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Feeling

What emotional film should you watch?

You're not looking to be entertained. You're looking to feel something — and that isn't the same request.

It's also the hardest one for a conventional recommendation engine to satisfy. "Drama" is a label that covers everything and announces nothing: the film that will floor you and the film that will leave you cold carry the same word. As for ratings, they tell you whether a film is well made, never whether it will reach you, tonight.

CUT's "Tender heart" mood gathers romance, drama and family stories, and presents them through the image. You know very quickly, from two shots and ten seconds of music, whether a film plays restraint or outpouring — and which of the two you can take tonight.

It's a choice that often comes down to the exact mood you're in. A film that gets everything right can be unbearable on a Tuesday evening and exactly what was needed on the Sunday. Seeing before choosing avoids both mistakes: giving up twenty minutes in, or missing a film you'd have loved on another day.

The selection

Nine films for a tender heart

Romance

  • In the Mood for Love (2000)

    Wong Kar-wai

    A love story made of what goes unsaid, and of corridors crossed in slow motion.

  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

    Michel Gondry

    Erasing someone from your memory, and discovering in losing them what you held onto.

  • Before Sunrise (1995)

    Richard Linklater

    One night, two people, one conversation — and nothing else is needed.

Drama

  • Manchester by the Sea (2016)

    Kenneth Lonergan

    A grief that does not mend, filmed without a single easy scene of consolation.

  • Moonlight (2016)

    Barry Jenkins

    Three ages of the same man, and everything he could never say out loud.

  • Nomadland (2020)

    Chloé Zhao

    A film that moves at the pace of someone who no longer has a destination.

Family

  • My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

    Hayao Miyazaki

    Almost without conflict: a film about waiting, childhood, and an illness it never shows.

  • Paddington 2 (2017)

    Paul King

    A family comedy of sustained kindness, and perfectly built from end to end.

  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

    Steven Spielberg

    Shot at a child's height all the way to the last frame — and that framing is what breaks you.

Your next obsession is one cut away