Hardcore (1979) poster
1979 · drama · thriller

Hardcore

Directed by Paul Schrader1h 48m1979
ElsewhereIMDb7.116kRT80%Metacritic63TMDB6.7316
  • heavy
  • brisk
  • intense
Movie DNA

Heavy, kinetic, extreme drama / thriller, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in search of his runaway teenage daughter who’s making hardcore films in the pits of Los Angeles.

Our read · Hardcore (1979) reads as a heavy, kinetic, grounded drama · thriller entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Hardcore

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a grim father-daughter odyssey through seventies porn underworlds and Calvinist rage.

ends bittersweetit will wreck youbuilds to a gut-punch finalegrips by minute 12attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upexplicit sexnuditygraphic violencesexual violencechild peril

Skip it tonightSkip if snuff-film horror, peep-show sleaze, or teenage exploitation will leave you sick.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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