Fingernails

Love becomes a game of percentages in this intriguing alt-world sci-fi drama. Jessie Buckley plays Anna, who begins working at the institute where a revolutionary technique sees a microwave-like machine calculating a couple's compatibility by analysing one of their extracted fingernails. The rub comes as Anna, who is in a relationship with Ryan (The Bear's Jeremy Allen White), feels drawn to her colleague, Amir (the ever-reliable Riz Ahmed). Finding emotional depth in the outlandish premise, Buckley grounds the film with a quietly affecting performance, playing an everywoman who craves certainty. Discolouration of the fingernail is the first sign of heart disease, we're told, and director/co-writer Christos Nikou (Apples) takes that notion to its twisted conclusion in this unique and thoughtful film.