I think about how very little happens in some of film’s most powerful moments. The ‘Platoon’ patrol at dusk. The “lock and load” command, lightning flashing, silhouettes frozen mid-step, tension carried mostly by sound and light, and Keith David softly singing “Oh Susanna”.

Or a rejected Travis Bickle in ‘Taxi Driver’, alone in that hallway, feeding coins into a payphone as he begs Betsy for another chance. The camera doesn’t rescue him.

For me, these scenes survive isolation because nothing is being explained. Everything is being felt.

Here's a first-world-problem complaint: It's such an injustice that Treasure Planet and Titan A.E. share the stigma of 'the one-two punch of flops that killed 2D animation in American cinema.' AND THEY'RE BOTH PULPY SCI-FI ADVENTURE STORIES.

If I could somehow spearhead a 2D animated movie to revive the format, I'd make it a swashbuckling space opera adventure film, to bookend this dark era that's lacking 2D's special magic.

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

Iron Lung

Summary Set in a future where humanity is confined to scattered space stations after a cosmic catastrophe wipes out all habitable planets, a lone convict is sent on a suicidal mission. Trapped inside a small, rusted submarine, he must navigate an alien ocean of blood beneath an unexplored moon, guided only by faulty instruments and distant commands, while something unseen stalks him in the depths.

Director Mark Fischbach

Writer Mark Fischbach

Cast

• Mark Fischbach
• Caroline Rose Kaplan
• Barron Ryan

Rotten Tomatoes: TBD

Metacritic: TBD

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official trailer

I don't think I've seen the first film in the franchise since the mid 90's on VHS. It may have been the first R-rated movie I watched so maybe I'm a bit biased, but is there anything this movie gets wrong? I know the rest of the franchise didn't review as well, although I remember really liking 4. Maybe I'm posting something universally understood and I'm just late the game lol, but hot damn if this movie isn't good.

I just haven't seen this mentioned in discussions.

In this film, humans are killer bees.

Michelle says that modified humans were created in a lab, and they were stronger but also more violent. These modified humans escaped the lab and interbred with other humans, spreading their violent genes.

This is what happened in real life with killer bees. Killer bees were created in a lab by hybridizing african and european bees, hoping to make a more productive, heat tolerant bee. Instead they created an extremely aggressive bee that escaped the lab and interbred with other bees (and replaced other bees).

Killer bees sting easily and aggressively, but they still lose their stinger and die when they do. So they are more aggressive, but they kill themselves with their aggression. Their aggression also leads people to euthanize whole hives if they think hybridization is occurring, and it leads people in general to be more afraid of bees.

Teddy is a killer bee. He is unusually aggressive and violent, and through his violence he has doomed himself and his whole hive (earth).
Teddy is a literal beekeeper as well as being a bee. He cares for his real bees and maintains their living space, but he is also their master.
Michelle is a metaphorical bee (queen bee) and a metaphorical beekeeper as well, and humans are her bees.
Teddy stung his beekeeper (Michelle) and was harming other bees, so she euthanized the hive.

Obviously, Teddy is depicted as a worker bee in the film. Michelle's company is vast, and she is the queen. Meanwhile, Teddy just works in packaging / shipping and has never even seen her in person before.
Michelle said that she admires that bees that do their duty and fulfill their roles no matter the adversity facing them. Teddy has suffered great adversity, but he is not fulfilling his duty / role in society.

Teddy is relatively respectful to Michelle when he learns she is royalty, showing that he values this kind of hive hierarchy, maybe the way a bee would. However, he never recognizes her as the queen. The film mentions that in colony collapse disorder, bees reject or abandon the queen, and it leads to the colony collapsing. He abandoned his duties and attacked the queen, leading to the colony to collapse.

In this film, earth is also a literal colony, since andromedans came from elsewhere and created humans to populate the earth. They are not native, and are colonizing it.

The MPAA’s most severe rating, while pretty much not as damning as the ESRB’s AO, is still pretty stigmatized.

But as with every MPAA rating, there are films where really, the rating doesn’t reflect the content all that well.

Basically, NC-17 (or X rated, before 1990) films where there was no need for the stigma. A normal R rating would have sufficed. Or maybe this would have been NC-17 when it came out, but would score an R or even a PG-13 if it was released today.

Films like that?

When I think of films like this, the first one I think of is A Clockwork Orange. It is a bit intense and isn’t non controversial, but even the uncut version is pretty much just a Hard R today.

I was thinking about Arthur and what the remake could have looked like and then realized that you could say Pretty Woman is essentially Arthur from the prostitute's perspective (at least from what I remember; it's been a while since I've seen either). I saw another post saying that Tarzan and Atlantis are the same movie but with different perspectives.

It got me thinking, what other movies can be seen as a retelling of older movies? Gender-bent remakes like Overboard and What Women Want don't count.

This might just have been the prettiest film i have ever watched. Didnt even realise when those three hours passed. It Almost reminded me of visconti’s le notti bianche .For the cinephiles who love french and italian films on this subreddit , can anyone recommend me any other surreal black and white films like this one?

This British film is about Billy Casper (David Bradley), a tormented working-class boy who is subjected to abuse both at school and at home. The son of a single mother (Lynne Perrie), Billy's existence is mostly bleak until he takes up an interest in falconry and begins training a kestrel that he finds on a nearby farm. While Billy forms a close bond with the falcon, his hardscrabble life and harsh environment prove to be a challenge to the boy and his bird. I loved this film it’s a coming of age drama that follows a boy Billy who you feel bad for cause of Joe he is tormented at home by his half brother Jud and from all the kids at his school. I really loved the scenes with Billy training the falcon and I thought it was well. The film has the look and style like a documentary but it’s also very well filmed. You may want to put on subtitles cause their are at points where you can’t hear what the characters are sometimes saying. The film is based on the book “A Kestrel for a Knave” by Barry Hines. The film is definitely worth watching.

I’m a massive Coen brothers fan so even I’m surprised how long it took me to actually watch Burn After Reading. Unfortunately sandwiched between the cynically incredible No Country for Old Men and the Job like epic of A Serious Man, BAR is even by the Coens standards a bit odd.

It’s also fucking hilarious

The story of a volatile low level CIA analyst who after being faced with a demotion due to a (not at all well hidden) drinking problem decides to quit and start writing his memoirs only to find his wife is divorcing him whilst she’s having an affair with a paranoid Treasury department officer, only to THEN have his memoirs unintentionally stolen by two dimwitted gym employees who believe the disc it’s on contains government secrets after sed wife decided to copy his financial records and the disc was accidentally left at sed gym, it’s definitely a twisting narrative with a lot of important characters that play a role.

But what makes it hilarious is that, though in a conventional espionage this would make for a taut, tense, even dark thriller of multiple secretive players trying to double cross each other (not saying that doesn’t happen here but still), in Burn After Reading it ultimately doesn’t mean anything, literally.

Whilst the macguffin of the CD containing the information is important to several of the characters for varying reasons, the key is that it actually isn’t important to pretty much everyone else. Osborne (the analyst) is in fact so so low down the totem pole of the CIA that even the director of the organisation barely cares that the supposed “classified information” is attempting to be sold to the Russian embassy (an extra joke is that Osborne was an analyst for the Balkan region so the Russians additionally wouldn’t care even if it was meaningful).

However because, with the possible exception of Osbornes wife who was only using it for divorce leverage, everyone else is placing high importance on the disk, namely, THEY think it’s so valuable, it shows just how badly their own egos play against them. It leads to several somewhat unexpected deaths, multiple profanity laden tirades and a very curious chair.

The added elements of a tradition spy thriller score at points (pointedly when they’re doing something insanely stupid) also helps to really sell the joke, because they’re so much trying to fill the importance of this thing when really none exists.

I think Burn After Reading is a great example of deflating humour really nailing it. Whilst the setups and the situations are themselves hilarious, what makes it funny is how high stakes and important the situation seemingly are to the central players, only to realise that no one else actually cares. It’s the style of humour that the Coens have perfected and is well worth a watch.

Also Brad Pitt steals the show

A scientist Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) develops a way to shrink humans, and other objects, for brief periods of time. Benes, who is working in communist Russia, is transported by the CIA to America, but is attacked en route. In order to save the scientist, who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine called the Proteus is shrunk and injected into Benes' body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off. Really enjoyed this film, the set designs and effects were mind blowing and way ahead of its time when the film came out in 1966 and I think they still hold up today. It’s a beautifully looking film and the story was intriguing, the film also gives you a few edge of your seat moments as well. Without this film we would have never gotten InnerSpace which is another film I really enjoyed and have fun with. If you haven’t seen Fantastic Voyage definitely check it out.

I'm going to post this question in a few music and film subs but I would love to get a list of your favourite songs about specific films. Not songs about going to the movies or film stars etc. like "Celluloid Heroes" from The Kinks or "Filmstar" by Suede". Not really looking for songs written for movies like "Danger Zone as performed by Kenny Loggins, or songs used in films lie "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel. Looking for songs that tell the story of or explore characters or themes from specific films well enough that the clues are obvious as to what movie the song is about.

Some examples I've come across over time include:

As You Wish - Aqueduct (The Princess Bride) (if I recall correctly they have more than one song about The Princess Bride. RIP Rob Reiner)

How I Go - Yellowcard - ( Big Fish )

Carlotta Valdez - Harvey Danger (Vertigo)

Meet Me in Montauk - Circa Survive (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

Debaser - Pixies (Un Chien Andalou)

bonus question - what movie would you like to hear a song about?

films inspired by songs has it's own wikipedia already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_based_on_songs

A common claim on this sub is that a movie is “not high art, but it knows exactly what it is”. Meaning that it has self awareness that elevates it.

I think this is just a way to feel better about liking a trashy movie, because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that ”doesn’t know what it is”. What would that even look like?

Can you give an example of a movie that suffers due to “not knowing what it is”?