My Top 10 Movies

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) This is definitely film-making genius David Lynch's best work. People dedicate their lives to trying to explain every detail of this movie but I prefer to just watch it and enjoy it for what it is: an extraordinary cinematic illustration of the way we dream. Favourite scene: Rebekah del Rio singing in club Silencio.

2. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997) Lynch is notorious for refusing to explain his work and viewers of Lost Highway certainly disagree on an explanation for it. Don't let this spoil your enjoyment of this feast of weirdness, violence, and erotica; just go with Homer Simpson's take on Lynch, uttered when watching Twin Peaks: "Brilliant..but I don't get it"! This Mortal Coil's awesome "Song to the siren" weaves its way through the soundtrack until the love scene at the beach house, one of the finest pieces of cinema I have ever seen.

3. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001) 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end. Donnie is plagued by visions of a giant demonic rabbit named Frank. Only he knows the true meaning and can unravel the mystery before it's too late. The movie is really well put together and features an excellent selection of eighties records in the soundtrack.

4. American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) Look closer. Probably the most well known and definitely the most critically acclaimed film in my top ten. Kevin Spacey is possibly my favourite actor and he certainly delivers in his role as Lester Burnham. The story tells of Lester's midlife crisis and subsequent rediscovery, including his infatuation for one of his daughter's friends and rebellion against his job and evil wife.

5. The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002) Always the hours. High quality acting from Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep as three women from different generations whose stories are told in separate narrative threads but whose lives are connected by the Virginia Wolf novel "Mrs Dalloway".

6. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000) No happy ending in this non-glamorising look at the world of drugs. The story covers the downward spiral of four individuals whose lives become slowly ruined by their drug taking. Lots of experimental and artistic camerawork edited together in a choppy and disjointed manner help us to relate to the characters' experiences.

7. Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) Nicholas cage plays two roles, Charlie Kaufman, real-life screenwriter of Being John Malkovitch and twin brother, Donald. Kaufman is struggling to adapt Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief into a screenplay and in his frustration ends up writing himself into his own movie. So in fact we have a film by Charlie Kaufman about Charlie Kaufman making a film about Charlie Kaufman!

8. Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) (Tom Tykwer, 1998) Every second of every day you're faced with a decision that can change your life. In this movie we get swept along by the urgency of Lola's 20 minute journey to save her boyfriend's life. The story is told three times where minute differences at the outset cause vastly differing outcomes.

9. Lilja 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson, 2002) Lilja's story is one of depressing hopelessness. Sixteen years old and abandoned in the Soviet Union she has only her friendship with a young boy named Volodja and the hope of a better life to cling to.

10. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986) Just had to sneak in one more David Lynch movie! More accessible than Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway but it's still classic Lynch - the dark underworld lurking beneath the innocent surface. Frank's character is my favourite, a real nasty guy played so convincingly by Dennis Hopper. Favourite song: Roy Orbison - In Dreams.