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 Taboo first
The Godfather Part II 1974
Film
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
The sides of The Godfather Part II
- A son ruling the family business
- A young father building it in old New York
- A brother's betrayal
Good for you if
- you like a long, patient tragedy.
- you like two great performances in two eras.
- you like a dark family saga that offers no comfort.
Bad for you if
- over three hours is too long for one evening.
About: family · power · loneliness
The Godfather 1972
Film
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
The sides of The Godfather
- A family business that is a mafia
- A son who said he'd stay out
- A wedding, a horse, an offer
Good for you if
- you like a story that takes its time and lands like a verdict.
- you like quiet actors saying a lot with one look.
- you like watching a decent man become someone else.
Bad for you if
- nearly three hours is too much for one evening.
- films from the 1970s feel slow and dated to you.
- sudden, cold killings ruin a film for you.
About: family · power · loyalty · America
Peaky Blinders 2013
Series
A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world.
The sides of Peaky Blinders
- A gang family in 1920s Birmingham
- Razor blades in caps
- A war hero who wants power
Good for you if
- you like a cold, brilliant gang leader.
- you like smoke, coats and slow walks.
- you like modern rock over period scenes.
Bad for you if
- brutal gang violence ruins a show for you.
- six seasons is more than you want to start.
About: ambition · family · trauma
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
There Will Be Blood 2007
Film
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
The sides of There Will Be Blood
- An oil man who wants everything
- A young preacher he hates
- I drink your milkshake
Good for you if
- you like watching Daniel Day-Lewis disappear into a ruthless oil man.
- you like a slow, heavy story of ambition.
- you like a strange, unsettling score.
Bad for you if
- over two and a half hours at this pace is too much.
- you need someone to root for. Plainview cons and crushes everyone in his way.
About: greed · faith · loneliness
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
The Wire 2002
Series
Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
The sides of The Wire
- Baltimore cops wiretapping a drug crew
- The docks, the schools, City Hall and the newspaper
- Dealers and detectives seen from both sides
Good for you if
- you like seeing how police, politics and schools keep a city stuck.
- you like a case built patiently over a whole season.
- you want people like Omar, Stringer Bell and McNulty to stay with you.
Bad for you if
- you lose track with dozens of characters on both sides.
- you need some hope. Baltimore rarely changes here.
About: institutions · the drug war · loyalty
Sicario 2015
Film
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
The sides of Sicario
- An FBI agent in the drug war
- A border crossing at Juárez
- A man with a hidden agenda
Good for you if
- you like dread in every scene, especially at the border.
- you like a morally dark world.
- you like desert landscapes and night-vision raids.
Bad for you if
- bodies in walls and executions ruin it for you.
- you need momentum. Much of it is silent waiting before something breaks.
About: morality · power · the law
The Irishman 2019
Film
Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.
The sides of The Irishman
- A hitman looking back from a nursing home
- Jimmy Hoffa
- Decades of the mob
Good for you if
- you like a slow, reflective gangster story.
- you like legends acting together one last time.
- you like an ending about loneliness and regret.
Bad for you if
- three and a half hours is far too long for you.
- you want a fast gangster film.
About: loyalty · ageing · regret
Gangs of New York 2002
Film
In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.
The sides of Gangs of New York
- Bill the Butcher ruling the Five Points
- An Irish son back for his father's killer
- Draft riots burning 1863 New York
Good for you if
- you like one man in a stovepipe hat owning every scene he is in.
- you like 1860s New York rebuilt street by street.
- you don't mind spending the evening with gang leaders and thieves.
Bad for you if
- nearly three hours in one sitting is too much for you.
- you can't watch cleavers, meat hooks and a street brawl in the snow.
About: revenge · immigration · power
Breaking Bad 2008
Series
A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer starts making meth with a former student to pay for his family's future.
The sides of Breaking Bad
- An ordinary man's slow corruption
- Crime as a business
- One bad choice that spirals
- Desert, tension, long silences
Good for you if
- you like rooting for someone you know you shouldn't.
- you like tension that builds for a whole episode before it breaks.
- you watch for how people change more than for what happens.
Bad for you if
- graphic violence ruins a show for you. Some scenes are hard to unsee.
- TV is how you unwind. This one keeps you tense.
- five seasons is more than you want to start.
About: pride · family · power · consequences
The Crown 2016
Series
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The sides of The Crown
- Elizabeth II from her young reign to old age
- Weekly meetings with her Prime Ministers
- A royal family torn between duty and love
Good for you if
- you like the second half of the 20th century seen from inside Buckingham Palace.
- you like a family drama where a sister, a husband and children all come second to the Crown.
- you like who really decides things between the palace and Downing Street.
Bad for you if
- you need momentum, and many episodes are quiet conversations in palace rooms.
- six seasons of royal life is too much for you.
About: duty · family · the monarchy
Blood Diamond 2006
Film
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.
The sides of Blood Diamond
- A smuggler and a fisherman
- A pink diamond
- Child soldiers in Sierra Leone
Good for you if
- you like a hunt for a diamond in the middle of a war.
- you like a father who crosses a war to find his son, taken by the rebels.
- you want to learn about a real conflict.
Bad for you if
- war violence and massacres are too much for you.
- child soldiers on screen are too hard for you.
About: greed · family · war
Nocturnal Animals 2016
Film
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
The sides of Nocturnal Animals
- A gallery owner reading her ex-husband's novel
- A story inside the story
- A night on a Texas highway
Good for you if
- you like cold, elegant images.
- you like a roadside scene that's hard to breathe through.
- you like a story within a story, where the novel Susan reads keeps echoing her own past.
Bad for you if
- brutal scenes in the novel Susan reads are too much for you.
- cruelty told without comfort is too heavy for you.
About: revenge · regret · art
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
Gladiator 2000
Film
After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus, one of Rome's most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator and battle to the death against other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
The sides of Gladiator
- A general sold into slavery
- Fights in the arena
- An emperor who fears him
Good for you if
- you want ancient Rome brought back to life.
- you like a hero driven by honour and a promise to his family.
- you like brutal sword fights in the arena.
Bad for you if
- bloody battles and arena deaths ruin it for you.
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
About: revenge · honour · power
12 Years a Slave 2013
Film
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
The sides of 12 Years a Slave
- A free man kidnapped into slavery
- Twelve years on plantations
- A hope he never lets go of
Good for you if
- you like performances that are hard to watch and impossible to forget.
- you want history shown without looking away.
- you like a true story taken from Solomon Northup's own memoir.
Bad for you if
- the cruelty of slavery shown in full is too much tonight.
- whippings shown at length are too hard for you.
About: slavery · survival · dignity
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
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 Revenant 2015
Film
In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
The sides of The Revenant
- A man left for dead in the snow
- A bear attack you feel in your bones
- Revenge across a frozen wilderness
Good for you if
- you like real landscapes filmed in natural light.
- you like watching someone stay alive against everything.
- you like the American frontier of the 1820s, fur trappers and all.
Bad for you if
- a bear mauling and raw wounds are too much for you.
- you want a story told in words. There are few.
- two and a half hours of struggle is too long for you.
About: survival · revenge · nature