Ask Lemmy

Requiem for a Dream. But probably only watch it once.

Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and the movies talking about Edward Snowden

Trying to come up with a few that aren't on the list:

Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) - Just a beautifully touching film, with a unique style and a great cameo of Peter Falk as himself. Much better than the English Language remake (City of Angels)

Come and See (Idi i smotri) - Hard to watch, but an incredible portrayal of the horrors of war. Not a feel-good film at all. But an amazing feat of filmmaking.

My Dinner With Andre - It's ironic that the movie that Roger Ebert referred to as "entirely devoid of clichés" has become a cliché. I'm not sure how well it's aged for modern audiences, but I first saw it in the 80's, have seen it at least a dozen times since, and it still really gets to me. I empathize heavily with both characters in the way that they search for meaning in life, and I could listen to Andre Gregory tell stories all day.

Stop Making Sense - A stellar concert documentary. The first time I saw it was a midnight screening where the audience got up and danced through the whole movie. David Byrne is hypnotic.

The Decline of Western Civilization - Amazing look at the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the early 80's

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - A classic stage-to-screen adaptation. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chew the scenery for a few hours while their guests Sandy Dennis and George Segal try to make sense of it all. Amazing acting, great cinematography that really leverages the closeup. A must-see.

The Lion in Winter - Sort of a medieval version of the above with Peter O' Toole and Katherine Hepburn. Also see a young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton put on stellar performances. Like Virginia Woolf above, this is acting with a capital A.

The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville) - A unique animation style and a unique story. A really fun watch.

The End of Evangelion is a masterpiece, but you must watch NGE before, which also is a masterpiece.

Pincess Mononoke and/or Metropolis 2001

Get Crazy (1983). Just a fun piece of silliness with a cameo from Lou Reed.

And Electric Larry

Flight of the Phoenix, the original B&W one from the 50s

Fantastically atmospheric, you can feel the tension all the way through the film

The Banshees of Inisherin

So many great movies listed here, but only one kiwi movie; Once Were Warriors. Unless you count Lord of the Rings, which was indeed made here, but not really exactly a kiwi movie. Here's a few I reckon are worth checking out, a mix of comedy, fantasy, sci-fi and biopic, with at least one film from each of the last 5 decades;

• Goodbye Pork Pie (the 1981 original, I haven't seen the 2017 remake Pork Pie directed by his son)
• Came A Hot Friday (1985, so underrated compared to the one above)
• The Quiet Earth (1985, based on the 1981 novel of the same name)
• The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988, epically weird, in a Fisher King kind of way)
• Heavenly Creatures (1994, Peter Jackson's first "serious" film, after his splatter comedies Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Braindead. Trivia: I'm in this for about 3 seconds ...)
• Whale Rider (2002)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
• Eagle vs. Shark (2007)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
• The Dead Lands (2014, notable for being entirely in Te Reo Māori, and featuring some mean Māori martials arts)
• The Dark Horse (2014)
• Muru (2022, loosely based on the events of the 2008 Operation 8 raids)
• Ka Whawhai Tonu (2024, also has a lot of Te Reo spoken)

Ben Hur

Forrest Gump

The Nice Guys

Pitch Perfect Production of a 1970’s story that’s just shockingly good. Go in blind like I did, you won’t be disappointed.

Synopsis:

Once were warriors

Predestination [2014]

Last time a similar question was asked, I responded with Perfect Blue, The End of Evangelion, and Love & Pop.

So this time, I'm going to suggest Sans Soleil.

Movies made outside of the US. United-statesians underestimate too much on other countries' productions. There's many great movies made outside of Hollywood that you can find if you search.

A suggestion that I can give is Netflix's Brazilian film Just Another Christmas, where a guy who hates Christmas gets on a time curse and he keeps waking up on each year's next Christmas eve, his life keeps changing before his eyes and at the end he learns a valuable lesson. I've seen it being compared to Click, not sure though.

Ivan's Childhood; although all of Tarkovsky's oeuvre is worth it.

Baraka