Hill | 2009 | USA

Umpteenth viewing, but my first in years. Criminally misunderstood and widely underseen, this is my go-to answer when people ask for a hidden gem (with the GIANT caveat that the comedy is very dark and the action shockingly violent). Done zero favours by a marketing campaign that would have you expecting a stoner comedy, this film arrived eight years after 9/11 as the GFC continued to reveal how screwed everybody was going to be. Ronnie (Seth Rogen) was unexpectedly the perfect “hero” for this moment: delusional, troubled, overconfident, solipsistic to a fault, and off his meds under his own advice.

One of the best things about this film is the economy of storytelling – there’s barely 80min of movie here, and yet we cover a full (if perverse) hero’s journey INCLUDING love interest (my forever-crush, the delightful Collette Wolfe). Ronnie remains implacable throughout – one might rush to decide he’s a delusional moron but I will always argue he’s a victim of his circumstances (which is why he felt so universal in 2009). His heart is in the right place but almost never at the right time or in the right way.

All of this builds toward a climactic moment of naked violence that is one of my favourite moments in any movie. Not because I long for violence but because the movie manages to make it feel cathartic. Though you might see it coming (and I obviously always know it is), it levels you all the same. Frankly, a perfect[ly horrific] ending.