40 Essential IFC Films 

Adjusted Score: 102647%

Critics Consensus: As ambitious and provocative as its subject, The Disappearance of Shere Hite is a fascinating glimpse of a remarkable life.

Adjusted Score: 105673%

Critics Consensus: A union to cherish between a writer-director and star working at peak power, Things to Come offers quietly profound observations on life, love, and the irrevocable passage of time.

Adjusted Score: 104800%

Critics Consensus: A small film that elicits a huge emotional response, Ghostlight is a deeply moving and superbly acted meditation on grief.

Adjusted Score: 109848%

Critics Consensus: The Babadook relies on real horror rather than cheap jump scares — and boasts a heartfelt, genuinely moving story to boot.

Adjusted Score: 109690%

Critics Consensus: Delightfully dark, Late Night with the Devil proves possession horror isn’t played out — and serves as an outstanding showcase for David Dastmalchian.

Adjusted Score: 108734%

Critics Consensus: With intelligence as sharp as its humor, BlackBerry takes a terrifically entertaining look at the rise and fall of a generation-defining gadget.

Adjusted Score: 104560%

Critics Consensus: Another profoundly affecting work from the Dardenne brothers, Two Days, One Night delivers its timely message with honesty and clear-eyed compassion.

Adjusted Score: 102293%

Critics Consensus: A hard-hitting horror film whose surface-level frights are just as engaging as its thematic concerns, When Evil Lurks marks a viscerally unsettling addition to the possession horror canon.

Adjusted Score: 98015%

Critics Consensus: Smart, dynamic, and fast-paced, Saloum mixes tones and genres into a tart, smoothly blended treat.

Adjusted Score: 102030%

Critics Consensus: An elegant and spooky ghost story punctuated with clever jolts, Oddity hews to the fundamentals of fright and achieves shout-inducing results.

Adjusted Score: 105941%

Critics Consensus: Wildlife‘s portrait of a family in crisis is beautifully composed by director Paul Dano — and brought brilliantly to life by a career-best performance from Carey Mulligan.

Adjusted Score: 101003%

Critics Consensus: In the Loop is an uncommonly funny political satire that blends Dr. Strangelove with Spinal Tap for the Iraq war era.

Adjusted Score: 99853%

Critics Consensus: A message movie in a hard horror shell, Hatching perches between beauty and revulsion — and establishes director Hanna Bergholm as a bright new talent.

Adjusted Score: 101077%

Critics Consensus: Certain Women further demonstrates writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s gift for telling the stories of ordinary people with uncommon empathy and skill.

Adjusted Score: 100944%

Critics Consensus: Audiences will need to tolerate a certain amount of narrative drift, but thanks to sensitive direction from Noah Baumbach and an endearing performance from Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha makes it easy to forgive.

Adjusted Score: 100463%

Critics Consensus: I, Daniel Blake marks yet another well-told chapter in director Ken Loach’s powerfully populist filmography.

Adjusted Score: 94065%

Critics Consensus: Stopmotion takes the conflict between art and artist to chilling, visually thrilling extremes, distinguished by director Robert Morgan’s excellent effects work.

Adjusted Score: 93925%

Critics Consensus: More visually impressive than narratively engaging, Vesper rewards patient viewers with immersive world-building and intelligent ideas.

Adjusted Score: 91990%

Critics Consensus: Beautifully filmed and powerfully acted, Walking Out effectively balances tense father-son drama against an affecting wilderness survival story.

Adjusted Score: 96776%

Critics Consensus: Undine draws on folklore for a dark fantasy whose murky storytelling is often offset by the enchanting romance at its core.

Adjusted Score: 97365%

Critics Consensus: Raw, honest, powerfully acted, and deliciously intense, Blue Is the Warmest Color offers some of modern cinema’s most elegantly composed, emotionally absorbing drama.

Adjusted Score: 95855%

Critics Consensus: Although its story may lack surprises, Watcher benefits from director Chloe Okuno’s chilling grip on the material — and Maika Monroe’s terrific work in the leading role.

Adjusted Score: 94429%

Critics Consensus: Effective space alien horror with a Soviet-era twist, Sputnik proves there are still some scary good sci-fi thrillers left in the galaxy.

Adjusted Score: 95353%

Critics Consensus: The Truth may not stand with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s best work, but it finds the writer-director revisiting familiar themes with a typically sensitive touch.

Adjusted Score: 94501%

Critics Consensus: Let the Sunshine In pairs a powerful performance from Juliette Binoche with a layered drama that presents director Claire Denis at her most assured.

Adjusted Score: 93034%

Critics Consensus: Werewolves Within is the rare horror comedy that offers equal helpings of either genre — and adds up to a whole lot of fun in the bargain.

Adjusted Score: 91681%

Critics Consensus: Ghost Stories offers a well-crafted, skillfully told horror anthology that cleverly toys with genre tropes while adding a few devilishly frightful twists.

Adjusted Score: 93838%

Critics Consensus: Precariously walking a tightrope of varying genres and tones, Benedetta provokes salient questions about sexual freedom and its relationship to faith.

Adjusted Score: 88977%

Critics Consensus: A social satire with razor-sharp teeth, Speak No Evil offers a darkly delicious treat for fans of misanthropic thrillers.

Adjusted Score: 88273%

Critics Consensus: The Trip to Spain offers more of the same scenery, food, and conversation that filled Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s first two Trips — which is to say, more of a good thing.

Adjusted Score: 85064%

Critics Consensus: Greener Grass is far from the first comedy to skewer suburbia — but it might be among the most bizarre and surreally distinctive.

Adjusted Score: 94118%

Critics Consensus: Personal Shopper attempts a tricky series of potentially jarring tonal shifts with varying results, bolstered by a performance from Kristen Stewart that’s impossible to ignore.

Adjusted Score: 81405%

Critics Consensus: Baskin complements its gory thrills with heavy atmosphere and deliberate pacing, adding up to a horror outing that plays with the mind as enthusiastically as it ruins the appetite.

Adjusted Score: 83389%

Critics Consensus: The movie’s curiously bland compared to the remarkable real-life story it dramatizes, but Sally Hawkins’ performance saves The Lost King from feeling like a royal disappointment.

Adjusted Score: 77427%

Critics Consensus: Thanks to a committed, powerhouse performance by Bryan Cranston, Wakefield is a fascinating character study of a decidedly unpleasant character.

Adjusted Score: 58373%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Adjusted Score: 80225%

Critics Consensus: The Clovehitch Killer patiently dials up the tension with a story that makes up for a lack of surprises with strong performances and a chilling wit.

Adjusted Score: 76292%

Critics Consensus: Grimy and psychedelic, Enter the Void ushers audiences through an out-of-body experience with the eye for extremity and technical wizardry that Gaspar Noé fans have come to expect.

Adjusted Score: 75749%

Critics Consensus: Viceroy’s House brings a balanced perspective to its worthy, historically grounded story while taking care to enliven the details with absorbing drama.

Adjusted Score: 67139%

Critics Consensus: The House That Jack Built presents writer-director Lars von Trier at his most proudly uncompromising: hard to ignore, and for many viewers, just as difficult to digest.