Well, now you have
By Jessica Berget, Staff Writer
There are so many movies that come out every year that it’s impossible to keep track of them all, much less actually watch them. With so many constantly being released, it’s hard to root out the good films from the bad. I find for about every 100 awful movies there is 1 hidden cinematic gem. To save you the time and the trouble of watching 100 movies to distinguish the trash from the treasure, here are 6 of my favourite finds.
Tangerine (2015)
Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), a transgender sex worker, is left broken-hearted on Christmas Eve as she finds out her pimp/boyfriend has been cheating on her with other clients while she was in jail. The film follows Sin-Dee as she rips through LA looking to exact revenge on the man who broke her heart. This film was shot on an iPhone 5s camera, which is pretty darn impressive.
Short Term 12 (2013)
Grace (Brie Larson) works as a supervisor at a halfway house for troubled teens. Her work is put on hold as she receives news that her father will be released from jail, where he was incarcerated for an unspeakable crime. At the same time, a new arrival brings up painful memories of her troubled past. Warning: This film is an emotional rollercoaster, so have tissues at the ready.
Submarine (2011)
Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is a 15-year-old boy who struggles with both keeping his parents’ marriage together, and losing his virginity before his next birthday. He meets and falls in love with Jordana, a proclaimed pyromaniac. Oliver attempts to balance being the best boyfriend to Jordana, with extinguishing the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has recently moved in next door. This film will teach you everything you need to know about love and relationships, as well as pain and heartbreak—the best of both worlds.
Rope (1948)
Alfred Hitchcock’s first colour film concerns two college roommates (Farley Granger and John Dall) filled with Nietzschean angst who murder their friend for the sheer thrill of it. As if murder wasn’t exciting enough, the two hide the body in a chest, then host a dinner party with the victim’s family, friends, fiancée, and their philosophy professor/role model Rupert Cadall (James Stewart), with their friend as the centrepiece of the perverse party. Suspense and anxiety ensue as their professor begins to realize something is not right. Hitchcock faced a technical challenge for this movie as he attempted to film it in one long, uninterrupted take, an impressive feat at the time.
Oldboy (2003): Oh Dae-su is a father and a husband who wakes up one day to find himself alone, confined in a prison cell, with no recollection of how he got there or who put him in. With only a small television set and a small portion of dumplings to eat every day, Dae-su attempts to keep his body and mind in shape as he is isolated for over 15 years. After he hears a news report about the death of his wife, he is released from his prison with no answers as to why he was there in the first place. The rest of the movie follows Dae-su as he attempts to locate and exact revenge on his captors, and discover what happened to his wife and daughter. This film is a breathtaking tour-de-force that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
Battle Royale (2000)
This movie is the original Hunger Games, minus the boring white actors. Battle Royale takes place in dystopian future Japan where the economy has collapsed and crime and unemployment are at an all-time high. As a solution, the Japanese government passes a Battle Royale law that forces a random class of students to battle to the death. Equipped with exploding neck collars and random weapons, the film follows a class of Japanese ninth-graders as they are enlisted into the Battle Royale and forced to hunt and murder each other off until there is only one survivor left.
