Category Archives: Unusual

2008, Could Be Hard To Watch, Drama, Not Feel Good, Nudity, Redemption, Revenge, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

Blindness (2008)

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From NetFlix:

After a plague of blindness overtakes the residents of a city, all sense of order breaks loose in the hospital where the victims are being quarantined. It’s up to a woman (Julianne Moore) who’s keeping her sight a secret to lead a group safely to the streets. Gael García Bernal, Mark Ruffalo, Sandra Oh and Danny Glover also star in this psychological thriller, an adaptation of José Saramago’s gripping masterpiece.

“Blindness” is one of the most unusual films I have ever seen. Read carefully because it will not be everyone’s taste. Julianne Moore is excellent as the only secretly sighted person in a population where eventually everyone becomes blind. Ask yourself what would happen if in fact everyone went blind. To give you a taste of the unpleasantness you can expect: In the beginning the government sequesters all the afflicted persons into a kind of stone penitentiary. Moore is married to a doctor Mark Ruffalo. She can see, he goes blind. Saramago is careful with the details of just how people would even be able to move about, get food, etc. The prisoners are divided into groups. The guards shoot upon sight any blind person attempting to leave. Food arrives and must be distributed to the various groups. That is where the trouble begins. One group, led by Gael García Bernal decides to bully the other groups by capturing the food and demanding to be paid first with jewelry and eventually women’s sexual services. It gets ugly. If you can survive this descent into non-civilization, this movie is for you.

Another unusual aspect is the manner of vocal delivery. There is no actor voice projection. People speak as is there is no camera.

If you are still reading this review, then I should be a bit more positive and say that there is an underlying philosophy that once people stop seeing the superficial in others, then they begin to appreciate the real internal personalities. Despite the horror, the film ends as much as is possible on a happy note.

I dare you!

2003, Drama, Not Feel Good, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

It’s All About Love (2003)

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From NetFlix:

In this futuristic thriller about love and fate, professional ice skater Elena (Claire Danes) and her estranged husband, John (Joaquin Phoenix), live in different cities. When John heads to New York seeking a divorce from Elena, he finds her life has gone askew: Her friends and family appear to have their own plans regarding her future as a skater, and those plans depend on John’s cooperation. Can he and Elena escape their clutches … alive?

Joaquin Phoenix has never played in a bad film in my experience, and this is no exception. However, he is willing to take chances in unusual films. Consider this film an art film of sorts. It claims to take place in the future but for a while those aspects seem to have nothing to do with the suspenseful plot. Ignore the slow start and stay with the story for awhile. Eventually the extreme weather changes (it seems like just the opposite of global warming) enter into the plot. There is some violence. Since I watch many films, I have the time to spend on such unusual films, but perhaps you might choose another film to watch.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 2002, Not Feel Good, Nudity, Spanish, Unusual

Talk to Her (2002)

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From NetFlix:

Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning drama explores the bond forged between two men under tragic circumstances. When a bullfighting accident sends his girlfriend, Lydia (Rosario Flores), into a coma, Marco (Darío Grandinetti) visits her in a clinic where he befriends nurse Benigno (Javier Cámara). Shy and a bit strange, Benigno tirelessly tends to another patient, Alicia (Leonor Watling), a comatose ballet dancer and the object of his obsession.

Recommended in both “1001 Films To See Before You Die” and “NY Times 1000 Best”, for me this film is about loneliness and the difficulty of finding a warm connection with another person.

Almodóvar is an acquired taste and not to everyone’s liking. You have to sit back and accept the film as a “happening”. For example, there is a silent film within the film in which a woman keeps her constantly shrinking lover in her purse until one day he walks into her vagina and lives there forever. This is what I mean by “acquired taste”.

If nothing else the movie is tender, with some surprises, and for me not boring.

1001BeforeDie, 2002, Biographical, Could Be Sad, Not Feel Good, Unusual

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

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From NetFlix:

Australia’s aboriginal integration program of the 1930s broke countless hearts — among them, those of young Molly (Evelyn Sampi), Gracie (Laura Monaghan) and Daisy (Tianna Sansbury), who were torn from their families and placed in an abusive orphanage. Without food or water, the girls resolve to make the 1,500-mile trek home. Meanwhile, a well-intentioned tracker is trying to return the girls to the authorities.

Do not expect a happy ending for this film recommended in “1001 Films To See Before You Die”. For historical background see the Wikipedia article. This is a film that tells a story, nothing more. But I could not take my eyes off these determined (and, in the case of the oldest, clever) aboriginal young girls as they struggled for nine weeks and 1,500 miles across a desert in order to reach their mother from whom they had been taken by the misguided British “Protector of Aborigines” because of their unpardonable crime of being half-caste.

1001BeforeDie, 2001, Could Be Hard To Watch, Documentary, Not Feel Good, Unusual

Kandahar (2001)

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From NetFlix:

Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf lenses this haunting drama that was shot during the Taliban era. The movie follows an Afghani-Canadian woman as she attempts to enter Afghanistan in search of her depressed sister. Since it’s illegal for a woman to travel alone in Afghanistan, she must rely on the kindness of strangers, including a scrappy boy and a mysterious American doctor.

I resisted seeing Kandahar (recommended in “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) for a long time because I felt it might be uncomfortable watching. I was correct. If you can just accept what you see as a cultural travelog and try not to grimace or squirm you might get through this remarkable film. I attached the category “Documentary” because among other things, that what this film can sometimes seem to be. For information on the city see Wikipedia. As that article explains there are several languages, especially Pashto and Persian. I have no idea which languages are being spoken, but there are subtitles for those non-English languages. For some reason, however, the principal language is English, probably because the female lead sister is coming from Canada to prevent her sister from committing suicide.

And what difficult things might there be to see in this film ? Remember that the Taliban were in power during the filming. Consider:

  • You watch young children rocking back and forth while chanting the Koran only to be interrupted by the teacher who asks a question such as “What is the use for a Kalashnikov rifle” and expects a word-perfect description of how to destroy the infidel (that’s us, folks!).
  • You see lines of men on crutches because their legs have been blown off by land mines. You see these men badgering or lying to the Red Cross to get more pairs of legs (i.e. feet on poles) for their wives who have also lost legs to land mines.
  • You wonder how the Canadian sister will ever find her way across a non-ending desert while being sometimes helped by not terribly honest men.
  • And the list goes on.

I do not regret seeing this independed film. Warning: it ends so abruptly it took my breath away. I almost cannot believe the ending. Comments are welcome if you ever get to the end of this fascinating adventure.

1988, Horror, Imperfect, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

Apartment 0 (1988)

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From NetFlix:

Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) is a cash-strapped loner eking out a living running
a revival cinema in modern-day Buenos Aires. With interest in classic films waning,
he’s forced to rent out his insane mother’s room to a seemingly harmless stranger,
Jack Carney (Hart Bochner). They quickly become friends, but as Adrian displays
the same problems that plagued his mother, he also begins to suspect his roommate
is a killer. Is he right, or is he just plain mad?

NetFlix suggested “Apartment 0” to me. Since Colin Firth has been good in every one of his movies that I have seen, I gave it a try. Once again Colin Firth comes through well as a very disturbed person. I had not seen Hart Bochner before (or at least never noticed). He has an impressive resume in IMDB. However, I could not decide if his acting was acceptable. The setting is Argentina. Colin Firth speaks an impeccable British. But the American accent of Hart Bochner really grated on me and sounded cheap. Do we really sound that way ? Colin lives in an apartment building inhabited by a strange assortment: transvestites, etc. (If any one of you is a transvestite, my apology). This is one strange, possible flawed film. But its strangeness and the plot forced me to sit through to the really unexpected ending.

1000NYTimes, 100Unknown, 1987, Suspense, Unusual

House of Games (1987)

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From NetFlix:

Psychologist Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse) decides to help one of her patients out of a gambling debt. Margaret finds the person to whom the money is owed: slick-talking Mike (Joe Mantegna). Mike, who runs poker games, persuades Margaret to help him look for “tells,” or telltale body language, in a game. She falls for the con and for Mike, becoming deeply involved in his world. David Mamet wrote and directed this psychological thriller.

I was reading an Italian lawyer novel in which the lawyer protagonist mentions that “House of Games” is one of his favorite films. So I gave it a try.

Lindsay Crouse was married to David Mamet. She is a good stage actress. As soon as the film starts you realize that all the actors speak as though they are on a stage, not at all what you expect to hear in a film.

The plot is everything. At the very least you get to learn a few good “cons” just in case you were thinking of going into the business. Eventually it comes down to who is conning whom.

I enjoyed the film, but you are warned that it is very different.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 100Unknown, Classic, Could Be Hard To Watch, German, Unusual, Violent

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

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From NetFlix:

In the mid-16th century, after annihilating the Incan empire, Gonzalo Pizarro
leads his army of conquistadors over the Andes in search of the fabled City of
Gold, El Dorado. As Pizarro’s soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of
nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), ‘The Wrath of God,’
is consumed with visions of conquering all South America and leads his own army
on a doomed quest into oblivion.

All three film catalogs rave about this film. In fact it is one of a kind, slow, and mesmerizing.

First some history: Pizarro sends a “small” task force to continue down th Amazon to find the City of Gold. The commander Pedro de Ursua and his aide, Lope de Aguirre, take soldiers (always in metal battle gear), one priest, Inca slaves, cannon, horses, and two noble women carried in a covered transport box down the mountain and eventually on rafts in the Amazon. Aguirre murders Ursua in an act of mutiny and forces the others, by force of his homocidal mania, to continue on to find the City of Gold. Much of this we know from the priest’s diary. The end is conjecture.

The marvel is that these poor actors had to live and suffer just as the historical figures did. Werner Herzog, the megalomaniacal director, was a fanatic that insisted on realism. Aquirre, played by Klaus Kinski, is obviously “nuts” from the get-go. At one point Kinski tried to flee the jungle and Herzog brandished a pistol and promised to kill Kinski if he escaped.

Just sit and watch this “happening”. It is slow, beautiful, and unforgettable. Hearing Spaniards speaking in German is admittedly a bit unusual, but there are English subtitles.

Violent, not for children. But a genuine screen classic.

2005, Musical, Unusual, Vulgar

Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

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From NetFlix:

From the Coen brothers and John Turturro comes this twist on the not-so-ordinary tale of adultery and salvation. Nick (James Gandolfini) engages in a torrid extramarital affair with a younger woman, Tula (Kate Winslet), while his wife, Kitty (Susan Sarandon), grows ever more enraged by his behavior. As her world crumbles around her, Kitty grapples with her husband’s infidelity, but will Nick ever realize the magnitude of what he’s done?

This is one wierd film as follows:

o It is a musical. Yes, you get to hear James Gandolfini and Susan Sarandon sing.
o You get to see firemen etc dance in the street.
o It is exclusively about sex.
o It is one of the most vulgar movies I have ever seen.
o It has a happy-sad serious ending despite all the preceding nonsense.

You have to really like strange and different films to tolerate this kooky film.

1996, Musical, Not Feel Good, Revenge, Unusual, Violent

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

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From NetFlix:

The Montagues and Capulets have moved to the sweltering suburb of
Verona Beach in this contemporary take on William Shakespeare’s
classic play. Though the film is visually modern, the bard’s dialogue
is intact as the feuding families’ children fall desperately in love.
The families nix the union, so Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Juliet
(Claire Danes) wed secretly. But just as it seems there’s hope of
uniting the warring clans, events turn tragic.

You would have no clue from the NetFlix description that this is a musical as well as a contemporary setting of “Romeo and Juliet”. Note the plus sign in the title. Yes, believe it or not, Leonard DiCaprio sings, which just adds to his list of accomplishments. John Leguizamo plays a great villain. And yes the film is faithful to Shakespeare, using the original text. But be warned: this is an unusual film that will NOT be to everyone’s liking.