The Best Movies of the Year Are Finally Hitting Theaters

Neon, Netflix, A24 This week: The good movies are finally coming.

My feel-good show is back.

I can’t believe this is real.

A major Housewives announcement.

Important Ben Affleck news.

Get Thee to a Movie Theater It’s the time of year when you can finally see all the really good movies film writers have been raving about.

Fall film festival season and award season can be awkward, almost like a tease.

For months, all these breathless reports come in from all over the world about how great these movies are and how your favorite actors are absolutely going to win Oscars for them, and you think, “Great! I’m gonna go see this!” Only to find out that, in some cases, it will be months before normal people can watch them at their local cinemas.

It can be dejecting, and a testament to the blessing and curse of this time of year both for movie fans and the films themselves: The hype over time and awards buzz are key to getting the public excited to see these smaller, non-blockbusters; the letdown when you learn you can’t head right to the theater to watch them makes it easier to lose interest when they’re finally released and divest from all the award season hoopla.

This weekend, however, the rollout of these films starts in earnest, and continues throughout the month.

I’ve spent the last week holed up in movie theaters across New York watching them, so I that could earnestly recommend the ones worth watching.

So plan accordingly.

Fjord , out this weekend , stars Oscar nominees Sebastian Stan ( The Apprentice ) and Renate Reinseve ( Sentimental Value ), and is a good one to see for several reasons: both actors are back in the race this year for their transformative performances; the film was shot on location in a small town on a Norwegian fjord, and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking; and there’s fiery discourse that you’re going to want to weigh in on, should you find yourself at a cocktail party with some cinephiles.

In the film, a conservative Christian couple—he is Romanian, and she is Norwegian—have their kids taken away when it’s discovered that they have occasionally punished them with light spankings, which child services and Norwegian law consider potentially criminal abuse.