Julia

Julia (2008) is Erick Zonca's nerve-shredding drama, free to watch online on iFILM. Tilda Swinton plays a fortysomething drunk with nothing but debts, blackouts and a talent for burning every bridge she crosses.

A woman from her AA meeting offers cash to help snatch a young boy back from his wealthy grandfather. The deal collapses. No money comes. So Julia improvises her own scheme and bumps the ransom to two million, dragging the kidnapped child across the border into Mexico. She forgets one thing. Down there, abduction is its own thriving trade, and the locals who grab the boy take her for his mother — grandfather and millions nowhere in the picture.

This is no slick crime caper. Zonca builds a sweaty, downhill chase around a woman who keeps making the worst possible choice. Swinton carries all 144 minutes, repellent and oddly tender at once. A Belgian-French-Mexican production worth the slow burn. Stream Julia (2008) online on iFILM.