Carol

New York, early 1950s. Therese (Mara) works in a Manhattan department store and is dreaming of a more rewarding life when she meets Carol (Blanchett), a knock-out trapped in an unhappy marriage. The two immediately fall for each other, but once their secret is out in the open, they have no option but to leave town.

After Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes – the acclaimed director of I'm Not There (2007) and Dark Waters (2019) – once again situated a film in the oppressive 1950s. The film is full of alluring detail: the clothes, the record players, the lipstick and the cigarettes are all shot with superb skill, often through windows, mirrors and half open doors.

This perfectly made love story with its suppressed tears, gestures, looks and caresses, is saturated with a subtle melancholy. Haynes shows love as the most precarious but also the most essential step of a lifetime.