Which “small” indie game/film/book hit you harder than most blockbusters?
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I remember feeling the feels when I first saw Garden State. I don’t know what it is about that film, but this quote:
Andrew: “You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone.
Sam: “I still feel at home in my house.”
Andrew: You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.”
This hits hard.
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Disco Elysium
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Blood machines. It's only a half hour cgi movie. But it hits super hard for me.
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Beat me to it. First thing to mind was Lake Mungo.
That scene with the dead Alice walking up to the camera really gets me every time I watch the movie. I guess because it subverts horror movie tropes. It's like an anti-jumpscare. And the photos in the end are a "good" downer.
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Man from Earth.
Coherence.
Unpacking (game)
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Most indie games will end up better than pretty much every AAA title. The best games I've played in the last decade were either indie or AA.
Roboquest, Pathfinder WotR, Dyson Sphere Program, Outer Wilds, Balatro, Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, Rogue Trader, Darktide, Abiotic Factor, Rimworld, Stellaris, DV Rings of Saturn, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Voices of the Void, Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Tiny Glade, Witchfire, Instruments of Destruction, Heart of the Machine, Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon, A Webbing Journey, Planet Crafter, Kenshi, X4, Ultrakill, Schedule 1, the list goes on.
All amazing games, none of them AAA.
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Cube > Saw. First time I watched Saw the only thing I could think of is "This is Cube with a different aesthetic and a creepy puppet."
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I disliked the second one specifically because they gave it a decent budget. The original is genius for how it does so much with so little.
The third is an oddball. Made-for-TV budget and quality. It's interesting for fans of the series, but nothing special.
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Game no one's mentioned yet: Look Outside
So good and so strange
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John Langan's "The Fisherman". Its a cosmic/folk horror novel but also a powerful meditation on loss and grief.
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Blood machines. It's only a half hour cgi movie. But it hits super hard for me.
It's the one with the OST from Carpenter Brut, right? I need to watch this short.
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Some movies... There are just too many!!!
For great cinema, Brazil is an amazing parody of modern society by Terry Gillian. Stalker is simply a masterpiece but you need to be in that mood to watch it. The Lobster is just... weird and lovely. White Cat, Black Cat is pure chaotic fun.
For a good laugh Swiss Army Man was an unexpected little gem.
If you are into horrors Braindead is absolutely disgusting and hilarious, while The Devil's Rejects is a more disturbing one.
For sci-fi Cube is a nice and original one, and Dark City is a classic that inspired The Matrix.
About thriller, for sure The Machinist or Memento.
We watched The lobster for a family movie night, they never let me pick the movie again
. I enjoyed it, watched it twice. -
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SIGNALIS (indie horror game). Very good, scary, I cried. Strongly recommend.
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My partner played Journey after I played it all the way through with my first matched partner and cried a lot.
My partner was matched with two deserters and a speedrunner. Then their last person quit near the end. They left the game frustrated and hated it.
I was very sad.
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Games:
- To the Moon
- Gris
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- This War of Mine
- Inked: A Tale of Love
- Papers, Please
Movies (this list I had to think about for a while...):
- 50/50 (2011)
- Amour (2012)
- The Station Agent (2003)
- Columbus (2017)
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Books:
- The Bookshop
- The Lives of Others
Edit: spelling
Diving bell+butterfly was so fucking good
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The game I wanted to say was already said, so I'll go with a movie! The 2018 Korean film "Burning".
Ooooo rare movie! Excellent pick that nobody I know has ever seen hahaha
On a similar theme (fire), the Canadian movie “Ash” is incredible and shot at the unfortunately “perfect” time (wildfires happened just as they were filming so they didn’t have to CG them) and the movie is stellar.
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My partner played Journey after I played it all the way through with my first matched partner and cried a lot.
My partner was matched with two deserters and a speedrunner. Then their last person quit near the end. They left the game frustrated and hated it.
I was very sad.
Aww that sucks, what an unfortunate experience
I actually only first played it in 2020. I had missed it when it first came out, and then a museum near me happened to have a big exhibit about it. I jumped in and out with several different people throughout the trip, but I hadn't been expecting a partner, just cooperation when we were near each other. I did have someone to stick with for the very last part, at least
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Applying the term "Indie" to a book feels interesting to me, because almost all books, even ones that are part of intensely popular franchises, are written by a single author - so in a sense, all books are Indy.
Of course team size is only one aspect. There's also budget and commercial involvement. But budget doesn't have to be a constraining factor for books the way it is for movies. And if you're the only person pushing the keyboard keys then you are the one with ultimate creative control.
If you are a penniless author and publish a hit and get rich, does your next book then stop being indie, even though it's still just you? Or maybe it's no longer indie because your circumstances have changed.
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It's the one with the OST from Carpenter Brut, right? I need to watch this short.
I donyeven know tbh. I stumbled across that short accidentally, and the music soundtrack slaps. The design choices is something i haven't seen before. That guy firing radioactive (?) laser which slightly corrupts the camera footage is so damn cool. And the laser just lingering around. It's these small details that makes it a real piece of art to me and i wish more science fiction movies would dare something other than "people in the future have funny hats."
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Before Your Eyes. I was going through some major stuff at the time and I'll associate the game with that summer forever. It has a very unique mechanic and it ties into the game really well without feeling like a gimmick. Takes about 3 hours to complete, so not a huge investment either.
