Subjects and themes

Power, class and institutions

• American capitalism — The Godfather
• Authoritarianism born from catharsis — Fight Club
• Class and social mobility — Parasite
• Class and the cost of protection — Seven Samurai
• Class in Boston — The Departed
• Colonialism — Dune
• Empire and resource extraction — Dune
• Escalation — The Dark Knight
• Fanatical indoctrination — Mad Max: Fury Road
• Individual insignificance — Dune
• Institutional power and gender — The Silence of the Lambs
• Institutionalisation — The Shawshank Redemption
• Intellectual property and ownership — The Social Network
• Labour and dignity — Spirited Away
• Liberal racism and appropriation — Get Out
• Liberation and its costs — The Matrix
• Masculinity in crisis — Fight Club
• Order vs. chaos — The Dark Knight
• Sexual slavery and escape — Mad Max: Fury Road
• Small people in large events — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Social abandonment — Joker
• Space as status — Parasite
• The banality of criminal work — Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas
• The collapse of civilised Europe — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The limits of professionalism — Se7en
• The limits of white allyship — Get Out
• The mob as political force — Gladiator
• The myth of the deserving rich — Parasite
• Theft of Black bodies and labour — Get Out
• Urban decay — Se7en
• Water and resource control — Mad Max: Fury Road

Memory, identity and the self

• Being observed and silenced — Get Out
• Consumerism and identity — Fight Club
• Growing up through responsibility — Spirited Away
• Identity and memory — Spirited Away
• Looking and being looked at — The Silence of the Lambs
• Manufactured vs. born identity — Blade Runner 2049
• Memory and authenticity — Blade Runner 2049
• Memory and identity — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Memory and reconstruction — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Mental illness and public perception — Joker
• Nihilism vs. chosen kindness — Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Paranoia under addiction — Goodfellas
• Professionalism as identity — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Simulated reality — The Matrix
• The unreliability of experience — Inception
• Whether certainty is necessary — Inception
• Whether knowing the ending changes the choice — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Whether people can change — Pulp Fiction

Love, family and sacrifice

• Community and mutual obligation — Seven Samurai
• Cooperation — Toy Story
• Family as institution — The Godfather
• Friendship and loyalty — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Friendship as a liability — The Social Network
• Friendship under duress — The Shawshank Redemption
• Grief and the refusal to let go — Inception
• Immigrant family dynamics — Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Institutional loyalty and its limits — The Departed
• Jealousy and insecurity — Toy Story
• Love as repetition — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Loyalty as a finite resource — Goodfellas
• Parental sacrifice — Interstellar
• The appeal and cost of belonging — Goodfellas
• Transaction as relationship — The Silence of the Lambs
• What it means to be loved — Toy Story
• Whether replicants can love — Blade Runner 2049

Violence, war and its costs

• Dying well — Gladiator
• Generational trauma and communication — Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Obsolescence of the warrior class — Seven Samurai
• Political destruction of the individual — Oppenheimer
• Revenge and its cost — Gladiator
• Self-destruction as self-definition — Fight Club
• The futility of victory — Seven Samurai
• Violence as the only available language — Parasite
• Whether greatness justifies cruelty — Whiplash
• Who deserves reward — Forrest Gump

Justice, guilt and redemption

• Corruption through power — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Guilt as architecture — Inception
• Hope as discipline — The Shawshank Redemption
• Justice vs. legality — The Shawshank Redemption
• Redemption — Pulp Fiction
• The corruption of the reluctant heir — The Godfather
• The cost of symbols — The Dark Knight
• The ethics of erasure — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The ethics of leaving — Interstellar
• The invention of a symbol — Joker
• Whether investigation can produce understanding — Se7en
• Wrath as the one sin you cannot avoid — Se7en

Time, fate and consequence

• Chance and coincidence — Pulp Fiction
• Chance vs. destiny — Forrest Gump
• Free will vs. determinism — The Matrix
• Inheritance — The Godfather
• Innocence and American nostalgia — Forrest Gump
• Nostalgia and its limits — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Regret and counterfactuals — Everything Everywhere All at Once
• The burden of inheritance — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The impossibility of going back — The Departed
• Time as a finite resource — Interstellar
• What could have been — La La Land
• Whether regret has any force — Oppenheimer

Art, ambition and obsession

• Ambition and isolation — The Social Network
• Ambition vs. love — La La Land
• Identity as performance — The Departed
• Legitimacy and succession — Gladiator
• Mentorship and abuse — Whiplash
• Obsession as self-destruction — Whiplash
• Performance and authenticity — La La Land
• The cost of a particular kind of success — The Social Network
• The cost of professional ambition — The Silence of the Lambs
• The cost of success — La La Land
• The impossibility of 'good job' — Whiplash

Science, technology and nature

• Chain reaction as metaphor — Oppenheimer
• Environmental damage — Spirited Away
• Media and violence — Joker
• Scientific optimism vs. human attachment — Interstellar
• Scientific responsibility — Oppenheimer
• Survival and cooperation — Mad Max: Fury Road
• Technology as control — The Matrix

Critical questions and ideas

Some of our tags are not categories so much as questions a film puts to the audience. They do not sit neatly under a subject heading, which is precisely why we tag them separately.

• Obsolescence — Toy Story
• Prophecy as political tool — Dune
• The cost of engagement — Forrest Gump
• The dignity of being incidental — Blade Runner 2049
• Whether rules survive a real test — The Dark Knight