Playlists > 💎BLEAK BUT BRILLIANT💎

💎BLEAK BUT BRILLIANT💎
Description:

No Hollywood happy dappy here, just some f*cking great films.
This playlist is entirely subjective, and I’ll only include films I’ve actually watched. Having said that, I’m totally not into torture porn, or gratuitous hack n slash shite. But… If it’s on this list, I’ve watched it and think it has merit. That doesn’t mean I enjoyed them all, hahahaha… even though I did.😎

🛠 Still under construction…


Creator: Merrigan Able
Posted: 3 years ago
 
Favorite

39 favorites

8899 views

info
Movie: The Men Who Stare at Goats ( 2009 )
A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
info
Movie: The Lover ( 1992 )
It is French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A young French girl from a family that is having some monetary difficulties is returning to boarding school. She is alone on public transportation when she catches the eye of a wealthy Chinese businessman. He offers her a ride into town in the back of his chauffeured sedan, and sparks fly. Can the torrid affair that ensues between them overcome the class restrictions and social mores of that time? Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras.
info
Movie: Gosford Park ( 2001 )
The lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants at a party in 1932 in a country house in England as they investigate a murder involving one of them.
info
Movie: All the President's Men ( 1976 )
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
info
Movie: Point of No Return ( 1993 )
A government fakes the death of a criminal to turn this young woman into a killer on its service.
info
Movie: Tau ( 2018 )
Once a street-smart drifter, Julia (Maika Monroe) is the latest person held captive, a body and a mind to be exploited in a fatal experiment. The only thing standing in the way of her freedom is TAU, the advanced artificial intelligence developed in secret by Alex (Ed Skrein), her sociopathic and enigmatic captor. TAU is armed with a battalion of drones and robots that automate Alex's futuristic smart house and laboratory, the walls lined with screens that visually transport it from grassy plains to the depths of space. TAU's potential is only limited by his understanding of the world he exists in, but TAU is ready for more. Julia, showing resourcefulness and courage, must race against time to bridge the boundaries between man and machine, connect to TAU and win her freedom before she suffers the same fate as the six other subjects who came before her.
info
Movie: The Accused ( 1988 )
After a young woman suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
info
Movie: Sleeping Beauty ( 2011 )
A haunting portrait of Lucy, a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.
info
Movie: The Life of David Gale ( 2003 )
A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
info
Movie: The Last King of Scotland ( 2007 )
Having graduated recently from the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, flies to Uganda to work at a missionary clinic run by Dr David Merrit and his wife, Sarah. Before long, Garrigan has a chance encounter with the new President, General Idi Amin, who, right from the start, feels an immediate sympathy for him. As one thing leads to another, after a while, Idi Amin invites Nicholas to become his physician and modernise Uganda's health care system: a once-in-a-lifetime offer that the doctor cannot refuse. However, more and more, Garrigan finds himself trapped in the moral abyss of Idi Amin's murderous megalomania, putting his very soul at risk. When Nicholas finally summons up the courage to rise above the madness, he becomes embroiled in a desperate fight for survival.
info
Movie: Monster's Ball ( 2002 )
After a family tragedy, a racist prison guard reexamines his attitudes while falling in love with the African American wife of the last prisoner he executed.
info
Movie: Light of My Life ( 2019 )
Parent and child journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out half the world's population. As a father struggles to protect his child, their bond, and the character of humanity, is tested.
info
Movie: A Ghost Story ( 2017 )
In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.
info
Movie: Dolores Claiborne ( 1995 )
A big city reporter travels to a small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman for whom she worked as a housekeeper.
info
Movie: Colors ( 1988 )
An experienced cop and his rookie partner patrol the streets of East Los Angeles while trying to keep the gang violence under control.
info
Movie: Happiness ( 1998 )
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
info
Movie: Breach ( 2007 )
In February, 2001, Robert Hanssen, a senior agent with 25 years in the FBI, is arrested for spying. Jump back two months: Eric O'Neill, a computer specialist who wants to be made an agent is assigned to clerk for Hanssen and to write down everything Hanssen does. O'Neill's told it's an investigation of Hanssen's sexual habits. Within weeks, the crusty Hanssen, a devout Catholic, has warmed to O'Neill, who grows to respect Hanssen. O'Neill's wife resents Hanssen's intrusiveness; the personal and professional stakes get higher. How they catch Hanssen and why he spies become the film's story. Can O'Neill help catch red-handed "the worst spy in history" and hold onto his personal life?
info
Movie: Jeremiah Johnson ( 1972 )
During the mid-nineteenth century, Jeremiah Johnson, after a stint in the US Army, decides that he would prefer a life of solitude and more importantly peace by living with nature in the mountains of the frontier of the American west. This plan entails finding a piece of land upon which to build a house. This quest ends up being not quite what he envisioned as he does require the assistance of others to find his footing, and in turn, he amasses friends and acquaintances along the way, some who become more a part of his life than he would have imagined. Perhaps most importantly, some of those people provide him with the knowledge of how to co-exist with some of the many Indian tribes, most importantly the Crow, on whose land in Colorado Jeremiah ultimately decides to build his home. But an act by Jeremiah upon a request by the US Cavalry leads to a chain of events that may forever change the peaceful relationship he worked so hard to achieve with his neighbors and their land.
info
Movie: Mysterious Skin ( 2005 )
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
info
Movie: Funny Games ( 1998 )
Two seemingly well-educated young men, who call each other Paul and Peter among other names, approach a family on vacation. They are, apparently, friends of the neighbors, and, at the beginning, their true intentions are not known, but soon, the family is imprisoned and tortured in its own house violently, which the viewers are forced mostly to imagine and to share a certain complicity with the criminals. It might be some kind of game with the lives of husband, wife, son, and dog, but why are they doing it?
info
Movie: The Elephant Man ( 1980 )
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
info
Movie: Eraserhead ( 1978 )
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
info
Movie: Courage Under Fire ( 1996 )
A U.S. Army officer, despondent about a deadly mistake he made, investigates a female chopper commander's worthiness for the Medal of Honor.
info
Movie: Transsiberian ( 2008 )
A Transsiberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers.
info
Movie: Grizzly Man ( 2005 )
A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
info
Movie: Winter's Bone ( 2010 )
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
info
Movie: Dark Places ( 2015 )
Libby Day was only eight years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Almost thirty years later, she reluctantly agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.
info
Movie: 21 Grams ( 2003 )
A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
info
Movie: Shelter ( 2015 )
Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.
info
Movie: True Story ( 2015 )
When disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel meets accused killer Christian Longo - who has taken on Finkel's identity - his investigation morphs into a game of cat-and-mouse.
info
Movie: Gummo ( 1997 )
Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives.
info
Movie: Never Grow Old ( 2019 )
A once-peaceful frontier town becomes a den of vice after vicious outlaw Dutch Albert and his gang arrive and begin gunning down their opposition. Undertaker Patrick Tate must now choose between the blood money he makes burying the murderers' victims and the threats he and his family face as the death toll continues to rise.
info
Movie: Pay It Forward ( 2000 )
A young boy attempts to make the world a better place after his teacher gives him that chance.
info
Movie: Heavenly Creatures ( 1994 )
Two teenage girls share a unique bond; their parents, concerned that the friendship is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.
info
Movie: Appaloosa ( 2008 )
Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.
info
Movie: The Hurricane ( 2000 )
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
info
Movie: Lord of the Flies ( 1990 )
After a plane crash in the ocean, a group of military students reach an island. Ralph organizes the boys, assigning responsibilities for each one. When the rebel Jack Merridew neglects the fire camp and they lose the chance to be seen by a helicopter, the group split under the leadership of Jack. While Ralph rationalizes the procedures, Jack returns to the primitivism, using the fear for the unknown (in a metaphor to the religion) to control the other boys, and hunting and chasing pigs, stealing the possession of Ralph's group and even killing people.
info
Movie: Elle ( 2016 )
A successful businesswoman gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the unknown man who raped her.
info
Movie: Wild at Heart ( 1990 )
Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
info
Movie: A Dangerous Method ( 2011 )
A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
info
Movie: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ( 2007 )
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parent's jewelry store the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that sends them, their father and one brother's wife hurtling towards a shattering climax.
info
Movie: Bitter Moon ( 1994 )
British couple Fiona (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) and Nigel (Hugh Grant) are sailing to Istanbul en route to India. They encounter a beautiful French woman, and that night, Nigel meets her while dancing alone in the ship's bar. Later, he meets her crippled American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote), who tells him their story. While living in Paris for several years trying to be a writer, he becomes obsessed with a woman he met by chance on a bus. He tracks her down and they start a steamy love affair. Soon, Oscar finds himself enslaved body and soul by her love, and continues to tell Nigel the details of this relationship in various stages over several visits to Oscar's cabin.
info
Movie: Watership Down ( 1978 )
Hoping to escape destruction by human developers and save their community, a colony of rabbits, led by Hazel and Fiver, seek out a safe place to set up a new warren.
info
Movie: The Secret of Marrowbone ( 2017 )
A young man and his three younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.
info
Movie: Oliver! ( 1968 )
After being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.
info
Movie: Colette ( 2018 )
Colette is pushed by her husband to write novels under his name. Upon their success, she fights to make her talents known, challenging gender norms.
info
TV Show: 500 Nations ( 1995 )
500 Nations is an eight part documentary which explores the history of the indigenous peoples of North and Central America and their fall to the European conquerors.  
info
Movie: Zardoz ( 1974 )
In the distant future, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity's achievements.
info
Movie: The Donner Party ( 2009 )
Based on the real events of The Donner Party tragedy. The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the western expansion of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846-1847, a number of the trapped settlers joined together in a final effort to reach California and organize a rescue party.
info
Movie: Starman ( 1984 )
An alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona. The government tries to stop them.
info
Movie: Impostor ( 2001 )
In the future, an alien race uses androids as bombs to attack Earth. A government weapons specialist is accused of being one such android and sets out to prove his innocence.
info
Movie: The Brave One ( 2007 )
Struggling to recover emotionally from a brutal assault that killed her fiancé and left her in a coma, a radio personality begins a quest for vengeance against the perpetrators that leaves a bloody trail across New York City.
info
Movie: The Ninth Configuration ( 1980 )
A former marine arrives at a mental asylum housed in a remote castle to run it. There he attempts to rehabilitate the patients by letting them act out their craziest fantasies and desires.
info
Movie: Backcountry ( 2015 )
An urban couple go camping in the woods and find themselves lost in the territory of a predatory black bear.
info
Movie: The English Patient ( 1996 )
At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
info
Movie: Arlington Road ( 1999 )
A man begins to suspect his neighbors are not what they appear to be and their secrets could be deadly.
info
Movie: Burning ( 2021 )
Looks at the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019-2020, known as 'Black Summer'. An exploration of what happened as told from the perspective of victims of the fires, activists and scientists.
info
Movie: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ( 2003 )
An adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris, in which he purports to have been a CIA hitman.
info
Movie: The Fisher King ( 1991 )
A former radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a terrible mistake he made, finds redemption in helping a deranged homeless man who was an unwitting victim of that mistake.
info
Movie: Devil's Knot ( 2014 )
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a Satanic ritual.
info
Movie: Papillon ( 1973 )
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
info
Movie: Runaway Jury ( 2003 )
A juror on the inside and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.
info
Movie: The Ice Storm ( 1997 )
In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.
info
Movie: Big Driver ( 2014 )
A famous mystery writer sets out for revenge after a brutal attack.
info
Movie: Lars and the Real Girl ( 2007 )
In this comedy, Lars Lindstrom is an awkwardly shy young man in a small northern town who finally brings home the girl of his dreams to his brother and sister-in-law's home. The only problem is that she's not real - she's a sex doll Lars ordered off the Internet. But sex is not what Lars has in mind, but rather a deep, meaningful relationship. His sister-in-law is worried for him, his brother thinks he's nuts, but eventually the entire town goes along with his delusion in support of this sweet natured boy that they've always loved.
info
Movie: The Constant Gardener ( 2005 )
A widower is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife's murder, big business, and corporate corruption.
info
Movie: Silent Running ( 1972 )
In a future Earth barren of all flora and fauna, the planet's ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft. When word comes in that the pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed, most of the crew of the Valley Forge rejoice at the prospect of going home. Not so for botanist Freeman Lowell, who loves the forest and its creatures. He kills his colleagues taking the ship deep into space. Alone on the craft with his only companions being three small robots, Lowell revels in joys of nature. When colleagues appear to "rescue" him, he realizes he has only one option available to him.
info
Movie: Mandingo ( 1975 )
A slave owner in the 1840s trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.
info
Movie: King Kong ( 1976 )
A petroleum exploration expedition comes to an isolated island and encounters a colossal giant gorilla.
info
Movie: Sid and Nancy ( 1986 )
The relationship between Sid Vicious, bassist for British punk group Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is portrayed.
info
Movie: Bully ( 2001 )
A pack of naïve teenagers conspire to murder a mutual friend, whose aggressive demeanour has proven too much.
info
Movie: Tideland ( 2006 )
Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
info
Movie: The Bridges of Madison County ( 1995 )
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson, for four days in the 1960s.
info
Movie: The Ref ( 1994 )
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.
info
Movie: Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind ( 2018 )
An intimate look into the life and work of the revered master comedian and actor, Robin Williams.
info
Movie: Damage ( 1993 )
A Member of Parliament falls passionately in love with his son's girlfriend despite the obvious dangers.
info
Movie: Secret in Their Eyes ( 2015 )
A tight-knit team of rising investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.
info
Movie: Use of Force: The Policing of Black America ( 2022 )
Police killings of unarmed black and brown men and women have brought relations between law enforcement and communities of color to an all-time low. What is happening? How can we solve this epidemic? USE OF FORCE is a documentary that delves into the fatal encounters between police and people of color in America. The film will highlight the personal stories of victims...Read all
info
Movie: The War of the Roses ( 1989 )
A married couple try everything to get each other to leave the house in a vicious divorce battle.
info
Movie: The Piano ( 1993 )
A mute woman is sent to 1850s New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner, but is soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation.
info
Movie: Girl with a Pearl Earring ( 2004 )
A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
info
Movie: The Mission ( 1986 )
Jeremy Irons plays a Spanish Jesuit who goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region. Robert De Niro plays a slave hunter who is converted and joins the Jesuit in his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.
info
Movie: Foxcatcher ( 2014 )
U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.
info
Movie: Elephant ( 2003 )
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
info
Movie: The Vanishing ( 1993 )
The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.
info
Movie: Lizzie ( 2018 )
A psychological thriller based on the infamous 1892 murders of the Borden family.
info
Movie: Dead Calm ( 1989 )
After a tragedy, John Ingram and his wife Rae are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.
info
Movie: Hoffa ( 1992 )
Jack Nicholson's portrait of Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa, as seen through the eyes of his friend Bobby Ciaro (Danny DeVito). This film follows Hoffa's struggle to shape America's most influential labor union through his countless battles with the RTA. As he fights for workers' rights, Hoffa locks horns with industry management, organized crime and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In 1975, four years after serving his prison term, Hoffa disappears, in one of America's most fascinating unsolved crime mysteries.
info
Movie: Midnight Express ( 1978 )
On October 6, 1970 while boarding an international flight out of Istanbul Airport, American Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is caught attempting to smuggle two kilos of hashish out of the country, the drugs strapped to his body. He is told that he will be released if he cooperates with the authorities in identifying the person who sold him the hashish. Billy's troubles really begin when after that assistance, he makes a run for it and is recaptured. He is initially sentenced to just over four years for possession, with no time for the more harsh crime of smuggling. The prison environment is inhospitable in every sense, with a sadistic prison guard named Hamidou (Paul L. Smith) ruling the prison, he who relishes the mental and physical torture he inflicts on the prisoners for whatever reason. Told to trust no one, Billy does befriend a few of the other inmates, namely fellow American Jimmy Booth (Randy Quaid) (in for stealing two candlesticks from a mosque), a Swede named Erich (Norbert Weisser), and one of the senior prisoners having already served seven years, an Englishman named Max (Sir John Hurt), the latter two also in for hashish-related charges. One prisoner not befriended is Rifki (Paolo Bonacelli), who wields power in the prison as the unofficial eyes and ears for the guards. As Billy, his family and his girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) attempt through legal and diplomatic channels for Billy's release, Max tells him that the only way out is to "catch the midnight express" (escape), which is what Jimmy is continually trying to do. When Billy's situation changes, he becomes more desperate in every sense of the word. It seems as if Billy has only two options: to let the prison ultimately figuratively then literally kill him, or to somehow regain control of his life through whatever means available.
info
Movie: Rampart ( 2012 )
Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival.
info
Movie: The Hours ( 2003 )
The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
info
Movie: Cleveland Abduction ( 2015 )
A single mother who becomes the first victim of kidnapper Ariel Castro finds herself trapped in his home for 11 years, where she eventually becomes a friend and sister to two other women who are taken captive by Castro.
info
Movie: Cat People ( 1982 )
A young woman's sexual awakening brings horror when she discovers her urges transform her into a monstrous black leopard.
info
Movie: Bad Lieutenant ( 1992 )
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness and redemption.
info
Movie: Boys Don't Cry ( 2000 )
A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.
info
Movie: The Pledge ( 2001 )
A retiring police detective pledges to catch the killer of a young child.
info
Movie: An American Crime ( 2007 )
The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
info
Movie: Carnal Knowledge ( 1971 )
Chronicling the lifelong sexual development of two men who meet and become friends in college.
info
Movie: Black Book ( 2006 )
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
info
Movie: State of Grace ( 1990 )
A New York cop is recruited to return to his hometown and infiltrate the mob ran by his best friend's brother.