Creative Movies

[Zealot2120]

Many movies are similar in nature: repeated plots, similar twists, manufactured. Ocassional there are movies, however, that truly destroy these trends and leave you satisfied.

Here are some examples of those kinds of movies:

Fight club
Memento
Little Miss Sunshine
Maholland Drive
Being John Malkovich
American Beauty

These are all fantastically creative movies with brilliant characters (AB, LMS), bizzare plots (MD, FD), or are just in an origonal style (BJM, M).

Please add to this list with other unique movies like these. I hope to make a master list for myself and others who want to seek out new movies that will give them a breath of fresh air.

Movies suggested by others:

Ghost World
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The gods must be crazy
The Prestige
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí)
Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis
Se7en
Lucky Number Slevin
OldBoy
The Butterfly Effect
Spy Game
Sin City
Brazil
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Magnolia
Requiem for a Dream
Mystery Train
A Scanner Darkly
Stay
Brick

 

[Mediocre]

I'd put Ghost World and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in that category.

They're both good, weird movies. They're largely character driven, and certainly not typical hollywood fare.

 

[Crimson King]

You realize Fight Club and, to a lesser extent, Being John Malkovich (they wrote the book FOR the movie) were books first.

The reason most books make good movies (or better than other movies) is because it can develop characters and plots really slowly that movies can do in minutes.

 

[Zealot2120]

I disagree. Many books make terrible movies. I wrote an essay on this subject, explaining that books and movies cannot be compared because the mediums are too different.

I am aware that Fight Club was a book first, but that doesn't change the unique qualities it has in the movie world.

About eternal sunshine, I saw that quite a long time ago, and I remember not really caring for it. Perhaps I'll give it another try though, cause I was young at that time and perhaps I just didn't get the full effect of it. I haven't heard of Ghost World though... what's taht about?

 

[Mediocre]

About eternal sunshine, I saw that quite a long time ago, and I remember not really caring for it. Perhaps I'll give it another try though, cause I was young at that time and perhaps I just didn't get the full effect of it. I haven't heard of Ghost World though... what's taht about?

Well, I don't really know how to answer your question, exactly. It's about a lot of the same things that Catcher in the Rye is about, if you've read that. If you haven't the best I can do is tell you that it's about two girls who graduate from high school and have no ****ing clue what they're supposed to do with themselves.

I know that doesn't sound like a very exciting premise, but I found myself associating with the characters, and I felt like I could understand, to a large extent, what they were going through. I'd be willing to bet that you will too, if you watch the movie.

It's based on a graphic novel, which I keep meaning to read but keep forgetting to buy. Anyway, it's certainly not your typical Hollywood garbage, and I suggest you at least give it a shot.

EDIT: Also, you could definitely label it as a "coming of age movie" but that description makes it sound incredibly generic, and it's certainly not generic. It's an unusual movie, and that description, while accurate, is also incredibly banal.

 

[Khanczar]

The gods must be crazy is pretty creative if you ask me. If you havent seen it, do so. I always feel thoroughly pleased after watching that movie.

 

[Zealot2120]

Ghost World sound interesting.... I'll look into that.

 

[Sporkman]

The Prestige is a fantastic film, it's from Nolan (Memento) and the timeline is cut up into lots of different pieces, "you know where you stand with Christopher Nolan, and that is you don't know where you stand". I'm also fully aware it was a book first, of which it does deviate slightly.

Also, creativity and quality are two different things,

For creativity check out Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí) or Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis, then again, I suppose there is alot of difference between creativity and absolute madness as well.

To give you another big name film that you haven't mentioned, Se7en is top notch. Which reminds me, Lucky Number Slevin is also a very good film.

Oh and OldBoy, which is sadly, despite being only 4 years old, being remade by Hollywood already, by director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift). I don't think Tokyo was actually that bad, to be honest, I rather liked it, it was simple, good fun, something I haven't seen from a movie in a long long time. Although maybe my perverted mind was corrupted by the cavorting, delightful asian beauty buttocks moving past sleek cars. Also I heard Justin Lin took the film because the original screenplay was incredibly stereotypical in it's views of asians or something like that. None the less you may camplain of the non-asain lead and his non-asian love interest, but it fitted quite well none the less, also the director apparently wanted an Asian lead but the studio said 'not bankable enough', so that's enough of me defending Tokyo Drift, Better Luck Tomorrow seems to have recieved good reviews and perked my interest. So that's enough of defending the director. But I'm not sure if I really should be, I'm outraged by this preposterous madness that someone believes OldBoy can be remade, and so premature as well! And you know what the word on the street is for the person to play Oh Dae-Su, Nicholas ****ing Cage. That's right, some people even want Paul ****ing Walker. Mind the person who said that did right so after failing to declare sarcasm in a complete mock list (Carmen Electra as Mido, Steve-O as Oh Dae-Su, Jerry Seinfeld as Mr Park, Ashton Kutcher as Mr. Han etc).

Speaking of Ashton Kutcher, I quite liked The Butterfly Effect, different from most things I've seen.

 

[Evil Eye]

I'd say that Spy Game was at the top of its game. It was a thriller that used drama to thrill and subtext to intrigue. The movie had an interesting structure and clung to realism as much as possible. I think the only guns fired in the whole thing were during a war. Even just as a popcorn flick, I found it entertaining, with interesting twists and character actions.

Very much not a Hollywood spy flick, and I guess the low box office numbers are a reflection of that.

Sin City, I think, also showed that there's still room these days for both film noir and stylish action films, both being genres with exceptionally lackluster entries in the years prior.

 

[Zealot2120]

K, I'm gonna put all these movie into the first post.

I saw the prestige, and it was really great. Not as good as memento in my opinion though.
As for Sin City... I didn't really care for it. I love the style, but the novelty of the black, white, and red wore off after a while. The plot itself isn't great.

 

[Mediocre]

I forgot a few.

Brazil is a really good movie. It's a lot like 1984, but weirder. It was directed by one of the members of Monty Python, after all. If you decide to watch it, do not get the "Love Conquers All" version. It's a piece of crap forced into existence by Universal Studios, and completely ignores the original intentions of the creators.

Another good, old movie is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It's as least as weird as Brazil, but it satirizes a different subject matter: the Cold War. It's pretty far out there, but it's a good movie if you pay any attention to politics, even if you weren't around when the Cold War was going on.

Anyhow, that's it for now. I'll come back if I think of any more.

I like this topic, by the way.

 

[Luigitoilet]

Magnolia!

and Requiem for a Dream is a Lifetime movie on nightmare speed.

I would suggest to look towards the East for the most unique movies. Japanese movies are generally my favorite to watch, and one of my favorite favorite directors (Tsai-ming liang. probably out of order, lol) is from Taiwan.

Also, anything by Jim Jarmusch, but especially Mystery Train

 

[Zealot2120]

I actually saw the first 2 and a half hours of Magnolia, but i coudln't finish it. I want to see the last half hour though. I'm expecting it to be pretty huge, considering the beginning and what the whole film is based around.

 

[D.A.N.]

How about A Scanner Darkly? I thought it was a good movie and incredibly unique.

 

[Xsyven]

You'd like almost any mass produced Indie movie...

The two that are AMAZING are Stay, and Brick.

Rent them. Or buy them... whichever you prefer.

Stay will make you wtf so hard, you'll **** yourself. I'd reccomend watching it more than once. If you don't get it, look it up on the internet or something.

Brick is about organized crime between high school students. Yet, the high school students are extremely mature. Their character choices are absolutely amazing, and it's poetic at the same time. You'll also notice that they use slang from the twenties... it's just cool.

Chalk those up on the list. In 's.

 

[Zealot2120]

The A Scanner Darkly conecpt was actually done before.. the style that is. If you've seen waking life (i've only seen a bit of it), the drawing on video style is the same.

Movie wise, i haven't actually seen it. I'm gonna add the new movies to the list.

 

[Sporkman]

Just so you know, A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life were both directed by independent film director, Richard Linklater. Waking Life was indeed the first film he did in this style which i believe was thought up by his friends? we looked at Linklater in my A-level film course. He did an entire film in digital as well (Tape). He has a recurring message of anti-mass-consumerism (i can't think of the actual phrase right now) which is evident in the even-more-mainstream-then-his-other-films School of Rock.

FAO: the person who mentioned Brick, I've been trying to get this film after one of my film lecturers mentioned it, however, thus far i haven't seen it. How much would you reccomend it to someone? score out of (whatever you want: 5, 10, 100)?

 

[Xsyven]

Sporkman, I'd give it a 10/10.

The thing is though, I've only seen like... 4 indie movies. So I'm not exactly sure how it compares to others. I loved it though.

I liked Stay a little bit more though. Rent both of them if you can.

 

[Zealot2120]

I also loved thank you for smoking. Who's seen that?

 

[Mediocre]

I also loved thank you for smoking. Who's seen that?

Personally, I thought it was fairly hilarious.

Oh, Sideways is one of the best movies that probably none of you have seen. It's hilarious and depressing at the same time.

 

[Zealot2120]

I have seen Sideways. I did not really like it that much.

 

[Luigitoilet]

Oh man Zealot, you gotta see the ending to Magnolia. It's the best part!

I forgot another movie. One of my top favorites by one of the greatest new filmmakers around, David Gordon Green. The movie's called George Washington. It is immaculate.

 

[Zealot2120]

Yeah, I can imagine the ending to Magnolia is good. It's all based of the concept of this major coincidense that happened at the beginning, so i'm expecting all the stories to tie together into a major coincidense that warps your mind.

I'm suprised no one has said Donnie Darko yet.

 

[Sporkman]

No-one's said Donnie Dark yet because it's a big puddle of pish.

However, i'll hand you the fact that it IS creative.

 

[GoldShadow]

Donnie Darko was nothing more than a waste of two hours of my life.

I know they were going for the mysterious, "it means whatever you interpret it to mean" stuff but it was just an uncohesive paranoid schizophrenic mess.

edit: with far too much symbolic stuff they were trying to string together

 

[Zealot2120]

You obviously haven't seen Muhallond dr.

 

[Scav]

Or Lost Highway, which is even MORE confusing.

 

[Zealot2120]

More than Muhallond dr.? That movie you actually have to do research to understand.

 

[Sporkman]

Fincher is famous for confusing his audiences, red herrings in the dvd cases and everything. I haven't seen any of his films but I wouldn't expect them to make much sense.