Muscle

Muscle takes the trappings of a macho crime flick and informs them with sensitivity and smarts, perfectly played by Cavan Clerkin and Craig Fairbrass. It packs all the punch and power of a whey protein shake.

This is Johnson's first film without his cousin and collaborator Peter Ferdinando in the starring role, but Muscle's two leads prove every bit as tuned into his uniquely bleak vision of male interaction.

The B-list hard case and straight-to-video action star Craig Fairbrass (see the Rise of the Foot Soldier franchise) is utterly reinvented in this bleakly compelling drama about toxic masculinity run rampant.

Nevertheless, this is a striking, distinctive vision of how far some men will go to overcompensate for their vulnerabilities.