Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (2009)

This movie is about a grad student who is conducting research on why men think the way they do.  The entire movie is shot out of sequence and seems to go on tangents, not really following a specific story line.  This reminded me of the avant-garde film Sink or Swim.  The story is told in segments like that one, but it isn't as experimental as that one.

Another thing that is out of the usual form of the standard narrative movie is its genre hopping qualities.  It seems as though half of the movie is shot from the point of view of the interviewer, which gives the impression of a scientific trail or even a documentary.  The stories told by the interviewees are original, refreshing, and give insight to the characters as well as show honesty and vulnerability.

On the other hand, the movie is also shot as a typical drama.  These are usually shown to tell the story of the woman who is conducting these interviews.  We don't get much information of the life of this stoic woman or why she has shown interest in conducting this research until much later into the movie.  The movie skips around and does not tell the story in a linear fashion, but that is what adds to the overall message and feeling that the movie wants the audience to take away from it.

I thought this was an excellent movie with a great message, structured and executed in a creative and exciting fashion.  Apparently it was a hit or miss movie with most, which I definitely see how this isn't for everyone, but it was a hit with me.