Film
Ants
A Macedonian buddy-cop comedy-thriller pairing a homophobic detective with a trans woman to solve a murder. It's a premise that could easily curdle into something ugly, but the film finds warmth and genuine character development in their unlikely partnership. For viewers drawn to stories about people crossing their own lines.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like odd-couple pairings where two prickly people are forced to share a case and their friction does most of the work, with a crime plot that stays in the background.
Skip it if a bigoted lead's behaviour as comic material could grate from the first scene, and it is still in production, so there is no finished cut to judge.
What it asks of you: Expect a loose, talky pace where the mystery is a backdrop to long conversations about regret, and be ready to sit with some uneasy edges.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Moonlight2016
Three-act portrait of a Black man's life and identity across decades, told with visual poetry and deep empathy. Each chapter reveals how circumstances shape us, and how connection transforms understanding.
But Deliberately paced and introspective. If you need plot momentum or big emotional releases, the quiet restraint may feel frustrating.
Tangerine2015
Shot entirely on an iPhone, this Los Angeles street comedy follows two trans sex workers on Christmas Eve. Raw, funny, angry, and completely alive—a film that moves at the speed of real friendship.
But The handheld camera work is intentionally claustrophobic and relentless. Some will find the energy exhausting rather than energizing.
Hunger2008
Steve McQueen's study of an IRA prisoner's final days is a masterclass in visual storytelling without sentimentality. Unbearably tense, intellectually rigorous, and morally complex about resistance and sacrifice.
But Graphic violence and real suffering. It's a film that demands something from you and offers no catharsis in return.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ants
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki2016
Both explore how people transform through proximity to someone who sees them differently—the detective and trans woman mirror the boxer and his lover, each pair forcing the other to reckon with who they actually are.
Finnish black-and-white film about a boxer before his biggest fight, torn between boxing and his lover. It's a story about the cost of ambition and conformity, told with Kaurismäki-like deadpan warmth. The form—stark, beautiful, severe—becomes part of the story.
But The emotional registers are muted and the resolution is ambiguous. If you need catharsis or clear moral triumph, the film's resignation may feel like defeat.
More like this (7)
Hereditary2018
A family thriller that uses genre mechanics to explore grief, guilt, and intergenerational trauma. Toni Collette's performance is staggering, and the film earns every moment of dread it builds.
But Relentlessly bleak and featuring genuinely upsetting imagery. It's horror that operates on the nerves, not the jump-scare pleasure centers.
Kajaki2014
British soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan accidentally hit a minefield. What follows is a real-time study of courage, panic, and the costs of impossible choices. Unbearably tense and deeply humane.
But Claustrophobic and graphic about injury. The slow-burn tension may read as monotonous if you prefer narrative momentum.
The Lesson2014
A substitute teacher holds his class hostage to teach them about responsibility and consequence. Starts as a high-concept thriller, becomes something much stranger about power, shame, and who we become under pressure.
But The premise could have been exploitative or reductive. It skirts that line deliberately, which some will read as clever and others as uncomfortable.
In a Better World2010
Danish film about two boys, one traumatized by war, one by his parents' divorce. It's a study of how violence propagates and how easily the wronged become wrongdoers. Morally serious without being preachy.
But Spans two countries and two timelines without always integrating them neatly. The structure can feel baggy if you're looking for tighter storytelling.
Winter Song2023
Two men—one older, one younger, one straight, one gay—spend a week together in a cottage. Quiet, melancholic, and entirely about what's unspoken. A film that trusts you to sit with longing and incompleteness.
But Almost nothing happens. If you need incident or resolution, this is a film about absence and it will feel like absence to you too.
Godless2017
Both stories hinge on characters forced to work across lines they thought were absolute—gender, sexuality, identity, morality—and discovering those lines were always less solid than they believed.
Western miniseries (seven hours) set in a town run entirely by women. Uses the genre's visual language to ask what power actually looks like when it's distributed differently. Taut, strange, visually stunning, and genuinely surprising about violence and mercy.
But The premise can feel conceptual and heavy-handed. Some plot threads feel schematic, and the tone veers between pulp and social sermon in ways that don't always land.
The Insult2017
A murder investigation, like your film, becomes the container for two people who despise everything the other represents. But here the revelation isn't about shared humanity—it's about the possibility of coexistence without agreement.
Lebanese courtroom drama: a Palestinian construction worker and a Christian man escalate from a simple insult to a trial that becomes about nationalism, history, and whether understanding is even possible. Tense, funny, and genuinely about how people talk past each other.
But The politics are deliberate and foregrounded. If you want your thrillers clean of ideology, this will feel didactic rather than dramatically necessary.
People
Cast
Recommended by
Empire of the Ants, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo, Bug, The Nest