Upgrade Your Downtime

In a decade defined by social and political alienation, John Sayles' lo-fi sci-fi adventure embraced spontaneous spiritual connections.

Clint Eastwood's 1995 romantic drama energizes the domestic space with the liberating possibility of life's freedoms.

John Frankenheimer's head-trip points to a future filled with grifters falsely promising a better life.

Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 cyberpunk thriller perfectly captures its moment while looking towards a more fraught future.

This German supernatural horror film employs an outré sound design to convey the experience of hypnosis.

Altman's classic '70s psychological drama tackles gender as a Gothic team sport.

At first glance, Tamara Jenkins' sophomore feature resembles a typical "Sundance film," but it's much thornier than typical indie fare.

The Coen Brothers' 1994 screwball comedy uses its heightened reality to tackle corporate greed and consumerist folly.

The work of an unsung, but essential Soviet director is ripe for discovery via a YouTube channel.

After a 25-year-long hiatus, Lars von Trier returns to the haunted hospital of his landmark supernatural miniseries.

May's sharp satire of the wealthy refuses to pull any punches while also chronicling a sincere personal transformation.

Juzo Itami's freewheeling, genre-bending comedy turns cuisine into a meditation on craft and culture.

Amy Heckerling's indelible debut feature captures early-80s adolescence in all of its complex glory, minus the judgement or sanctimony.

The second in Levinson's Baltimore tetralogy follows two aluminum siding salesmen whose rigid worldviews finally fall under a spotlight.

In his final dispatch, our humble correspondent reviews an Irish comedy of discontent and an Icelandic religious drama.

Our humble correspondent reviews an urgent environmental thriller and a Canadian existential space comedy.

Our humble correspondent reviews Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age memoir and the new Knives Out sequel.

In Downtime's first TIFF dispatch, our humble correspondent reviews a farcical satire of the super-rich and a collage-style David Bowie doc.

The rise and fall of Stephen Glass serves as a cautionary tale about the hesitancy of the media class to investigate their own.

The essential post-New Wave comedy-drama follows an ensemble of restless Parisian academics falling in and out of careers and love.

Alfonso Cuarón's risqué road movie emphasizes sexual exploration as well as life's ephemeral nature

Its trashy, fetishistic imagery and borderline dream logic are features, not bugs.