Best Dreary Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of dreary cinema — measured across 1,993 indexed frames from 30 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Dreary films over-index on handgun, stubble and white shirt — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Collateral (2004)
Michael MannDP Dion BeebeIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
This action thriller follows LA cabbie Max Durocher, the type of person who can wax poetic about other people's lives, which impresses U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell, one of his fares, so much that she gives him her telephone number at the end of her ride. Although a dedicated man as seen through the efficiency in which he does his work, he can't or won't translate that eloquence into a better life for himself. He deludes himself into believing that his now twelve year cabbie job is temporary and that someday he will own his own limousine service. He even lies to his hospitalized mother that he already owns one, with a further lie that he tells her as such primarily to make her happy, rather than the truth which is that he won't do anything to achieve that dream. One night, Max picks up a well dressed man named Vincent, who asks Max to be his only fare for the evening. For a flat fee of $600, plus an extra $100 if he gets to the airport on time - Vincent wants Max to drive him to five stops that evening. Max somewhat reluctantly agrees. Max learns the hard way at their first stop when a body falls from a third story apartment window and lands dead on top of his cab that Vincent is a contract hit man. Vincent's main goal, as per his current contract, is to kill five people, one at each of the stops, but he will not let others get in the way of that goal, even if it means killing them, including Max. As Vincent forces Max to continue driving him for the evening, Max tries slyly at every turn to take back control of his life from Vincent, especially when Max learns of one of the names on Vincent's hit list. Meanwhile, LAPD narcotics detective, Ray Fanning, and ultimately the FBI get involved when Vincent's first victim is associated with a case in which Ray is working undercover. Ray is able to piece together information which makes him hot on Max and Vincent's tail.
- 2
Taxi Driver (1976)
Martin ScorseseDP Michael ChapmanIMDb 8.2TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palantine. After an incident, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place.
- 3
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
John KrasinskiDP Polly MorganIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
With the newly acquired knowledge of the seemingly invulnerable creatures' weakness, grief-stricken Evelyn Abbott finds herself on her own, with two young teens, a defenceless newborn son, and with no place to hide. Now, 474 days after the all-out alien attack in A Quiet Place (2018), the Abbotts summon up every last ounce of courage to leave their now-burned-to-the-ground farm and embark on a peril-laden quest to find civilization. With this in mind, determined to expand beyond the boundaries, the resilient survivors have no other choice but to venture into eerily quiet, uncharted hostile territory, hoping for a miracle. But, this time, the enemy is everywhere.
- 4
Jay OlivaIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →
Peter Welleras Batman / Bruce Wayne (voice)
Ariel Winteras Robin / Carrie Kelley (voice)
David Selbyas James Gordon (voice)
Batman has not been seen for ten years. A new breed of criminal ravages Gotham City, forcing 55-year-old Bruce Wayne back into the cape and cowl. But, does he still have what it takes to fight crime in a new era?
- 5
Good Time (2017)
Benny Safdie, Josh SafdieDP Sean Price WilliamsIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Connie Nikas forcibly removes his developmentally disabled brother Nick from a therapy session. The two rob a New York City bank for $65,000. In the getaway car, a dye pack explodes in a money bag, causing the driver to crash. Connie and Nick flee on foot, washing the dye from their clothes in a restaurant restroom. Stopped by police, Nick panics and runs; Nick is arrested while Connie escapes. Connie attempts to secure a bail bond, but needs $10,000 more to get Nick out of jail. He convinces his girlfriend, Corey, to pay with her mother's credit cards, but her mother cancels the cards. Connie learns that Nick has been hospitalized after a fight with an inmate.
- 6
The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)
Derek CianfranceDP Sean BobbittIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
A mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer, Luke, (Ryan Gosling) drives out of a traveling carnival globe of death and whizzes through the backstreets of Schenectady, New York, desperately trying to connect with a former lover, Romina, (Eva Mendes) who recently and secretly gave birth to the stunt rider's son. In an attempt to provide for his new family, Luke quits the carnival life and commits a series of bank robberies aided by his superior riding ability. The stakes rise as Luke is put on a collision course with an ambitious police officer, Avery Cross, (Bradley Cooper) looking to quickly move up the ranks in a police department riddled with corruption. The sweeping drama unfolds over fifteen years as the sins of the past haunt the present days lives of two high school boys wrestling with the legacy they've inherited. The only refuge is found in the place beyond the pines.
- 7
The Departed (2006)
Martin ScorseseDP Michael BallhausIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →
In this crime-action tour de force, the South Boston state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello. While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan, a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the state police as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by their double lives, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations they have penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there is a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy - and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save themselves. But is either willing to turn on their friends and comrades they've made during their long stints undercover?
- 8
Rumble Fish (1983)
Francis Ford CoppolaDP Stephen H. BurumIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Rusty James is the leader of a small, dying gang in an industrial town. He lives in the shadow of the memory of his absent, older brother -- The Motorcycle Boy. His mother has left, his father drinks, school has no meaning for him and his relationships are shallow. He is drawn into one more gang fight and the events that follow begin to change his life.
- 9
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Robert ZemeckisDP Dean CundeyIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →
'Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect. Groundbreaking interaction between the live and animated characters, and lots of references to classic animation.
- 10
Ready Player One (2018)
Steven SpielbergDP Janusz KamińskiIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place. The only time Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days. In the OASIS, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone--the only limits are your own imagination. The OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who left his immense fortune and total control of the Oasis to the winner of a three-part contest he designed to find a worthy heir. When Wade conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends--The High Five--are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS.
What dreary films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a dreary frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — handgun is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- handgun2.3×
- stubble1.7×
- white shirt1.7×
- brick wall1.6×
- streetlamp1.6×
- smoke1.6×
- neon sign1.6×
- jacket1.5×
How dreary films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate dreary from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 48%low keyvs 39% baseline
What breaks the pattern
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,993 frames from 30 films carrying the dreary label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/dreary
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