The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Films

The Five Best Films

The Straight Story (U) David Lynch steadies the wheel and dabs on the brakes for this warm, folksy road movie with a difference. Richard Farnsworth is the genial old salt heading Wisconsin way atop his little green tractor.

Ratcatcher (15) Set in the rubbish-strewn wilds of Seventies Govan, Lynne Ramsay's debut paints a haunting portrait of everyday childhood madness. Quite simply the best British film we've seen all year.

The World Is Not Enough (12) Leaping off a dazzling pre-credits sequence comes the best Bond in decades. Pierce Brosnan has his hands full tackling Sophie Marceau's lissom heiress and a shaven-headed Robert Carlyle.

Alice et Martin (15) Andre Techine's good-looking redemption play swings between Alex Loret's angsty male model and Juliette Binoche's pensive older woman. Paris, Granada and provincial France flit by in the background.

Fight Club (18)

David Fincher's anarchistic roller-coaster of a movie (right) is flawed but fantastic; almost Ali-like in its loud-mouthed wit and quicksilver cool. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt play at top volume.

Xan Brooks