10 Recent Movies NOBODY Saw Coming
The wildest recent movies nobody ever expected.
It's the opinion of many that cinema has never been in a more dismally predictable, even cynical place than it is right now, where studios are leaning harder than ever on established IP and categorically refusing to roll the dice on anything that might pass as halfway original.
So, it's always a pleasant surprise when a movie comes wildly out of left field and shocks everyone, whether with its utterly unhinged premise or its sheer surprising quality against tremendous odds. And one or both of those statements are true of the following 10 recent movies, which arrived suddenly as if conjured by originality-starved audiences themselves craving anything but the expected.
They weren't perfect by any means, and some of them were clearly tailor-made for only the most adventurous and permissive of film lovers, but all the same, these movies released without oodles of hype or massive marketing campaigns, only to become some of the most distinctive projects of the past 12 months.
Again, your mileage will vary from film to film, but if you're in the market for something unique or challenging, look no further than this lot.
10. Sasquatch Sunset
You couldn't be blamed for assuming that this drama in which Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough dress up as members of a sasquatch family was an April Fool's Day prank - or better yet, an SNL skit.
But indeed, Sasquatch Sunset is a totally earnest fantasy-drama in which Eisenberg, Keough, and co-stars Christophe Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner don some genuinely Oscar-worthy bigfoot makeup to play sasquatches totally straight - and totally wordlessly - for all of the film's 88 minutes.
Now, that's not to say that Sasquatch Sunset isn't without its humourous moments, but this bold experiment takes its production and very existence totally seriously. Seriously enough to premiere at last year's Sundance Film Festival, even.
While its sparse, quiet nature won't be for all tastes, it's refreshing to see such a clever fusion of the mundane and the absurd, lending its cast a rare opportunity to act in a wholly different register, using body language and facial expressions to tell the story.