4. Fear X
Fear X is one of Drive director Nic Winding Refn's best but most obtusely inaccessible works. It's a film that probes at the psychological breakdown of its lead character Harry (John Turturro in one of his very best roles) and is more interested in wading in its ambient, haunting atmosphere than spelling out its narrative. It's the tone and Larry Smith's cinematography that are the highlights of Fear X and precedes Refn and Smith's stunning work together on Bronson and Only God Forgives. Fear X was a film no one understood; understandably, as strictly the film makes very little narrative sense. This was to Refn's great detriment as the hefty loss Fear X made forced his production company into bankruptcy. In the same way as Only God Forgives, it's a film many have and will find dense and portentous. Take it as a rich and layered exercise in near-ambient filmmaking, mired in thick atmosphere and Lynchian inflections and you may find it to be one of the most hypnotic, captivating experiences in recent history.