A lovely, intensely human film by the great Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda ( Thief ). Set in modern-day Korea, this is a story about orphans and makeshift families that begins with the most unlikely of heroes: a mother who abandons her baby at a care center in Busan and two men who take it and try to profit from it promotion of. Together, the three embark on a road trip to find the baby’s new parents, even as police investigating a murder track their tracks and their numbers swell as orphans seek new homes. Broker, with its heartbreaking empathy and cute looks, is an emotional drama that leaves you grateful and lighthearted. — TA
How to watch: Come to the theater.
White Noise
Noah Bao Mbach’s Raucous, Perverted Fever Dreams, White Noise, a stunning take on Don Delillo’s consumerist novel The faithful adaptation, post-industrial paranoia and fear of death, is the biggest and most noble swing of the season. Do you want to shoot such a long-winded and crooked book? Baumbach’s answer is yes, especially with Adam Driver as his magnetic protagonist. Driver stars as fictional liberal arts college professor Jack Gladney, a marvel of comedic energy who is both personable and cocky. Greta Gerwig is his affable, slightly distraught wife, Babette, with a habit of perms and secret medications. Their four children are a pop culture erudite chorus. When a chemical spill triggers an “air poisoning incident” in their college town—what to call things, how words can mask or amplify our anxieties, are DeLillo’s preoccupations—the family packs into the station wagon, and it seems everyone else In their narcotic college town, escape from it. The comical spectacle of modern anxiety spirals out of control. —TA
