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.
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.
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!
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.
They Live. I stumbled across it on TV while exhausted at 2 am one night and it had me locked in the whole time.
I used this movie as the basis for at least three school assignments in high school. Brilliant.
Dredd (2012)
That movie is damn near perfect.
In a way I’m glad we didn’t get a sequel, because the execs would have diluted it down to a PG rating in order to maximise the merch sales.
- The Blues Brothers (1980)
- How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
- The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) <- The best film version of “A Christmas Carol”. I will die on this hill.
- Blazing Saddles (1974)
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
My brother-in-law is a Dickens scholar and he agrees with you.
Okay so I didn’t watch it I just read a synopsis, but why is cat on a tin roof on here? Seems like a bit of a curveball to me
“Cat…” is worth watching for the acting alone.
The Shawshank Redemption
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Schindlers List: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/
Absolutely required viewing, especially in this day and age
Shit made me cry
For the few people who didn’t already watch it, and the best movie of all time :
Mad Max: Fury road (2015 ) by Miller .
This is what film story telling is about: having an entire weird universe told through visual medium. The 1st half hour has mad max gagged and incapable of talking, and it is amazing. Preferably on big screen.
A gem from the past:
Taboo(1999), by Nagisa Ôshima,
a samurai movie with hint of homosexuality. and an ending that can only be understood by paying close attention to the sound off screen.
A classic:
Seven samurai(1954), Kurosawa.
Just enjoy the black and white shot , and immerse in old Japanese culture
Firstly, Fury Road is a masterpiece. I just wanted to agree with you.
Secondly; have you ever played Ghost of Tsushima? It has a Kurosawa mode that’s really beautiful. You can play the whole game in a rich, moody black and white. It’s a gimmick, sure, but a nice one.
Full Metal Jacket.
I would like to add 2 absolute masterpieces of German cinematic creations.
First: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo(W children from station zoo)
Devinetively not ab easy or joyfully film. So far I only watched the original version which isn’t great in terms of story telling but it displays the reality of drug abuse(in this case heroin) in a very good way. This film is devinetively capable of ruining your day.
Werner - Beinhart( Werner and the wizard of booze)
A quite old(1990) animated film. It is funny as hell but you can clearly see, that it was made in a different time/society. However, its still funny as hell(at least in my opinion).
Werner
I don’t think this kind of humor can be translated or localized very easily. But damn is it fun.
Havent watched the English version so I don’t know how well they are made.
