Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks, the weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. The rules are very simple, each Thursday we pick three to five films to fit the week's theme.
This week we have to pick films that are either too bad, too disturbing or too painful to watch twice.
Compliance (2012) [Review]
Becky is accused of stealing from a customer and she gets sexually humiliated by a man on the phone who claims to be a police officer. This is one of the most twisted films I've seen. I take that back. It's one of the most disgusting films I've seen because this actually happened in the US. The movie itself isn't great but I kept watching because I needed to know those crimes weren't left unpunished.
Hotel Rwanda (2004) [Review]
During the Rwandan Genocide, Paul Rusesabagina saves the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages. Again, another true story that is so brutal, it makes the film very hard to watch. This is, however, a great film about a true hero and deserves to be watched.
Precious (2009)
Precious is an abused and illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child, both children fathered by her biological father. She joins an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. I think I've seen this movie 8 years ago but I still remember how I felt while watching it. This one too is great but it's also one of the most brutal and emotionally wrenching films I've seen.
These are all great picks! I raged during Compliance. I cannot believe that actually happened in real life. It made me hate it even more.
ReplyDeleteI bawled during Hotel Rwanda and Precious.
Me too. I still can't believe they allowed that to happen to many people in real life.
DeleteThe infuriating thing for me about Compliance is that people still aren't able to make the connection that the "obey or die" culture and letting the police get away with is a bad thing
DeleteI've only watched pieces of Hotel Rwanda which despite my admiration for Don Cheadle I just couldn't finish. I've heard Compliance is a rough go so even though I've considered it a few times I've never gotten around to it. Precious just sounds too horrific for me to view it as an entertainment so I doubt I'll ever see it.
ReplyDeleteMy second two are films I liked well enough but don't see myself watching again but the first bad film though it may be had a title I just had to include.
Once is Not Enough (1975)-Oh but it most certainly was…more than enough to be frank!! Based on the theme I couldn’t resist but this terrible film based on a trashy Jacqueline Susann novel about a naïve selfish and rather stupid rich girl (Deborah Raffin) who becomes involved with an much older man (David Janssen) as a substitute for her obsession with her father (Kirk Douglas) is tasteless, crass and badly acted by everyone except Alexis Smith and Brenda Vaccaro (who somehow managed to rise above the muck and be nominated for Best Supporting Actress). For something so salacious it’s remarkably dull.
La Ronde (1950) - Max Ophuls’s venerated roundelay of a circle of love affairs, some serious some frivolous in 1900 Vienna is a supposed mad whirl of joie de vivre. I love many other of Ophuls’s films, Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Earrings of Madame de… & The Reckless Moment among them, so I was really looking forward to this film but while I didn’t hate it I found it rather silly and too frou-frou to take seriously and can’t see myself returning to it again.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)-Two youngsters fall in love and run away together which leads a search party to set out for them while they have quirky adventures. I know I’ll probably take heat for this one and maybe it’s because Wes Anderson films by and large leave me cold but while others were telling me how charming and lovely this was I thought it was forced, trying too hard for a feeling of whimsy. Again I didn’t hate it but I had a big feeling of So What? at the film’s conclusion.
I'm sorry to hear Moonrise Kingdom didn't work for you. I loved it.
DeleteYeah, those are 3 films that are tough to watch as I'm not sure if I want to see them again. I don't blame you.
ReplyDeleteNot seen these films BUT I have read quite a bit about Precious and Compliance. The former is too much for me, can't watch it. And the latter I was more interested in the real story - super messed up!!
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to watch Compliance just to see what all the talk was about. May still. Precious I know will be too much for me. Hotel Rwanda is a great movie, but, yep! one and done.
ReplyDeleteHotel Rwanda is so great and Don Cheadle deserved the Oscar for his role. I don’t know the first film but I know about Precious but still have not seen it because I heard how brutal it is.
ReplyDeleteYes he did!
DeleteI think all three are great, but yeah, very tough to watch.
ReplyDeleteI thought I wrote here...anyway, I never heard of the first one but I do like Hotel Rwanda and it is tough to watch but it is excellent and Don Cheadle deserved the Oscar. I haven’t watch Precious yet but I do want to se this film even though it’s depressing
ReplyDeleteIt's my fault, I read the commenta and forgot to approve them haha
DeleteI knew of the case in Compliance because it was made into a Law and Order SVU episode, but haven't seen the movie...I think the reviews had not been that great then.
ReplyDeleteHotel Rwanda - I don't think I can watch
Precious - It wasn't too bad for me because if I'm not mistaken the ending was quite a positive one.
Now that I think about it I don't remember it. But I do think it was a positive ending. That might give me the push to rewatch it.
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