Informal trilogies. Let's discuss.

I don't know of any which are currently being released, but there have been some over the past years. The first ones that come to mind are the Cornetto Trilogy by Edgar Wright, consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the World's end. Also Roman Polanski made the trilogy of Repulsion, The Tenant and Rosemary's Baby. But maybe those are a little more formal than the ones you've mentioned. I don't know since I haven't seen any of those listed. It's still a neat idea, but I am not aware of any others, although there might be.

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Paul Schrader's "night worker" movies are an informal trilogy: American Gigolo, Light Sleeper, and The Walker. The Walker went straight to video and hardly anyone has seen it. Woody Harrelson's performance is amazing, maybe his best ever, and I am a fan, so I know that is claiming a lot. The movie has some problems, but I would still recommend it, with the advice to ignore the whodunit plot and to just enjoy the character studies. Lauren Bacall and Lily Tomlin are great too.

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I really love The Dollars Trilogy (or The Man with No Name Trilogy) by Sergio Leone. A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) starring Clint Eastwood are among my favorite movies, especially The Good, the Bad and The Ugly.

How about the "Yuppie Trilogy"? Whit Stillman's Metopolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days Of Disco. I guess they're a trilogy in that they're exploring a certain demographic in a certain time and place. I have to re-watch them, but on first viewing they really intrigued and sort of perplexed me. It's hard to tell what Stillman is saying about these characters, and whether we're supposed to be laughing at them, pitying them, feeling scorn, etc. It made me immediately run to see anything I could find on his worldview, his politics, his background, etc., because you have (thinking primarily of Metropolitan here) the naive youth of nearly the most privileged class of people in the world, utterly compelling yet grotesque in their weird entitled pretentiousness. And yet Stillman's script, rhythm, and authorial voice are so dry that it often reads as neutral or even affectionate; like we're supposed to be as wrapped up in these people's absolutely petty concerns as they are. And yet there is a bit of that Coens-esque contempt and understated dark comedy, so you never really know where Stillman stands with his characters.

That feel and thematic bent runs through the whole trilogy--and he reuses actors as well. So if you want to see upper-class white kids got up to in their young adulthood in the 80's... check it out.

• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Meet John Doe - State of the Union (Frank Capra Political Quadrilogy)

• Rome Open City - Paisan - Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy)

• A Better Tomorrow - The Killer - Hard Boiled (John Woo Action)

and non-director specific:

• if... - O Lucky Man - A Clockwork Orange (Malcolm MacDowell Youth in Revolt)

• 12 Angry Men - The Ox Bow Incident - The Wrong Man (Henry Fonda Justice Trilogy)

• The Dawn Patrol - Only Angels Have Wings - The Wages of Fear (Tough guys doing tough jobs)

John Carpenter has his Apocalypse Trilogy, with The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness.

They all explore themes of the world ending, being trapped, and internal corruption. Three of my favorite movies.

Recent ones I can think of, Laura Poitras' 911 trilogy: My Country, My Country, The Oath and Citizenfour.

I think Denis Villeneuve's Incendies, Prisoners and Sicario are sort of tangentially tied but I think that's just Denis' interests I'm not sure.

Um, David Fincher's last three films are very similar in tone and cinematography and music but I don't think it's an intentional trilogy, maybe a stylistic change and move to digital: The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl

Satoshi Kon only made four feature length films and I haven't seen them all but I think they all explore similar subjects and could be considered a "cinematic movement"?

I thought I knew of another intentional informal trilogy but I can't think of it at the moment.

You've got "Total" (1983), "Amanece que no es poco" (1988) and "Así en el cielo como en la Tierra" (1995) from spanish director Jose Luis Cuerda. All three of them are comedies with a particular both absurd and genious satire and all three of them share several actors in different roles. And also, a series titled "American Crime" is doing something similar with same actors playing different roles in different stories.

The Coen brothers have their "George Clooney is an idiot" tetralogy, with O Brother Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading, and Hail Caesar!

Adam McKay has the possibly complete, possibly incomplete Mediocre American Man trilogy (aka the Colon trilogy), in which Will Ferrell plays a mediocre American man with the initials R.B. (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and maybe/maybe not Anchorman 2). More information on the parallels here.

uhh John Carpenter (prince of darkness, Mouth of madness, the thing) . Quentin Tarantino 's first three. pta's first three are disconnected from the next three in his filmography (more kubrick/malick influence) and share frequent visual/audial poetry .

you could look at a lot of films this way. such as john waters films. (desperate living, pink flamingoes, multiple maniacs) , Gaspar Noe (irreversable, enter the void, love) or scorsese (mean streets, goodfellas, casino)