I was just wondering…anyone care to add to a list of really “one of a kind” movies?
…my first nomination would be “Who is Julia?,” a touching, sensitive, movie tackling the complex emotional and psychological issues effecting a brain transplant patient. In fact, I think it’s the only movie involving a brain transplant ever made that wasn’t a horror flick. And one of that 9 that didn’t star Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, or Peter Cushing.
Next would be “Colossus: The Forbin Project.” Which ends with the villain…
…Not only winning, but having succeeded in taking over the world. …However you feel about that, it’s damn novel.
Those are the only ones I can think of. For now at least.
Now, any other movies don’t have to be “big and flashy,” they don’t even have to be weird. The only criteria is that some major element of the film be really unusual, to the point of making the movie almost “one of a kind.”
…And preferably that uniqueness being something other than filming technique, or cinematography, or any other “technical” aspect. So Timecode, Blair Witch Project and Rope don’t really count.
“The Company of Wolves” by Neil Jordan. The plot structure, the characters, hell, the very IDEA behind that movie is something disturbingly unusual. At times you think it’s a spooky fairytale, but there’s so much post-modern, and profoundly surreal elements in it it’s a wild ride.
probably the only movie I’ve seen that recreates an Alice in Wonderland type of consciousness in such an enjoyable manner.
Others I can think of: Brotherhood of the Wolf, Withnail & I, Swimming to Cambodia (although its sequel, Monster in a Box, is very similar), Don’t Look Now (in fact IMO most Nicholas Roeg films are unique both within his own oeuvre and in a wider sphere - qv. Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth).
Yet another vote for Harold & Maude and* The Man Who Fell to Earth* I’d add Repo Man, * Lipstick* Fantastic Planet,The King of Hearts & Bambi Meets Godzilla
Memento: Though the backward structure was done first in another film it was a very different kind of story (about marital infidelity)
Porco Rosso: an animated adventure set in 1920’s Italy where the hero is an aviator who is also a pig. All the other characters are human.
I thought the basic premise of Monsters Inc (ie. monsters using screams as an energy source) was quite original and I don’t think it’s been done anywhere else.
CyberPundit: I think the movie you’re thinking of is the film version of Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal.
Kevin Smith’s Dogma is pretty darned unique. Here you have some heady theological discussions, really meaty emotional stuff, and this is tempered with a rubber poop monster and Salma Hayek dancing to New Edition’s “Candy Girl” in a pink bikini. Oh, and Ben Affleck in a badass set of wings. I didn’t know anyone else had that fetish. Flawed as it is, I love it and I can’t think of another movie like it.
American Splendor is unique for how it blends documentary elements with re-creations and outright fiction and a bunch of other stuff in an attempt to capture a guy and his art. Nothing like it has ever been done.