10 Hardest Movies To Watch

We have listed ten incredible films that are not recommended for all audiences. The items on this list are noteworthy for having strong stories, provocations to various instances of society and for generating discomfort while bringing a fascination for what is being told. Due to their intense content, they are films that are not always indicated for all audiences, but that, it’s good to say, manage to bring a sense of re-evaluation of everything in relation to the unique life to the spectators during and after their screenings. Let’s go to the list!

10º – Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998)

This work summarizes the whole idea of this list. Here, we will see the search of several characters for happiness, facing the most diverse types of physical, moral or psychological obstacles, simply to discover that the sought element does not exist. A provocative film, repulsive at certain moments, but deliciously accurate in its attacks. One of the most audacious films of the 1990s and the greatest work of Todd Solondz’s career.

9º – Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)

We will explore the life of a successful 30-year-old man who finds himself completely obsessed with the figure of sex. We will gain strength in the plot when the subject’s sister visits him, awakening a series of destructive memories from the past and making his compulsion completely out of control. A masterpiece, ‘Shame’ is disturbed by his visceral exposure of an erratic compendium of human life, moving the viewer not by its history, but by the genius with which each plan is conceived. Here, Michael Fassbender has the performance of his life and one of the greatest in the history of cinema.

8º – Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2008)

The film brings in its plot the turbulent coexistence between Michael Petersen, a violent and uncontrollable man, and the prison system of his country. Initially expected to serve only seven years for a robbery, the man ends up spending several decades in prison due to his extreme behavior, even representing a big problem for the prisons he passes through. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, ‘Bronson’ is a film that, like its protagonist, moves intensely, presenting the viewer with intermittent graphic violence.

7º – Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994)

An ordinary housewife starts to show bizarre behavior for a few days. At the same time, strange deaths begin to happen in the neighborhood. What would be happening in that quiet and safe place? That’s what we’re going to discover during the 95 minute movie. ‘Serial Mom’ is a pearl of John Waters’ cinema, using an absurd story, a sarcasm inherent in each scene and an untouchable performance by actress Kathleen Turner in front of the protagonist.

6º – Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)

Workers are hired to handle the cleaning and restoration of an abandoned psychiatric hospital. In place, they begin, little by little, to experience bizarre experiences and have their behavior altered. ‘Session 9’ is a very assertive atmospheric terror, building a growing tension scene by scene, besides a sense of mystery that permeates the characters.

5º – Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000)

A retired gangster is forced to return to work after a psychotic ex-colleague demands his presence in a new coup. Intense from the first to the last scene, this film puts the characters and the viewer himself in a level of tension that only grows with each scene. A different view of life in crime, pondering the professional bond with individuals of the worst kind. Highlight, of course, the masterful performance of actor Ben Kingsley ahead of the psychotic Don Logan.

4º – Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990)

The film presents several random fragments of the life of Jacob, a disturbed Vietnam war veteran, showing all the intensity of his life, along with events that may not be real. The plot will vary between hallucinations and real events, without ever informing the viewer about what each one is. The cold atmosphere, emanating a feeling of helplessness, either in the character or in the spectator himself, manages to give all the necessary substance to the film.

3º – Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989)

With the 1950s as a backdrop, the plot brings the daily life of an ordinary family, composed of the couple and a child in the final stages of childhood, inserted in a quiet suburban reality of the United States. The film gains its dynamism when the strange habits of their parents begin to make the boy paranoid, making him doubt the real identity of the two. Amazing in all its aspects, this film, little known and appreciated, is a delight to the cinephile looking for something different in the seventh art. A film that walks among the genres of comedy, suspense and terror in a unique way, working to fascinate every scene transposed. It is also worth mentioning the great performances of Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt in front of the protagonists.

2º – Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

After his rich brother’s family goes on a trip, a middle-aged maladjusted man is in charge of the big family home. In place, the man ends up getting emotionally involved with a local maid, forming a strange romantic bond and showing all his immaturity in relation to the most basic instances of life. A light comedy, ‘Greenberg’ is a great option to introduce oneself to Noah Baumbach’s cinema, with a story that escapes the ordinary and fascinating characters.

1º – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962)

Two sisters live in a large house, where one of them should take care of the other, since she is paraplegic. However, the reality is quite different, showing the cruel relationship between the two, as well as the inherent psychological decline to which they are both subjected. The disturbing terror of the 1960s, famous for bringing Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as protagonists, ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ bothers us because of its history, which always opts for the most cruel ways out with one of the characters, raising the figure of madness and the past as driving forces in the whole plot.