Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

Guillermo Del Toro's blockbusting tale of a young girl struggling to make sense of the violent world around her was a big 2006 arthouse hit. Continuing his exploration of the impact of the Spanish Civil War on his generation (it was also the backdrop for his excellent ghost story, The Devil's Backbone) Del Toro's fantasy mixes strong horror with fairytale-style aesthetics to great effect, making Ofelia's escape into an imaginary realm a poignant response to the cruel realities of her existence. find out more...

A highly acclaimed and influential account of Algeria's turbulent past made in psuedo-documentary style. The tense plot surrounds the rise of nationalist organisations in '54 and the French government's attempts to quell them. This film was the prototype for most political thrillers of the 1970s. find out more...

An investigative journalist finds himself in a bizarre nightmare as he tries to find out if there is any pattern behind the series of deaths of witnesses to the assassination of a US Senator. The clues he follows lead to the Parallax Corporation, a business that our man (Beatty) believes is secretly recruiting sociopathic types and training them as assassins. He enrols in their therapy programme......... A very smart conspiracy thriller with numerous 'parallels' to the JFK assassination. Top no find out more...

A disturbing and emotionally cathartic account of the hijacking of the fourth of the 9/11 planes. Told with great verve we follow the stories of both the abductors and their captives and the chaos in the civilian and military air-control rooms. While the terrible truth dawns on the passengers, those on the ground watch helplessly as the terrible events of the day unfold. As for political comment, Brit director Paul Greengrass makes no overt judgement; we just observe an initial reaction amongst find out more...