I’m trying to get a gauge of what people here are interested in.
This guy trying to steal your security questions!
What’s your favorite social security number?
9
My favorite genre is Denis Villenueve.
Favorite movie is The Princess Bride, second is Life Is Beautiful.
Favorite genre is “space western”.
I’m going to carry that weight.
I’d like to propose a micro-genre: Bromance films
Definition: Two or three characters (who need not actually be men) just getting up to mad shit and being great friends either before or as a result of the journey. Not entirely unlike a buddy cop movie but no need for cops.
Examples: Princess Bride, Road to El Dorado, Emperor’s New Groove, Three Musketeers
This micro-genre is absolutely predicated on the quality of it’s dialogue but it’s some of the best out there.
I think those are called “buddy comedies”, if you’d include things like Wedding Crashers.
Knights tale
Slow, boring spy films like “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
I like psychologically interesting movies, though my favorites aren’t necessarily all like that. Some big ones for me:
Spirited Away - Miyazaki film about a girl who stops off at an abandoned amusement park while driving to a new house with her parents, who eat food meant for spirits and become pigs. She is unable to escape and ends up in the spirit world, enslaved by a witch who controls a spirit bathhouse as the protagonist attempts to rescue her parents and escape
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - a man and woman break up in a very lightly sci fi world where it’s possible to erase people’s memories, and they choose to erase each other and inevitably the man regrets it as it’s happening in his mind
Perfect Blue - animated Japanese film about an Idol who tries to escape Idol life by becoming an actress, which is an incredibly difficult and stressful process as she deals with a stalker and the film/TV industry at the same time. As the movie continues she becomes so stressed and tired that the lines between reality and the films she’s in begin to blur together and she starts to lose grip on reality.
21 and 22 Jump Street - FUCK they’re just well written and well executed comedy.
Big fan of long-form science fiction. Bladerunner 2049 is fantastic, as is Stalker by Tarkovsky.
Tarkovsky in particular has brilliant works.
Sci Fi top 6 ‐ focusing a bit on the soft sci-fi
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir: Stanley Kubrick
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Arrival (2016) dir: Denis Villeneuve
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Her (2013) dir: Spike Jonze
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BladeRunner (1982) dir: Ridley Scott
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Children of Men (2006) dir: Alfonso Cuarón
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GATTACA (1997) dir: Andrew Niccol
Little known fact: all mattes are shot on first generation film. Kubrick would shoot the matte, put the film in storage, put it back in camera, then shoot the inside of the matte. It looks pristine to this day because there was no generation loss since there was only one generation even in the most effects heavy shots.
If you haven’t seen it, Ex Machina (2014) fits the vibe of your list. It’s one of my favorites.
I’ve seen it. I enjoyed it very much.
I picked Her for my A.I. entry because it was so much simpler, more understated, and close to our everyday experiences.
I also skipped Primer (2004) because I steered clear of time travel.
I can recognize 2001 as being incredible and inspiring for its time, but it doesn’t hold up very well. By modern standards, it is painfully boring and tedious.
Disagree, I think 2001 is perfect. Yes it’s slow, but that’s intentional, it’s part of the feeling of the film.
Modern standards don’t really apply, because I don’t think anyone nowadays is trying to do what Kubrick was, nor (obviously) was he trying to live up to any standards of future movie making.
Each to their own of course, but wanted to put a friendly counterpoint :-)
2001 is timeless.
Political intrigue, technological advancement, piercing the unknown, all drawn on the backdrop of an innocuous, normal exploration mission.
Until things go awry.
As directly inspired by 2001, I’d count a bunch of modern classics: Children of Men (2006), Sunshine (2007), Passengers (2016), the Expanse (TV series), and more.
What Kubrick did write the story with Arthur C. Clarke, slow the pace to reflect the long-haul nature of the mission — let alone the slow pace of human development — and focus on the sheer scale of progress needed to achieve such exploration. He also ensured that the conflict was truly tangible and high-stakes. Simple and human in its genesis, but devastating in its execution. Then, confronting ET intelligence as truly “other.”
Perfect.
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Actually, I’m wondering now what you thought of the 2002 Solaris remake. I’ve not seen the Tarkovsky version, and I’m assuming you have. Of his other films, I’ve heard of Stalker. Recommend any others specifically?
Haven’t seen either of Solaris, but the big deal here is that the US version loses a lot of Tarkovsky’s specific, drawn out and contemplative styling in favor of a more active and dynamic version for the US.
Andrei Rublev and Mirror are standouts, to my knowledge, and are generally seen as better than Solaris but not quite as great as Stalker.
I’ve been building my all time favorite 100 list but my number 1 has been constantly Casino Royale. The list: https://boxd.it/jQWau
I usually don’t have a specific genre of choice but I love to dig into micro genres for a stretch. Lately my favorite micro genre is “people in a room talking”. The obvious ones here are 12 Angry Men, Rear Window and My Dinner with Andre. Long Days Journey into Night, Buried, Locke, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, Rope , Tape. “Before” series works well here too. A really good one I saw recently was Big Kahuna.
This also pairs well with tiny budget Sci-Fi. Like Man from Earth, Coherence, Another Earth, Moon, Vast of Night.
If you haven’t seen it yet, try Death and the Maiden (1994)
Added to the watchlist!
If you like people in a room talking, have you seen Coffee and Cigarettes?
Yes! I loved it
Awesome!
If you like tiny budged wild and short sci-fi, may i suggest blood machines? https://youtu.be/jLHhr8Xc4AM?si=S7M28c6pfUqRb2WW
Ah cool haven’t seen this one, thanks!
Favourite genre: psychological thriller
Favourite movie: Freddy Got Fingered
You and I can never be friends. Freddy Got Fingered fucked me up, and not in a good way.
Oh shut up you still laughed at backwards man.
My favorite movie is the Matrix (the first one). Gutted by what they did in the sequels.
Favorite genre is definitely Fantasy, love the world building in these movies.
Hope you’ve seen the Animatrix, those shorts are worth it. Especially the first 6 of the 9.
Favourite movie: The Lord of the Rings
Favourite genre: fantasy/sci-fi/historical movies of epic proportions with immersive worlds
My favorite movie is Kingpin
I just re-watched that movie and was kinda worried that it wouldn’t hold up. I haven’t seen that movie in like 20 years. It was way better than i remember.
Favorite: Alien Close second: Jaws Close third: GalaxyQuest
Favorite genre: sci-fi horror
Depending on the day, my favorite movie is either The Big Lebowski, Hot Fuzz, or Knives Out.
Ghostbusters.
I’m a 50/50 toss up between two reasonably different genres.
The first is coming of age films, particularly queer ones. My go to film to call my favourite is Call me By Your Name, I also love Stand By Me, Aftersun and have a huge soft spot for Kiki’s delivery service.
The other ‘genre’ is dramas / thrillers that get pretty fixated on madness, particularly from the protagonist. There will be Blood is my go to second film to say, and I love Apocalypse Now, Perfect Blue, The Witch and The lighthouse.
I’m not as much fan of when the genres overlap however, although that may be because of how small the sample size is. There are quite a few films that have a young protagonist who is finding themselves, who may end up idolising another to the point that the film falls into being a thriller. We had Saltburn last year, which people often compare to The Talented Mr Ripley, and I do enjoy these films but I never get that milestone feeling that I’ve just experienced a piece of media that has profoundly impacted me. The only thing that exists in this shared space is one of my favourite novels; The Picture of Dorian Gray.
