Carol

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt, Todd Haynes’s sumptuous adaptation evokes the knee-weakening, stomach-churning headiness of falling in love through precisely choreographed shots of looks and gestures. Subtle performances by Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Kyle Chandler and exquisite period details and costumes by Sandy Powell are captured by cinematographer Edward Lachman on 16mm film stock, evoking the work of 1950s New York photographers Saul Leiter, Helen Levitt, and Ruth Orkin. A thriller without a body count—Haynes noted how the mind of the lover resembles that of a detective or criminal, hyperaware, finding meaning, clues, and resonance everywhere and in everything—Carol investigates the shifting power dynamics of love.