Precious (based on the novel Kill Me Now by Sapphire)
Synechdoche, NY- almost my litmus test for a critically acclaimed godawful “we join this partial birth abortion already in progress” mess of an art house movie
Dead Man- Jim Jarmusch & Johnny Depp film that was Synechoche’s predecessor to that title
These two.
Also Boys Don’t Cry
The Notebook (my grandmother had Alzheimer’s, so this hit me hard).
And, oddly, Interview with the Vampire.
Paths of Glory and All Quiet On The Western Front - just a grinding indictment of the futility of World War I.
What zombie movie am I thinking of - Dawn of the Dead? When the few survivors make it onto the boat, and finally make it to the island. And then…
Can’t remember much else about the movie, or even the darn name, but can still remember how that ending hit me like a punch in the gut!
Agree with Breaking the Waves and to a lesser extent Dreamlife of Angels and Remains of the Day.
However, bleaker than all of those and as good as the best of them I found the original 1988 version of The Vanishing.
Salõ. If I never even thought of that depraved, completely unredeemable movie again it would be too soon. And some people think it’s a masterpiece. I hope not to meet any of those people in a dark alley.
I’ll second Buried and add Chinatown.
Beat me to it.
This.
Also - I can’t recall the name of it, but Jeremy Irons played twin brothers who were drug addicted surgeons. Disturbing and unsettling, to say the least.
A Simple Plan, Sam Raimi’s arguably best and most realistic horror film. Two brothers find what they think is a cache of lost drug money in a long-crashed plane and think it’s their only hope at getting out of their dead-end lives. Then things get worse.
To the Hillary Swank wing add Million Dollar Baby: from poverty and dysfunction to paralysis and amputation and euthanasia and all without a laugh track.
I think this is the early 2000s Dawn of the Dead remake.
Yep. The movie is many times better if you don’t watch the credits.
Roberto Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero, about a family trying to scrape by in the rubble of Berlin after the war. The 13-year-old boy has to support the entire family through stealing, because the others are either too sick or too scared of being found out as former SS to leave the apartment. He sells himself to a pederast, who suggests he poison and kill his sick father to leave more food for the rest. *Then *it gets bleak.
Dead Ringer?
Leaving Las Vegas and Plague Dogs I’ll second both of these. I really liked Dead Man, though, and didn’t find it so bleak.
Two I’ll add: Kids, and Happiness. The people in them are so, so terrible, and there’s zero chance they’ll ever get better.
That’s the one - thank you.
On The Beach. Game over.