Recommendations please -- more movies with the feel of the 'angsty' oppressed? :huh:

[Kurt.Is.God]

Oh, also, Taxi Driver!

 

[Lexicon]

A Night At The Roxbury.

 

[Thalassa]

I've seen a lot of great films here, don't understand how American Beauty has anything to do with the OP, but I would suggest a Russian film called 12 and another Russian film called 4 (probably harder to find, weirder while 12 is more internationally mainstream, but I LOVE IT and I've seen it like five times) ...also The Wall (Pink Floyd) and The Motorcycle Diaries.

Training Day is a good film about bad cops.

Gangs of New York and even Moulin Rouge have that late 19th century/early 20th century "we're poor and we're going to die" thing going on.

 

[Thalassa]

Oh ...The Dollmaker is another one, about Appalachian mountain people moving up North during WWII.

 

[Zarathustra]

That's a very odd and specific list of requirements you want for your movies...

Tbh, I'm not sure how many movies fit all those criteria, but here are some that, to varying degrees, fit in some way shape or form:

(Some of them don't quite fit, but I still think they touch on the kind of movie you want to see...)

Boyz n the Hood
Menace II Society
Colors

Kids
American History X
Thirteen

Fight Club
12 Monkeys

Battle Royale
Suicide Club

Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs

No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Unforgiven
Mystic River
Million Dollar Baby
Gran Torino

 

[Zarathustra]

Also, among films already mentioned:

Taxi Driver
City of God
The Town
Donnie Darko
American Beauty
Leon: The Professional
Run Lola Run
A Clockwork Orange
Y tu mama tambien

 

[21%]

Progress report

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!

I've just watched:

L.A. Confidential
Good movie. Well done and stylish. The mood near the end was almost sort of what I was looking for, and the ending was satisfying. For some reason I didn't really care that much about any of the characters, so I didn't mind the violence.

Hustle & Flow
Good at times, but I felt it lacked a strong direction -- too focused to be a 'slice of life' piece, and too all over the place to be a 'story' piece. The story is about rap all right, but it just has a totally different feel. I also found the girls' lives to be much more interesting than the main character's.

Training Day
Rewatched. Didn't like it as much as the first time, but the 'oppressive mood' was right. The end was way overdone, in my opinion.

The scene with the Russian mafia was too much, as if it was trying too hard to give the audience a sense of justice. I think it would have been much subtler if he had a clean, easy death which doesn't justify what he has done at all. That would have added to the 'reality sucks' feel...

Trainspotting
Watched it again. Pretty cool. The withdrawal hallucination scene was awesome. I always enjoy that quirky UK feel.

Amores Perros
Liked the second story a lot

But what happened to all the dogs was totally NOT COOL

I felt like crap after watching it -- but for some reason it snapped me out of my bad mood



Still trying to get my hands on the other titles. Some of the old ones are kinda hard to find...


After trying things out, I think what I was looking for was not necessary 'depressing, working class life'. I was looking for "subtle grace under fire when life situation is totally unfair", if that makes sense.

 

[gmanyo]

- nothing too violent or heavy or depressing please (no killing innocent children, gruesome torture scenes, becoming paralyzed for life, etc., and especially definitely not 'violence for fun')

I'm afraid you might have to compromise on your values.

Many of these were already suggested (maybe all of them) but here are a few that I like:
Taxi Driver
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Brazil
The Graduate
Akira
Blade Runner
Waltz With Bashir
Care Bears: Adventures in Rainbow Palace

Sin City might be a good choice, although I haven't seen it so I can't say for sure.

 

[Kurt.Is.God]

I'm afraid you might have to compromise on your values.

Many of these were already suggested (maybe all of them) but here are a few that I like:
Taxi Driver
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Brazil
The Graduate
Akira
Blade Runner
Waltz With Bashir
Care Bears: Adventures in Rainbow Palace

Sin City might be a good choice, although I haven't seen it so I can't say for sure.

The predominant mood in Brazil is one of being oppressed by a cosmic absurdity. Blade Runner feels mostly oppressively cold and artificial, like being trapped in a futuristic virtual reality--even the melodrama is homage-y and adds to this (I don't know how intentional this is, though). Akira is just very postmodernly paranoid--amphetamines, government conspiracies, psychic children. They're all really oppressive, dunno about "gritty." They might even be defined by their fakeness.

If you're into that, though, also watch Ghost in the Shell. It's oppressive. Not gritty. The predominant mood is that of some cold, spiritual realm bleeding out of the seams of reality. I think the creator's an INFJ, by the way.