Fed up with spoonfed narratives, cookie-cutter characters and all-round normalcy in your movies? We've gathered a selection of weird and wonderful titles now available to stream, featuring non-linear, fragmented storytelling (The Tree of Life, Café de Flore), characters that might not be entirely human (Border, Are We Not Cats), one film that features both (A Ghost Story), and more. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't accuse any of the following films of being ordinary – queue them up at SBS On Demand and let each of these films take your mind to new places.
Border
Tuesday 12 November, 9:55PM on SBS World Movies (streaming after broadcast)
MA15+
Denmark, Sweden, 2018
Genre: Thriller, Fantasy, Romance, Drama
Language: Swedish
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Sten Ljunggren, Ann Petrén
What's it about?
When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind. Based on a short story from Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist, this won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
A Ghost Story
M
USA, 2017
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Language: English
Director: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Will Oldham, Liz Cardenas Franke, Sonia Acevedo
What's it about?
Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost (Affleck) returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife (Mara), only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away. From David Lowery, director of Ain't Them Bodies Saints and The Old Man And The Gun.
'A Ghost Story' Haunts Without Scaring (Sundance Review)
Café de Flore
M
France, Canada, 2012
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Vanessa Paradis, Hélène Florent, Kevin Parent, Marin Gerrier, Evelyn Brochu
What's it about?
In present-day Montreal, globetrotting DJ Antoine (Parent) is two years into a passionate relationship with Rose (Brochu), having left life-long partner Carole (Florent) and their daughters. Meanwhile, in a grimy 1969 Paris, cash-strapped Jacqueline (Paradis) single-handedly raises her seven-year-old Down Syndrome son Laurent (Gerrier). She places him in a non-specialised school, where Laurent succumbs to a powerful case of puppy love. Jacqueline's struggles to cope with this development are recalled by Carole in her dreams.
[link title="Café de Flore: Jean-Marc Vallée interview" url="node/883"]
[link title="Café de Flore Review" url="node/5822"]
The Tree of Life
PG
USA, 2011
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Language: English
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt
What's it about?
Director Terrence Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line) traces the evolution of an 11-year-old boy in the Midwest, from his first experiences of joy love and mercy (from his mother), to his introduction to the 'ways of the world' (from his father). Each parent contends for his allegiance, and the boy must reconcile their claims. His experience of the world, once a thing of glory, becomes a labyrinth as he seeks unselfish love.
[link title="The Tree of Life Review: Malick ponders our place in the universe" url="node/5466"]
[link title="Why You Should Watch: The Tree of Life " url="node/15308"]
What Happened to Monday
MA15+
Belgium, France, UK, 2017
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Drama
Language: English
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close
What's it about?In a not-too-distant future, where overpopulation and famine have forced governments to undertake a drastic One-Child Policy, seven identical sisters (Rapace, playing all) live a hide-and-seek existence pursued by the Child Allocation Bureau. The Bureau, directed by the fierce Nicolette Cayman (Close), enforces a strict family-planning agenda that the sisters outwit by taking turns assuming the identity of one person.
Freddy / Eddy
M
Germany, 2018
Genre: Thriller
Language: German
Director: Tini Tüllmann
Starring: Felix Schäfer, Jessica Schwarz, Greta Bohacek, Alexander Finkenwirth
What's it about?Just as Freddy (Schäfer) is experiencing the worst crisis in his life after being accused of beating his wife, his imaginary childhood friend Eddy (also Schäfer) suddenly shows up again. Not only does he only look exactly like him, since his appearance a lot of terrible things happen. But how to prove that someone is real when you made him up yourself?
Are We Not Cats
MA15+
USA, 2016
Genre: Romance, Horror
Language: English
Director: Xander Robin
Starring: Michael Patrick Nicholson, Chelsea Lopez, Theodore Bouloukos
What's it about?
A young man (Nicholson) seeks a new beginning after losing his job, his girlfriend and his apartment on the same day. His plans soon get diverted when he meets a woman (Lopez) who shares his same strange habit - an inclination for eating hair.
