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 Source Code first
Dark 2017
Series
A missing child sets four families on a frantic hunt for answers as they unearth a mind-bending mystery that spans three generations.
The sides of Dark
- A puzzle across time
- A small town with a buried secret
- Fate against free will
- Four families, one knot
- Grey rain and a heavy score
Good for you if
- you like a family tree you need to draw on paper.
- you like a cold, patient mystery.
- you like a series you understand better the second time.
Bad for you if
- you need some hope. In Winden, families lose their children, then everything else.
- you won't read subtitles. It's in German (a dub exists).
About: time · fate · family
Severance 2022
Series
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.
The sides of Severance
- Office workers with their memories split in two
- The endless white corridors of Lumon Industries
- A team sorting numbers they don't understand
Good for you if
- you like piecing together what Lumon really does.
- you like goats in an office basement and a waffle party as a reward.
- you like Mark slowly realising what his other self lives through.
Bad for you if
- you need things to move fast from the first episode.
- you want answers at the end of every season.
About: work · identity · grief · control
Twelve Monkeys 1995
Film
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son of a famous virus expert who may hold the key to the Army of the 12 Monkeys; thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.
The sides of Twelve Monkeys
- A prisoner sent back in time to stop a virus
- An asylum and a raving patient
- An airport memory
Good for you if
- you like a time loop you piece together.
- you like a feverish, strange atmosphere.
- you like a wild, twitchy supporting role.
Bad for you if
- you want clear answers about what's real.
- you need some hope. A plague has already wiped out most of humanity before the story starts.
About: fate · madness · memory
Tenet 2020
Film
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
The sides of Tenet
- A spy learning to move backwards in time
- A plane crashing into a building
- A fight going both ways at once
Good for you if
- you like a film you'll need to think about for days.
- you like fights played forwards and backwards.
- you want huge practical stunts.
Bad for you if
- two and a half hours of it is too much for one evening.
- you need to care about the people. The hero is only ever called the Protagonist.
About: time · fate · friendship
Perfect Blue 1998
Anime
Rising pop star Mima Kirigoe quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
The sides of Perfect Blue
- A pop singer who becomes an actress
- A fan website that knows her daily life
- Murders around her film set
Good for you if
- you like a stalker thriller where you can't trust what you see.
- you like a story where dream, filming and reality blur.
- you like being scared by your own reflection.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not see a staged rape scene and a nude photo shoot.
- you can't stand stabbings shown up close.
- you don't watch anime.
About: fame · identity · obsession
Minority Report 2002
Film
John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.
The sides of Minority Report
- Police who arrest you before the crime
- A cop accused of a murder he hasn't done
- Screens you move with your hands
Good for you if
- you like a man on the run from his own unit.
- you like proving your innocence of a future crime.
- you like jetpack chases and cars that drive up the sides of buildings.
Bad for you if
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
- you need the science to hold up. Three psychics in a pool see murders before they happen.
About: free will · justice · surveillance
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
Inception 2010
Film
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
The sides of Inception
- Dreams inside dreams
- The heist crew
- A man who can't let go
- Folding cities and that music
Good for you if
- you like a plot you have to hold in your head, layer by layer.
- you want images you've never seen, like a city folding over itself.
- you like catching on the second watch what you missed on the first.
Bad for you if
- you need every question answered before the credits.
- nearly two and a half hours is too much for your evening.
About: dreams · grief · guilt · ideas
Westworld 2016
Series
A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
The sides of Westworld
- A Wild West theme park run by robots
- Hosts who start to remember
- Guests who pay to do anything
Good for you if
- you like a plot you have to piece together across timelines.
- you like a story that keeps changing what you think you know about the park.
- you like a show where the first season hides clues for the second viewing.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand graphic shootouts and violence against the hosts.
- you'd rather skip the nudity and sex scenes, or you watch with others.
About: consciousness · free will · memory · control
Altered Carbon 2018
Series
After 250 years on ice, a prisoner returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: by solving a mind-bending murder.
The sides of Altered Carbon
- A soldier brought back in a new body after 250 years
- Minds stored on disks and moved between bodies
- A rich man who hires him to solve his own murder
Good for you if
- you like a detective story where the victim is still alive to hire you.
- you like a rainy neon city full of flying cars.
- you like a world where death is a problem money can solve.
Bad for you if
- you can't take brutal, bloody fights.
- you'd rather avoid frequent nudity and sex scenes.
About: identity · immortality · class
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
Edge of Tomorrow 2014
Film
Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
The sides of Edge of Tomorrow
- A coward who relives the same day
- A war hero who trains him
- Dying again and again
Good for you if
- you like a war film that keeps restarting.
- you like the dark comedy of dying over and over.
- you like figuring out the loop with the hero.
Bad for you if
- constant deaths, even quick ones, ruin it for you.
- you need time travel explained by real science. Here an alien's blood resets the day.
About: courage · repetition · growth
The Bourne Identity 2002
Film
Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number, he starts to reconstruct his life, but finds that many people he encounters want him dead. However, Bourne realizes that he has the combat and mental skills of a world-class spy—but who does he work for?
The sides of The Bourne Identity
- A man pulled from the sea with no memory
- Skills he doesn't remember learning
- A Mini chase through Paris
Good for you if
- you like an amnesiac spy and a stranger he pays to drive him to Paris falling for each other.
- you like a hero discovering who he is with you.
- you like being hunted across Europe.
Bad for you if
- you want a spy who always has a quip ready. Bourne barely smiles.
- you want big-screen spectacle. The car chase here is in a battered Mini through Paris.
About: identity · memory · conscience
The Butterfly Effect 2004
Film
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpected consequences.
The sides of The Butterfly Effect
- A man who can go back into his memories
- Every change makes things worse
- A girl he keeps trying to save
Good for you if
- you like chaos theory as a thriller.
- you like a man rewriting his past to save the girl he grew up with.
- you like a story where fixing the past hurts.
Bad for you if
- child abuse and childhood trauma on screen are too heavy for you.
- you need time travel to follow rules. Here reading an old diary is enough to send Evan back.
About: regret · fate · love
Paprika 2006
Anime
Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.
The sides of Paprika
- A psychologist who enters her patients' dreams
- A stolen dream machine
- A parade of objects marching out of dreams
Good for you if
- you like a dream that spills into the waking city.
- you want every frame packed with shifting images.
- you like not knowing whose dream you're in.
Bad for you if
- you don't watch anime.
- you need a machine to follow rules. This one runs on dream logic.
About: dreams · identity · technology
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
The Prestige 2006
Film
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
The sides of The Prestige
- Two rival magicians
- A trick nobody can explain
- Obsession that costs everything
Good for you if
- you love a film that shows you its secret only at the end.
- you like going back to see how the trick was done.
- you like a rivalry that gets more dangerous every round.
Bad for you if
- you need a hopeful ending.
- you'd rather follow a story in order. The Prestige jumps between two diaries and several timelines.
About: obsession · sacrifice · rivalry
Mission: Impossible 1996
Film
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
The sides of Mission: Impossible
- A team betrayed on a mission
- A vault entered from the ceiling
- A train in the Channel tunnel
Good for you if
- you like a silent break-in hanging from a wire.
- you like a spy film full of double-crosses.
- you like a helicopter chasing a train in a tunnel.
Bad for you if
- you lose patience with a plot you have to untangle. Who betrayed whom takes the whole film to sort out.
- you need it to hold up. Rubber masks fool everyone, even people who know the face.
About: trust · betrayal · identity
Sherlock 2010
Series
A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.
The sides of Sherlock
- Sherlock Holmes in modern London
- An army doctor back from Afghanistan
- A consulting criminal named Moriarty
Good for you if
- you like watching a genius solve a case from a stranger's shoes.
- you like fast, sharp talk with the deductions written on screen.
- you like a prickly friendship between Sherlock and John Watson.
Bad for you if
- you need every deduction to be something a real detective could make.
- you can't keep up when Sherlock reels off deductions faster than you can read them.
About: friendship · genius · loneliness · obsession
Arrival 2016
Film
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
The sides of Arrival
- The grief underneath the sci-fi
- Aliens that are truly alien
- Understanding as the plot
- Time that doesn't run straight
Good for you if
- you like a film that quietly breaks you at the end.
- you like patient scenes where people try to understand each other.
- you like aliens treated as a real problem of language and science.
Bad for you if
- you want an alien invasion with battles. There are none.
- you'd rather not work to follow a story. Louise's memories only fall into place in the last act.
About: language · grief · time · choice