The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Films

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

Fight Club (18) David Fincher's anarchistic roller-coaster of a movie is flawed but fantastic; almost Ali-like in its loud-mouthed wit and quicksilver cool. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt play at top volume.

The Cup (PG) Indisputably the first film about football directed by a Buddhist lama from Bhutan, ever, this winning fable charts a young novice's attempts to follow the 1998 World Cup final from a remote Indian monastery.

East Is East (15) A stage-to-screen triumph for Ayub Khan-Din's Anglo-Asian comedy. The scene is the terraced home of the culture-clash Khans; the plot, a sustained and turbulent series of domestic storms.

EdTV (12)

Matthew McConaughey's dopey everyman grabs centre-stage in Ron Howard's genial mickey-take of American TV culture. No flipping.