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
gut punchrawslow burn
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
bittersweettendercozy
I Swear
bittersweettenderoutsider
Hacksaw Ridge
rawtenderuplifting
Full Metal Jacket
cerebraldreadparanoid
Paris, Texas
bittersweetslow burntender
The Father
gut punchslow burntender
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
cozyplayfulbittersweet
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
bittersweetgut punchpitch black
Pride & Prejudice
bittersweettender
Purple Hearts
bittersweettenderraw
Oppenheimer
cerebraldreadepic
Hachi: A Dog's Tale
bittersweetgut punchtender
Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song
bittersweetcozyplayful
Gifted
bittersweettendercozy
Room
gut punchoutsidertender
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
bittersweetgut punchtender
The Imitation Game
bittersweetcerebraloutsider
Loving Vincent
bittersweetslow burntender
The Deer Hunter
epicgut punchraw
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
cozyplayfuluplifting
12 Years a Slave
gut punchoutsiderraw
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars
dreadgut punchparanoid
Pink Floyd: The Wall
bittersweetgut punchsurreal
About Time
bittersweetcozyplayful
Where Hands Touch
bittersweetoutsidertender
A Street Cat Named Bob
bittersweetcozytender
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
tenderuplifting
The Plague Dogs
gut punchoutsiderdread
Thirteen Lives
dreadslow burnuplifting
Altre collezioni canone
Comfort-cult — the ones you rewatch forever
Deep-cut rewatchables — off the beaten path, on endless repeat
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