Emo movies?

January 23, 2008 11:42 AM

Suggestions for movies, TV, or visual media that feels like a Dashboard Confessional song sounds?

Hey it’s January, cut me some slack…

I’ve been listening to Dashboard Confessional lately and I want to find visual media that “feels” the way a Dashboard Confessional song sounds. Self-indulgent, slightly weepy, romantic, pop-culturey – like My So Called Life, Reality Bites, Some Kind of Wonderful, and the Internet series Quarterlife.

What are some movies, television, and Internet series with that description?

posted by squarefrink to media & arts (19 comments total)

The Virgin Suicides. It will totally fill the sighing, weepy, longing, romantic void in your life. You'll be deliciously morose for days afterwards.
posted by iconomy at 11:52 AM on January 23, 2008

Lost in Translation devastates me. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 11:53 AM on January 23, 2008

I assume you've seen Say Anything, yes?
posted by Greg Nog at 12:15 PM on January 23, 2008

I'll second the Virgin Suicides.

Me and You and Everyone We Know also made me feel the way Dashboard Confessional does.
posted by Sufi at 12:16 PM on January 23, 2008

Flickr.
posted by klangklangston at 12:30 PM on January 23, 2008

Thirding Virgin Suicides. I feel it captured the feeling you're describing quite well.

And though I haven't seen it yet, Quiet City definitely seems like it will fit the bill. It's absolutely soaking with it. The trailer almost feels like a parody.

(I still want to see it.)
posted by defenestration at 12:30 PM on January 23, 2008

As for TV... I haven't seen the second season, so I couldn't comment on that, but I can definitely recommend the first season of Friday Night Lights. Surprisingly good.
posted by defenestration at 12:33 PM on January 23, 2008

I had this exchange today:

My friend: sometimes i like to watch rushmore and the royal tenenbaums when i think i need perspective
Me: what perspective is it that those provide?
Friend: "can't your melodrama at least be entertaining? nope? get over it then."

They're obviously not really analogous to Dashboard; they're emo, but hilarious too.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 1:09 PM on January 23, 2008

Dude, Picnic at Hanging Rock is exactly what you're looking for.
posted by the dief at 1:20 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

My So-Called Life
posted by mkultra at 1:35 PM on January 23, 2008

Garden State kind of has that feel to it until the end. Oh, and while not exactly Dashboard or anything, Requiem for a Dream is probably the most utterly depressing movie I've ever seen.
posted by joshrholloway at 1:48 PM on January 23, 2008

Donnie Darko.
posted by afx237vi at 2:06 PM on January 23, 2008

juno. hey, i loved it, but it was still self-indulgent, slightly weepy, romantic, and WAY pop-culturey.
posted by kidsleepy at 2:06 PM on January 23, 2008

Maybe too many laughs in some of these, but they meet the other criteria -

Mysterious Skin
Winter Passing
Pieces of April
The Ice Storm
Desert Blue
Empire Records
Me Without You
Thumbsucker
Singles
Elizabethtown
Roger Dodger
The Basketball Diaries
The Dreamers
posted by fire&wings at 2:40 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

The first season of Scrubs, but by the second season it won't fit your parameters anymore.
posted by ben242 at 2:49 PM on January 23, 2008

Maybe Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell movie). Recent college graduates trying to figure out their lives, lots of obscure pop culture references, kinda weepy, kinda sarcastic funny. Totally great.
posted by wsquared at 8:28 PM on January 23, 2008

The Squid and the Whale makes me want to watch while wearing my black frame glasses. What about The Last Kiss? American Beauty? I have yet to see it, but Shark Vs Eagle looks like it could kind of fit the bill....quirky, awkward, plus it has Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords (which is a fabulous series for when you not feeling so emo, but still in the mood for off-beat, charming, intelligent entertainment), so it can't be all bad. When all else fails, I browse the foreign movie section of the video store...if nothing else, often times the fabulous accents make up for any plot/acting deficiencies.
posted by Bibliogeek at 12:37 AM on January 24, 2008

Thanks all -- mucho appreciado!
posted by squarefrink at 5:52 AM on January 24, 2008

but Shark Vs Eagle looks like it could kind of fit the bill....quirky, awkward, plus it has Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords

Good movie, 1 nitpick -- it's "Eagle Vs. Shark".
posted by inigo2 at 9:50 AM on January 24, 2008