ZERO SPOILERS: THE SWIMMER (1968)

On the surface, the plot of this movie is a little strange, yet very intriguing. A middle-aged man decides he wants to swim home from a neighbor’s house. His plan is to walk from swimming pool to swimming pool, diving into each one and emerging from the other end to continue his journey. It sounds like the kind of plan you might hatch while tripping, dreaming, or idly rich in a neighborhood where everyone owns a pool.

The Swimmer works on many levels, and hopefully you’re now intrigued enough to seek it out. If you need further incentive, it’s based on a story by John Cheever, whose nickname was “the Chekhov of the suburbs.”