There are certain books or movies - for example, the recent noirs Match Point and Brick - that reward your expectations of genre and which might frustrate you if you choose not to read them using that model; Room is exactly this in reverse. It reminded me in this way of Adolfo Bioy Casares’s novel The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata. Both have the appearance of a Hitchcockian thriller but end with you wondering if both you and the protagonist have misread all of the clues.

Of course, I saw this at the Alamo Drafthouse, an Austin theater with waiter service, and it’s possible that I simply missed some crucial detail while I was signing the check for my meal.