100 Unmissable Film4 Movies
31. Secrets & Lies (1996)

Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptist), a black woman searching for her birth mother, unexpectedly finds her to be the white Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn). After meeting in secret for a time, Hortense meets the rest of Cynthia’s family and more secrets begin to spill out.
Secrets & Lies is a fly-on-the-wall look at an unconventional family unit that becomes blended by circumstance. Nobody is to blame here; people live their lives and make their choices and we’re presented with the result of people from different worlds finally coming together. Every moment comes from a real place, and though emotional tensions run understandably high, once the air has cleared you find yourself looking positively towards what the future will hold for these characters. Jean-Baptiste, Blethyn and Claire Rushbrook as Cynthia’s other daughter particularly impress.
Secrets & Lies was championed by Roger Ebert in the US, was nominated for five Oscars (Picture, Director, Leading Actress, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay), and won Best Screenplay and Best Actress at the BAFTAs. SSP
32. Beautiful Thing (1996)

Prolific television director Hettie MacDonald made her directorial debut with the 1996 working class gay romance drama Beautiful Thing, an adaptation of the stage play of the same name written and adapted to the big screen by Jonathan Harvey. Its hopeful look at love on the fringes of society is a coming-out fable that will lift the heart and offer hope.
Quintessentially British in its themes and presentation, but typically of the teen drama mould in terms of its narrative, Beautiful Thing is one of the many Film4 films to highlight people less spoken about in mainstream art and media, and is careful and delicate with its exploration of sexuality in the midst of misogyny, male violence, and class struggle.
Beautiful Thing was a nominee for Young Film of the Year at the 1996 European Film Awards and was selected as the Outstanding Film of 1997 by GLAAD. Its legacy is one that is most felt by those who grew up with the film and possibly felt seen on the big screen for the very first time. JW
33. Brassed Off (1996)

Before there was I, Daniel Blake, before there was Billy Elliot, even before there was The Full Monty, there was Brassed Off. Although the kitchen sink drama was a well-established genre of British Cinema, Brassed Off is the most vitriolic of the post-Thatcher era.
The film follows the goings-on of the semi-fictional Grimley Colliery Band, the century-long tradition of the village, as old as the pit itself. However, morale of the brass band members is at an all-time low. Based in 1994, the threat of pit closure by Michael Heseltine two years earlier has come to pass in Grimley – plunging the community into unemployment, destitution, and with little disposable income to pay for brass band subs. Despite this, band director Danny (Pete Postlethwaite) is keen to lead the band in the national brass band competition. Spirits are picked up by the arrival of Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) and her grandfather’s flugel horn that used to be played in the very same band. Euphonium player Andy (Ewan McGregor) is particularly delighted as he’s able to rekindle things with his childhood sweetheart. However, as the union vote looms with impending redundancy, the band’s luck crumbles: Danny becomes the next victim of the dreaded “Black Lung”, his son Phil (Stephen Tompkinson) falls into a pit of depression as his wife threatens to leave and take the children, Andy loses his horn in a game of pool, and worst of all Gloria and Andy are branded as scabs by the old school band members as Gloria seems to be working for pit management.
It may be a strong statement to claim that Brassed Off was snubbed at the 1997 BAFTAs, but to see that The English Patient had beat Brassed Off for Original Film Music, it’s difficult to not feel the trills of classism. The UK does have a reputation of turning its back on its more overtly political works, but one can be heartened by Brassed Off’s worldwide impact. For the Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards, the César Awards in France and the German Film Awards (alongside several more international organisations), Brassed Off won the award for Best Foreign Film. It also won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Although it is unmistakably British, the pain of the destruction of a way of life for the sake of capital greed is a universal story, and it is this version of that tale that managed to move the world. Beyond the formality of Film Awards, Brassed Off’s cinematic impact is one of a genuine cultural phenomenon. The movie single-handedly revived international interest in brass band music, with the film’s iconic score on CD selling 50,000 copies and brand new bands forming.
Brassed Off is the embodiment of northern cinema; and has often been parodied and mocked for that very sin. Ironically, this has simply grown its reputation as the very best of British drama. This can be attributed to the film’s refusal to conform to typical American tropes. By no means is this a David and Goliath tale – in fact our heroes lack the will to fight at all. After the government’s brutal attack on miners and the unions during the year-long strike of 1984, communities struggled to hold their nerve when further pit closures were planned in 1992. For those who experienced the horror and hunger of striking previously, the concept of redundancy-pay upon pit closure became increasingly alluring, even with the threat of being labelled a scab. The closure of the pit is not shown as a failure here, but very much the cynical manipulation of poverty, something that even the most hardy pit village couldn’t resist forever. It is in the Grimley Colliery Band that resilience is found. So long as their unique culture is preserved, the community cannot be destroyed – it is the band’s performance in the competition that highlights the atrocities that have been inflicted on their town. In real life, the annual “Big Meeting” of Trade Unions in Durham is a parade of brass bands and banners of pits that are long shut but are defiantly preserving their history – so long as Brassed Off continues to be watched, the abuse of the mining communities of the UK will continue to be remembered. KD
Recommended for you: Mark Herman Films Ranked
34. My Name Is Joe (1998)

The 2nd feature collaboration between iconic British director Ken Loach and human rights lawyer turned screenwriter Paul Laverty (following Carla’s Song, 1996), My Name Is Joe is a typically Loachian drama about working class life, centring around a relationship but telling of the ins and outs of social work, of alcoholism, and of unemployment.
Peter Mullan, one of the era’s great British actors, leads the film with immense believability. His turn is one worthy of anchoring a film, and Loach’s work to do so is equally admirable. Louise Goodall, returning from her collaboration on Carla’s Song, co-stars, with the likes of Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot) and David Hayman (Sid and Nancy) rounding out a believable roster of recognisable faces.
My Name Is Joe was nominated for Best British Film at the 1999 BAFTA Film Awards and was nominated 5 times at the 1998 British Independent Film Awards, winning for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best British Film. At the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or, while Peter Mullan won Best Actor. JW
35. Hilary and Jackie (1999)

The Critic (2023) and Leap Year (2010) director Anand Tucker made his feature directorial breakthrough with his sophomore film Hilary and Jackie in 1999. The true-to-life 1950s period drama about the tragic story of renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré (played by Emily Watson) is told through the lens of her flautist sister Hilary (Rachel Griffiths) – co-author of the source material, “A Genius in the Family” (1997) – and traverses fame and fortune, and their contrasts with simpler life.
It’s a film about convention and how art and genius can deconstruct that. A key point of tension is that Jackie falls for Hilary’s husband, and admits this to her sister – this moment and each character is played with the utmost skill, with Emily Watson being particularly noteworthy. It is a film that climbs on the shoulders of other art forms to reach the heights it reaches, but it never misses the opportunity to humanise and layer the real people at the core of its narrative.
Hilary and Jackie was nominated for 5 BAFTA Film Awards: Best Sound, Film Music, Adapted Screenplay, Lead Actress and Best British Film. Rachel Griffiths earned a Supporting Actress nomination at the 1999 Academy Awards, her only nomination to date, while Emily Watson earned her 2nd-ever nomination (following Breaking the Waves in 1997) for Actress in a Leading Role. JW
36. Croupier (1999)

Get Carter (1971) director Mike Hodges constructs a rarity in the canon of Film4’s myriad of moving pictures: the neo-noir. Croupier follows Jack Manfred (Clive Owen in one of a slew of breakout performances in the late 1990s), a down on his luck writer who takes a job as a croupier (a person in charge of gaming tables) at a casino, but an out of work relationship with a customer invites him into a potential heist.
Like Get Carter, Croupier is bleak and blunt, and similarly functions to serve a terrific central performance. Owen here is at close to his very best, offering one of the defining performances of his acclaimed career and building the reputation he would come to enjoy in the decade to follow. Paul Mayersberg, known for The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), writes a tight script that deserves to be celebrated for its exceptional dialogue. Together with Hodges, Mayersberg establishes a likeable albeit flawed lead and a genuine sense of threat as things unravel.
Croupier wasn’t much of an awards winner – a spot on the USA’s National Board of Review Top Ten Films 2000 being the only highlight – but it was beloved by trusted American film critic Roger Ebert, who described Clive Owen as having the same kind of physicality as Sean Connery and was impressed by how convincing the reality of the film turned out to be. JW
37. The Straight Story (1999)

Film4 continued their pattern of working with the most unique filmmakers on the planet when they partnered with renowned auteur David Lynch for his 1999 film The Straight Story, an underappreciated gem from one of cinema’s greatest minds.
The Straight Story tells of Richard Farnsworth’s 73-year-old Alvin Straight who travels 300 miles on his lawnmower to make amends with his estranged brother (Harry Dean Stanton) who he has learned has suffered a stroke. It’s a visually resplendent offering that mirrors the character’s inner struggle and journey to peace in the physical journey of the character, blending the inner and outer machinations of its subject into a wholly cinematic screen tale.
Richard Farnsworth earned an Oscar nomination for Actor in a Leading Role in 2000 and was a nominee in the Lead Actor – Drama category at the same year’s Golden Globe Awards. David Lynch was a nominee for the Cannes Palme d’Or in 1999 and won the Screen International Award at the 1999 European Film Awards. JW
Recommended for you: Where to Start with David Lynch
38. Topsy-Turvy (2000)

Topsy-Turvy tells the story of the latter years of Gilbert and Sullivan’s (Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner) lucrative creative partnership, with particular focus on their personal and professional struggles to get their opera The Mikado off the ground.
This is one of Mike Leigh’s richest and most rewarding films, and probably his strongest historical drama overall. There have been plenty of musical biopics but relatively few telling a story outside of the 20th Century. Broadbent, Corduner, and the supporting cast including Timothy Spall and Shirley Henderson, give everything to theatrically bringing the behind-the-scenes creation of the iconic music of Gilbert and Sullivan to life.
Topsy-Turvy won Best Costume Design and Best Makeup at the Oscars, in addition to being nominated for Best Actor for Broadbent at both the BAFTAs and the British Independent Film Awards. SSP
39. Gangster No.1 (2000)

Distinct British actor Paul Bettany made his breakthrough as a leading man in Gangster No.1, a crime thriller about the rise and fall of a prominent gangster. Directed by would-be Lucky Number Slevin (2006) and Victor Frankenstein (2015) filmmaker Paul McGuigan, Gangster No.1 is as close to a Martin Scorsese gangster film as the UK has ever made, Bettany a gravitational presence throughout.
Co-starring A Clockwork Orange (1972) lead Malcolm McDowell and Naked (1993) star David Thewlis, as well as a renowned group of British supporting talent (even a young Andrew Lincoln), this British gangster film encapsulates the sordid underbelly of a nation just as films like Get Carter and Mona Lisa were able to do in the decades prior, and films like Sexy Beast expanded upon in the years to come. In the midst of the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake fad that had translated British gangsters to a global audience, Gangster No.1 was a fitting release.
For his work, Paul McGuigan was a nominee in the European Discovery category at the 2000 European Film Awards, while Paul Bettany and screenwriter Johnny Ferguson were nominated at the 2000 British Independent Film Awards, the film earning a further nomination for Best British Film. JW
40. Sexy Beast (2001)

Following an early career in short films, music video direction, and advertising, would-be auteur Jonathan Glazer made his feature debut with Film4 gangster film, Sexy Beast, starring British stalwart Ray Winstone as a former gangster who is called back to the action by the arrival of his rival (played by Oscar winner Ben Kingsley) in his idyllic Spanish town. The pair attempt one last heist, but nothing is simple in the land of the British gangster film.
Glazer would go on to earn more acclaim for his later works Under the Skin and The Zone of Interest, each decade-topping films from a visionary director, but this debut feature would share a lot of the classy hallmarks of the director’s later offerings, including the subversion of expectations and the director’s overall gruesome outlook on humanity and its vices.
Sexy Beast would become one of Film4’s best films of the 2000s, but was drastically overlooked by awards bodies. Ben Kingsley was nominated for his supporting performance at the Oscars and Golden Globes, winning the trophy at the European Film Awards, but aside from a Best British Film nomination Sexy Beast was shut out at the BAFTA Film Awards in 2001. JW