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Abbas Kiarostami has trafficked in painful alienation for most of his career, but it still surprises how close to the bone this puzzling movie cuts. An English intellectual (William Shimell) is in Tuscany to read from his new book and is introduced to a French single mother (Juliette Binoche) who drives him around the day he is to leave. The two exchange philosophies on art and life before stopping in a café in which the proprietor mistakes them for a married couple. From that moment the pair begin to speak to one another as if they are husband and wife at odds. Are they playacting or is it something deeper? It’s something deeper. Watch trailer.

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Another Earth
Really fascinating indie that uses a helping of science fiction to ask questions about accidents of life and love. Rhoda Willaims (Brit Marling, also co-writer) is a 17-year-old science whiz headed to MIT until she kills two people in drunken car accident on the very night that a parallel Earth is discovered. The whole world is buzzing about the amazing discovery, but Rhoda’s world has gone silent. She is sent to prison for several years. When released, Rhoda insinuates herself into the life of composer John Burroughs (William Mapother), whose wife and child she killed. John has shrunk into hermitage, and his dim life is buffed and shined by this mysterious cleaning woman who says she’s been sent to his home by a service. The two become friends and lovers, but will the awful truth, which eventually must come out, ruin their relationship? And will this other Earth play a role in determining their futures? Director Mike Cahill keeps the film on track as it hurtles toward a sneaky, perfect ending. Watch trailer.

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The Arbor
First-time filmmaker Clio Barnard’s devastating and unconventional documentary tells the deeply painful story of British playwright Andrea Dunbar, who became famous at the tender age of 15 but was never able to escape the pernicious influence of the infamous Butterfield Estates in West Yorkshire. Dunbar passed away in a barroom at age 29 in 1990, but not before turning out several scathing plays and damaging her own offspring, especially her mixed-race daughter, Lorraine, whom she regretted having. Barnard spent a couple of years interviewing Lorraine and others and employs “verbatim theater” in which actors lip-synch their words. The director also has performers act out versions of Dunbar’s plays outdoors in the shadows of the housing project. A fascinating creation in which artifice communicates the truth better than a simple reality could.  Watch trailer.