Halloween II (2009)

Yes this had my heart pounding when I woke up in the night after, but its overwhelming emotional resonance is … More

Blissfully Yours (2002)

Weerasethakul’s effects have eluded me in the past, so it’s perhaps not too surprising that it took a film with … More

The Happening (2008)

So deeply, incalculably strange that its siren invocation to try and interpret its strangeness rather than simply dismiss it is … More

Pudhupettai (2006)

Essential gangster film. The jump cuts are nerve-shredding, allowing all the hedonistic intoxication and the debased, degraded horror to exist … More

Déja Vu (2006)

Quite the corrective to Tenet: where Nolan’s obsession with physics and form dissatisfyingly collapses the tautly affective narrative of Interstellar, leaving half-baked … More

The Sopranos (1999-2007)

Series 1 Interesting ethical state of play at the end of series 1: Tony has overcome many of his neuroses … More

Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

Difficult to look at this one objectively: my first ever Herzog film, I think, and still probably my personal favourite … More

Hollow Man (2000)

The obvious theme here – ethical corruption in the pursuit of scientific advance – strikes the Verhoeven sweet spot of generic … More

Wolf Hall (2009)

A great feat of literary scholarship, for sure. Moments where the novel slips into being too knowingly educational stick out … More

I Heard You Paint Houses (2004)

i would say that this is essential for anyone who loved scorsese’s The Irishman, though it’s also generally an object lesson … More