The Nest

When too-slick-for-words commodities trader Rory O’Hara (Jude Law), his wife, Allison (the amazing Carrie Coon from The Leftovers), and their two kids pull up stakes and move from America to an old house in Rory’s native England, the family slowly begins to implode, as Rory’s arrogance and shady dealings take their toll… It has been nine years since Sean Durkin made his debut feature—the now-classic Marcy Martha May Marlene—and his mastery of cinematic form, so evident in that debut, is in full flower here. Aided by shadowy cinematography from Mátyás Erdély (Son of Saul), this is a chiller that plays by its own rules—and is all the better for it.

‘The Nest is a complex movie, despite its economical size. At initial glance, it is mostly just the story of a family moving, sort of for Dad’s job, and not finding what they like in their new environment… But what Durkin does so smartly… is fill the picture with a creeping atmosphere that implies deeper, danker things beyond what we’re seeing in literal form… Durkin’s film [is] one of the best of this year.’—Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair