# 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:** 3
**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, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/41 "2021-03-05T12:49:52Z")
Has anyone mentioned “Memento”? A mainstream film … backwards? ---
**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, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/42 "2021-03-05T12:52:14Z")
I’ll PM ya. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/43 "2021-03-05T14:19:55Z")
_Black Moon_ where I’ve never been able to find a coherent explanation of what was going on. Even the Wikipedia and IMDB summaries includes things that are not necessarily implied by the movie. Basically, a woman goes to a farmhouse and weird things happen. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2fta1BBfP24/hqdefault.jpg "A Conversation With a Unicorn (from the movie Black Moon).") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fta1BBfP24) Director Louis Malle tended to make films whose very premise was outrageous, but this one can’t be explained. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/44 "2021-03-05T14:27:46Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Yes. Or, Strozek. I live in Wisconsin, but after seeing that, I live in Herzog’s Wisconsin — a different place altogether…and yet, it’s closer to reality than the one I “inhabit”… if that makes any sense… I’m pretty sure that Stroszek is the movie that Ian Curtis of Joy Division watched before he hung himself. I’d nominate [Liquid Sky](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085852/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). Imdb summarizes it as “A small, heroin seeking UFO lands on a Manhattan roof, observes a bizarre, drug addicted fashion model and sucks endorphin from her sexual encounters’ brains.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/45 "2021-03-05T14:31:53Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > I’d nominate [Liquid Sky](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085852/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). Imdb summarizes it as “A small, heroin seeking UFO lands on a Manhattan roof, observes a bizarre, drug addicted fashion model and sucks endorphin from her sexual encounters’ brains.” Yeah, I was thinking about that one. Love the soundtrack. _Me and my rhythm boooooooooox_… ---
**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, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/46 "2021-03-05T14:43:27Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > I’d nominate [Liquid Sky](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085852/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). Imdb summarizes it as “A small, heroin seeking UFO lands on a Manhattan roof, observes a bizarre, drug addicted fashion model and sucks endorphin from her sexual encounters’ brains.” - Also used/ripped off in [I Come In Peace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Come_in_Peace#Plot). > [@](#): > > The corpses are full of heroin, but the cause of death is a puncture wound to the forehead. Unknown to Caine and the police officers, the deaths are caused by Talec, an alien who is extracting something from the victims, but is being pursued by Azeck, a similar alien to himself. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/47 "2021-03-05T14:46:13Z")
[Twice Upon a Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twice_Upon_a_Time_(1983_film)) is unique in that it’s the only animated film that uses a complicated process known as [Lumage](https://www.deviantart.com/celmationprince/art/Twice-Upon-a-Time-An-Animated-Film-Time-Forgot-483486673). ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/48 "2021-03-05T14:46:21Z")
The strangest, most out there movie I’ve ever seen is Tetsuo: The Iron Man. It’s about a guy who puts a metal rod in his leg and slowly turns into a metal man. The whole time I was WTF is going on?! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/49 "2021-03-05T15:22:09Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Why go to all that trouble for a meaningless technical feat, if it doesn’t add anything to the movie? It does though. The lack of edits make it an entirely different viewing experience. Roger Ebert (I think) equated movies to dreams where every edit is an awakening. _Russian Ark_ was a completely different kind of narrative. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/50 "2021-03-05T15:31:49Z")
I am familiar with much of Harmony Korine’s other work, but I have never seen anything like [Gummo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gummo). ---
**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, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/51 "2021-03-05T16:48:59Z")
Yeah, it’s unique, along with Julien Donkey Boy… I don’t like the movies much (I think I gave them a 6/10), but they are “different”. “My Dinner With Andre” is unique - just a conversation between the two original authors of the screenplay, also actors. But then there’s this not-so-good movie called “Mindwalk” which has three Hollywood actors (well, Liv did a few) who are basically quoting old philosophers in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/52 "2021-03-05T16:58:01Z")
**Being John Malkovich** is certainly an unusual film. The plot revolves around the idea that a man finds a portal that leads to the actor John Malkovitch’s mind. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/53 "2021-03-05T18:08:53Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It does though. The lack of edits make it an entirely different viewing experience. Roger Ebert (I think) equated movies to dreams where every edit is an awakening. _Russian Ark_ was a completely different kind of narrative. The director was only allowed to film in the Hermitage for a few hours on a single day, so it was a creative response to that constraint, more than a choice. I think _Russian Ark_ is more like a medieval/renaissance pageant or masque than anything else. Or perhaps simply a guided tour through the Hermitage, brought to life with actors. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/54 "2021-03-05T18:52:11Z")
Pan’s Labyrinth and Brazil ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/55 "2021-03-05T18:56:06Z")
Schultze gets the Blues. Bittersweet, and a bit odd. Forbidden Zone has been mentioned, but this song is fun: [Pico & Sepulveda - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YPFvC-C_E) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/56 "2021-03-05T19:21:39Z")
_Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story_ is pretty unusual. It’s a movie within a movie – a movie about making an ‘unfilmable’ movie, with scenes of the movie being made intercut with scenes around the making of it. But… the book _Tristram Shandy_ (of which they are making a movie) is itself, as they mention, post-modernist even though it was written before modernism had even been invented. The book is self-referral, metafictional, contains stories within stories within stories, and often breaks the fourth wall, as the author directly addresses the reader. In the inner movie, the most over-the-top scenes are taken straight from the book itself, with most of the dialog verbatim from the book. Both the inner and the outer movies are extremely funny and will easily stand multiple viewings. But it certainly helps to have read _Tristram Shandy_ . I think the author, Laurence Sterne, would have loved the movie. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3GrA80pJ9zk/hqdefault.jpg "Hollywood Trailer : Tristram Shandy A Cock and Bull Story") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GrA80pJ9zk) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/57 "2021-03-05T20:07:57Z")
That reminds me - the short films of William Kentridge - e.g. [Johannesburg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95x7CYAYhw) and _[Felix in Exile](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF5cngcXqSs)_ - they are done using a charcoal palimpsest technique, so you see the ghosts of the previous drawings, and only really allow for one take. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/58 "2021-03-05T20:19:43Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Aren’t all unique films bad by definition? If it was good, it would inspire similar films and no longer be unique. I think there’s some truth to this with movies that are just plain weird. But I’m reading this thread with interest more for movies that fit into the “unique” category not because they are weird, but because when you’re watching them you just have no idea what will happen. Nothing seems to be ruled out, they cannot be pigeon-holed into a genre, they show no inclination to follow the standard plot formulae, the tropes, the usual expectation of what can and can’t happen. Obviously just one or two plot twists doesn’t qualify, I mean movies that are not “comfortable” to watch the whole way through. _Coherence_ that @running_coach mentioned in the second post is a good example. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/59 "2021-03-05T20:23:03Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Has anyone mentioned “Memento”? A mainstream film … backwards? I was gonna mention this one. I think _Southland Tales_ deserves a mention. I won’t claim it’s a _good_ film, but I felt it was unique. The combination of cast, plot, and the atmosphere of the film made for a very weird mish-mash. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/60 "2021-03-05T20:27:33Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > Trading cards vs. sticker trading cards: are they close enough to be the same? Ostensibly, yes, but it does seem like they are designed to have different functions. Collectors might say they are not the same. > > Still, I’m willing to amend my post: > > _Mars Attacks!_ (1996) - Only feature film I know of based on a set of trading cards that were not stickers. So it was mostly unique? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=4)