Top 10 Movies You Can't Watch in Public

Although Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” is a critically acclaimed film, touting a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and several Academy Award nominations, you may want to gauge your audience before popping it into the DVD player. The 1976 film follows Travis Bickle, a veteran of the US marine corps, who suffers from PTSD and spends most of his nights driving a taxi and visiting adult movie theaters. Over the course of the film, he becomes increasingly upset about things happening in his city, including the exploitation of a young person he meets. The viewer watches as his radicalization plays out to a graphically violent end.

This film is infamously based on “Twilight” fan fiction, but it’s considerably more R-rated than the supernatural teen romance it was inspired by. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and its subsequent sequels, tell the story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey - two very different people who become involved in a complicated romantic relationship. In the first film, Anastasia meets Christian, a billionaire businessman, while interviewing him for her college’s newspaper. After this encounter, Christian begins to pursue her, visiting her at work and taking her on a coffee date before giving her the opportunity to see his adult “playroom.” While there, he introduces her to his world, and presents her with a non-disclosure agreement for further meetings, none of which you’d want to be caught watching.

Some films transport you to magical worlds full of fantastic mythical creatures. “Trainspotting” transports you into the bowl of the “Worst Toilet in Scotland.” The 90’s black comedy film takes a harsh look at the lives of a group of people struggling with relying on illegal substances. As they try to finally get clean, viewers are subjected to bouts of extreme violence. There’s also intense depictions of their daily lives and the devastating consequences of their actions. During one of the film’s more grim sequences, the protagonists attend a funeral and memorial service for one of their own who has died of toxoplasmosis.

Have you ever wondered why Louise Belcher wears bunny ears in “Bob’s Burgers”? Although the show’s creators have never confirmed it, many fans theorize that her iconic hat is actually an homage to the 1997 film “Gummo.” “Fred: The Movie” similarly references the oddball indie film, showing bacon taped to Fred’s bathroom walls. Unfortunately for fans hoping to understand these references, “Gummo” is not for the faint of heart. The Harmony Korine film portrays the squalor and depravity of a small town devastated by a natural disaster. Throughout the course of the film, viewers are shown truly horrifying stories. There are also scenes of violence that viewers would find difficult to stomach.

Plenty of R-rated films feature provocative adult scenes which may be embarrassing to watch with friends or family. In most cases, however, these scenes are either few and far between or mercifully brief. “Don Jon” is not one of those cases. The film, which served as the directorial debut of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, gives viewers a glimpse into the life of a modern “Don Juan” by the name of Jon Martello. Unlike the Don Juan of yore, Gordon-Levitt’s Jon has some trouble getting the women he dates to stick around - not because of his looks or his personality, but because of his all-consuming addiction to adult films.

Edward Norton is perhaps best known for his role in David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” a now celebrated film that once received backlash for its dark tone and extreme violence. A year prior to taking up the mantle of The Narrator, however, Nortan was playing another character prone to violent outbursts - Derek Vinyard. Loosely mirroring the true story of Frank Meeink, “American History X” tells the story of a hateful man who is imprisoned after taking a Black man’s life. Although the main character slowly unlearns his racist ways while incarcerated, the film can still be pretty disturbing in its depiction of hate. There are on-screen depictions of extreme violence and as a liberal use of words that still shock today.

When most people think about puppets, their mind likely goes to child-friendly films like “The Muppets” or “Pinocchio,” but just as animation can be used to make adult comedies, so can puppetry. Enter “Team America: World Police,” an action-packed, satirical comedy film about the “war on terror” from the creators of “South Park.” The film’s most infamous scene is an extended bedroom scene between two of its protagonists. In spite of its use of puppets rather than live actors, the scene was deemed so provocative that the MPAA returned the film with an NC-17 several times before finally giving it an R rating. An unrated version of the scene and film was later released on home media.

Danish director Lars Von Trier is no stranger to controversy. When asked how he felt about walk-outs during a screening of his 2018 film, “The House that Jack Built,” he had a unique response. When he heard 100 people lost their lunches, he seemed disappointed that numbers weren't higher. He found it important that the film divided people. Although its goal was not to make people physically sick, “Nymphomaniac” also faced some push-back upon release. It has explicit, and unsimulated, adult scenes. The film featured well-known American actors such as Christian Slater and Uma Thurman dealing directly with societal taboos surrounding adult subjects. We would not recommend starting any frame of this movie in a public place.

Like “Trainspotting,” “Requiem for a Dream’s” primary focus is addiction and its life-altering effects. Despite the two films’ narrative similarities, though, “Requiem for a Dream” takes a much different approach to its subject, being a much darker and more surreal drama than its Scottish counterpart. Although “Requiem” is not as graphically violent or provocative as some of the other films on this list, its frank depiction of addiction to a variety of things can be incredibly bleak .The film was even ranked among Premiere Magazine’s “25 Most Dangerous Movies,” a list which included movies that the magazine felt fully encompassed darker aspects of life that typical moviegoers tried to shy away from.

“Pink Flamingos” has been referred to as “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made” - a review which director, John Waters, takes in stride. The deliberately provocative film was billed as “an exercise in poor taste” and featured everything from nudity and illegal substance use to other vicious crimes. In one of the film’s most infamous scenes, its star, Divine, really pushes the boundaries of poor taste. Unfortunately, the film is not solely made up of campy, harmless fun. If anyone catches you watching this controversial movie in public, they’re likely to have a few questions. The first query will definitely be why you just didn’t wait to see this wild film until you were behind closed doors.