Film
The Discarded
- AI and robot sci-fi
- Strange
A haunting six-minute 3D animation about abandonment and decay. An android and a shapeshifting junk creature inhabit a graveyard of discarded things. Visually meticulous and genuinely unsettling, it's experimental sci-fi horror that trusts its audience to sit with discomfort and find beauty in entropy. For people who love slow-burn atmosphere and don't need plot handed to them.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy short, experimental pieces where texture and mood do the storytelling, and you like dread that hangs around long after a six-minute runtime ends.
Skip it if you want a story with clear characters and a plot you can follow, since this is more an impression of a broken world than a narrative you can grip.
What it asks of you: Very short and very focused, it asks you to sit still and let its strange imagery accumulate rather than explain itself.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
A Ghost Story2017
A man returns as a ghost to watch time consume everything he knew. Like *The Discarded*, it's patient, mournful, and finds transcendence in loss. Proves you can break narrative convention and still break your heart.
But Deliberately slow and meditative to the point of stasis. If you need things to happen, this will feel like punishment rather than poetry.
Blade Runner 20492017
Visually rapturous sci-fi about obsolescence and what remains when purpose ends. Denis Villeneuve builds entire worlds from quiet and dust. The cinematography alone justifies the runtime.
But Narrative takes a backseat to mood and image. The plot is simpler than the film's runtime suggests, and some find that mismatch frustrating.
Annihilation2018
Trippy, unsettling sci-fi that values atmosphere and strangeness over exposition. A shimmer at the edge of reality that transforms everything it touches. Hypnotic and deeply wrong in all the right ways.
But Answers fewer questions than it raises. The third act takes risks that landed unevenly with audiences. Some feel cheated by its refusal to explain.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Discarded
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari1920
Both use visual distortion and production design—not dialogue—to tell stories about bodies that aren't quite right and worlds that aren't quite sane.
German Expressionist silent cinema—all sharp angles, shadows, and dread. A man and a somnambulist move through a warped world. The visual language is pure, unmediated nightmare. *The Discarded* channels this DNA.
But A century old and it shows. Silent film grammar requires patience; intertitles interrupt the flow. The plot is quaint by modern standards.
More like this (8)
Under the Skin2014
Scarlett Johansson in an utterly alien role, driving through Scotland as something unknowable. Sparse, gorgeous dread. A film that works on pure sensory language without leaning on dialogue or plot clarity.
But Nearly dialogue-free and glacially paced. The premise is delivered in whispers; if you need clarity and momentum, you'll feel left behind.
The Lighthouse2019
Two men, a lighthouse, madness, and that's it. Shot in black-and-white 35mm with monomaniacal focus. Hypnotic, claustrophobic, and stranger than its premise suggests. Every frame is a painting.
But A descent into psychological confusion that refuses to resolve cleanly. The second half prioritises atmosphere over coherence, which works if you surrender but alienates if you resist.
Everything Everywhere All at Once2022
Multiverse chaos that somehow makes emotional sense. Maximalist in every direction—sound, editing, concept—but anchored by genuine tenderness. Proves experimental filmmaking can hit you in the chest.
But Relentlessly busy. The sensory overload is the point, but for some it tips into exhaustion rather than exhilaration.
The Midnight Gospel2020
A trip through dying worlds while two friends talk about philosophy and grief. Gorgeous, surreal animation paired with genuinely vulnerable conversation. Each episode is a small miracle.
But Only eight episodes and it ended. The show's gentleness with heavy subjects feels like a luxury now that it's gone.
Love, Death & Robots2019
An anthology of wildly varied animated shorts—some beautiful, some grotesque, all uncompromising. Perfect for finding new favourite artists and ideas. Proof that short-form animation can devastate.
But Unevenness is built in; you'll watch some you adore and some you resent. Quality and tone swing wildly, and there's no continuity to lean on.
Arcane: League of Legends2021
A show about class, ambition, and corruption that happens to be animated. The art is stunning; the voice acting is lived-in; the storytelling doesn't condescend. Animation fans and newcomers both find something.
But Feels like prestige TV cosplaying as a video game adaptation. Some find the earnestness overwrought, and the pacing shifts oddly between seasons.
Perfect Blue1998
Both are formally experimental animations where a figure is trapped or lost in an overwhelming environment. Both trust visual storytelling over plot clarity.
Satoshi Kon's masterpiece: a J-pop idol's psyche fractures across Tokyo. Hand-drawn 2D animation at the absolute peak of craft. Disorienting, erotic, horrifying, and beautiful. A technical and narrative landmark.
But Deeply disturbing imagery including sexual assault. Japanese early-90s production values in backgrounds that can distract. The narrative deliberately blurs reality and delusion.
Honey Boy2019
Like *The Discarded*, it's a work of art about being cast off—about the emotional and human wreckage of systems that discard what they've used up.
Shia LaBeouf plays his own father in this painful, gorgeous exploration of childhood abuse and inherited damage. Burnished cinematography and performances that feel flayed open. A radical portrait of what gets discarded in systems that use children.
But Deeply autobiographical trauma. Shia's performance is so exposed it can feel intrusive. The script circles themes rather than resolving them, and the tone is relentlessly bruised.
