111–120 of 340 posts
Ikiru / To Live (1952, Kurosawa) Only saw it once long ago, among many other masterpieces. It immediately and singularly became my deeply ingrained reference model for the mechanics of fateful changes in life, following your heart, the absolute happiness of meaningful sacrifice, cathartic paradigm shifts, and a host of other vital concepts that are otherwise difficult to visualize.
Going in a slightly different direction, the two saddest films I have ever seen are 火垂るの墓 / Grave of the Fireflies (1988 - Ghibli - Japan) and Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanad / Hush! Girls Don't Scream (2013 - Iran). In both of them you can feel the exact moment when the protagonist loses hope and it really hits you. Both of them deserve a pretty strong warning--I guess the second one more of a true "trigger warning"…
Princess Mononoke [1] (1997) had an impact on how I value our environment and also was my gateway into anime [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke
> and also was my gateway into anime Slightly off topic, any recommendations on that area? I've never checked out any anime besides children shows and would like to see something good, preferably mature and recent, to see if I'm missing out on something cool.
It's short enough that you can watch it in an afternoon as an extremely long movie if you'd like (assuming you skip most of the intro and outro/credit sequences, which add a few minutes to each episode).
Synecdoche, New York As to why, Roger Ebert said it best[1]. [1] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/synecdoche-new-york-2008
And maybe the ridiculous Jesse Eisenberg movie I saw last night, _Vivarium_. It changed my opinion on how reasonably good actors can do horrible movies, obviously not for the money because there isn't going to be any.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It highlights the true nature of mastery, how deep it goes, and what an actual master looks like. One of the chefs needed 10 years of experience before they would let him do the egg sushi. There's the deep networks that support it too, the master fishmongers, the master rice planters, and all the master brokers in between who knew how to find the good stuff.
I was a somewhat lost teenager when I saw it, who saw no value in working hard for something and at the same time was terrified of living a life that was irrelevant in the big picture.
After watching it, it somehow all clicked for me. Both the pride and pleasure that can be taken out of perfecting a craft, and the idea that even the most apparently irrelevant aspect of life can be perfected and improved.
I am not exaggerating if I say that without watching it I might not have got my shit together in time to be who I am now.
Network - It was made a long time ago, but it's really about Facebook. Watch it.
Requiem for a dream - I'll never forget this movie, ever. This will make you want to quit all your drugs.
Hearts of Darkness (A Filmmaker's Apocalypse) - This is the making of Apocalypse Now, and it's amazing. It's so much more than a documentary about how to make a movie, it's about life, movie making, and youtube, long before it existed.
Wargames - still relevant about how technology could destroy us. I feel like this is the Ferris Bueller's Day Off for Hackers.
And lastly, who could forget, Hackers.
Wall-E. The first like 15 minutes have no dialog. The rest of the movie is a profound commentary on modern life told as a children’s story
The last time I watched it, I felt like there was a narrative disconnect about midway through the movie where the primary plot just changes. (One is Wall-E's relationship with EVE, the other is the saving of humanity.) It's not that I can't deal with both plots being in the movie, but it seemed to me that there was kind of an overt switch between them, and it really brought me out of my enjoyment.
Maybe I'll give it another go sometime, though. There's a lot of great stuff in there! I just wish it all flowed better for me.
The Auggie Wren christmas story still gives me goosebumbs and that movie singlehandedly god me into Tom Waits
Team America: World Police. Now I get to hear the AIDS song and “America, Fuck Yeah” in my head at least once every day for the rest of my life. It’s changed my mind about the concept of entertainment being so crap that it’s actual brain poison that the wise will avoid, which I thought was just old stick-in-the-mud folks being old. But no, it’s real. Be careful what you expose your brain to. Bonus round: the wiener-m…
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are absolute geniuses, derka derka Edit: The Lord Song "Push" on South Park [1] was also a real banger ya ya ya [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGcG2nijaI