8 films for a weeknight that grip you without wearing you out

Some evenings you want a good film, just not one that demands much of you. No puzzle across three timelines, no subtitles, no drama that follows you into your sleep. But it should still matter what is on. These eight films manage both: they grab you within minutes and let you go to bed relaxed afterwards.

Catch Me If You Can

2002, 141 minutes. In the 1960s, Frank Abagnale Jr. poses as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer and forges cheques worth millions while an FBI agent chases him. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks play cat and mouse, and Steven Spielberg tells it with a light touch. The story is based on a real case.

The Intouchables

2011, 112 minutes. A wealthy man in Paris, paralysed from the neck down, hires a carer who is not really qualified for the job. Omar Sy and François Cluzet turn it into a friendship you laugh about without the film making fun of anyone. This one is based on a true story too.

Ocean's Eleven

2001, 116 minutes. Danny Ocean wants to rob three Las Vegas casinos at once and puts together a team to do it. George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in a film that mainly wants one thing: for you to have fun. Steven Soderbergh directed, the heist is elegant and the tone stays light throughout.

Knives Out

2019, 131 minutes. A successful crime novelist dies on his 85th birthday, and his family suspect each other. Daniel Craig plays detective Benoit Blanc with a Southern accent. A classic whodunit that plays with its own rules and still plays fair.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

2014, 99 minutes. A concierge and his lobby boy get caught up in an inheritance dispute in an invented European country in the 1930s. Wes Anderson tells it in pastel colours, with symmetrical shots and a brisk pace. Ralph Fiennes is polite and very funny as Monsieur Gustave. The film won four Oscars.

Paddington 2

2017, 95 minutes. Yes, the bear. Paddington looks for a present for his aunt and runs into a vain actor, played by Hugh Grant with obvious delight. A family film that also works without children, because it is warm without being sugary. Ideal after a bad day.

Mad Max: Fury Road

2015, 120 minutes. Almost the entire film is one long chase through the desert. Charlize Theron as Furiosa and Tom Hardy as Max hardly need to speak; the images tell everything. Exhausting in the sense of loud, but not in the sense of complicated. The film won six Oscars, mostly for craft such as editing, sound and production design.

Forrest Gump

1994, 142 minutes. A man with a simple view of the world walks through three decades of American history. Tom Hanks plays Forrest, Robert Zemeckis directed. The film is funny, sad and sometimes both at once. It won six Oscars, including Best Picture.