Logan Lucky crossed with Gone Girl?

October 13, 2017 8:13 PM

I'm looking for non-nihilistic, character-driven movies from the past twenty years.

Two movies I've recently seen:

Logan Lucky was sort of fluffy and breezy but it cared about its characters; the movie illustrated people who had flaws but were "whole" or "unbroken" in some way.

Gone Girl was over the top, but it was driven by the interaction of who the characters were. The male lead was sort of an aimless, sleazy pickup artist. The female lead was a sociopath because of an extraordinarily fucked up childhood. And the movie was what happened when you put those two kinds of people together, with enough there that it generated a 2.5 hour movie.

What movies are the spiritual love child of Logan Lucky and Gone Girl?

posted by zeek321 to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Response by poster: (Oh yeah, this question could also be what are some non-nihilistic movie adaptations of novels that give equal airtime or mutual screen time amongst protagonists or between a protagonist and an antagonist?)
posted by zeek321 at 8:17 PM on October 13, 2017

Best answer: Columbus is a recent movie that completely enthralled and enchanted me. She is the daughtwr of a recovering meth user in a mid sized Indiana town. He is the son of a renowned Korean architect who was in the city for a lecture series and was hospitalized, the son staying near his father from a sense of duty after feeling unloved his whole life.

The two meet, become friends, and hang out in the town looking at some great midcentury modern architecture and talking about life and themselves. Shot entirely on location in Columbus, Indiana.

I also thought of Broken Flowers while reading your description and also of Lost In Translation, but they may not be light enough. There's more action in them than in Columbus, though.
posted by janey47 at 8:47 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Queen of Katwe
posted by bluecore at 8:48 PM on October 13, 2017

You might like Hell or High Water. Excellent character driven film about brotherhood and the modern west.
posted by rdnnyc at 8:58 PM on October 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

The Straight Story.
Gosford Park
Captain Phillips
Philomena
posted by epj at 9:25 PM on October 13, 2017

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang comes to mind. Maybe Out Of Sight?
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:28 PM on October 13, 2017

Also, recently, Baby Driver.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:29 PM on October 13, 2017

Italian for Beginners is a Dogme95 movie (meaning that it was shot with natural light only and a few other specifications I forget). It was made by the only female director in that collective, Lone Scherfig. It's very character driven, homey, and whatever the opposite of nihilistic is - about a small ensemble of Danish people who form a club to learn Italian.
posted by karmachameleon at 9:34 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed 20th Century Women from earlier this year, set in the late '70s in Southern California. It's totally driven by the characters - a 50ish woman, her teenage son, her two tenants (an early-20s punk artist and a 40-year-old handyman), the teen girl next door, and various other characters, all of whom seemed pretty true to life.
posted by lisa g at 11:23 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

These movies are all quite different, but I really enjoyed both Gone Girl and Logan Lucky.

Pride
The Incredible Jessica James
Eddie the Eagle
Joy
Carol
posted by ellieBOA at 2:01 AM on October 14, 2017

You might enjoy Paterson. It's definitely character-driven, rather than plot-driven, and Adam Driver is really good in it.
posted by essexjan at 1:45 AM on October 15, 2017

Response by poster: (Went to see Columbus--excellent!! Going to check out many of these others, too.)
posted by zeek321 at 9:44 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]