Hello, WORLD!!! Smokkee here. Yesterday, I reviewed the controversial STRAW DOGS and I called it a "one of the greatest examples of a GENRE BENDER" movie. Sometimes I call movies like a GENRE BUSTER. What kinda movie is it? Just like the name says, it's a movie that can't be confined to any one genre or a movie that transcends more than one genre. STRAW DOGS is such a movie; it could be considered a horror movie, a thriller, a romantic dramedy (I know I laughed a lot even if the laughs were inappropriate). Anyway I got to thinking about it after I posted "Is it the greatest?" Now that I thought about it, while it is still a great example, it isn't in my top 5 of all time. I can think of at least 5 that's better. They are in no particular order:
MALICE(1993): Off hand, I would that this early vehicle for a young Nicole Kidman is THE best example of a genre bender. To try and describe this movie is hassle in itself. What starts out as a murder mystery quickly becomes something else much more darker. How can you get darker than murder? I have no idea but this does it. The fact that the mystery is solved and the murderer is arrested half way through the movie does nothing but push this movie into a completely different territory and it's here that this movie really transcends any type of description. A true must see, this movie is one of the few movies that sent a chill up my spine that has done so without the element of horror involved, the ending of this movie STILL sends a chill up my spine and I have no idea exactly why. Sidenote: I would have also mentioned Kidman's first starring vehicle DEAD CALM but that movie is easily a physiological thriller with just bare traces of any other type of movie. Still both are must sees.
FROM DUST TIL DAWN(1996): OK, NOW it's easily defined as a horror movie. THEN however, it was taboo to even mention anything after the first half of the movie. This movie starts off as a buddy-criminals on the run-comedy-drama-hommage to the popcorn munchers of the 70's- type movie before it steers into what is clearly a horror movie. Watching the first half only, there is no way you would be able to tell me what the movie was about or how it would end. An interesting note is that the the beginning part which is so hard to categorize is directed by Quentin Tarantino who made another hard to categorize movie in PULP FICTION while the horror part was directed by his frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE(2001): How could I put together a list like this and NOT use a David Lynch film? Not. Quite. Possible. My personal favorite Lynch movie is as hard to describe as anything else on this list, but I could have easily used BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD, or his 2006 IDKWTF is going on INLAND EMPIRE instead of this beautiful but deadly movie. It stars a pre-KING KONG/THE RING Naomi Watts as an aspiring starlet who offers to help a beautiful young amnesiac played by Laura Elena Harring. Well, that's the premise of this movie...or is it? This movie has so many interpretations and Mr. Lynch most certainly clarified any one thought about what this movie is actually about so who knows. The only thing I do know is this is the only movie that came with a set of 10 clues from David Lynch himself to figure out WTF is going on; trust me you'll need em!
MOMENTO(2000): OK. So technically you can call this a psychological thriller but really, once you've watched this mind fuck of a movie and you've figured out what's really going on, can this still be considered a thriller? I doubt it. I consider it a case study on the effects of trauma on man, a revenge movie,& a mystery of the highest order. The only movie in recent years that comes close to the paranoia that this film projects is SHUTTER ISLAND and although I loved that movie, it pales in comparison to this Christopher Nolan directed masterpiece. Another must see.
AUDITION (1999) If you have heard anything about this Japanese masterpiece from Takashi Miike besides the fact that the audition of the title happens early in the movie, then somebody has ran their mouths too much. This is one of those films where you're suckered in then surprised from behind. The movies quiet confident way of character establishing undermines what lurks beneath this movie's surface. Everybody who I have suggested this movie to, even those who don't like subtitled movie experiences, have all agreed this is one hell of a movie! Miike also directed some of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen, including ICHI THE KILLER, DEAD OR ALIVE, ONE MISSED CALL (see the Japanese version & avoid the American remake at all costs!)and an episode of the Showtime original horror series Masters of Horror titled IMPRINT, which was supposed to be scary but was so disturbing Showtime decided not to air it.
Well, that's not ALL the movies that I call GENRE BUSTERS or BENDERS, just some of the better ones. Maybe I'll add another 5 movies to it, or maybe not, who knows. All I know is this is it for now, WORLD, but isn't this enough?
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