreciar todos los días un diamante como tú kinda shit

the type of boyfriend that wants to share his whole day and life with you. will want to try and stay next to your side whenever and, if he can’t, he’ll text you ALL day about how his day going like. “babe, just finished practice, going to eat lunch <3” “babeee I miss you” “jiho just told me he thinks unicorns are real, get me tf out of here”

TYPE OF BF TO CALL YOU PET NAMES, sure I just used babe here but he’ll call you so many different pet names in so many different languages- his favourite english ones are: babe, princess, cutie

the other members treat you like family as well!! they are found of you because of how happy you make winnie. sure, sometimes they wish winnie was single so they don’t have to hear his wines about how he misses you, or all the times they have to tell him to get out of his phone bcs of how much he texts you. but seeing you appear really late at night because eden told you winnie was feeling down, really make them really realize how good you are for each other.

#✿•ᴗ•✿ lili posts!#winnie #nine.i #ninei #ninei x reader #ninei x you #ninei winnie #nine.i winnie #nine.i x reader #nine.i ff #nine.i x yn #nine.i fluff #nine.i reactions #nine.i imagines #nine.i fanfics #winnie reactions #winnie ff #winnie fluff

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thesimonhawthorne · 1 month

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Simon Hawthorne

"i try, i try to be a good kid, a good kid, a good son, but no one will ever take my side"

Wanted Connections – Living Space – Timeline

Playlist: leave my greatest failures on display with an aesterisk

BASICS

Name: Simon Tristan Hawthorne

Nicknames: Sim, Sisi.

Date and place of birth: 22nd August 1992 in Kismet Harbor, Oregon.

Gender identity: cis male, he/him.

Sexuality: unclear.

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Lived in:Melbourne, Kismet Harbor, Philadelphia, Paris

Time in Kismet Harbor: back since 2018

Residence: Emerald Mist

Faceclaim: Pierre Niney

Education: Bachelor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Master in Finance at ESSEC Business School in Paris.

Occupation: Investment Banking Vice-President

Languages: English, French

Police Record: None.

Zodiac Sign: Leo

MBTI type: ESTJ-A, Executive

Enneagram: Three, the Performer

PHYSICAL

Height: 1,77m

Hair colour: dark brown

Eye colour: brown

Build: slim

Tattoos: none

Aesthetic: x

FAMILY

Father: Arthur Heywood

Mother: Mrs. Heywood

Siblings: Quinn Heywood, Julian Heywood, Sydney Heywood, Stevie Wagner (half-sister)

Other Relatives: x

Partners: Gina Winters (2013); Dana Allen-Lopez (2018)

Children: Olivia Winters.

Pets: none.

BIOGRAPHY

-Simon is the youngest of the Hawthornes.

-Simon got a good last name at birth that came with privileges and he’s never seen any reason to deny himself the pleasure of using them. Does that mean he comes off as entitled? Maybe, but then again why would he care?

-When the time came to study, Simon could boast about his acceptance to UPenn (and he did) in a finance major. Very determined to make a good life for himself and keep up with the good name he’d been given, he worked hard. Math and all that stuff had always come easy to him. That didn’t mean he worked so hard it prevented him from enjoying the high life of college and fraternity life in an Ivy League school. Oh, that he did. Once again, why would he not?

-With good results, he graduated in the top of his class and was able to get into ESSEC in France for a Master's in Finance Management and Business Law. He spent two years there, enjoying the pleasure of the Parisian lifestyle. If you know him, you will have heard of the “small unknown café in the 4e” where he’s “basically best friends with the owner”, but you wouldn’t understand. Or the long nights on the Champs de Mars, even though he preferred of course the lesser known soirées in the Jardin Tino Rossi. Which you wouldn’t get either.

-Although he will tell you that he almost stayed in Paris, he came back to Kismet Harbor after a successful internship around six years ago. He quickly got a job as an investment banking analyst at Kismet Harbor Bank and was eventually promoted to associate, and then vice-president. Don’t let the snob party animal fool you, he’s pretty good at his job too.

-A few years ago, he learned that he had an 8 years old daughter, Olivia. While not getting along with the daughter, who he simply had a short fling with when he was 21, he sends her money for Olivia and sometimes sees his daughter. Worried about appearances however, he decided not to tell anyone in his life.

-Maybe that’s just the thing actually. Yes, he’s good at all he does and believe me he’ll let you know about that. Several times. Does that mean he deserves everything he wants? I mean, yeah, of course. But that also means that to be worth anything, he can’t quit, he can’t stop. And if that means ignoring some stuff, pushing some stuff aside? Then so be it. Like his daughter, among other things.

#simon hawthorne #intro

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alittlefrenchtree · 4 years

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Thanks for replying. We have “Grâce à Dieu”, “Dans la Maison”, “Jeune et Jolie” and “Une Nouvelle Amie”. They are all pretty engaging and will make you reflect on the norms and situation that we are so accustomed to. I watched the trailer of “Été 85” as well. Seems that 17ans/adolescence is quite an interesting subject to the director as he keeps exploring it from different angles. I wish I could find “Frantz” and “L’Amant Double” some day.

Thank you for replying as well 🙏

Grâce à Dieu is really amazing. Difficult to watch but so well made. I haven’t seen the other three. Frantz is one I definitely want to see because the Ozon x Niney association is as promising as an Ozon x Chalamet one for me tbh. I saw L’amant Double wasn’t my favorite but wasn’t bad either I guess.

#alft asks

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cawthelesbian · 5 years

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If I Don't Make It Back

Takano urged Yokozawa to come closer when they were stood outside in the crisp, cold winter air outside of the old but nostalgic bar. Yokozawa rolled his eyes, muttering what a problem his best friend is and allowed Takano pull him away from the rest. Once he found himself before the ravenette, who smiled at it, he folded his arm and gave a 'what’ face for sure.

“Ritsu and me, we're going to tie the knot.” Takano smiled, something truly pure for once. He looked so blissfully in love and happy that Yokozawa always swore he stepped into those unrealistic stories that he reads all the time. Takano always does have his nose stuck in a book, not as much as his stupid boyfriend though. No one can top him at that. “You're my best man, I just wanted to know that in case I don't make it back...”

Yokozawa's stern gaze softened.

“Have a beer for me, don't waste any tears on me. It ain't good for you man.” Takano joked, nudging Yokozawa in his side. Yokozawa glared at that but couldn't help but feel his heart strings being tugged by the way he was talking. “On friday night, make sure to sit on the visitors side and cheer for the home team, drag Ritsu along too. He hates me for it.”

“Yeah, because utterly crazy and neurotic.” Yokozawa huffs, agreeing his Takano's idiotic boyfriend. “And what do you want me to do with that stupid truck of yours? You got a plan for that too?”

Honestly, he wished he hadn't asked.

“Yeah, drive it niney miles an hour up Red Rock road with 'Born To Run’ blasting on the radio.” Takano grinned that stupid sly smirk of his. God, he wanted to kill the man himself sometimes.

“I am not - ”

“Find someone good enough for Ritsu…” Yokozawa's breath hitched at that. No way. “Who will love like I would have if I don't make it back man.”

“Don't talk like that,” Yokozawa rolled his eyes, scoffing at Takano's stupidity as usual. “Knowing you, you'll somehow make it back without a scratch.”

“I sure hope so.”

-x-

Yokozawa shuttered, finding his throat tighter than before now that he was before the grave that haunted his heart like a stormy day on the sun. Takano was his best friend, what could he say?

“Bud Light sure ain't my brand, you always did have shitty taste with both guys and drinks.” Yokozawa scoffed, glaring at the rounded concrete slab. “But I'll buy a pack every now and then in your honor. The things I do for you.”

He thanks the soreness to his throat from yelling his guts out with curses and compliments from the recent game a few nights ago. “We ain't messed a home game yet, you know?”

“But hey, sorry, I broke your speakers to your Red Camaro from driving hundred and ten on Red Rock road, blasting your favorite stupid song.” Yokozawa chuckled. He always did hate that stupid overpriced truck of his.

He looks down at the white roses assorted beautifully in a black vase, already knowing who it was from. There was only one other person who visited this place much, even more, then him.

Ritsu Onodera.

“I introduced him to a friend of mine...he's a nice kid.” Yokozawa mumbles, feeling an ache in his heart. It wasn't the jealousy that he had a few years back for Ritsu, no, it was different. He was aching for Ritsu. “But you know...he just ain't ready, I don't think he'll ever be ready.”

taglist: @literally-ritsu

#takaritsu #takano masamaune #onodera x takano #takano x onodera #ritsu x takano #sekaiichi hatsukoi #heavy angsy #poor takano #cammie is gonna kill me #short fic

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cxmplexity · 3 years

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Absndkfk, Aali, the way you have me spoilt for choice, all of them are so pretty 😭😭, I literally love anything remotely related to the moon, but the 5th,6th,7th and 8th ones are the prettiest, they are so pretty, and the way you thought about me? Oakaka, Please, you are going to make me melt😭🥺😭🥺.

Totally, I loved Parasite, I watched it with my mum, that was probably her first Korean movie, I had been watching Kdramas and movies long before that, their cinematography is truly in a league of its own. I really love some of their scripts (except the ones which oversell Ayego).

My love for French movie definitely started with Amélie, it was such a heart warming movie, I have watched it countless times since then, it's my comfort movie. A very long engagement (I am low-key obsessed with Gaspard Ulliel, and the movie was cloyingly sweet) and a recent movie I caught was, A Faithful Man(L'homme fidèle), Paris Je T'aime are some of the ones I liked. L'homme fidèle wasn't anything major, I felt like the film lacked closure in the end, but somehow, I sort of liked it. There's another movie based on YSL's life, and Pierre Niney was really good in it(Yves Saint-Laurent). I absolutely loved the Intouchables, it was so, so amazing, the whole soundtrack, the movie, the cast, I loved Omar Sy! On that note, catch Lupin on Netflix, I am obsessed with that show, oh and honourable mention: Frantz, it was a short yet sentimental film. Totally, Mario Puzo is up there on the list of my favourite authors, I didn't read the whole trilogy, but I totally want to read the complete thing one day. I did read one of his stand-alone books, Six Graves to Munich, and oh my god I ended up crying, I have never cried reading a book(I rarely ever cry IRL to begin with), that was the only book which made me cry. Also, thanks for the motivation, I definitely did get some work done, hehe ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .

P.S. You overestimate me, but I am so glad you like the recs😭

P.P.S, Here's some motivation for burning that extra midnight oil( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) :

◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗

¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯

Nightcall- London Grammar

Take care babes, thanks for keeping me in your thoughts 🥺 xx

🌒

ahh glad you liked the moons. i thought they were pretty as well but the first and second one caught my eye the most. please don’t be surprised, it’s literally your trademark at this point

omg i did not expect so many french movie recs jdjsjsj (but also it will be good practice for my broken primary school level french, so i’m not complaining). added them all to the notes app for when i miraculously have some free time to spare. will definitely be back with feedback the next time we’re clogging the dash with our word vomits lol

thank you for the motivation boost and song rec, you always deliver when needed of course. take care too babes x

#cxmplexity: asks #🌒

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poumpatate · 6 years

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RULES: tag ten followers you want to know better!

I was tagged by @erik-killm0nger so thank you!

NAME: Prune

STAR SIGN: Virgo

HEIGHT: 1m72

WHAT’S YOUR MIDDLE NAME? : Detective Bittenbinder wouldn’t want me to reveal too much personal info to strangers :/

PUT YOUR ITUNES ON SHUFFLE. WHAT ARE THE FIRST 4 SONGS THAT POPPED UP?

Thank Goodness, Wicked

I’m so Excited, The Pointer Sisters

Ca tourne Mal, PV Nova

All Star, Smash Mouth

(I can see the smug on my friends’ face right now because even with only four songs I still get at least one showtune...)

GRAB THE BOOK NEAREST YOU AND TURN TO PAGE 23. WHAT’S LINE 17?

“Lila grimpait jusqu’à la fenêtre de Mme Spagnuolo, au rez-de-chaussée se pendait à la barre de fer où passait le fil à linge, se balançait et puis se laisser glisser jusqu’au trottoir, et moi je le faisais aussitôt à mon tour, même si j’avais peur de tomber et de me faire mal.”

Never read that book it was just there next to me, but I do plan on reading it some day. It was such a best-seller in France?? Don’t know about Italy.

EVER HAD A POEM OR SONG WRITTEN ABOUT YOU?

No I don’t think so.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PLAYED AIR GUITAR?

A few days ago I guess, very badly ahah

WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH?

I don’t know?? Maybe Tom Holland, Pierre Niney and young Harrison Ford.

WHAT’S A SOUND YOU HATE + SOUND YOU LOVE?

HATE: chalk on board, fork and knife on plate, that kind of stuff.

LOVE: thunder, cat’s purr, woodfire, rain, the ocean/sea...

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

I don’t believe anything happens after you die. No heaven or hell, no reincarnation, no life reboot and no ghost.

HOW ABOUT ALIENS?

I believe the universe is too big for us to be all alone.

Also I just started X-Files and am quickly getting addicted so I WANT TO BELIEVE. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE SCULLY.

DO YOU DRIVE?

Yes, but not much it makes me anxious.

IF SO, HAVE YOU EVER CRASHED?

Nope!

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?

Smith & Wesson by Alessandro Baricco. Technically it’s a play. It was so good???? I recommand it to EVERYBODY.

DO YOU LIKE THE SMELL OF GASOLINE?

Yep

WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU SAW?

The Incredibles 2. FINALLY. Loved it.

WHAT’S THE WORST INJURY YOU’VE EVER HAD?

I never broke any bones or had any injury of that sort... I once accidentally crawled over a rock of oysters and my stomach was bleeding pretty badly?

DO YOU HAVE ANY OBSESSIONS RIGHT NOW?

The X-Files. Although I’m only just starting season 2.

DO YOU TEND TO HOLD GRUDGES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE YOU WRONG?

Depends if what they did to me has a big impact on my everyday life or no. Usually it doesn’t, so I literaly forget about it very quickly.

IN A RELATIONSHIP?

Nope.

I literaly don’t know who to tag for this so hm, if you wanna do it have fun!

#tag game #about me #the x-files #smith & wesson #the incredibles 2

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parrafo451 · 6 years

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The Best Films of 2017

By Zeke Trautenberg

During this tumultuous year, the movie theater was a site of refuge, introspection, and conflict. The year began with Donald Trump’s travel ban, an executive order which represented a challenge to openness and freedom of exchange. In response, the filmmakers nominated for the Best Foreign-language Film at the Academy Awards released a defiant statement, in which they extolled film as a cosmopolitan remedy to the politics of nativism: “So we’ve asked ourselves: What can cinema do? Although we don’t want to overestimate the power of movies, we do believe that no other medium can offer such deep insight into other people’s circumstances and transform feelings of unfamiliarity into curiosity, empathy and compassion – even for those we have been told are our enemies.”

The second half of 2017 was no less tumultuous. The revelations of dozens of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, first revealed in The New York Times and The New Yorker, ushered in the most significant reshaping of the power dynamics of Hollywood in the industry’s history. Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra, Salma Hayek, and the hundreds of other brave women and men who have come forward with their stories of abuse at the hands of Weinstein and other men in Hollywood have brought about a sea change in the culture at large. Ultimately, reforming the film industry’s toxic workplace cultures and practices, will require fixing the longstanding discrimination against and lack of opportunities for women and minorities in Hollywood.

Amid the charged partisan atmosphere of the country and the fallout from the Weinstein scandal, the film industry continues to adapt to an increasingly digital world. The proposed merger of Disney and Fox is a response to the growing clout, budget, and subscriber base of Netflix. This mega merger may well as a sign of things to come as studios consolidate to stave off competition from Amazon, Apple, and Netflix.

The list that follows is the product of my year at the cinema (and in front of my TV). I did not have the chance to see every one of the acclaimed or terrible films (here’s looking at you Geostorm) released in American cinemas this year, but all the movies listed here are worthy of your time.

10. Endless Poetry

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Throughout his peripatetic career, Jodorowsky has returned time and again to his favorite subject: himself. Endless Poetry is a filmic memoir, which unfolds in nineteen-fifties Santiago, as a young Jodorowsky (played by the filmmaker’s son, Adán) comes of age as a poet. As occurs in The Dance of Reality (2013)—which is based on Jodorowsky’s youth in a small town in northern Chile—, Endless Poetry features repeat, direct interventions by Jodorowsky himself. In Endless Poetry Jodorowsky conjures imaginative sequences, production design, and characters amid his oppressive home life. One memorable sequence depicts the bedroom walls of fellow poet Enrique Lihn’s bedroom covered from floor to ceiling in scribbling. This three-dimensional page serves as a mirror to the film itself, in which present, past, and future intersect.

9. Ladybird

Director: Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig’s first film is a coming-of-age story about a young woman in Sacramento in the early 2000s. The film follows Lady Bird (Saroise Ronan) during her senior year at Catholic school as she takes up theater, loses her virginity, and goes to prom. The film is laugh-out-loud funny and features a stellar cast, which includes Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein, and Tracy Letts. In addition to portraying the pratfalls of young adulthood, the film depicts the frustrated pursuit of respectability and economic insecurity among middle-class Americans in the years leading up to the Great Recession.

8. I Am Not Your Negro

Director: Raoul Peck

Raoul Peck’s documentary is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House about the civil rights leaders Medgar Evars, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Like Now (1965), another film about race in America by a director from the Caribbean, Peck’s film is a confrontational call to action. Peck juxtaposes the Black Lives Matter movement and police violence against African Americans with Baldwin’s searing analysis of race in twentieth-century America. The film underscores the connections these two periods by bookending the film with images of recent protests against police brutality, but leaves viewers to draw their own conclusions about where the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter intersect. In his voice-over narration, Samuel L. Jackson channels the author’s stoicism and resolve and delivers one of the most potent performances of his career.

7. Icarus

Director: Bryan Fogel

There is always a certain lack of control in documentary filmmaking. The limited control filmmakers have over the ways their narrative unfolds is part of what distinguishes documentaries from fiction films. Bryan Fogel’s Icarus is a wonderful example of the ways in which documentary filmmaking is an adaptive art form. What begins as a story about an amateur cyclist who subjects himself to a rigorous doping regimen, transforms mid-way into a geopolitical thriller about a Russian sports scientist at the heart of one of the biggest scandal of modern sports: the systematic, state-sponsored doping of Russian athletes across decades. The scientist in question, Grigory Rodchenkov, is the kind of colorful character— his wardrobe includes bright orange shorts—that documentary filmmakers dream of. As the danger for Rodchenkov increases, Fogel grapples with how to intervene and tell a story that is no longer his own.

6. After the Storm

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

After the Storm tells the story of Ryota (Hiroshi Abe), a divorced father and novelist as he grapples with how to be a father after his recent divorce. Ryota works as a private detective, while struggling to write a second novel. However, instead of paying his alimony, the gumshoe spends his salary on his gambling habit. Abe communicates the protagonist’s sense of perpetual exhaustion and weariness with his slouched shoulders and hangdog expression. Ryota loves his son, but struggles to be a good father. The distance between father and son is exemplified by a memorable scene in which the author and detective watches his child play baseball with binoculars while sitting in his car. The film climaxes during a nocturnal summer storm which traps Ryota, his ex-wife, and son in the same apartment. As the rain falls, the fractured family renews the terms of their relationship and Ryota forges a closer bond with his son by sharing memories of his own childhood.

5. Call Me By Your Name

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Luca Gaudagnino is a master of the contemporary melodrama. His previous films I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015) unfold in settings heavy with symbolism—an old house, an island in the Mediterranean—and Call Me By Your Name is no exception. Guadagnino transforms a villa in Northern Italy into the site of first romance for Elio (Timothée Chalamet). The arrival of the handsome Oliver (Armie Hammer), who is there to assist Elio’s father with archaeological research, elicits a potent mixture of self-doubt, shame, and desire from the cosmopolitan teenager. Although the film depicts Elio’s emotional turmoil with an earnestness that may grate on some, its emphasis on naked feeling and passion is all part of its bittersweet fun. And if you need one reason to see Call Me By Your Name, stay for Michael Stuhlbarg’s monologue on life, love, and the loss, which is the single most memorable scene of the year.

4. Frantz

Director: François Ozon

François Ozon’s Frantz follows Adrien (Pierre Niney) and Anna (Paula Beer), two characters who are bound together by the same man, the recently deceased Frantz. Set in the aftermath of World War I, the film is an allegory of Franco-German relations, but also an exploration of guilt and the horrors of war. Shoot in gorgeous black and white, the film’s visuals are a departure for Ozon, who uses color to great effect in Potiche (2010) and The New Girlfriend (2014). Like these earlier films, Frantz features magnificent costumes (designed by Pascaline Chavanne), and a healthy dose of melodrama. And, as in In the House (2012), Frantz revels in the slippery nature of fiction. Ozon challenges viewers to discern the reason for Frantz’s visit to Germany and the meaning of the sentimental stories the interloper tells Anna’s grieving family.

3. The Shape of Water

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

The Shape of Water had been swimming around in Guillermo Del Toro’s head for years, before he got the idea that made it all click: the story had to pass “through the service entrance.” Set in the 1960s, the film follows the mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works as a janitor at a top-secret research facility—a recurring setting in Del Toro’s films—where scientists study a creature they captured from a river in the Amazon. Elisa falls in love with the creature, who like her cannot speak. Together with her gay artist neighbor (Richard Jenkins) and black co-worker (Octavia Spencer), Elisa sets out to free the creature from the lab and its vicious director of security (Michael Shannon). The film is an allegory of being different in a world built on the principles of order and knowing your place. Working with a budget of under twenty million dollars, Del Toro makes a film that looks many times more expensive. The production design incorporates art deco and modernism, with acute attention to detail. The special effects are also remarkable. For the underwater scenes, Del Toro used the dry-for-wet method, which involves suspending the actors and props on wires, pumping in smoke, using fans to create the illusion of movement, utilizing light caustics (projecting images of light in water), and shooting it all in slow motion.

2. Get Out

Director: Jordan Peele

A horror film and social satire, Get Out is an incisive depiction of race and racism in early-twenty-first century America. The film follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose (Allison Williams) as they embark on a weekend visit to Rose’s parents. As Chris and viewers see more of this WASPy household, which is seemingly haunted by a silent black maid and gardener, the manicured lawn and colonial style house transform into a nightmarish prison. The hypnosis sessions with Rose’s mother (Catherine Keener), in which Chris travels to the “sunken place,” is a frightening and vivid metaphor for black experience in America. The allegorical qualities of the film are enhanced by its pitch-perfect incorporation of the horror genre, from the eerie drive through the woods to the hidden laboratory in the basement.

1. Wormwood

Director: Errol Morris

The genre and medium-bending Wormwood is a film of the streaming age. This documentary-cum-series with a running-time of four hours was produced and released by Netflix in six parts and released in a limited run as a stand-alone film. Wormwood centers on the death of Frank Olson (played by Peter Sarsgaard in the fictional scenes), an Army doctor who died after falling to his death from his New York City hotel room in 1953. Errol Morris interviews Olson’s son, Eric who has dedicated much of his life to finding out what happened to his father. The Cold War, biological weapons, Hamlet, the Book of Revelation, and the misdeeds of the CIA intersect in this Russian Doll of a film. Morris offers a masterclass in the juxtaposition of sound and images, the use of split screen (the scenes with Eric Olson were shot with ten cameras), and, as A.O. Scott puts it, dogged cinematic sleuthing. The film’s use of fictional sequences alongside the talking head interviews and archival footage that are standards of the documentary genre, add depth to a film about the nature of truth and the pain of the search for truth. Towards the end of Wormwood, the investigative reporter Seymour Hersh tells Morris: “But don’t you know how wonderful it is not to have an ending?” In lieu of offering closure to the story of Frank Olson, Wormwood douses the viewer in a bitterness for which there is no salve.

Honorable Mentions

Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan

Graduation – Cristian Mungiu

It Comes at Night – Trey Edward Shults

Loveless – Andrey Zvyagintsev

Marjorie Prime – Michael Almereyda

Quest – Jonathan Olshefski

The Florida Project – Sean Baker

The Lost City of Z – James Gray

The Other Side of Hope – Aki Kaurismäki

The Unknown Girl - Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Photos: Warner Bros./ABCKO/A24/Magnolia/Netflix/Gaga/Sony Pictures Classics/Fox Searchlight/Universal/Netflix