20 best movies like Dummy (2020)

Mwansa goes on a journey to finally prove that he is Mwansa the Great.

In contemporary Russia there exists a hidden world - a world of magic and enchantment. Magicians have to hide from the nonmag society surrounding them, a society they are disdainful of, some even hostile towards. The Master of the Guard of the Supreme Council of Magic and Enchantment, Bakhrushin, loses his magic abilities and must not only avoid revealing this, but also prevent the war brewing between the magicians and the nonmagi.

For this year's Movies Issue, The New York Times Magazine commissioned lines from an eclectic and talented group of screenwriters — writers responsible for some of the best scripts of 2013. We asked them each to write a single line for us — not a scene, a script or a scenario, but simply an intriguing, amusing or captivating line of dialogue. Then we gave these lines to one of the great movie artists of our time: the cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, a two-time Oscar winner. Kaminski used these lines as inspiration to create 11 original (very) short films. Each short evokes a style or genre of the cinematic past and stars an actor who gave an especially memorable performance in 2013.

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

Immediately after his death, the victim of a car crash gets answers to every question he's ever had about his life, including the most import one of all - what did it all mean?

Soldier Nathan died during World War I. A strange collector imprisoned his shadow and gave him a new chance: a second life against 10000 captured shadows. It is love that guides him, as his purpose is to meet Sarah again, the woman he fell in love with before he died. But then he discovers that she's already in love with someone else, jealousy clouds his mind and pushes him towards a bitter decision, not without consequences.

On Halloween 1997, two estranged teen skaters embark on a surreal journey through their memories, dreams and fears.

A 30-sth. businessman gets stuck on a man-eating traffic island in the middle of a forest for an entire year.

Paranoia forces small-time scam artist Marty to flee his hometown and hide out in a dangerous Detroit. With nothing but a pocket full of bogus checks, his Power Glove, and a bad temper, the horror metal slacker lashes out.

A long time ago, Prometheus was cursed by the God's for bringing fire to mankind. Today, Fedor finds himself in Moscow for the first time and falls in love with Masha.

When a mother is hit by a rare condition that sees her lift off the ground at a slow but ever increasing rate, her husband and daughter are forced to come to terms with losing her.

Thrown to rot in a narrow and gloomy cell of a hideous Soviet prison, a weary new inmate struggles to come to terms with the new reality. Within the grey cage, an unwelcoming fellow convict cautions the newcomer not to touch the intriguingly mysterious red wooden box which rests on the lower bunk, moreover, not even think of opening it. Why is there so much secrecy about the contents of the box? Could there be hiding the means to his escape?

Teddy Knox, a failed inventor, finds the key to a Stone Age riddle.

40 years after the first haunting at Eel Marsh House, a group of children evacuated from WWII London arrive, awakening the house's darkest inhabitant.

Simon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.

The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

Mona, a past student in child psychology, is keen to put her knowledge into practice. She attends an interview and is selected to become a full-time private tutor to two orphaned children, in some remote area of Northern Argentina.

When a devastating attack shatters Mark Hogancamp and wipes away all memories, no one expected recovery. Putting together pieces from his old and new life, Mark meticulously creates a wondrous town named Marwen where he can heal and be heroic. As he builds an astonishing art installation — a testament to the most powerful women he knows — through his fantasy world, he draws strength to triumph in the real one.

With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crowned prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector.

15-year-old Mia faces an overwhelming transformation which puts her entire existence into question. Her body is changing radically, and despite desperate attempts to halt the process, Mia is soon forced to accept that nature is far more powerful than she is.

Catherine Clare reluctantly trades life in 1980 Manhattan for a remote home in the tiny hamlet of Chosen, New York, after her husband George lands a job teaching art history at a small Hudson Valley college. Even as she does her best to transform the old dairy farm into a place where young daughter Franny will be happy, Catherine increasingly finds herself isolated and alone. She soon comes to sense a sinister darkness lurking both in the walls of the ramshackle property—and in her marriage to George.