August Film Preview: Board the Bullet Train, celebrate Easter Sunday, and more must-see movies

Select theaters July 29; VOD August 5She’s not a huge star, but Rebecca Hall has already proven she can pretty much do it all. As a first-time writer-director-producer she earned acclaim last year with the critically lauded . As an actress Hall has stolen scenes in a variety of ensembles, and there’s probably an alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe where her Iron Man 3 villain is fully honored as initially conceived. Those who caught 2016’s Christine were treated to Hall’s incredible touch with vulnerable, isolated characters in the debilitating grip of mental illness, and we may now be entering the (slightly) more commercial application of her gift with highly interior emotion. Hall’s well-received psychological horror film The Night House kicked things off last year, and a bookend companion piece of sorts arrives now in the form of writer-director Andrew Semans’ tightly wound Resurrection. One of the more gloriously demented offerings , the film centers on a woman attempting to protect herself and her teenage daughter from an abusive ex-boyfriend (Tim Roth), who reenters her life and attempts to reassert control through a series of increasingly outlandish manipulations. It’s no surprise, that filmmakers in this era would be interested in stories about gaslighting, particularly of women. And Resurrection, which enjoys its streaming debut on Shudder following a limited theatrical release from IFC Films, feels like a well-crafted slice of think-piece cinema which sidles up to body horror and gives it a wild nudge. Anchoring it in mesmerizing fashion is Hall, who in the movie’s middle delivers an incredible, nearly seven-minute, uninterrupted monologue of dark personal history which won’t soon leave viewers—no matter what they make of the film’s wild ending. [Brent Simon]