Film
Atomic Hearts
A seven-minute dark comedy set in a post-nuclear wasteland, where a scavenger daughter navigates the grim reality outside while her parents cling to pre-bomb domesticity. It's tightly wound, visually striking, and genuinely funny in its collision of tones. For anyone who loves short films that pack existential dread and absurdist humour into a tight frame.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy bleak premises played with a straight face, where the comedy comes from stubborn denial in a ruined house rather than big set pieces, and you like a joke that lands fast.
Skip it if your patience for slow, quiet absurdism runs out quickly, since the setup is the whole point and there is little room for story beyond the one idea.
What it asks of you: Seven minutes, one tight sitting, with no slack: it arrives, makes its point and leaves before the gloom has time to settle.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Threads1984
A brutally realistic depiction of nuclear war's aftermath, showing how society fragments and how families splinter under unimaginable pressure. Unflinching and devastating.
But It's relentlessly bleak and made for horror rather than catharsis. Some shots stay with you in ways that feel punishing rather than illuminating.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb1964
Kubrick's masterpiece finds the absurdity in nuclear doctrine by playing it completely straight, mining dark comedy from the madness of deterrence. Gallows humour perfected.
But The pacing is glacial by modern standards, and the satirical targets feel historical. You need patience for the rhythm to land.
The Road2009
Cormac McCarthy's novel becomes a film about a father and son moving through ash and ruin. Intimate, haunting, asking what love means when everything is gone. Beautifully shot.
But Relentlessly grey and bleak. The emotional heaviness never lifts, and some will find it punishing rather than cathartic.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Atomic Hearts
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Mad Max: Fury Road2015
Both compress narrative into visual language and absurdist clarity. Warren's domestic chaos mirrors the primal desperation of the Wasteland, but Warren's problem is that her parents refuse to see the world has changed at all.
Pure kinetic storytelling in a post-collapse wasteland. Minimal dialogue, maximum visual information. A masterclass in how to make seven minutes feel urgent and full—Miller does in two hours what most directors can't do in ten.
But If you need character interiority or narrative exposition, the film will feel like hollow action. It prioritises momentum over meaning.
More like this (8)
Annihilation2018
A shimmer of mystery expands across the landscape, warping everything it touches. Visually stunning, scientifically intriguing, with an atmosphere that lingers. Thoughtful sci-fi.
But The logic of the central mystery feels deliberately opaque, and some find the ending more frustrating than profound.
Severance2022
A corporation splits consciousness between work and home life. Eerie, darkly comic, with production design that feels claustrophobic and pristine at once. Season one is exceptional.
But Slow-burn mysteries can feel glacial. If you need momentum over atmosphere, you'll feel the drag.
A Boy and His Dog1975
Post-apocalyptic survival filtered through the sensibilities of the 1970s, mixing hardscrabble desperation with surreal comedy. Genuinely weird and worth discovering.
But The tone is erratic and the social attitudes dated. It hasn't aged as well as it thinks it has.
On the Beach1959
Nuclear war's slow-motion epilogue as radiation drifts toward Australia. Melancholy and meditative, treating extinction with genuine emotional weight rather than spectacle.
But Almost glacially paced for a modern viewer, and the resigned acceptance of doom might feel like passivity rather than tragedy.
Stalker1979
Tarkovsky's meditation on desire and meaning in a mysterious zone. Hypnotic, philosophical, visually stunning in its restraint. A film that demands your full attention and rewards it.
But It moves at the speed of thought, not plot. If you need narrative momentum, this will feel like standing still for three hours.
Sweet Home2020
Korean apocalypse series where humanity is inexplicably transforming into monsters. Character-focused, claustrophobic, visceral in its emotion and action. Genuinely surprising.
But Graphic body horror and unsparing violence. The relentlessness works for some, exhausts others.
The Midnight Sky2020
Both hinge on the gulf between people who know the outside world is broken and those who refuse to acknowledge it. Where Atomic Hearts finds dark comedy in that collision, this finds tragedy in the communication failure.
Astronauts return from exploration to find Earth has been devastated by war. A quiet, human story of connection across void and ruin. Visually gorgeous, emotionally grounded.
But The plotting is thin and the emotional climax feels underearned. Some stretches play like expensive filler between set pieces.
Safety Not Guaranteed2012
Both interrogate the gap between what people want to believe and what is actually true. Warren's parents live in a fantasy; the characters here must decide whether that fantasy matters more than reality.
A classifed ad for a time-travel companion spirals into a portrait of delusion, longing, and whether some lies are kinder than truth. Funny and quietly devastating, with a great ensemble.
But It pivots on a sentimental moment some will find unearned. The whimsy might feel forced if you're not in sync with the film's emotional register.
People
Cast
Amelia MahrieWarren Matson- Jarrod LangwinskiEd Matson
- Laker ThrasherBetty Matson
Directing
- John Carlo RosilloDirector
Writing
- Amelia MahrieWriter
- Emily DalskeWriter
Production
- Jamie SilbernagelAssociate Producer
- Chase BarthelProducer
Recommended by
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), The Old Guard, Momentum