Sweaty in the Fridge

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 Perks of Being a Wallflower

The epistolary novel that defined its generation of outsiders

thematically connected

1984

Orwell invented the vocabulary every dystopian work still borrows

thematically connected

Spec Ops: The Line

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

thematically connected

The Last of Us

The defining post-apocalyptic story in games

thematically connected

Silent Hill 2

The greatest horror game — a journey into guilt and self-punishment

thematically connected

Apocalypse Now

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

thematically connected

Boyhood

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

thematically connected

Hereditary

Ari Aster's debut — grief as a haunting, family as a trap

thematically connected

True Detective

McConaughey and Harrelson in the Louisiana dark — philosophical noir at its peak

thematically connected

Black Mirror

Brooker's anthology of technology-enabled social collapse

thematically connected

Station Eleven

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