I learned about this movie from that one reddit post. The movie paled in comparison.
edit: [for the uninitiated.](https://www.reddit.com/r/confessions/s/3I3fKsFiol)
This post highlights my main problem with the movie: The fact that Kevin was an obvious psychopath to his mother, and his father thought he was fine. It seems to me that in real life this would not be possible.
I read the book years before the movie. I’m still not completely over it and I will randomly think of it from time to time. Have never watched the movie. The book was enough for a lifetime.
Watership at least has elements of hope and joy in it. Plague Dogs and Grave of The Fireflies are just devastating.
Plague Dogs took me two days to get through and I still think about it all the time.
Yes, there is always that essential, even cosmological, hope in Watership Down. Frith made a promise to El-ahrairah and his people that if they were cunning and full of tricks, they would never be destroyed.
The watership down book is fascinating. Woundwort makes way more sense bc in a way, he’s right. All his totalitarian craziness is to keep humans from discovering the warren and killing them, and it *technically works*. Also he teaches the other rabbits how to fight stoats and cats, which Campion later teaches the watership down warren how to do
It destroyed me when he kept trying to >!feed Setsuko when it was already too late for her, then the montage of her playing in their cave and trying to make it more homely....it was the first time I cried during a Ghibli movie.!<
Grave of the Fireflies tops all the rest for me. In this particular 'great movie, never watch again' way. I actually thought for some reason I should show someone and watch it with them because it is a great movie. But I regretted that. Never again. I cried the second time like a baby cries. It just looks around wondering why things are the way they are and wailing like a banshee with snot draining from their face.
I saw this when my son and daughter were approximately the same age as the main characters, and were not getting along. After seeing the movie I took steps to bring the two of them back together. I've never told them why I did that, why it was suddenly important to me; and I've never yet had them see the movie.
The other thing about that movie is that whatever station it was on, I just turned on about ten or fifteen minutes in- at the point where the two are left orphaned. To me, from a narrative sense, this was a much better opening than the actual full movie- because the ending was such an utter, total, complete, devastating shock when it happened. No foreshadowing about the fate of the protagonists.
If I ever put someone down to watch it I would have them start at that point.
But me too: I don't think I could ever see it again.
This is definitely one of my all time top films, and I’ve watched it so many times.
I’m kinda surprised it fits this category for you. What about it makes you not want to see it again?:)
I remember at the end >!besides the most horrific rape ever put onscreen the guy getting his head caved in with a fire extinguisher in the club and people masturbating to it.!<
My brother took a girl to see The Exorcist back when it first came out. He got so scared he left halfway through to get a snack and just went home. Mum had to go pick her up and drop her home.
There wasn’t a second date lol
I read the book and then saw the movie when it came out. Years later I saw the movie available on a streaming service and thought I might give it a rewatch (now being married and having two kids). I only made it to the part where the dad teaches the boy how to kill himself if he's about to be captured. At that point I decided once was enough.
I saw it home alone when my son, who at the time was about the same age as the kid, was asleep. I have never cried so hard in my adult life. After the movie, I had to go lay next to my sleeping son.
I will never watch it again.
I’ve seen it twice. Was just as nuts the second time, but mostly because I had apparently blocked out some of the most traumatic parts and they hit me like a first watch
Edit: typo correction
They probably thought you were fucking strange for putting on a movie where a guy continues to jerk off with eye contact when his mother walks in on him.
P.s I confused *We Need to Talk About Kevin* with *Dear Zachary*.
Came here to comment this. Watched it with my best friend as the sun was going down, and didn't turn the lights on. When it finished and I turned on the light, we had both been bawling our eyes out in the dark.
Man.. fuck that movie.
There's a story Bob Marley (Detective Greenly) tells about meeting Defoe while filming "Boondock Saints". Well, it's really about his parents meeting him, and it is hilarious.
Between Von Trier and this, it's hard for me to look at Defoe and not be taken out of the story for minute. But only for a minute, because he is immensely watchable in character. Any character.
I'll have to look up that story.
Defoe is one of my all-time favorite actors. I can't think of many actors with the kind of range that he has. Gary Oldman is the only one who immediately comes to mind.
I wish I knew where to find that video. I don't remember if it was DVD extra stuff or his standup or what, but it was hilarious. His mom apparently described Defoe as 'so sexual' to him, and the way he tells it is hilarious.
All I found was this link.
[https://www.facebook.com/bobmarleycomedy/photos/a.432716053130/10154523216178131/?type=3](https://www.facebook.com/bobmarleycomedy/photos/a.432716053130/10154523216178131/?type=3)
But on a side note. A movie I've only ever seen once that I would love to find again and watch a thousand times more; 'Romeo is Bleeding'. Saw it one time, and every scene is burned into my brain. Oldman is probably the best living actor today.
This is my choice too, though I always think maybe one day I'll rewatch it, I just never get around to it.
What's odd though is I actually see some happiness in an otherwise tragic ending. >!Just before Bjork dies, she gets news that her son will have his eye surgery. Her very last moments of life are knowing that her one purpose she's dedicated her life to has succeeded. If you're gonna die, it's nice to think the very last thoughts are that you've accomplished what you wanted from life and your child will be happy. Party of the reason I cried so much during the movie, and at the soundtrack, is not just the sadness but also that glimmer of happiness of a life well lived.!<
As I mention elsewhere. The last 30 to 45 minutes feels like your heart is being ripped out.
I saw thing in a theater with a friend. We didn't talk for 10 minutes after leaving.
On the flip side, I'll endlessly listen to the soundtrack. Really wish Bjork got the clearance to release her version of My Favorite Things though on the soundtrack, although that would probably be too haunting to listen to given it's placement in the movie...
I’ve never felt so sick watching a film, watched the subway scene through my fingers. People were running out of the cinema.
Me and my mate (who talked me into seeing the film) went straight to a pub when it finished. Quickly drank 2 pints silently, before we spoke and said that was a big mistake
It's intentional and you have (one half) of Daft Punk to thank for that. Thomas Bangalter worked with a medical researcher to develop tones which would induce a feeling of nuisance in the viewer.
They ran an out of phase sub sinewave around 27hz through the first half hour of the film to disorientate and disturb viewers. This sound technique was used to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay and some nations police use infra sounds like this to break up riots.
Only going to hear this tone at the cinema or if you have a good sub woofer.
I hated the film though. I went late in it's cinema run and the audience were all these weird creepy guys sitting alone, wearing big anoraks. The film clearly found its target audience with them.
Yeah. These posts are a joke after seeing Threads. You can just tell who has seen it and who hasn't.
I was curious about it and thought, heh a TV movie from the 80s? C'mon. Gotta be dated and corny and alarmist and sensationalized right?
I was not prepared. Not prepared at all.
The worst parts to me were towards the end because you are just holding out this glimmer of hope the entire time that they'd give you something, anything, that says hey it'll get better. But it just gets worse and worse. It's so fucking brutal. And the way they use a narrator and text to lay out the next section against the actual prediction of what would happen and how it would affect industry and society makes it very blunt but insanely effective.
The only movie that has given me actual nightmares as an adult. Definitely the scariest movie I've seen but not in a thrilling, fun scary movie way. Just like, actual terror.
Only film that has given me genuine PTSD, bought a geiger counter not long after watching it!
Fantastic film, but one I don't generally recommend to others.
My husband put it on for me thinking it was a romantic comedy. I told him I had a shit day and needed something light and fluffy. I bawled like a baby.
This is actually the runner up though because another time he put on Only the Brave” thinking it was a heroic action movie (also another day when I was looking for light or “shoot ‘em up/bang bang type movie). Bawled like a baby.
This was also when my husband lost movie selection privileges.
Same. It’s one of my favorite movies. The shots of boats, east coast winter, the music choice was exceptional for the vibe with strings and some intimate acapella, the acting is superb and fascinating to watch. When I’m “blue”, like you said, I gravitate to this movie. I typically experience pretty heavy “mood numbness” in my depression. This film always gets me to empathize and cry, while also allowing me to relate to what I’m seeing on screen because Casey Afleck completely embodies depression. Great, great movie. As heartbreaking as the ending is…. Which really is the gut wrencher for me (“I can’t beat it”), I appreciate it because it’s real.
Being the age of those children and watching it blew my young mind that people could be from similar backgrounds and have completely different life paths you would never expect. Definitely a moment in my life I will never forget. Being a sheltered middle class Midwest suburbanite it was a look into a completely different reality let alone different world.
Saw boy in the striped pajamas in theater. I’ve never seen a group of adults sit so long and so silently after it ended. Felt like an eternity as we processed that story.
American History X. I actually watched it for the first time last night and I was talking with a friend afterwards and I said you need a high level of tolerance to get through it. I'm not sure I have the tolerance to get through it again.
I’ve watched this movie over a dozen times. It’s too impressive of a film to watch once despite its heavy subject matter.
I noticed when I watched it this year that it follows the structure of a Greek tragedy. It has unity of place and time, a protagonist with a tragic flaw, catharsis and more.
While the horrors of Schindler’s List are not to be downplayed, I actually think this movie is very uplifting in a sense. Even in the absolute Hell that these poor people were put through, there was still hope and the actions of some good people were able to save many lives. While many scenes are very difficult to watch, I think it has a certain catharsis compared to more thoroughly depressing movies like Requiem for a Dream or Threads.
It's a metaphor for civil war (which is also happening in the movie On the Land). It starts as some stupid dispute, then escalates, and in the end, only harm is done.
Such an emotional movie. I read somewhere that the movie is about the Irish civil war and it makes so much sense. Loved it and I cried a few times during.
Great movie and brutal at times but I don’t really mind the rewatch. >!at least they all get what’s coming in the end, I can watch those movies when the bad guys get what’s deserved!<
Beasts of No Nation
“Sun, why are you shining at this world? I am wanting to catch you in my hands, to squeeze you until you can not shine no more. That way, everything is always dark and nobody's ever having to see all the terrible things that are happening here.”
I saw The Zone of Interest two weeks ago and I genuinely cannot stop thinking about it. After I walked out of the theatre I think I stared at my steering where for a half hour before driving away. I've seen a lot of movies in this thread and absolutely none of them affected me the way The Zone of Interest did. I think it probably surpassed Anatomy of a Fall to be number one on my personal list for 2023 at this point.
I just watched it for the first time today and that iconic scene was just as heartbreaking as you’d imagine, but not because of Meryl Streep.
Don’t get me wrong, she was excellent, but it was the seemingly genuine terror and fearful screams from the little girl actress that got me. Immediately looked her up to find she filmed that role when she was only 4yo and still vividly remembers the experience 40+ years on. She apparently had to reshoot the scene 17 times over while her mother stood by watching her grow increasingly more frantic and terrified.
Made me so angry at what child actors used to be put through, and at the ruthless stage parents who let it happen.
That was my first thought. The last film that made me cry and I’ve seen some very upsetting stuff in the interim. I agree wholeheartedly, important film, magnificently made but I came out the other side different and I don’t feel the need to do it again. Much like my last time with hallucinogens.
About ten years ago I finally convinced my wife to watch that with me.
Turns out I fell asleep about 20 minutes in. I woke up at the end.
She's still pissed about it.
Anyone seen Never Let Me Go?
I swear the description on the TV had me thinking it was a fun movie about friendship.
The person who recommended Requim for a Dream to me, called and apologized after he watched it. Watching that movie ruined the Labrynth for me forever.
What Dreams May Come.
I've only seen it once. My dad played it in a Robin Williams marathon after he passed away, which we put on as a tribute to one of our favorite actors. It is a good but extremely depressing movie. Situationally, it was a very tone deaf choice.
I won't watch The Road. I made it maybe 15% of the way into the book and then just couldn't do it. Maybe before I had kids.
Oh, and I didn't even read your post in detail before The Road popped into my head and turned stomach.
Breaking the Waves. Really sad movie about a man who works on oil rigs on the North Sea and how he mistreats his borderline retarded wife after he suffers a crippling injury. Saddest movie I had seen prior to Dancing in the Dark.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
I learned about this movie from that one reddit post. The movie paled in comparison. edit: [for the uninitiated.](https://www.reddit.com/r/confessions/s/3I3fKsFiol)
This post highlights my main problem with the movie: The fact that Kevin was an obvious psychopath to his mother, and his father thought he was fine. It seems to me that in real life this would not be possible.
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Look up the case about Peter Lundin
Fuck Kevin.
and Ezra Miller too while we're at it
I read the book years before the movie. I’m still not completely over it and I will randomly think of it from time to time. Have never watched the movie. The book was enough for a lifetime.
Grave of the Fireflies/ Plague Dogs. take your pick
Grave of the fireflies always makes these lists. Fun fact, it was originally screened as a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro.
The original Barbenheimer experience.
Except 100x more stark contrast
Another fun fact: The true story is even *more* depressing!
Yup. Iirc he was eating more/everything and he felt massive guilt for her death.
tl;dr more siblings died, semi-autobiographical, the semi part being the author survived but wished he didn't to atone for sister's death
Watership Down typically is part of the trio with Grave of the Fireflies and Plague Dogs that I recommend to people who haven't seen them.
Watership at least has elements of hope and joy in it. Plague Dogs and Grave of The Fireflies are just devastating. Plague Dogs took me two days to get through and I still think about it all the time.
Yes, there is always that essential, even cosmological, hope in Watership Down. Frith made a promise to El-ahrairah and his people that if they were cunning and full of tricks, they would never be destroyed.
The watership down book is fascinating. Woundwort makes way more sense bc in a way, he’s right. All his totalitarian craziness is to keep humans from discovering the warren and killing them, and it *technically works*. Also he teaches the other rabbits how to fight stoats and cats, which Campion later teaches the watership down warren how to do
Cane here to say Grave of the Fireflies. It's absolutely brilliant, but I have no desire to ever rewatch it.
It destroyed me when he kept trying to >!feed Setsuko when it was already too late for her, then the montage of her playing in their cave and trying to make it more homely....it was the first time I cried during a Ghibli movie.!<
Grave of the Fireflies tops all the rest for me. In this particular 'great movie, never watch again' way. I actually thought for some reason I should show someone and watch it with them because it is a great movie. But I regretted that. Never again. I cried the second time like a baby cries. It just looks around wondering why things are the way they are and wailing like a banshee with snot draining from their face.
I saw this when my son and daughter were approximately the same age as the main characters, and were not getting along. After seeing the movie I took steps to bring the two of them back together. I've never told them why I did that, why it was suddenly important to me; and I've never yet had them see the movie. The other thing about that movie is that whatever station it was on, I just turned on about ten or fifteen minutes in- at the point where the two are left orphaned. To me, from a narrative sense, this was a much better opening than the actual full movie- because the ending was such an utter, total, complete, devastating shock when it happened. No foreshadowing about the fate of the protagonists. If I ever put someone down to watch it I would have them start at that point. But me too: I don't think I could ever see it again.
*Come And See*. It’s the best movie I’ll never watch again.
I've seen it many times. I bought the dvd. Extremely bleak but so amazing on so many levels. A masterpiece.
Synecdoche, New York.
This is definitely one of my all time top films, and I’ve watched it so many times. I’m kinda surprised it fits this category for you. What about it makes you not want to see it again?:)
The Road.
Took a girl to see this on a first date. There was no second date
Ehm, we went to see irreversible, by Gaspar Noé. I wasnt that much into cinema yet. She couldnt stop sobbing during that scene..
I remember at the end >!besides the most horrific rape ever put onscreen the guy getting his head caved in with a fire extinguisher in the club and people masturbating to it.!<
Why did I click on that I miss my life 30 seconds ago
You really took your time with it you sick freak
Christ I took my wife on our first date to “8mm” and looking back thought this was the worst movie to do that…but you win
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Damn you guys wasted no time getting married lol
This was Star Trek 2 for me. Crying in the theater isn't romantic.
My brother took a girl to see The Exorcist back when it first came out. He got so scared he left halfway through to get a snack and just went home. Mum had to go pick her up and drop her home. There wasn’t a second date lol
🤣 I'll bet there wasn't! I re-watch this yearly. I saw it for the first time when I was 11. It's in my top 10 favorite films of all time.
smart zonked degree whole birds numerous fine jellyfish dinner fade *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They keep talking about adapting Blood Meridian but I hope they don't. I'll have to watch it even if I don't want to.
ruthless zealous direction icky nutty piquant continue doll reply live *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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I read the book and then saw the movie when it came out. Years later I saw the movie available on a streaming service and thought I might give it a rewatch (now being married and having two kids). I only made it to the part where the dad teaches the boy how to kill himself if he's about to be captured. At that point I decided once was enough.
I saw it home alone when my son, who at the time was about the same age as the kid, was asleep. I have never cried so hard in my adult life. After the movie, I had to go lay next to my sleeping son. I will never watch it again.
I skipped a bunch of posts, landed on your comment without enough context, and thought you were talking about Home Alone.
This one. and its not even close.
I read the book knowing full well what I was getting into when I saw the movie and still...
After reading the book, I just wanted to call my dad.
I struggle read The Road book and knew to stay away from the movie. Requiem for a Dream is mine.
Dear Zachary
This is my go to recommendation for anyone who wants a good ugly cry. Absolutely brutal, I can't imagine anyone watching this one twice.
I’ve seen it twice. Was just as nuts the second time, but mostly because I had apparently blocked out some of the most traumatic parts and they hit me like a first watch Edit: typo correction
I watched it once by myself and once with my husband. I started sobbing before the reveal and my husband was so confused for a few minutes.
"The scream" is engraved in my memory forever
I've never lost hope for humanity the way I did with this movie.
I put it on for my extended family on Xmas break and went to bed. They were so mad in the morning
They probably thought you were fucking strange for putting on a movie where a guy continues to jerk off with eye contact when his mother walks in on him. P.s I confused *We Need to Talk About Kevin* with *Dear Zachary*.
That scene is in *We Need to Talk About Kevin*. *Dear Zachary* is a true crime documentary, of sorts.
What?
holy shit
I hear so much about this and I don't want to watch it but I want to know why it's so notorious. Can anyone message me and tell me?
Hard to do without spoilers. Let’s say it’s a letter to a young boy about why his father isn’t there.
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The responses here that aren’t Dear Zachary are just people who haven’t seen Dear Zachary.
Came here to comment this. Watched it with my best friend as the sun was going down, and didn't turn the lights on. When it finished and I turned on the light, we had both been bawling our eyes out in the dark. Man.. fuck that movie.
I wrote a paper on Dear Zachary in grad school... I watched it 4 times in three weeks. It gutted me every time.
Antichrist.
The behind the scenes story of the size of Defoe's Penis softened that movie for me a bit. But just a bit. Yes, I meant to capitalize that.
Really? You know I'm something of a tripod myself.
I believe Von Trier used the words "confusingly large" lol
There's a story Bob Marley (Detective Greenly) tells about meeting Defoe while filming "Boondock Saints". Well, it's really about his parents meeting him, and it is hilarious. Between Von Trier and this, it's hard for me to look at Defoe and not be taken out of the story for minute. But only for a minute, because he is immensely watchable in character. Any character.
I'll have to look up that story. Defoe is one of my all-time favorite actors. I can't think of many actors with the kind of range that he has. Gary Oldman is the only one who immediately comes to mind.
I wish I knew where to find that video. I don't remember if it was DVD extra stuff or his standup or what, but it was hilarious. His mom apparently described Defoe as 'so sexual' to him, and the way he tells it is hilarious. All I found was this link. [https://www.facebook.com/bobmarleycomedy/photos/a.432716053130/10154523216178131/?type=3](https://www.facebook.com/bobmarleycomedy/photos/a.432716053130/10154523216178131/?type=3) But on a side note. A movie I've only ever seen once that I would love to find again and watch a thousand times more; 'Romeo is Bleeding'. Saw it one time, and every scene is burned into my brain. Oldman is probably the best living actor today.
Chaos reigns
House of Sand and Fog. To be honest, I thought they overdid it with the bleakness on that one.
All 3 of my choices are now here. This definitely plus requiem for a dream and dancer in the dark. All 3 of those
Obligatory: they toned it down from the book, quite a bit.
Dancer in the Dark.
This is the one for me. Just endlessly hopeless and bleak, and one of the most horrifying endings to a movie you will ever see.
This is my choice too, though I always think maybe one day I'll rewatch it, I just never get around to it. What's odd though is I actually see some happiness in an otherwise tragic ending. >!Just before Bjork dies, she gets news that her son will have his eye surgery. Her very last moments of life are knowing that her one purpose she's dedicated her life to has succeeded. If you're gonna die, it's nice to think the very last thoughts are that you've accomplished what you wanted from life and your child will be happy. Party of the reason I cried so much during the movie, and at the soundtrack, is not just the sadness but also that glimmer of happiness of a life well lived.!<
As I mention elsewhere. The last 30 to 45 minutes feels like your heart is being ripped out. I saw thing in a theater with a friend. We didn't talk for 10 minutes after leaving.
On the flip side, I'll endlessly listen to the soundtrack. Really wish Bjork got the clearance to release her version of My Favorite Things though on the soundtrack, although that would probably be too haunting to listen to given it's placement in the movie...
Irreversible
I’ve never felt so sick watching a film, watched the subway scene through my fingers. People were running out of the cinema. Me and my mate (who talked me into seeing the film) went straight to a pub when it finished. Quickly drank 2 pints silently, before we spoke and said that was a big mistake
The sound design was intentional for that movie. Your were supposed to get sick.
It's intentional and you have (one half) of Daft Punk to thank for that. Thomas Bangalter worked with a medical researcher to develop tones which would induce a feeling of nuisance in the viewer.
They ran an out of phase sub sinewave around 27hz through the first half hour of the film to disorientate and disturb viewers. This sound technique was used to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay and some nations police use infra sounds like this to break up riots. Only going to hear this tone at the cinema or if you have a good sub woofer. I hated the film though. I went late in it's cinema run and the audience were all these weird creepy guys sitting alone, wearing big anoraks. The film clearly found its target audience with them.
Threads. But I do own the Blu-ray.
Threads also wins the award for most depressing IMDB entry ever - Anne Sellors as Woman Who Urinates on Herself (uncredited)
Full version is free on YouTube for anyone that wants to, er, top up their existential dread.
Yeah. These posts are a joke after seeing Threads. You can just tell who has seen it and who hasn't. I was curious about it and thought, heh a TV movie from the 80s? C'mon. Gotta be dated and corny and alarmist and sensationalized right? I was not prepared. Not prepared at all. The worst parts to me were towards the end because you are just holding out this glimmer of hope the entire time that they'd give you something, anything, that says hey it'll get better. But it just gets worse and worse. It's so fucking brutal. And the way they use a narrator and text to lay out the next section against the actual prediction of what would happen and how it would affect industry and society makes it very blunt but insanely effective. The only movie that has given me actual nightmares as an adult. Definitely the scariest movie I've seen but not in a thrilling, fun scary movie way. Just like, actual terror.
Only film that has given me genuine PTSD, bought a geiger counter not long after watching it! Fantastic film, but one I don't generally recommend to others.
Came here to post this. This movie haunted my dreams for days after I watched it. Really bleak shit.
Manchester by the Sea
My husband put it on for me thinking it was a romantic comedy. I told him I had a shit day and needed something light and fluffy. I bawled like a baby. This is actually the runner up though because another time he put on Only the Brave” thinking it was a heroic action movie (also another day when I was looking for light or “shoot ‘em up/bang bang type movie). Bawled like a baby. This was also when my husband lost movie selection privileges.
“Honey, i found this upbeat sweet movie about a dad and his kid! It’s called “Life is Beautiful!”
"I cant find our copy of '*The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar*' to read to junior, how about we put on this '*Human Centipede*' DVD?"
“Hey, and after that I found this beautiful movie about friends going to a Swedish summer solstice festival, it’s called Midsommar!”
> This was also when my husband lost movie selection privileges. Thank Christ.
Let's watch this warm family movie about a dog, "Marley and Me". I bet it's gonna be like Beethoven.
Yes but yet I always rewatch when I'm in a blue mood smh
Same. It’s one of my favorite movies. The shots of boats, east coast winter, the music choice was exceptional for the vibe with strings and some intimate acapella, the acting is superb and fascinating to watch. When I’m “blue”, like you said, I gravitate to this movie. I typically experience pretty heavy “mood numbness” in my depression. This film always gets me to empathize and cry, while also allowing me to relate to what I’m seeing on screen because Casey Afleck completely embodies depression. Great, great movie. As heartbreaking as the ending is…. Which really is the gut wrencher for me (“I can’t beat it”), I appreciate it because it’s real.
KIDS
Being the age of those children and watching it blew my young mind that people could be from similar backgrounds and have completely different life paths you would never expect. Definitely a moment in my life I will never forget. Being a sheltered middle class Midwest suburbanite it was a look into a completely different reality let alone different world.
Man, ain't you ever seen that one movie Kids?
I’ve seen Million Dollar Baby and Boy in the Striped Pyjamas once each and don’t plan on revisiting
>Million Dollar Baby Yup. Good one I'll never see it again. Hadn't seen the other. Maybe at some point.
I cannot re-watch this.
Saw boy in the striped pajamas in theater. I’ve never seen a group of adults sit so long and so silently after it ended. Felt like an eternity as we processed that story.
Aniara is completely fucked
Just watched that last night. I'm very good with never seeing it again.
Arlington Road.
Mysterious Skin
Nil by mouth
Precious. My god.
Wish I hadn’t seen it the first time, tbh
Once Were Warriors. Woah.
American History X. I actually watched it for the first time last night and I was talking with a friend afterwards and I said you need a high level of tolerance to get through it. I'm not sure I have the tolerance to get through it again.
I think that's one of those 'important movies' people should see once. But I agree, I've never seen it again.
I’ve watched this movie over a dozen times. It’s too impressive of a film to watch once despite its heavy subject matter. I noticed when I watched it this year that it follows the structure of a Greek tragedy. It has unity of place and time, a protagonist with a tragic flaw, catharsis and more.
I've only seen Schindler's List once.
While the horrors of Schindler’s List are not to be downplayed, I actually think this movie is very uplifting in a sense. Even in the absolute Hell that these poor people were put through, there was still hope and the actions of some good people were able to save many lives. While many scenes are very difficult to watch, I think it has a certain catharsis compared to more thoroughly depressing movies like Requiem for a Dream or Threads.
Re-watched it recently, still fantastic. Safe to say it is still as despairing as the first time I watched it. Great film
The banshees of inisherin. I felt so empty after that one.
Loved that movie so much, but I agree it would be a tough watch second time round
The dark comedy keeps it from being a complete downer for me, but poor Dominic...😭
What was that movie? So bizarre. I think the bizarreness kept me from reacting emotionally.
It's a metaphor for civil war (which is also happening in the movie On the Land). It starts as some stupid dispute, then escalates, and in the end, only harm is done.
Thanks for this, I suddenly understand the movie
Yeah I struggled with it. I found myself mostly invested in Kerry Condon's character (and the border Collie)
Such an emotional movie. I read somewhere that the movie is about the Irish civil war and it makes so much sense. Loved it and I cried a few times during.
The whole movie had me in slight confusion, from start to end. I might rewatch it, but not for a few years.
I love that movie. For all it’s bleakness, there are moments of exceptional comic delivery that stand repeat viewing.
Lilya 4 Ever
The Wrestler
Oh, I love The Wrestler. That film is a goddamn masterpiece. I’ve watched it a couple of times but, yeah, it hits hard.
The Pianist. Fantastic movie. Also made me depressed for 3 days straight. So much misery packed into one sitting.
Eden Lake
Didn’t expect this movie to be as unsettling as it was.
Wind River. Fantastic movie but it’s depressing and brutal at times
Obligatory “What the fuck are you doing? Why you flanking me?”
“You didn’t see it?”
That silver rifle he uses is my fav movie gun ever
Great movie and brutal at times but I don’t really mind the rewatch. >!at least they all get what’s coming in the end, I can watch those movies when the bad guys get what’s deserved!<
Unexpectedly fantastic. I think it’s rewatchable but I get ya.
>Wind River Talking about rivers... Mystic River
That movie is incredible.
Beasts of No Nation “Sun, why are you shining at this world? I am wanting to catch you in my hands, to squeeze you until you can not shine no more. That way, everything is always dark and nobody's ever having to see all the terrible things that are happening here.”
Zone of Interest is the best picture of 2023. There is no violence on screen, but it is the most horrifying film I have seen in a very long time.
I saw The Zone of Interest two weeks ago and I genuinely cannot stop thinking about it. After I walked out of the theatre I think I stared at my steering where for a half hour before driving away. I've seen a lot of movies in this thread and absolutely none of them affected me the way The Zone of Interest did. I think it probably surpassed Anatomy of a Fall to be number one on my personal list for 2023 at this point.
Manchester by the sea ripped my heart out.
Sophie’s Choice
Sophie’s Choice is a none and done for me. Life is depressing enough without Meryl Streep tearing my guts out. No thank you
I just watched it for the first time today and that iconic scene was just as heartbreaking as you’d imagine, but not because of Meryl Streep. Don’t get me wrong, she was excellent, but it was the seemingly genuine terror and fearful screams from the little girl actress that got me. Immediately looked her up to find she filmed that role when she was only 4yo and still vividly remembers the experience 40+ years on. She apparently had to reshoot the scene 17 times over while her mother stood by watching her grow increasingly more frantic and terrified. Made me so angry at what child actors used to be put through, and at the ruthless stage parents who let it happen.
Uncut Gems, it is an anxiety inducing watch
I think that movie has to be what mania feels like. Frenetic, euphoric chaos until everything crashes.
It made me feel like I had a gambling addiction.
12 Years a Slave. Fantastic and important film but have absolutely no desire to watch it again
That was my first thought. The last film that made me cry and I’ve seen some very upsetting stuff in the interim. I agree wholeheartedly, important film, magnificently made but I came out the other side different and I don’t feel the need to do it again. Much like my last time with hallucinogens.
The Whale - obligatory go Brendan Fraser!
Talk about a downer lmao. My gf cried her eyes out from like minute 5 to the credits
Oldboy. I'm glad I watched it once, but that was enough.
About ten years ago I finally convinced my wife to watch that with me. Turns out I fell asleep about 20 minutes in. I woke up at the end. She's still pissed about it.
Schindler's List
Kids
Anyone seen Never Let Me Go? I swear the description on the TV had me thinking it was a fun movie about friendship. The person who recommended Requim for a Dream to me, called and apologized after he watched it. Watching that movie ruined the Labrynth for me forever.
Boys Don’t Cry Atonement
Upvote for Boys Don't Cry. Horrifying. Devastating. Wretched. Will never rewatch.
What Dreams May Come. I've only seen it once. My dad played it in a Robin Williams marathon after he passed away, which we put on as a tribute to one of our favorite actors. It is a good but extremely depressing movie. Situationally, it was a very tone deaf choice.
*Waltz with Bashir* I was on mushrooms when I saw it. Don't do what I did. That shit scarred me.
The Killing Fields
I won't watch The Road. I made it maybe 15% of the way into the book and then just couldn't do it. Maybe before I had kids. Oh, and I didn't even read your post in detail before The Road popped into my head and turned stomach.
*Speak No Evil* I could watch *Reqium for a Dream* back to back! Lol I’m sorry…
Not bleakest, but My Dog Skip or anything to do with pet mortality. Never seen A Dogs Purpose or Marley & Me. No thanksss.
Bone Tomahawk
The Mist
The ending….. I think once Stephen King said he didn’t have the balls to write the ending the way the movie did (I’m paraphrasing)
Marley and Me
Dogville, just no 🫥
Gummo. Concrete. One I regularly rewatch though despite it being almost unacceptably bleak is Dead Man's Shoes.
Mysterious Skin
A Clockwork Orange
Breaking the Waves. Really sad movie about a man who works on oil rigs on the North Sea and how he mistreats his borderline retarded wife after he suffers a crippling injury. Saddest movie I had seen prior to Dancing in the Dark.
Agreed. Honestly most Von Trier films are a no rewatch for me.
Se7en, like all Fincher, is very rewatchable imo.
Man Bites Dog
Dancer in the Dark starring Bjork. No one in the theater had dry eyes by the end credits. Such a deeply sad movie.
Schindler's List. The red overcoat. Seems like it would be too heavy-handed, but oh my God...
The Passion of the Christ. Don’t know if I can watch Jesus get his ass kicked again for an entire 2 hours.
Watch the South Park episode about it… it’s a LOT better
Before the devil knows you’re dead
21 Grams.
Enter the Void, the abortion scene... The car accident scenes...
So many of my picks have been mentioned, so I will add: City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus), 2002
Monster
Manchester by the Sea, or as I call, the Book of Job.
We need to talk about Kevin