5 Movies to Make You Say "What the F*ck"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the final girl on 6th Avenue podcast. My name is Carolyn Smith hillmer and I'm 6th Avenue's very own final Girl. And today will be a bite sized, you know, episode. But I do often get told that I watch a lot of weird shit. And so in the spirit of that, I thought I would really give you five movies that will truly and genuinely make you say, what the fuck? I intentionally seek out films like this. So, you know, for those of you. [00:01:03] Speaker B: Out there who are like, well, I. [00:01:05] Speaker A: Don'T even know how to find something like this. That's okay, let me do it for you. In fact, I've already done five of them for you here today, so look no further. So if you think the other stuff we talk about on this show is weird, I hate to tell you what you're in for now. So let's get started with five of my, you know, I would say my favorite. My top five recommendations that I would give. If you're in the mood for a film to make, you say, what the fuck? Or to make someone else in your life say, what the fuck? You know, I do often watch films. [00:01:43] Speaker B: With my husband and with my friends. And, you know, this is one of. [00:01:49] Speaker A: My favorite reactions to get from people. And it's also my favorite reaction to have. And I definitely have more than five, you know, in the, in the clip. But, like, today we're just gonna do five. So let's start off strong. Let's start off strong with my first one. [00:02:08] Speaker B: And these are in no particular order. [00:02:12] Speaker A: My first recommendation would be the three hour epic film from David Lynch, Inland Empire. This came out in 2006. It was rated R. An actress begins to adopt the Persona of her character in a film and her world becomes nightmarish and surreal. Written and directed by David Lynch. [00:02:38] Speaker B: Um, it's, you know, he loves Laura Dern. So of course, Laura Dern is the star of our film today. And, you know, this is. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Oh, and Justin Theroux, obviously. But in terms of, you know, people. [00:02:54] Speaker B: Who are in who are repeatedly or like, considered to be a favorite of David Lynch, I have to tell you. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Justin Theroux doesn't really do it for me. He really doesn't. I'm more of a Kyle MacLachlan gal myself. Yeah, Justin Theroux doesn't really do it for me, but it's okay because his portion of the film is really not that, you know, it's not that prevalent. Like, Laura Dern really steals a lot of the spotlight from him. [00:03:28] Speaker B: And so like, if you don't want to focus on him, don't worry, because you don't really have to. And to kind of give you what this film is about. You know, the tagline for this film is a woman in trouble. And you're probably gonna turn on this film and be like, I don't understand. [00:03:50] Speaker A: How she's in trouble. Laura Dern basically plays a movie star named Nikki, who. Who has landed a role in a new film as a lead female. [00:04:05] Speaker B: And throughout the duration of the filming, she loses sort of herself and kind of blurs the line with her character that she's playing. But also, like, there's none of it really is told in a way that is intended to, like, make sense, right? It's told in a way that's meant to make you think and to follow. And so if Mulholland Drive was, you know, a little over the top for you, then I would maybe avoid this one, because I can guarantee you, you've never seen anything like this before. There's also, like, a backstory, you know, as Laura Dern's character is evolving throughout the film. And, like, being part of these increasingly loosely connected vignettes that are also, I would say, like, get more disturbing as the film goes on. There's a backstory to it where there are these Polish people. They're people. I mean, there's multiple of them, and they are sort of, like, involved in her life loosely. And then my theory is that they're also involved in the making of the film. [00:05:31] Speaker A: And so, like. [00:05:33] Speaker B: I don't want to give. I don't want to give away too much, right? Like, this is something that I. I truly think that it. Especially because it's, like, not really told in a linear way. I really don't want to give away too much so that, you know, are maybe deterred from seeing it and experiencing it yourself. Because it's an experience, okay? [00:05:56] Speaker A: It's. [00:05:56] Speaker B: It's 100% an experience. I bought it from the Criterion Collection. I pre ordered it, and it came out finally. I was on the waiting list, I think, for, like, three months, and I got it. I watched it the day that it came in. It was wild. And then I, like a month or two after that, was looking at the ifc, because I live in New York, so the IFC theater is really not far from me. And so I went to go see it again, this time in a theater, and I would say it was crazier to watch it in a theater than it was to watch it at home, for sure. But Nonetheless, I've seen this film multiple times, and every time I watch it, I'm more and more, like, distressed than the first time that I watched it. And, you know. [00:06:47] Speaker A: That'S really all I'm gonna say. [00:06:49] Speaker B: There's parallel worlds, there's dissociation, there's self transcendent experiences. [00:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:01] Speaker B: There's a lost girl and she's in trouble. And that's really all I can say. Fun fact, though, that David lynch offered the explanation to marketing executives that the film was about a woman in trouble. And so they actually didn't know how to promote it. And so there is. You may find, famously, there are photos of David lynch on the side of a highway, like, literally sitting in his director's chair with cigarettes and a cup of coffee, promoting the film because, like, he did, it was impossible to promote. And who better to promote it than yourself, right? So, please, if you're ever in the mood for a long film that makes no sense on the first time you're gonna watch it, please check out Inland Empire. You can find it on the Criterion Collection for sure. You can stream it from Criterion directly and I don't know if it's available elsewhere, but please feel free to look it up. [00:08:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Moving on to my second recommendation, which is called Sallow or 120 days of Sodom. [00:08:15] Speaker A: I. This is one of those where it's like, I started the episode off by saying that these are recommendations, but then, like, once I get to this film, then I sit back and ask myself, like, is this something that I would actually ever recommend to anyone? Probably not. Is it a masterpiece? Yes. [00:08:43] Speaker B: Will you think I am absolutely unhinged for not only having seen it, but also owning a copy of it? [00:08:51] Speaker A: Yes. [00:08:55] Speaker B: In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of torture. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah. 1975 film. [00:09:09] Speaker B: One hour, 57 minutes. So two hours of just absolute horror, if you ask me. And this was written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. I own this as well, from the Criterion Collection. This is just. The pace is slow. It's very controversial, the film. It's actually based on the work, like the written works of the Marquis de Sade, who, if you are not. Are not familiar with the Marquis himself, was a, you know, a hedonist and was basically someone who thought that denying yourself pleasure in whatever capacity you could find it, and I do mean whatever capacity you can find pleasure was like a crime. You know, to him, it was like, why would you ever deny yourself Anything like this. And it's one of those films that's like showing you something horrific, but underneath it, if you can kind of get past what you're being shown and you can, you know, see the. See and read and feel the, you know, absolute disdain that the director has for, you know, fascism and abuses of power and corruption, I will not sugarcoat this for you. [00:10:48] Speaker A: I will come right out and tell you point blank period, that yes, there. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Is a good amount, actually. No, the whole entire film essentially is showing depictions of the torture of these, these children. And it is often more often than not, it is sexual in nature. And there's even, you know, other people that are kind of in on it. Like they have this woman who comes in and tells, you know, she's basically like a madame at this point of a brothel, but, you know, where none of the people in the brothel are consenting to being there. They're children. And she comes in and tells these like. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Elaborate stories about, like, things that she used to do back in her day that would be maybe considered sexually depraved in some way. [00:11:40] Speaker B: And there is a portion of the film that is all about like, like actual. And they. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Try to depict to the. [00:11:54] Speaker B: Audience and they do show it, but they. And they do a good job of selling it, obviously, especially for the practical effects of the. The seventies scenes of these children eating. Do not be alarmed because in real life it was chocolate and they were actually thrilled to be eating the chocolate. But in the film it is supposed to be actual. So again, is this something that I can recommend necessarily? I don't know. Is it something that I think is worth seeing? [00:12:34] Speaker A: Yes. [00:12:37] Speaker B: So. And in case you were curious, Salo is a town in northern Italy. And Bonito Mussolini government effectively made it like their capital, you know, for the two years that they were in power from 1943 to 1945. [00:12:56] Speaker A: So yeah, that is. That should set the scene essentially for. [00:13:02] Speaker B: You know, what you're in for. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Again, this is one of those where you have to be in the right mood. Okay. This is not something that you can just like turn on and be like, oh, yeah, like, this is an easy watch. No. [00:13:18] Speaker B: Okay, moving on to the third, we're going to talk about the Holy Mountain. 1973 release 1 hour 54 minutes. In a corrupt, greed fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the holy mountain where they hope to achieve enlightenment. This is written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. On a first watch, this is something that's not going to make any sense. If you sit back and think about it, it definitely starts to make more sense. Okay. So there's essentially this, like, Christ like, person, and he looks like, you know, depictions of what we believe or think that Christ perhaps looked like. [00:14:07] Speaker A: And he's exposed to and has to navigate. [00:14:14] Speaker B: These really bizarre scenarios. And these scenarios include a lot of, like, religious and sacrilegious elements. There is a strong, you know, connection here with alchemy. And, you know, alchemists were obsessed with turning, like, materials or elements into gold, right? And that plays a pretty decent part in the film itself. [00:14:47] Speaker A: This man is, you know, wandering through life and stumbles upon this alchemist. The alchemist takes him in and, you know, exposes this dude and eight other people to the holy mountain. Like, the holy mountain. And. [00:15:12] Speaker B: They are, you know, told that they have to take the gods that are already there and displace them, and they will become immortal after that. And what's really interesting is that, you know, alchemists were really only in terms of the planetary system, were really only focused on the planets that they could see, right? So Uranus and Neptune and Pluto were not things that they could see with the naked eye. So that wasn't necessarily, you know, something that made a whole lot of sense to me. But regardless, they are. [00:15:55] Speaker A: They're featured in the film nonetheless. There are eight other people other than this Christ, like man. And they are all representations of planets in our solar system. [00:16:06] Speaker B: And they are incredibly wealthy and powerful. And they represent essentially, like, the sins or the. The negative elements of the Greek mythology, right? The. The gods of the Greek mythology that the planets are associated with. So there's a whole lot of stuff here. But what I will tell you about this film is that this is. If you are a film buff, it is unacceptable to not have seen this film. And you're gonna watch it, and the whole time you're probably gonna be like, I have no fucking idea what I am being shown right now. [00:16:50] Speaker A: And if you're me, that makes it all the more amazing. The scenes are, like, up until the alchemist is involved, like, there's not a whole lot of dialogue. And really, throughout the film itself, there's not a lot of dialogue which kind of makes you sit back and take it in on a more like. I mean, it's a. It's an experience rather than a film, is what I can say. So give the Holy Mountain a try. [00:17:20] Speaker B: If you're looking for something that's visually very gorgeous, very beautiful, but also. What the fuck? [00:17:34] Speaker A: Moving on to number four. We're going to talk about Mirror. Mirror is a 1975 release. One hour and 47 minute runtime. [00:17:45] Speaker B: Written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. A dying man in his 40s remembers his past, his childhood, his mother, the war. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Fun fact, if you don't know anything about Andre Tarkovsky, he is actually. His films were made under the Soviet Union and so they were not actually released for like further viewership for quite some time. [00:18:15] Speaker A: You can check this out on Amazon that I did find it there. And you know, when you hear the description, you're like, oh, okay. Like this is a dude talking about his life. Like what I mean, okay. The way that the is shown in this movie is you would not think that he's talking about his life. It's very non linear. [00:18:40] Speaker B: There's bizarre imagery. There are things and elements that don't make a lot of sense, but like our profound moments in his life or profound moments for his mother's life. And you know, overall it's beautiful and it will sit back and make you think, but in terms of like, what you're visually being shown, it's unlike anything. [00:19:12] Speaker A: Else you'll ever see, truly. There's also like, you know, things and writings that were from his father that he incorporates. Like this is a story about his life and like, you know, he's. [00:19:30] Speaker B: He's mourning essentially his life before his death. [00:19:35] Speaker A: And. [00:19:38] Speaker B: You know, there are things like throughout the narration that his father wrote that he, you know, reads for the, the viewer of the film. And they are, I would say, relatively pretty, collect pretty. [00:19:53] Speaker A: Like. [00:19:56] Speaker B: They'Re relevant. Like they're relevant to what you're being shown. But it's very loose. So again, it's a beautiful film. The pacing is slow, so I will tell you that. So if that's not something that you're particularly interested in, I understand. But it is a rewarding watch and you will feel like you know more about the director than maybe you did before. And maybe you didn't know anything about him before. But his films are very influential in the film world and they're, they're beautiful. [00:20:29] Speaker A: And last but not least, I will be telling you about Dancer in the Dark. Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 film, 2 hours and 15 minute runtime, and starring none other than Bjork herself. Bjork, if you don't know, is sort of an experimental music artist and singer. Her voice is incredible, from Iceland and she's, you know, she's beautiful and her voice is amazing. And you'll get a lot of it in this film, which is actually really nice. She does a lot of singing. So this is written and directed by Lars von Trier, of course. Course. Because how else can I make a list like this without talking about him? An Eastern European immigrant to the US With a love for musicals has to cope with the gradual loss of her vision. Yeah, that. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Really? Sure. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Yes. That paints part of the picture. That's true. So Bjorkstars is this woman who is playing a Czechoslovakian immigrant, and she lives with her son, you know, in, like, a trailer behind their landlord's house. And she works in a factory. And she, you know, makes very little money, but she does everything that she can to make ends meet or to try to make ends meet for her son and for herself. And what she knows, but that her son does not know is that, you know, she has this, you know, disease or this illness in which she loses her sight. And her son also has the same disease, but he doesn't know it yet. And so in order to prevent him from losing his vision, she stocks up and saves extra money on the side from doing, like, extra jobs at home or whatever she can do, working overtime to save up this extra money so that her son can have this surgery for his eyes so that way he doesn't lose his vision like she's losing hers. I don't want to give away the ending. I. That would be, like, the worst thing I could possibly do to someone would be to give away the ending of this film. This is a little different than some of Lars. Lars's other films because there's a lot of music, and it's like, basically a musical. Like, she does a lot of singing. There's musical numbers. There's dancing, There's. It's a musical, but it's not a musical that you've probably ever seen before. It did win the Palm at Cannes in the year 2000. So, I mean, that's pretty high regard. Yeah. This is one of those. What the fuck? Movies that will make you sob. Like, genuinely. I was broken for days after watching this, and I. I do still. I am still concerned that I may not be able to watch it again for quite some time, even though it's amazing. So watch this amazing film about this woman who can sing and dance and be beautiful and also save her son from an illness in which he will go blind. So, yeah, those are my five recommendations to you all. And, you know, if you choose to partake in the watching of any of these. I would love to hear from you about it. If you're angry with me for any of these recommendations, please do not contact me in any form or fashion and and enjoy your, you know, Saturday nights for the next couple weeks of these recommendations to make you say what the fuck? Before I let you go, I want to remind you all about the Morbidly Beautiful Network. If you love horror in any way, shape or form, you are welcome with us at Morbidly Beautiful. You can find my podcast and many others like it@morbidly beautiful.com so head over to morbidly beautiful.com to check it out and show all of us some love. You can find this podcast on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music Pocket Cast. If you enjoyed the show, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five star review and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Sorry this is a bite sized episode, but you know, sometimes those are just as fun or more fun. So no need to thank me. You're welcome. And hopefully I don't ruin any of your upcoming Saturday nights where you sit down and watch movies. But if I do, I would actually take great pleasure in that. But again, if you're angry, don't call me. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I will be back to talk to you very, very soon about another up film. And I can't wait. Never forget that I'm 6th Avenue's very own final Girl.