Film

Oslo, August 31st

A man on day-release from rehab returns to Oslo for twenty-four hours, drifting through the city reconnecting with old friends and confronting the ruins of his former life. It's a film about the gap between who you were and who you're trying to become—patient, observant, achingly sad without ever looking for pity. For anyone who's watched someone struggle with addiction, or struggled themselves.

TMDb rating3.8

If you liked this

Requiem for a Dream2000

Another unflinching portrait of addiction's arithmetic—how it steals time, money, relationships, identity. Aronofsky's visual intensity makes the inner collapse visible. Devastating and necessary.

But Relentlessly bleak and assaultive. The style never lets you look away or catch your breath. Some find it manipulative rather than moving.

Requiem for a Dream poster

A Prophet2009

A young man remade by circumstance—in prison instead of rehab—studies, survives, and discovers what he's capable of. Handsomely made, morally complex, propulsive. Tahar Rahim is magnetic.

But Long and prison-set, which means violence and bleakness. The ending divides people on whether it's hopeful or hollow.

A Prophet poster

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner1962

A rebellious young man in a reformatory finds running as a form of resistance and self-discovery. British kitchen-sink realism with real humanity underneath the anger. Quietly radical.

But The pacing is deliberate. If you want narrative propulsion, this isn't it. Also, that ending—not everyone sees it as earned.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

In the Mood for Love2000

Both films understand that loneliness isn't about being alone—it's about the distance between people in the same room. Both make visual poetry from urban spaces and the people drifting through them.

Two neighbors in 1960s Hong Kong fall in love without touching. Told almost entirely through colour, costume, and spatial proximity. It's about desire as architecture, and loneliness as intimacy. Hypnotic.

But Plotless and languorous. If you're watching for story, you will be bored. The slowness is the point, but the point won't convince everyone.

In the Mood for Love poster
More like this (7)

Shame2011

Michael Fassbender as a man whose carefully controlled isolation begins to crack. Uncompromising and sometimes uncomfortable, but deeply felt. McQueen's direction is precise and cruel.

But Sexually explicit and emotionally cold. Some viewers find it distant rather than moving—all form, not enough feeling.

Shame poster

It's Such a Beautiful Day2012

A man's life, illness, and deterioration observed in fragmentary, poetic animation. Philosophical without being pretentious. Handles existential dread with strange gentleness.

But The stick-figure animation repels many immediately. The pacing is glacial. If it doesn't click, you'll be watching paint dry.

It's Such a Beautiful Day poster

Spring2014

A grieving American drifts into an unexpected romance in Italy. Benson and Moorhead balance magical realism with real human connection. It sneaks up on you.

But Genre-shifting and tonal whiplash. Some find it pretentious or self-conscious. Not quite drama, not quite fantasy—the hybrid doesn't work for everyone.

Spring poster

Still Life2006

A retiree tracks down relatives of the unknown dead in London, searching for someone to attend their funerals. Gentle, meditative, about human connection in the margins. Sokurov is a poet.

But Glacially paced and plotless. The whole film is observation and mood. If you need narrative momentum, move on.

Still Life poster

Chungking Express1994

Two Hong Kong cops drift through the city in separate, interweaving stories of longing and disconnection. Dazzling formally but also heartfelt. Wong Kar-wai's masterpiece about urban loneliness.

But Aggressively stylish and somewhat plotless. The visual flash can obscure emotional depth. Some see style over substance; others find the style *is* the substance.

Chungking Express poster

The Act of Killing2012

Where Oslo, August 31st is internal—watching a man confront his own past—The Act of Killing externalizes it, forcing perpetrators to face what they've done through mirrors of their own making. Both are about the weight of living with what you've been.

A documentary that asks Indonesian death-squad perpetrators to recreate their murders as cinema. Morally vertiginous, formally inventive, and finally devastating. It's about complicity and self-deception in ways that grip you.

But Graphic depictions of murder, genocide denial, and moral chaos. Watching perpetrators perform their atrocities is intentionally sickening. Not entertainment.

The Act of Killing poster

First Reformed2018

Both trace a single day (or compressed timeframe) in a man's internal crisis. Both use the city as a mirror for spiritual emptiness. Both refuse easy redemption—they ask whether redemption is even possible.

A pastor wracked by doubt about faith, climate collapse, and his own complicity tries to find solid ground. Paul Schrader made this at 73, and it's furious and tender and strange. A masterpiece about crisis and meaning.

But Theologically dense and deeply pessimistic. The final act is unsettling and some find it exploitative. Not comforting or easy.

First Reformed poster

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