The Film Recommendation Thread

[Dante Fireseed]

I thought it would be good to make a thread where people can leave recommendations for interesting indie or foreign films they have seen and would like to share. Please keep this thread free of general discussions about big or mainstream releases, anime or TV, as they have their own threads.

I am always on the lookout for interesting, thought provoking films, new or old, but as always they generally come from recomendation from other like minded souls. I've got access to US and UK Netflix, so any that you've seen and think are worth pimping, please feel free to do so here

[mikeleddy83]

Not sure these are all non-mainstream but my quick list right now is:

• Memories of Murder (2003)
• Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One (2008)
• Tsotsi (2005)
• The Killer (1989)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

[Benjo321]

Not sure if the ones I'm going to list are a bit too mainstream, but I think they're very interesting foreign films nonetheless (and these ones should be on Netflix or Lovefilm) ...

Departures:
Phenomenal Japanese drama, beautiful and very thought provoking.

Harakiri (think the recent remake Hara-Kiri Death of a Samurai is available to stream, but the original 1960's film is much better imho)
The Twilight Samurai:
Both these Samurai films offer something a bit different from what you might expect from typical genre tropes.

After the Wedding:
Wonderful Danish drama, highly recommend Susanne Bier's other films like Open Hearts and Brothers.

Very interested to hear some other suggestions, got plenty more to share but I'll stick to the ones available on streaming for now!

[Bakers_12]

Los Cronocrímenes (TimeCrimes) Is a really good low budget spanish time traval film that seams very under rated!

[Alex79uk]

It's completely mainstream but my favourite foreign language film of the last few years was TROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

Hunter.

[The Sonic Mole]

It's completely mainstream but my favourite foreign language film of the last few years was TROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

Hunter.

I watched this the other week and thought it was fantastic.

I've always enjoyed Asian horror films. They really get into your head in a way western films never seem to be able to. A particular favourite is the South Korean film, A Tale Of Two Sisters.

My favourite foreign language films of all time are the great Herzog and Kinski films, Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. The cinematography is stunning and almost documentary like, whilst Kinski is an intense screen presence. Also, the soundtracks (by the great Popol Vuh) are beautiful and otherworldly.

[ratsoalbion]

Troll Hunter's great.


With respect to Dante who started this thread, I'd rather we didn't separate 'indie/foreign' films from 'mainstream' films and simply had an all-encompassing movies thread (or even a thread per movie for films worth talking about beyond a few posts).

Apart from anything else there are so many films that are small in scope or budget but distributed by a big studio, or made on a small indie budget but 'blockbuster' in scope or success. I like that - I want the margins to be blurry.

As you can tell from the forum (and the podcast) I'm generally against pigeon-holing stuff. You'll never see the gaming forums divided up by format or 'retro and new' or indie/mainstream, or handheld/console, console/PC etc. It would be the opposite of what C&R stands for and I'd like to see that continue into off topic.

What do other people think? I'm keen to hear many points of view.

[mik]

If the point is to cast some light on films we enjoy that were not the beneficiaries of big marketing budgets, lumping those back in with all other movies seems antithetical to that. I like the "movies are movies" and "games are games" attitudes as much as you do--but I think it makes sense to give a little extra consideration to the underdogs, especially for a website geared to the connoisseur.

[Dante Fireseed]

Thanks for the input guys - I've slightly changed the thread title accordingly. The purpose of it really is to discuss or recommend films which otherwise would go unheard. The "What have you been watching" thread is great, but the purpose really is for people to talk about TV/films they have seen recently. I wanted to have somewhere to point out perhaps some lesser known films to others, which may have been films you have seen 10 years ago, rather than last night.

I agree perhaps defining as mainstream/indie is not particularly helpful, but already there are a few films mentioned here I haven't heard of and will check out Please carry on guys and girls!

[ratsoalbion]

Ah ok mate, cool. Hope I didn't sound arsey about it

[Dante Fireseed]

Ah ok mate, cool. Hope I didn't sound arsey about it

nope, not at all - all constructive so it's cool

[RoboticMonk3y]

I've always enjoyed Asian horror films. They really get into your head in a way western films never seem to be able to. A particular favourite is the South Korean film, A Tale Of Two Sisters.

I agree with this, and I've found this is down to the difference in style of subtle implication of horror vs the in your face CGI-fest that is hollywood.
Prime example being ringu/the ring, the original showing very little, leading up to the point where,

Spoiler: show

Sadako does that eerie slow lurch towards the TV screen and falls out, slowly crawling forwards

Honestly scares the crap out of me, as opposed to the american remake, which to me felt bordering on slapstick wacky effects that felt comical rather than sinister...

[Alex79uk]

Has anyone ever seen Pan's Labyrinth? I've been meaning to watch it for years.

[DomsBeard]

Has anyone ever seen Pan's Labyrinth? I've been meaning to watch it for years.

Yes, it's a very good film I enjoyed it immensely and your post has made me want to add it to my blu ray collection.

[The Sonic Mole]

Has anyone ever seen Pan's Labyrinth? I've been meaning to watch it for years.

Yeah, super film. I really hope Del Toro does get to have a stab at video games.

[Buckled Kipper]

Pans Labyrinth is indeed superb, but I'd highly recommend people watching Del Toro's earlier film The Devils Backbone. Not as well known as PL but equally as gripping.

[Craymen Edge]

A couple I recently saw streaming/on demand:

The FP is the best terrible film I've seen in ages.

In some sort of post apocalyptic future 2 gangs battle for control of a small town. It's ridiculous and charmingly retarded, from the concept, the look, to the characters and the dialog. And along the way it spoofs all sorts of film tropes from gang dramas like The Warriors to sports underdog movies/Rocky/Karate Kid etc.

The first 10 minutes are online:



Winnebago Man is a documentary about a guy who unwittingly became an internet celebrity, when outakes from a promotional video made in the 80's became an Internet viral hit. It's a bit lightweight, but interesting, funny and very watchable.

[Todinho]

Well if you are looking for cult and thought provoking movies I would recomend anything by Bergman especially the seventh seal,I really like that one!And speaking of Sweden if you are looking for a good documentary/movie about Nazi-facism watch Undergångens arkitektur by Peter cohen,kinda of unrelated but I always try to recomend this one,also try to see the german movie the third wave pretty good stuff there too.

[PressEscToExit]

Departures:
Phenomenal Japanese drama, beautiful and very thought provoking.

Seconded! Fantastic film.

It's pretty hard to select any particular films to recommend so I'll just choose one at random that's likely to have passed people by.

I rented After Life a while ago and really enjoyed it. It's by Kore-eda Hirokazu, whose work pops up on BBC4 and Film4 now and then (keep an eye out for Maborosi, Nobody Knows and Still Walking).

The basic premise is that when people die they're sent to a sort of halfway house for a week, where a group of counselors help them to choose a memory to take with them into the afterlife, and they all work together to recreate the moment with film props and stuff. It's nowhere near as whimsical as that makes it sound - it's played surprisingly straight and low key. Really unique film, I thought.

[robschach]

The Wackness.
Might have been mentioned before but well worth checking out. Revolves around the relationship of a depressed drug dealing kid and his psychologist.