True Romance (1993)

Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, this is a mini-masterpiece that defies genre categorisation. 

Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) meet and experience love at first sight. But in attempting to flee the dangerous underworld contacts Alabama was mixed up with, they inherit a suitcase of cocaine and become associated with lethal gangsters (intimidatingly played by Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken and James Gandolfini).

The film cleverly works as both a sort of fairytale (the “true romance” of the title) and also as an absolutely brutal crime thriller. This uneasy combination gives it a fresh energy. Tarantino's usual preoccupations are evident, with martial arts, comic books, and Elvis Presley all figuring notably in the plot.

Slater is excellent – like a young Jack Nicholson, in terms of his charisma. Arquette is also superb, and the chemistry between the pair is unmistakable.

Perhaps most striking of all is Hans Zimmer’s beautiful soundtrack.

Boyhood (2014)

Dazzling drama written and directed by Richard Linklater (who also made the excellent Before... films). It was filmed across 12 years, so you see a family literally growing and growing older before your eyes. It’s uncanny and very powerful.

Ellar Coltrane plays the boy, who we get to know at various points from ages six to 18. Lorelei Linklater (the director’s daughter) is his smart, pushy sister. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke play their divorced parents, trying their best in life and love and finding that just as difficult as we all do. All four of them turn in stunningly believable performances.

It’s very touching indeed – heartbreaking, funny and enthralling. There are so many threads and it’s an incredibly rich narrative, although never complicated. Each time-snapshot segment works like a short story in its own right, but then we leap forward a few weeks, months or years and see how each episode feeds into the next.

I can’t imagine how a project this ambitious could have been planned and executed so skilfully, but Linklater pulls it off.