With quarantining and sheltering at home being a fact of life in 2020, we’ve all had to get used to being much more isolated than ever. If you’re looking for some commiseration (and some assurances that it could be a lot worse), here are my top 10 favorite isolation movies, in order:
Honorable Mentions
Castaway; Room; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; It Comes at Night; 10 Cloverfield Lane; Panic Room; The Handmaiden; The Martian
10. Dogtooth (2009)
Most of Yorgos Lanthimos’s films deal with personal isolation, but this is taken to an extreme in his breakout Dogtooth, a Greek language film about a strange family whose adult children have never been allowed to step outside their fenced-in home. What little knowledge they have of the outside world is intentionally distorted, and they believe they can only leave once they lose their canines (dogteeth). Bizarrely stylized and disturbingly surreal, this is trademark Lanthimos.
9. Lady MacBeth (1996)
This is a dark, brooding, spellbinding movie, set in 1800s England, about a young lady who is recently trapped in a loveless marriage and not permitted to leave her estate. Increasingly unhappy, she tries to find her freedom in small ways, but things quickly unravel. When you have phenomenal acting talent like Florence Pugh, the best thing to do is just to step back and let her cook – Lady MacBeth is an absolute showcase for Pugh.
8. Groundhog Day (1993)
The rest of the movies on this list are all about physical isolation, but Groundhog Day is about chronological isolation, which this film makes you feel is a million times worse. A stone cold classic and likely Bill Murray’s best work, this seminal time loop film follows an asshole weatherman (Murray) to a small town in Pennsylvania who somehow gets stuck re-living the same day, over and over and over again.
7. Green Room (2015)
Jeremy Saulnier’s punk rock slasher flick leans into its B-movie and exploitation influences and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Centering around a band that plays a gig at a neo-Nazi bar, they end up accidentally witnessing something they should not have seen. Stuck in the green room, they must find a way to survive. Green Room is a daring, thrilling, and violent ride.
6. Home Alone (1990)
This children’s classic is a great time and a welcome comedic relief among the bleak darkness of most of the other films on this list. The formula is that of a live action Acme/Tom and Jerry cartoon, but Macaulay Caulkin has heart and charm in spades and isn’t afraid to show it off. Home Alone conveys the sheer fun of being home alone as a kid without parental supervision, but at its core, it’s a movie about loneliness and the importance of family, especially at Christmastime.
5. Ex Machina (2014)
Alex Garland’s directorial debut is a stunning and unsettling three hander featuring Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleason, and Alicia Vikander. Isaac plays a reclusive Zuckerberg type tech CEO who invites his employee (Gleason) to his hidden getaway to take a Turing test with his newest invention: a beautiful artificial intelligence robot, Ava (Vikander). This smart, sleek sci-fi thriller convincingly blurs the lines between reality and illusion.
4. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is not only one of the best American legal dramas of all time, it is one of the most unique. A “bottle movie” entirely set in a single room – twelve unnamed jurors, led by an incredible Henry Fonda, walk through the evidence in deliberating whether an 18-year-old defendant is guilty for murdering his father. An indictment of the American legal system while still offering hope, this remains powerful and absorbing when you watch it today, and maddeningly relevant.
3. The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of the Stephen King novel is one of the best horror films of all time and for many remains the defining cabin fever movie, as the Torrance family goes to the iconic Overlook hotel to act as caretakers during a lonely and wintry offseason. Like with any Kubrick film, there are scenes and shots that are etched into your memory forever. The truth is, all work and no play makes Jack Torrance anything but dull.
2. The Lighthouse (2019)
Robert Egger’s old-timey psychological thriller, using a claustrophobic 1.19:1 aspect ratio, is a gripping, atmospheric, and physically grueling black and white cinematic experience. The Sisyphean story follows two lighthouse keepers (with fully spectacularly committed, feral performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson), tending a lighthouse in the unbearably harsh New England climate. Loneliness, guilt, sexual frustration, and deliria quickly set in as things take a Lovecraftian descent into feverish madness.
1. Castaway on the Moon (2009)
This quirky South Korean dramedy starts off with a failed salaryman standing on the edge of a bridge, ready to jump into the Han River. His attempted suicide fails and he washes up on the shore of a small islet in the river. Stuck on the small piece of land, he finds himself completely isolated, living a Tom-Hanks-in-Castaway lifestyle while smack dab in the middle of South Korea’s largest city. Hilarious at times and poignant at others, this hidden gem subverts a number of tropes on the journey to find oneself.
