# Most UNIQUE Movie You've Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 5, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211 "2021-03-05T00:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/1 "2021-03-05T00:38:22Z")
And one that’s great, a favorite of yours… Most of the unique movies I’m thinking of are either shitty, or just “good”. “Buffalo '66” is mine. … “The Swimmer” (1968) would be my second choice. I had this conversation earlier, and for someone who never ventures off into movies from every decade, other countries, different styles, low-budget, independent, the first foreign flick he’d see would be considered the most unique. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/2 "2021-03-05T00:42:57Z")
I don’t watch many movies but this one sticks out. > **[Coherence (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherence_(film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Coherence is a 2013 American surreal science fiction psychological thriller film directed by James Ward Byrkit in his directorial debut. The film had its world debut on September 19, 2013, at Fantastic Fest and stars Emily Foxler as a woman who must deal with strange occurrences following the close passing of a comet. > On the night of Miller's Comet's passing, eight friends in Northern California reunite for a dinner party at the home of spouses... i would describe it as sort of a multi-realities version of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/3 "2021-03-05T00:56:16Z")
Almost anything by Werner Herzog. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/4 "2021-03-05T01:01:06Z")
There is no such thing as “most unique” anything. A thing is unique or it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/5 "2021-03-05T01:04:19Z")
Human Highway by Neil Young. Starring Neil Young, DEVO, Dennis Hopper and more. He’s remastered it in recent years; cut it up, added a sequence which was cool, but generally the messing with it made it worse. If you can find it on VHS you’ll get the real one. Wanna see DEVO and Neil Young (with Boogie Boy in a baby’s crib!) jamming some Hey Hey My My? There’s only one place to catch that. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/6 "2021-03-05T01:11:00Z")
[El Topo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Topo) [Fellini Satyricon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini_Satyricon) Both unique in their own surreal way. Has any other movie been filmed over 12 years like [Boyhood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyhood_(2014_film)) was? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/7 "2021-03-05T01:15:12Z")
_[Forbidden Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Zone)_ is a pretty unusual movie. I happened to come across it while channel surfing one night, so I wasn’t expecting it. But the overall strangest movie I think I’ve ever seen is [Eraserhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraserhead). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/8 "2021-03-05T01:16:36Z")
This one, apparently based on a play (if that matters): > **[Insignificance (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insignificance_(film))** > > Insignificance is a 1985 British alternate history drama film directed by Nicolas Roeg, and starring Gary Busey, Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, and Will Sampson. Adapted by Terry Johnson from his 1982 play of the same name, the film follows four famous characters who converge in a New York City hotel one night in 1954: Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, and Joseph McCarthy—billed as The Ballplayer, The Professor, The Actress and The Senator, respectively. > On a crowde... Here’s a scene from it: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JS0n_fr1Fyo/hqdefault.jpg "Marilyn Monroe explains relativity to Albert Einstein") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS0n_fr1Fyo) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/9 "2021-03-05T01:25:15Z")
Dr Caligari. The first time I watched it I couldn’t decide whether it stunk or was amazing. I eventually settled on the second. The word that best describes the film is psychotronic. “There is much to be learned from a despairing shriek.” > **[Dr. Caligari (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Caligari_(film))** > > Dr. Caligari is a 1989 American avant-garde horror erotic film co-written and directed by Stephen Sayadian and starring Madeleine Reynal, Laura Albert, Gene Zerna, David Parry, Fox Harris and Jennifer Balgobin. It is a quasi-sequel to the 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.\[citation needed\] The film details a disturbed doctor (the granddaughter of the original Dr. Caligari) and her illegal experiments on her patients. > Originally and briefly billed as Dr. Caligari 3000 when it debuted at selec... [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Gw41PSEh0T4/hqdefault.jpg "Dr. Caligari Trailer 1989") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw41PSEh0T4) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/10 "2021-03-05T01:32:24Z")
I was going to say this, but about a year ago I decided to give up and resign myself to the fact that the word’s meaning has changed. It is now merely a synonym for “unusual.” For the former meaning, we can use “sui generis” or “one-of-a-kind” or some other word I can’t think of at the moment. Sad, but it happens. I’m also giving up on correcting people when they use the simple past form in place of the past participle. This is near universal among the under-20 crowd now. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/11 "2021-03-05T01:34:58Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I’m also giving up on correcting people when they use the simple past form in place of the past participle. This is near universal among the under-20 crowd now. Example? 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/12 "2021-03-05T01:39:48Z")
I’ve seen some of these. They are interesting. My suggestion – **Prospero’s Books**. A very weird and interesting take on Shakespeare’s **The Tempest**. But what’s really weird is that sometimes there’;s a “frame” around the main picture, filled with moving characters. It’s like a medieval manuscript with all of those random illustrations on the edges – only they;re animated. (Not that it was animated as in the sense of “cartoons” in the movie – it was just moving) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rp6ZYCSiPhA/maxresdefault.jpg "Prospero's Books - UK theatrical trailer (1991)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp6ZYCSiPhA) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nVCOZ36FON4/hqdefault.jpg "Prospero's Books (opening credits extract)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVCOZ36FON4) https://www.youtube.com/embed/46SmncwWVM0?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLZ4_hkvRbuX_SCS0r7qPzeU5ZTGwo3Fx1 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/13 "2021-03-05T01:48:58Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I was going to say this, but about a year ago I decided to give up and resign myself to the fact that the word’s meaning has changed. It is now merely a synonym for “unusual.” I refuse! Fight for the unique meaning of unique! ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/14 "2021-03-05T01:49:19Z")
Here’s a fan-made trailer for ERASERHEAD. I saw this at the Granada theater in Dallas in the early 80s, going in knowing nothing about it other than it had a poster with an interesting vibe. I would say the closest I ever came to this later was Lars von Trier’s KINGDOM, but that still doesn’t quite match the entertaining weirdness of this. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oK-2_OsBe0s/maxresdefault.jpg "Eraserhead Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-2_OsBe0s) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/15 "2021-03-05T01:51:08Z")
I’ll never accept “most unique”, but I was always fine with “almost unique”. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/16 "2021-03-05T01:55:42Z")
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance at the Music Box Theatre. I know I’ve seen Powaqqatsi, but I don’t remember if it was a double feature that night. There may have been intoxicants involved, I’m not sure, that night was a blur. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/17 "2021-03-05T02:07:33Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I’ll never accept “most unique”, but I was always fine with “almost unique”. This always strikes me as a silly bit of pedantry that suffers from a failure of imagination and of how human beings use language. Years ago, there was a restaurant in my town that served only Native American foods. It was the only such restaurant in my town. It was unique. I’ve been thinking about opening a restaurant that serves only the dreams of extinct mammals. Fried Stellar’s Sea Cow nightmares; grilled sabretooth tiger reveries; giant sloth daydream salad. My restaurant, if it ever opens, will be more goddamned unique than the Native American one. And if you’re not able to parse what “more goddamned unique” means, that’s on you. As for a unique movie I’ve seen, there was a Czech puppet movie/fairy tale I saw in the late nineties. It may have been [The Pied Piper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pied_Piper_(1986_film)). Beautiful, creative, fascinating. I didn’t much care for it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/18 "2021-03-05T02:10:57Z")
Paprika is like nothing else. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O-QpfLV8dQw/maxresdefault.jpg "Paprika (2006) ~ Parade Scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-QpfLV8dQw) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/19 "2021-03-05T02:22:50Z")
Well, not _really_ the “most unique”–it would be really difficult to think of something that is _utterly_ unlike _anything_ else, but I’ll go with _Naisu no Mori_ (given the title _Funky Forest_ in English). It is a series of dreams, but weirder than those in Kurosawa’s _Yume_/_Dreams_. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/20 "2021-03-05T02:25:34Z")
Thanks for sharing that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=2)