Film
Treacle Jr.
A withdrawn man fleeing his family collides—literally and figuratively—with an irrepressibly cheerful stranger in London. Their unlikely friendship becomes a study in how optimism can mask damage, and damage can masquerade as wisdom. Tragicomic, oddly tender, and occasionally uncomfortable in its refusal to resolve neatly.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like odd, uncomfortable comedy where a sad man's bad week gets tangled up with a manic stranger, and you're happy to sit with awkwardness rather than be rescued from it.
Skip it if you want a clear plot that moves briskly toward its point; much of it is rambling, improvised-feeling exchanges, and the mood can turn grubby and mean without warning.
What it asks of you: It runs about eighty minutes and asks you to stay patient with long, strained conversations, lingering on discomfort rather than hurrying past it, with its humour arriving in uneasy bursts.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Another Year2010
Mike Leigh's portrait of a happy couple and the damaged people drawn to their orbit. Painfully funny about how comfort can feel threatening to those outside it, and how judgment masquerades as concern.
But Very slow, very quiet. Long scenes of people sitting in kitchens. If you need plot momentum, you'll feel every second of its 129 minutes.
About a Boy2002
Two people who need something completely different find each other by accident. Warm without being soft, funny without being cynical. Handles the weight of depression alongside genuine charm.
But The pop soundtrack and the glossy London feel dated now. It can tip into sentimentality if you're not in the mood for it.
Withnail & I1987
Two men circling the drain together, one in denial, one seeing clearly. Darkly hilarious about male friendship, failure, and the escape fantasies we construct. A cult classic for reason.
But Seventies indie film pacing; almost nothing happens for long stretches. The drinking and desperation aren't played for laughs, which some find bleak rather than funny.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Treacle Jr.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Naked1993
Both follow men in flight from themselves meeting people who reflect different versions of what they're running from. Both find dark humour in the collision between detachment and desperation.
Mike Leigh's masterpiece: a brilliant, furious man fleeing London into the night, brilliant and caustic and completely unable to connect. Tragicomedy that lands both sides perfectly, with a moral complexity that doesn't resolve into sentiment.
But Extremely dark, often obscene, genuinely bleak. The protagonist is articulate and utterly repellent. Shot in grainy 35mm through Thatcher's London. Not a comfortable watch.
More like this (8)
Fish Tank2009
Andrea Arnold's brutal empathy for people trapped by circumstance and their own desires. An outsider trying to connect with someone who doesn't see the danger ahead. Raw and hypnotic.
But Uncomfortable sexual tension and physical threat run through it. Urban grit without softness. Not a film that lets you sit back and relax.
Moonlight2016
Quiet observation of a man shaped by damage, finding unexpected connection. Shot through with tenderness and the weight of what goes unsaid. Three chapters of the same story, each devastating.
But Deliberately paced and poetic. If you're looking for conventional narrative satisfaction, you won't find it. Some find it too elliptical.
The Florida Project2017
Sean Baker's heartbreaking portrait of economic precarity seen through a child's wonder. Unsparing about circumstances while maintaining fierce love for its characters' resilience and humanity.
But Set in a motel for the desperately poor. Doesn't soften or sentimentalize the reality, which can feel punishing if you're already exhausted by the world.
Looking2014
HBO's hour-long study of three gay men in San Francisco navigating work, sex, friendship, and self-deception. Intelligent, funny, sometimes painfully recognizable. Each episode is its own small story.
But Some found it slow and self-absorbed. There's no larger arc in early seasons—it's texture and conversation, not plot. That's the point, but it's not for everyone.
Synecdoche, New York2008
Charlie Kaufman's fever dream about a man collapsing inward while trying to create meaning. Surreal and devastating by turns, about art as escape and how we fail the people who love us.
But Deliberately disorienting and bleak. The logic is dreamlike rather than clear. If you need solid ground, this film is actively working against you.
The Wrestler2008
Aronofsky captures the particular loneliness of a man adrift, trying to reconnect with someone who's moved past him. Tender and furious, starring an actor who understands damage.
But Depressing in a specific, lingering way. The ending doesn't resolve. Mickey Rourke's gruff delivery isn't for everyone.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter2014
Both are comedies about people living in their own logic, filtered through genuine sadness. Both have a collision at their heart that changes nothing and everything. Both trust the audience to live with unresolved contradiction.
A Japanese woman travels to Minnesota chasing a Coen Brothers film. Deadpan, strange, melancholic. The humour comes from collision—between cultures, between fantasy and reality, between what we need and what we find.
But Deliberately odd pacing. The tone shifts without warning. It's a road movie about delusion that never quite resolves its own ambiguity. Some find it mannered.
Cure1997
Both centre on an unwilling attachment between two men, one damaged and one seemingly untouchable. Both find eeriness in politeness and the refusal to leave someone alone. Both ask whether connection saves you or destroys you, and answer: yes.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's hypnotic horror film about a detective drawn into the orbit of a mysterious patient—not through threat but through simple, inexplicable attraction. Philosophical and uncanny. The friendship that forms is the terror.
But Slow, difficult, Japanese cinema of the 1990s. The horror is psychological and spatial rather than dramatic. Some might find it pretentious or simply tedious.
People
Cast
Riann SteeleLinda
Aidan GillenAiden
Tom FisherTom- Diane AxfordActress
- Rebecca DerenActress
Directing
- Jamie ThravesDirector
Writing
- Jamie ThravesWriter
Production
- Jamie ThravesProducer
- Rob SmallProducer