Film

Kelly + Victor

A raw, intimate portrait of two damaged people in Liverpool who find fleeting connection through sex and hunger. The film watches them navigate class struggle, addiction, and the thin line between tenderness and violence. It's unflinching and unglamorous—for viewers ready for something uncomfortable and honest, without easy answers or redemption.

TMDb rating2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a raw, unflinching study of two damaged people whose attraction is as dangerous as it is tender, and you don't need the story to play it safe.

Skip it if you need a tidy plot or a light touch with sex and violence, since this is grim, intimate and slow to build momentum.

What it asks of you: Expect a lean 95 minutes in which the mood tightens by degrees, and the rhythm lingers on bodies, rooms and silences rather than on plot milestones.

If you liked this

Fish Tank2009

Andrea Arnold captures the same restless energy and sexual uncertainty in a young woman trapped by circumstance. Visually alive, morally complicated, deeply felt.

But Slow, deliberately paced, and the ending will not console you. It's a film that wants to unsettles you.

Fish Tank poster

Tyrannosaur2011

Paddy Considine's directorial debut about two damaged people finding connection amid brutality. Tender and violent, funny and bleak—it understands how pain shapes desire.

But The violence is sudden and real, not theatrical. Some will find it punishing rather than cathartic.

Tyrannosaur poster

Nil by Mouth1997

Gary Oldman's only directorial work—a brutal, unflinching look at a South London family drowning in addiction and violence. Painfully authentic dialogue and performances.

But It's relentlessly dark with no moments of relief. The language is harsh and the subject matter is punishing.

Nil by Mouth poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kelly + Victor

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Borgman2013

Both films explore how predators disguise themselves in intimacy, and how vulnerability becomes a weapon. They share a fascination with what happens when you let the wrong person close.

Alex van Warmerdam's Dutch horror-thriller where a man insinuates himself into a family's life with terrible consequences. It looks like a bourgeois family drama until suddenly it isn't. Darkly funny, deeply unsettling, formally audacious.

But It's a slow-burn puzzle that refuses to explain itself. You'll leave without answers, and the violence when it comes is shocking.

Borgman poster
More like this (7)

The Souvenir2019

Joanna Hogg examines a toxic romance between a film student and an older man who grooms her. Formally inventive, emotionally precise, about how we mistake danger for sophistication.

But Deliberately oblique. The film trusts you to understand what's happening beneath the surface—it will not spell it out.

The Souvenir poster

The Handmaiden2016

Park Chan-wook's sensual thriller about a con woman and a wealthy heiress. Gorgeous cinematography and intricate plotting—a total seduction of a film.

But The twists could feel manipulative if you're not in the mood for being toyed with. Some will find it too clever.

The Handmaiden poster

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson in an alien's body, cruising Glasgow in search of human connection (of a sort). Hypnotic, unsettling, beautifully shot—cinema as pure mood.

But There's barely a conventional plot. It's glacial in pacing and demands active viewing, not passive consumption.

Under the Skin poster

A Prophet2009

Jacques Audiard's masterpiece about a young man transformed by prison, where survival becomes art. It's taut, beautifully made, and morally sophisticated.

But It's a long film about incarceration with no heroes—some will find it grim rather than gripping.

A Prophet poster

Bright Star2009

Jane Campion's delicate film about John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Romance filtered through restraint and longing—two people separated by circumstance but bound by feeling.

But Period costume drama with a melancholic pace. If you want passion expressed through action, this isn't it.

Bright Star poster

Looking for Alibrandi2000

Like Kelly + Victor, it trusts performance over plot and finds humanity in people society overlooks. Both use digital intimacy to capture working-class lives without condescension.

An Australian indie about class, family, and a young woman figuring out who she is. Shot in digital video with messy energy and genuine warmth. It's funny, tender, and urgently alive in a way studio films rarely are.

But The technical quality is deliberately rough—this is low-budget Australian cinema from the late '90s. If you need high production values, this will feel cheap.

Looking for Alibrandi poster

Nights of Cabiria1957

Both films follow women surviving through sex and charm while the world presses down on them. Both understand that survival and romance aren't opposites—they're the same desperate need wearing different clothes.

Fellini's masterpiece about a Roman prostitute chasing love and connection despite repeated betrayal. Giulietta Masina is luminous. It's sad and comic and human in a way few films manage.

But It's in Italian and from 1957—the pacing is deliberate, the world completely different. The ending is devastating.

Nights of Cabiria poster

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