I just watched 12 Angry Men for the first time (and am now ten minutes into my second viewing - brilliant film). I love this kind of movie, where you put a bunch of good actors in a room and the movie consists of them talking to each other. The action is in the interaction of their characters, and the running time of the movie is equal to or close to equal to the amount of time that passes in the movie. Conspiracy is another one and Glengarry Glen Ross is close.
How about some tips? What other movies like this would you recommend?
“'Night Mother” with Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft. Spacek plays a woman who’s decided to kill herself and Bancroft is her mother, desperate to talk her out of it.
Which “12 Angry Men” did you watch? Whichever one it was. . .I’d recommend watching the other one, too.
People wrote off the new one, I think for two reason
Tony Danza
The original is iconic.
But, the new one is good. It has Ossie Davis, George C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Jack Lemmon, Hugh Cronyn, Edward James Olmos. Yeah, I’ll put them up against Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman, etc.
Anyway, Reservoir Dogs might sort of be what you’re looking for. Also, I’ve heard good things about this movie called “Unknown” where “5 men wake up in a locked-down warehouse. . .”
It has Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Pantoliano, Barry Pepper. I haven’t seen it though.
The Big Kahuna was one of these with only three main characters with Danny Devito, Kevin Spacey and some other guy (don’t remember) where they are all waiting in a hotel room for a businees meeting with a “Big Kahuna”. Totally self contained, but not nearly in 12 Angry Men Class.
Another interesting, really cheap DV indie movie was Tape. It stars Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman. It takes place in real time in a crappy motel room in Lansing, Michigan. Thurman is only in it for about 10 min and other than that it is only Hawke and Leonard talking/arguing back and forth about a prior “misdeed”. Pretty captivating if you don’t mind DV.
You’ll have to let My Dinner With Andre work on you a little, as it’s not as dramatic as 12AM. Still an engaging piece of movie-making.
Another that goes beyond the confines of a single room but which is basically people talking and revealing progressively more information is The Thin Blue Line (1988). It’s been a long time since I saw this one, but my memory is that it works on you the way 12AM does.
I thought Before Sunset was one of the best movies of 04(?). Sunrise hasn’t aged great, but it is still good, and definitely worth watching because you need to see it before Before Sunset.
I think Clerks fits into this mold fairly well. Almost the entire movie takes place in the convenience store. For the most part, just the two main characters talking to each other and interacting with the stream of customers that come in.
Even if it doesn’t fit your mold exactly, you should still watch it. It is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Go to your local university or college and watch some of the small productions the drama classes put on. They usually opt for these type of plays where they are dialouge/character driven with minimal set changes and sparce sets.
Hmmmm - would Gosford Park qualify? There are plenty of scenes of terrific actors just speaking to each other in an English country home. Not in one room for the entire movie, but different assortments of them in different rooms discussing different subjects. And if Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Stephen Frye and other artists are your idea of good actors, then this movie might suit.
Ditto to Remains of the Day. Most scenes involve Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson relating to each other, and each of them is a heavyweight contender in the “excellent actor” contest.
I also like Big Night, starring Ian Holm, Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci, and others. Most of the drama takes place in one small restaurant, and every scene is a gem. The best scene, however, involves hardly any talking at all and no editing. People who have seen the movie know which scene I’m describing!