Director Brad Anderson (The Call, Session 9) truly has created a masterfully tense psychological thriller that is worthy of appraisal. The story follows Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) who is an insomniac machinist and hasn’t slept in a year and gradually begins to doubt his sanity. He grows romantically attached to a local prostitute and makes friends with his waitress who serves him coffee nightly and the film documents his bizarre life as he recovers confusing memories and is stalked by the menacing and mysterious Ivan (John Sharian). Is all what it seems?

With one of the biggest plot twists of its type since Fight Club, The Machinist remains a criminally underrated film and is recommended for all psychological thriller fans around. This isn’t the first time Bale has played a mentally unstable character, with his triumphant role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho gracing our screens since 2000.

Due to a typing error, Bale underwent a horrific body shape change, which had his weight plummet from 181 to an alarming 121 pounds, which shocked cinema audiences everywhere, with Bale’s almost skeletal appearance. Luckily, within 6 weeks, he gained enough wait to get him into shape to audition for Batman for Batman Begins (2006). There is definitely a lot of replay value in this film and it is worth watching back just to appreciate clues and hints scattered throughout the film. 9.3/10.