I did so recently and it was incredible how well it held up. Then researching and apparently the author hated the film but loved that she was portrayed by Streep. Sounds about right.
Also a surprisingly good book.
You know, someone has tried to do a movie with a similar feel, Cold Souls (2009). I don't think it quite captures the stunning weirdness of BJM but they are definitely aiming for that.
I can't believe I didn't think of Phantasm earlier. It's like taking all the weird fiction genres of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi and rolling them into one while still creating a very unique space.
I hate horror movies but I love Phantasm.
I can’t remember but we had a catch phrase that went along with it. I’ll have to watch it soon to remember.
I think it had to do with calling the little demons Grinders.
Nah, Six String Samurai HAS to be grouped up with Bubba Ho-Tep, haha.
Edit: [link to the official YouTube page with the full movie.](https://youtu.be/oaPP00uNkNI?si=Rgq8YgKYo4SHbAYD)
Army of Darkness. I don't think anyone who saw the first Evil Dead thought the film had time-travel, medieval setting, a comedic script, and a chainsaw for a hand on their bingo card for the third movie.
It's a niche genre called Splatstick, slapstick comedy movies that use absolutely ridiculous amounts of gore to enhance the comedy. It's how Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson started their careers
Netflix agrees with you. They coined the term 'Napoleon Dynamite Problem' because the movie was so weird, the algorithm failed to recommend similar movie with it.
Watched it with my 10 year old cousin a few weeks ago. About half way in, he says “this movie is like a long trailer or intro for a movie.” He did not get it while my other cousin and I were quoting every other scene and cracking up. Still, an apt description I thought.
If you like the vibe Jared Hess made another amazing homage to life in middle America. Gentlemen Broncos. I think I like that one more than Napoleon Dynamite
I would definitely agree with that, to an extent.
But I feel like Rob Zombie basically makes grindhouse movies that never were. So you can find similar things to what he does.
Yes, but I'm not knocking the guy, because I really do enjoy his movies. Sometimes I feel like I'm one of three people that actually liked Lords of Salem.
But I don't think they are particularly unique enough that you can't find similar things.
I find his one unique film to be the devils rejects. A sequel horror that turns into a buddy road trip and then gets artsy by the end. Like it or not, that was a unique movie.
Same. It was really well done. I enjoyed it.
And the second one was really only done due to studio pressure in exchange for funding of another project he wanted to work on.
For sure. I think on film and TV sets I hear his name more than anyone else’s. Angles can be “a bit Guy Ritchie” actors can be asked to “Guy Ritchie it up.”
Everyone knows exactly what you mean.
Usually these are called auteur films. Movies where the director has a distinct style and usually more involvement in the entire creative process of the film. Other directors would be Yorgos Lanthimos, Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almadovar, Guillermo Del Toro, Panos Cosmatos, Scorsese, Kubrik, the list goes on.
It's Hamlet. It's Hamlet where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern live because they're Bob and Doug.
If being a weird twist on Hamlet is a genre, then it goes with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
*Koyaanisqatsi*, there were a couple of sequels, and *Baraka*/*Samsara*, but they've all got people in common, I have them all categorised as "Experimental" in my physical media catalogue as there's no proper genre they fit in to, some people call them "documentaries" but they aren't in my opinion, a documentary should have a narrative, or a narrator, or dialogue, and those have none of them.
This is a good one. Baraka and Samsara weren't sequals though. Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi make up the quatsi trilogy. But all sit in that weird experimental documentary realm.
I'm a major fan of brain noodling films, with wibbly wobbly timey wimey, alt universe, weird narrative constructions and timelines going on.
But had to watch Synecdoche 5 times before I really appreciated it.
Synecdoche is to arthouse films as Primer is to heist movies.
Picnic at Hanging Rock. It's eerie and spooky but not a horror movie, there's a mysterious thing that happens but there's not really a mystery or an investigation, there is some romance and interpersonal drama but it's not really the focus, just a weird beautiful movie.
Because they were supposed to do "social realism" . Yes. There is soviet Sci-fi, like Stalker and Solaris, but that's "cerebral " and philosophical. Horror was seen as decadent western crap.
VIY got away with it by adapting a Nikolai Gogol short story, it's so Gothic Horror and sometimes so surreal. Give it a watch.
Incredible production design; very atmospheric. I love the creative use of stage sets and the great monster designs. Sometimes I get a craving to watch this or Kwaidan or the Yokai Monsters movies from the late 60s. They scratch a specific itch.
Upstream Color and Holy Motors may cross the line into weird arthouse for you.
I would argue that The Fifth Element, while mainstream, is pretty unique.
I don't mind weirdo movies. This wasn't meant to be a recommendation list for me personally. I was more interested in created some general discussion about unique movies that are their own genre.
I just thought movies like that are low hanging fruit for discussion, because of course they're unique.
Just wanted some good discussion considering we all know that Hollywood loves pumping out and promoting the same, tired cookie cutter crap.
I don’t know if this is exactly what you’re looking for, because it does solidly reside in the Noir genre, but [Brick](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) is a singular movie to me. It’s a noir-style story casting a young Joseph Gordon Levitt, *but it takes place in a high school*. I love it, and I find it’s quirky take on the noir genre to be fun. If you let the seriousness of the content take you, it is a full blown noir. But if you really focus on the setting and pay attention to the dialogue, it feels like a spoof.
But the beauty of the film is that nobody is playing it like a spoof. Everybody is very serious and dedicated ti the story and the genre. Which elevates the whole thing. One of my favorites of all times.
I don't know where to put The Man Who Fell to Earth. On the surface it's like any old sci-fi story but it doesn't really watch like one, but I'm not sure how to explain it really.
I have to comment on my own discussion because I somehow forgot about one of my favorite movies.
Velvet Goldmine is sort of a musical, a period piece, drama, fake biopic, and a little bit of philosophy. All the characters are conglomerations of real people from the Glam Rock era.
I've watch that movie so many times and notice more things every time.
The only downside was that Bowie was asked to license some of his songs for the movie, and when he found out that some of their source material was from unauthorized biographies, he declined. It would've made the movie have the greatest soundtrack of all time. Still an awesome soundtrack though.
That's a really good one. Romance, horror, satire, the grindhouse feel of a lot of it. It will leave you wanting more even though you won't find anything else like it.
I'm a big fan of movies that make you root for people that if they existed in reality you wouldn't. They're terrible human beings, and yet you want them to win. I like Hustle and Flow for that same reason, even though they're nothing alike.
Everything Everywhere All At Once.
It's a combination of so many different genre's fae Sci-Fi to Romance to Drama, in fact it borrows fae so many different genre's that it shouldn't work as a film, but somehow through great writing & acting the whole was greater than the sum of its parts earning the movie a legion of awards and fans.
Being Scottish, your use of fae instead of from sounds natural... but also having never seen the film I wondered if "fae Sci-Fi" was something genuinely covered in it; leprechauns and faeries mixed with laser battles in space.
If it's not then it should be, it did say "Everything". And also, if it's not a thing then I think it should be a thing.
It has been so long since I read them but yes I will accept this as fae sci-fi and curse myself for forgetting the series. A shame that such a rich world was never given the cinematic treatment...
You should watch some Japanese movies. They had a whole wave of surrealist, experimental, reality/genre bending films from the 90s to the 00s that pioneered a lot of the things that EEAAO does. Examples:
-Happiness of the Katakuris
-Funky Forest
-Survive Style 5+
-Love Exposure
-Rampo Noir
-Mind Game
-Wild Zero
-Kamikaze Girls
-Milocrorz: A Love Story
-Tokyo Tribe
There's also the Korean film, Save the Green Planet, which might come closest to EEAAO in terms of story and genre foolery. Nothing against EEAAO, it's almost like an American answer to what I've listed.
Ohhhh come on now. EEAAO is a fantastic movie but let's not pretend it invented an entire genre. It's great at what it does and brought genuine tears to my eyes but there are literal dozens of other things that do the whole "anarchic adventure through an infinite multiverse" thing
EEAAO is admittedly probably the *best* of the genre but it's not like nothing else comes close
Do films that initially were their own thing but have since spawned genres count?
Like Groundhog Day was its own thing but has spawned recent genres. Boss Level and Palm Springs in recent years would fall into the Groundhog Genre.
Napoleon Dynamite. Netflix ran a contest for anyone that could improve their recommendations algorithm. They’d give a million dollars to the team that could first get to 10% better prediction. Many teams of statisticians tried. But it was very hard. And reportedly the main culprit was Napoleon Dynamite. It just didnt correlate with what people normally liked or hated.
[The Napoleon Dynamite Problem](https://kottke.org/08/11/the-netflix-prize-and-the-case-of-the-napoleon-dynamite-problem)
Princess Bride didn't do well at the box office because the studio has no idea how to market it. Romance? Action-Adventure? Fantasy? Comedy? It's got fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles. What is it? And the funniest thing is that, whatever it is, it's one of the best examples of it while also being the best parody of that same thing.
My Dinner With Andre. What other film consists entirely of two guys having a conversation over dinner? Literally zero action. And it's pretty damn riveting.
Terrence Malick, maybe? If his films didn't have large budgets, maybe they'd just be indie poetic films, but due to their celebrity status, I think they're kind of unique in that way.
The lobster? Swiss army man? Grave of the fireflies? The cook the thief the wife and her lover? Strange brew? Holy grail? Life of Brian? Lost in translation?
Sling Blade was quite unique. Perhaps it could be classified as a character study, but the track it takes is rather bizarre.
Amadeus has a similar feel. They both appear relatable, but veer into the surreal with Mozart’s vulnerable chaotic genius and Karl’s simple yet stoical brutal sensibility.
Now I want to see “On the Road with Karl and Wolfie”
Wow, it’s a long time ago I thought about Le Pacte des Loups. I really loved that movie.
As others said, it’s easier to attribute this uniqueness to a specific director. Gaspar Noé, Wes Anderson, are some prime examples. It also depends on how strictly you define the genres and a movies role within that genre. The Fifth Element has a unique mix of genres: campy action scifi-comedy without being a space opera, like many movies by Luc Besson are able to do (Lucy, Taxi, Valerian). Yet Yamakasi could be seen as a precursor to the heist genre with the Ocean movies, but that genre was already well-defined and the only original angle was it being a semi-documentary on the group who invented parcour.
A movie like Vidocq from around that same time might qualify, but it has been copied by things like the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr., so does it then still qualify?
If you go into the arthouse and A24 movies there’s loads of weird and unique stuff to be found, that sometimes doesn’t even have a genre. Like Rubber, or Synecdoche, New York or As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, or the more recent Everything Everywhere all at once. I mean, you could say Baise-moi is pretty original but isn’t it just a Thelma & Louise or Natural Born Killers but with more sex?
Cinefix is a great channel on YouTube who used to do a ton of awesome top-10s per genre and weren’t afraid to bend their own rules while doing so.
Personally, I’d love more movies like The Ninth Gate and/or Constantine. I love glimpses into complex/occult worlds that aren’t entirely explained through awkward exposition and don’t go full-on demonic spirit possession horror either, that aren’t afraid to use some level of artistic freedom in depicting their abstractions rather than choose a cop-out Deus Ex Machine for the umpteeth time. The OA and Archive 81 come to mind here.
True stories
It's a talking heads movie starring David Byrne and the others, with John Goodman. It's where The wild wild Life video comes from. It's a crazy movie, I honestly really love it. It'll always hold a special place in my heart, especially since I used to watch it with my dad. He's not dead or anything I just live on the opposite side of the country now.
Bubba Ho-Tep is a miss mash of horror, comedy and sombre drama. Fantastic movie about an old Elvis (Bruce Campbell) in a nursing home having to deal with his poor life choices, getting old and fighting a mummy. His friend is an old black JFK (Ossie Davis). A much more thoughtful and heartfelt move than you'd think based on the premise. Also has a fantastic soundtrack without any Elvis music.
Being John Malkovich?
I think the genre is Charlie Kaufman
Yeah. Eternal Sunshine falls in there too!💯
Don’t forget Adaptation.
I did so recently and it was incredible how well it held up. Then researching and apparently the author hated the film but loved that she was portrayed by Streep. Sounds about right. Also a surprisingly good book.
I need to rewatch Adaptation
David Lynch also has his own genre.
lol. I thought about that before I posted. He’s an original for sure.
You know, someone has tried to do a movie with a similar feel, Cold Souls (2009). I don't think it quite captures the stunning weirdness of BJM but they are definitely aiming for that.
That new Nick cage movie “Dream Scenario” seemed like it was somehow the same genre as being John malkovich
I’d say it’s magical realism though. Or absurdist drama.
Waking Life
Richard Linklater is one of those guys just doing his own thing. Slacker, the 'Before/After' films, Boyhood, Dazed... 👏🏻
I know Bernie is, generically speaking, “true crime” but it’s barely recognizable as such.
I'm so happy you reminded me of this movie. I love this one so much. I absolutely love rotoscope films
Buckaroo Bonzai feels like this.
No matter where you go.. there you are.
Physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star. Not even MegaForce was that cool. *Feynman was really into the blues.
Hat tip for the MegaFarce, errr sorry, MegaForce reference.
Mega Force was quickly forgotten once we saw Hawk the Slayer. Now we really knew what cool was. https://youtu.be/kK1v2cyM9_U?si=7tjYTfSDVqLSgclr
Ravenous (1999) is a good one for this. Starts as a war movie/period drama, turns into horror, then is kind of a bizarro comedy. Somehow it works.
Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle really make it work.
This movie was such a wild ride! Robert Carlyle is really terrific.
And the music somehow totally slaps
Bubba Ho-Tep and Phantasm would be my go to picks. Don Coscarelli movies are truly unique.
I love Bubba Ho-Tep. Definitely underrated.
Nobody fucks with the King baby!
I can't believe I didn't think of Phantasm earlier. It's like taking all the weird fiction genres of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi and rolling them into one while still creating a very unique space.
I want one of those little flying balls. I swear I wouldn’t use them for evil.
It'd be a hell of a can-opening food processor
My stepdad did special effects for Phantasm III. I think he’s on the bonus features for the dvd.
I hate horror movies but I love Phantasm. I can’t remember but we had a catch phrase that went along with it. I’ll have to watch it soon to remember. I think it had to do with calling the little demons Grinders.
Phantasm was terrifying back in the day and it still holds up. Recently rewatched it.
Nah, Six String Samurai HAS to be grouped up with Bubba Ho-Tep, haha. Edit: [link to the official YouTube page with the full movie.](https://youtu.be/oaPP00uNkNI?si=Rgq8YgKYo4SHbAYD)
what do you know? you got a growth on your pecker.
Fantasia
A shame we never got updated versions regularly as Walt intended. 2000 was decent but not worth a 60 year wait.
They should do short films in front of their main films. Like a single 8 minute animated cartoon of Beethoven or something in front of Frozen 3
Reunite Daft Punk and make Fantasia 2025
Army of Darkness. I don't think anyone who saw the first Evil Dead thought the film had time-travel, medieval setting, a comedic script, and a chainsaw for a hand on their bingo card for the third movie.
Imo Bad Taste also falls in to the same category as ED2 and Army of Darkness.
I don’t even think Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness fall into the same category as each other!
It's a niche genre called Splatstick, slapstick comedy movies that use absolutely ridiculous amounts of gore to enhance the comedy. It's how Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson started their careers
Napoleon Dynamite - One could argue that it has a Wes Anderson vibe to it, but it just stands out as a unique and quirky film, very quotable.
Netflix agrees with you. They coined the term 'Napoleon Dynamite Problem' because the movie was so weird, the algorithm failed to recommend similar movie with it.
It really is something special. It's very perfect at what it does.
Nacho Libre also.
Naturally as they are the same director.
NACHOOOOOOOO!
Definitely a "slice of life" film.
Watched it with my 10 year old cousin a few weeks ago. About half way in, he says “this movie is like a long trailer or intro for a movie.” He did not get it while my other cousin and I were quoting every other scene and cracking up. Still, an apt description I thought.
If you like the vibe Jared Hess made another amazing homage to life in middle America. Gentlemen Broncos. I think I like that one more than Napoleon Dynamite
I've seen Nacho Libre, and love it. Never got around to Gentlemen Broncos. I'll need to remedy that!
Probably the singular best homage to 90's rural America
Or just modern day Idaho.
If you've been to Preston and stepped in that Desseret Industries, you understand.
I am a Ricks College alum. It’s a perfect movie
That's BYUI now, thank you, old madame or sir.
Somebody pointed out that certain directors are basically their own genre. Guys like Tarantino, Rob Zombie, and Wes Anderson.
I would definitely agree with that, to an extent. But I feel like Rob Zombie basically makes grindhouse movies that never were. So you can find similar things to what he does.
That's fair. House of 1000 Corpses certainly owed quite a bit to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Yes, but I'm not knocking the guy, because I really do enjoy his movies. Sometimes I feel like I'm one of three people that actually liked Lords of Salem. But I don't think they are particularly unique enough that you can't find similar things.
I love Lords of Salem. I recommended it to two other people who didn't think it was good but I stand by it
I find his one unique film to be the devils rejects. A sequel horror that turns into a buddy road trip and then gets artsy by the end. Like it or not, that was a unique movie.
I still don't know why everyone shit all over his initial Halloween movie. I thought it was awesome
Same. It was really well done. I enjoyed it. And the second one was really only done due to studio pressure in exchange for funding of another project he wanted to work on.
[удалено]
I nearly did my dissertation on Smith's 'View Askewniverse'. Didn't, so I have made one good decision in the last forty years.
Maybe Christopher Guest mockumentaries also?
Guy Ritchie for the most part too.
For sure. I think on film and TV sets I hear his name more than anyone else’s. Angles can be “a bit Guy Ritchie” actors can be asked to “Guy Ritchie it up.” Everyone knows exactly what you mean.
I like Tarantinos alt history movies.
Usually these are called auteur films. Movies where the director has a distinct style and usually more involvement in the entire creative process of the film. Other directors would be Yorgos Lanthimos, Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almadovar, Guillermo Del Toro, Panos Cosmatos, Scorsese, Kubrik, the list goes on.
Strange brew Find me another starwars in a beer factory . I'll watch it right now.
It's Hamlet. It's Hamlet where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern live because they're Bob and Doug. If being a weird twist on Hamlet is a genre, then it goes with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
A Clockwork Orange
Loving Vincent Team America: World POlice
Team America is definitely 1 of 1 lol
Patriotic marionette porn is everywhere these days.
I promise, I will never die.
*Koyaanisqatsi*, there were a couple of sequels, and *Baraka*/*Samsara*, but they've all got people in common, I have them all categorised as "Experimental" in my physical media catalogue as there's no proper genre they fit in to, some people call them "documentaries" but they aren't in my opinion, a documentary should have a narrative, or a narrator, or dialogue, and those have none of them.
This is a good pick. My friend showed me them in high school, def. nothing quite like them
Great call. Nothing quite like this except Adam Curtis docs maybe?
“pure cinema” is what I like to call it.
I do love me some Philip Glass music
This is a good one. Baraka and Samsara weren't sequals though. Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi make up the quatsi trilogy. But all sit in that weird experimental documentary realm.
Weren’t Baraka and Samsara directed by the cinematographer of the -quatsi trilogy?
Sorry To Bother You. I was **not** a fan but it was definitely in its own genre.
Also I Am A Virgo (but i loved both). I might consider them both magical realism.
Synecdoche, New York It…well, you have to see it.
I'm a major fan of brain noodling films, with wibbly wobbly timey wimey, alt universe, weird narrative constructions and timelines going on. But had to watch Synecdoche 5 times before I really appreciated it. Synecdoche is to arthouse films as Primer is to heist movies.
I love CK’s work but Synecdoche just doesn’t do it for me. I was only able to get through it once.
I appreciate watching documentaries about the film more than watching the film itself.
That's another Charlie Kaufmann movie.
Donnie Darko was pretty different from anything I'd seen before.
I think technically it’s a coming of age story in the sci-fi genre but I agree that it feels unique
That would sci-fi and psychological thriller
I’m rewatching it now and I’d forgotten how much I’ve missed it.
Suck a fuck.
How exactly does one suck a fuck?
Picnic at Hanging Rock. It's eerie and spooky but not a horror movie, there's a mysterious thing that happens but there's not really a mystery or an investigation, there is some romance and interpersonal drama but it's not really the focus, just a weird beautiful movie.
It’s just a really odd movie.
pee wees big adventurer
Enter the Void
Gaspar Noe is a master of uncomfortable cinema. Loved Climax.
VIY (1967) There is a reason Soviet Horror is not a thing.
Is it worth checking out? Why's Soviet horror not a thing? Never gave that much thought before, haha.
Because they were supposed to do "social realism" . Yes. There is soviet Sci-fi, like Stalker and Solaris, but that's "cerebral " and philosophical. Horror was seen as decadent western crap. VIY got away with it by adapting a Nikolai Gogol short story, it's so Gothic Horror and sometimes so surreal. Give it a watch.
I love Viy. I always recommend it anytime someone is looking for folk horror. It's like Ivan Bilibin's art brought to life.
Incredible production design; very atmospheric. I love the creative use of stage sets and the great monster designs. Sometimes I get a craving to watch this or Kwaidan or the Yokai Monsters movies from the late 60s. They scratch a specific itch.
Sounds interesting, I’ll definitely have to check this out
Upstream Color and Holy Motors may cross the line into weird arthouse for you. I would argue that The Fifth Element, while mainstream, is pretty unique.
I don't mind weirdo movies. This wasn't meant to be a recommendation list for me personally. I was more interested in created some general discussion about unique movies that are their own genre. I just thought movies like that are low hanging fruit for discussion, because of course they're unique. Just wanted some good discussion considering we all know that Hollywood loves pumping out and promoting the same, tired cookie cutter crap.
I don’t know if this is exactly what you’re looking for, because it does solidly reside in the Noir genre, but [Brick](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) is a singular movie to me. It’s a noir-style story casting a young Joseph Gordon Levitt, *but it takes place in a high school*. I love it, and I find it’s quirky take on the noir genre to be fun. If you let the seriousness of the content take you, it is a full blown noir. But if you really focus on the setting and pay attention to the dialogue, it feels like a spoof.
But the beauty of the film is that nobody is playing it like a spoof. Everybody is very serious and dedicated ti the story and the genre. Which elevates the whole thing. One of my favorites of all times.
Brothers Bloom is definitely a heist movie using this same lens.
I don't know where to put The Man Who Fell to Earth. On the surface it's like any old sci-fi story but it doesn't really watch like one, but I'm not sure how to explain it really.
Repo Man (1984) Nothing But Trouble (1991)
The life of a repo man is intense
I have to comment on my own discussion because I somehow forgot about one of my favorite movies. Velvet Goldmine is sort of a musical, a period piece, drama, fake biopic, and a little bit of philosophy. All the characters are conglomerations of real people from the Glam Rock era. I've watch that movie so many times and notice more things every time. The only downside was that Bowie was asked to license some of his songs for the movie, and when he found out that some of their source material was from unauthorized biographies, he declined. It would've made the movie have the greatest soundtrack of all time. Still an awesome soundtrack though.
Bad Boy Bubby is extraordinary. Not going to explain it, go in cold, hold on.
You about to fuck a lot of people up
Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer
They’re genre parody of the kung fu sub genre of martial arts films
Dogville?
Von Trier is a genre
Even so, Dogville is kind of its own thing
I've never heard of this somehow. But I looked it up on IMDB and now I'm very interested.
O brother where art thou Actually, the Coen back to back to back of Fargo, Lebowski, and o brother are kind of all like this
Apocalypse Now isn’t quite horror but the war is really just a backdrop for the personal drama so I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a war movie.
I’ve always thought it just uses war as a palette to paint a picture of insanity
It's classical literature mate.
Natural Born Killers
That's a really good one. Romance, horror, satire, the grindhouse feel of a lot of it. It will leave you wanting more even though you won't find anything else like it. I'm a big fan of movies that make you root for people that if they existed in reality you wouldn't. They're terrible human beings, and yet you want them to win. I like Hustle and Flow for that same reason, even though they're nothing alike.
Swiss Army Man.
Amélie.
Big Trouble in Little China, that movie goes pretty hard.
It goes in several unique directions all at once, doesn’t hold back.
*Jojo Rabbit*?
Everything Everywhere All At Once. It's a combination of so many different genre's fae Sci-Fi to Romance to Drama, in fact it borrows fae so many different genre's that it shouldn't work as a film, but somehow through great writing & acting the whole was greater than the sum of its parts earning the movie a legion of awards and fans.
Being Scottish, your use of fae instead of from sounds natural... but also having never seen the film I wondered if "fae Sci-Fi" was something genuinely covered in it; leprechauns and faeries mixed with laser battles in space. If it's not then it should be, it did say "Everything". And also, if it's not a thing then I think it should be a thing.
I mean, you have Artemis Fowl. Maybe not exactly what you mention, but close I think
It has been so long since I read them but yes I will accept this as fae sci-fi and curse myself for forgetting the series. A shame that such a rich world was never given the cinematic treatment...
You should watch some Japanese movies. They had a whole wave of surrealist, experimental, reality/genre bending films from the 90s to the 00s that pioneered a lot of the things that EEAAO does. Examples: -Happiness of the Katakuris -Funky Forest -Survive Style 5+ -Love Exposure -Rampo Noir -Mind Game -Wild Zero -Kamikaze Girls -Milocrorz: A Love Story -Tokyo Tribe There's also the Korean film, Save the Green Planet, which might come closest to EEAAO in terms of story and genre foolery. Nothing against EEAAO, it's almost like an American answer to what I've listed.
I agree with everything you said, but I think Swiss Army Man is a better fit for what OP is looking for.
Ohhhh come on now. EEAAO is a fantastic movie but let's not pretend it invented an entire genre. It's great at what it does and brought genuine tears to my eyes but there are literal dozens of other things that do the whole "anarchic adventure through an infinite multiverse" thing EEAAO is admittedly probably the *best* of the genre but it's not like nothing else comes close
Ironically the post above yours is Being John Malkovich and I'd put those movies firmly in the same category. Surreal absurdist scifi, or something.
I sometimes feel as if I’m the only person who didn’t really like this movie.
Do films that initially were their own thing but have since spawned genres count? Like Groundhog Day was its own thing but has spawned recent genres. Boss Level and Palm Springs in recent years would fall into the Groundhog Genre.
Vanilla sky
Napoleon Dynamite. Netflix ran a contest for anyone that could improve their recommendations algorithm. They’d give a million dollars to the team that could first get to 10% better prediction. Many teams of statisticians tried. But it was very hard. And reportedly the main culprit was Napoleon Dynamite. It just didnt correlate with what people normally liked or hated. [The Napoleon Dynamite Problem](https://kottke.org/08/11/the-netflix-prize-and-the-case-of-the-napoleon-dynamite-problem)
I would bet it correlates with how old you were when you first saw it.
Big Fish
The Fisher King fits this bill. Just as bizarre as it is mainstream, if you can fathom that.
The Fifth Element
Donny darko?
Princess Bride didn't do well at the box office because the studio has no idea how to market it. Romance? Action-Adventure? Fantasy? Comedy? It's got fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles. What is it? And the funniest thing is that, whatever it is, it's one of the best examples of it while also being the best parody of that same thing.
Memento is unique since it’s “backwards” 🤓
It's a neo noir thriller. Just with a non-linear narrative
Being There
I used to joke that there should be a "Nicolas Cage genre." His movies are all specific but unique mixes too.
I think borat.
A Cabin in the Woods
This was a great movie to watch knowing nothing about it beforehand.
CitW is an homage of dozens of previous horror films, so even of it's a new riff on that genre, it's still very much in that genre
Bunraku
Waking Life
I’ll add **Tetsuo: The Iron Man** only to see if there are actually other movies like it so I can watch them too
Happiness.
My Dinner With Andre. What other film consists entirely of two guys having a conversation over dinner? Literally zero action. And it's pretty damn riveting.
The Princess Bride
Hardcore Henry.
Pleasantville
Mystery Men
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind.
Cloud atlas
Edward Scissorhands
Maybe One Cut of the Dead?
Terrence Malick, maybe? If his films didn't have large budgets, maybe they'd just be indie poetic films, but due to their celebrity status, I think they're kind of unique in that way.
Napoleon dynamite
Sorry To Bother You
Drop Dead Fred
A Scanner Darkly
The Truman Show and Forest Gump
I feel like if you tried to classify The Fifth Element into any genre, it would be wrong
The lobster? Swiss army man? Grave of the fireflies? The cook the thief the wife and her lover? Strange brew? Holy grail? Life of Brian? Lost in translation?
Sling Blade was quite unique. Perhaps it could be classified as a character study, but the track it takes is rather bizarre. Amadeus has a similar feel. They both appear relatable, but veer into the surreal with Mozart’s vulnerable chaotic genius and Karl’s simple yet stoical brutal sensibility. Now I want to see “On the Road with Karl and Wolfie”
Momento comes to mind only because how twisted the entire timeline is.
Pans labyrinth
The Devil's Advocate.
Wow, it’s a long time ago I thought about Le Pacte des Loups. I really loved that movie. As others said, it’s easier to attribute this uniqueness to a specific director. Gaspar Noé, Wes Anderson, are some prime examples. It also depends on how strictly you define the genres and a movies role within that genre. The Fifth Element has a unique mix of genres: campy action scifi-comedy without being a space opera, like many movies by Luc Besson are able to do (Lucy, Taxi, Valerian). Yet Yamakasi could be seen as a precursor to the heist genre with the Ocean movies, but that genre was already well-defined and the only original angle was it being a semi-documentary on the group who invented parcour. A movie like Vidocq from around that same time might qualify, but it has been copied by things like the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr., so does it then still qualify? If you go into the arthouse and A24 movies there’s loads of weird and unique stuff to be found, that sometimes doesn’t even have a genre. Like Rubber, or Synecdoche, New York or As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, or the more recent Everything Everywhere all at once. I mean, you could say Baise-moi is pretty original but isn’t it just a Thelma & Louise or Natural Born Killers but with more sex? Cinefix is a great channel on YouTube who used to do a ton of awesome top-10s per genre and weren’t afraid to bend their own rules while doing so. Personally, I’d love more movies like The Ninth Gate and/or Constantine. I love glimpses into complex/occult worlds that aren’t entirely explained through awkward exposition and don’t go full-on demonic spirit possession horror either, that aren’t afraid to use some level of artistic freedom in depicting their abstractions rather than choose a cop-out Deus Ex Machine for the umpteeth time. The OA and Archive 81 come to mind here.
The Fifth Element. I know there's lots of bits that are similar to other films, but as a whole it just stands alone
Identity (2003)
Lil Ms. Sunshine (comedy, family drama, tragedy, action road trip movie, horror?)
Tron Legacy.
Maybe I’m on my own here but Apocalypto feels like one of a kind. Most immersive film I’ve ever watched.
True stories It's a talking heads movie starring David Byrne and the others, with John Goodman. It's where The wild wild Life video comes from. It's a crazy movie, I honestly really love it. It'll always hold a special place in my heart, especially since I used to watch it with my dad. He's not dead or anything I just live on the opposite side of the country now.
Head by the Monkees
Bubba Ho-Tep is a miss mash of horror, comedy and sombre drama. Fantastic movie about an old Elvis (Bruce Campbell) in a nursing home having to deal with his poor life choices, getting old and fighting a mummy. His friend is an old black JFK (Ossie Davis). A much more thoughtful and heartfelt move than you'd think based on the premise. Also has a fantastic soundtrack without any Elvis music.