Hacker Cinema
Red Rocket
2021 · Film · 130 min
Directed by Sean Baker
After hitting rock bottom in Los Angeles, former porn star Mikey Saber returns to his hometown in Texas to stay with his estranged wife and mother-in-law. Just as tensions begin to ease, he becomes infatuated with a young doughnut shop worker named Strawberry.
4 positivefrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
With those preferences stated (I almost listed Lady Bird!) I'd toss on:
- Nomadland — Lonely older woman clinging to the bottom rung of the economic ladder is pushed into van-living and finds community. Basically positive-but-bittersweet vibes by the end, and with a similar strong reliance on setting and mood to something like a Wes Anderson work (though without the precise placement of every single element in frame), but definitely not "cute" like his are, and not about comfortable rich people. Includes many real people living in vans, blurring the lines between fiction and reality (and deftly almost-entirely avoiding the usual problems that come with including non-actors in a film). Lots of great outdoor shooting and lighting work.
- Red Rocket — Struggling, middle-aged male porn star moves back to his small, blue-collar hometown in Texas. We learn about his still-evolving relationships with the people he left behind when he moved away to LA, and see him make some... choices. Probably the most into archetype and symbolism of anything I've listed except maybe The Green Knight. By the end, is very much about its protagonist as a kind of daemon, if you will, of a part of the American experience and spirit (and also a representation of one or more sorts of real person with whom one may be familiar from one's own experience). Great attention to detail for a certain kind of ordinary setting, in the way that Anderson or maybe Miyazaki pay attention to that kind of everyday detail, but employed to obtain perfectly-trashy environs that aren't at all pretty but are also entirely true-to-life, not caricature. If you've spent time in such places, the clutter, the way trash has accumulated, the way in which the miniblinds are broken just so, and the way the people exist in that space, will feel very familiar.
- Eighth Grade — Bo Burnham's only film (I think?). Akin to something like Gerwig's Lady Bird, I'd say, but less heightened and more "real".
Don’t watch Netflix movies. Watch actual lower budget/indie movies like Red Rocket that still look and feel like movies..
Just a quick glance at Letterboxd....
Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Both Knives Out movies
Parasite
Nope (probably just in the "good" grouping, not great)
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That's, uh... just from the "popular this week" screen. And only the ones I've seen, so I know they're good. But I'm pretty sure all those are last five years, or close to it.
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Digging back to 2018 and later (we can say 2018 counts since 2023 just started, right?):
Annihilation
Sorry to Bother You
High Life
Midsommar
Uncut Gems (god it's so good)
Jojo Rabbit
The Lighthouse
The Green Knight
CODA
Spontaneous ([EDIT] It seems very dumb but wow is it a gut punch, when you start to think about what you're watching and make some connections to real life)
Red Rocket (small-scale brilliance)
RRR
Watcher
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I just realized I misread you as asking for 5 good ones from just one of the last 5 years, not 5 total from the last 5 years, but I think that gets the point across? Despite my leaving off a whole bunch that may be more taste-specific, not having watched even 1/3 of the films from that span I have good reason to believe are good, not exhaustively mining that timespan (I bet I could double the size of that list without changing how I was selecting them), and also omitting a bunch of more-popular movies that I think were at least decent.
[EDIT] Hell some years you could get to 2-3 good ones just by looking at what A24 produced that year, nothing else.
> But it's all just perception.
Agree, but "perception" is A LOT. Taking digital media and making it look like film in an artistically skillful way is hard. Shooting in film and making it look good is hard too, in a different way, requiring different skills.
Two films come to mind. Both of them beautifully shot.
Tangerine (https://youtu.be/ALSwWTb88ZU) Was shot with an iPhone 5s-- and yes, there was a lot of work involved in post-production, but it was a deliberate decision. The directory, Sean Baker, later went on to shoot Red Rocket (https://youtu.be/Wfndmy-6e28) this time in 16mm film. Both films are amazing in terms of cinematography and visuals.
Licorice Pizza (https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog-post/licorice-pizza/). The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, exclusively works in film. This was a big-budget production with some A-list actors, he could have shot with whatever digital equipment he wanted but he chose 35mm. Whatever the case, the outcome was stunning.
At the end of the day, it comes down to choices the creators make for their workflow and which tools and techniques they've mastered. Is it "possible" for a fully digital A/V workstation to give the operator a level of control that blows away analog media? Of course. But what does that level of control actually mean? Endless mouse-clicks, sliders, drop-down menus, and application "plug-ins" and licenses? Unfortunately, yes. Not everyone is willing to do that.