- 6 weeks ago
Reality can be far more unsettling than fiction... Join us as we count down films that portray their subjects with such unflinching realism that they become almost unbearable to watch. These aren't just movies - they're emotional endurance tests that leave you questioning everything from mental health to economic systems.
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00:00We can't turn to the county to help us. We can't go to the state of Oklahoma to help us.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the movies that went the extra mile to portray their subjects with unflinching realism, even when that meant going way too far for comfort.
00:18We're also looking at samples from London. Two clusters, one at a hotel, the other at a health club. Five dead.
00:2710. Uncut Gems
00:29If you've ever wondered what a full-blown panic attack feels like in cinematic form, look no further.
00:53In Uncut Gems, Adam Sandler delivers a career-defining performance as Howard Ratner, a New York jeweler whose life
00:59is in a constant state of spiraling chaos. But what makes the Safdie brothers' film so disturbingly real isn't the frantic pacing or relentless sound design.
01:07It's the unflinching portrayal of gambling addiction as a self-destructive compulsion.
01:11Hit that, KJ!
01:12You're about to win money!
01:13Boom!
01:14Jason's about to pay me $25 for the first half. Double that up. Last half, you're about to get $50.
01:17You probably bet a lot of money on this one.
01:20Really? How much?
01:21How much?
01:22You don't want to know.
01:23A lot, though, right?
01:24Howard doesn't merely take risks. He needs to. The film captures the thrill, desperation, and delusion of the high-stakes mindset with nerve-frying precision culminating in a finale that's as inevitable as it is horrifying. You don't watch Uncut Gems so much as Endure It, and that's exactly the point.
01:41I have every intention of paying you back. I'm broke right now.
01:46You're broke?
01:46Whichever.
01:47Look at that.
01:47Do you remember that?
01:49Look at it!
01:49That is money that's not mine that I sent to you because I wanted to calm you down.
01:56We know for a fact that you placed a bet with that money.
01:59I've never placed a bet with that money as you did.
02:02Number nine. Another round.
02:03It's because there's a Norwegian philosopher and psychiatrist who finds skortrød.
02:08Pusset op.
02:09Skortrød.
02:10Som faktisk mener, at det er fornuftigt et brik.
02:13Uh-uh.
02:14Når man kører bil, eller hvad?
02:16Nej, men hele tiden.
02:17Han mener, at mennesket er født med en halv promille for lidt.
02:21For lidt?
02:22Ja.
02:23Okay.
02:23Det er meget interessant.
02:25It starts as an experiment and ends as a cautionary tale.
02:28In Denmark's Another Round, Mads Mikkelsen leads a group of disillusioned middle-aged teachers who test a dubious theory that maintaining a constant low-level buzz will improve their lives.
02:37At first, it seems to work until it doesn't.
02:39I helvede lavede nu.
02:41SĂĄ er det heller ikke vildere.
02:42Det var bare sĂĄdan par gode slukke.
02:45Og så sætte mig ned, ledte mig tilbage.
02:46Og så kunne jeg prøve at følge af, hvordan det var.
02:49Ja.
02:49Skal vi sĂĄ have en lille en?
02:50Nej, jeg synes lige, vi skal...
02:51SĂĄ hvordan gik det sĂĄ, undervisning?
02:54Jeg fik lidt verbalmotoriske udfordringer.
02:59What follows is a sobering, emotionally layered descent into the corrosive effects of alcoholism.
03:04Not solely on the drinker, but on their family, friends and sense of self.
03:08Director Thomas Vinterberg's restrained, naturalistic approach makes the unraveling all the more unsettling.
03:14Refusing to indulge in melodrama as lives quietly fall apart.
03:17Underneath the stylish dancing and dry humor lies a painful truth.
03:21Some experiments shouldn't, under any circumstances, be repeated.
03:24Nicolaj, hvad laver du?
03:26Nu ser jeg til at vi kan se, om jeg kan køre lidt.
03:28Om du kan køre? Det er baby-alarm.
03:33Skal du ikke have boppen her?
03:34Ej, jeg vil fandme ikke blive et dog.
03:37Jeg skal lade, jeg tænker, at du ikke kan passe på dine børn længere.
03:43Ja, sĂĄ, sĂĄ.
03:47So, remember we went to the prenatal meetings and they said, hey, listen, we're going to flip some cards and maybe on the day something might not go perfect.
03:53It might not go according to plan.
03:54Things might change.
03:56We're flipping cards.
03:58No way.
03:59So, Barbara has, um, she's in the middle of a heavy labor.
04:02She's in a labor?
04:04Few films announce themselves with as much brutal clarity as Pieces of a Woman.
04:08Its harrowing, single-take opening sequence depicting a home birth that goes tragically wrong is so raw and unflinching, it's almost unbearable to watch.
04:16But what follows is perhaps even more devastating.
04:18An unvarnished exploration of the emotional wreckage left behind after a birth fails to go as planned.
04:23The heart rate's not coming up like we needed to.
04:25It's, it's fine.
04:26We've had two consecutive contractions where the heartbeat just hasn't come all the way back up to where I wanted to.
04:31But it's, it's not, it's not outside the realm of normal.
04:34What is the realm of normal?
04:35It's just, I'm going to watch over the next few.
04:38Okay.
04:38And if it continues like this, we might have to call it back up.
04:41We might have to transfer.
04:42Vanessa Kirby's performance is heartbreak in slow motion, capturing the quiet, private unraveling of a woman whose grief is compounded by strained relationships, public scrutiny, and unspoken guilt.
04:53The film's restraint only heightens its realism, refusing easy catharsis in favor of something far more honest and far more haunting.
05:00And if I stand here and ask for compensation or money, then I am, I am saying that I can be compensated and I can't, I can't bring her back.
05:17Number seven, Nomadland.
05:19I don't see your reservation.
05:21I'm on the Amazon camper force list.
05:26Try MCD.
05:28There it is.
05:29Yeah.
05:29Unlike most entries on this list, Nomadland doesn't disturb through violence or trauma.
05:34It unsettles through quiet, matter-of-fact realism.
05:37Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a woman displaced by the collapse of a company town who joins a growing subculture of aging Americans living on the fringes, chasing seasonal work, and sleeping in vans.
05:48I can't imagine what you're going through.
05:50The loss of your husband and the loss of your whole town and friends and village.
05:57And that kind of loss is never easy.
06:02And I wish I had an easy answer for you, but I think you've come to the right place to find an answer.
06:09What makes Chloe Zhao's Oscar-winning film so affecting isn't simply its documentary-like style or use of real-life nomads.
06:16It's the sobering portrait of a system that's failed its most loyal workers.
06:20Beneath the film's serene landscapes lies an implicit critique of corporate greed and the broken promise of the American dream,
06:26where freedom comes not from prosperity, but from shedding everything you once owned.
06:30I've been thinking a lot about my husband, Beau.
06:33When it got really bad at the end, they had him in the hospital on a morphine drip,
06:37and I would sit there at night in the hospital.
06:42And I'd want to put my thumb down on that morphine drip just a little bit longer
06:49so I could let him go.
06:52Number six, Manchester by the Sea.
06:55You're rude.
06:56You're unfriendly.
06:57You won't say good morning.
06:58I mean, come on.
07:00I said, Maria, I fix the plumbing.
07:02Take out the garbage, paint their apartments.
07:04I do electrical work, which we both know is against the law.
07:08I show up on time.
07:09I'm working four buildings, and you're getting all the money.
07:13So do whatever you're going to do.
07:15There's no outburst, no big Oscar monologue,
07:18only the quiet, crushing weight of a man trying to survive himself.
07:22Manchester by the Sea follows Lee Chandler,
07:24played with devastating restraint by Casey Affleck,
07:26a broken man who's forced to return to his hometown
07:29after a family tragedy reopens wounds that never truly healed.
07:33That's a very sad day.
07:34Yeah.
07:38Where's my brother?
07:40Oh, he's downstairs.
07:41You can see him if you want.
07:42What happened to him?
07:46Just a cardiac arrest.
07:48You know, his heart's really weak at this point.
07:50He just gave out.
07:53What makes Kenneth Lonergan's film so disturbingly real
07:56is its refusal to sentimentalize trauma.
07:58Depression isn't a subplot.
08:00It's the air the characters breathe.
08:01The film lingers in awkward silences,
08:04misfired conversations,
08:05and emotional paralysis capturing how guilt and mental illness
08:08can hollow a person out from the inside.
08:10It's not easy to watch, but that's precisely why it hits so hard.
08:14Okay, I don't want to torture you.
08:16You're not, you're not torturing me.
08:17I just want to tell you that I was wrong.
08:21No, no.
08:23You understand?
08:24There's nothing, there's nothing there.
08:26There's nothing there.
08:27That's not true.
08:29That's not true.
08:30You don't understand.
08:32I don't know what this...
08:32I'm going to say to.
08:33I know you understand.
08:35I...
08:36I...
08:36I've got to go.
08:37I'm sorry.
08:40Number five, The Father.
08:41Who are you?
08:44Sorry?
08:44Who are you?
08:47What are you doing here?
08:49What begins as a simple domestic drama
08:51gradually reveals itself as something far more disorienting
08:54and far more terrifying.
08:56The Father isn't just about dementia.
08:58It feels like dementia.
08:59Through the subtle shifts in set design, timelines, and even actors,
09:03the film traps the viewer in the fractured perspective of its protagonist,
09:07played with devastating precision by an Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins.
09:10I'm not leaving this at any time soon.
09:13I'm going to outlive you.
09:17Both of you.
09:19I don't know about you, but...
09:21My daughter, yes.
09:24In fact, I'm going to make a point about it.
09:26I'm going to inherit from her,
09:28not the other way around.
09:30The result is a psychological spiral
09:32that's as immersive as it is inescapable,
09:34producing a horror-like effect rarely seen in PG-13 films.
09:38It's a deeply empathetic portrait of a deteriorating mind,
09:41and all the more disturbing for how real it feels.
09:44I'd like to know your opinion.
09:46I mean, do you intend to go on
09:48ruining your daughter's life,
09:50or is it too much to hope you might behave reasonably
09:52in the foreseeable future?
09:54What are you talking about, then?
09:55About you, Anthony.
09:56Huh?
09:57About you.
09:58Your attitude.
09:59Stop that.
10:00I want to know this.
10:01You want to know it?
10:02No.
10:03I suppose I do it again.
10:05Then what do you do?
10:06Number four, Sound of Metal.
10:07I gotta see a doctor.
10:09He can see you now.
10:13He can see you right now.
10:15Now?
10:15Yes.
10:16I...
10:16I...
10:17Sound of Metal immerses viewers
10:21in the oft-overlooked hearing loss experience.
10:23Riz Ahmed plays Ruben,
10:25a heavy metal drummer whose way of life
10:27is completely upended by a sudden, irreversible onset of deafness.
10:31Yes, part of what makes the film so harrowingly real
10:33is its groundbreaking sound design,
10:35but it truly gains its power from the raw, unsentimental way
10:38it captures the psychological fallout.
10:40Denial, anger, isolation, and the desperate scramble for control.
10:44What can we do about it?
10:46How do I get it back?
10:47Well, um, you have to understand something here.
10:52Whether or not this is related to your exposure to noise
10:56or it's an autoimmune issue
10:59doesn't really matter.
11:01I understand I got a problem.
11:03I'm asking you what I can do about it.
11:05Ahmed, who earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination,
11:08reportedly spent months learning American Sign Language,
11:10mastering the drums, and working closely with audiologists
11:13and members of the deaf community
11:15to fully inhabit Ruben's experience.
11:17The result is a work of art
11:18that doesn't simply ask for sympathy,
11:20but demands understanding.
11:22Look, Joe, I really don't want to explain myself right now, okay?
11:30It's time, okay?
11:32It's time, I gotta do something, right?
11:36I'm trying to save my b***ing life.
11:38Number three, Sorry We Missed You.
11:41What's all these letters on the table?
11:43We're just talking.
11:44Your dad's gonna start his own business.
11:46Yeah, I've signed a franchise.
11:47Whoa.
11:49Take it over at McDonald's?
11:51No, it's my ass.
11:52No, he's gonna get a delivery van.
11:54What color?
11:55White.
11:57What, so you gonna be a white van man now?
11:58Yeah, if you like, yeah.
12:00It's not dystopian fiction.
12:02It's everyday reality for far too many.
12:04With Sorry We Missed You, renowned English auteur,
12:07Ken Loach strips away the usual cinematic gloss
12:10to expose the brutal consequences of life under the gig economy.
12:14The film follows delivery driver Ricky and his family
12:16as they're slowly crushed under the weight of zero-hour contracts,
12:20impossible quotas, and mounting debt.
12:22I sold my winter jacket.
12:24The guy ex-jacket said, for f***ing sake,
12:27do you know how much he cost?
12:28That cost me a fortune.
12:32I can't get another one.
12:34What are you doing?
12:36Have you been on the train tracks on the roofs?
12:39Hey, spraying that s*** everywhere.
12:41Every moment feels lived in and painfully authentic,
12:44thanks to Loach's signature naturalism
12:45and the emotionally raw performances at its core.
12:48This is social commentary at its most potent,
12:50a gut punch reminder of how modern labour systems
12:53dehumanise the very people who keep them running.
12:56At some point, every family is going to have a problem.
13:00My old man was a farmer, milked cows.
13:03Do you think he got a day off?
13:07Three days.
13:09You know, please, that day.
13:12Number two, Contagion.
13:14So, despite all our efforts, she failed to respond.
13:19Okay.
13:19And her heart stopped.
13:21Right.
13:22And unfortunately, she did die.
13:24Right.
13:24I'm sorry, Mr. Amoff.
13:27I know this is hard to accept.
13:29Okay.
13:31Can I go talk to her?
13:32Mr. Amoff, I'm sorry.
13:34Your wife is dead.
13:36When Contagion first hit theatres in September of 2011,
13:39it was praised for its realism.
13:41Nearly a decade later, it felt like a prophecy.
13:43Directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh
13:45and written by his frequent collaborator Scott Z. Burns,
13:48the film was crafted with the help of top epidemiologists
13:51and public health experts to ensure every detail.
13:54From the virus's mutation to the government's staggered response
13:57was scientifically grounded.
13:58As of last night, there were five deaths and 32 cases.
14:02There's a cluster in an elementary school.
14:04Okay.
14:04That's the kind of thing you're going to have to be prepared for.
14:06It's going to be all over the news big time.
14:08What's your single overriding communications objective?
14:11We're isolating the sick and quarantining those who we believe were exposed.
14:15Okay.
14:15Good.
14:16The result is a chillingly accurate depiction of a global pandemic,
14:19replete with misinformation, panic buying, and politicized public health.
14:23What once felt like speculative science fiction
14:25now plays like a documentary in retrospect,
14:28making Contagion one of the most disturbingly realistic thrillers of the 21st century.
14:32Now it all changes.
14:35Sussman gets anointed by the National Academy of Sciences
14:38and every pharmaceutical executive gets a hard-off.
14:42They'll be growing the virus in every lab on Earth.
14:44That's a bad day to be a rhesus monkey.
14:47Crikey.
14:47First we shoot them into space.
14:49Now we'll be shooting them full of virus.
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15:08Number one, killers of the flower moon.
15:10You like women?
15:12Oh, you know I like women.
15:14That's my weakness.
15:16What kinds they got out there?
15:18Just white.
15:20It's white that I saw.
15:21Mm-hmm.
15:23You like red?
15:24Red.
15:25With Killers of the Flower Moon,
15:27Martin Scorsese trades mob bosses for oil barons,
15:30but the brutality remains.
15:31Based on the real-life Osage murders of the 1920s,
15:34the film chronicles how white settlers exploited,
15:37manipulated, and ultimately murdered members of the Osage nation for their wealth.
15:41It shows itself to you that Bill Smith didn't take the proper care of Minnie the way he could have.
15:47To have her sick and die, take her head rights and her land.
15:50That oil, we should go to her sister's, your wife.
15:55Well, he's taking money that by right she could go to Molly.
15:57What makes it so disturbingly realistic isn't just the violence.
16:01It's the historical precision.
16:02Scorsese worked closely with those Osage representatives throughout the production
16:06to ensure cultural and factual accuracy,
16:09reshaping the script to center their perspective.
16:11The result is a slow-burning epic that recounts a forgotten chapter of American history
16:16with mournful, unflinching clarity.
16:18All this is not going to mean anything except the family's going to be broke up.
16:22Is that what you want?
16:24It's not going to make a difference.
16:26Which movie on our list did you find the most realistic?
16:29Are there any recent flicks that we missed?
16:30Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
16:32We were here before them.
16:34This is our homeland we came to.
16:37Why we put our children here is because Mother Earth allowed us here.
16:42No one takes us off this earth until God calls us all home.
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