At one point during Clint Bentley’s film Train Dreams, a character ponders, “Beautiful, ain’t it? All of it. Every bit of it.” That line perfectly sums up not only the film, but also life itself. Train Dreams isn’t just beautiful, it’s one of the most visually breathtaking films of the year. All of it. Every bit of it. From the warm, joyous moments to the devastating disasters and even the insubstantial bits in between.

The Perfect Neighbor almost feels like the antithesis of Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line, but it’s equally groundbreaking. Where The Thin Blue Line pushed the boundaries of documentary filmmaking through its stylized re-enactments and interview structure, adding dramatization to the documentary format, Geeta Gandbhir strips that away and experiments with the genre by constructing her film almost entirely out of police body cam footage. This decision is both bold and effective, grounding the viewer directly in the moment. It destabilizes the comfortable distance that audiences are often afforded in true crime narratives, forcing us to feel as if we’re witnessing the events in real time.

Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is a mixed bag, oscillating between entertainment industry satire and dramatic character study. Sometimes the film feels self-indulgent, other times accessible and crowd-pleasing. It’s fitting that the film begins with the Sylvia Plath quote, “It's a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It's much easier to be somebody else, or nobody at all.” It’s a sentiment that’s echoed throughout the film when movie star Jay Kelly (George Clooney) responds to a question about how he always plays himself in movies with, “Do you know how difficult it is to be yourself? You try it." It’s fitting because Baumbach’s film feels like it’s having an identity crisis, unsure of what type of movie it wants to be or which direction to go in.

Nouvelle Vague is equal parts a love letter to the French New Wave and a hangout movie. Richard Linklater has been discussing his desire to make a film about the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless for over a decade, and with Nouvelle Vague, he turned that vision into a reality. It’s a film about the French New Wave shot in the style of the era. However, it’s difficult to say whether someone like Jean-Luc Godard himself would love it or hate it, as it feels like a loving homage that occasionally veers into unintentional parody.