Intro/Intention
Hollywood! The dominant player in the movie business. The place where billions are invested (or just spent ?) every year in a handful of films. Some of them worth their ticket, some of them don’t. Regardless, the films coming out are mostly known to offer a spectacle. Every year, the resolution gets higher and higher, the visual and sound effects more and more impressive, and the final cut on the silver screen more eye-catching than the year before.
What does it leave the independent cinema with though? Who invests? How much? Under which criteria? The questions are dozens and every answer generates dozen more for each and every one of them. Maybe in the future I’ll sink my teeth into those answers and give you as much information as I can. So, stay tuned.
In the meantime, I would like to stir the focus on films that independent producers and filmmakers believed in, gathered everything they could invest in, not knowing what the perception of their films would be, and dared to bring to life. My intention is to create awareness and pique your interest in my personal top 5 indie, low budget and utterly mind-bending films (as the homonymous title dictates) that you may or may not have watched or heard of, but if you have, feel free to spread the word. Whether they are your cup of tea or not, whether their message comes across or not, they will definitely open your eyes to… a different kind of cinema.
The article tips off but is spoilers-free, so enjoy reading!
The Films
Predestination (2014)
A time-travel agent, receives one last assignment that is linked to an early case that changed his life in a way he has yet to discover.
If you think the logline is perplexing, wait until you watch the film itself. Predestination is the poster child of mind-bending films. An Australian drama/mystery/sci-fi that fries brain cells. Robert A. Heinlein’s short story All You Zombies (1959) has been faithfully adapted – with minor modifications – by the Spierig brothers, who successfully, once more, collaborated with Ethan Hawke six years after the incredible Daybreakers (2009).
Predestination was funded mostly by Screen Australia USD 5.6M, and it is not known exactly how much more money was invested. As per Box Office Mojo, it made $68,372 worldwide, while IMDb claims $4,824,499. Either way, the numbers are shockingly bad, not encouraging wide releases of films of that sort. It was the fans who made it known because whoever got to watch it picked up the phone and called their nerdy mates to do the same.
Acting, directing, photography, editing, visual and sound effects, costume design… everything is stupendous. But the story’s and the script’s intelligence is uncanny. John’s quote “I’ve changed so much. I doubt my own mother would recognize me…” is the epitome of what irony stands for and is one of the many quotes that, once you reach the end of the journey, it sends chills down your spine.
Triangle (2009)
A yachting trip takes a turn for the worse for a group of friends when the yacht capsizes and they have to take refuge on an ostensibly abandoned cruise ship.
Triangle is not a slasher horror (as I’ve repeatedly read) and does not rely on jump scares to impress. Also, it is not one of the films where nothing makes sense until the end, leaving you wondering days after, “What on Earth did I just watch?”. Pay attention to the ballroom, the axe, and the message written on the mirror – all references to The Shining (1980), not as a copy but as a way to convey meaning. What does the name of the ship mean? What did it use to represent in the Greek Mythology? Who might the “Driver” be, and how can the dialogue between him and Jess be interpreted?
Triangle is a British/Australian psychological fantasy/mystery/thriller that did not get the spotlight it deserved. It cost approximately USD 2.8M, did not receive a theatrical release in the US, and did not make its money back. It is not experimental/avant-garde where utterances and actions are open to interpretation. Everything. Happens. For. A. Reason. Writer/Director Christopher Smith delivers a feature that may as well be just over an hour and a half episode of Twilight Zone (1959), and Melissa George, one of the most hidden gems in the Industry, plays the part as she should have. To understand why she acts the way she does, keep an eye even for signs on the road reading “Return Back”.
Coherence (2013)
A comet causes a reality warping as a group of friends enjoy their dinner party, descending them into paranoia.
If you know nothing about the film when you encounter it, keep it that way. Turn the lights off and put the film on! Coherence is not Predestination or Triangle. It is not meticulously scripted and carefully executed. Not everything you see is there for a reason. The dialogue doesn’t create a thorough meaning. Coherence is the paragon of the indie, low-budget, single-location, mind-bending horror/mystery/sci-fi that, through largely impromptu dialogue and genuine reactions, makes you question who you are and/or who you could have been in multiple, alternate, fractured realities. A round of applause for the director, the production team, and the actors who achieved this with $50K in 5 nights, with 2 cameras, in 1 location. The film made $102,617 (doubled its money) but was released in only 7 theatres. By far, it didn’t find a large audience, and its genuine brilliance travelled, once more, through the word of mouth by the real fans of the genre.
P.S. A piece of advice: Inevitably – but instinctively – you will try to rationalise and keep track of what, why, when, and where. When you start feeling “electroencephalographically challenged”, STOP!
The Box (2009)
A man of unknown origin shows up at a married couple’s house with a mysterious box, and inconceivable events make them question the nature of the world as they know it.
Based on Richard Matheson’s incredible short story Button Button (1970), Richard Kelly, writer/director of the groundbreaking Donnie Darko (2001), co-writes and develops The Box. A drama/fantasy/mystery facing a moral dilemma with arguments and counterarguments that can last for aeons. Even though it is a character-driven story, the events taking place are beard-scratching and thought-provoking. What do we know about the world we live in? Who is in charge? Who is really in charge? Do we want to see or we choose not to? Its philosophy is simple: You are free to choose, you are just not free of the consequences.
Having been adapted first as a Twilight Zone episode (1986), The Box was released in 2009, and… nothing happens! No one finds out about it. Goes totally under the radar and stays there. “My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic sensibility”. And that’s exactly what he did, it just didn’t become broadly commercial. Kelly travels us back to the suburbian ’70s paying tributes to Carl Sagan and H. Beam Piper (The Day of the Moron). Given a budget of just over $30M, The Box grosses worldwide $33,333,531 and receives nothing but mixed reviews. As a personal note, I highly recommended The Box to numerous friends and acquaintances and the one and only response I got was… “what’s that”?
The Broken (2008)
After a woman sees herself driving on a street in London, a chain of obscure and twisted events lead her to an old, broken mirror.
Last but not least on the list is none other than The Broken. Possibly, the only film of the kind that people know even less than The Box – or at all. Sean Ellis, one of the most underrated British directors – Cashback (2004), dares to write and direct a European standards intellectual drama/horror/thriller that will be imprinted into your brain. Conceptualising the myths surrounding “doppelgängers”, it delves into what the modern, “forward-looking” world – London in this case – considers superstitions, exploring human nature’s obscureness and what may lie beneath the surface. Ellis’ abstract, slow-paced horror will glue you to your seats, but the ominous “RealFeel” cerebral goosebumps come at the end and way past the film’s end credits. Poe-style writing, translated to the big screen, waiting to be comprehended and related to.
It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, got one win and one nomination at the Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival, was a first choice in Horrorfest 2009, and stayed there. As per IMDb, it cost approximately GBP £4M and made a cumulative worldwide gross of USD $889,510. The Broken is a British/French production that has remained widely unknown to this very day.
Conclusion
As a young adult, I was blaming Hollywood. I was holding it responsible for producing, promoting, and distributing, among others, micro-budget horrors heavily relying on jump scares, providing spoon-fed answers, and having no substance. But growing up I realised that it only responds to demands. Whatever sells tickets, they produce it. So, is it the audience to blame? Mediocrity sells, is that it? People don’t want to spend the ticket’s value on something they will leave the cinema talking about or keep thinking until they go to bed.
There is no one to blame really, and there is no point in casting stones. It seems as if thought-provoking films are not meant for the big screen, just for home entertainment. Maybe… the good, old-fashioned cinemas will be getting together the cinephilia aficionados and roof their passion for the antithetical, the alternative, and the experimental. And at the same time, the multiplex in the huge, fancy malls will be satisfying the needs of the masses. It’s a small world, but big enough to embrace diversity and welcome us all in another world within it. The world of film!
Below, you can find my “reality mind-bending” list of low-, mid-, or high-budget films that actually did make it to the cinemas and created some awareness. Some of them tanked, some made their money back, and very few became blockbusters. It was quite a tough call to choose just five films, but I hope, at least, they represent and support the point I am trying to make.
Hollywood often runs out of ideas (hence the incalculable reboots and remakes). The few innovative ideas will impress for a while until they are beaten to death and become cliches. Then, out of nowhere, a prodigy will rise from somewhere in the world with an indie, made on a budget of two and a half lemons, and will be “recruited” straight away. The prodigy then will either change the rules as we know them or will become one and the same, blinded by fame and money, sinking into the intricacy of the abyss called Hollywood.
Prodigy or not, whoever you are, if you are out there filming, please keep changing the rules.
In alphabetical order:
Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014)
Darren Aronofsky’s ? (1998), Mother! (2017), Black Swan (2010), The Fountain (2006)
David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), Existenz (1999), Naked Lunch (1991)
David Lynch’s every film except The Straight Story (1999) and Dune (1984)
Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) / Enemy (2013)
Giorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015)
Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001), Southland Tales (2006)
Shane Carruth’s Primer (2004), Upstream Colour (2013)
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys (1995), Brazil (1985)
and then…
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Enter the Void (2009)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Gattaca (1997)
Identity (2003)
Leviathan (2014)
Mr. Nobody (2009)
No Smoking (2007)
Russian Ark (2002)
Shutter Island (2010)
Stay (2005)
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
The Machinist (2004)
The Matrix (1999)
Tree of Life (2011)
Websites / References
• [1] Buckland, W. (2009) Hollywood Puzzle Films. AFI Readers
• [2] Buckland, W. (2009) Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema. Wiley-Blackwell.
• https://www.allmovie.com/
• https://www.boxofficemojo.com/
• http://www.frightfest.co.uk/
• http://www.horrorfestonline.com/
• https://www.imdb.com/
• https://www.metacritic.com/
• https://www.rottentomatoes.com/
Thanks for reading!
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