1. A Field In England
A Field In England, Ben Wheatley's fourth film, is a psychedelic head-trip set during the English Civil War. Its monochrome mix of murder and mysticism may meander somewhat, but be sure to stick around for the mind-bending middle act (undoubtedly the film's highlight) in which alchemist Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) consumes no small amount of magic mushrooms. The subsequent trip is a deeply unnerving yet strangely affecting thing of beauty. Frenetic cross-cutting, kaleidoscopic mirror images, splicing Whitehead's ecstatic grin with the bemused expression of commanding crackpot O'Neill (played with trademark menace by Wheatley regular Michael Smiley)...now you can see why the film opened with a strobe light warning. After a mesmerising five minutes, the sequence draws to a close with two 'Whiteheads' fusing together and disappearing into thin air. It's a manic, magnificent masterpiece.