Recommend me some smart/thoughprovoking movies or dark/sarcastic pieces - by Yakoob
Yakoob on 27/2/2012 at 04:50
So I've been catching up on some movies and looking for good recommendations in the category of smart/original/thoughtprovoking/engaging/mindfuck (tho David Lynch is a little beyond my threshold). It's kinda hard for me to describe exactly what I mean, but films like Fight Club, Black Swan, The Machinist, Se7en, Memento or Source Code. I'm also down for some dark/sarcastic pieces like Burn After Reading, The Guard or The Weatherman.
EDIT: When I say thought provoking I dont necessarily mean "oh god what is humanity?" (ala Schilnder's List) but more like "I need to think a little to watch this."
fett on 27/2/2012 at 04:58
I assume you've seen Dark City with Keifer Sutherland, and 12 Monkeys with Bruce Willis. Also The Usual Suspects, The Village, Unbreakable, Shutter Island.
/captain obvious. Sorry. :(
june gloom on 27/2/2012 at 05:03
A Scanner Darkly. One of the most damning critiques on both drug culture AND the drug war. It's also suggesting that drugs, while destructive, offer an escape from a boring life; the question is, how badly do you want to escape?
demagogue on 27/2/2012 at 05:07
These are my favorite genres too so, running down my list here...
On the clever side... Primer, Match Point, any Christopher Nolan film (The Prestige is my favorite), Donny Darko maybe, Syriana (helps to read the script *before* you watch), Quiz Show, Goodbye Lenin maybe. On the dark comedy, the one that comes first to mind is In the Company of Men... (Same actor from Thank You for Smoking, Aaron Eckhart). Fucking evil comedy.
Muzman on 27/2/2012 at 05:57
Primer is the daddy for sure of mindfuck movies. It's amazing how many critics I've found really hated it, calling it a "Sundance movie" when it doesn't even resemble anything Sundance before or since.
Satoshi Kon's stuff like Perfect Blue and Paprika are good and reality bending.
Network is the classic darkly comic satire about the media. Glen Beck's real bible.
In The Loop boils down the Iraq war to a pissing contest between British and US political staffers.
I'll have to do some thinking....
Koki on 27/2/2012 at 07:07
The Gulag Archipelago
Neb on 27/2/2012 at 07:45
The Game - Guessing you might have seen it.
Falling Down - Watched this again just yesterday.
My Dinner With Andre - One long, elaborate conversation between two old friends.
The Celebration
Agora
Thesis - 1996 version. Haven't seen the film of the same name from 2010.
Screwed in Tallinn - Good luck finding it. Short Swedish mockumentary about a group of losers on a speed dating trip to Estonia.
The Quiet Earth - Scientist wakes up to find everyone has vanished.
Synecdoche, New York - Depressing as hell and very abstract if you can stomach that.
Timecrimes - Not a clever time travel film, but one that focuses on self deception.
Pontypool - The 'NOT-A-TRUE-ZOMBIE-FILM' crowd love getting worked up about this.
Insomnia - Haven't seen the Nolan remake.
Hardly any of those are 'mindfuck' so I'll add Persona and The Mirror. Or, you could watch all of them simultaneously to meet the criteria.
Shakey-Lo on 27/2/2012 at 09:52
Repulsion, La jetee, Magnolia, anything Andrei Tarkovsky.
Neb on 27/2/2012 at 10:33
Quote Posted by Yakoob
It's kinda hard for me to describe exactly what I mean, but films like Fight Club, Black Swan, The Machinist, Se7en, Memento or Source Code.
Coming to think about it, you're looking for psychological thrillers - especially the ones with plot twists.
