Art House and Indie Films

If you want some solid storytelling, Todd Solondz is definitely worth checking out—honestly, his stuff might even top Happiness. Two movies that aren't strictly "high art" but are totally worth your time are Notes on a Scandal and In the Bedroom, though I personally liked the latter more. You don't see Sissy Spacek singing American pop hits 🤣 every day, and man, does she nail it.

Emily Thomas3 said:If you want some solid storytelling, Todd Solondz is definitely worth checking out—honestly, his stuff might even top Happiness. Two movies that aren't strictly "high art" but are totally worth your time are Notes on a Scandal and In the Bedroom, though I personally liked the latter more. You don't see Sissy Spacek singing American pop hits 🤣 every day, and man, does she nail it.

Come on, don't mislead people. 🙂

Storytelling is a bit of a mess—structurally speaking. That's why it doesn't quite measure up to Happiness, where everything actually lands exactly where it should.

Trivia: Belle & Sebastian did the soundtrack for Storytelling.

So, how am I even lying to people when I tell them mine is better? 😉 What the heck, you’ve totally gotten inside my head, argh! 🤣

I don't know, I think I prefer the storytelling a bit more. Even though both movies are awesome, they feature what are probably the two best actors in America right now, and they're hilariously twisted. visitor q The way they handle it... honestly, Storytelling actually has that scene where the kid asks Consuelo what rape is, but Happiness doesn't have anything like that. Plus, Storytelling features B&S on the soundtrack, and they're hands down one of my favorite bands ever.

Man, seriously, how are you guys even tracking down these movies, especially all that Asian cinema?

flatrate

Let's see how the Americans translated the movie, then we can just download it 🙂

I’m actually suggesting we don't write off Hollywood just yet—if anything, we should probably be circling back to some of the classics.

The way you're talking puts you at risk of grouping things together that have absolutely nothing in common, like throwing that unfortunate flick Happiness in the same bucket as an Andrei Tarkovsky masterpiece like Nostalghia, or taking a title like The Wind That Loved Me and treating it as equal to something stunning like Let the Right One In—just because they aren't Hollywood doesn't mean they belong in the same pile.

Instead, you take a look at stuff like Gone with the Wind, those Hitchcockian American thrillers, Citizen Kane, Charlie Chaplin, or Steven Spielberg... those are the benchmarks that make everything else make sense, and it keeps you from making those weird, nonsensical comparisons.

If we're strictly using the Hollywood vs. non-Hollywood distinction as our main way to split things up (which we are, since that's how this thread kicked off), then 🤷*Happiness* and *Nostalghia* basically end up in the same bucket. Even if those movies don't really share much else in common.

Emily Thomas3 said:If we're strictly using the Hollywood vs. non-Hollywood distinction as our main way to split things up (which we are, since that's how this thread kicked off), then 🤷*Happiness* and *Nostalghia* basically end up in the same bucket. Even if those movies don't really share much else in common.

Yeah, totally; you really have to watch out for those kinds of arbitrary splits, especially when you're actually trying to hunt down quality.

Yeah, honestly, I’m a firm believer that quality is totally subjective. The more you watch, the better.

Cube (1997), Nothing (2003), Ellie Parker (2005), Legalese (1998), A Slight Case of Murder (1999), My Little Eye (2002)

Emily Thomas3 said:Yeah, honestly, I’m a firm believer that quality is totally subjective. The more you watch, the better.

I don't really buy that, because I think quality is actually pretty objective for the most part.

Now, sensibility is a whole different beast, but just because something doesn't hit my specific vibe doesn't mean it isn't high quality (though, obviously, just because it's good doesn't mean I actually have to care about it... 🙂).

I don't know, I've always felt that you can measure objective things with a yardstick, but you just can't do that with film quality. 1+1 equals 2 for everyone, but being swept away by the wind doesn't mean a movie is a masterpiece to every single person. Anyway, we've already gone back and forth on this on the forum, so I really don't feel like diving back into off-topic debates.

Emily Thomas3 said:I don't know, I've always felt that you can measure objective things with a yardstick, but you just can't do that with film quality. 1+1 equals 2 for everyone, but being swept away by the wind doesn't mean a movie is a masterpiece to every single person. Anyway, we've already gone back and forth on this on the forum, so I really don't feel like diving back into off-topic debates.

Look, being "objective" isn't just about what the masses happen to think.

(I wouldn't agree even if everyone thought 1+1 equals 2.)

Objectivity means stuff you can actually prove with data. Movie quality? That’s a different story. There aren't any objective metrics or scales to measure it—no ruler or weighing scale exists for art, just subjective human ideas about what makes a movie hit or miss. To me, "good" and "bad" are purely subjective terms.
No matter how much someone knows about cinema or how educated they are, their take on a film isn't any more objective than some lady at the local farmer's market. You might manage to be unbiased, sure, but you can't be truly objective. I'm totally down to debate this, but let's move it elsewhere so we don't clutter up this thread.

The Lighthouse (2000), Wild Iris (2001), Habana (2005), The Music Lovers (1970), I Love Your Work (2003), My First Mister (2001), The Opposite of Sex (1998), The Real Blond (1997), Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988), Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Pieces of April (2003), Transamerica (2005), Mad Dog Time (1996), Underworld (1996).

Stranger Than Fiction (2006), Swimming pool (2003).

I find myself nodding along with so many of the posts here when it comes to movie recommendations... so, I thought I’d toss in a few Asian masters to the mix—Kor-eda, Kiarostami, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Suzuki (and gosh, I’m already blanking on a few others)
Then there’s Mađar Miklosz Jancso... the Spaniard Raoul Ruiz (wait, was he a Spaniard? I can never be sure), plus Sergej Paradjanov, the Georgian Tengiz Abuladze, the Greek Theo Angelopulos, and Alex Jodorovsky, of course. Not to mention that whole wave of French filmmakers, stretching from those silent surrealists all the way down to Godard... anyway, that’s a pretty decent start. Honestly, I rarely feel any urge to keep up with new releases—most of them just seem to be sequels to some mediocre garbage or mindless remakes. Of course, we still have greats working today—the legendary Lars or Lynch, and my personal favorite, Cronenberg. There’s definitely still talent out there... but for me, cinema is more of a state of mind👍

By the way, I’ll be posting a PDF of the full book (Non-profit/for educational purposes only) in the thread about the corrupt officials.

I spotted about 16 of them 👋 🤣