Aimee Lou Wood and Film Club cast unveil their favourite films of all time - here's why you have to watch them

Aimee Lou Wood

Broadcast News

When you’re a young woman, you think you have to dilute your intelligence – watching Holly Hunter being cleverer than the boys but with loads of humility, blew me away. I realised that as a woman, you can be opinionated, outspoken, a bit gnarly and still be a delight.

Moonstruck

I have a tattoo of a moon from this movie. The moon is a big symbol in my life. I just couldn’t believe how good Cher was in this film.

The Color Purple

My mum used to love putting on a classic movie at the weekend, and The Color Purple is one of the first I remember. Whoopi Goldberg blew me away. It’s one of the first movies where I remember properly sobbing: it broke my heart and reverberated in me for weeks.

It’s a Wonderful Life

I watch it every single Christmas and it never gets old. I love A Christmas Carol too: anything where someone sees the parallel lives they could have had. And although I’ve seen these films dozens of times, I have the same rules as Evie in Film Club – everyone has to put their phones away. If anyone gets their phone out, it truly upsets me.

Bridesmaids

I love comedy: a belly laugh is the best thing in the world. But I think you have to understand tragedy to know what comedy is because they’re closely linked. For example, I’m obsessed with Olivia Colman, who did a lot of comedy early on in her career, but I always saw some sadness in it. Then she did her first serious film, Tyrannosaur, and that was the most heart-wrenching film ever. Bridesmaids is the exception to my “no talking” rule, because me and my friends have seen it 62 times and it’s not heavy, so we can chat through that a bit if we want to.

Ralph Davis

Gladiator

This is the earliest film I remember watching, aged five, and it was the most enthralling cinematic experience. It became family bonding time. I lost my dad, Bill, a few months ago. Aimee and I were living in his flat in lockdown when we wrote Film Club. When he read the script for the last episode, I could tell he cried. It’s bittersweet but wonderful that he was part of that.

Finding Nemo

I was watching Finding Nemo on a plane this year and five minutes in, I was streaming with tears. I loved it originally but watching it again, I realised it’s so deep. It’s about grief, and a dad having to let go of his son, and I found it so touching.

Shame

Michael Fassbender’s performance is amazing. There’s a tracking shot of him running through New York, so close on his still face, and it changed me as an actor. I thought, “You can do something in this medium that transcends”.

Billy Elliot

I’m obviously not from a mining town in Durham in the 80s — far from it, I’ve lived a very privileged existence — but watching that as a young boy was so inspiring. The idea of following your dreams was immense.

Babyteeth

Funny, heartbreaking, human – this film doesn’t judge its characters or patronise the audience at all. It’s economic in its storytelling but has four performances at the heart of it that are titanic.

Nabhaan Rizwan

8½

David Lynch said that film makes you want to dream for a month. The movie’s about a director who’s got writer’s block and keeps having daydreams about his childhood — it’s so stunning. I first saw it a few years ago and it was life-changing. I didn’t just dream for a month afterwards, I’ve been dreaming ever since.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This film is so tragic and odd. I think it’s Jim Carrey’s most grounded and best performance. It’s about a dream state and I’ve always been a dreamy person. There’s a picture of my brother [Mawaan] holding a pigeon and I’m staring into space, which sums up our characters.

Dr Strangelove

I made a film in Manchester a couple of years ago called In Camera and the producer Mary Burke told me to study Peter Sellers. So I watched all the original Pink Panthers, which are his masterpieces. He’s dead serious, but wickedly silly at the same time. There’s something in that I really relate to.

The Host

Everyone knows Parasite, and it’s a brilliant movie, but The Host is by the same director, Bong Joon Ho, and has so much more heart. The comedy, the brutality, the heartbreak – Bong can hold all of that in one frame in a wide shot, which is bold and incredible.

Amélie

Whenever I’m uninspired, I put on this movie. When Amélie sees Nino and melts into a puddle of water, it’s so beautiful. A lot of people are scared by the surreal but it can communicate things we feel on a more accurate level – you’re not telling people how to feel, you’re making them feel it. I hope we’ve captured in Film Club what I love about all of these films: a bit fantastical and surreal, but grounded.

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