Diverse and dissonant, Jonny Greenwood’s beat heavy score evokes an eerie, bruised mood in this brilliantly executed minimalist noir starring Joaquin Phoenix as a gun-for-hire who specialises in saving victims from child sex rings, from director Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin, Ratcatcher).

Joe (Phoenix, who won the Best Actor prize in Cannes for his brilliant performance) is a Gulf War veteran turned assassin for hire who rescues young girls who have been kidnapped into the sex trade. When Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), a senator's daughter, is taken, he's contacted to take care of it - but Joe's escape plan suddenly derails, unleashing a maelstrom of violence…

An intense journey into a heart of darkness, Greenwood created something exceptional with compositions that are as surprising as the story itself, defying the strictures of any single modality of film scoring. Effortlessly combining acoustic and organic instruments, his score internalises the story and infuses it with more meaning in the viewer than most film scores can even hint toward.

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