Welcome to our new monthly column aimed at getting new films that are bubbling under onto your watchlists. It’s based on the “Ones to Watch” section in our annual Year in Review (here’s 2022’s top ten), in which we spotlight the highly rated films from the year that didn’t have enough logged views to make our best-of lists. 

We’ve decided once a year isn’t enough, especially when our tight editorial team and our wider community are seeing these gems year-round in festivals and local releases. So, no longer will these movies fly under the radar. Our curated selections are drawn from what we’ve seen, what you’ve seen, and we’ll have insights from the filmmakers on occasion, too. Ratings come into the equation, but so do hearts and general good vibes. 

Ones to Watchlist is not beholden to US cinema and streamer release dates. We’re a global community of film fans, so we’re also on the hunt for the breakout local hits that are just starting their festival circuit run, or are of note because they are tearing up a local box office. 

Let’s begin! 

Landscape with Invisible Hand

Written and directed by Cory Finley.
In select US theaters now.
MGM 

I’ve long ired Cory Finley’s movies: Thoroughbreds, Bad Education and now Landscape form a strange throughline that looks at the high school movie in a completely different way, every time. In this one, Finley’s high schoolers (based on characters developed by M.T. Anderson in his 2017 novel of the same name) are at the mercy of the alien species Vuvv: two teens decide to broadcast their blossoming romance to the aliens in order to earn a bit of cash.

“It was a fraught, emotionally difficult time,” Finley tells me of his high school years, “so perhaps my movies keep returning to the scene of the crime. There is something compelling ing characters still discovering themselves as entry points to darker, thornier narratives than me might expect.” It plays out with alluring results—in no small part thanks to the help of Okja’s VFX supervisor Erik de Boer, who helped bring Finley’s vision of the Vuvv to life. “We wanted to create something that avoided the typical movie-alien archetypes (little green men, spider-aliens, squid-aliens) and was the right mix of uncanny, cute, and kind of annoying.” 

It’s a mercurial thing, which only really makes sense when watching, but Finley suggests two potential companion pieces in The Truman Show (“also an uncategorizable everyman story set in a world that feels mundane in the micro, but increasingly surreal as the story zooms out”) and The Graduate for its “cynical approach to a coming-of-age narrative.” If you love those narratives as much as I do, Landscape might be the movie that lets you enjoy it in a whole new world. EK 

Written and directed by trans filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, Mutt has an innate understanding of acclimating to how the world you thought you knew can fracture and how something new can form at this time of life. It’s something that has resonated with like Aidan, who says “watching some of the most deeply personal and hurtful moments of your life mirrored on the big screen is one of the most intense theater experiences I’ve had. Incredibly painful but beyond validating.”

A mentee of Barry Jenkins and Ira Sachs, Lungulov-Klotz and cinematographer Matthew Pothier bring an instantly striking visual palette to Mutt with a 4:3 aspect ratio and crisp colors that pop off the screen whether it’s the summer sun beating down on Feña or the warm glow of neon signs at night. Harry points out that it’s “crazy how we’ve reached the point where zero-budget indies look better than most studio films.” It’s no surprise then that when we asked Lungulov-Klotz for his four favorites, he gave us some gorgeous indie heartbreakers like Andrew Haigh’s Weekend.

If Mutt gives you a hankering for more films that take place over the course of one hectic day, Lungulov-Klotz has you covered with ten recommendations. MB

This Is Going to Be Big

Directed by Thomas Charles Hyland.
World premiere at MIFF; available for festival selection and acquisition.

Everywhere I went during this month’s Melbourne International Film Festival, people were talking about two films: Todd Haynes’ May December, whose buzz will only build in the coming months; and Thomas Charles Hyland’s documentary This Is Going to Be Big. At the time of writing, just 45 Letterboxd have logged the latter, but every review from its MIFF world premiere comes with a whopping 4.5 or five-out-of-five star rating and an outpouring of happy tears. It’s no surprise, then, that the film won the MIFF Audience Award, with director Hyland talking about the importance of community: “The relationship between the crew and the people in the film is everything. It doesn’t exist if that doesn’t work.”

This Is Going to Be Big follows a high school group of neurodivergent Australian teens as they stage a time-traveling, John Farnham-themed musical (sounds like an absolute touch of paradise to me). It’s been awarded Bus Stop Films’ ‘Inclusively Made’ certification, recognizing authentic representation and inclusive filmmaking processes. 

Quoting a lyric from Farnham’s biggest hit, DuReviews writes of the coming-of-age crowd pleaser: “‘We’re not gonna sit in silence, we’re not gonna live with fear’ hit so differently in this film… It’s not specifically about their disabilities or them overcoming anything, it’s just about being. It didn’t sensationalize or infantilize the kids or their stories. It’s so wonderfully cinematic yet also humble and gentle.” Programmers ought to heed Sheldon’s advice—“This is what film festivals are for. Would rate higher than 5 ⭐ if I could”. I’m advised this heart-lifting doc is very much available for the fest circuit. GG

Puffin Rock and the New Friends 

Directed by Jeremy Purcell, written by Sara Daddy.
In UK cinemas now, and still screening in select Irish cinemas.
Wildcard Distribution, Vertigo Releasing

It’s a wild and windy day on Puffin Rock, and therefore perfect weather to head indoors with the kiddos and watch the long-awaited, feature-length film of the beloved children’s series. Puffin Rock and the New Friends is, according to KJ Casey in a four-and-a-half-star review, “yet another brilliant movie from the phenomenal Cartoon Saloon”. That’s the famed Irish animation house behind Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea and The Breadwinner, and as expected from those artists, the film “contained some of the most moving and beautiful imagery I’ve seen in a movie this year,” in Matrix Schmatrix’s opinion.

People with children of a certain age in their households will instantly identify Chris O’Dowd as the narrator of the adventures of sweet little puffin Oona and her friends. It’s very much aimed at the pre-school crowd, coming in at an attention-appropriate 80 minutes, but woe betide those who underestimate the story. “My kids: this is a fun film about animals looking for a missing egg. Me: this is a harrowing metaphor for Ireland's housing, migration and climate change crises,” Dave BLCG writes. Regardless, Max C cautions, it would be a mistake to withhold youngsters from the comionate charms and gentle climate messaging of Puffin Rock: “Your tots are not going to have a healthy future ahead of them if you raise them on Cocomelon: Best of Episodes and won’t take them to this.” GG