Best movies like Cremaster 2
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
CREMASTER 2 (1999) is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 986
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: experimental, independent film, avant garde, atmospheric, mind bending, offbeat, gothic, bleak, epic, serious
Best tv shows and movies like Cremaster 2 (1999):
Similar in 88%
The Toe Tactic (2008)
Plot Summary:
Mona is nearly overwhelmed by grief and depression. After her father's death, she's cut herself off: leaving teaching - she now temps as an office assistant, ignoring her mother's calls, talking to herself in mirrors, and rejecting any offered intimacy. She's watched over by comic extraterrestrial beings whom we see as cartoon squiggles. They ensure that random acts bring her connections - with a neighbor boy, his mother, and his surreptitious piano teacher (the lad wants to surprise his mom). She also meets an elevator operator in the building where she temps for Ms. Hadaway, a widow with perfect diction. Can Mona take a few steps on the road to expressing emotion?.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 179
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, surreal, stylized, anime, offbeat
Similar in 77%
Soi Cowboy (2008)
Plot Summary:
This film concerns a Scandinavian gentleman who works in film, perhaps as a sort of financier/director/producer. He lives in Thailand with his Thai girlfriend, and most of the film is an exploration of that relationship. We also see her brother, and a gangster that he works for.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Thailand, UK
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, experimental, offbeat, surreal, gloomy, sexual, neo noir
Similar in 84%
Gulf Stream Under the Iceberg (2012)
Plot Summary:
Adam’s first wife Lilith is mentioned in the ancient Oriental legends, in Talmud and in the medieval books of Cabala. According to these sources, she was not created from Adam's rib like Eve but from clay like he himself. Nevertheless Lilith was not recognised by Adam as his equal and left him after a quarrel heading for Babylon. She has no soul, and she is immortal. Lilith assumes different names, can change her appearance, and takes possession of men against their will. Once it's accomplished, she leaves her victims forever, marking them for either spiritual, or physical death. Whatever she does it is neither Good nor Evil. She is made of an altogether different matter. Inspired by the works of French writer Anatole France, Yevgeny Pashkevich‘s GULF STREAM UNDER THE ICEBERG consists of three dramatically interwoven stories with the immortal Lilith stalking through time and space with her demonic mission.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Drama
Country: Latvia, Russia, Malta, Austria
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, stylized, exciting, captivating, controversial, offbeat
Similar in 75%
Cremaster 5 (1997)
Plot Summary:
Cremaster 5 (55 min, 1997) is a five-act opera (sung in Hungarian) set in late-ninteenth century Budapest. The last film in the series, Cremaster 5 represents the moment when the testicles are finally released and sexual differentiation is fully attained. The lamenting tone of the opera suggests that Barney invisions this as a moment of tragedy and loss. The primary character is the Queen of Chain (played by Ursula Andress). Barney, himself, plays three characters who appear in the mind of the Queen: her Diva, Magician, and Giant. The Magician is a stand-in for Harry Houdini, who was born in Budapest in 1874 and appears as a recurring character in the Cremaster cycle.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 764
Genere: Musical, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: experimental, independent film, atmospheric, mind bending, offbeat, epic, serious, surreal, stylized, sexual
Similar in 87%
Wavelength (1967)
Plot Summary:
Wavelength consists of almost no action, and what action does occur is largely elided. If the film could be said to have a conventional plot, this would presumably refer to the three “character” scenes. Snow’s intent for the film was “a summation of my nervous system, religious inklings and aesthetic ideas,” he said of the 45-minute-long zoom that incorporates in its time frame four human events, including a man’s death. In the first scene two people enter a room, chat briefly, and listen to “Strawberry Fields Forever” on the radio. Later, a man (played by filmmaker Hollis Frampton) enters inexplicably and dies on the floor. And last, the female owner of the apartment is heard and seen on the phone, speaking, with strange calm, about the dead man in her apartment whom she has never seen before.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Short, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: experimental, contemplative, underground film, surreal, avant garde, psychedelic, art house, deviant, slow cinema, independent film
Similar in 76%
From What Is Before (2014)
Plot Summary:
The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 820
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 338 min
Plot tags: bleak, atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, captivating, intense, independent film, black and white, visual
Similar in 86%
American Gun (2002)
Plot Summary:
A brilliant story with an unexpected twist. A father uses the serial number on a hand gun in an attempt to track down his daughter's killer. The truth he uncovers is an unsettling reminder of the dangers of keeping handguns. Stars the legendary James Coburn and the incredibly gifted Virginia Madsen. Written and directed by Alan Jacobs.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, suspenseful, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 76%
It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine. (2007)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of Paul (Steven C. Stewart), a man suffering from Cerebal Palsy, who spends his days wasting away in a nursing home. To pass his time, he fantasizes about the man he should be despite his twisted body. People are able to understand him verbally, women find him irresistable, and his is a legitimate threat to anyone who stands in his way. His thoughts deatil four possible relationships he would have and their various outcomes. At one point, he receives (unsimulated) fellatio from another handicapped patient. Very sexual film that has it's moments of humor despite the seriousness of the topic - a perfectly "normal" mind trapped in twisted flesh that cannot communicate normally with the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 433
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, experimental, surreal, explicit, erotic, controversial, realistic, sexual, underground film
Similar in 87%
The Angelic Conversation (1985)
Plot Summary:
The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love, in a dreamlike landscape. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare sonnets, that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 894
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: experimental, atmospheric, serious, surreal, contemplative, stylized, sexual, avant garde, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Missing Pieces (2012)
Plot Summary:
A heartbroken man kidnaps two strangers in hopes they will fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, surreal, suspense, psychological, touching, captivating, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 78%
Heart of Glass (1976)
Plot Summary:
A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house, disturbing, experimental, allegory, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, psychological, serious
Similar in 84%
What Is It? (2005)
Plot Summary:
What Is It? is the name of a 2005 experimental film written, starring, funded and directed by Crispin Glover. As of 2008, the film has only been shown at independent theaters, typically accompanied by a question and answer session, slideshow and meet-and-greet/autograph signing with Glover.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 945
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, serious, avant garde, controversial, psychotronic, intelligent, independent film, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 83%
Shirley: Visions of Reality (2013)
Plot Summary:
A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. "Office at Night", "Western Motel", "Usherette", "A Woman in the Sun") into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley’s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 990
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, experimental, postmodern, offbeat, stylized, weird, beautiful
Similar in 87%
All God's Children Can Dance (2008)
Plot Summary:
In Korea Town Los Angeles, a young man, Kengo, believes he's the son of God - that's what his mother told him since he was a young boy. He spends his days working his dead-end job and figuring out his complex feelings for his girlfriend until, one day, he sees a one-eared man who could be his father and decides to follow him around Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, atmospheric, realistic, stylized, contemplative, independent film, art house
Similar in 87%
Heat and Sunlight (1987)
Plot Summary:
A man confronts jealously and rage as a love affair falters.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, exciting, offbeat, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual, fast, surreal
Similar in 87%
Black Limousine (2010)
Plot Summary:
A ghost story set in the city of dreams (IMDb.com).
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 268
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, bleak
Similar in 88%
The Bed You Sleep In (1993)
Plot Summary:
Times are hard for Northwestern lumber-mill operators like Ray and his wife Jean. Ray and Jean's lives are thrown into chaos when their daughter writes home from college.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: independent film, atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, experimental, disturbing, contemplative, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Hours of Light (2004)
Plot Summary:
September 1987. In a shootout with police, Juan Jose Garfia makes a triple murder. Sentenced to more than one hundred years, is a rebel prisoner, clever and elusive that it has nothing to lose and nobody to worry about. In 1991, manages to escape from a police van jumping up. Stopped after two months of robberies and shootings, Garfia leads several prison riots, against which the authorities takes as a measure subjecting prisoners to a more contentious special isolation regime. Garfia, the prisoner with the highest IQ, avoiding drugs, which seems immune to punishment, and lives two years without seeing anyone, held in a tiny cell and subjected to continuous harassment. There he meets Marimar, a nurse I can barely speak, but between both of a current of mutual understanding.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, captivating
Similar in 75%
Weeds (1987)
Plot Summary:
A San Quentin inmate, sentenced to life without paroll, writes a play that catches the interest of a reporter.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 906
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
K-11 (2012)
Plot Summary:
Raymond Saxx Jr., a powerful record producer, wakes from a drug-induced blackout to find himself locked up and classified "K-11." Plunged into a nightmarish world ruled by a transsexual diva named Mousey, Raymond is truly a fish out of water. Complicating matters are a troubled young transgender named Butterfly, a predatory child molester and the ruthless Sheriff's Deputy, Lt. Johnson. Ray's struggle to contact the outside world and regain his freedom seems impossible, but he must learn to navigate this new power structure if he is ever going survive and be in control of his life again.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, bleak, tense, realistic, hispanic, queer cinema, sexploitation film
Similar in 83%
The Glass House (1972)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from a story by Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood"), the world of the prison convict is open to the viewer. As the story develops, one thing becomes clear. As in the outside world, there is a "system"; and just as on the outside, there is accommodation, honesty, cynicism, violence and all the other factors that make up our society. The film follows the three newcomers, it records the grim, terrifying, sometimes fascinating events that occur.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 902
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 79%
Distance (2001)
Plot Summary:
On the eighth anniversary of a cult's failed chemical attack on Tokyo and their subsequent mass suicide, family members of those affected gather at the cult's former base on the shores of a lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, serious, atmospheric, mind bending, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Cremaster 3 (2002)
Plot Summary:
CREMASTER 3 (2002) is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 182 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, atmospheric, stylized, serious, thought provoking, psychedelic, disturbing, independent film, avant garde
Similar in 86%
The Four Times (2010)
Plot Summary:
An old shepherd lives his last days in a quiet medieval village perched high on the hills of Calabria, at the southernmost tip of Italy. He herds goats under skies that most villagers have deserted long ago. He is sick, and believes to find his medicine in the dust he collects on the church floor, which he drinks in his water every day.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, surreal, emotional, realistic, contemplative, existential, philosophical, spiritual, art house
Similar in 82%
Pick-up (1975)
Plot Summary:
Sexy hippie chicks Carol and Maureen get more than they bargained for when they hitch a ride with groovy hippie dude Chuck in his nifty mobile bus home. The trio get lost in the Florida Everglades following a fierce rain storm and embark on a startling spiritual journey of self-discovery.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: cult classic, surreal, grindhouse, mind bending, scary, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, psychotronic
Similar in 81%
Anatomy of a Hate Crime (2001)
Plot Summary:
This MTV film dramatizes the horrific hate-crime killing of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard (Cy Carter) in Wyoming. In 1998, Shepard, a gay college student, was savagely beaten by Russell Henderson (Ian Somerhalder) and Aaron McKinney (Brendan Fletcher), who left their victim to die. Flashbacks paint a picture of Shepard's life and provide insight into why the killers, who initially set out to rob the young man, would commit such a brutal murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, emotional, bleak, serious, realistic, controversial, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Glass Lips (2007)
Plot Summary:
This dialog-free film, originally presented as 33 short films, is an experimental, bizarre set of meditations and flashbacks of the grotesque.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 241
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, disturbing, mind bending, serious, realistic, stylized, experimental, contemplative, sexual
Similar in 88%
Destricted (2006)
Plot Summary:
A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: erotic, anthology, thought provoking, serious, avant garde, controversial, underground film, realistic, experimental, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Sling Blade (1996)
Plot Summary:
Karl Childers is a mentally disabled man who has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, Karl is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 98000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: independent film, southern gothic, neo noir, serious, sincere, touching, bleak, depressing, emotional, sad
Similar in 82%
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
Plot Summary:
The fantastical tale of a little girl who won't - or can't - follow the rules. Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher, even as her brilliant but anguished mother looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, emotional, sincere, sad, uplifting, thought provoking, depressing, spiritual, atmospheric