Nil By Mouth (1997 Gary Oldman & scr)

I remember one of the critics saying that Jack O'Connell's performance in Starred Up was so intense that you almost expected him to burst off the screen at you - well that's exactly how I felt about Ray Winstone in this - a seriously intense performance, perhaps his best ever. But also scorchingly good are Kathy Burke (who won Best Actress at Cannes), Charlie Creed-Miles, Jamie Forman and Laila Morse.

Oldman decides to shoot everything up close making it all the more uncomfortable. Everything has a very realistic feeling. "A love letter to my family, my Dad" Oldman was quoted as saying - he's a recovering alcoholic and his "father died of it"; he was sick of watching unreal films like Reservoir Dogs and Leaving Las Vegas and wanted "to take the gloves off". I think he succeeded. (Ironically, you need alcohol to stomach the film.)

But it's not the sort of film you want to watch more than once in every twenty years or so. It's quite long, too.

Shot, very darkly, by Ron Fortunato. Music by Eric Clapton, as well as such good stuff as 'Peculiar Groove' by Frances Ashman. A producer is Luc Besson, who had worked with Oldman on Leon.

Won BAFTA for Best Screenplay, and has more 'cunts' to the minute than any other film.