Movies for Adults
by Rusty W. Spell

Introduction: When picking my "movies for adults," I basically asked myself, "Could a child, teen, or very young adult really enjoy this movie?" And sometimes I added, "If they could, then would they be better served to watch the movies again once they reach adulthood? Would they enjoy or appreciate or understand it more at that point?" The rest I'll explain as I go. I put these in alphabetical order.

Angels and Insects – Philip Haas's movie based on A.S. Byatt's Morpho Eugenio. This movie isn't on the list because it's a period piece; in fact, I think that period pieces by nature have a certain teen appeal (and, besides, I usually don't like them, or at least am dubious of them). Instead, I feel the movie has certain subtleties and performances that need adult attentions.

Barry Lyndon – Pretty much every Stanley Kubrick movie is an adult movie, but stuff like The Shining and Full Metal Jacket is attractive to kiddies. This really slow and deliberate movie probably requires the patience of an adult willing to follow a fantastic plot (from the book by William Makepeace Thackeray) and all those beautiful slow camera movements. Coincidentally another period piece, as is the next one.

Barton Fink – This movie seems to have gone through a re-evaluation over the past few years, and—though it was given good reviews from the beginning—it is now seen as one of if not the best of the movies by the Coen Brothers. I think a lot of us just had to catch up to the movie. When I first saw the movie as a teenager, I liked it a good deal but didn't understand a lot of what was going on. I just thought it was cool. Now I can watch it and think to myself, "Wow, this is what I've been thinking," especially in it's parody of movies about writers, which of course is a satire of something even larger. Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing by Joel and Ethan could also appear on this list.

The Birthday Party – This movie was directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection), and it is a pretty faithful adaptation of Harold Pinter's stage play. I suppose it's no surprise that a lot of movies on my list were based on books and plays and writers, since literature has remained more adult than movies and music in the last few decades. Harold Pinter is a hero of mine, and is partly responsible for many other movies that might be appropriate for this list, including the adaptation made of his play Betrayal and The Remains of the Day (featured further below) for which he assisted with the screenplay.

Breaking the Waves – Watching this movie was a catalyst for putting together these adult movie lists, and the Lars Von Trier movies I've seen since this one only made me realize even more than there's someone out there making movies for grownups (even when they are musicals, such as his Dancer in the Dark). It also made me realize that sometimes "movies for adults" means movies that look like nothing else you've ever seen. This is a story that asks you to draw on your most complicated emotions while at the same time relying on your most primitive and instinctual faith.

Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge – These three movies by Krzysztof Keislowski, and the above, are probably the two major players in this list, the top of the ones I would keep if I could only pick a small number. I would also add the ten movies Keislowski collected as The Decalogue if those weren't made-for-TV. Keislowski basically creates movies that make you feel like a fragile human, as opposed to a superhero or whatever else we feel from many other movies.

Dead Man – Most of Jim Jarmusch's movies have a pacing and style that would have any kid reaching for their Ritalin, but they also have a slacker appeal, and one of them even has Samurai action. Hell, this one has Johnny Depp. But I picked it because it's still my favorite of his and because it seems the most adult of them all (in spite of the heart throb). There are, of course, still those out there who don't watch black and white movies no matter how good they are (one reason all these recent remakes are especially "useful")—usually young folks—so Jarmusch's tendency to use black and white is one of those "no kids allowed" posted notes. Down By Law would be my second Jarmusch choice for this list.

The Fog of War – Pretty much any documentary is adult, and Errol Morris is the best documentary maker there is. And although Mr. Death and Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control might easily fit this list, you can't get much more musty than a movie about the former secretary of defense sitting in a chair and talking about some old crap that happened way before I was born—bo-ring!

Glengarry Glen Ross – Another movie based on a play, this time by David Mamet. Kids just love to watch old men sitting around talking about "leads" for almost two hours. A talky-talk movie that I really like.

Happiness – One day I might look back on this list and wish I'd axed this one, but for now it seems to fit. It's my favorite Todd Solondz movie (in fact, the only one I especially like) and is the best movie ever made about come.

Hard Eight – P.T. Anderson movies have a vibrant youthfulness to them (think of Boogie Nights and the crazy blue colors of Punch-Drunk Love), but it's oddly his first movie—when he was the youngest—that seems the most adult (even more than Magnolia). It's a movie about a surrogate father and son where most of the understanding and in-the-head-ness of the film seems to fall on the father side, showing that P.T. Anderson is a young man wise beyond his years.

The Ice Storm – I know this also is a coming-of-age story, but there's a lot more going on too, and even the young stuff seems pretty adult. Another period piece. The 70s, when I was born, was a long time ago.

In the Company of Men – Hey, look: another movie based on a play. This one's by Neil LaBute, who also directed. His Possession would have fit this list too (for its adult-ness and also because of its literary connections, the seeming secondary theme here), but this is still his best movie, and a good example of how you can take an essentially kiddy premise (of boys toying with a girl's heart, then having the game turn on them) and make it completely mature.

Manhattan – I suppose I had to have a Woody Allen film on here, so I picked one of my favorites as well as one of the ones that fits the criteria best.

Mulholland Drive – I fell in love with David Lynch as a teenager, and those associations along with the naïve Eagle Scout-ness (in the best ways) of his movies sometimes makes me forget that children pretty much have no business watching his stuff, and that a certain amount of age is helpful for a fuller appreciation. Indeed, although I don't have the same kind of teen romance love for Lynch now, I have a more mature old couple love that's lots stronger even if less passionate. Though I still got plenty of passion for him too. I probably picked Mulholland Drive specifically because it's his newest and therefore I was oldest when I first saw it, but even the Disney-released The Straight Story is a movie best enjoyed by grownups.

The Player – Robert Altman's inside joke movie that manages to work for people on the outside, and one of his best. Even Altman's Popeye is pretty adult. Come to think of it, Popeye the comic and cartoon itself is pretty adult. But I digress.

Prick Up Your Ears – Stephen Frears's movie about Joe Orton, every child's favorite black comedy playwright who gets his brains bashed in with a hammer by his gay lover. I don't have any worries about giving anything away, since I assume most people were shown this movie by their kindergarten teachers.

The Remains of the Day – This is a Merchant/Ivory film, and practically any of their movies could have appeared on this list, but this is my favorite of the ones I've seen by them. It was based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Harold Pinter assisted Merchant and Ivory's usual screenplay writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Stuffy old butlers failing to fall in love doesn't seem to appeal to young people for some reason.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Yeah, I do apologize for all these play adaptations (not to mention the odd reappearance of Gary Oldman). Tom Stoppard did the play on this one, wrote the screenplay, then directed it himself. Any movie that requires you to have a knowledge of Hamlet, Shakespearean scholarship, Samuel Beckett-based literature (including our pal Harold Pinter), and a decent sense of existential study in order to fully appreciate it is probably not for toddlers.

Together – Lukas Moodysson's movies are all fairly adult, but this one is least concerned with teenage girls. It's somewhat shown through the point of view of a pre-teen girl, but just ignore that fact and go with me on this one. Besides, you're forced to read subtitles.

Vanya on 42^nd Street – One more play for the last on the list. This Louis Malle movie is based on Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and it also is just as much about Andre Gregory's production of the play itself, a new translation by none other than David Mamet. Gregory and Wallace "Inconceivable" Shawn had previously starred in Malle's talky-talk movie My Dinner With Andre, another movie that might make the eldest of us rush out and buy Finding Nemo.

Conclusion: Somehow all of these movies seem to be eating their own tails. I didn't mean it.