Werner Herzog is non-fiction cinema’s foremost philosopher poet, and with Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, he pays reverent tribute to his celebrated writer friend Bruce Chatwin, who passed away from AIDS in 1989, and whose 1980 novel The Viceroy of Ouidah was the basis for Herzog’s 1987 film Cobra Verde. It is a cogent and exhaustively researched argument for a better, safer America. Religious & inspirational books are the most popular non-fiction genre, whilst thrillers are the most popular audiobooks. At four-and-a-half hours, the legend’s latest sociological investigation paints a sprawling portrait of the work that goes into maintaining, and improving, a metropolis, especially when said locale is undergoing a significant demographic transformation (55% of Boston is now non-white), and its economic inequality is complicated by a host of racial, gender and class-related issues. Director Pietro Marcello’s adaptation of Jack London’s caustic 1909 novel relocates its action from America to Italy (circa the decades between World War I and II) to follow the tumultuous trajectory of Martin Eden (Luca Marinelli), a lowly sailor inspired by his aristocratic paramour Elena (Jessica Cressy) to embark on an autodidactic quest to elevate himself educationally, culturally and politically. Sneaking swigs of booze, of course, has a predictable downside, and Vinterberg’s film (co-written by Tobias Lindholm) charts his protagonists’ revitalizing high and inevitable crash with compassionate attention to the malaise of middle age and the temporary bliss that comes from getting good and blitzed. Less an attempt at a cohesive life story than an act of experimental expressionistic portraiture, it’s an audacious drama that energizes the staid biopic genre. Leaning into alternative readings of scripture, Bolz-Weber cuts through societal toxicity and antiquated ideas on sexuality and gender to present an inclusive, gender- and body-positive examination of sex and sexuality. Seemingly riffing on Coppola’s own famous dad Francis, Murray is a charming force of nature as an incorrigible lothario at once devoted to his mother-of-two kid and wholly, hilariously consumed with himself, and his performance does much to enliven this breezy saga about Laura’s mid-life crisis. Kiyoshi Kurosawa conjures an atmosphere of humorous dislocation and acute fear with To the Ends of the Earth, the story of a travel TV show host named Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) who’s on assignment with her all-male crew in Uzbekistan. In his latest, bestselling author Erik Larson delves into the chaotic first year of Winston Churchill’s first tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. That Garbus doesn’t let Mari off the hook for her own mistakes, while nonetheless casting a reproachful gaze at the individual and systemic failings that allow such crimes to occur – and go unsolved – only strengthens her cinematic case for compassion and togetherness as the bulwark against tragedy. Over the course of one sloshed 24-hour period, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets evokes a pitch-perfect sense of its going-to-seed milieu and equally haggard visitors, with former actor-turned-floor sweeper Michael proving the weary epicenter of its laid-back action. Enter to win our favorite new reads, bookish goodies, and so much more. Whether you’re looking for the next great memoir, a fascinating historical account, or simply a bit of inspiration to start the year off right, 2020 is shaping up to be a banner year for fans of nonfiction. Autobiographical tales of trauma don’t come much more wrenching than Rewind, director Sasha Neulinger’s non-fiction investigation into his painful childhood. Aviva tackles the multifaceted nature of gender identity in fittingly diverse fashion, depicting the highs and lows of a couple’s relationship via narrative and modern-dance means – as well as by having both a man and a woman play each of its protagonists, male Eden (Bobbi Jene Smith, Tyler Phillips) and female Aviva (Zina Zinchenko, Or Schraiber). At Read It Forward, we have a healthy obsession with authors, stories, and the readers who love them. In 2017, Susan Fowler published the blog post that kicked open the doors on the culture of sexual harassment and retaliation that permeated much of Silicon Valley. The mythic quality of the Cordillera – the towering eastern stretch of the Andes mountains that serves as both a protective and isolating barrier for the city of Santiago – is harmonized with the grand, destructive illusions of Chile’s Pinochet regime in The Cordillera of Dreams, documentarian Patricio Guzmán’s personal rumination on his homeland’s tumultuous history, and his relationship to it. With Successful Aging, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologist Daniel J. Levitin looks at the science behind aging to debunk a number of myths and provide a roadmap for how we can find ways to age successfully. Although most were viewed on inadequately small screens, the legion of fiction and non-fiction releases that helped us cope with our pandemic-wracked reality delivered welcome doses of excitement, drama, terror, and humor. The December 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown stands as one of the most devastating mass shootings in US history. A swirling psychodrama about loss of reality – and thus, self – the film is wrenching precisely because it doesn’t unduly pull on the heartstrings; rather, Zeller respectfully evokes the grand and subtle horrors of this all-too-common nightmare, with Hopkins embodying Anthony with pitiable mystification, malice and dread. Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker, leverages his experiences in Putin’s Russia to bring a definitive view into modern Russia and struggles under the rule of Vladimir Putin. Rachel Lance is a biomedical engineer and blast-injury specialist specializing in military diving projects; In the Waves chronicles her three-year obsession with precisely what happened to the Hunley and its crew. Copyright ©1995-2021 Penguin Random House. Adapted from Jonathan Raymond’s novel The Half Life, Reichardt’s slow-burn drama focuses on a nomadic 1820s chef named Cookie (John Magaro) who, after arriving at a Pacific Northwest fort, befriends and goes into business with on-the-run Chinese loner King Lu (Orion Lee), baking and selling popular “oily cakes” made with milk stolen from a dairy cow owned by wealthy Chief Factor (Toby Jones). That Buñuelian device speaks to the masculine and feminine sides of both characters, whose ups and downs together and apart form the basis of Boaz Yakin’s (Remember the Titans) unconventional semi-autobiographical tale. Survival in Russia is in many ways dependent on one’s cynicism, cunning, and willingness to cooperate with an insidiously oppressive government. Pages in category "Fiction set in 2020" The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total. Few directors are as attentive to the rhythms of nature – human and otherwise – as Kelly Reichardt, and the filmmaker’s formidable skill at evoking a sense of place, thought, emotion and motivation is on breathtaking display in First Cow. The director lays out the myriad forces at play in this ostensibly picture-perfect milieu in exacting detail, and his preference for longer takes means that the focus remains squarely on his performers. Vitalina wanders through this dilapidated and gloomy environment, which Costa shoots almost exclusively at night, the better to conjure a sense of ghosts navigating a dreamscape of sorrow, suffering and disconnection. An opening scene in which Yoko fails to catch a mythical big fish in Aydar Lake – and then has her femininity blamed for this letdown – serves as a gentle metaphor for her ensuing search for purpose, freedom and confidence to face a strange world that seems intent on menacing her, be it police officers whose questions and demands she doesn’t understand, or an amusement park ride that spins her into near oblivion. Presenting its story through fractured plotting and dreamy monologues, the Portuguese master’s latest is a series of tableaus of lovelorn grief concerning not only Vitalina but also an aged priest in spiritual crisis and another young man poised to endure his own tragedy. Building from what she calls “minor feelings”—not small feelings, but dissonant ones—Hong creates a portrait of disparate cultural identities and the impact those clashing identities can have on virtually all facets of one’s life. Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis’ intimate direction captures this family’s saga through ups (Brian’s new marriage) and downs (an unthinkable loss), in the process conveying how our dispositions and adult paths are inherently shaped by our parents (and the values they teach) as well as by the calamitous incidents that detonate our sense of stability. Whether tapping into universal hopes and fears, or incisively reflecting our current insane circumstances, they offered insight and escape, as well as thrills of a breathtakingly varied sort. Or try any of these new books that our editors recommend . From her childhood in the Middle East to her PhD at Cambridge and her pioneering work in A.I., Girl Decoded is her story. Nicolas Cage and H.P. Penetration, invasion, corruption and control are all part of this sinister techno-stew, which drenches itself in reflective mirror imagery, sexualized carnage and color-filtered visions of conjoined faces tearing apart from each other. Explore the life of intrepid explorer Sanmao, how America rewrote its own history, and Abraham Lincoln’s legacy in the best nonfiction titles of 2020. Nonetheless, Lee’s action-movie investigation of internal, domestic and global racial dynamics—and defiance—thrums with timely anguish and fury, and is bolstered by an Oscar-worthy turn from Lindo as a MAGA-supporting man drowning in chaotic rage. Luke Gorham In Review Online. In the fictional northeast Brazilian town of Bacurau, residents are puzzled to discover that their home has disappeared from all GPS maps, and their cell service has ceased. Most of all, though, it’s a saga about perseverance and bravery, two qualities that Neulinger – then, and now – exhibits in spades. The most coveted of those positions is governor, which pits progressively oriented Steven against conservative Eddy in a battle that echoes those being waged in the corridors of Washington, DC power today. Its studied imagery suggesting a daintier variation on Wes Anderson’s trademark visuals, Emma boasts an aesthetic confidence that’s matched by its performers. Faced with limited professional options, Ricky (Kris Hitchen) gets a job as a delivery driver for a company that doesn’t technically hire him; rather, he’s “self-employed,” meaning the onus for everything falls on his shoulders. Nonetheless, the alternately combative and chummy English pair remain in fine, funny form, and their swan song proves to be their most substantive collaboration since their maiden outing. You’ll never look at sows quite the same way again. An immigrant who rivaled Thomas Eddison (Kyle MacLachlan) and partnered with George Westinghouse (Jim Gaffigan), JP Morgan (Donnie Keshawarz), and Sarah Bernhardt (Rebecca Dayan), Almereyda’s Tesla (Ethan Hawke) is a stoic genius with determination in his eyes and sadness at the corners of his mouth. From his earliest days raised by a single mother to his complicated military career and presidency, he did not want his final days spent confronting what may have been the largest sin of his life—his legacy as a slave-owner. Nonetheless, writer/director Francis Lee’s film follows in the grand tradition of The Age of Innocence in recounting its protagonists’ flowering relationship, which is complicated by not only the women’s different dispositions and situations, but by a society that prevents them from expressing their amour. Beginning from her mother’s example, el Kaliouby has broken ground as one of the most visionary minds in the field of artificial intelligence. It’s a headfirst dive into delusion, told with free-flowing suspense and absurd comedy, all of which comes to the fore during a late scene in which Capone opens fire on his friends and family with a giant golden tommy gun while wearing a diaper and chomping on a cigar-like carrot. 5. Disaffection and sorrow hover over Tesla, Michael Almereyda’s daringly unconventional film about the famed nineteenth-century inventor. And for even more nonfiction books that are great for gift-giving, check out our list of the Best Nonfiction Books to Give as Gifts. As hardships mount, Loach incisively details the major and minor ways in which this contractor-oriented paradigm is fundamentally rigged against workers. The film’s formal grandeur – its compositional precision, and painterly interplay of light and dark – is overwhelming, as is the majestic presence of Vitalina herself. But you may be shocked to realize just how many films are inspired by nonfiction books. Teaming with his former production designer Juliano Dornelles, director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds, Aquarius) delivers an allegory of zonked-out weirdness with Bacurau, which quickly has locals engaging in a do-or-die battle with a pair of interloping São Paulo bikers and a group of murderous Western tourists (led by a hilariously peculiar Udo Kier) who’ve traveled to South America to partake in a variation of The Most Dangerous Game. No one knows if 2021 will bring us back to theaters or have us continuing to experience new works on our TVs, tablets and phones. Be it Kathy going through her sister’s things and cleaning a bathtub soiled by a cat’s corpse, or Del caring for his VFW pal Roger (Jerry Adler), who’s slowly losing his mind, the specter of death—and the memories summoned up by the end of the road—looms large over the proceedings, culminating in a shattering Dennehy speech of irreparable sorrow. Lee holds nothing back in recounting this sprawling tale, employing different aspect ratios and film stocks, plentiful Marvin Gaye tunes, flashbacks, shout-outs to Black Lives Matter, denunciations of President Trump, and references to notable (but largely forgotten) African-American trailblazers. This extraordinary illustrated guide charts that migration and its transformative impact on both Black identity and the cultural history of the US. Round and round the romantic entanglements go, not only for these three characters but a host of others that de Wilde and screenwriter Eleanor Catton faithfully delineate in clean, bright brushstrokes. Led by the heroic Judy Heumann and many of her fellow Jened alums, a civil rights movement was born, resulting in the famous San Francisco sit-in to compel U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Wellness Joseph Califano to sign Section 504 of 1973’s Rehabilitation Act, and later, the ADA. 2020 is a banner year for nonfiction releases. 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