On the last two days of 1999, L.A. is a violent war zone. Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), an ex-cop who sells virtual-reality tapes that allow you to inhabit someone else’s memories, pines for his ex-girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis), and watches back the tapes of when they were together. One day, he receives a tape depicting a murder from an anonymous contact, which sends him on a mad chase to try to win Faith back from evil record exec Philo. This 1995 sci-fi hidden gem is a veritable pu-pu platter of big names appearing as callow youths: Fiennes, Lewis, and Angela Bassett star, with direction by Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron as co-writer. It also wrestles with very prescient questions that still plague us today: Why are we drawn to virtual reality? What does it do to our humanity? And is the escape it offers worth the cost? – Lina Fisher
