• Rabbits
  • Persona
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Being John Malkovich
  • The Lobster
  • Copenhagen Cowboy
  • The Discarnates
  • Lost Highway
  • Punch-Drunk Love
  • Barking Dogs Never Bite

could be haruki murakami

Collection of films that remind me of my favorite author Haruki Murakami in some way or another—whether in the type…

  • Berberian Sound Studio
  • Daisies
  • Meshes of the Afternoon
  • Long Day's Journey into Night
  • Eraserhead
  • House
  • The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
  • Poor Things
  • The Twentieth Century

fabricated reality (matte painting, miniatures, stagecraft, greenscreen)

Live-action films that blend reality and matte painting/backdrops/greenscreen or feel like they're in an elevated stage-play environment. The kind of…

  • Sorry to Bother You
  • Donnie Darko
  • Greener Grass
  • The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
  • Phantasm

weird fiction

kinda but not exactly horror but kinda but not exactly sci-fi but kinda but not exactly fantasy but kinda but…

  • Kill List
  • Rabbits
  • Charisma
  • House
  • The Creatures
  • Rabbits
  • Greener Grass
  • The Truman Show
  • Stay Tuned
  • Shock Treatment

people trapped inside unsettling television show realities

Whether that's literally part of the plot or just kinda implied or feels like it could be.

NOTE:  Usually I…

  • I'm Thinking of Ending Things
  • Mirror
  • A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
  • A Serious Man
  • Paterson

mundane surrealism

Films that focus on the surreal aspects of mundane life, or stylistically enhance the mundane aspects of life to make them…

  • Relaxer
  • Sada
  • Mandy
  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  • The Twentieth Century

composure & chaos

films that are paradoxically both ruminative and bombastic.

and/or

films that have very composed shots, but contain chaos.

and/or

films…

  • Punch-Drunk Love
  • Charisma
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Tokyo Story
  • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

// TOP FILMMAKERS //

QUALIFICATIONS: ~ I've rated at least one of their films 5-stars (and at least one more of their films at…

  • The Long Goodbye
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Inherent Vice
  • Under the Silver Lake
  • John Wick

self-aware neo-noir

my favorite noir

  • Barton Fink
  • The Night of the Hunter
  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer
  • Koko-di Koko-da
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

otherworldly menace

NOT referring to things that fall more directly into "supernatural" or "horror". This is more on a thematic, symbolic level.…