8) Revolutionary Road
As director Sam Mendes’ film adaptation of Richard Yates’ 1961 novel of the same name, Revolutionary Road is scripted by Justin Haythe, and is an award-winning period drama. Steeped in the claustrophobia of 1950s middle-class suburban America, the film depicts the gradual deterioration of a marriage and a family unit.
Two young adults – full of hope and aspiration – meet, marry, and move to Revolutionary Road when they are expecting their first child. As monotony sets in, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) begin to feel that their dreams and ambitions are slowly and effectively being squeezed out of their empty lives, while their relationship begins to asphyxiate. The growing resentment between them manifests in adultery and blistering fights until an unexpected and unwanted turn of events drives April to extreme measures, with devastating consequences.
Separately, the two central performances are incredibly detailed and very different portrayals of people whose unhappy lives are unravelling. DiCaprio’s Frank is a powerful rendering of a man trapped in a prison of his own design – riding relentless waves of bitterness and regret. Winslet’s April is a heartbreaking depiction of a woman slowly suffocating inside the narrow pigeonhole that a sexist society has shoe-horned her into. Combined, these roles make Revolutionary Road a study in lives wasted. While it is masterful filmmaking as a whole, it is almost certainly a film you’ll only want to watch once.
9) We Need To Talk About Kevin
This film adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s book of the same name is, without doubt, a horror film masquerading as a psychological drama. Written and directed by Lynne Ramsay – with Rory Stewart Kinnear co-writing – We Need To Talk About Kevin deliberately plucks at the darkest fears of every parent, while delivering one of the most chilling movie villains of all time.
Told in mixed chronology – using flashbacks as a narrative tool – the film introduces us to a teenage Kevin Katchadourian (Ezra Miller), who resides in a prison and receives visits from his mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton, in a career-best performance). This meeting sets the tone for all that follows, as it becomes clear through unspoken signals that this is a mother who is terrified of her child – and rightly so, as Ezra Miller lays before us a character that chills you to the bone with one, menacing glance.
It transpires that Kevin is imprisoned for doing something very bad at his High School – although the story allows the details of his crime to unfold slowly, and in their own time. Outside of the prison, we find that Eva – formerly a successful travel writer – now lives alone in a near-derelict home and works for a travel agency, close to the prison – enduring growing hostility from those in her community.
As a painful anniversary approaches, Eva begins to recall the events that led her to this point in her life – remembering how Kevin was a difficult and detached child. As a new mother, she struggles with growing evidence of his disturbed nature, all the while having her concerns dismissed by her husband, Franklin (John C. Reilly), who enjoys a closer bond to his son.
As Kevin grows, so does the tension within the family – forcing Eva and Franklin further apart, and causing Eva to fear for the safety of her younger child. Eventually, as the full horror of Kevin’s crime is revealed through the eyes of his mother, we discover the real reason for her to now be living alone, and for her resigned determination to continue visiting her murderous child.
Having a basic idea of his crime from the beginning of the film gives the subsequent 100 minutes an uncomfortable and terrible sense of inevitability to them – but that’s before the horror has even started. We go into the story thinking that it will be a dramatic exploration of the impact of a high school massacre on the mother of the assailant, but with its final two scenes, this film unashamedly and brutally rips your throat out. We Need To Talk About Kevin will remain embedded in your darkest corners, and you’ll only want to watch it once.