Sightlines · a viewing thread

No Way to Say No

Watch these when you want to see individuals forced to perform for a state, an army, or a corporation — they rhyme on the impossible arithmetic of complicity and defiance.

Festival-circuit and politically charged, mostly demanding cult and cinephile objects rather than crowd-pleasers, and several are hard to sit with — save them for when you're ready to be unsettled.

• Tatami (2024)
• Yes (2025)
• Atropia (2025)
• Relay (2025)
• A House of Dynamite (2025) — If these rhymed for you, this is the recent one to pull down next — Bigelow puts ordinary people inside the state's machinery and hands them an unthinkable choice on a ticking clock, the same impossible arithmetic of complicity and defiance played out in command centers instead of on a mat.
• NAZA (2026) — If these landed, this is the recent film to pull down next — soldiers testifying under altered voice about how Gaza's civilian deaths were calculated makes the thread's 'impossible arithmetic of complicity' literal, no longer a metaphor.