I absolutely love Yorgos Lanthimos' movies. Killing of a Sacred Deer is probably my favorite. His movies just have this uneasyness that really makes you feel...off watching them.
That's one that really only makes sense after watching it multiple times. The excerpts from the book(?) tell you the "what" and "why" of the events of the movie. Okay, they tell you enough that it makes some sense...
Zardoz. The gaint floating head with the crazy man inside shouting "the gun is good, the penis is bad," Sean Connery in a WAY too revealing outfit, the bizarre, apathetic, immortal poeple, and wierd pyramid magic.
It was hands down the most strange, unfathomable film I've ever seen, and I've watched The Dancing Outlaw.
You know, Sean Connery took that role and produced that movie (yeah, he fully embraced it) because he wanted to do something original. But I mean, as weird as it is, and as original it is as that, it is some serious Sci-Fi movie full of social commentary.
Every time I hear or think about Zardoz, I think "this will probably be the last time I think about Zardoz." It's been almost a decade since I first had that thought.
I remember once when I was a teenager turning on the TV at like 2 in the morning on a Saturday and being treated to Adult Swim's Sealab 2021 for the first time. Along with the rest of their line up around 1999-2003. It was fucking weird as shit. But hilarious.
Adult Swims programming from the exact same time you mentioned helped shape me into who I am now, lmao. What an awesome time for TV. I can remember sneaking downstairs to the TV to put on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I didn't "get it" but I was very aware that I liked that type of dry humor.
Mulholland Drive has some kind of plot that can be deciphered. Watch Inland Empire if you want to watch a David Lynch movie that makes Mulholland Drive look normal.
I recently watched Pee-wee's Big Adventure for the first time since God knows how long and it feels like a little bit of a drug trip at times with the sometimes sporadic pacing and just how it is as a movie.
The Room (2003) is without exaggeration the worst movie ever made. It's so bad that you can't even enjoy it ironically. Someone else made a much better movie (The Disaster Artist) about how The Room ever got made in the first place. Because that will be the first question on your mind after watching it.
Hbomberguy made a great argument (in the middle of a video about CTRL+ALT+DELETE, weirdly enough) for one reason to... find value in The Room. Not like it necessarily, but maybe come away from it having learned something. The Room is almost definitely a twisted reproduction of a real relationship that Tommy Wiseau actually had, and therefore you can watch the movie from the angle of "how terrible people like Tommy Wiseau twist the stories of past relationships to fit their narrative". Of course, you also have to parse through Tommy's absolute insanity to get to the message he's accidentally making about himself, but still.
Beau is Afraid is absolutely mental. I had no idea what to expect when we went to see it, and I’m so thankful the cinema was empty so we could audibly talk about wtf was going on throughout. It’s definitely a movie I want people to watch but with the caveat that I’m not recommending it.
The penis monster haunts my dreams! The whole movie was a trip and I absolutely loved the insanity of the first act, but the last 30 odd minutes were just mental
EXistenZ - The final question "Are we still in the game?" really summarized the first watch experience. You have no clue what's going on anymore by that point.
Same goes for Total Recall by the way - that movie also has you guessing what's real and what isn't throughout 90% of the runtime.
I can't remember when, but I know I saw EXistenZ on HBO somewhere. I first saw it from the middle of the movie and thought "If I watch this from the beginning I might understand it." Turns out watching it again didn't help, but I watched it again anyway. It was sort of like a fascinating disaster.
Kudos to the creators of that film. I don't think I could have come up with that primis.
I though about that the first time I saw Requiem for a Dream, and then suddenly thought to myself. It's not actually mindblowing. It's just a formulaic, cookie cutter story of a bunch of people doing drugs, I kind of think it's really overrated from a critical standpoint now. But I did get an initial shock.
"Under The Skin" with Scarlet Johansson. It has easily the most low-key terrifying scene I've ever seen in a movie (the beach scene). And the whole film is the very definition of wtf.
Do yourself a favour and don't watch it. You will gain absolutely nothing from doing so. You'll just end up feeling disgusted and filled with regret. Truly a piece of shit movie all round.
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard. I was expecting some cool music, and pinball. Maybe something like The Wall. Nope, What I got was Uncle Eddy and the Acid Queen.
I can’t remember the title but it was on uk Netflix for a while last year. It was a Spanish film where a girl had an ass for a face. That was weird in and of itself but then it just kept getting weirder the whole way through.
Mother. It's not that I didn't get the allegory, it was just weird. Also Antichrist, though to be fair, saying "wtf did I just watch" was the whole point of the movie.
I didn't get the allegory in Mother, and I didn't really care. Totally wtf, but I loved how nightmarish it was, and how it looked visually, I was completely enthralled.
Absolutely one of my favorite shows. It hits all the right notes for me. I can definitely understand why it wouldn't be someone's cup of tea, but it absolutely resonated with me.
one of my friends, who loves TV like this told me he had instant migraine from Wilfred :P
also, my girlfriend really didn't wanted to start it, because it was too strange for her, but after a few episodes she has fallen in love with the series.
so fucking a pity there's no other show like this (or I don't know about it at least...)
Spy gets framed for murder of fellow spies. Spy knows he didn't do it but not who did. Spy knows what they wanted. Spy actually steals what they wanted to flush out the actual murderer. End
The rest is organizations, backstory, and character development.
Titane.
If I had been told beforehand that a woman being fucked by a car would be the least messed up part of the movie, I'm not sure I'd have believed it; however, that movie has burned it's way into my head like few others have.
You've heard of A movies. You've heard of B movies. But have you ever heard of Z movies? No? Then Thankskilling is for you! (watch at your own risk, I am not liable for the mental, emotional, and other damage that will occur).
I ragequit at that certain Parker Posey scene. Caught the other thing that happened right after, and was 110% "Oh, fuck this highschool film class bullshit." Nope.
The Northman. At no point did I know where that film was going, and when it was done I just sat in my theater seat for a second bewildered at what I had just sat through.
Watched it because I'm a fan of doomsday scenarios. The former president of the United states starts spontaneously growing a vagina and uterus because 'life uuuh, finds a way'.
I won't wreck the rest of the plot but this movie took a fucking wild turn and left me sitting there the whole time going WTF!
Yeah, I still don't know what the fuck that movie is. I've been thinking on it and reading other people's interpretation of it for over a week. I'm still stumped.
Specific episode of a show: Mad Men's sixth season episode "The Crash." Just a slowly unfolding trip that takes all the surreal elements of the show so much further than they had gone before or since.
A coworker recommended it to me. Months later I was randomly talking at lunch time about how shitty the movie was. He said “wait you’re talking about Rubber?” And he just busted out laughing. He watched it and knew it was awful… but he also kind of liked it I think.
It’s not often that I feel like I’ve wasted an afternoon and those are hours I’ll never get back… but Rubber made me feel that.
Yeah, I was surprised nobody mentioned it before me. I think part of it is how they ease you into it.
You go from thinking "oh this is some nice cinematography, seems like they'll do some interesting character development" to suddenly realizing... well I'm not even sure how to explain it. It gets weird.