When you watch a David Cronenberg film, you pretty much have to expect something done in a unique register. Whether it’s his various body horror works or when he tackles other genres, it’s handled in a manner unlike most other storytellers. So, when it comes to The Shrouds, of course a Cronenberg movie about grief would be different than any other put on celluloid. Playing at the New York Film Festival, it’s a flick that has much to ponder, though how much of it translates to the audience will depend on the viewer.

The Shrouds is a movie with a lot on its mind, even if surprisingly little happens over the course of its two hour runtime. It’s meant to evoke feelings, while also being fairly clinical for a story about grief. As befits Cronenberg, conspiracy and technology also loom large, as does some kink, so there’s genre work at play, even if this isn’t another effort in the horror genre for the filmmaker.

In the near future, Karsh (Vincent Cassel) is a successful businessman who has developed a type of software within a special “shroud” that, paired with his graves, allows the grieving to check in on their passed loved ones, observing the gradual decay while buried. Known as GraveTech, it’s clearly not for everyone, but it means a lot to him, especially as he’s mourning the loss of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger). Karsh tries to date, but he mostly talks about her and the technology, so he’s not exactly a hoot. Most of his time is spent either with his former sister in law Terry (Kruger as well), her ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce) who handles his computer operations, or his AI assistant Hunny.

When some of the graves are vandalized, Karsh begins to investigate. What starts out as a personal mission quickly becomes something else, as a potential conspiracy unravels. At the same time, he begins a sexual relationship with Terry, one that Maury has been fretting over the possibility of for some time. As the crisis deepens, Karsh starts wondering if he’s losing it, if something nefarious is afoot, or if both are possibilities.

Making star Vincent Cassel up to look like Cronenberg himself is certainly a choice, but there’s still a fine performance here to consider. Cassel has to depict grief in a very distinct manner while still getting everything across to the audience, which he largely succeeds at. As filmmaker surrogates go, it works. Diane Kruger has multiple roles to play, but it’s largely Terry that we see her in action, and it’s a strong performance. She’s really leaning into some of the kink elements that the filmmaker loves, too, which is a fun little bonus. For a therapy style work, Cronenberg still can’t help himself. Guy Pearce is a bit more mannered here than I’d like, but it’s still another interesting performance from someone incapable of not grabbing your attention. The supporting cast includes Jennifer Dale, Sandrine Holt, Elizabeth Saunders, Steve Switzman, Jeff Yung, and more.

Writer/director David Cronenberg is working in a different register here, obviously given the loss of his own wife. The Shrouds starts out largely mellow, only going up in escalation in the back end. Now, the third act does kind of fall apart, but it’s not a death blow for the film. Instead, it just showcases some of the limits of the story Cronenberg is penning. That being said, the moments of humor are well placed, so there’s a break in the dour nature at times. His direction is as solid as ever, even showcasing periodic restraint. It’s perhaps middle of the road for his career, but that still isn’t half bad.

The Shrouds works best as a Cronenberg curiosity, given the newfound subject matter and his personal connection. If you’re a fan of his, especially if you’re invested in him as a person, there’s plenty to chew on. As a full on film, it’s more hit or miss, but there’s enough here to warrant a recommendation. This is unlikely to be a movie that highlights NYFF this year, but it’s certainly going to stand out, at least a bit.

SCORE: ★★★

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Philippe Lacôte’s Killer Heat is a suspense thriller set on the tranquil island of Crete, Greece. The island’s stunning landscape, with rugged mountains and pristine beaches, creates the perfect setting for this atmospheric mystery. Initially, the film may feel too laid-back for its own good, but as the plot unfolds, it finds its groove, delivering a cohesive, engaging story. Much like its setting, Killer Heat is refreshingly straightforward, avoiding a forced sense of suspense. The mystery unravels at a measured pace, allowing the viewer to savour the journey.

The plot itself may not break new ground, with relatively low stakes, but what makes it work is the absence of unnecessary storytelling shortcuts. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Nick Bali, a private investigator hired to look into the mysterious death of Leo (Richard Madden), the heir of the wealthy Verdakis family.

The film opens with Leo climbing a cliff while Bali narrates the Greek myth of Icarus, the man who flew too close to the sun. Leo soon falls to his death, and the family—except for Leo’s sister-in-law, Penelope (Shailene Woodley)—considers it a tragic accident.

Penelope, however, is convinced otherwise, refusing to trust the local police, claiming her “family owns them”, and that “in Crete, no one goes against the gods”. The film’s integration of Greek metaphors adds a touch of mysticism.

What’s refreshing about Killer Heat is that it doesn’t trick the audience. From the first scene, it’s clear that the culprit isn’t an outsider, but that doesn’t take away from the suspense.

When Amazon workers on Staten Island successfully voted to unionize in the spring of 2022, becoming the corporate retailer’s first American workplace to do so, it was hailed as one of the most important labor victories in the United States in nearly 100 years. 

For the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) to organize employees at the JFK8 warehouse to vote in favor of union representation was a David versus Goliath story for the age of globalization — and a rousing reminder that collective grassroots efforts can still succeed despite massive employer concentration, management intimidation, and other hindrances to building worker power. And that an independent, worker-led coalition led the drive at this 8,000-plus-employee facility, rather than an established union, made its victory all the more impressive, even as the vote to unionize brought organizers into uncharted territory and set up a protracted legal battle with Amazon, which has since refused to recognize the ALU or negotiate a contract. 

Telling the story of how the ALU reached this historic moment, “Union,” a new documentary co-directed by Brett Story (“The Hottest August”) and Stephen Maing (“Crime + Punishment”), takes a detail-driven, ground-level approach, following current and former Amazon employees in Staten Island as they mount a grassroots worker-to-worker campaign, standing their ground against one of the world’s powerful corporations all the while. 

No talking-head documentary but a keenly observational chronicle of the unionization push and its aftermath, “Union” often plays like a thriller by virtue of its sharp, smart editing rhythms. Early on, Story and Maing juxtapose Jeff Bezos blasting off into space on a rocket made by his Blue Origin company and Amazon workers trudging wearily into work; it captures the unimaginable scale of the company’s operations while foregrounding the human scale often concealed by breathless (yet inevitably compromised) reporting of Amazon’s designs on empire. 

Made over the course of three years, Story and Maing’s film explores the human cost of the convenience economy and illuminates oppressive working conditions in Amazon’s factories. From constant surveillance to high injury rates and a lack of breaks, the pressures of working in Amazon warehouses compound to create punishing environments for workers, ones Amazon has steadfastly refused to address or even accurately report. And the threat of retaliation against workers who organize is ever-present; in addition to pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into union-busting campaigns that include mandatory “captive audience” meetings (which have since been banned in the state of New York), Amazon issues warnings of possible termination to workers involved with the unionization drive. 

Bookended by footage of vast cargo ships transporting goods, a reminder of the slow, perpetual motion with which the gears of modern capitalism grind on, Story and Maing’s film is smart in how systematically its narrative lays out obstacles to the union’s success. It also insightfully depicts ground-level dialogue between workers as a powerful tool with which to overcome them. Some of the most remarkable footage, inside Amazon headquarters, covertly films one of those captive audience meetings; here, the company’s anti-union propaganda (One reads: “We’re asking you to do three simple things: get the facts, ask questions and vote no to the union”) is disrupted by ALU organizers, who successfully push back on Amazon managers just long enough to make their case to workers. 

One of the ALU organizers, Chris Smalls, takes center stage in “Union,” though the documentary largely sidesteps the temptation to cast him as a conquering hero. (That’d be an easy trap, given that he became the organization’s public face across the period “Union” depicts.) Smalls, fired from Amazon after protesting inadequate PPE provision during the pandemic (and besmirched by the company’s general counsel as “not smart or articulate” in an internal meeting of executive leaders), is a father of three who was moved to activism by the flagrant injustice of the company’s abusive labor practices. As a leader, he’s at once charismatic and hard-charging, dedicated to his fellow “comrades” but ever driven to push forward even in the face of inter-union dissent.

One of the film’s great strengths is its ability to surface the multiplicity of tensions between organizers working toward a shared cause. Take the world of difference separating the experiences of two subjects: Maddie, a white college graduate using her campus activism experience to help the cause, and Natalie, an older Latina woman living out of her car for years. In one charged exchange, Natalie pushes back on the suggestion, made by white male organizers, that Chris intentionally gets himself arrested by New York police officers to draw attention to the unionization drive. Ultimately, Natalie’s dissatisfaction with the ALU—due to her disagreements with leadership as much as her desire to wait for larger union support—leads her to leave the organization. It’s a testament to the complexity of individual motivations and the absence of easy triumph in this type of effort.

“Union” documents the internal debates and disagreements over governance, organizing, and leadership strategies that divided the ALU before its successful unionization vote and were compounded by its subsequent failed attempt to unionize a second warehouse. Though Smalls’ force of personality, passion, and determination fueled the fight to unionize JFK8, the film carefully depicts this as a collective victory. It rarely gives in to the temptation to single out Smalls for praise at the expense of others, and making it clear that his leadership style also contributed to internal rifts in the ALU that at various points may have weakened its ability to further the union’s mission. 

This becomes particularly important in the film’s latter half, after the unionization vote, at which point the sobering realities of the long work ahead come more fully into view. The heroism of the ALU organizers will never be in question. But with only one battle won in the war for workers’ rights, and Amazon continuing to contest or undercut its results by every means available, “Union” concludes on a note of weary fortitude rather than declarative victory. The film captures both the pain and the power of people at the base of a global infrastructure. By not departing from the frontlines of the fight against Amazon’s labor exploitation, Story and Maing bring the true face of their struggle into focus. 

“Union” will be self-distributed theatrically, starting on Oct. 18. This review was filed from the film’s New York premiere at the New York Film Festival.