You are holding something that isn't yours to put down. You didn't ask to know it, and you can't unknow it, and there is no one you can tell, which means it just lives inside you now alongside everything else. The answer has been staying busy. Full calendar, full hands, full screen: anything that keeps the front of your mind too occupied to let the thing surface. These films are part of that strategy, and the good ones will also, somewhere in the middle, let you breathe out for a second.
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she conside
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Full enough to keep the loop from finding you. Just.
The final part of the film adaption of the erotic romance novel Gabriel's Inferno written by an anonymous Canadian author under the pen name Sylvain Reynard.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-s
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
Returning to Earth as an imitator, the legendary Mexican artist Pedro Infante must prove that he is no longer a womanizer to enter paradise.
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
In the aftermath of the Fourth Impact, stranded without their Evangelions, Shinji, Asuka and Rei find refuge in one of the rare pockets of humanity that still exist on the ruined planet Earth. There, each lives a life far different from their days as an Evangelion pilot. However,
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Two highly trained operatives grow close from a distance after being sent to guard opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. When an evil below emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
Luca and his best friend Alberto experience an unforgettable summer on the Italian Riviera. But all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
Fleeing the war, the immortal Machia, graced with eternal youth, finds a baby abandoned in the forest and decides to raise it as her own child, sparking a moving story between a mortal and a being who does not age.
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Hands full, head somewhere else. That's the whole goal.