Films like What Have I Done to Deserve This?.

What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984) reads as Neutral, kinetic, measured comedy / drama, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured. Every film below is ranked by distance across the same twelve hand-scored axes — with what it keeps, and where it walks away. Not a genre dump.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) poster
1. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!1989

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Dark Habits (1983) poster
2. Dark Habits1983

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

The Mozart Brothers (1986) poster
3. The Mozart Brothers1986

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the heightened unreality; trades toward a cold, bleak undertow.

Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980) poster
4. Pepi, Luci, Bom1980

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Pushpaka Vimana (1987) poster
5. Pushpaka Vimana1987

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the heightened unreality; trades toward a cold, bleak undertow.

Mama Turns 100 (1979) poster
6. Mama Turns 1001979

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the heightened unreality; trades toward a cold, bleak undertow.

Labyrinth of Passion (1982) poster
7. Labyrinth of Passion1982

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the heightened unreality; trades toward a cold, bleak undertow.

Kinfolk (1981) poster
8. Kinfolk1981

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the heightened unreality; trades toward a grounded, familiar shape.

Palombella Rossa (1989) poster
9. Palombella Rossa1989

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes; trades toward a chilly detachment.

The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun (1983) poster
10. The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun1983

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) poster
11. Buffalo Bill and the Indians1976

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the intimate, personal stakes; trades toward a chilly detachment.

Abel (1986) poster
12. Abel1986

Keeps the intimate, personal stakes and the unmistakable directorial hand; trades toward a heightened unreality.

These are What Have I Done to Deserve This?’s neighbours — where are yours?

Rate five posters and the same twelve axes read you — then tonight’s pick comes from your own centre of taste.

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