Director Chloé Zhao pulls off a magnificent sleight-of-hand in Hamnet. Audiences arrive expecting a Shakespeare biopic—the story of how the Bard wrote his greatest play. Instead, Zhao delivers something far more profound: a mother’s journey through unbearable loss.

A man who claims to stick his neck out for nobody sticks his neck out for everybody. A love story ends with the lovers separating forever. A corrupt official becomes a patriot. These aren't contradictions in Casablanca—they're the point.

Call Me By Your Name gives us everything we think we want from a love story: beauty, intelligence, desire, loss, and exquisite sadness. James Ivory crafts moments of such aesthetic perfection that we almost don't notice what's missing—the alchemy that would transform experience into transcendence.