Jeremy Thomas

Ben Wheatley’s take on J.G. Ballard’s classic dystopian novel evokes the cinema of Nicolas Roeg, who was originally slated to direct the film in the late 1970s. Wheatley’s cold and minimalist tower block accommodates for escalating class tensions and a suffocating madness that descends into mayhem.

Tearing through Tokyo at breakneck pace, this riotous lovers-on-the-lam confection from Takashi Miike finds the Japanese maestro at his most hopelessly romantic. Which in Miike-speak means: katana-wielding yakuza, spectral visions, and a vicious, unkillable femme fatale—all the wholesome good stuff!