[Film] Your favourite film that hits 'Rock Bottom'.

[Pogue Mahone]

As well as Spoorloos (mentioned above), Speak No Evil plunged into the depths of human existence.

It’s another film that has stayed with me.

 

[Ghost of Killer Reeves]

Ironweed

 

[Guinness Boy]

Arlington Road for sure. Casino maybe.

Spoiler

(the maybe is because it's the mob and Pesci who eventually hit rock bottom, Di Nero just ends up back where he was)

 

[Pevenseagull]

I think by rock bottom, we could mean tragedy. Where the protagonist has everything and loses it, never to recover it. Hamlet, for example.

Or film noir. Where the protagonist never had it and never ends up with it, despite usually coming close to attaining it or having it briefly. Paradise Alley is a good example of this.

?

Sunset Boulevard!

Also notable because it's pretty clear from the opening scene that things are really not going to go well.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The Lost Weekend with Ray Milland

 

[Pevenseagull]

Speak No Evil plunged into the depths of human existence.

Got a bit confused there, turns out I was thinking of this:




Just looked up "Speak No Evil". I shall give it a go.

 

[Deadly Danson]

Falling Down

"I'm the bad guy?" Great call - one of my "go to" films.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

"I'm the bad guy?" Great call - one of my "go to" films.

In vaguely unrelated news, American English is increasingly and insidiously creeping onto NSC. Last week we had ‘defense’ used to describe our back four, which immediately dragged my mind to Douglas’s number/tag plate in Falling Down, not to making mention me wanting to rush out to the nearest McDonald’s and demand a Whammy Burger made JUST as I like it.

p.s. respect to Stat for using ‘Film’ rather than the American ‘Movie’ in the thread title.

 

[Questions]

Herbie
That’s the worst I ever felt watching a movie.

 

[oxgull]

Spun.
Good film of a similar ilk to Requiem albeit with a different drug preference

 

[studio150]

The Lost Weekend

 

[Stat Brother]

That's what I'm struggling with. So many film arcs involve someone being knocked down and going to a low point, because they have to overcome it and triumph in the end, especially in superhero movies and biographies. How low for it to become rock bottom? (That is largely rhetorical, as you note the parameters are unclear).

2 things:-

A - Having just watched Manchester we're allowed some form of redemption.
&
2 - I'm in for a tough month of film watching.

 

[Stat Brother]

Tomorrow night ends 'Rock Bottom Month' on the Rewatchables.
NSC didn't do too well in prognosticating this time round, but for all you completists out there, the chosen films that descend to Rock Bottom were:-

Manchester By The Sea.
Shot Caller - a very good prison descent film, I've championed on here a few times.
The War of the Roses - Michael Douglas Kathleen Turner.
Magnolia.
&
Hardcore (1979) - George C Scott and his missing daughter.

 

[jakarta]

Ending of Apocalypse Now not too cheerful?

 

[abc]

Quadrophenia

 

[highflyer]

Trainspotting

 

[Van Cleef]

Bad Lieutenant

 

[Comrade Sam]

Kung Fu Hustle

 

[chickens]

Two films that (I believe) hit that category:

1. Happiness (Todd Solondz). - the blackest comedy ever created. The streaming services won’t touch it, so somebody has helpfully uploaded it to YouTube. Proves helpfully that there’s more than one type of rock bottom.

2. Adam and Paul - a semi-realistic portrayal of what it’s like with a heroin addiction when all bridges have been burned, all favours called in, and nobody wants to see your face any more. Manages some humour despite the subject matter, without which it would be a pretty unbearable watch.

 

[SeagullinExile]

Black Flies

New Sean Penn movie. Incredibly dark and pretty horrific at times. Great performance from Penn though. Well worth a watch.