Actually, just a list of feel bad movies.
high quality films that just don’t let you off the hook like most hollywood films do.
I’m talking the anti-legally blonde, the anti-erin brockovich, the anti-rocky here.
My favorite this year: “the crime of father amaro”
also: “Love Liza” starring phillip seymour hoffman and kathy bates.
all time classics:
kids
Bully
Blue velvet
Requiem for a Dream. Hands down.
Your Friends & Neighbors
Happiness
Three by Neil Labute:
“In the Company of Men”
“Your Friends and Neighbors”
“The Shape of Things”
Guaranteed to bring you down!
The Tin Drum (“Die Blechtrommel” if you want to be fancy-schmancy): I wanted to slash my throat in existential dispair after watching it.
Well, I felt the same way about Matrix Reloaded, but I don’t think that’s what the OP meant.
Happiness,
good one, also with phillip seymour hoffman right?
which one was “your friends and neighbors?”
Grave of Fireflies
This is sadnes son a scale I’ve never experienced at the movies.
The Doom Generation
Last Exit to Brooklyn
The Feel Bad Movie of 2003 thus far must go to Lilja 4-Ever. An amazing performance by the young lead, but a 180-degree reversal from director Moodysson’s bright and uplifting previous films. Wow.
**Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl ** (1998) directed by Joan Chen.
The best movie that I will never ever watch again.
I’ll third Happiness.
Nil by Mouth. This movie feels like a documentary of hell. It’s good, though.
Actually, Erin Brockovich made me feel pretty bad. They sued a company for dumping a chemical – and won the lawsuit – not because exposure to the chemical had ever been demonstrated to increase the risk of cancer, but simply because the chemical had a big long scary-sounding name. 
My Life with Michael Keaton
As we left, the ushers were counting the number of people who left the theatre sobbing.
I knew I was forgetting one:
“y tu mama tambien”
“The Dream Life of Angels.”
Good choice, Dizzy Fingers. A great movie, but depressing as all hell.
Brazil also deserves a nod–obviously not the “rescue” version of the movie.
Refresh my memory – was that the movie from mainland China about the girl who gets sent to work with the remote shepherd, then gets stuck out there beyond her scheduled term of service due to some bureaucratic snafu?
If so, then I second the nomination. Gad, talk about depressing…
rjung, your memory is correct. Even more than the “bureaucratic snafu” is what happens to her while she’s in the country. I’m sure it’s all coming back to you now.
Gorgeous scenery/camera work, though. :rolleyes:
At the end of the German film Das Experiment, my hands were trembling uncontrollably. Talk about being put through the wringer. Not sad: just unbelievably intense.