17 Weird Little Movies that You Might Like

Kristin Devine

Kristin has humbly retired as Ordinary Times' friendly neighborhood political whipping girl to focus on culture and gender issues. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

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16 Responses

  1. Aaron David says:

    Scott Pilgrim… was surprisingly good. And more thoughtful than I felt it would be. I would also give that one a thumbs up.Report

    • Pinky in reply to Aaron David says:

      I remember flipping back and forth between Scott Pilgrim and some other movie. I ended up going with the other one. It’s so stylized that it was either going to strike me as really clever or annoying, and Michael Cera packs a lot of annoying points.Report

      • Aaron David in reply to Pinky says:

        It is heavily stylized, but that kinda works in its favor. It’s fundamentally a post-teen fantasy, with some surprising depth. Plus Jason Schwartzman is the bad guy, and that dude really annoys me.Report

      • atomickristin in reply to Pinky says:

        It takes a good 30 minutes to really get rolling (you’re right, it’s annoying to some extent) but it worked for me. My husband, who has little tolerance for anything stylized and despises video games, also ended up liking it. I’m not sure if it would translate watched piecemeal as it was a little hard keeping track of who everyone was even watching it all at once. 🙂 Thanks for reading.Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Aaron David says:

      It was, definitely. I’ve thought about it several times since I watched it.

      Thanks for reading!Report

  2. bookdragon says:

    Thanks for the recommendations. Of these, I’ve only seen Ex Machina, but it was beautifully filmed and well written.Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    I normally like Oscar Isaac but I did not like his performance in Ex Machina. I thought he was telegraphing way too much.Report

  4. Kolohe says:

    On this list I’ve only seen Scott Pilgrim and Ex Machina. I think Scott Pilgrim may be in fact underrated these days, because the conventional wisdom is now somewhat against ‘tropey’ movies. (Though somewhat like Princess Bride, the tropeyness is a large part of the point).

    I liked Ex Machina, it’s one of the better ‘quiet’ sci fi films of the last few years. Yet, I don’t think it quite lived up to the hype & buzz that was going on when it first came out. Even for a quiet tension movie, it seemed to drag a bit, the middle stretched of bit thin. They might have been better off with a run time of 80-90 minutes or so, instead of decisively over 100.Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Kolohe says:

      I have been let down so often by hype and buzz I was pleasantly surprised by it. But I am a fan of slower paced movies – I can see where you’re coming from on that.

      Thanks for reading!Report

  5. PROFESSOR ESPERANTO says:

    A Ghost Story (2017)Report

  6. PROFESSOR ESPERANTO says:

    Arrival and Under The Skin are also fine science fiction films.Report

  7. Zac Black says:

    Ex Machina is one of my favorite films period, and probably my favorite sci-fi film to date.

    Scott Pilgrim is likewise a favorite of mine, because it’s goofy and hyperkinetic in that way only Edgar Wright can really capture.

    Shoot ‘Em Up is great once you realize it’s just Bugs Bunny vs. Elmer Fudd (Owen and Giamatti, respectively) as a John Woo movie.Report