British kitchen-sink and what it became
The 60s realist movement (Reisz, Anderson, Richardson) and its descendants — Loach, Leigh, Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, the early Shane Meadows. Working-class drama as Britain's most consistent national strength.
The Pianist
devastatingslow burn
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
cozydevastating
I Swear
devastating
Hacksaw Ridge
devastatingslow burn
Full Metal Jacket
devastating
Paris, Texas
cultslow burndevastating
The Father
devastating
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
neon soakeddevastatingmindfuck
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
cozyautumnaldevastating
Pride & Prejudice
devastatingcozy
Purple Hearts
devastatingcozy
Oppenheimer
slow burndevastating
Hachi: A Dog's Tale
cozydevastating
Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song
cozyneon soakeddevastating
Gifted
cozydevastating
Room
dreaddevastating
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
neon soakeddevastatingmindfuck
The Imitation Game
devastatingdread
Loving Vincent
devastatingautumnalcozy
The Deer Hunter
cozydevastatingautumnal
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
neon soakeddevastatingmindfuck
12 Years a Slave
slow burndevastating
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars
late nightcultdread
Pink Floyd: The Wall
dreadcultdevastating
About Time
atmosphericdevastatingcozy
Where Hands Touch
devastatingcozy
A Street Cat Named Bob
cozydevastating
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
devastating
The Plague Dogs
cultcozydevastating
Thirteen Lives
slow burndevastatingdread
Autres collections canon
Japanese New Wave — the essentials
80s horror everyone has forgotten
Giallo — Italy's blood-red mystery genre
Korean cinema essentials beyond Parasite
Post-Soviet cinema — Russia & Eastern Europe after 1991
The Romanian New Wave
Essential anime that isn't Studio Ghibli
Slow cinema — the long-take canon
70s American paranoia — the post-Watergate canon
First features by directors who later mattered
Documentaries that hold up as cinema
Scandinavian noir beyond the Stieg Larsson franchises
Iranian new wave — Kiarostami, Farhadi, and the rest
Argentine cinema — beyond Wild Tales
First features directed by cinematographers
German New Wave — Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Schlöndorff
Hong Kong action — Woo, Lam, Tsui, To
Spaghetti westerns — Leone, Corbucci, Sollima, and the second tier
Mumblecore — the American indie movement nobody named
Czech New Wave — Forman, Chytilová, Menzel, before they fled
French New Wave — Godard, Truffaut, Varda, Rivette, Rohmer
Blaxploitation — Shaft, Pam Grier, and the 70s Black cinema boom
Dogme 95 — von Trier, Vinterberg, and the vow of chastity
Australian New Wave — Weir, Miller, Armstrong, Campion
African cinema — Sembène, Sissako, Mambéty, and beyond
Italian neorealism — the rubble and the real
Commedia all'italiana — Italy laughing at itself
German expressionism — shadows, angles, madness
Taiwanese New Cinema — Hou, Yang, Tsai, and the island's quiet revolution
New Queer Cinema — Haynes, Araki, Van Sant, and the 90s insurgency
Wuxia and martial arts — flying swords, hidden masters