Film
No Such Thing
Sarah Polley travels to Iceland hunting her fiancé and instead finds a lonely, eloquent monster who'd rather be dead. It's a stark, strange fairy-tale from director Hal Hartley—gorgeous and melancholic, built on conversation rather than spectacle. For those who love oddball romance and philosophical unease in equal measure.
If you liked this
The Shape of Water2017
A creature-and-human romance with genuine tenderness and visual poetry. Sally Hawkins gives an extraordinary performance, and Guillermo del Toro crafts a love story that feels both mythic and deeply human.
But The political messaging is blunt, and if you need constant plot momentum rather than atmospheric brooding, it drags.

Mulholland Drive2001
David Lynch's fractured LA nightmare is hypnotic and disorienting in the best way. It rewards obsessive rewatching and lingers in your head for weeks. Naomi Watts is revelatory.
But It's deliberately obscure and won't explain itself. If you hate ambiguity or non-linear storytelling, you'll resent it deeply.

Stalker1979
Tarkovsky's meditative masterpiece about desire and disappointment. Every frame is painterly. It moves slowly but with hypnotic purpose, asking profound questions about what we actually want.
But At 163 minutes, it's a commitment. There's minimal plot and maximum philosophy. Patience isn't optional.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from No Such Thing
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Seventh Seal1957
Both use a supernatural encounter to explore whether existence is worth continuing, and both find strange beauty in that darkest of questions.
Bergman's knight plays chess with Death itself while a plague ravages the countryside. Stark, philosophical, unforgettable. It asks what life means when death is certain—the same question No Such Thing circles around.
But Swedish, slow, and entirely devoid of comfort. It's a film about despair dressed in medieval robes. Not an evening for escapism.

More like this (8)
Arrival2016
A science-fiction film that privileges language and understanding over spectacle. Thoughtful, moving, and genuinely original. Amy Adams is wonderful, and it builds to something unexpectedly devastating.
But It's slow-burn and cerebral. If you want aliens and action, this is too quiet for you.

Under the Skin2014
Scarlett Johansson in an alien abduction film that's more mood-piece and visual essay than narrative. Haunting, strange, often wordless. Jonathan Glazer made something genuinely unsettling and beautiful.
But Practically plotless. Long stretches with minimal dialogue and action. Some find it pretentious; it's definitely demanding.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night2014
Iranian-American noir about a vampire in a small desert town. Shot in black and white, gorgeously composed, funny and sad at once. It's a love letter to old Hollywood made new.
But Deliberately paced and sparse. The plot is minimal and the tone is more melancholic mood than thriller. Some will find it static.

The Lobster2015
Yorgos Lanthimos's deadpan comedy-horror where single people are transformed into animals. Absurdist, darkly funny, utterly original. Colin Farrell delivers a masterclass in minimal expression.
But The humor is bone-dry and alienating. If you need warmth or conventional romance, the cold precision will freeze you out.

A Monster Calls2016
A boy grieving his mother's illness encounters a tree-monster. Heartbreaking and fantastical without being saccharine. It earns every emotional moment and respects both grief and wonder.
But It's unabashedly sentimental. If you distrust fairy-tale logic applied to real pain, this will feel manipulative.

The Lighthouse2019
Two men isolated on a rock, descending into madness and strange intimacy. Shot in black and white on 35mm, deliberately artificial and hypnotic. Pattinson and Dafoe are mesmerizing.
But Claustrophobic and deliberately hard to watch. The dialogue is murky, the tone is unpleasant, and it offers no catharsis whatsoever.

Come and See1985
Both feature protagonists who witness horror and are changed irrevocably by it. Both suggest that surviving doesn't mean escaping your scars.
Elem Klimov's Belarusian WWII film follows a boy's day-by-day destruction of innocence. Visually overwhelming, emotionally annihilating, and absolutely necessary. One of cinema's most powerful statements about the cost of survival.
But It's brutally violent and utterly depressing. Not entertainment. Some people finish it and need a week to recover.

The Fountain2006
Both treat monstrousness and longing as inseparable. Both suggest that wanting to die and wanting to be loved aren't opposites—sometimes they're the same hunger.
Darren Aronofsky's three-timeline love story spans 1000 years. Visually sumptuous and mathematically structured. It's ambitious in a way that feels reckless, and it breaks open questions about death, love, and letting go.
But Willfully confusing and deeply sentimental. The nonlinear structure will alienate people looking for clarity, and some find the cosmic philosophy overwrought.

People
Cast
Sarah PolleyBeatrice
Robert John BurkeThe Monster
Helen MirrenThe Boss
Julie ChristieDr. Anna
Baltasar KormákurDr. Artaud
Annika PetersonMargaret
Erica GimpelJudy
James UrbaniakConcierge
Bill SageCarlo
Paul LazarFred
Damian YoungBerger
Miho NikaidoBeautician
Directing
- Hal HartleyDirector
- Michael LermanFirst Assistant Director
Writing
- Hal HartleyWriter
Production
- Francis Ford CoppolaExecutive Producer
- Linda ReismanExecutive Producer
- Willi BärExecutive Producer
- Cecilia Kate RoqueProducer
- Fridrik Thor FridrikssonProducer
- Hal HartleyProducer