Recently, I discovered my SO doesn’t have a damned clue about any of the best movies from the early 2000’s. Thankfully the internet has my back and grants access to basically all of them, I just have to suss them out. Now, I’m not necessarily talking about the best movies of all time, just the best of a very specific genre: the dark-alley mind fucks.
Apparently I spent my youth watching movies while he spent his, I dunno, getting straight teeth and being taught morals by his folks over family dinner? I can’t be certain. But my wealth of knowledge has led to some dark and menacing date nights lately, and I’m not mad about it.
Donnie Darko
This was a fun one. It’s available to stream on Netflix, and their description is probably the most succinct I’ve ever read: Incessant sleepwalking, family drama and visions of a menacing 6-foot-tall, doomsday-prophesying rabbit plage a troubled teenager. Well, that’s pretty much spot-on.
Without giving too much away, the movie explores the idea of a higher construct in the world. The cast is amazing, the music is on point, and the end is a manifestation of all the culminating storylines in a way you might not expect.
Requiem for a Dream
This one was one Amazon Instant Video (free to stream for Prime members, perhaps $2.99 to rent otherwise). Amazon did this neat thing when we had the movie paused where it had movie trivia overlying the left half of the screen and I learned most movies of the same length have between 500 and 600 cuts between scenes, but the director for this movie used over 2,000 to emphasize the feeling of addiction and loss of control. This movie takes a good, hard, nasty look at addiction. Not just drugs, but food and money as well.
The Kronos Quartet serves up a musical accompaniment that only intensifies the feelings of anxiety and stress you feel for the characters. You can listen to the main theme here, and I’ll just let you go be by yourself with your goosebumps now.
zeal for everything 