What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to Nocturnal Animals first
Prisoners 2013
Film
When his young daughter and her friend disappear on Thanksgiving, a father takes the law into his own hands while a detective works the case.
The sides of Prisoners
- A detective who won't let go
- How far a father will go
- A case built like a maze
- Rain, cold, and grey light
Good for you if
- you like being tense for two and a half hours straight.
- you like collecting clues and trying to get ahead of the detective.
- you like watching an actor go somewhere raw. Hugh Jackman does.
Bad for you if
- a child in danger is too much for you.
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
About: faith · revenge · guilt · fatherhood
Oldboy 2003
Film
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
The sides of Oldboy
- A man locked up for fifteen years with no reason
- A corridor fight with a hammer
- A live octopus
Good for you if
- you like an ending that floors you.
- you like a one-take hallway fight.
- you like revenge with no clean way out.
Bad for you if
- brutal violence ruins it for you.
- you won't read subtitles. It's in Korean (a dub exists).
- you can't take despair on screen. A man locked up for fifteen years comes out close to breaking.
About: revenge · guilt · imprisonment
Hannibal 2013
Series
Both a gift and a curse, Graham has the extraordinary ability to think like his prey—he sees what they see, feels what they feel. But while Graham is pursuing an especially troubling, cannibalistic murderer, Special Agent Jack Crawford teams him with a highly respected psychiatrist – a man with a taste for the criminal minded – Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
The sides of Hannibal
- An FBI profiler who thinks like killers
- A psychiatrist who cooks his victims
- Murder scenes staged like works of art
Good for you if
- you like crime scenes composed like paintings and dinners shot like still lifes.
- you can't take your eyes off Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter.
- you like watching Will Graham get closer to the man sitting across from him.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand corpses turned into displays.
- you want a crime show that plays like real police work.
About: manipulation · obsession · friendship · madness
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011
Film
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
The sides of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A journalist and a hacker
- A girl missing for forty years
- A cold Swedish island
Good for you if
- you like a dark, intricate investigation.
- you like dread in cold, clean images.
- you like an unforgettable, fierce heroine.
Bad for you if
- rape and torture scenes are too much for you.
- you'd rather not watch frank sex scenes, or not with company.
- over two and a half hours is too long for you.
About: violence against women · truth · revenge
Gone Girl 2014
Film
On their fifth wedding anniversary, a man's wife disappears, and as the police and the press dig in, he becomes the main suspect.
The sides of Gone Girl
- A marriage seen from both sides
- A trial on television
- A story that changes shape halfway
- Cold, precise, and darkly funny
Good for you if
- you love it when the floor drops out from under you halfway.
- you like a lead performance you can't look away from. Rosamund Pike holds every scene Amy is in.
- you like people who are hard to like.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather skip sex scenes, or you're watching with family.
- one sudden, very violent scene would ruin the evening for you.
About: marriage · lies · the media · image
True Detective 2014
Series
Each season, different detectives work one murder case. The first follows two Louisiana detectives on a ritual killing that stays with them for seventeen years.
The sides of True Detective
- Two detectives, conversation as tension
- An obsession with a case that won't close
- A place that feels haunted
Good for you if
- you like long conversations in a car more than shootouts.
- you like a case that takes its time and a mood that settles in.
- you like dark ideas and darker places.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not keep track of one case told across two or three timelines.
- you can't take disturbing images of murder victims.
About: time · evil · faith · partnership
Mystic River 2003
Film
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
The sides of Mystic River
- Three childhood friends in Boston
- A murdered daughter
- A past that never healed
Good for you if
- you like raw, powerful acting.
- you like a tragedy with no clean ending.
- you like a murder investigation in a tight neighbourhood.
Bad for you if
- child abuse and a parent's grief are too heavy for you.
- you need momentum. Eastwood lets the grief and the silences run long.
About: trauma · guilt · loyalty
You 2018
Series
A dangerously charming, obsessive man goes to extreme measures to insert himself into the lives of women who fascinate him.
The sides of You
- A bookstore manager who stalks women
- A voice-over from inside his head
- A glass cage in the basement
Good for you if
- you like hearing Joe justify himself in voice-over and almost agreeing.
- you like watching each of his lies come close to falling apart.
- you like laughing at Joe's inner voice judging everyone around him.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch murders up close.
- you'd rather skip sex scenes. Joe's relationships play out in bed too.
About: obsession · love · control
Big Little Lies 2017
Series
The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.
The sides of Big Little Lies
- Three mothers in a rich seaside town
- A death at a school fundraiser
- A marriage hiding violence
Good for you if
- you like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern at full force.
- you like knowing someone died at trivia night but not who.
- you like friendships and rivalries between mothers at the school gate.
Bad for you if
- you can't take domestic abuse and rape on screen.
- you'd rather not see sex scenes, or you watch with others.
About: domestic violence · friendship · motherhood · secrets
Joker 2019
Film
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
The sides of Joker
- A man the world keeps ignoring
- A city about to explode
- A dance down the stairs
Good for you if
- you like one performance that carries the whole film.
- you can take a story that only goes down.
- you like watching, step by step, how someone breaks.
Bad for you if
- sudden, brutal violence ruins a film for you.
- mental illness and cruelty hit too close tonight.
About: loneliness · madness · society
The Shining 1980
Film
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
The sides of The Shining
- An empty hotel in winter
- A father going mad
- A boy riding his tricycle down the halls
Good for you if
- you like dread that builds slowly in empty corridors.
- you like long gliding shots behind a boy on his tricycle.
- you like a performance that becomes truly frightening.
Bad for you if
- you scare easily. Some images stay for years.
- you can't watch a family threatened by the father. Jack's drinking and rage turn on his wife and son.
About: isolation · madness · family
Black Swan 2010
Film
A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."
The sides of Black Swan
- A dancer chasing perfection
- A rival who might not be real
- Swan Lake from the inside
Good for you if
- you like a lead performance that cracks in front of you.
- you like paranoia that keeps tightening.
- you like not knowing what's real and what's in her head.
Bad for you if
- sex scenes aren't for you, or you're watching with others.
- self-harm and mental breakdown are too hard for you.
About: perfection · obsession · identity
MINDHUNTER 2017
Series
In the late 1970s, two FBI agents start interviewing imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, and use what they learn on open cases.
The sides of MINDHUNTER
- Interviews with real killers
- The birth of criminal profiling
- What the work does to the people doing it
Good for you if
- you like tension that comes from people talking across a table.
- you like stories built on real cases and real killers.
- you like a slow, quiet build more than action.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand a story left unfinished, and the series stopped after two seasons with the BTK thread still open.
- you don't want to hear crimes against women and children described in detail.
About: evil · method · the 1970s · obsession
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1995
Anime
At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind's last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later, that day has come... but this time, humanity is ready to fight back with terrifying bio-mechanical weapons known as the Evangelions. Watch as Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the rest of the mysterious shadow agency Nerv battle to save earth from total annihilation.
The sides of Neon Genesis Evangelion
- A boy ordered by his father to pilot a giant robot
- Angels attacking Tokyo-3
- A final two episodes inside his head
Good for you if
- you like a series that leaves you with more questions than answers.
- you care more about the pilots' minds than the robot fights.
- you like an ending that goes somewhere no one expected.
Bad for you if
- you can't take depression and self-loathing on screen.
- you don't watch anime.
About: depression · fathers and sons · loneliness
Bates Motel 2013
Series
A "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film Psycho, depicting the life of Norman Bates and his mother Norma prior to the events portrayed in Hitchcock's film, albeit in a different fictional town and in a modern setting. The series begins after the death of Norma's husband, when she purchases a motel located in a coastal Oregon town so she and Norman can start a new life.
The sides of Bates Motel
- A young Norman Bates and his mother
- A motel bought for a fresh start
- A small Oregon town full of secrets
Good for you if
- you like Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore as a mother and son too close.
- you like knowing where Norman ends up and dreading every step.
- you like a quiet Oregon town that lives off a hidden drug trade.
Bad for you if
- you can't take abuse and mental illness on screen.
- you can't watch murders on screen.
About: mothers and sons · madness · secrets
Adolescence 2025
Series
When a 13-year-old is accused of the murder of a classmate, his family, the psychological expert and the detective in charge are all left asking: what really happened?
The sides of Adolescence
- A 13-year-old boy arrested for murder
- Episodes filmed in one continuous take
- A father asking what he missed
Good for you if
- you like a young actor holding his own against Stephen Graham.
- you like each episode filmed in one unbroken take, from the first second to the last.
- you can take a story that leaves you with no easy answer.
Bad for you if
- a child accused of killing a classmate is too much for you.
- you want a classic whodunit with clues to follow, and this is the portrait of a family and a school.
About: masculinity · social media · parenthood · bullying
Memento 2000
Film
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
The sides of Memento
- A man who can't make new memories
- Notes, photos and tattoos
- A story told backwards
Good for you if
- you like assembling a story in reverse.
- you like a man investigating his wife's murder with Polaroids and tattoos.
- you like a film you need to see twice.
Bad for you if
- you want to know for sure who is lying. Even the ending won't tell you.
- you need some hope. Leonard's hunt for his wife's killer can never end.
About: memory · revenge · self-deception
Mr. Robot 2015
Series
A young programmer, Elliot, suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot finds himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.
The sides of Mr. Robot
- A lonely hacker at a security firm
- A group of hackers named fsociety
- A plan to erase all debt
Good for you if
- you like piecing together a hacking plot against the giant E Corp.
- you like the floor dropping out from under Elliot.
- you like living inside one troubled man's head.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand drug use, trauma and depression on screen.
- you need momentum, and some episodes sit inside Elliot's silence.
About: loneliness · reality · revolution · trauma
Shutter Island 2010
Film
In 1954, a U.S. Marshal and his new partner go to a psychiatric hospital on an island to find a patient who escaped from a locked room.
The sides of Shutter Island
- A mystery that turns on you
- Gothic dread on an island
- A man haunted by loss
Good for you if
- you love a story that makes you question everything you just saw.
- you like a film you want to restart as soon as it ends.
- you like a mood that gets under your skin: storms, cells, a lighthouse.
Bad for you if
- grief and mental illness hit too close for you.
- you want to be sure what happened when the credits roll.
About: grief · guilt · madness · the truth
The Batman 2022
Film
In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.
The sides of The Batman
- A young Batman as a detective
- A killer leaving riddles
- Gotham drowning in rain
Good for you if
- you like Batman solving a case like a noir detective.
- you like red light, rain and darkness.
- you like a moody, patient investigation.
Bad for you if
- three hours is too much for one evening.
- you want a light superhero film.
About: corruption · revenge · hope