Janicza Bravo

People in Bravo's films often seem to be standing on a stage, their gestures enlarged and their surroundings carefully arranged. She uses costume and production design to tell us about character and state of mind. We like the deliberate awkwardness of this approach to comedy. Its danger is equally clear: the arranging can become more interesting than whoever is caught in it.

The early shorts include Gregory Go Boom (2013), followed by her first feature, Lemon (2017), co-written with Brett Gelman. Exact framing, editing and eclectic music make its discomfort feel carefully timed. Zola (2020), co-written with Jeremy O. Harris, applies her theatrical approach to the dark, episodic material of a viral Twitter thread. That is a useful expansion of her methods, though we find less to hold on to beneath the styling. Her willingness to give performers room remains an important virtue.

Television has taken her into established series, including Atlanta (2016) and The Bear (2022). On the latter, her credit is 'Worms', a fourth-series episode from 2025. We recommend The Bear for its persuasive ensemble and its messy, humane treatment of restaurant work. We were exhausted by the relentless kitchen friction, which sometimes makes the programme as wearing as the job it depicts. That feeling is a response to the series, not a claim that Bravo alone is responsible for its pressure.

Our enthusiasm for The Bear also helps explain what we want from Bravo's features: people worth staying with when the discomfort becomes hard work. The series earns much of that patience through its ensemble, rather than relying on the force of the kitchen disputes. Bravo's attention to actors, alongside her precise visual choices, is the part of her work we would like to see given most space. For the features, an appetite for deliberately awkward comedy will help.