331 Best Depressing Movies to Watch (Page 12)

This coming-of-age story starts in the present time, where Elle Marja, now a grandmother, reluctantly goes to her sister's funeral held by her old indigenous Sámi community in Northern Sweden. Understanding her reluctance requires going back to when Elle Marja was 14 and was preparing to go to boarding school with her little sister. These schools were racist establishments meant to integrate the Sámi children into Swedish culture and language, while at the same time limiting their prospects of seeking further education. Elle Marja and her sister chose to respond to this discrimination in two completely different ways that this movie explores without judgment. The central performance of the young girl is incredible.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Ánne Biret Somby, Maj-Doris Rimpi, Olle Sarri

Director: Amanda Kernell

Given the name, Revanche seemed to be a revenge thriller, and to a certain degree, that’s correct, but the way writer-director Götz Spielmann frames the plot makes it feel much more like a naturalistic character study of the way love and violence walks hand-in-hand, leading to a tragedy that shifts its thrill each time ex-con Alex is forced to make a change. It’s a surprising portrait. It’s one that is tense with permeating silence and no added score, with the camera still and lingering by the door. It’s slow, unfolding within the mundane. And it’s existential, with the way these characters actively try to change their fate, but only lead into even more difficult issues. Revanche is a refreshing take of the titular theme.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Actor: Andreas Lust, Hanno Pöschl, Irina Potapenko, Johannes Krisch, Johannes Thanheiser, Johannes Zeiler, Linde Prelog, Magdalena Kropiunig, Max Schmiedl, Michael-Joachim Heiss, Toni Slama, Ursula Strauss

Director: Götz Spielmann

With laws, education, and modern day systems, it seems like the modern man has some means for recourse, at least more than the average person centuries ago. However, despite this, injustices still remain. Leviathan depicts Kolya, a modern day Job, set out to keep his land from the clutches of a corrupt mayor. It’s bleak and depressing, somewhat neorealistic as Kolya goes through various hardships due to political greed, but there’s some wry sense of humor, one that bitterly points out how much hasn’t changed since biblical times. While it’s quite long, Leviathan is likely to move most viewers to tears, and maybe to shots of vodka, due to its depiction of the everyday man.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Aleksei Zharkov, Aleksey Pavlov, Aleksey Rozin, Aleksey Serebryakov, Anna Pereleshina, Anna Ukolova, Dmitriy Bykovskiy-Romashov, Elena Lyadova, Igor Savochkin, Igor Sergeev, Lesya Kudryashova, Margarita Shubina, Marianna Shults, Mariya Shekunova, Olga Lapshina, Roman Madyanov, Sergey Bachurskiy, Sergey Borisov, Sergey Murzin, Sergey Pokhodaev, Valeriy Grishko, Vladimir Vdovichenkov

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Rating: R

A mother and her two children move from Colombia to Queens, New York to join the father. Once there, he abandons them and moves to Miami.

With no family to fall back on, barely speaking English, an inexistent social welfare system and two little kids who require care; the mother quickly runs out of options. At first, she tries to sell empanadas in the street, then tries to become a temporary worker, but a mixture of obstacles keeps getting in the way.

Entre Nos is about the precariousness of the immigrant experience: about how quickly things can go wrong. But it’s also about how survival instincts and motherly love can stand in the face of complete desperation.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Andres Munar, Annie Henk, Anthony Chisholm, Clem Cheung, Eddie Martinez, Farah Bala, Felipe Bonilla, Jacqueline Duprey, Laura Montana, Paola Mendoza, Sarita Choudhury, Sebastian Villada

Director: Gloria La Morte, Paola Mendoza

Rating: Not Rated

Realistic, intimate, and compelling, Elena is a movie that makes you think a lot after you finish watching it. It is an inherently Russian movie, however there is something about how the story is told that makes it a universal family drama. A woman from a modest background to which she still has a lot of attachement is married to an old wealthy business man. Upon learning that the man might write her off his will, she feels pushed to get her hands dirty to honor her responsibilities towards her original family. The question of right and wrong when faced with extreme situations is at the heart of this aesthetically slow-burning family drama.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Aleksandr Kazakov, Aleksandr Slastin, Aleksey Maslodudov, Aleksey Rozin, Anastasiya Sapozhnikova, Andrey Smirnov, Anna Gulyarenko, Dana Agisheva, Dmitry Pavlenko, Ekaterina Tarkovskaya, Elena Lyadova, Igor Ogurtsov, Ivan Dobronravov, Ivan Mulin, Larisa Khalafova, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Nadezhda Markina, Nikita Slepchenkov, Oksana Semenova, Olga Lapshina, Vasilii Prokopev, Vasily Michkov, Vasily Zotov, Yana Lvova, Yaroslav Zhalnin, Yuriy Borisov

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Rating: Not Rated

Due to the possibility of death, Buoyancy cannot be made as a documentary. This film, after all, sheds light on today's real life slavery. But that doesn't mean it's no less true. The script was written based on interviews with real life survivors, who, of course, would rather not be filmed due to their safety. The characters were written to closely reflect them, which was why, even though the studio is Australian, they casted Thai and Cambodian actors, and wrote the dialogue in their respective languages. And the story that writer-director Rodd Rathjen created, gradually escalates the terror Chakra faces on the whims of a cruel captain, with each new experience slowly scrapping off the innocence that was supposed to be protected. Buoyancy is not a documentary, but it works as a necessary exposé of slavery in Southeast Asian seas because of Rathjen sticking true to the sadly real life atrocity.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Rous Mony, Saichia Wongwirot, Sarm Heng, Thanawut Ketsaro, Yothin Udomsanti

Director: Rodd Rathjen

Bull is a gritty and haunting drama featuring a phenomenal performance by Rob Morgan as a bullfighter. In a poor Houston suburb, he plays an aging and lonely black man doing everything he can to survive. He brushes off unrelenting racism, rides even when it's life-threatening and raises chickens to sell them. His next-door neighbor is a grandmother taking care of her daughter's kids while the daughter is in jail. One day one of these grandaughters harms the chickens and vandalizes Abe's house, prompting them to clash.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Amber Havard, Rob Morgan, Sarah Albright, Steven Boyd, Troy Hogan, Yolonda Ross

Director: Annie Silverstein

Despite how the title sounds like, the horror of Bedevilled isn’t a devil, a demon, or a spirit. It isn’t even the way childhood friend Bok-nam snaps, taking up a scythe and going on a murderous rampage to kill all the people that wronged her. No, the actual horror of Bedevilled is that everyday people like bank employee Hae-won would hesitate to do what’s right. Reading that sentence can sound cheesy, but writer-director Jang Cheol-soo structures the film, and her visit to Modo, in a gradually escalating manner. When Hae-won first lands, the mean gossip seems ordinary, but the film takes these ordinary, if overcritical, words, and delves into the subtext, especially the darker implications that makes the film difficult to watch. The film does understand Hae-won’s hesitancy– the scenes do acknowledge that reporting could mean retaliation, and the score consistently meets that very fear. But Bedevilled also understands that, if hesitancy allows abuse to be left unchecked, the very same violence that Hae-won was (and many people are) avoiding will inevitably escalate.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Bae Sung-woo, Baek Su-ryeon, Chun Young-min, Hwang Geum-hee, Jo Deok-jae, Oh Yong, Park Jeong-hak, Seo Young-hee, Son Young-soon, Yoo Soon-chul

Director: Jang Cheol-soo

Rating: NR