Been a long time since I've seen this movie, but I always thought the point of the neonazi was specifically to point out how alike the two were. At the end of the scene where he kills him, the scene is shot in a reflection in a mirror. He kills the nazi, nazi drops out frame in the reflection, leaving just the MC, who then shoots and shatters the mirror itself.

https://youtu.be/Y6JqwQfli7Y

Wasn't he also watching the neonazi through reflections in a store's security mirrors earlier? It's really been a long time.

I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the "White Man's Burden" and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown in.

I shouldn't be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.

Curiously, when I saw it, I picked up that the guy was crazy and violent, and saw it as a horror film following the monster.

Years later, I'd learn that it was popularly seen as a white-guy underdog movie set (and produced) during the Rodney King crisis and the police war on gangs.

I've heard of it but never seen it

Jeez that sounds like a tough watch

Great movie. Mads Mikkelsen is fantastic as always. Horrible to watch someone go through that. I didn't know it was based on a true story.

Requiem for a Dream is a good one. And the music is great.

Great answers

Gummo is in my top 10, I love it.

Just commented Kids and Requiem lol

Nightcrawler was first one that came to my mind. Chilling.

Oh I really liked nightcrawler. I'm a sucker for Jake G

Also came here to say Nightcrawler. I was 15 when I saw it, and of course at the time I thought nothing could freak me out, but I wasn't prepared for Jake Gyllenhaal being that creepy

Good answer

Gosh, we could add so many 80s/90s animations to go along with this. Watership Down. We're Back (the dino one). Fantasia (again, the dino scene)

And it's relatively tame compared to some billionaire's realities.

Yeah I fucking hate that movie. It feels like it made their horrendous behavior into a joke. None of it is funny in the context of reality. So glad to hear someone feels the same way about the movie.

Critical reception was polarised, with praise towards the performances and Noé's direction, but criticism towards its graphic portrayal of violence and rape. American film critic Roger Ebert called Irréversible "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable".

Yeah, I think I understand where you're coming from on this one. Definitely not for the feint of heart.

Came here to say this one. I saw it at a film festival in a theatre… ooof that was a lot. My buddy and I got high and watched Super Troopers afterwards as brain bleach. Didn’t work, still rattled.

Gaspar Noe in general. Sometimes (understatement) he's a bit over the top.

Yeah I never need to see that again

This thread deserves Dancer in the Dark. Another film that I love but cannot recommend.

Set up your depression-treatment space beforehand. You're going to be there a while. Beauty and tragedy so tightly bound that it feels monumental.

Modern one is not much better. Same story.

Lmao fantastic answers

Have you seen Threads?

That's a tough one to get though. Check out "When the Wind Blows" for an animated take on the same topic. It's equally as bleak for different reasons.

That final scene of her face after giving birth.

I've never seen them, what's the rub?

Great answers

these are perfect answers, i love blue velvet. for the sake of contributing i'd say The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

This is the thread that deserves Todd Solondz's films.

Start with Happiness (1998).

I read Watership Down as a 10 year old. I loved to read but couldn't go out much, so id often pick up the fattest books at the library so they would last me a while. Book messed me up. I didn't know there was an animated movie. Seems like a bad choice.

Watership Down, scarring at least one generation of children because parents of the time saw it was animated and didn't think further!

Related, my mother let me read Maus as a preteen with no one to talk to about after it!

Plague dogs is the most depressing work of art I've ever read. Go ask Alice is second and it's about a girls journey of being destroyed by drugs from innocence.

Thats a tough watch too

The Cell is very pretty, but it's plot is so wafer thin that it borders on ridiculous.

Great answers

Second for Requiem. Such a good movie but it does not leave you the same as before you watched it.

happiness is unreal. fantastic film.

for bleak films von trier depression trilogy is worth a go. i love Antichrist but found Melancholia and Nymphomania kind of boring

I'll look into it