Face (1997)

The most direct link on this list between the Britpop charts and the screen: Blur's Damon Albarn made his acting debut in Antonia Bird's London heist thriller. Robert Carlyle plays a disillusioned former socialist turned armed robber, with Ray Winstone beside him, and the job goes bloodily wrong. Critics were divided, so come for the period rather than a polished thriller. Its politics and its grief set it apart from the cheeky crime capers that followed Lock, Stock, and it makes a useful antidote to the decade's macho gangster films.