Footloose (1984)

Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) is a Chicago teenager who comes to the town of Bomont, Utah, where rock music and dancing have been banned and the oppressive rule of the troubled local minister (John Lithgow) imposes rigid, puritanical social control. Ren falls for the minister’s daughter, Ariel (Lori Singer, who I had a major crush on when she was the cellist in the Fame TV series), and gets the town dancing again.

Music is given prominence throughout, and in some ways it’s merely a glorified pop video, but actually there’s much more going on. If you can see past the product placement (Coca Cola appears in countless scenes), there’s a very interesting drama unfolding. The theme of small-town repression is explored in depth. There’s also a thread about violence against women, with Lori Singer being hit by two different men.

For once, there’s no obsession with social climbing. Instead, the film proposes that self-expression is the path to liberation. Dancing to music really can set you free.

Carnage (2011)

Set in one evening in a New York apartment, Carnage features two couples rowing over an incident between their children. Directed by Roman Polanski, the real-time scenario works (it’s adapted from a play by Yasmina Reza) and the disintegration of relationships and social niceties is handled with ruthless precision. Not one of the four characters is likeable, so you move beyond feelings of “taking sides” to a realisation that the whole lot of them are self-centred and childish. It’s filmed in such a way that the slightly queasy angles cleverly emphasise their grotesque qualities as the tension escalates. It’s brilliantly twitchy and uncomfortable.

There’s an especially memorable scene in which a hair-dryer is used to dry Jodie Foster’s precious art catalogue after it becomes splattered with Kate Winslet’s vomit. You might think that would be the low point for the characters, but things continue to get worse.

Frankie & Johnny (1991)

Intelligent, highly engaging romantic comedy-drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. It’s adapted from a play (by Terrence McNally) and you can tell. The dialogue is strong and even the way the set has been designed has a simple theatrical logic that just works.

The two leads are hugely charismatic, but the supporting parts also seem integral – even though they weren’t in the original play.

The scenes in the New York cafe where F. and J. work are wonderful. You want to go there and sit drinking coffee all day while observing all the little details around you.

Subtle and nuanced, it’s sophisticated and moving without ever being obvious or choosing an easy, sentimental option.

Interstellar (2014)

Sci-fi mind-bender directed by Christopher Nolan. Earth is in peril as dust storms threaten to wipe out crops and humanity. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a pilot persuaded by the remnants of NASA to leave his children on the doomed planet to travel through a wormhole and locate a new world for people to colonise. Inevitably, things don’t go to plan...

It’s a very moving story. Owing to time dilation, we see Cooper’s children growing older while he ages mere months. In one heartbreaking sequence, a "brief", botched visit to a watery planet with terrifying tidal waves equates to 23 years passing in Earth time and for the crew member left in orbit.

Michael Caine plays the NASA scientist intent on saving humanity. Anne Hathaway is his daughter, who is part of the mission. Jessica Chastain plays Cooper’s daughter, who helps resolve the riddles of the fifth dimension with some unexpected assistance. And Matt Damon is the lonely colonist who goes wildly off-piste when company arrives.

It’s a long and complex film, with several strands, but the lucid storytelling means that it works, even if you don’t have a degree in astrophysics. It’s ultimately an emotional story that asks big questions about time and love.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Modernisation of the Shakespeare play starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the main roles. They are both excellent and their love scenes zing with energy and sensual yearning. But the film is directed in such a self-conscious manner as to be almost unwatchable. I really disliked the speeded-up sequences, and the awfully clunky opening moments in a gas station had me about to turn off the film and hurl the DVD across the room. It may have been deliberate to make the other characters grotesque and cartoonish, but it just doesn’t work. Are we meant to find them comical or endearing? In fact, the effect is oddly repulsive.

A less tricksy approach might have developed (rather than risked sabotaging) the romance narrative and allowed the DiCaprio/Danes chemistry to dominate. It’s one of the all-time great stories – source material this strong really shouldn’t be difficult to film – but Baz Luhrmann somehow manages to mess it up.

The highlight is the Radiohead song over the closing credits.

Pretty in Pink (1986)

John Hughes teen drama. The plot is simple: poor girl dates rich boy while social prejudice threatens to tear them apart. Molly Ringwald acts with her lower lip and is a curious mixture of mature and immature. She has three interesting relationships – with her depressed father (Harry Dean Stanton), with her supportive colleague at the Tracks record shop (Annie Potts) and with her nerdy friend “Duckie” who’s in love with her (Jon Cryer). The big flaw is that her central relationship – with preppy, well-off Blane (Andrew McCarthy) – just doesn’t convince. It’s not clear what, if anything, they have in common and this forms a vacuum at the centre of the film. And when they do finally end up together, the film seems to betray its own instincts. Weren’t we supposed to be rooting for Duckie, with his goofy underdog charm? In fact, the ending we see was reshot because the “truer” ending – in which she did wind up with the far more appealing Duckie – wasn’t popular with audiences. That commercial decision was the wrong choice aesthetically and means that the plot and motivations fail to ring true.

The soundtrack is omnipresent and brilliantly of its time (The Smiths, New Order, Psychedelic Furs), but that’s not enough to save the film. Having heard this raved about as a cult classic, I was very disappointed to finally see it.