# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/61 "2021-03-05T20:49:14Z")
One distinctive movie that has stuck with me for a long time after seeing it once is _Crime Wave_ by John Paizs (not to be confused with the similarly-titled Sam Raimi movie). It’s about a guy in Winnipeg who wants to write “colour crime” stories, but he can only come up with beginnings and endings. Like a number of other movies mentioned here, fantasy and reality start to blur together in the end. ---
**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, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/62 "2021-03-05T20:50:16Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > _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. The _ **French Lieutenant’s Woman** _ with Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep was similar. ---
**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, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/63 "2021-03-05T21:49:25Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > **Being John Malkovich** is certainly an unusual film One of my top ten. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/64 "2021-03-05T21:59:58Z")
_Mars Attacks!_ (1996) - The only live-action feature film I know of based on a set of trading cards that were not stickers. As such, it is totally - not “mostly” - unique. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/65 "2021-03-05T22:35:41Z")
_The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T_ Stanley Kramer produces a Dr. Seuss musical. You can’t take your eyes off the screen. https://www.youtube.com/embed/0osXJtr03xA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLWtfqaSdQ2iha9TimnDoQ4jPNbY08mbYd ---
**Author:** ![Jlatorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jlatorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jlatorre)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/66 "2021-03-05T23:02:43Z")
And, from the same guy that wrote **Being John Malkovich** , **Adaptation**. The only movie that’s about a screenwriter in the process of writing the movie he’s in, breaking all the rules he vows he’ll never break. Plus, it’s unique in that it’s the only movie, AFAIK, where the Oscar for screenwriting went to somebody who doesn’t exist. (Not counting screenwriters writing under an alias or pen name, of course.) ---
**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, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/67 "2021-03-05T23:22:47Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > _The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T_ > > Stanley Kramer produces a Dr. Seuss musical. You can’t take your eyes off the screen. It also bears the distinction of being a musical in which the songs (or at least most of them) are the least interesting part of the film. The ballet sequences are brilliant though, especially the dungeon one. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/68 "2021-03-05T23:56:22Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > The first thing that jumps to mind is the 2004 film _Primer._ It’s a low-budget sci-fi that is simultaneously painstaking and understated. According to [imdb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/trivia): > The budget for the entire film was around $7000. Most of the money was spent on film stock. IIRC the two leads were about the same build, so they had two shirts for them, They’d just switch so they weren’t wearing the same one for scene after scene after scene. I’d nominate “Quest for Fire” because it has no dialog, in a way. The caveman types talk to each other, but… > Special language forms were created by novelist [Anthony Burgess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Burgess), while patterns of movement and gesture were developed by anthropologist [Desmond Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Morris).[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fire_(film)#cite_note-3) The more advanced language of the Ivaka was largely that of the Cree/Inuit native people of northern Canada, which caused some amusement among those in this group who saw the film, since the words have little to do with the plot.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fire_(film)#cite_note-4) So even if you understood the language, it wouldn’t help. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2pcGGKtPpSE/maxresdefault.jpg "Quest for Fire (1981) - Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pcGGKtPpSE) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/69 "2021-03-06T00:38:00Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > …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. Which immediately made me recall the work of Caroline Leaf who painted on glass, pushing/removing paint one frame at a time. Beautifully done, and she told a sweet story, too, in [The Street.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed1RzYqgwqM) (So glad it’s on YouTube. The last time I saw it, in the '70s, I could only find it on 16mm film, so I had to borrow an old film projector to watch it.) ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/70 "2021-03-06T02:49:56Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I was going to say Koyaanisqatsi but then remembered there was the similar Powaqqatsi. Aren’t all unique films bad by definition? If it was good, it would inspire similar films and no longer be unique. And Naqoyqatsi. And then there’s Baraka and Samsara. It’s kind of a genre now. I’ll nominate Enter The Void: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_tG_b5zaT9Y/hqdefault.jpg "Enter The Void - Official Trailer 2010 [HD]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tG_b5zaT9Y) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/71 "2021-03-06T06:36:33Z")
I’ve seen many of the movies mentioned, and have seen a few mentioned that I haven’t seen before that I must see now. It’s really nice to know that I didn’t hallucinate _Twice Upon a Time_. My nomination is _Schizopolis_. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/f2E7ArARdaE/hqdefault.jpg "Schizopolis - HQ Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2E7ArARdaE) Soderbergh kind of went all-out in every direction with that one. I still love it, especially the guitar music used in it (and I still haven’t found out who did those tracks). I have it on VHS, need to eventually buy a DVD of it. ---
**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 6, 2021, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/72 "2021-03-06T07:04:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The _ **French Lieutenant’s Woman** _ with Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep was similar. They are both movies about making a movie, but otherwise they’re completely different. In _The French Lieutenant’s Woman_, there are love stories between the main characters inside and outside the historical movie and the two reflect, contrast with, and compliment each other. In _Tristram Shandy_, the events inside and outside the movie have no connection. The complexities are far greater, with the inner movie jumping forward and backward in time; Steve Coogan playing both Tristram Shandy and his father, Walter Shandy; Tristram addressing the camera, talking to his younger self, etc. Not to mention the incidents like Tristram as a young boy being circumcised by a falling window sash while peeing out the window (an actual incident from the book). Outside the movie, besides rivalries between the actors, and Steve Coogan’s affair with a girl on the set, there’s also a dream sequence where Steve Coogan dreams of a non-existent scene in the movie. Strangely enough, when you actually watch the movie it’s far _less_ confusing than it sounds. It all hangs together and makes sense, and you’re never in any doubt about what’s happening and how it all fits together. That’s the genius of it. Like the book itself, it seems ridiculous and chaotic, but the more you get into it, the more sense it makes, and the more you care about the characters. Roger Ebert gave it his top rating: > **[Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story movie review (2006) | Roger Ebert](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tristram-shandy-a-cock-and-bull-story-2006)** > > I started reading Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman in 1965, and intend to finish it any day now. That is true, and also a joke (a small one) involving a novel about procrastination. Tristram Shandy begins with its... A.O. Scott in the NYT also gave it a glowing review: > **[An Unfilmable Book, Now Made Into a Movie (Published 2006)](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/movies/an-unfilmable-book-now-made-into-a-movie.html)** > > ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,'' a staple of college English Literature surveys, is so widely believed to be unfilmable that you can almost imagine that when Laurence Sterne wrote it in the middle of the 18th century, one of... ---
**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 6, 2021, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/73 "2021-03-06T07:08:09Z")
I haven’t seen either, so I can only comment that they’re both about filming a movie within a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/74 "2021-03-06T07:22:11Z")
My first thought was _The Lobster_. I’m pretty sure my three-word review after viewing _ **was** _ “That was… Unique.” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/75 "2021-03-06T07:47:15Z")
Something which I only became aware of thanks to the Internet: the very weird _Japan World Cup_. [Japan World Cup - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npxw4Y7w9RE) A series of DVDs which reportedly feature AI-generated horses (and other things) on which viewers place bets. Yes, [these](https://www.amazon.com/Animation-Japan-World-Cup-BIBE-8221/dp/B008MTJG0G/) [really](https://www.amazon.com/Animation-Japan-World-Cup-BIBE-8222/dp/B008MTJG1U) [exist.](https://www.amazon.com/Animation-Japan-World-Cup-BIBE-8223/dp/B008MTJG2E) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/76 "2021-03-06T19:23:25Z")
**Freaks** : both mesmerizing and appalling. I don’t think there has ever been another film that starred real-life human oddities. Here’s the trailer: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vJVXTKkjsxA/maxresdefault.jpg "Freaks (1932) Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVXTKkjsxA) ---
**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 6, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/77 "2021-03-06T22:52:38Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > _The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T_ > > Stanley Kramer produces a Dr. Seuss musical. You can’t take your eyes off the screen. I’ve long thought that this belonged on a double bill with **Dr. T and the Women** > **[POSTER-DR. T AND THE WOMEN ORIGINAL MOVIE POSTER at Amazon's Entertainment...](https://www.amazon.com/POSTER-DR-WOMEN-ORIGINAL-MOVIE-POSTER/dp/B00CPS23UA)** > > ORIGINAL 27" X40" POSTER FOR THE 2000 ROBERT ALTMAN COMEDY WITH RICHARD GERE,HELEN HUNT & FARRAH FAWCETT I was working in our town’s oublic school one summer (painting classrooms) and they screened this film for free for the local kids. Three janitors stood in the back of the auditorium, watching in amazement. After three pudgy guys dressed in primary color suits did a weird musical number, one of them said to another “Can you believe guys get _paid_ for this?” Truly a _Money for Nothing_ moment. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wTP2RUD_cL0/maxresdefault.jpg "Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0) ---
**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 6, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/78 "2021-03-06T23:22:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I don’t think there has ever been another film that starred real-life human oddities There is a season of _American Horror Story_ that does. ---
**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 7, 2021, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/79 "2021-03-07T00:41:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I don’t think there has ever been another film that starred real-life human oddities Unless you count Gary Busey movies. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/80 "2021-03-07T01:11:04Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Would [The Garbage Pail Kids Movie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093072/) count? I was really into Garbage Pail cards when I was a kid but I didn’t even know they made a movie based on the property until 3-4 years ago. How could I have missed it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=5)