Movies that feel like John Prine songs
March 16, 2022 6:36 PM Subscribe
I am on a John Prine kick. What movies will keep the vibe going? Whimsical, smart & depressing Americana.
the movies August: Osage County, Secondhand Lions, Get Low, Nebraska, and & Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky all scratch this itch.
the movies August: Osage County, Secondhand Lions, Get Low, Nebraska, and & Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky all scratch this itch.
The Straight Story, maybe? It's whimsical and smart, I guess. Not necessarily depressing, though.
posted by jonathanhughes at 6:47 PM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jonathanhughes at 6:47 PM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
O Brother Where Art Though
posted by coevals at 6:49 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by coevals at 6:49 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don't know that either of these are what everyone would call whimsical, but No Country For Old Men and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri come to mind. Both good films in any case.
posted by mewsic at 6:57 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mewsic at 6:57 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not sure I exactly understand the question, but
Hud
The Long Goodbye
Two-Lane Blacktop
Paper Moon (not depressing)
Five Easy Pieces
The Last Picture Show
Badlands
Paris, Texas
Days of Heaven
A Woman Under the Influence
Blood Simple
Smooth Talk
Gummo
posted by dobbs at 7:05 PM on March 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hud
The Long Goodbye
Two-Lane Blacktop
Paper Moon (not depressing)
Five Easy Pieces
The Last Picture Show
Badlands
Paris, Texas
Days of Heaven
A Woman Under the Influence
Blood Simple
Smooth Talk
Gummo
posted by dobbs at 7:05 PM on March 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Florida Project and Red Rocket
Inside Llewyn Davis
Can You Ever Forgive Me
True Stories (way more whimsical than depressive)
posted by leastlikelycowgirl at 7:21 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Inside Llewyn Davis
Can You Ever Forgive Me
True Stories (way more whimsical than depressive)
posted by leastlikelycowgirl at 7:21 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Lars and the Real Girl
posted by drlith at 8:02 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by drlith at 8:02 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy would fall under this category fo rme.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:11 PM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by furnace.heart at 8:11 PM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Cisco Pike
Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Harry Dean Stanton, Gene Hackman, Antonio Fargas, Doug Sahm.
posted by philip-random at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Harry Dean Stanton, Gene Hackman, Antonio Fargas, Doug Sahm.
posted by philip-random at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wise Blood?
Books rather than movies, but as someone missing the States I have been scratching my itch for this stuff via Charles Portis books like "Dog of the South" which has a proto-Coens feel.
posted by johngoren at 3:56 AM on March 17, 2022
Books rather than movies, but as someone missing the States I have been scratching my itch for this stuff via Charles Portis books like "Dog of the South" which has a proto-Coens feel.
posted by johngoren at 3:56 AM on March 17, 2022
Short Cuts?
posted by aka burlap at 5:39 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by aka burlap at 5:39 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wristcutters. It even has Tom Waits to round out the vibe.
posted by hwyengr at 6:09 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hwyengr at 6:09 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Gas Food Lodging
Corner Gas (Canadian but the same vibe)
Wise Blood (based on a Flannery O'Connor novel)
Barry Levinson's Baltimore movies: Diner, Tin Men, Avalon, Liberty Heights
posted by headnsouth at 6:12 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Corner Gas (Canadian but the same vibe)
Wise Blood (based on a Flannery O'Connor novel)
Barry Levinson's Baltimore movies: Diner, Tin Men, Avalon, Liberty Heights
posted by headnsouth at 6:12 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
For whatever reason, Broken Flowers comes to mind.
More along the lines of O Brother is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which was wonderful. Fair warning, the third story in the set is extremely difficult to watch at times.
posted by ftm at 7:08 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
More along the lines of O Brother is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which was wonderful. Fair warning, the third story in the set is extremely difficult to watch at times.
posted by ftm at 7:08 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Station Agent
posted by minervous at 7:14 AM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by minervous at 7:14 AM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
oh! A little-known one called That Evening Sun - amazing cast led by Hal Holbrook. Honestly, this question reminded me that the film exists, so now I want to watch it again.
posted by Occula at 7:15 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Occula at 7:15 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ha! came in to say the Station Agent as well : ) good call, minervous : )
posted by elgee at 8:22 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by elgee at 8:22 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Waitress
posted by lunasol at 9:04 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by lunasol at 9:04 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Trees Lounge, and maybe Ghost World? Nth-ing Down By Law.
posted by Occula at 9:16 AM on March 17, 2022
posted by Occula at 9:16 AM on March 17, 2022
The director of Nebraska, Alexander Payne, did a movie set in his hometown of Omaha, About Schmidt. Its a dark comedy, and while the soundtrack isn't Americana the movie is very much one of my favorites and I think could be made to fit this 'vibe'.
posted by zenon at 9:34 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by zenon at 9:34 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Junebug
posted by karayel at 10:16 AM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by karayel at 10:16 AM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
This is a documentary rather than a feature film but Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus covers music on the Southern Gothic end of the spectrum.
I also second the Broken Flowers rec above. Bill Murray searching for his exes, each is more distant and less knowable than the last.
posted by vunder at 10:16 AM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
I also second the Broken Flowers rec above. Bill Murray searching for his exes, each is more distant and less knowable than the last.
posted by vunder at 10:16 AM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
I posted Bottle Rocket to the follow up question, but I see it also fits this original question!
posted by LKWorking at 10:25 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by LKWorking at 10:25 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Harlan County USA Is a documentary from 1976 about striking coal miners.
posted by Bourbonesque at 12:57 PM on March 17, 2022
posted by Bourbonesque at 12:57 PM on March 17, 2022
Not exactly what you asked, but because you didn't mention it and no one else has either, you know there was a movie he was in and wrote music for, right? Daddy & Them, which he wrote "Fish & Whistle" for. It would be a Prine-vibe movie even without him in it.
posted by rhiannonstone at 1:36 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rhiannonstone at 1:36 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
these are sort of all over the map but:
Buffalo 66
Barton Fink
The Apostle
Swedish Auto
Terms of Endearment
Home for the Holidays
Short Cuts (and probably lots more of Altman)
The Sweet Hereafter
The Milagro Beanfield War
Lone Star
Coming of age sort of stuff:
Stand By Me
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Man in the Moon
Darker:
Winters Bone
The Cooler
My Own Private Idaho
The Ice Storm
Weird:
Hearts of Fire
Straight to Hell
Sillier:
Lost in America
Maybe the Elmore Leonard-adapted movies. Out of Sight is the most interesting and bittersweet. Then there's Get Shorty, etc.
I really hate it but:
Natural Born Killers
And if you haven't seen it, Deliverance.
Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
Jim White
a perfect day to chase tornadoes
while it's not exactly right, googling "slice of life movies" (or "dramadies") will get a lot of these.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:33 PM on March 17, 2022
Buffalo 66
Barton Fink
The Apostle
Swedish Auto
Terms of Endearment
Home for the Holidays
Short Cuts (and probably lots more of Altman)
The Sweet Hereafter
The Milagro Beanfield War
Lone Star
Coming of age sort of stuff:
Stand By Me
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Man in the Moon
Darker:
Winters Bone
The Cooler
My Own Private Idaho
The Ice Storm
Weird:
Hearts of Fire
Straight to Hell
Sillier:
Lost in America
Maybe the Elmore Leonard-adapted movies. Out of Sight is the most interesting and bittersweet. Then there's Get Shorty, etc.
I really hate it but:
Natural Born Killers
And if you haven't seen it, Deliverance.
Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
Jim White
a perfect day to chase tornadoes
while it's not exactly right, googling "slice of life movies" (or "dramadies") will get a lot of these.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:33 PM on March 17, 2022
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posted by Grandysaur at 6:37 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]