Matthew Goode shares his five favourite cult movies

Posted On June 29, 2025June 29, 2025

What makes cult films? The traditional answer is any movie that has a small but highly dedicated fanbase, usually one that flopped or didn’t do as well as expected when it was first released. Sometimes, a subject doesn’t even have to be traditionally “good” to become a “cult classic”. See the various B-movies of Ed Wood, or Tommy Wiseau’s culture-defining The Room.  

One actor who can say he’s been in a few cult movies is Matthew Goode. The Downton Abbey star has been in plenty of popular mainstream hits like The Crown, The King’s Man, The Imitation Game and more, but many of his movies have found themselves in that sweet spot between hidden gem and cherished classic. He has a small-ish part in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s film Cemetery Junction, a must-watch for any fans of those two, and while not everyone loves his portrayal of Ozymandias in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, public opinion has softened on that project over time.

All of this makes Goode the perfect ambassador for Jameson Cult Film Club, an organisation set up to screen often overlooked films in interesting locations. As part of his ambassadorial duties, the dashing actor wrote a piece for Metro outlining his five favourite cult movies. The list includes some bangers, and we’ll get to those in a minute, but first, we have to address the elephant in the room…or rather, the shark in the pool. 

Goode selected Steven Spielberg’s Jaws for his list, calling it “an absolute classic which struck the fear of God into me as a child”. As true as that may be, there is no universe in which Jaws could be considered a cult film. It was so popular at the time of release that it coined the phrase “blockbuster”, as people literally queued for block after block to get tickets. It is still popular to this day, having invaded mainstream culture in a way most movies could only dream of. It’s a classic for sure, but definitely not a cult one.

Luckily for Goode, the rest of his choices fit the bill perfectly. On the surface, The Shawshank Redemption might not seem suitable for a list like this; it’s regularly cited as one of the greatest films ever made, but it wasn’t exactly popular when it first released. It only began to pick up steam with the wider public once it became available on VHS. As word of mouth spread the film’s appeal, the TNT network picked up the rights and began showing it regularly on their station. That is when the legend really started to grow.

The rest of Goode’s picks pass the ‘cult’ test with flying colours. He opted for The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers’ slacker movie supreme (that may or may not be getting a sequel), Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis’ time-looping Bill Murray vehicle, and A Matter of Life and Death, a World War II fantasy from masters of the cult flick Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

He might not have fully understood the brief at all times, but on the whole, Goode does a grand job in choosing films that have earned their cult status. Not Jaws, though; choosing that is near-unforgivable.

Matthew Goode’s five favourite cult movies:

• Jaws (Stephen Spielberg, 1975)
• The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
• The Big Lebowski (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 1998)
• Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
• A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

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