Fan fiction? An Il Mare riff? Suicide jokes? A Balloon’s Landing is just weird and ballsy enough to be enjoyable.

Luca Guadagnino serves up a blistering eroto-sport-drama with some terrific tennis metaphors in Challengers.

Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s absurd rom-com Fallen Leaves is a love it or hate it affair.

David Leitch, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt seriously go boom, in the best way, in The Fall Guy.

Ado-rom! That’s it. 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days is a better adolescent romance than most.

Hey, at least this My Missing Valentine is a little less pervy than the original.

Whatever you do, don’t see The Pot-au-Feu hungry, or with a touch of wanderlust.

The real masterstroke of Todd Haynes’ May December is making a woman who groomed a teen compelling.

Coup de Chance is a Woody Allen movie. I don’t think any other details are required.

Léa Seydoux is an absolute star in Mia Hansen-Løve’s sexy, smart, mid-life drama, One Fine Morning.

Daishi Matsunaga takes on seminal Japanese LGBTQ+ novel Egoist and does not embarrass himself.

Playwright Celine Song makes her film debut with the semi-autobiographical Past Lives. You might want tissues.

It’s the ol’ “go back in time and kill X before Y” thing, but done really well in Tokyo Revengers – part one of three.

Seriously, what’s with the creepy romances? Next up: Phases of the Moon.

Do you actually think Both Sides of the Blade’s love triangle, as interpreted by Claire Denis, will be simple?

Whisper of the Heart’s second adaptation is as misguided as it is gauzy and predictable.

Even if This Love Disappears from the World Tonight. Aiyah, this again…

And So The Baton Is Passed. I have thoughts.

Bones and All is the year’s best YA cannibal road trip horror-romance. At least its unique.

The Hunger Crawdads. No, sorry. Twidads? No, no, that’s not right. Where the Crawdads Sing. That’s it!