Coherence is the first film I’ve been recommending since I first watched it to anyone who ever says they want a good movie, or even just like watching films.
I tell them nothing about the movie and ask that they don’t read anything about it either. Even the synopsis gives too much away.
Instead I let them know that the director shot the film in his own house in 5 days since his pregnant wife, who was scheduled to be in the film, was 8.5 months pregnant.
That the actors didn’t know their lines and were only given a paragraph, for their eyes only, at the start of each day to give the actors their character’s intentions. One actor even received a note that said something opposite of what another actor’s note said to drive out character tension.
And in case anything was veering off topic in their chronological shoot, the co-writer was an actor in the film who helped keep the story on its tracks.
In one case, it took an actor until day 3 to realize she had assumed the genre of the film incorrectly.
To date anyone who has watched this film on my recommendation has not been disappointed.
Come back after you’ve seen it for a brief recap!
It was a trip, wasn’t it?!
To be fair, I haven’t seen this film in about 5 years, so I can’t remember much. But damn it was clever?!
I should have remembered about the comet at the beginning of the film, but quickly threw that piece of information away. It wasn’t until about half-way through that I realized it was a sci-fi film. That’s what I get for choosing films by their movie poster alone!
Along the same vein, and equally as good, but wildly different checkout The Triangle (2009). I also watched this without knowing anything about it, and perhaps on a recommendation.
Again, go into The Triangle without reading anything about it. Even the IMDb synopsis makes no sense to my recollection.
For some reason people don’t tend to watch The Triangle after I recommend it. It’s probably the movie poster which looks pretty shitty. In either case, give it a whirl. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
+1 was recommended somewhere based on reviews I was reading about Coherence. The cover art didn’t seem to quite match up to the description I read, so I figured to take a gamble on a film with a 5.3 IMDb rating. I rated +1 an 8 since it was a mind fuck and it did a great job of tension building as I was trying to wrap my head around what was occurring and where the storyline was headed. But fair warning, there is plenty of nudity. Not like male gazey/let’s zoom in on every bit of T&A, but it’s in almost 1/3 of the film’s background and in 2 extended very important scenes to the plot. The film is set at a post-Freshman year of college house party, and is was one of the director’s first films, but the nudity was still far over the top for someone who already had a great story. I can’t recommend this film before The Triangle, but if you like those two, might as well give this one a shot if you can’t quite decide between a 1970’s sexploitation flick and a sci-fi mind-bender with pretty good suspense building.