18) Palo Alto

Gia Coppola’s gentle, dreamy meditation on teen life in America is as intoxicating as it is insightful. The first-time director, partnering with talented cinematographer Autumn Durald, displays a knack for distinctive visuals, from a lover’s heart carved into a tree to a car racing down the wrong side of a highway, cutting through the night like a ray of sunlight in the dark.

Her film, about a group of teens navigating a haze of sex, drugs and depression in a privileged California suburb, is more about a certain mood than a straightforward narrative, and Coppola delivers in that respect. Palo Alto hypnotizes; with empathy but also near-documentarian detachment, it draws you into the lives of its characters, from virginal teen April (Emma Roberts) to troubled hellraiser Fred (Nat Wolff).

The young performers at the heart of the film all rise to the occasion, playing complex characters realistically and without regard for their own appearances. Wolff, in particular, terrifies as a kid so without regard for his own life that he’ll happily imperil all those around him. In scenes with his character, Palo Alto chills. Elsewhere, it enchants, particularly with one story about a sexually promiscuous girl (Zoe Levin) slowly but surely learning her self-worth. Palo Alto deserves to mentioned in the same breath as The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused and The Perks of Being a Wallflower – it’s elegant, thoughtful and harrowingly accurate, a film that resonates loudly in the age of affluenza and the teen idle.

17) The Rover

David Michôd burst onto the scene with his brooding, brilliant Animal Kingdom, but this bleak follow-up is perhaps an even more towering accomplishment. Powered by two incredible performances from Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, and by Michôd’s uncompromising direction, The Rover is a 21st century western, a stripped-bare story of justice in a lawless land.

Pearce plays the titular character, a solitary figure named Eric who seems almost as charred as the sunbaked landscape he inhabits, as a ticking time-bomb. Rage rolls off him in waves, and his every action is furiously controlled, lest he release the caged animal clearly dwelling within. It’s a performance of terrifying restraint. He has a capable foil in Pattinson, who completely transforms our perception of him. As Rey, the simple and naive innocent who finds himself as Eric’s captive after his criminal brother steals Eric’s prized car, the actor is absolutely mesmerizing.

These two performers appear scorched by the world around them, but Michôd’s film will chill you to the bone. Severe and horrific, The Rover is a tale of man’s evils and evolution where everything extraneous has been burned away. It will hypnotize you and haunt your every thought for weeks after.