House of Games (1985)

A successful author of a book about compulsive behaviours, an austere psychiatrist played by Louise Crouse, heads into a gambling house one night to confront the heavies holding a debt over one of her patients, but "nothing is as it seems" in writer-director David Mamet's terrific thriller - well, except that seasoned thriller fans won't be surprised by anything that happens - but the deliberate acting and pace grip as the psychiatrist quickly becomes a keen student in the art of the long con.

★★★★☆

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The Indian In The Cupboard (1995)

A boy discovers that if he locks his toys in a cupboard using a magic key, his toys come to life, meaning this 1995 kids' movie based on a series of novels by Lynne Reid Banks plays out a bit like a live-action Toy Story except instead of an animated toy cowboy with freewill, it has a morose Native American indian who lives his animated moments at the mercy of a goofy white kid.

★★☆☆☆

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