An American Crime- The shocking and heartbreaking true story of Sylvia Likens, a young girl kept locked in a basement and tortured mercilessly by a a mentally deranged woman, her children, and classmates. A crime that haunts the state of Indiana to this day.
Agora- A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria. A controversial film that saw little distribution due to its arguably anti-religious stance.
Boy A- A young man is released from prison after serving almost his entire childhood behind bars for a shocking crime. Now he must adjust to a new world and the alien nature of freedom and adulthood while his dark past catches up to his seemingly bright future.
Black Swan- You stated that you didn't want extremely stylized movies, but since your own list contained two similar Darren Aronofsky movies, this should make the list.
Infernal Affairs series - The first movie deals with a crooked cop working for the mob and a undercover cop trying to uncover each other. The second deals with the rise and fall of a crime family mirroring the return of Hong Kong by the U.K to China. Don't bother watching the third. Remade as The Departed in the U.S. but thematically and stylistic completely different, it's a series worth your time.
Insomnia- A movie about a big city cop who assists a small town with a murder and accidentally kills his partner. Both the original Norwegian movie starring Stellan Skarsgård and the American remake directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams were fantastic films.
Sin Nombre- A young man abandons the violent gang and lifestyle he is a part of and joins an innocent young woman towards the U.S. in hopes for a better life. But his former MS13 brothers chase him throughout Mexico for revenge. Somewhat reminiscent of
Young Wolf and Cub.
The Unloved- A little girl named Lucy is removed by social services due to abuse by her father and placed into another hellhole. A scathing look at the U.K's social service system.
DoPo said:
Irreversible - One of my favourites, don't want to give too much away but it's told in reverse-chronological order. Just watch it and thank me later!
Oh God, I respect your opinion, and I agree it was well made, but I hated that movie. It uses every trick in the book to upset the audience and invents brand new ones. It was just an extremely ugly work to watch. Yes life can be just as ugly and even uglier, but did he really have to spin the camera around and around, flicker all the lights, and play an ambient noise that's scientifically proven to cause nausea.
I know that Gaspar Noe wanted to upset and disturb the viewer and he did in fact succeed but can't give him props for that as I can't give a man props for taking down Mike Tyson by hitting him in the balls with a sledgehammer.
DoPo said:
Let the Right One In (that's the English title) - a Norwegian film that features love and vampires. In a way it could be said that it's the complete opposite of Twilight, if they could be compared at all. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I found it a nice breath of fresh air compared to the Hollywood stuff we've been swamped with.
Yes!
Let the Right One In is one of my favorite films, and the English remake
Let Me In is quite good too. (Thematically very different though,
Let the Right One In is a coming of age story first and a horror movie second,
Let Me In is horror movie first and coming of age story second.
Let the RightI saw the movie expecting a some quirky film involving a child vampire, but left taken aback by how much it spoke about my own childhood. It's a horror movie with monsters but it's more about the horror we all face in everyday life and the monsters within us.
Also it's a Swedish movie not Norwegian. The novel it's based on also comes highly reccomended, as well as all of John Ajvide Lindqvist's work.
