Spacek and Duvall are drawn together in the desert.

This incredibly odd 1977 film is a surreal masterpiece that Luis Buñuel would have been proud to call his own. Torn from Robert Altman’s dreams and set in the California desert, 3 Women is the discombobulating story of a girl named Pinky (Sissy Spacek) who goes to work in a nursing home and becomes very attached to fellow nurse Millie (Shelley Duvall). The story of the relationship is a tortured one, filled with paranoia, accusation and obsession, which slowly melts into a brilliant reveal.

It’s impossible to stress the degree of difficulty that Altman assumed in creating a feature-length film that operates with the eccentricities of the dream stage. He was capable of aiming high and falling into the abyss; Quintet may be the worst movie ever made by a genius-level director. But 3 Women is a masterwork unlike anything else Altman ever directed. (Available for rent on Netfilx and other outlets.)