Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Jong-su, a young delivery worker and aspiring writer, runs into Hae-mi, a neighbor from his childhood. She goes on a trip and comes back with Ben, a rich and charming man who tells Jong-su his hobby is burning down greenhouses. Then Hae-mi vanishes. Lee Chang-dong adapts a Murakami story into a slow thriller about class, envy and what you can prove.

Why it’s here: The film turns class rage into a mystery that never resolves, which is how class often works. What's punk is that the poor man is the one telling the story and nobody believes him. What's pedagogical is how much the film shows without saying. It's 2.5 hours, slow, and ambiguous on purpose. Close relative: Parasite, which is in the suggestion log.

Steve James followed two Black teenagers from Chicago's housing projects, William Gates and Arthur Agee, for five years as they tried to turn basketball into a way out. They are recruited to a suburban Catholic school, injured, dropped and picked up again, and their families pay for it. The film runs three hours and doesn't hurry.

Why it’s here: The film takes apart the idea that sports is the way out by staying with the families when it doesn't work. What's punk is that the boys and their parents are the authors of the story. What's pedagogical is how clearly it shows tuition, scouting and recruiting as systems. Pairs with Most Likely to Succeed and The Shame of the Nation.