Top 5 dead or alive

thematically connected

The Road

McCarthy's Pulitzer novel strips survival to its most elemental — love between father and son

thematically connected

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The epistolary novel that defined its generation of outsiders

thematically connected

Invisible Man

Ellison's novel about Black American invisibility is the literary foundation hip-hop keeps returning to

thematically connected

All Quiet on the Western Front

The anti-war novel — inside the trenches of WWI with no glory, only mud

thematically connected

The Last of Us

The defining post-apocalyptic story in games

thematically connected

Outer Wilds

The most meditative space exploration game — about curiosity and loss

thematically connected

Spec Ops: The Line

A third-person shooter that becomes an indictment of the genre and its players

thematically connected

Atlanta

Donald Glover's show navigates the Atlanta rap scene with surreal precision

thematically connected

Station Eleven

What survives of us is art — a hopeful post-pandemic fable

thematically connected

Boyhood

Linklater filmed a boy growing up over twelve years — the most patient portrait of adolescence in cinema

thematically connected

Apocalypse Now

Coppola's hallucinatory vision of Vietnam as a journey into the heart of darkness

thematically connected

Princess Mononoke

Studio Ghibli at its most epic — nature, industry, and the cost of progress