• Littlerock

The Japanese brother and sister who’ve broken down on their way to Manzana, California—landing temporarily in unattractive little Littlerock—can barely speak the English of the desultory native teenagers and the slightly menacing older guys they hang around. Almost all the dialogue is blocked: one person speaks and the other has no idea what’s being said. The gaps that open up are where the subtle thrum of this drama sneaks up on you. On the surface, it’s a road movie about Japanese teenagers witnessing the United States for the first time. But it’s also a love triangle, a portrait of the forms bigotry takes in the past and the present in California, and an extended portrait of a beautiful teenage girl. JEN GRAVES

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow:

Anselm Kiefer is one of the great postwar European artists, in large part for his ability to create embodiments—giant, roughed-up landscapes stretching into dark pasts—of the epic grief of post-World War II Germans. It is not uncommon for people to cry at the sight of his works. This mesmerizing movie sees him adapting the buildings of an abandoned silk factory in France (as well as cutting out tunnels below it, with giant pillars) into an enormous installation of his works, which themselves are fascinating to see being made. A painting the size of a billboard is lifted by a crane so the ash poured on top of the paint can come cascading down, like a pan floured. Cast concrete pieces as big as houses are stacked precariously on top of each other, leaning jaggedly up into the sky. It’s Europe groaning in the 21st century. JEN GRAVES

Outrage:

“Beat” Takeshi is like Clint Eastwood plus Charles Bronson plus Quentin Tarantino. He’s a Japanese action icon who has written, directed, and starred in more movies than anyone in the history of ever. (He’s zero degrees removed from Kevin Bacon—he is Kevin Bacon.) Outrage is about Tokyo yakuza stuff, obviously: pachinko, drugs, guns, revenge, etc.

And more, more, MORE!