6. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig 107 min. The table-extender is the shot of the year, for me. A simple, but sharp & devasting visual cue - the contraction of space & familial trust - in a film full of incisive suburban discord.

5. Killers of the Flower Moon Directed by Martin Scorsese 206 min. A slow, horrifying stranglehold in the needle-thin guise of affection & concern. Scorsese's fascinated with passive cruelty masked as love, its host's malformed soul & the hope, rage & dejection of its victims.