It's sick, it's weird, it's spooky, but it's compulsive viewing. Forget Brat Packs and Rambo, this is the dark side to America. Beneath the squeaky clean surface lurk neuroses and perversions, degradation and despair. Brilliantly done, this film will haunt you. find out more...

A psychotic American commander worried about the subversive effects of water fluoridisation on his "vital bodily fluids" starts off an attack on the Soviet Union. No-one can stop the fighters and no-one, as yet, knows about the failsafe Doomsday Machine. Brilliant black comedy. find out more...

A family reunion is the setting for this dark and inventive film from Denmark. When the eldest son gives a speech for his father, Helge's sixtieth birthday, Helge and the guests are taken aback by what they hear. There's also a missing daughter and a party of revellers keen to pretend the speech never happened! The fantastic cinematography from Lars von Triers as well as the richly textured plot makes this a unique film. Highly recommended. find out more...

Jack Nicholson is astonishing as the drifter trying to escape from his well-to-do background. He has created a new life of drinking, manual labour and womanising, but is called back to his father's deathbed, where a chance meeting means making a tough choice. Brilliantly moody and evocative drama. find out more...

Lilya is a young teenager living in the harsh reality of the new Russia, her mother has already emigrated to America and Lilya awaits patiently for the word to join her. As time passes it becomes apparent there will be no call and Lilya realises she is alone with only her dreams of a better life. Her only true friend is Volodya, a suicidal 13-year-old suffering at the fists of his father, her only asset is her looks and it's taken for granted she will cash in sooner or later. Then she meets Andr find out more...

David Thewlis delivers an incredible performance as the clever and sarcastic Johnny. On the run from reality he turns up at his old girlfriend's house in London, where he proceeds to cause havoc. An inspired mix of script and improvisation with masterful direction, Leigh has taken a dark and inward look at life on Britain's bottom rung. Superb. find out more...

Winner of the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. A story of one man's harrowing odyssey to return his seven-year-old son to the woman he once loved and lost. A brilliantly atmospheric and emotional movie with a great soundtrack by Ry Cooder. find out more...

The death of a fellow guest in a hotel deep in the Sahara allows a world weary journalist, Nicholson, to switch identity. Gradually as he follows the trail of his new personality he discovers that the guy was no ordinary businessman but an international arms dealer. The movie, though, is less about plot than a haunting languid atmosphere which moves from the desert to London, Munich, Barcelona and the Catalan countryside. The best of Antonioni's three English-language pictures; this, Blow-Up find out more...

Crusading frontier policeman Captain Stanley captures the fugitive Burns brothers, Charley and Mikey, at the scene of a bloody rape and murder. Informing Charley that he must kill his older brother, Arthur, in order to avoid the execution of Mikey, Stanley retreats to an old jailhouse and awaits the bloody outcome. Director John Hillcoat's second collaboration with Nick Cave (here contributing the film's screenplay and soundtrack), is a taut and often brutal character study of desperation ami find out more...

The story is of two angels in modern day Berlin silently watching mortals going about their lives. When one falls in love and wants to become human the tension between flawless divinity and the allure of material life surfaces. A masterpiece. find out more...