Comments on: Trippy movie recommendations

Question: Trippy movie recommendations

marsha56 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 01:41:34 -0800

What are your favorite 'trippy' movies? Please, no science fiction or horror, since these genres are trippy by definition and because I'm not really a fan of either.

What makes for a 'trippy' movie? Weird enough to induce a 'trip' or trance-like state, ie, something other than straight forward story telling.

Examples of what I'm looking for: McCabe and Mrs Miller, Apocolyse Now (especially Redux version), Big Lebowski, Night of the Hunter, Moulin Rouge, Baghdad Cafe, Harold and Maude.

By: Jim Jones

Jim Jones — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:08:29 -0800

I don't really understand this question. Can you rephrase? I've seen bits of Moulin Rouge and I saw Harold and Maude a long time ago and I can't see that they have anything in common that could be defined as "trippy."

Is the trance-like state induced in the viewer? Are you asking for movies that are not filmed in a traditional manner? Uh, something like Welcome to the Dollhouse?

By: geoff.

geoff. — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:28:59 -0800

David Lynch's Eraserhead is going to come up here sooner or later. Good luck finding it.

Oh Stanely Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" I feel as if I've been talking this a lot lately. It has this weird narcotic feel to it, with the lighting overwhelms and the dialog slows it down. It has a weird, warm feel to it.

Apocolypse Now is probably the epitome of trippy movie for me. The whole thing takes on a weird mysterious feeling as they travel up the river, really peaking when they reach the bridge that gets blown up every night and rebuilt every day.

By: qwerty155

qwerty155 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:04:54 -0800

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?
I'm may be in a minority of one, but I really liked How I Won the War as well.

By: marsha56

marsha56 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:17:04 -0800

Jim Jones, yeah, I guess you're right. The movies I listed are movies that induced a trance-like state in me.

I delibarately choose movies as examples that are very different. Actually, I suppose Harold and Maude is a fairly straight forwardly told story, but the subject matter is so strange (suicide and a sweetly told love story between an 80-year old woman and a 17 year old young man) and because I'm of an age that I can't help loving the Cat Stevens soundtrack, that this movie always puts me in a beautiful place.

I'm not however talking about films that I really love and that are well done but are 'normal' enough that they send me 'round the bend. I love everything Kate Hepburn ever did, but her movies don't have the effect that I'm describing here.

Hope I answered your question.

By: marsha56

marsha56 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:26:09 -0800

Thanks geoff. Our shared reaction to ApocNow tells me that I've got to check out Eraser and Eyes.

By: marsha56

marsha56 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:31:00 -0800

Thanks qwerty155. I've never heard of How I Won the War, but it sounds interesting. Heard of Fear and Loathing, just haven't got around to it and now will. Just love anything that Johnny Depp does.

By: tumult

tumult — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:49:24 -0800

a few I can think of off the top of my head that meet your criteria:

Pi not actually one of my personal favorites, but I know a lot of people who liked it
Requiem for a Dream same director as Pi, has some of the same cast. a very different film, though. some might call the last twenty minutes of it a horror movie.
Waking Life never got to see the whole thing, not sure how good it is. but it seemed very trippy, from what I saw
Jin-Roh japanese animation, one of my all-time favorite movies

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:53:39 -0800

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The Wall.

By: Big Fat Tycoon

Big Fat Tycoon — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:16:57 -0800

Any film by Alexander Jodorowsky. Maybe start with El Topo or Santa Sangre.

By: CKZ

CKZ — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:29:10 -0800

Natural Born Killers.

By: purephase

purephase — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:30:50 -0800

Any Paul Thomas Anderson flicks, like Punch Drunk Love, or Boogie Nights.

I just saw I Heart Hucabees, and in a similar style, you could check out Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Rushmore, or The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson makes some great movies).

By: kitschbitch

kitschbitch — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:44:08 -0800

The first time I saw Yellow Submarine I did ask myself if I'd just had a spliff without remembering doing so....

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:54:54 -0800

Tarkovsky's Solyaris. (Nominally sci-fi, but not in any traditional sense.)

Triplets of Belleville

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

By: goofyfoot

goofyfoot — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:57:41 -0800

Phantom of the Paradise, for one, and Fellini Sayricon, for another. Especially the latter.

By: goofyfoot

goofyfoot — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:59:59 -0800

sorry: Satyricon.

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:07:45 -0800

Withnail and I

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:08:10 -0800

Delicatessen and City of Lost Children probably fit the bill pretty nicely...

By: Espoo2

Espoo2 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:08:31 -0800

Werner Herzog's Aguirre, The Wrath of God definitely induces a trance-like state. Very highly recommended, if you've not seen it.

By: Turtle

Turtle — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:21:28 -0800

Zabriskie Point?

By: hardcode

hardcode — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:36:58 -0800

Baraka

By: spartacusroosevelt

spartacusroosevelt — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:45:49 -0800

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 05:48:07 -0800

Utena : The Movie.
Okay, okay, so it's anime. But it has a girl turning into a car, Escher-esque architecture shots, shadow puppet narrators.... If that's not trippy I don't know what is.

By: gsb

gsb — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:29:23 -0800

Winter Kills

Dark Wind, OK, this has bad reviews but has a great pulse. It's like watching fish in a tank.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:36:21 -0800

David Lynch's Eraserhead is going to come up here sooner or later. Good luck finding it.

Eraserhead (region 1, available only from Lynch's website, but readily available)

Eraserhead (region 2)

"Region 0" bootlegs are easily found on eBay too, though with legitimate releases available there's no reason other than price to go for those.

The Greencine.com rental service carries the US release, though you'd probably have to wait 18 months or more for your turn to see it.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:42:28 -0800

Begotten

By: googly

googly — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:52:18 -0800

Hmmm. Your definition of "trippy" seems basically to mean "non-linear narrative," which could be applied to hundreds and hundreds of movies. But if you want some seriously fucked-up, non-linear movies that make you scratch your head, try:

Track 29

A truly weird Scandinavian film called Songs from the Second Floor.

Another Scandinavian movie (actually a miniseries): The Kingdom, which, IIRC, was billed in the US as "like ER on acid."

Anything by Jan Svankmajer, especially Alice .

Anything by Peter Greenaway, especially Belly of an Architect, A Zed & Two Noughts, and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover.

I suppose I should warn you that, at the risk of sounding pretentious, if you thought Harold and Maude was "trippy" then these might not be your cup of tea.

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:56:45 -0800

Donnie Darko. Maybe also Memento or The Machinist?

Definitely all have that weirdness one might think of as trippy.

By: ChrisR

ChrisR — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:00:48 -0800

This is only really valid if you don't mind leaving actual storytelling completely behind and going over to a music-video-like experience.

The Gate to the Mind's Eye and (at least) its sister movie Odyssey Into the Mind's Eye. Those two I've seen, the rest of the series may or may not work.

[Warning: Old-school computer animation, reminiscent of a 3D design school term project]

By: Lockeownzj00

Lockeownzj00 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:25:47 -0800

Waking Life is definitely a good suggestion. The visuals are amazing, especially if youre doing what i think you might be. Definitely Fear and Loathing (just saw again for 6th time yesterday), The Wall, Being John Malkovich might just mess with you right in an altered state.

Great Suggestions so far.

By: matteo

matteo — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:28:51 -0800

I second Eraserhead and Pi. but my first choice would be Von Stroheim's Greed, tho

By: leapingsheep

leapingsheep — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:28:57 -0800

Microcosmos

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:51:51 -0800

Jacob's Ladder
Mulholland Dr

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:04:02 -0800

Fantasia. Although it's not so much a good trippy movie as it's a good movie to see while tripping.

By: marsha56

marsha56 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:22:58 -0800

I suppose I should warn you that, at the risk of sounding pretentious, if you thought Harold and Maude was "trippy" then these might not be your cup of tea.

Not pretentious googly, just young. I'm a lot older than most MeFi members. I'm 48 soon to be 49.

Harold and Maude was released in 1971. I remember seeing it shortly afterwards. It was considered a cult classic at the time. It ran at a local theatre here in Minneapolis for years and years, along with a Bergman parody, De Duva.

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:58:12 -0800

What The Bleep Do We Know? is definitely trippy.

Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad is also a bit of a different film experience.

By: spilon

spilon — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 09:02:07 -0800

I'll nominate Head, the first Pokemon movie, and the Star Wars Christmas Special. Oh, and The Big Lebowski. There's also those Koyanasquaatsi (or however you spell it) movies. Good trippy stuff all around.

By: biscotti

biscotti — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 09:05:44 -0800

Ooh, some good suggestions here!

I'll suggest the original Norwegian Insomnia, it's available in a really nice Criterion edition on DVD and it's pretty trippy movie (if I'm interpreting the way you mean "trippy" correctly). The Hollywood remake was nowhere near as bad as I'd worried it would be (the orginal is one of my desert island movies), but the orginal is just genius (deep and subtle and surreal).

By: box

box — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 09:08:57 -0800

I definitely second the three Qatsi movies. Also:
2001
Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal
Wave Twisters
Decasia

By: marcschil

marcschil — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 09:24:52 -0800

Blue Velvet has some extremely trippy moments.

By: loquax

loquax — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 09:34:40 -0800

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me too.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:02:07 -0800

Here's one for "trippy," I guess:

Hitler: Ein Film aus Deutschland, also known as Hitler, A Film from Germany, 1978, dir. by Hans-Juergen Syberberg. Intelligent film essay about Hitler's impact on the modern project of democracy. Also, eight hours long, no characters (except, well, Hitler), no sets, no plot. Shot entirely in a studio, with minimal props. Includes: Hitler as Charlie Chaplin, Hitler as Frankenstein, Hitler as hand-puppet, two hours from Hitler's chauffer, and other things. Brilliant, just brilliant, with the kind of speeches that you struggle to remember; the experience of failing to remember things like that for eight hours, coupled with the need, after about three hours in, to pry your eyes open just to keep watching, is wholly worth it. Not recommended for drug-accompanied viewing, as the film is very like a drug itself.

After watching that movie, I can genuinely say that movies were very different experiences for me. That is: I learned to be patient, and started to wish that all movies were three hours long; you can get so much more done in that time.

(But I wonder if this is what you're after.)

By: Gortuk

Gortuk — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:02:54 -0800

Russian Ark

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:06:40 -0800

Lipstick On Your Collar written by Dennis Potter. The Tempest directed by Paul Mazursky. Hope and Glory by John Boorman. Sullivan's Travels by Preston Sturges.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:16:09 -0800

I hope it doesn't fall into the impermissible sci-fi category; does anyone remember Liquid Sky?

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:18:26 -0800

Another trippy candidate: My Dinner With Andre, though the trip is not in the eyes, but in the head. What intriguing images are painted by Andre Gregory.

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:25:43 -0800

Bringing Out the Dead, Goodfellas, Casino. The last 30 minutes of Magnolia are pretty fucking trippy.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:35:26 -0800

Hausu.
Possession.

Granted, those two are nominally horror films, but only nominally.

Furthermore:
Head
George Washington
Morvern Callar

I would also recommend almost anything by Nicolas Roeg or Dennis Potter, so the recommendation of Track 29 earlier up makes perfect sense.

By: gaby

gaby — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:45:39 -0800

A cracking pair:

Koyaanisqatsi
Powaqqatsi

Excellent sunday afternoon visuals.

By: borkingchikapa

borkingchikapa — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:47:19 -0800

I second all the Wes Anderson movies, but I'm surprised no one's mentioned Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:55:02 -0800

A reminder that the Mulholland Drive Support Group is available for the terminally confounded.

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:52:07 -0800

Dracula: Pages from the Virgin's Diary

I second the Svankmajer recommendation, though the only thing of his I've seen is Little Otik.

I think Decasia would have been much better had it been about half as long.

By: obloquy

obloquy — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:57:51 -0800

I second Head. Also,
Myra Breckenridge
The Saddest Music In The World
Repo Man

By: abcde

abcde — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:02:24 -0800

Abre Los Ojos/Vanilla Sky, though the latter is in more of a "Dude, did I just totally blow your mind or what?" mode.

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:18:32 -0800

Adaptation fits right into that mold.

By: muckster

muckster — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:35:16 -0800

For my synapses, animation is where it's at: Akira, Ghost in the Shell, anything by Miyazaki, especially Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, Yellow Submarine, Waking Life.

2001 is the essential trippy movie, also the first two qatsi movies. Sun Ra's Space is the Place. Last Walz. The Grateful Dead Movie. It. Un Chien Andalou. Anything by David Lynch. Anything by Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the wallpaper.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, though. I don't see how you can rule out all Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and include Harold and Maude and Night of the Hunter.

By: muckster

muckster — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:45:54 -0800

Oh. I think I get it. You want movies that induce a dream-like state? Try: Ozu, Wong Kar-Wai, Abbas Kiarostami, Tsai Ming-Liang, Leos Carax, Fellini, Sokurov, Hou Hsiao-hsien. "Something other than straight forward story telling" includes A LOT of movies. Have fun exploring.

By: SoftRain

SoftRain — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:56:21 -0800

Performance. It's kind of like the Rocky Horror Picture Show if it weren't a rock opera and if it was a British gangster laying low with Mick Jagger and lots of drugs. It's really awesome.

By: muckster

muckster — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:02:35 -0800

Come to think of it, I'd argue that every movie induces are dreamlike state--it's what movies do, they're shared dreams. Some are just better than others, more beautiful, strange, unpredictable. So essentially, you're asking for recommendations for "good movies?" I'd agree with googly that "Harold & Maude" is not very trippy. A cult classic, yes. Trippy, no.

One more suggestion, to make up for the argument: Godard. If you're familiar with all his old stuff, see his latest, "Notre Musique." Odd and powerful.

By: wolftrouble

wolftrouble — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:42:55 -0800

I cannot believe this thread has gone this far without Beyond The Valley The Dolls. It just doesn't really get any trippier, IMHO.

By: damn yankee

damn yankee — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:57:33 -0800

The original Manchurian Candidate

The Parallax View

The Lathe of Heaven

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Brazil, or Fight Club.

Fritz the Cat.

By: mdpc98

mdpc98 — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:01:10 -0800

ninja bachelor party (a bill hicks production)

By: mai

mai — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:05:56 -0800

Anything with elaborate animation (Ghost in the Shell, Fantasia, the new version of Metropolis) is made about ten times trippier with the sound off and some good trance music on instead. And I don't even usually like trance music much. This technique also makes the films better in general, and is great for visually appealing animations with bad plots.

By: vers

vers — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:16:02 -0800

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

And Aria

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:57:33 -0800

Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Lots of Ingmar Bergman pictures, notably Cries and Whipsers (a.k.a. Viskningar och rop).

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:02:50 -0800

Er, that's Whispers, heh.

And I second Metropolis.

By: DyRE

DyRE — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:12:29 -0800

Movies that have entranced me that aren't already mentioned (or maybe I just missed them):

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (The Director's Cut)
The Coen Brothers' Barton Fink and Fargo
Win Wenders's Wings of Desire
Ryutaro Nakamura's Serial Experiments Lain
Tony Scott's Man On Fire
Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie
Luc Besson's Léon/The Professional
David Lynch's Mulholland Dr.
Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo

Serial Experiments Lain is actually a series, not a film. Its whole is about five and a half hours long, if I remember correctly, but it is absolutely entrancing, both watching all episodes at once or watching them individually with time between.
Mulholland Drive I liked less after I was informed what exactly was going on after watching it. I still think the film is well-made but, in case it makes any difference to you, I want to mention that the explanation felt like a cop-out to putting more meaning behind it. Then again, I do still like the film.
Also, 21 Grams felt like it was dragging somewhat, but I was still mostly into it. It just felt long.

There's a Martin Scorsese film called After Hours I saw part of late at night once and it seemed like the weirdest, random thing at the time. I haven't had the opportunity to watch it in its entirety since then but it was rather captivating and strange when I saw what I did of it.

Plus I'll second:

Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (the original cutnot redux)
Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead
Christopher Nolan's Memento
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin-Rô
Mamoru Oshî's Ghost In The Shell
Darren Aronofsky's Pi
David Fincher's Fight Club

The first time I saw Fight Club it was less captivating than it has become for me. I was actually getting a little tired of all the violence and vandelism shortly before the scene where the twist is revealed, at which point I was totally completely back into it.

By: warhol

warhol — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:52:09 -0800

Prospero's Books

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:52:15 -0800

Not just Koyaanisqatsi, but Powaqqatsi too! Also.. Man With a Movie Camera. It was made in 1929, but it has modern soundtrack versions.. with The Cinematic Orchestra's being the best. My father has watched it four times in the last two weeks alone..

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:52:49 -0800

Errr, I meant Naqoyqatsi, rather.. as Powaq was already mentioned :-) Naqoy is probably the most trippy visually, though Koy has the trippiest music.

By: muckster

muckster — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 17:08:14 -0800

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 17:11:39 -0800

Themroc
Playtime

And loud! seconds for Baraka, Brazil and Eraserhead (in order of increasing darkness).

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:19:01 -0800

the maxx. it's a cartoon and vaguely fantasy horror, but awesome.

for trance inducing (which to me is somewhat different from trippy), one might have a look at peter greenaway's the falls. Not for the faint of heart though. I believe that there's even an interview with Greenaway where he explicitly recommends that viewers not watch the whole thing in one sitting.

By: idontlikewords

idontlikewords — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 21:47:32 -0800

If you're patient, try Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line. It's long and slow, but that's not the only reason it will put you in a trance. Also, while Herzog's been brought up a few times here, I've seen no mention of Fassbinder. Try "The American Soldier" for a start. It starts slow, but the last 10 minutes or so are beyond trippy. On a personal level, Apocalypse Now will always be high on my list, if only because I was insanely stoned the first time I saw it, and about 5 seconds before Sheen asks Lawrence Fishburne's character how old he is, I wondered (out loud, to my stoned friends), "Shit... How old was he in this?" Good times!

By: marsha56

marsha56 — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 01:38:18 -0800

Thanks everyone. Many, many, many great suggestions. I can tell I'm going to have to completely redo my NetFlix queue. And I'm ready to concede that H & M may be a movie I love but may not be truly 'trippy' and may not belong on my list of examples. Forgive me, it is a movie that has been on my mind a lot lately due to a tiny little unrequited crush that I let myself have on a sweet young man less than half my age (but over 21).

By: terrapin

terrapin — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 04:59:18 -0800

My wife turned me on to Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis last year, and was very impressed with the trip factor.

By: muckster

muckster — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 08:06:03 -0800

(marsha56, I'm glad you got good suggestions, but I don't think this is the kind of question where you want to mark "Best Answers." Presumably, you haven't seen the movies in question, and "Harold & Maude" shows how subjective the entire thing is anyway.)

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:27:56 -0800

Funny, wackybrit, I thought the music was better in Naqoyqatsi (Yo-Yo Ma!), and the visuals were comparatively pedestrian. Reggio did much better with Fricke, his cinematographer on the first two films (who also made Baraka, mentioned earlier.)

I'm not saying the music in Naqoy isn't better (because, in conventional terms, it is), but it's not as 'trippy' (depending on your definition) as the total insanity of the electronic Koyaanisqatsi track. Yeah, the visuals were a little pedestrian, but I'd say they were trippier due to the content. The visuals in the first two films were of reality, just speeded up, etc.. whereas Naqoyqatsi features a bunch of stuff that you can't even work out. I am not equating 'trippy' with 'good', of course :-)