The Shawshank Redemption
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
Get Crazy (1983). Just a fun piece of silliness with a cameo from Lou Reed.
And Electric Larry
Lucky Number Slevin
Man On Fire
Syriana
Equilibrium
And for some solid Australian cinema: Mystery Road
Full Metal Jacket.
They Live. I stumbled across it on TV while exhausted at 2 am one night and it had me locked in the whole time.
Spirited Away. In my opinion the most Miyazaki movie. It’s also just amazing. I’ve probably seen it a dozen times now.
Children of Men.
One of my all time favorites. I usually recommend it along with I Origins. They hit differently, but scratch the same itch for me.
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Cloud Atlas
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Tora Tora Tora!
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Gone with the Wind
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
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
The Matrix
I find it inconceivable that no one has mentioned ‘The Princess Bride’ yet.
It’s immaterial, it is automatically disqualified from the list because we’ve all already seen it multiple times.
That word… I think it means exactly what you think it means.
Natural Born Killers