6. Buried
Original Title: Enterrado Another example of a Spanish film made with a Hollywood star for an international market, Buried provided an even greater contrast for star Ryan Reynolds with his follow-up Green Lantern than Christian Bale's switch from The Machinist to Batman. Like Bale's insomniac thriller, Buried was made in Barcelona, although given that the film takes place entirely in a wooden coffin it really could have been filmed anywhere. Reynolds, playing a civilian truck driver in Iraq trapped in the coffin with just a phone, lighter, knife and pen, is on screen constantly with his only dialogue scenes coming on the end of the phone and his movement severely restricted by the tiny confines of the set. Stripped of any way to hide behind big effects or revert to smug type, Reynolds gives a compelling performance as a man in a dire situation trying to figure out any possible way out of it. Director Rodrigo Cortes finds as many ways as possible to ramp up the tension, keeping both the audience and Reynolds on their toes as his camera finds every possible position and angle in the tiny space. Buried is a thriller as taught and focused as they come, a punchy 90 minute run time meaning that there are very few wasted moments.
See this if you liked: The similarly claustrophobic 127 Hours came out at around the same time and Danny Boyle's much more mainstream hit would make a perfect double bill with Buried of lone man trapped in a confined space movies. As with Reynolds in Buried, 127 Hours' James Franco is better than ever when faced with acting only against himself, but, if anything, Buried demonstrates an even greater commitment to the subject as 127 Hours has moments, in reality and fantasy, outside its confinement. Buried never leaves the coffin.