I recently saw “Rampage” from 2009. Its basically a movie where a spree shooter is portrayed as the good guy/anti-hero. Several parts gave me that pit in your stomach, teeth gritting uncomfortable moment. I really hated it. Although I’m not surprised there are sequals I am disappointed and will not be watching them.
The Wolf of Wall Street. That movie gave me nightmares.
At the risk of sounding prude, seeing so much excess and chaos crossed the line from being morbid to becoming genuinely unpleasant, like seeing drunks and drug addicts in real life. I hated DiCaprio’s character with a passion from start to finish, and that night after watching the movie, I had a nightmare where I was at one of those parties and they were abusing me and my friends.
Knowing that it’s based on real events, that the guy DiCaprio plays is free, and that there are people who admire him even after seeing the movie makes me feel dejected.
And it’s relatively tame compared to some billionaire’s realities.
Yeah I fucking hate that movie. It feels like it made their horrendous behavior into a joke. None of it is funny in the context of reality. So glad to hear someone feels the same way about the movie.
Falling Down (1993). The main character attacking minorities, saying American conservative shit, and enablement of urban paranoia was pretty unsettling. The black comedy undertones did get me to chuckle once or twice, but overall just an upsetting thinking of some people sympathizing with the MC in a way that led conservatism to what it is today. The fact that he killed a neonazi does not balance it out.
Been a long time since I’ve seen this movie, but I always thought the point of the neonazi was specifically to point out how alike the two were. At the end of the scene where he kills him, the scene is shot in a reflection in a mirror. He kills the nazi, nazi drops out frame in the reflection, leaving just the MC, who then shoots and shatters the mirror itself.
Wasn’t he also watching the neonazi through reflections in a store’s security mirrors earlier? It’s really been a long time.
I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the “White Man’s Burden” and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown in.
I shouldn’t be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.
I always wished I had an eye for that kind of thing; no I haven’t noticed that!
I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the “White Man’s Burden” and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown
Throughout the movie, I wanted it to be satirical, and wanted to believe that it was exactly this because of how ridiculous and exploitative aspects of this movie are. But there so many moments where the film was intentionally trying to get me to sympathize for the character and made it feel very sincere.
I shouldn’t be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.
Absolutely this, and in more extreme cases with movies like American History X too. But American History X’s message is obvious to me and I really believe you’d have to be pretty moronic, as neonazis usually are, to believe it’s a pro-white supremacy movie and feel empowered by it. Fight Club is more subtle, but I believe it gives more opportunity for people not to identify with the opposite of the message, even for those that don’t know or get it. I just didn’t feel that way about Falling Down.
But I don’t know man, you’ve actually inspired me to want to rewatch it; see if I feel any differently.
I’ve heard of it but never seen it
It wasn’t horrible at the time but in hindsight it really is some kind of conservative underdog fantasy.
Brave Little Toaster
Gosh, we could add so many 80s/90s animations to go along with this. Watership Down. We’re Back (the dino one). Fantasia (again, the dino scene)
Good answer
Old Boy. The 2003 Korean one, at least.
Modern one is not much better. Same story.
Yeah but the Korean one is actually a good movie. They’re both modern.
2003 was nearly a quarter century ago
There’s more time between the remake and now than between the original and the remake, if the first one’s pre-modern, so is the second one.
Trainspotting
Requiem for a Dream
Both movies were good. Both movies were absolutely a one time watch and never again.
The first time I ever watched Trainspotting (like a decade or so ago) I had taken 2 tabs of acid and looked up online “movies that will change your life” or something along those lines.
One of the first ones listed was this one called Trainspotting and I had no idea what it was about I was expecting some drama about a special needs little boy who likes to look at trains or something.
Ohhh boy. That one scene was horrifying I got up and almost turned the TV off but I’m glad I didn’t. I love that movie so much.
Requiem for a Dream. You’re absolutely correct, a one-time-only must-watch. I always enjoyed re-watching films with friends, but this one is a no go. One thousand years ago, I added the DVD release to my collection on release. Where I grew up, our movie theater only carried ultra-mainstream titles, so when films like Requiem released to theaters, it was either a 2+ hour trek to the nearest metropolitan area or just wait for it to release on DVD. I could be misremembering, but I believe the DVD case was one of those awful cardboard cases with the plastic clip. Anyway, it was mixed in with the rest of the DVD collection I proudly displayed in my living room (we all did this). At least until I had to refuse requested viewing by different guests not once, but twice. Fortunately, somewhere around that same time, I pumped the brakes on tangible media, and started gathering digital rips. Packed all that valueless stuff up, and shoved it up in the attic.
I bought Requiem in a DVD 2-pack, with the second movie being American History X.
That was not a fun weekend.
Changling is another, the A. Jolie kidnapping flick
Irreversible.
Don’t watch it.Or rather… I recommend looking up first why it is so controversial and see if you think you want to watch it. If you want to watch it… It is a pretty brilliant way to actual convey the thing happening, but it is still stuck in my mind years later and I’m pretty sure I can never watch it again.Critical reception was polarised, with praise towards the performances and Noé’s direction, but criticism towards its graphic portrayal of violence and rape. American film critic Roger Ebert called Irréversible “a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable”.
Yeah, I think I understand where you’re coming from on this one. Definitely not for the feint of heart.
*faint
Came here to say this one. I saw it at a film festival in a theatre… ooof that was a lot. My buddy and I got high and watched Super Troopers afterwards as brain bleach. Didn’t work, still rattled.
Gaspar Noe in general. Sometimes (understatement) he’s a bit over the top.
Yeah I never need to see that again
This thread deserves Dancer in the Dark. Another film that I love but cannot recommend.
Set up your depression-treatment space beforehand. You’re going to be there a while. Beauty and tragedy so tightly bound that it feels monumental.
Also Breaking the Waves, another Lars Von Trier effort. A friend and I watched that and walked home in silence. Grim.
It’s a film that requires a lot of emotional and intellectual maturity of its audience, most of the critique came from a very superficial and naive angle from a vocal minority that flips out at any portrayal of violence against women as a matter of ideology.
They’ve both been mentioned below but mine are ‘Grave of the Fireflies,’ and ‘When the Wind Blows.’ They hit harder than ‘horror’ movies because they are, in a way, the real human horror for which a ‘genre:horror’ movie would be an abstraction.
Have you seen Threads?
I started it once but got distracted. Been meaning to watch it.
The Prestige
I absolutely love that movie, but the first time watching, when that one moment hits. Such emotions I’ve seldomly had when watching a movie.
Maybe honerable mention for Seven?
Watership Down. It’s animated. It’s a kid’s movie.
Also Plague Dogs.
Watership Down, scarring at least one generation of children because parents of the time saw it was animated and didn’t think further!
Related, my mother let me read Maus as a preteen with no one to talk to about after it!
I read Watership Down as a 10 year old. I loved to read but couldn’t go out much, so id often pick up the fattest books at the library so they would last me a while. Book messed me up. I didn’t know there was an animated movie. Seems like a bad choice.
Plague dogs is the most depressing work of art I’ve ever read. Go ask Alice is second and it’s about a girls journey of being destroyed by drugs from innocence.
The Wrestler (2008)
Requiem For a Dream (2000)
Thank you Darren Aronofsky.
The Cell (2000)
Thank you Tarsem Dhandwar Singh
Great answers
The Cell is very pretty, but it’s plot is so wafer thin that it borders on ridiculous.
Yeah, true.
But it’s VERY pretty. Like, extraordinarily pretty. Zack Snyder pretty.
Vapid, sure. But, so nice to look at.
Sometimes, you go for eye candy.
Hiro Murai, Tom Ford, Denis Villeneuve, and Jordan Peele do smart and pretty. At least, their directors of photography support the smart with pretty.
Second for Requiem. Such a good movie but it does not leave you the same as before you watched it.
I recently did a rewatch of all the James Bond movies.
The Moore ones from (especially) the late seventies made me cringe away really hard.
Tried to watch them for completeness sake, but made me physically uncomfortable so in the end I skipped large parts.
Didn’t age well at all…
I really like most of the older and newer ones, though.I’ve never seen them, what’s the rub?
Mainly the pure sexism.
While this is also present in the earlier films, Moore adds a slimey cheeziness I really just can’t stand watching.
Especially after having seen Lazenby’s Bond just before, which was a move to a much more serious type of thriller, which I totally loved.Moore agreed with you, he quit playing Bond because he was cast against women young enough to be his daughters.
Oh that definitely makes sense
Trainspotting maybe?
Fantastic answer
So much horror and comedy wrapped up together. There’s the baby scene, and the other baby scene juxtaposed with great bits like:
It’s shite being Scottish.
We’re the lowest of the low!
The scum of the fucking Earth!
The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash, that was shat into civilisation!
Some people hate the English. I don’t!
They’re just wankers!
We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers!
Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonised by!
We’re ruled by effete assholes!
It’s a shite state of affairs to be in Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!
Requiem for a Dream
Happinesshappiness is unreal. fantastic film.
I added Gummo and Kids in another post.
Schizopolis is really good and weird but doesn’t leave you as hollowed out as those others.
It’s been a while but I remember Visioneers giving me a similar feeling of bleakness.
1 hour photo.
the scene where Robin Williams has broken into their house and is shitting on their toilet was just too fucked up for me and I turned it off. never finished it.
Bro what
at the time I worked at a similarly blue vested retail space and there was a gentleman who worked in the photo department who looked and acted like the MC from the movie, unironically. he had been that way before the movie even came out, so it was just his personality.
the movie was just…too real for me and I couldn’t ever finish it.
