Film

Una

Una is a taut, unflinching drama about a woman confronting the man who abused her as a child. It's essentially a two-character chamber piece played out across a single day, anchored by powerhouse performances from Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. For viewers drawn to character-driven stories about trauma, accountability, and the long shadow of the past—without flinching away from the ugliness of it all.

TMDb rating3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow, scalding two-hander dramas where the tension lives in what people won't say, and where the camera stays close enough to catch every flinch.

Skip it if the subject is heavy and the drama is talky and airless, so hold off on a lighter night or if discomfort wears you down.

What it asks of you: Roughly ninety minutes, unhurried and close-quartered, with long stretches of tense conversation and sudden jumps back in time that reward full attention rather than half-watching.

If you liked this

Spotlight2015

Ensemble journalism thriller about the Boston Globe investigating Catholic Church abuse. Methodical, purposeful, and deeply moral without ever feeling preachy. It earns its emotional weight through rigorous storytelling.

But No single towering protagonist; the story is deliberately distributed across many characters. If you need a hero to root for, this won't give you one.

Spotlight poster

Manchester by the Sea2016

Casey Affleck's portrait of grief and regret is achingly human. The film trusts silence and small moments to convey devastation. Quietly one of the finest performances of the 2010s.

But Glacially paced. Nothing is resolved because life doesn't resolve itself. If you want catharsis or narrative closure, you won't find it here.

Manchester by the Sea poster

The Killing2011

Danish noir about a detective pursuing a murder across a season, with relationships between past trauma and present violence woven through everything. Hypnotic and morally complicated.

But Thirty episodes of atmospheric Scandinavian darkness. The bleakness doesn't relent. Requires patience and commitment.

The Killing poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Una

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Winter Light1963

Both are essentially two-person dramas about power imbalances and what one person owes another when the past intrudes. They use small rooms and long takes to trap you in psychological complexity.

Bergman's chamber piece about a pastor and a woman in crisis—two people talking in a small space about faith, love, and meaninglessness. Sparse, devastating, and speaks directly to Una's architecture of confrontation.

But Black and white, shot in 1963, and philosophically austere. Bergman doesn't offer easy answers or comfort. It's a conversation with emptiness.

Winter Light poster
More like this (8)

Incendies2010

Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece about a woman uncovering her mother's hidden past during war. Devastating, intricate, and built on a structural twist that recontextualizes everything you've watched.

But Deals with wartime atrocity and sexual violence. The final revelation is harrowing. Not a film that leaves you feeling light.

Incendies poster

Room2015

Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay in a story about escape from captivity and what survival costs. Intimate, intelligent, and refuses to exploit its own premise for false drama.

But The claustrophobia is real and sustained. The back half, dealing with aftermath, is quieter and slower than you might expect from a 'escape' narrative.

Room poster

The Invisible Man2020

Leigh Whannell's update transforms the monster story into a thriller about gaslighting and male violence. Visually ingenious—what you can't see becomes terrifying. Smartly feminist without preaching.

But Tonal whiplash between genuine scares and thriller plotting. Some viewers will find it too genre-bound, others too weightily serious.

The Invisible Man poster

I'm Thinking of Ending Things2020

Charlie Kaufman's adaptation is formally audacious: a story about a woman meeting her boyfriend's parents that dissolves into something far stranger. Visually gorgeous and genuinely unsettling.

But Wilfully obscure. It invites interpretation without providing answers. Some will find it profound; others will feel deliberately antagonised.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things poster

Mystic River2003

Three childhood friends reckoning with an old trauma when a murder threatens to reopen old wounds. Clint Eastwood's crime drama is morally unflinching and acts like a heavyweight bout.

But Dense ensemble plot. Asks you to track multiple narratives and doesn't always make it easy. Can feel overstuffed if you're not locked in.

Mystic River poster

Under the Skin2014

Jonathan Glazel's sci-fi horror uses stillness and strangeness to explore predation and vulnerability. Scarlett Johansson in a role unlike anything else in her career. Hypnotic and genuinely weird.

But Glacial pacing. Long stretches with no dialogue and minimal plot. If you need narrative momentum or clarity, this will frustrate you.

Under the Skin poster

The Act2019

Like Una, it's about a victim finally breaking silence and the complex emotions that follow—rage, grief, survival instinct. Both resist simple villainy, finding humanity in awful people.

Limited series about Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother's abuse, told with dark humour and genuine sympathy for its victims. Patricia Arquette is extraordinary. Deeply human where it could have been tabloid.

But Munchausen syndrome by proxy is grotesque. The show doesn't shy from its darkness. If true-crime narratives about abuse feel exploitative to you, proceed carefully.

The Act poster

Nocturama2016

Both explore how people perform power and powerlessness. Una is about confronting an abuser; Nocturama is about young people trying to perform agency. Same engine, opposite registers—one intimate and accusatory, the other distanced and systemic.

Bertrand Bonello's film about young far-right extremists staging a terrorist attack, then hiding in a shopping mall. Formally adventurous, morally perplexing, uncommonly intelligent about ideology and performance.

But Political content that won't comfort anyone. Obscure French cinema at its most oblique. The story is secondary to the formal experiment. Almost no one has heard of it.

Nocturama poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by