Robert Redford directs John Turturro, Rob Morrow and Ralph Fiennes in this recreation of the 1950s rigged quiz show scandals.

Forrest Gump is a perfectly fine movie but it came out, and jarringly swept up at the Oscars, during one of the greatest years of cinema ever. 1994 saw the release of Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Ed Wood, Clerks, Speed, The Paper, Leon and this… a crackingly sophisticated drama. Redford recreates the sheen, concerns, opportunities and slick corruption unique to the end of the fifties in a way that even the brilliant Mad Men never quite executed so insightfully. The ensemble is uniformly brilliant, oozing a collective urbane sharpness until they realise only the house wins at these tables – none more so than Turturro whose near manic fall guy Herb Stemple is a portrait of short sighted working class frustration. A narrative that dextrously explores class, deceit and ethics… it is sad to think sentiment rather than smarts is still what the Academy embraces those days and these days when it comes to ordaining the best of Hollywood.

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