Galveston (2018)

By the writer of True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto, and directed by Mélanie Laurent, who you’ll see playing Alice in Mia and the White Lion (landing on Showmax on 24 September 2020), this is not your typical action movie.

Sure, it features a hit man who kills his would-be assassins before they can kill him, and then goes on the run to escape his mob boss, but Ben Foster’s Roy is more nuanced than an average action-movie hero, as the Sydney Morning Herald says: “It’s uncompromising but at the end, it does leave some room for hope and Foster, in his intense, contained way, makes Roy’s redemption highly plausible unexpectedly poignant.”

Along the way, Roy rescues Rocky (Elle Fanning), who has been kept captive, and together they try to outrun the demons from their past, as well as Roy’s boss.

ReelViews writes, “Bleak and gripping, Galveston offers a compelling experience for those who don’t demand pure escapism and are willing to sample the darker side of cinema”, and critics have universally praised Foster and Fanning’s “powerhouse performances”.

If you’re after a cerebral crime thriller, this may be the one for you.