FilmSnobReviews

I’m back with 10 more films you need to see if you have not. This time around we have what I think is the most diverse list of movies in the series thus far! Without further ado lets do this!

Title: Control
Year: 2007
Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara
Why You’ll Like It: It’s a stark look at one of musics most troubled figure Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. From his battles with inner demons to his tragic end this drab black and white biopic is unflinching it the severity of it’s subjects troubles. It simultaneously completely understands the subject. This is a testament to director Anton Corbijn. This is a guy whose previos major works were all rockumentaries and music video collection. He knows his rock and roll, but this proved he might be someone to watch out for. His later films The American and last years A Most Wanted Man have sustained that reputation.

Title: Snowpiercer
Year: 2014 (US Release)
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer
Why You’ll Love It: It’s nice to see Chris Evans outside of his normal star-spangled uniform. Here he stars as a man tired of being pushed around and left in the back of a train that possesses on it all of humanity. At the back are the less fortunate, and as we get closer to the eternal engine that runs the never ending train we get more and more fortunate. A classic case of the have nots wanting what they do not have and willing to die for it. Director Bong Joon-ho makes his American debut with this dystopian scifi instant classic based on a French graphic novel. This one is currently available to stream instantly on Netflix.

Title: The Guest
Year: 2014
Director: Adam Wingard
Starring: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Lance Reddick
Why You’ll Love It: Brought to us by the team behind the surpringly good You’re Next is this thriller with an 80’s throwback feel. When a stranger poses as a friend to a families fallen son it is unknown why he’s really there or what he really wants. To prove his stories legitimacy he begins helping the family in a variety of ways. That is before his murderous past, and current psychopathy catch up to him and lead him to doing unspeakable things even to the family that let him in. Featuring a fantastic soundtrack that has a synth-pop flow this is a film that the edge of your seat was made for! It’s currently available to stream instantly on Netflix.

Title: Seven Psychopaths
Year: 2012
Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken
Why You’ll Love It: Featuring some great performances from awesome actors this is another addition to the short filmography of director Martin McDonagh. In fact that filmography includes only one other film a film that was on the first list of 5o Films You Haven’t Seen But Should In Bruges. Time around we get a story revolving around the kidnapping of a dog (owned by Woody Harrelson’s psychotic Charlie) by 2 conmen who run a dog napping ring. When an innocent screen-writer gets caught in the middle he may have unwilling found his next big movie.

Title: Frank
Year: 2014
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Why You’ll Love It: First of all Michael Fassbender. Secondly it a quirky and completely off-beat story about a little band lead by a singer with a huge (and fake) head. Not only does it feature some of the best work out of it’s extremely talented cast but it finished last year as one of my top ten films of the year. Not only is this one of the more unique films to come along in a while, but it will no doubt leave you singing the closing song long after it’s over, and thinking about it’s deeper points for even longer than that.

Title: The Babadook
Year: 2014 (US Release)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Barbara West
Why You’ll Love It: This Australian horror movie is far more than the sum of it’s parts. It does what most modern horror fails to do, it scares us on a deeper level. With psychological horror right out of Hitchcock’s playbook this one follows the Jawsi methodology and does not let us see too much of the titular creature. We don’t quite know what’s real and what isn’t in this world, but it’s strangely a world familiar to us because it is still the one we live in. Perhaps that’s what Kent does best making us believe it’s all real. Credit to Essie Davis for helping us buy this thing wholesale, she’s fantastic and deserves all the awards and praise she’s won for the film. This one is available for streaming instantly on Netflix

Title: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Year: 2007
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Starring (English Dub): Emily Hirst, Andrew Francis, Kristie Marsden
Why You’ll Love It: This anime is beautifully drawn, and masterfully paced. It tells the story of a girl named Makoto who in the summer of her seventeenth year finds out she has the ability to leap through time. Brought to us by the director of Digimon: The Movie this surprising dense and real teenage dramedy goes in the YA tropes we’re used too without falling in to the ridiculousness that normally accompanies those sorts of things. There’s a beauty to the way Hosoda frames this, a sense of almost wonder that really keeps this from being the same ole same ole in regards to anime storytelling.

Title: The Debt
Year: 2011
Director: John Madden
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain
Why You’ll Love It: Seeking to find the “Surgeon of Berkinau” Josef Mengele three young people will go into communist occupied West Berlin. Brought to us by Shakespeare in Love director (and not former professional football coach) John Madden this tense and taught thriller shows that perhaps there is more than meets the eyes to every story throughout history. With precise and excellent performances from both the elder cast and their younger counterparts, even Sam Worthington doesn’t feel forced here, and that’s saying something!

Title: House of Sand and Fog
Year: 2003
Director: Varid Perelman
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard
Why You’ll Love It: Based on a best-selling novel this story of the American Dream gone wrong starts with an alcoholic woman who loses her home to eviction. This home is bought by Iranian immigrant Massoud Amir Behrani buys the house from the state for his family. It is here where everything begins to turn on both the current and former owner of the house. The original owner determined to reclaim her inheritance the new owners fighting for the home they’ve made for themselves in this new land of the free and home of the brave.

Title: The One I Love
Year: 2014
Director: Charlie McDowell
Starring: Elizabeth Moss, Mark Duplass, Ted Danson
Why You’ll Love It: Featuring two indie darlings in Moss and Duplass this film is by the very same producers who brought us two other films on the previous list in Safety Not Guaranteed and Jeff Who Lives at Home. When a married couple is having real issues in their relationship their therapist suggests a weekend retreat at a house isolated from other people. One he assures them has “worked wonders” for other couples. Featuring a story that I cannot discuss in too much detail without spoiling everything this is one that’ll have you guessing all the way up until the final curtain pulls closed.

What do you think? Have you seen any of these movies? Which one is your favorite? If you’ve seen any leave your thoughts on them in the comments below, and tell me which of these ten is your favorite!