The Netflix show Russian Doll might be up your alley

Obvious choice: Primer

There’s also a decent tng episode that has this exact premise.

It seems this is an entire genre though, so Wikipedia does have a list of time loop movies. Maybe check if any of those short descriptions seem to fit your tastes?

Looper was a pretty good concept IMO.

I’ve heard good things about Palm Springs from 2020.

Predestination. If you haven’t seen it, you might like it.

Did you try time-loop games yet? Outer Wilds is fantastic. Majora’s Mask, The Forgotten City and The Sexy Brutale are also pretty cool.

Run Lola Run and Palm Springs.

Try Coherence, and Time Lapse. Two pretty cool, underrated, low budget movies that I rewatched many times.

Try Predestination.

Try looper and if you’re ready to think a lot, Primer.

Edge of tomorrow is so fuckin good.

Give the Netflix show “Dark” a try. Incredibly well written, everything fits together at the end, and it touches on this topic in an interesting and unique way!

It’s a rough one but maybe check out Primer.

Also give Paper Girls a try. It’s a graphic novel but Amazon started making it into a show but canceled after one season.

Memento is a time loop of sorts, good movie for sure.

It’s not a movie, but I just binged the anime Erased and it would be right up that alley! It’s only 12 episodes long with great pacing and its what I would describe as a non-anime persons type of anime

I watched HDD and then 2U on a glowing recommendation I knew it was positioned as a horror but damn I didn’t know what I was getting into and they’re two of the funnest movies I’ve seen in years. My only regret is not seeing them in the theatre as they come across as movies people would be yelling at the screen which is the best kind of movie IMHO

This is slightly different than a time loop, but check out Coherence.

I don’t read much fiction, but I quite enjoyed the book Edge of Tomorrow was based on: All You Need Is Kill. The plots only overlap at a very high level, if that, so no worries on having it spoiled for you. It’s fun reading the protagonist’s thought process and I think the book does a far better job at making the aliens scary, the war desperate.

Love Edge of Tomorrow. Wish they would make that sequel.

Triangle

You might like the movie Arq, was a pretty interesting time loop movie on Netflix

It’s a DUST short, but check out Iteration One on YouTube.

Triangle is such a great movie.

Source Code was okay but not great or anything. Of course, there’s also Looper.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is quite fun - some friends discover that a webcam upstairs from them shows the very near future.

Have you tried venturing more towards the metal side like…

• Lacuna Coil
• After Forever
• A Sound of Thunder (probably more rock)
• Arch Enemy
• Epica
• Unleash the Archers

Amyl & the sniffers is my fav

• Veruca Salt
• The Go-Go’s
• The Bangles
• Wilson Phillips
• Bananarama
• Sugababes

Ok, I’m old and my tastes might be different to yours 😜

The Pretty Reckless

That’s the one fronted by Cindy Lou Who, right?

Well, you’re in luck because we are living in basically the platinum age of women fronting cool rock bands.

Just off the top of my head:

Bones UK, Sniffany and the Nits, Cable Ties, Amyl and the Sniffers, Mod Con, Waax, Gutter Girls, Flagipanis, Panic Shack, Tiger Pussy, The Hellfreaks, The Darts, The Creepshow, The Spookshow, Zombina and the Skeletones, Bat Fangs, La Butcherettes, The Death Valley Girls, Sleater Kinney, The Veleteers, The Julie Ruin, The Bobby Lees, The Coathangers, The Regrettes, The Pink Slips, The Blushes, Bratmobile, LA Machina, Scrunchies, Skating Polly, and The Nova Twins.

I could dig up more if I start scrolling through my playlists, but there are tons of women out there right now making great music. Seems like every time I turn around there’s some cool new thing.

I would like to ask a similar question:

I very much like the “the beauty and the beast” - styled metal. That’s at least what I read online sometime what it’s called.

The mix of a male voice growling and a female voice singing melodic kinda does it for me, but so far I had very little luck finding stuff that fits, actually just a few songs.

Any recommendations?

I’ll go a bit more into my niche. Might not be what you’re looking for but it’s all female or female fronted rock in a broader sense. Genres here are Stoner, Doom and Death metal.

Blackwater Holylight
L.A. Witch
Hippie Death Cult
Brutus
Archenemy
Throne Hammer

Bad cop bad cop

https://youtu.be/fpfp6HbyoyQ?si=EhZg6yPK_E7WDvMP

surprised no one recommended Guano Apes yet

I really like more melodic stuff, and my favorites are Ad Infinitum, Dark side of the Moon, Enemy Inside, Beyond the Black, Scarlet Dorn

I’m on a Tulip binge right now.

Her voice is amazing. Give a few songs a listen and you’ll be hooked!

Midnight in the Desert remastered, Bird set free and Dimensional Rift unplugged are great

You might like some of the output of Elysian Fields (Jennifer Charles, Oren Bloedow). Maybe in particular their earlier stuff, like their Bleed Your Cedar (1996) album:

https://piped.video/watch?v=-x6w5DQ5sLM

They’ve made many a fantastic albums though, worth checking out.

Eva Under Fire fits that list perfectly!

Fleshwater https://youtu.be/Omul2aBWWKs?si=_kdLfAi6sWgmmzBb

Sister Sin rules. Check em out!

Blues pills

Maybe you’ll like Dover?

Another to try might be Royal & The Serpant

The Bird and the Bee, Black Moth, Blondshell, Bent Knee, Buke & Gase, Guerilla Toss, L’imperitrice, Lucifer, The Mysterones, Nico Vega, The Octopus Project, Orchards, Radiation City, No Doubt {first few albums, not the new garbage), Save Ferris, Rubblebucket, Elise Trouw

I wonder if you’d like Sleigh Bells. Twee pop vocals over grungy guitar. A lot of fun

Anything Kristine Hersh has touched, especially 50 FOOT WAVE

Halocene, she does a bunch of covers of old rock songs from around the early 2000s. It’s like fresh nostalgia straight into my ears. Her original stuff is also pretty good :)

You have a lot of recommendations already but I’d like to add two of my favorites: Courtney Barnett and Alvvays!

V.A Rocks

You might enjoy Devilskin and Gin Wigmore.

Really surprised no one mentioned The Distillers Some more:

• Ida Maria
• Petrol Girls
• NOBRO
• Sincere Engineer
• Not On Tour
• Paramore
• Vulvarine

i lovee dazey and the scouts, tiger trap, the regrettes, st. vincent, vial, and gully boys

Crimson Spirit

A few great ones come to mind but they’re a bit more punky than your examples. Like I’m thinking of The Muffs, who are fucking kickass!!!

The Birthday Massacre is the audible version of rocky road icecream. Try this, either with headphones or decent speakers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOPS0X3pbk

Also, as already suggested, Lacuna Coil is delicious.

There are a lot of Asian female fronted rock bands, like BabyMetal, Lovebites, Gacharic Spin and Asterism. EDIT: also Hanabie.

I’m not familiar with those, so this might be a bad suggestion, but the short description makes me think this may still fit, have you read The City & the City by China Miéville?

It’s set in two overlapping cities, whose inhabitants diligently disregard the other city’s until they formally cross the borders, and it’s a crime to do otherwise. It’s a pretty compelling read imo!

If an unreliable shifting house would work, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. The writing is very much love it or hate it for a lot of people, but the idea fits.

Edit: Oh! And House of Windows by John Langan. No relation despite the similar titles.

Dark City is amazing, I recommend that movie whenever I get the chance.

Maybe Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente? Her Orphan’s Tales have some interesting cities too, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

Again, not just one city, but take a look at Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino - it was a direct inspiration for Fallen London.

China Miéville might be worth checking out - go for either the City and the City or for Perdido Street Station.

“unreliable shifting cities”

Not a city but Cube

perhaps too literal though.

Have you tried Neverwhere [tv series, novel, comic] by Neil Gaiman?

Maybe Labyrinth or Time Bandits. They both had some 4D changing terrain.

Hazy memory that Clive Barkers NightBreed had similar too.

Trying to find some other suggestions, maybe the movie Vivarium?

Was sure somewhere in the back of my mind I had something that fit exactly

Neverwhere, the book I think you would like.

There was a pilot of a series that was never developed, called Parallels. People travelling in parallel versions of earth through a building. Obviously it ends up on a cliffhanger, but I loved it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_(film)

If you read or listen to sci-fi books i highly highly recommend the latest book from Andy Weir. It’s called project hail Mary and it’s fucking amazing. The main character never swears when stuff goes wrong, which is kinda weird at first until you learn that he was a school teacher, but that is the biggest criticism I have of the book. It isn’t even a real criticism either. It’s an amazing book imo.

Which shows have you liked?

I think China Mieville is the closest I’ve read, though obviously not 1:1.

Have you seen Glorious (2022)? Its a movie that you might enjoy that has very lovecraftian vibes.

I think it’s become a bit of a meme, but I’d recommend King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. They make music from all kinds of genres.

Having being obsessed with QOTSA for half a year or so, I moved too some of Josh Homme’s other project: Them Crooked Vultures, and Desert Sessions.

Other artists I would recommend are Wolfmother, Death From Above 1979, and Royal Blood.

If you want something thats a bit more rythmicly and melodically playful, I would highly recommend most albums by the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Their two most recent releases I haven’t enjoyed so much, but the rest is golden. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is good of you find the right albums. Personally I really like Nonagon Infinity, PetroDragonic Apocalypse, as well as their microtonal series of albums: Flying Microtonal Banana, KG, and LW.

Kyuss was an American rock band, formed in Palm Desert, California,[5] in 1987. The band disbanded in 1995,[6][7][8] and since then, members of Kyuss have gone on to form or play in several notable bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees, Fu Manchu, Dwarves, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, Hermano, Unida, Slo Burn and Them Crooked Vultures.

😎

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6qzoN2sqk

All Them Witches

Waxahatchee, Amanda Shires, Father John Misty, yes to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, I don’t love Queens of the Stone age but the rest of your list I like. Are you trying to branch out in genres too? Listen to Sturgill Simpson’s rock album Sound and Fury, to Yola, and Janelle Monae.

Muse, AWOLNATION, and the Black Keys are mainstream but so good too.

Check out La Femme, especially Paradigmes and Teatro Lucido

Over the garden wall

The Owl House might be simillar, the world is like a Hieronymus Bosch painting and past the first season the overarching story picks up, but there’s a consistent undertone of optimism throughout.

I can’t really remember Hilda but I remember liking it. I think these recommendations are a similar vibe. I also did not like Gravity Falls but should probably give it another try since I didn’t give it a fair shot.

Dara, Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat would be my recommendations.** I’ve ranted about them below trying to describe them but honestly you should probably just ignore my rant and watch some episodes since they are all short.**

It’s been a while since I’ve watched Dara so I can remember deets but it’s a cute and chill show.

Steven Universe is possibly my favourite show, 12 min episodes so really easy to consume. It’s dorky (especially at first) and takes a while to get going. But when it does it has a lot going for it. Action, adventure, humour, all with an upbeat and warm tone. It tackles some pretty deep topics but can be a little on the nose sometimes. The character arcs are satisfying and the whole plot feels very intentional and comes to a close satisfyingly. Who am I kidding it’s definitely my favourite show. If you’ve seen ATLA I think they are quite similar in plot and episode structure, but SU has more adult themes, better humour & character arcs, and a better plot overall. (IMO, don’t yell at me ATLA fans).

Bee and Puppycat has two runs, a YouTube one then a sort of remake on Netflix, it’s confusing and idk which one to recommend, I like the both though. So far it seems quite similar to SU except much less structured. It’s very cutesy and fun but I feel like there’s some ADHD vibes in terms of writing and the main character (I don’t mean this in an entirely bad way, I have ADHD). It just feels a bit scatterbrained at times. That being said I really like it and I’m hoping the creator gets more seasons approved.

Hilda was great fun, I forgot about that one.

It’s very much aimed at kids, but you might enjoy Sarah and Duck, it has some similarities IMO. It’s upbeat and fun, and just a little bit weird, with some strange world logic. And it’s brilliantly narrated by Roger Allam.

On 5, have you heard of Crying Suns? Crying Suns is more in the vein of FTL, so not a deckbuilder, but if memory serves I think it has the branching map to it.

It’s received some praise for its setting from what I gather, but I haven’t gotten around to seriously playing it, so can’t speak much to that.

Ursula Vernon’s webcomic Digger

Don’t buy the paperback version. Frickin’ spine started coming apart after one reading…

For 5 as well, there’s a game i added to my wishlist called Brutal Orchestra. I saw someone review it and say its amazing and is kiiiinda similar.

I think these all merit a mention given what you’re looking for. Whether or not they hit square is up to you.

The Fall (2006) - A bit flat in the story department, but this was clearly a film focused on being a feast for the eyes. It succeeds in that handily.

The Great Yokai War - Ever wondered what would happen if Takashi Miike directed The Never Ending Story? This is something like that.

Tuvalu - Almost like if you smashed the aesthetics of Jean Pierre Jeunet and Guy Maddin together. The dialogue is hyper-minimal, but it you can get on board with the overall approach this film is a gem.

Well, I was just talking about Dark City in my own sub thread, and to me it’s very similar to Brazil in tone and imagery. Not sure how much of it is practical effects but given the era I’m guessing that most of it is.

You’ve got Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, so how about Time Banidts?

With The congress and Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind, you’re in for a treat. I think Tideland checks the box as well. They are not exactly a narrative happening in another world, but the feeling of strangeness is good enough imo.
Honorable mention to the french odd ball named “la planete sauvage”, though it is an animation film.

Big Fish

Hmmmm… Adventurous third person action game with a sense of mystery and strong scripting? Is that it?

Horizon: zero dawn or forbidden west? That’s more on the open world side of things though.

What about God of war or maybe shadow of the colossus?

A little shorter and not so much on the adventure side but very mysterious and very intense: hellblade - senua’s sacrifice. That’s quite dark though, missing some of those feelgood indy vibes.

The last of us is made by the same developers as uncharted and the first game is available for PC. The story is a lot more dark than uncharted though.

No recommendations for broken sword 🧐

Control and Alan Wake 2 might be up your alley if you’re looking for heavy emphasis on story and mystery