Scotland, PA

Billy Morrissette's 2001 American film moves Macbeth to a hamburger stand in 1970s Pennsylvania. Joe McBeth, an unambitious fast food employee, is pushed toward success by his scheming wife; they kill his boss, take over the restaurant, and as the business grows guilt eats them. The vegetarian detective played by Christopher Walken is the strangest and best invention in it. The adaptation works because it does not try to imitate Shakespeare's text: the characters speak entirely in their own idiom, and the tragedy dissolves inside the absurdity of small ambitions. The witches have become hippies sitting at a fairground. The film's limit is failing to hold the balance between comedy and tragedy in the last section. Who it's for: viewers who like Shakespeare adaptations, black comedy and American independent cinema. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a faithful adaptation, or troubled by violence delivered in a comic register.