Out there up Films

[Dan]

I just finished watching A Scanner Darkly and I gotta say my reaction is wow, that's ****ed up. So I tried to make a good list of movies that fit the description. Here it is:

A Scanner Darkly
Brazil
Requiem For a Dream
A Clockwork Orange


....I can't think of others please help me

 

[Javert]

Lost Highway by David Lynch. Most ****ed up movie I ever saw.

 

[evil^milk]

Pi

 

[joule]

Donnie Darko is a pretty trippy movie.

 

[gick]

Are we talking f***ed up as in odd, or f***ed up as in disturbing?

For odd, i'd say Brazil, Spirited Away or Time Bandits

For disturbing try watching Irreversible or Salo (*disclaimer* After viewing Salo you may require therapy for the rest of your life *disclaimer*)

 

[Slacker]

Eraserhead
Palindromes (honestly, this is the weirdest movie I've ever seen)
Mulholland Dr
Pi
A Clockwork Orange

I'll think of more when I'm not tired.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Pretty much all of Lynch's movies (besides Elephant Man and Dune)

...And that's really the only mind****s I ever get.

 

[gick]

Some Cronenburgs are a bit strange. Naked Lunch, fo example.

 

[Slacker]

Some Cronenburgs are a bit strange. Naked Lunch, fo example.

ALL of Cronenberg's are strange (well, except for A History of Violence I guess). Naked Lunch is a good trip, but I thought Videodrome was even weirder.

Also, have you seen Dead Ringers? I'm thinking of getting the out-of-print Criteron edition from Amazon.

 

[brink's]

2001 A Space odyssey

Standard answer, but it was going to rear it's head eventually.

 

[gick]

ALL of Cronenberg's are strange (well, except for A History of Violence I guess). Naked Lunch is a good trip, but I thought Videodrome was even weirder.

Also, have you seen Dead Ringers? I'm thinking of getting the out-of-print Criteron edition from Amazon.

Dead Ringers... is that the one with Jeremy Irons playing the twin Gynacologists (sp?)?. I havent seen it, but its at the very top of my 'films to see list'. I'll probably rent it this weekend.

 

[Slacker]

Dead Ringers... is that the one with Jeremy Irons playing the twin Gynacologists (sp?). I havent seen it, but its at the very top of my 'films to see list'. I'll probably rent it this weekend.

Yeah, that's the one. And where the hell do you live where you can rent it? I can't find it anywhere :O.

 

[gick]

Yeah, that's the one. And where the hell do you live where you can rent it? I can't find it anywhere :O.

Well I was going to try blockbuster, but failing that im sure I can just go to the big HMV in Birmingham and buy it.

 

[Slacker]

Well I was going to try blockbuster, but failing that im sure I can just go to the big HMV in Birmingham and buy it.

Ugh, I wish that I had the luxury of having Blockbusters that had real quality films in it, but oh well.

 

[Lucid]

Primer's pretty disturbing.

Crash is also pretty ****ed up in the sense that it shows you perfect examples of the human race.

 

[Absinthe]

Crash is also pretty ****ed up in the sense that it shows you perfect examples of the human race.

I thought it relied primarily on stereotypes and simplifications.

Any way, Lynch should be a staple of anybody's "****ed up" films. "The Lost Highway" and "Eraserhead" (particularly the latter) are the most surreal works I've ever seen. "2001" is somewhere up there as well. And while not full-length movies, Chris Cunningham's short films "Rubber Johnny" and "Flex" are fairly disturbing.

 

[brink's]

I thought it relied primarily on stereotypes and simplifications.

Not to mention that it's overall statement was pretty bland

"humans are racist"..wow that was eye opening.

 

[evil^milk]

wasn't mulholland dr. a lynch film too?

 

[Absinthe]

wasn't mulholland dr. a lynch film too?

Yes. Definitely a strange movie, but I don't think it really compares to Highway and Eraserhead. You see, for the most part, I actually understood Mulholland Dr. upon the first viewing.

 

[DeusExMachina]

...Alright smart guy. You tell me what the hell that blue box is supposed to be or represent and I'll send you a hundred dollars.

 

[brink's]

Yes. Definitely a strange movie, but I don't think it really compares to Highway and Eraserhead. You see, for the most part, I actually understood Mulholland Dr. upon the first viewing.

I would actually like to know your interpretation, if you wouldn't mind. Maybe just a paragraphs worth.

 

[Absinthe]

SPOLERS

Whoah, whoah, whoah. I said "for the most part". I understood the transition between the two "realities" at the end of the film. I understood the role reversal of dominance between Camilla/Rita and Betty/Diane. The switch between the Adam Kesher whose life is falling apart and the Adam Kesher who is rich, successful, and in possession of Diane's lover. The fabricated Hollywood conspiracy barring Betty from stardom.

I interpreted the blue box as a linking device between between reality and the dream. It was a container for all of Diane's failures, betrayals, heartbreak, and anger. Its sudden presence and growing prominence before her awakening (along with disturbance she experienced in the theatre) were indicative of her actual situation bleeding through and disrupting the fantasy she had created. When finally opened, we were taken back to the real world and the dream was left unresolved. Just like most dreams are.

It was obvious, by the end of film, that 80% of the film had been a mental concoction by Diane. The opening montage of the jitterbug competition and the following scene of a person collapsing onto a bed. She changed her identity to Betty and attempted to escape herself. She turned Camilla into a helpless, dependent woman that needed her. Kesher, a man who had everything going for him, has his career bullied into submission. The hitman that she hired to kill Camilla (successfully, I may add) is a bumbling fool.

That said, there are still pieces I don't quite get. The monster/bum behind Winkie's, "silencio", and others. And some of the dream imagery persists into the real world. Since it is a Lynch film, you need to be aware of symbolism in almost every part, no matter how normal or grounded in reality it might seem.

Also, although I can't find the quote, I do believe Lynch said that it takes place in the same universe as Twin Peaks and The Lost Highway. What that basically means is "anything goes". Body-switching, parallel worlds, possession, spirits, non-linear time progression, and a bunch of other strange shit are all possible. =\

 

[gick]

On the subject of Lost Highway, the first time I watched it, I didnt have a ****ing clue what the hell it was all about. Im going to try watching it again soon though, I think my taste in film has matured somewhat.

 

[Absinthe]

Lost Highway, upon repeated viewings, actually has a lot of similarities to Mulholland Dr. It's just a lot darker, gritty, and impenetrable with its narrative. The basic, underlying story is that of a fugue state. Wether purely psychological or actually physically manifest, I'm still not sure. My guess is the latter, since it's the only way to explain some things.

 

[DeusExMachina]

I think Lost Highway and Blue Velvet are my favorite Lynch films.

 

[Absinthe]

Blue Velvet is my favorite Lynch film, in no small part due to Dennis Hopper's performance as Frank Booth.