Indispensable Movies

Once the first frame of Lynch's feature-length debut plunges you into a world so far removed from your own in terms of visual illustration, it is difficult to recover from the perceptible surrealism weaved into every nuance and detail pervading the atmosphere. A disturbing dirge of the deepest fears of parenthood that confounds as much as it unearths in its dreamlike structure and monochromatic industrial aesthetics. Although it may examine male paranoia through a surrealist, quasi-logical narrative structure akin to Bunuel or Dali, this is eerily reminiscent of your most bizarre, inscrutable nightmares than any other visual expression, art or otherwise. Ominous as it is on the surface, Lynch's multi-faceted masterwork is nevertheless, on the whole, entirely cogent and terse in its narrative structure and characterisations. Once seen, it is never quite forgotten.

A restorative force of real and consequential tenderness, beauty and brutality set amongst the concrete jungle of fading North East industrialism. Billy Elliot not only acts as a shining vestige of hope for British cinema and that of its in-film blue-collar community, albeit with even more conviction than "The Full Monty". Unvarnished inspirational escapism has never before seemed so ripe in its exploration of achieving artistic ambitions in spite of the trappings of toxic masculinity, poverty and gender expectations.

In embracing then-radical prescient ideas and wit concerning sexual fluidity and gender roles, one could argue that Billy Wilder's most popular outing as director is as excessively diverse and salacious as it is subversive, and as such defies every law of the genre and yet succeeds tenfold. With a script that aims for sophisticated modernity and mines gender humour with verve and three top-tier movie stars who reached their collective creative peak, it is unsurprising that the film remains as remarkably fresh today as it was in 1959. It is a distinctly vivacious comic masterpiece that is rightfully considered the greatest of all American comedies.

Owing to my being an avowed aesthete, the somewhat overly polished and conventional MTV cinematographic stylizations of The Lost Boys should repel me, but when it is so dreamily vivid and lovingly executed that every frame exudes sheer visual pleasure without ever resorting to excess, therein lies its power to spellbind the most cynical of film buffs; I hold it in such high esteem that I consider it to be one of the best examples of how to sexualise vampires beyond the usual histrionic Dracula tropes.

Perfection on every level, such madcap, offbeat masterpieces as this only come along once a decade. Once you see it, you will cherish its beatific imagery and farcical, bittersweet brevity forevermore. Nicolas Cage will struggle to surpass his effortlessly endearing performance here as "reformed" con H.I. McDunnough, and alongside a prickly, neurotic Holly Hunter as his wife, he truly shines. "Raising Arizona" is neither comedy nor drama, but something else entirely, an indefinable masterpiece that subverts the cruel cynicism of infertility, reformation and parenthood without ever feeling kitsch, sentimental or saccharine.

Languid crime drama of the highest order, shifting from bungled organised large-scale armed thefts to personal chaos of a bank robbing gang and the cop on their tail, Mann's masterpiece humanises and explores relationships just as intricately and precisely as the action during its heist scenes. Also notable for any film buff is that it was the first movie to present the audience with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro's opposing characters in the same scene, and it is does not disappoint.

Spies, morals and slut-shaming are the keynotes of this overlooked Hitchcock classic, but at the heart of it all is a virtuoso sequence featuring wine bottles that you will never forget. Aside from the political espionage, Hitchcock's most complex foray into romance features the longest kiss ever between co-stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, who both cool and radiate respectively. "Notorious" is sublime entertainment and one of Hitchcock's greatest visual achievements, worthy of reappraisal, if not for its merits, but for being the quintessential suspense movie dovetailed with a romance so layered and rich that you welcome the inevitable outcome upon the taut, electrifying denouement.

"Thelma" may read as yet another prototype of "Carrie", but its disquieting mood and chilly Oslo scenery, profound sadness and engrossing central performance elevate it beyond conventional horror and into the realms of human drama. Despite juxtaposing the supernatural and psychological, exactly what is afflicting the titular heroine is left open to interpretation; violent seizures, telekinetic experiences and paranormal disturbances are inexplicable until a pervading sexual element creeps into play. Upon involuntarily summoning her ability to vanish the object of her sexual awakening and that of her subconsciously suppressed power, we are led into an unearthing of a childhood trauma. Demonstrated through a series of haunting images, the truth behind her power becomes startlingly clear, perhaps disturbingly so. Several sequences in the film are deemed dream-like, fantastical and surreal - the incidences blend seamlessly so as to blindside the viewer, forcing them to question what exactly is real. Such a poetic thread of ambiguity and incipience runs through the film, and we only view Thelma's abilities in a deeply tortured context until she accepts herself and thus gains self-control. Beneath the film's gradual supernatural bent extends an allegory of the power of the female body and the manifestations of repression, sexual, and religious conflict, all of which bolsters it beyond the ominous portents and allows for deeper analysis. By tapping into vivid primal terror and showcasing beautifully composed yet unnerving visuals, an accumulation of unbridled emotion explodes into an exhilarating denouement that reaches its rightful, empowering climax.

Never impeded by its cinematic gimmick - the action remains in one room onlooking several others - Hitchcock's foray into neighbourhood paranoia favours style over substance but is all the better for it. Hitchcock accomplishes a gripping visual study of the dangers, and inadvertent assistance, of voyeurism. From the perpetual point of view of James Stewart's Jeff, the purest embodiment of Hitchcock's neuroses and indulgences, an immersive, comprehensive mood exists within confined parameters. Hitchcock condenses a murder scheme viewed entirely from Jeff's binocular perspective into a hypnotic mood piece that has evolved over the years into something of a masterpiece.

Though its most conspicuous elements are graphically realised (voyeurism, BDSM, fetishism, etc) "The Duke of Burgundy" is not universally resonant in its themes, nor does it appeal to the masses in a "Fifty Shades of Grey" sense. "The Duke of Burgundy" subverts turgid visual sex cues and instead uses feverish, heady atmospherics and pervading mood to pay fervid homage to the female-centric erotica of the 1970s. It is testament to its auteur, Peter Strickland, that this inventive film achieves something rare in art cinema: being effectively soft porn but more so authentic in its examination of power and how it is wielded within relationships than most films can only dream of.

One of those rarities in cinema, a sequel that surpasses the original, "Batman Returns" is unequivocally the fourth greatest outing starring the Caped Crusader. Despite its potent, grotesquerie colour palette and Expressionist production design, this vivid, noirish fantasy succeeds more on a romantic level than any other franchise entry due to its daring foray into the dichotomous duality of superheroes. Burton retreats from convoluted crime plotting and excavates the simmering tragedy behind not just the Bat but also his enemies, the Cat and the Penguin, all of whom harness a melancholic thread throughout. Burton's dark fairytale is a brooding, atmospheric ode to alienated outcasts who must wear masks to subvert society's conventionality and become noticed for being conspicuously unidentifiable and courageous.