OK, indulge me. What are your top 5 films that leave the audience feeling cynical, dark, or spiritually violated? (Not that that's a bad feeling for a film to give...)
In the Company of Men
Your Friends and Neighbors
The Ice Storm
The Magdelene Sisters
Amores Perros
"It's a good deal...it's a good deal for ME!"
Wonder Boys
Casshern
The Sweet Hereafter
The Pledge
Pi
How about Breaking The Waves? I don't know if cynical is necessarily the correct word for it, but holy crap, it makes you feel as uncomfortable as any other film out there.
shareCan't believe nobody else has already mentioned this one: Fargo.
shareThank you for mentioning The Door in the Floor - I hated that movie, but it was unforgettable. Also, I had difficulty watching much of Breaking the Waves. Movies can be so moving, but the dark ones can be hard to digest.
shareThe Pledge
In The Bedroom
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
Ice Storm
Blue Velvet
Bastard Out of Carolina
Once Were Warriors
Breaking the Waves
Freeway
The War of the Roses
Little Boy Blue
Barfly
Blue Velvet
Others already mentioned and even more I've forgotten.
Okay there's been a whole hsitload of movies mentioned here, so I'll attempt to list 5 that haven't been mentioned yet.
1. Dog Day Afternoon
2. Straw Dogs
3. SLC Punk
4. The Fan(you gotta give me points for this one!)
5. Pierrot Le Fou(surprised no one mentioned Godard)
We're your friends, we're not like the others man, really
The Ice Storm isn't really a cynical film at all. The film makes great observations about its characters and about the time, and it seems very real, but not cynical. The only cynical character in the whole film is Sigourney Weaver's. Well, and the reverend. Every other character is positive, even if they are flawed. Ben (Maguire), who is the narrator and whose return home to a family that seems like it might have turned a corner (sadly due in part to Mikey's death, which has nothing to do with cynicism) is the final scene in the film, is the epitomy of upbeat and positive, a breath of fresh air. Charlie (Ricci) is wise beyond her years and is a kind, caring soul. Kevin Kline and Joan Allen's characters are good people going through a tough time in their marriage, sort of conflicted by the times, but we see how it hurts them and feel for their struggles. Mikey (Wood) and his brother might seem a little weird, but they are good kids, very individualistic, very non-conformist. I'm surprised at how many find this film to be cynical. Also, another film that got mentioned a lot was Wonder Boys, and that isn't a cynical film either. Just because a movie deals with people who are at a tough point in their life, maybe even depressed, does not make it cynical. Think about how things turn out for all the characters in that film. Of course, the criteria from the original poster wasn't just cynical, it was also dark and left feeling violated I believe, which is a bit more subjective.
Some cynical films, all of which I've seen mentioned above...
1. Happiness
2. Eyes Wide Shut
3. American Psycho
4. American Beauty
5. Fight Club
While Eyes Wide Shut is an interesting movie, I wouldn't call it cynical. Tom Cruise's character seems to be somewhat naive and curious. He is truly surprised by the dapravity he discovers. Likewise, Nicole is stunned by her husbands behavior. If either character had a bit of cynicism they would accept what has happened as typical human shortcomings. Nicole goes so far as to give the film a positive ending by declaring they need to go home and begin a new start at repairing their marriage.
shareGood points about Eyes Wide Shut there. I still think of it as being pretty cynical though because, even though in a sense the main characters aren't completely cynical, the film totally delves into this unseen world with a corrupt moral value system to such a degree that that culture, not Cruise or Kidman, becomes the main character in the film. The film is suggesting that while on the surface things might seem "normal," in reality a whole lot of people have these dark, sick desires. That might just be reality. I felt like it was fairly cynical. You are right, Cruise is somewhat surprised by what he sees. At the same time, he is very curious.
shareBreaking the Waves
Why We Fight
The Idiots
Dogville
Dancer in the Dark
Deerhunter
Way to go Lars. you consistently make us feel like sh!t.
Why we Fight made me depressed for days.
I agree, el repetto - I avoid Lars von Trier's films now - don't care how good they are, I'd rather see good films that don't make me feel like lying down and dying.
don't know if someone else has already mentioned it, cos I haven't re-read everyone's posts, but
John Sayles' Limbo - there's lots of debate about what happens after the ending that we see, but it sure left me with a bleak feeling
Mal? Guy killed me with a sword, Mal. How weird is that?
Network
Dogville
Five Easy Pieces
Midnight Cowboy
& Ice Storm
[deleted]
American Beauty
Fargo
Match Point
Straw Dogs
Notes on a Scandal
"Imagine Agrestic is a plane. THERE ARE MOTHER*beep*IN' SNAKES ON THIS MOTHER*beep*IN' PLANE!" - Weeds
ABOUT SCHMIDT
films of Michael Haneke (esp. DER SIEBENTE KONTINENT/FUNNY GAMES) - most EXTREME ones
WARUM LÄUFT HERR R. AMOK?
many Danish movies
KIDS
and yes, indeed THE ICE STORM
Pumpkin
But I'm a Cheerleader
Primal Fear
Napoleon Dynamite
Salo or the 120 Days Of Sodom
*(minor) SPOILER ALERT*
Uh, I don't know if anyone looks at this anymore, but...
3. Anything by Stanley Kubrick
2. Anything by Lars von Trier
1. Weekend by Jean Luc Godard.
Weekend is pretty old, but it's the bleakest thing I've ever seen. It ends with civilization ruined and the main characters literally eating each other... and I think it's supposed to be a happy ending. (Is that how you spell Godard?) I think you could also say any film noir, and any Eric Von Stroheim, but I didn't want to get too archaic.
I have looked through all the replies on this thread and while I definitely agree with Straw Dogs, I am totally perplexed how two scathing dark movies made about Hollywood got entirely unnotice on this thread. Both of these films were made the same year and are some of the best American movies ever made, and they both deal with Hollywood.
Sunset Blvd.
All About Eve
Chinatown, definitely a very hard-hitting depressing film at the very end. It's an unbearable tragedy at the end and it's hard to feel any good feelings once the credits come up.
shareLike some others, I've attempted to name five movies no one has mentionned so far, though after going through 12 pages, there might be one or two that slipped my guard.
Bitter Moon (IMO the ultimate movie mind-rape, and one of Roman Polanski's most overlooked flicks)
Heavenly Creatures
American History X
Pixote
The Barbarian Invasions