It's such a subtle movie, that it works on multiple levels at the same time. I got to level 2 on the first viewing, but only years later assimilated level 3.
At level 1 it's a simple Romcom movie - boy stuck in a time loop needs to earn girl's love.
Level 2 is that we are all stuck in a time loop. Everyone is functionally living the same day over and over. Same job, same relationships, same everything. (There's even a scene in the movie where Phil describes his predicament and thd barfly replies "welcome to my life".)
Level 3 is even more meta. Because Phil is the only person -not- living the same day. All around him everyone else is the same, but he's evolving. We see him learning piano, and ice-sculpting and so on. He evolves emotionally, and is trying new things. He moves from being self-centred to focused on others.
The genius of the movie, and Murray's performance, is that it's buried, never forced. You're left to figure it out yourself. It's a work of art, disguised as something trivial.
While as a kid I would say that I wanted to be downloaded into a video game when I died, the idea that was already the case never even entered my mind.
Even after watching the movie, I was just like "oh man, that's such a neat idea" but still didn't think it was actually the case.
It wasn't until years later reading Nick Bostrom's work that I started to seriously entertain it, and only then as I considered it more seriously (and as things progressed in parallel) that it became a predominant belief.
But for a movie to set in motion a complete shift in how one sees the world and their place in it is a pretty remarkable accomplishment, even if it still required a ton of additional pieces thereafter to arrive.
Both of these were written stories first, but I first encountered them as movies.
Arrival. I really enjoyed the idea that learning something new could lead to other changes in perception that you wouldn’t think are related. It also led me to other works from Ted Chiang, each of which brought unexpected mind bending concepts.
Solaris. Teaches the lesson that we need to accept that there may be things we just aren’t able to understand.
But there is also a scene (which I cannot find online) where the main character (a playwright) is explaining that the only way to make his play work is to make everybody a main character. He realizes that everybody, everywhere, is living out a rich life and that they're the main character of that life.
It is a fantastic movie and i highly recommend it.
I grew up in a rough neighborhood, in high school my view was limited and I thought there is no going out of trouble, being a black sheep of the family, etc. I saw that movie, and I felt hope for the first time and started making changes for myself.
Male grief is never portrayed with the kind of nuance and empathy that it deserves.
Now, I've started reaching out to my friends more often and offering support in a manner that only a fellow man can.
Lastly, it loosened me up. I didn't have to bottle things up and be a pillar for other people. I can now be weak when I was in my weakest moments, and not percieve it as a weakness. (Holy alliteration)
It's a movie I seem to go back to, to understand more about it and how the different story lines are connected. The philosophy aspect of this film I find appealing and it made think about reality differently although I wouldn't call myself a believer of such things.
I have some routine (not sure what to call it) where I take a context (by lack of better words) then work backwards.
This topic had me wonder what great lessons or insights in (my) life have not at all been captured by any movie. What followed was like an eruption of great movie ideas. What each movie really needs is at least one amazing plot twist. Nothing really accomplishes that the way changing the viewers perception of life does.
Ill do a crude example but it probably doesn't do justice to the raw idea.
I discover one day that you can always increase your spending to match your income and at the end of your money have a chunk of month left.
I discover that selling your brain in a job leaves your free time without one.
I also discover one day that physical activity is not optional.
I talk with a very successful business man who one day discovered that his chair in front of the TV is only a few meters away from his car and that his personal parking spot is only a few meters from his personal office. After some 30 years he had to walk 150ish meters to the other end of the building and was absolutely exhausted. Only then he realized he didn't get any physical activity at all.
One could forge a plot from that where the protagonist progresses from wealth, a highly successful career, weak and depressed all the way to a shit physical job with crappy pay. The villa, the cars, the credit card wife, the fake friends, it all has to go. Why internet if one can read books. Why drive if one can walk in the rain?
By the end of the movie, I was almost entirely on the side of the culture and their behavior made complete sense to me. During the course of the movie I experienced a shift of position and perspective and continues to affect me 4 years later.
All the token others… Pi, Memento, Waking Life, Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, etc. etc.
I felt like Midsommer was the best interesting film in decades.
The Discovery - 2017 - The thought that we keep doing things over in an imperceptible manner until we get it right, is haunting
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - 1986 - "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - It told me I could be a little less serious about things, and have more fun
About Time - 2013 - The lesson is to try to roll with whatever happens, and relax
I studied it at uni and wrote an essay where I explained that the main character couldn't be a symbol of both fascism AND a film director, because that would mean the director was calling himself a fascist. My lecturer's response was something like "why not?".
I was a very black-and-white thinker at that time, and his response was eye-opening for me.
The last one is a documentary about the war in Ukraine. The actual raw uninterpreted reality of things that we read about in history books or in the news changes your perspective on many things, from politics to simple things in life that we often take for granted.
News stories force an agenda on you. History books may give you some knowledge about the reality we live in today. THIS lets you live through the traumatic experience of the history books and news story events.
as we are born into a civilisation taking for granted that exploitation of other live beings is something natural and ethically acceptable / neutral.
Unfortunately, our lifestyle decisions tend to support a machninery of suffering only comparable to nazi concentration camps.
oh, and speaking of, if you lived far enough (temporarily / culturally / geographically) it's good to recall once in a while what atrocites humans are capable of, even in regards to other humans:
"Zone of Interest" - fresh movie about everyday life in proximity of death camps
I dont know, but probably the last great American "film". Shot on monochrome and depicting American history in raw and surreal way. The industry soon moved on to mainly digital video. Although many contemporary directors still shoot on film. Nolan for one.
I actually liked The 6th Day when it comes to ideas of our "natural" view on identity and ownership of individual assets etc.
Matrix, of course, for its search for reality/truth behind ones inherited perceptions, no matter what consequences (there are more ideas in the movies, though).
I'll just add Hitchcock's The Birds.
I saw it as a kid and it made an impression on me on several levels. For instance, a scary movie doesn't have to be about monsters. And made me realise that other living beings aren't in this planet just to be either food or pets, they're our neighbours.
I saw it in the movie room at a con, and learned:
(a) there was a world of sci-fi beyond the US
(b) it's possible to follow a movie with neither subs nor dubs
(c) the Itano Circus (板野サーカス) was unlike anything I'd ever seen on screen
Can't describe this without giving it away.
A River Runs through It. Even more so the book, but the movie gets the job done: the meanings of our experiences only make sense once their dust has settled.
The Leftovers. I'm going to cheat a little and say a TV show here. Better than anything else, it draws a connection between the philosophical immensity of things like 2001/Interstellar and the real drama of everyday human lives.
It features a middle-class family living in Taipei. Each of them at different stages of life. There is no central drama except that they are alive. It's a beautiful movie that makes you meditate on the human condition.
Helped me not take life so seriously. And that being super smart isn't the end-all-be-all. You can have a totally excellent time just being kind to others. In fact, kindness is probably the most important thing to be.
"The final frontier isn't space. Space can be explorer without meaning. The final frontier is our minds, it's how we take things in that defines us."
It impacted me deeply.
A Most Violent Year
Barry Lyndon
Breaking the Maya Code
Equilibrium
Margin Call
Moonfall
Good Kill
Godzilla vs Kong
Inception
Seven Days in May
Simone
The Leopard / Il Gattopardo
Trudell
Until the End of the WorldWalter Mitty and Big Year, similar adventures about people chasing their silly passions (but not fatally).
Transcendence, Her, and Robot and Frank, some of the very few AI-optimistic movies. I've always believed in the transformative social good of AI, since I first heard of the Borg, but most people and media are staunchly against it. It was nice to see a more friendly viewpoint.
I really enjoyed Arrival too and hope we have an experience like that someday, but the whole time travel thing was a turnoff.
Warning: not a good times film.
But it is beautiful in profound and sad ways. It deepened my appreciation for the good circumstances I have been fortunate to enjoy in my life.
I’ve always been one to recognize a lot of absurdities in life, but this movie got me asking: “What if the absurd false dichotomies are the feature that influential people use over their supporters to test their power and loyalty?”
I’ve also been asking myself, what other absurdities do I still not see and how can I systematically detect those absurdities?
The narative structure is hard to get the first time you watch the movie, but once you get it, it can change the way you see (the/our) nature.
- The Secret of NIMH.
Saw it the first time at 4 or 5 and was in awe, but it tooks several more years to understand it fully.
- The Truman Show.
It's basically my life.
- Akira.
No particular reason, except it's the first Manga which gets international recognition and propulsed the industry in the grown-up domain.
What would aliens be like if they've existed a billion years longer than us?
Made me move out of the city and off grid, buy a dog and find satisfaction in the simple life.
How do I describe this without giving it away?
Sügisball - an Estonian movie that introduced me to the works of Bohren & der Club of Gore, now my favorite band https://letterboxd.com/film/autumn-ball/
Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog moves hell and earth in this film https://letterboxd.com/film/fitzcarraldo/
Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-Wai's movies affected me so much that when I went to Hong Kong about half my trip was just looking for the filming locations https://letterboxd.com/film/chungking-express/ & https://letterboxd.com/film/in-the-mood-for-love/
UHF - Probably the reason I like underdogs https://letterboxd.com/film/uhf/
Dakota 38 (documentary about a 330-mile memorial run/ride for the Lincoln-ordered execution of 38 (and later two more) Dakota people on December 26, 1862. The full movie is on YT, and here's an MPR article about it: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/12/23/descendants-of-exec... This impacted me because I grew up in MN, didn't learn this in school, and it reminded me that indigenous Americans are still around despite efforts by dominant American culture to squash them.
I've had issues dealing with the concept of death and this movie helped me more than anything else. The panic attack scenes resonated quite hard and the end message left a lasting impact.
"Every path is the right path. Everything could've been anything else. And it would have just as much meaning."
I didn't learn anything new (I read American Prometheus), but seeing the affair dramatized so well was pretty moving.
Total Recall made me question the self
Starship Troopers made me question patriotism
I'm a sucker for Verhoeven's sci-fi flicks.
It shows that people who do bad things might have plausible reasons. It makes me think about how we usually only see the negative actions and not the circumstances that lead to them. It also considers whether most of us might react similarly, or if the real villains are those who manipulate others into doing these bad things.
I still think of it as the most (the only?) “grown up” movie I’ve ever seen in its incredible realism.
I saw it many years ago in an art house theater, but oddly have never even heard a mention of it since.
-> no man is an island
The Florida Project
-> precariousness of many lives
Waves (2019)
-> ambition & parenting
As a teenager: - Syriana - The Matrix - Fight Club - Before Sunrise
People’s relationship with technology for its ability to solve your every need and desire will be commonplace.
especially the scene where Auggie tells his friend (Paul) to... slow down. https://youtu.be/JGV_h36uZ5E
at the time, it felt society was telling me to 'speed up', get this done, achieve that, yayaya.. but I sorta preferred taking the slower route. This scene helped cement that mindset. Tall trees grow slow.
Having pass through a depression myself, the one which hit me most was Aftersun (by Charlotte Wells, 2022). It made me realize how silently mental illness affects one and their surroundings.
Premise: Everyone disappears from Earth without a known reason, except for 3 people.
This movie made me realize that everything we do is connected to other people. That awareness changed everything for me.
I liked the book. I loved the movie.
I personally believe that infinity is a wonderful concept and so honestly anything is possible. Even the impossible.
How would we treat aliens if they arrived?
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Sophies Choice
English Patient
Master and Commander
The Tree of Life
The Matrix
very basic answers I guess, but they are among my very favorite.
This movie gave me a new perspective on evolutionary life.
Solaris
Made me start to understand the bible and christianity from a scientific perspective.
From there reading the bible understanding more about the roots of our culture and seing the constant propaganda against it in the media, the movies, etc.
It's been eye opening.
Then you can read Atlass shrugged and live not by lies.
I used to be very progressive, left leaning, not anymore.