I find it inconceivable that no one has mentioned ‘The Princess Bride’ yet.
That word… I think it means exactly what you think it means.
It’s immaterial, it is automatically disqualified from the list because we’ve all already seen it multiple times.
Mawwiage is what bwings us togevah today.
Bonus points for the actor Wallace Shawn being based
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - The quintessential 80s movie. Everything you need to know about the 80s is contained in this film.
Also Mr. Krabs is in it.
Office Space
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
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The Fifth Element.
Super green.
“Listen lady, I speak two languages: English and BAD English!”
Leeloo Dallas multipass
“12 Angry Men” (1957) is a personal favorite that I recommend to pretty much everyone. Great messages about questioning assumptions, challenging biases, understanding the limitations of evidence, acknowledging imperfections in the justice system, and the consequences thereof.
The movie is also cinematically interesting to me because it feels “small”. The entire movie just about takes place in one room, and the events of the film transpire over the course of one afternoon.
In the beginning of 12 Angry Men everything is shot from above eye-level with wide-angle lenses, giving everything the feel of more space, but as the film progresses it transitions to tighter shots with telephoto lenses from lower angles. The film gives the viewer more and more of a subconscious sense of tension and claustrophobia as the story progresses.
At least one stage adaptation of the story gave a similar effect over the course of the show by slowly tightening the lighting and having the walls of the set physically move inward, too slow for the audience to take notice but enough to subtly affect the entire atmosphere and really drive that feeling home.
That’s so neat; I’d never noticed that before. And the walls closing in on the stage adaptation is really clever
I’ve seen this movie 3 times, each viewing several years apart. Each viewing solidified this movie as my personal favorite, I would go in thinking I’ve already seen this, it can’t have the same wow factor. Nope, I would end up loving it even more. Can’t recommend this enough!
Lucky Number Slevin
Man On Fire
Syriana
Equilibrium
And for some solid Australian cinema: Mystery Road
solid. add fight club and boondocks saints.
Usual Suspects fit this list
These are not feel good movies at all but I think really send important messages. Not for kids, but at 16+ would be good. There’s very important takeaway messages in both.
Grave of the Fireflies
Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for A dream is a very good film. Its quite similar to the much older German film “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” (We children from the station zoo). The original version has a quite weird style in terms of how it tells the story but its still a very good film. Can only recommend it to everybody. Heroin one hell of A drug that can quite easily ruin everything.
I saw Grave of the Fireflies once.
Once.
Could never bring myself to go through it again, despite how utterly beautiful it is.
But my favourite thing about it is that it was originally a double bill with My Neighbour Totoro. Imagine seeing those two back to back. You’d get some serious emotional whiplash.
Oh please tell me Totoro was second! That it ended on a high note!
I get that most people are just listing their favourite movies, and that’s fair, but I feel like a lot of them are already well watched.
My suggestion is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Everything about it is a stunning piece of cinema that got massively overlooked at the time, and I don’t really know why. It stars Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, has a score by Nick Cave (who has a cameo) and Warren Ellis, and has cinematography by the mighty Roger Deakins.
On the cinematography; you could pause it at almost any point, take a screengrab, and print it out for display. It’s a stunningly well shot movie.
Nothing about the movie is fast. Everything takes place as it needs to, in its own time, all creeping glacially towards what you know is going to happen.
I adore this movie. I showed it to my kid a couple of years ago, fearful that he would hate it. Turned out he loved it as much as I do. It’s the best western I’ve ever seen, but to call it a western does it a disservice.
Spirited Away. In my opinion the most Miyazaki movie. It’s also just amazing. I’ve probably seen it a dozen times now.
One I’ve not seen mentioned yet: Wag the Dog (1997)
Such a prophetic movie
I think that stuff (those in power manipulating public opinion for their own ends by whatever means necessary) has always happened, but the access to and use of technology has definitely upped the game significantly, so yeah, I agree.
Edit to add: I watched it for the first time in my teens, and I think it had a deep impact on how I view politics and the media, and the relationship between them.
The Blues Brothers (1980).
I’m not the type that can watch the same movie or show over and over. This movie is one of the rare exceptions. I watch it at least 2-3 times a year.
It masterfully blends music, jokes, and action without a dull moment. It’s amazing how they can make you laugh your ass off with dry humor while Aretha Franklin is belting out a Respect. Not to mention having Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, and Cab Callaway all perform. And of course the car chases. Oh man, nothing can top those car chases.
The way they casually throw in a bazooka wielding character with zero introduction is just hilarious.
This one right here.
5th Element.
The super weapon that sleeps half the movie.
…didnt realise this till I head it on The Film ReRoll podcast.
The main characters are never aware of each other.
Many good ones were already mentioned
But from memory:
- The snatch
- The big Lebowsky
- Clerks
- American Psycho
- 2001 a space odissey
- Blade Runner (possibly the directors cut)
- Apocalypse now (possibly the redux version)
- Full metal jacket
- The godfather (first 2 movies, the rest is not as good)
- Fight club
- Alien
- The Truman show
- In the mouth of madness
- They live
- The terminator (first 2)
- Animal house
- the dollar trilogy from Sergio Leone
- Once upon a time in America
- pulp fiction
- reservoir dogs
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
This movie is the epitome of #mood for me. I love almost every scene as a standalone artwork. Must’ve watched it 20 times.
Did you like science of sleep? Similar vibes. Eternal sunshine is my favorite though.
I did a uni paper on it! I don’t like it as much, it’s a little too whimsical in comparison, but Gondry has a style that just settles my bones.
The baby scene was a little weird but otherwise great movie
I loved this movie and if I was to read a summary I would think it’s boring as hell. But it’s not. It’s on my Made Me Cry list, has an amazing female main character and a solid romance that is not cliche, and I typically cringe at movies with too much romance. This one is good. I +1 your recommendation.
Wall-e
It’s our future if we don’t fix shit.
Bold of you to assume we’ll be able to cooperate long enough to transport all of humanity off planet
They probably didn’t. It’s a single ship, not that big, and they only used one language on it.
Weren’t there supposed to be multiple ships?
In an early draft where there were blob alien things instead of humans. By the time they replaced them with humans they had reduced the fleet to a single ship.
Touche
