Thursday Movie Picks Meme: Movies Driven Entirely by People Talking

This week, the theme for Wanderer's Thursday Movie Picks Meme is movies driven entirely by people talking. This one was a harder one to find choices for on the grounds that many of the best examples I know of (i.e. Twelve Angry Men, My Dinner With Andre, Reservoir Dogs, and Before Sunrise) were all listed as examples to give people an idea of what that category entailed. Since I suggested it, it only makes sense that I should contribute something, but I've tried to find a few less obvious choices.

The Odd Couple (1968)

Two middle-aged men with opposing personalities decide to share an apartment. One is extremely neat and the other is messy. That's basically the entire movie, the plot consists of the increasing tension between these two men as one is a neat freak and the other is a slob who keeps rotten food in his fridge (in one scene he offers "brown or green" sandwhiches, claiming the brown is "either really old cheese or really new meat"). Trouble ensues as you can expect from such a pairing.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

For a teen movie, this is pretty minimalist. The cast consists of five people (seven if you include the principal and the janitor), and the majority of the film is set in a single room. More specifically, it centres around five people of very different backgrounds who fill out archetypal highs school roles: the jock, the nerd, the outcast, the popular girl, and the bully. What makes this film interesting is that it deconstructs each of these archetypes, showing the difficulties faced by each person and how they are affected by their circumstances. For instance we get a glimpse into what makes the bully so rough, and how being the popular girl or jock is not as glamorous as one might think. The whole film is the interactions between these five characters while they are in detention, and the unlikely friendship that develops as a result.

Tonight You're Mine (2011)

This is a bit of an odd but enjoyable independent film. It's a romance set at a rock and roll event that results from a rather unlikely source: two rock starts get into a fight only to end up being handcuffed together by some crazy guy as an exercise to get them to put aside their differences. It works, as the two have develop a romance that comes from trying to make the best of their circumstances, which includes having to work as a team simply to use the lavatory; all while both desperately try to find the guy who put them into this mess and get the keys to the handcuffs. There's also some relationships that develop among their friends along the way.