Born to Kill (1947): Many films feature murderers as protagonists, but few have ever been as sour as Lawrence Tierney's ladykiller in this Robert Wise noir. Tierney's best remembered for Reservoir Dogs, but he was no less gruff and unwelcoming as a young man--and one of the unlikeliest leads.
Ace in the Hole (1951): Billy Wilder crossed over from mere misanthropy to all-out cynicism with this media salvo in which Kirk Douglas' desperate journo willfully prolongs a mining accident so he can milk it for a hot story.
Modern Romance (1981): Woody Allen makes you want to be Woody Allen; Albert Brooks makes you want to hate Albert Brooks--and possibly yourself. Before getting all cute and fuzzy with Defending Your Life and Mother, Brooks specialized in unspeakably bleak portraits of self-absorption, such as this one where his Hollywood editor breaks up with his girlfriend, tries to win her back and, once successful, immediately suspects her of infidelity.
Insomnia (1997): When Al Pacino played him in the American remake, the sleepless detective antihero was amoral but not quite alienating. When the terminally groggy Stellan Skarsg�rd played him in the Swedish original, he was all edge. Apart from trying to cover up his accidental shooting of his partner, Skarsg�rd's dic shoots a dog, violates numerous women, tries to frame a kid just 'cause he doesn't like him, and refers to newborn kittens as "disgusting."
Rosetta (1999): In Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant, a down-and-out father sells his baby daughter on the black market for a bit of cash. But even he has nothing on an earlier Dardenne creation: �milie Dequenne's working-class monster who tussles with employers, blackmails friends for promotions and, when finally at the end of her rope, can't even successfully kill herself.
There Will Be Blood (2007): Never trust a character who makes up a metaphor involving drinking another's milkshake.
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2012
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