With the sheer number of films that get put out and reviewed every year, it's easy for some truly remarkable ones to slip through the cracks. We've done some digging and found some of the greatest and most memorable, but tragically slept on movies that you absolutely need to put on your watch-list right now.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Megan Fox plays a high school hottie who gets possessed by a demon and starts to kill and eat her male classmates. That’s really it, this high school horror film is as simple as it gets, but the selling point is that it’s the perfect representation of a rarely used method of horror writing; possession. Popularized in films like The Exorcist, and Hereditary, Jennifer’s Body is practically a case study on the sub-genre, and the execution is a near-perfect depiction of the textbook tropes that are expected to come from this style of the film.
Frank (2014)
This movie is about a man named Jon who stumbles upon a man wearing an enormous paper mache mask trying to drown himself at the beach. Jon saves the man, who introduces himself as Frank. This film is an inside look into extreme art culture and how mental illness is romanticized when presented in a high-brow market. Frank won a Sundance award in 2014, but this film didn’t advertise as well to the general public. If you like music and if you have ever been interested in the process of creating truly unique, highly personal art, Frank is a film you should check out.
As Above, So Below (2014)
This film is about a journalist and a treasure hunter that go down into the Parisian catacombs and discover the horrors that exist past the “point of no return.” After crawling through miles and miles of bones, solving brain-bending puzzles, and risking their lives around every corner, the team finds the entrance to the place that you don’t want to end up in when you die. This claustrophobic found footage film is so intense that you’ll find yourself covering your eyes twice as much as you would in a blockbuster horror film. As Above, So Below got torn apart by (underqualified) critics for not following the traditional conventions of a found footage movie, so it never received the credit it deserved.
The Witch (2016)
A24 has a truly impressive catalog of films. This production company is behind the majority of our generation’s greatest movies, like Moonlight, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Hereditary, Midsommar, Skin, Climax, Lady Bird, Mid90s, and The Witch. In the midst of flashy Marvel films, Star Wars remakes, Pixar animation, and other significantly more marketable movies, The Witch did not stand out. However, those who do decide to watch this film will be shocked and amazed at how truly cinematic and gripping it is. Some call it the scariest movie of the decade, others criticize it for its setting, but you should decide for yourself...
Nightcrawler (2014)
Jake Gyllenhaal plays an amateur cameraman that collects film and photos of violent crimes as they unfold. His character has a knack for being in the exact right place at the perfect time, and he makes his living risking his life while driving around all night collecting footage. This description doesn’t do the theme and context of this film justice, it is truly just as intense as any Jason Borne movie, without the macho aspects. For a film about shooting film, you’d expect there to be some serious cinematics, and boy do they deliver. This movie really has some of the coolest and most outstanding shots of the decade.
The Florida Project (2017)
This film is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever said kids can’t act. The Florida Project is an extremely heartwarming film about the true meaning of family and the struggles of being dealt difficult hands in life. William Dafoe delivers an absolutely unforgettable performance in this A24 film that was nominated for countless awards but never actually received one. This movie fell by the wayside for whatever reason, but it’s developed a cult following since then.
American Honey (2016)
American Honey is another A24 film depicting the struggles of someone living in poverty in the south, although unlike The Florida Project, American Honey highlights the freedoms that every person inherently has and the happiness that comes with exercising those freedoms. This movie is an observation of youth, class struggle, and the open road. The freedom to make your own decisions, and the consequences that come from those decisions. If you like movies that make you question the decisions you made in your late teens, watch American Honey.
Sorry to Bother You (2017)
Sorry to Bother You should have won way more big-name awards than it did. This film is a metaphor for a ton of different social issues, tackling racism, capitalism, classism, gentrification, futurism, and the enormous gap between the working class and the elite. Oh, it also tackles the ethical question of whether it’s okay to mutate humans and horses together. Lakeith Stanfield delivers an unforgettable performance, although it is difficult to say that this was his best performance because his role in Atlanta is bar-none one of the greatest characters in the history of television.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
This movie is a little about time travel, a little about journalism, and a lot about friendship. Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass show their screen compatibility more than any other duo has in recent history. Two dark, mysterious, and seemingly awkward personalities blossom together throughout the course of the movie as the cast discovers that it’s not always just the outcome of their efforts that matter. Sometimes, the greatest result of long periods of exploration is the friendships they made along the way.
Horns (2013)
Daniel Radcliffe delivers the best performance of his career in this film (yeah, this is standing against Harry Potter and Swiss Army Man). Plagued by the death of his girlfriend, and having being blamed for her murder, Daniel Radcliffe’s character, Ig Perrish, starts to go off the deep end with excessive drinking, and eventually, he grows horns. The movie isn’t really about his horns though, they’re more of a metaphor for being in the public eye in a negative context. You should really give this movie a shot, it’s incredibly unique.
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Kevin is every parent’s greatest fear. A troubled, shifty young man that lacks empathy and is infatuated with weapons and violence? That’s a serious cause for alarm. This unique look into the development of a murderer and a mother that knows the outcome of the situation yet has no way to stop it in advance is very intense, cinematic, and entrancing. Ezra Miller delivers a showstopping performance since his character is the exact opposite of his personality. This movie is absolutely worth your time, there are no others like it really.
Snowpiercer (2013)
Snowpiercer is weird. It was arguably the most politically critical American movie of 2013, even though it’s a Korean sci-fi film adapted from an obscure graphic novel written by a French man. In this film, the year is 2014, and an experiment intended to combat global warming plunged the Earth into an Ice Age. All of the humans that are still alive live on a fast-moving train that runs on a global track. If the train stops, all of the inhabitants on it die. This film is political due to its microcosmic class system that is instilled on the train, which is similar to the class system that exists on Earth at the moment. Although Snowpiercer is an overtly political film demonstrating a power-swing from the lower to the elite class, it’s still got all of the exciting principles of a top tier action movie. Think The Matrix, but make it steampunk, and take away the cyber-noir aesthetic.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
The Darjeeling Limited has been called one of Wes Anderon’s greatest works, Owen Wilson’s greatest performance, and one of the cinematic films of the 2000s, but somehow it still doesn’t receive the credit it deserves. This is a coming of age tale for people who have already come of age, featuring people who have spent long periods of time going through their own life changes far away from one another. These three brothers hadn’t seen one another in a long time, and one of the brothers decided to book a long journey through India for all of them. In true Wes Anderson fashion, hijinx ensue, tears are shed, and cinematics are bright and symmetrical.
Detachment (2011)
Another feature starring Adrien Brody, Detachment is a film about a substitute teacher becoming a full-time teacher in a school that has a lot of troubled and underprivileged students. On top of that, Adrien Brody’s character, Henry Barthes, is disenfranchised with his own life. He is deeply depressed and lonely. He frequently hops from district to district to try out new student bodies, but he is really just dissatisfied with his own life and uses these new experiences to distract himself from his own problems. With the help of students that are equally as detached as he is, he learns to have a healthier relationship with himself those around him. This movie is equally heartwarming and bleak, but it is undoubtedly worth your time.
Sucker Punch (2011)
You’ve seen Inception, you’ve seen Shutter Island, now take a peek at Sucker Punch. This film has two plots, a real-world and a fantasy world. Each world is independent of the other in the actual physical happenings within this movie, but both are equally important. Without ruining anything, this movie’s overarching plots intertwine towards the end, and even though something disastrous happens, everyone gets their just desserts. This movie is uniquely cinematic and cool, give it a watch and you’ll understand.
Colette (2018)
Taking a turn from the surrealist, action-packed, and depressing films on this list, Colette has a bit more empowerment to offer than the others. Colette is about a struggling young woman who just moved to Paris. To put together some cash, she agrees to ghostwrite her husband’s novel for him. At a point, this novel becomes more of her own than his, and she fights for her own credit during a sexist time in history in a sexist industry. This movie is just as inspiring as it is cinematic, and you will absolutely walk away feeling impressed.
The Darkest Minds (2018)
This isn’t the standard teen superhero movie. After developing mysterious superpowers for seemingly no reason, Ruby gets admitted to a government-controlled concentration camp that was built to “protect” people like her. After learning that they were, in fact not, there to protect children with superpowers, Ruby escapes the government’s exploitation and joins a gang of runaways. Soon, running isn’t enough, and the runaways are forced to defend themselves from the government. This movie is gripping and creative, it’s kind of like if the Chronicle and The Hunger Games combined themselves into one movie that’s arguably better than both of them.
It Comes At Night (2017)
It Comes At Night starts the same way most zombie movies do. Some sort of sickness spread and caused a human apocalypse, only those located far, far away from society survived, barely. Food and water were scarce, weapons were highly coveted. When a family is exposed to the virus, there is no telling if or when anyone would turn. This movie follows one family that takes on another, but paranoia about everyone’s individual safety breaks the veil of trust between them. This is more of a psychological thriller than a traditional zombie film, but you will not be disappointed by the conclusion.
I Saw the Devil (2010
This movie is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve ever seen a movie like Funny Games or Oldboy, you might be prepared to take this one on. After a serial killer slays the fiance of a government special agent, the special agent captures and tortures the serial killer, only to release him to start a deranged game of cat and mouse. Eventually, the killer catches on and starts to play the game too. There are no happy endings in this movie. I Saw the Devil is truly demented, and you should absolutely watch it if you think you can handle it.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Andy Samberg plays pop star (loosely based off of Justin Bieber) that is losing the cred he received as a child as he adjusts to his adult life. He puts out a terribly reviewed album and then goes off the deep end with outrageous stage performances and real-life shenanigans that mimic those of the real-life pop star that was formerly mentioned. For some reason, this movie didn’t really get any press, even though the cast is so stacked.
A Long Way Down (2014)
Four individuals find themselves about to jump off of the same roof on the same night. They all make a pact to not kill themselves and try to find genuine reasons to continue their lives within 6 weeks of their meeting, if they can’t do that in the allotted time, then the decision is theirs to make. The media catches on and turns them into a talk show sensation, which brings a lot of joy to some but stresses others out. This star-studded cast absolutely crushes their independent roles in this film. Toni Collette (who you might know from Hereditary), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Pierce Brosnan (Mama Mia!), and Imogen Poots (28 Days Later) deliver absolute showstopping performances, both together and independently.
Robot and Frank (2012)
This charming film might surprise you. An aging man’s son purchases him a friendly robot that is supposed to help him get around his house better and assist him with his daily life. In turn, the robot actually begins to help the old man plan a multi-million dollar burglary, which was surprisingly within the robot’s programming all along. This movie is witty, funny, charming, and a little demented, you should check it out.
The House That Jack Built (2018)
This movie is an interesting biopic of a mass serial killer that has gone unmentioned in the media and was never persecuted by the authorities, despite the numerous atrocities he committed. Jack is a predator, and the world he constructed from himself is dark and confusing, but that's the mind of a serial killer after all. Jack built a very nice house, and in that house, he will eventually go to heaven.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
This movie is one of the most abstract and confusing pieces of writing on the market. The plot bounces between souls as they leave former lives and bounce to others in different worlds. There is no linear plot, but each world is unique and expressive in its own way. Cloud Atlas isn’t for everybody, but it is extremely ambitious and unique in its own respect. There are no other movies like it.
Your Name (2016)
Those who claim that they don’t like anime need to watch this movie asap. Your Name is about two teenagers approaching adulthood that live lives far away from one another. One day, they both wake up to find that they have inexplicably switched bodies. This goes on back and forth until they discover the true purpose of the ol’ switcheroo, and it’s a bit more surreal than you might think. You will 100% cry at the end of this film.
Ready or Not (2019)
Ready or Not is a whirlwind of a movie that takes a common concept and amplifies it to the extreme. The premise is simple, the wealthy extended family of our protagonist’s husband-to-be has a tradition that when any of their blood relatives prepare to get married, they all play a game together. This game just so happens to be a deadly exercise to weed out people that are not fit to carry on their bloodline. This film is unorthodox, surprising, yet strangely familiar.
Waitress (2007)
This movie is a lot about life and a little about making a great pie. Keri Russell plays Jenna Hunter, a genius pie maker who’s trapped in a terrible marriage, navigating her life as a waitress in a small town. There’s just one hitch, she’s pregnant, and she’s in love with her doctor. This isn’t the ordinary love story, Waitress will have your sides in stitches from intro to credits, and you might even want to pick up the hobby of making pies.
Green Room (2015)
Do you love punk music, slashers, and incredible acting? If the answer is yes, then Green Room is most likely the film for you. This movie is about a punk band that ends up playing a quick show at a white supremacist bar in some nondescript rural county in a midwestern state. In true punk fashion, they put their ethics before their safety and they end up getting in way over their heads. You should check this movie out, if not for the super cool cinematics and characters, just watch it for the soundtrack.
Whip It (2009)
Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore star in this thoughtful, heartwarming, and brutal comedy about dropping the perceived conventions about yourself and becoming the person you always wanted to be. Oh, also, it’s about roller derby. Particularly, it’s about a violent and exciting roller derby that Ellen Page becomes infatuated with after she starts branching out and dressing more alternatively. Whip It hosts a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles, and an absolute ton of blood, sweat, and tears.
Obvious Child (2014)
Jenny Slate is arguably one of the funniest and most slept on comedians of this generation. She, unapologetically, plays a character much like herself in her 2014 breakout film about the difficulties of being pregnant and a standup comedian. Much like Jenny Slate’s life, this movie is full of drinking and disasters framed into the scope of standup comedy stage bombs and sleepless nights. This movie should be on your list.
The Babadook (2014)
It’s speculated that this movie is just one giant metaphor for loss, denial, and acceptance. Whether that’s true or not, it is undeniable that The Babadook is one of the most creative horror movies of this decade. This film follows a mother and her difficult son surviving after the loss of the child’s father, and a little children’s book that mysteriously appears on their shelf titled “The Babadook.” This isn’t the scariest movie of all time, but if you don’t like children, this movie is going to really get to you.
Tank Girl (1995)
Tank Girl is adjacent from the original Mad Max world, but just a little different. Instead of competing for gears, parts, and gasoline, Tank Girl is about the struggle to find water in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Although this movie looks like it’s about the struggle to discover precious resources from an outsider’s standpoint, it’s primarily about an outstanding female protagonist in the role of a mercenary. This movie was groundbreaking, portraying a woman as independent, intelligent, witty, troubled, and unabashedly herself.
Annihilation (2018)
Natalie Portman and Oscar Issac deliver some of the greatest performances of their careers in this abstract, futurist film. For reasons unknown, a sphere of energy appears on Earth and begins to expand rapidly, consuming everything within it. Its origins are unknown, and any attempt to research the object has been in vain. After Natalie Portman’s husband, Oscar Issac, somehow returns from the sphere in a dramatic coma and internal medical distress, she ventures into the strange area with a team of female scientists to discover what is the root cause of the abnormality is. Some think this movie is a metaphor for global warming, others speculate that this movie doesn’t have any metaphorical meaning whatsoever, but regardless of the intention of the film, it is an unmistakably beautiful, intense, and entrancing experience.
Bellflower (2011)
Bellflower has a hallucinatory quality that does not quite fit in with any style of writing outside of itself. The plot is strange, and somewhat hard to follow. The acting is a bit stiff and it feels a bit phoned in. However, the action in this movie ties everything together. This critique of adult adolescence, creative violence, and high octane addiction is both complex and welcoming for those of a younger, more curious audience. If you can make it through the first 15 minutes of this film, you will absolutely love it from then on.
Spring Breakers (2012)
Spring Breakers is one of the first A24 movies that gained a significant amount of traction, which is mostly due to its absurdity. James Franco plays a character similar to RiFF RAFF, Gucci Mane is in this movie, Selena Gomez makes her R-rated premier, and the other stars in the film seem to be completely out of place as well. This is an intense, exciting, gnarly movie that’s gritty and unapologetic. There is filler, for sure, and some of the cameos are a bit extreme, but that’s the whole point of spring break anyways, searching for extremity.
Shutter Island (2010)
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a short-tempered detective that is always on edge, always watching, and always one step ahead, or so he thinks. Shutter Island is a beautiful and eerie creation that encapsulated audiences in 2010 and then seemingly dropped off of the map. This movie is available on Netflix and Hulu at the moment if you’re trying to get into something that might break your brain a little bit. Seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie before, don’t tell anyone that you’re going to watch it, they will undoubtedly spoil it for you.
Gran Torino (2008)
This movie is about an old, racist man that lives in a rough neighborhood that’s full of gang violence and robberies. His new neighbors, a Korean family, have some trouble with a Korean gang tracking down their son for recruitment. Clint Eastwood’s character protects his next-door neighbors with his life, and the firearms he’s kept since he was in the Korean War. This film is about acceptance, developing familial relationships with strangers, and most importantly, Clint Eastwood looking super tough and cool.
Mother! (2017)
This is one of the most intense films ever created. This 2017 gem received mixed reviews, which it deserved, only because the plot doesn’t make much conventional sense. After the second watch through and a few Google searches, you’ll learn that this entire film is a biblical reference, all of which is told from the perspective of Jennifer Lawrence’s perspective as Mother Earth. God and Earth collide and create friction, the percieved screen society crumbles, and you will certainly cover your eyes at some truly scarring moments throughout this insanely intense film. Watch this with a friend, and make sure your neighbors aren’t home because you will be screaming at your television.
First Reformed (2018)
This movie plays on the plagued minds of religious professionals, and the tainted, sinful people they interact with. A Protestant minister struggles with his faith and his nearly bankrupt church, right when he gets introduced to an environmental activist that wants to commit a heinous, suicidal act. In correspondence with the man’s pregnant girlfriend, the pastor attempt to mitigate this man’s suicidal ideology, in addition to saving the lives of those that he might affect, all while refusing to contact the useless local police.
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
For some reason, nobody really talks about how this was Joaquin Phoenix’s greatest role of all time. The newest Joker himself plays a hitman named Joe who specializes in search missions. He gets tasked with retrieving a high profile individual’s daughter from a human trafficking situation. All the while, the police are involved and working for the human trafficking group. Joe finds himself in more danger than he has ever been in, and he needs to think hard and hammer his way out. This movie is gripping and intense, some compare it to Taxi Driver, some compare it to Drive, but really it is it’s its own thing.
I, Tonya (2017)
Margot Robbie can do absolutely anything. Her own depiction of Tonya Harding was actually critiqued by the actual Tonya Harding. She claimed that her depiction was entirely inaccurate and that Margot Robbie did absolutely nothing that she would have, and if you know anything about Tonya Harding, this means she must have done an outstanding job. I, Tonya is a true story about an American figure skater who came from nothing and made herself an international sensation. However, with great success comes great stress, and Tonya Harding eventually bent, both in real life and in film. This movie is snarky, exciting, and revolutionary well shot.
District 9 (2009)
This mockumentary was one of the first serious documentary spoofs of all time. Aliens land on Earth and create a compound, they mean humanity no harm, but in true human fashion, paranoia causes us to fight them even though they have not aggressed. Unfortunately for the humans, these aliens never intended to aggress, but their weaponry is unbelievably more powerful than what the humans have. District 9 was slept on because it was so fresh, the ideas in this movie are nuanced and were way ahead of its time, and a 2019 audience would process this film much better than the 2009 audience that originally saw it.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
For some reason, this is the only Quentin Tarintino film that never got the love it desperately deserved. This ambitious, long (it’s 3 hours and 7 minutes long), and cinematic movie is like a game of Clue on steroids. In order to wait out a blizzard, Samuel Jackson (an unnamed bounty hunter) and Kurt Russell (the Hangman) have to take shelter in a stagecoach stop, unfortunately for them, someone isn’t too happy about them being there. This movie is a commitment, but that commitment is totally worth it in the end.
Her (2013)
Joaquin Phoenix returns in this ambitious love story about a man that meets a machine. Her is a suggestive preface to modern dating, it’s supposed to be a commentary on internet dating and the future of love, but if you boil it down, it’s just about a dude who falls in love with a bodyless computer voice. That being said, the story of Her is just as heartwarming as it is confusing. Amy Adams and Joaquin Phoenix deliver show-stopping performances that pair perfectly with the bright and organic lighting and cinematics.
Drive (2011)
Nicolas Winding Refn is an absolute genius, it is impossible to ignore how insanely talented he is. Drive is a modern classic, and somehow, for whatever reason, not very many people talk about it. Refn advertised Drive to be a seat-gripping, wildly violent, and intense film when in all actuality, this movie is more about the politics of organized crime than anything else. You should watch this movie if you haven’t yet, and then you should watch it again.
Neon Demon (2016)
Another Refn masterpiece, Neon Demon is a case study for good lighting and character development. Ellie Fanning plays a model who’s new to LA, she gets discovered, but not in a normal way. She quickly gets fetishized by photographers, she’s treated as high art, and the competitive modeling world does not necessarily agree with her treatment. Remember earlier when you read “high art?” Yeah, this film is high art. This is one of the most beautiful and cinematic movies ever created.
The Master (2012)
Joaquin Phoenix just can’t seem to get away from this list. His work as an eccentric, violent drunkard in The Master is unparalleled by any other madman performances by other actors in similar movies. Phoenix plays Freddie Quell, a drinker who’s plagued by PTSD from WWII. He meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hofman), a philosopher and the charismatic leader of a new religious movement, who tries to paint Quell as the prophet of his fever-dream religion. However, the other constituents don’t necessarily think that’s a good idea.
Murderball (2005)
This is a documentary about the lives of the American Wheelchair Ruby team. To this day, even though this documentary was filmed in between 2004-2005, they remain undefeated. This is a tale of hard work, dedication, acceptance, horror, trauma, and violence. These individuals hold real hate in their hearts, and this sport is like therapy for them. Get ready to shed some tears alongside the individuals on the screen, because you’re going to feel like you're a part of the emotional action.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
John C. Riley embarks on an adventure as a struggling musician named Dewey Cox. This movie is loosely based on the life of Johnny Cash, but it’s partnered with an extreme amount of absurdity and uncertainty. Cox has an unmistakable gift for music, but he is unsure of himself, and in a lot of cases, the people around him do not believe he is truly as good as he actually is. This is a heartwarming and hilarious film, and if you never caught it on Comedy Central when you were a kid staying home sick from school, you should totally check it out now.
Adventureland (2009)
Jessie Eisenberg stars in this coming-of-age tale as an uncertain, underqualified recent college graduate who’s frantic job search leads him to a questionably safe amusement park in his hometown. There, he learns about love, acceptance, partying, and making friends as an adult. This star-studded cast delivers unforgettable performances around the board, and this feel-good movie never got to see the screen time that it deserved. If you’re feeling a little depressed, toss this movie on. The sunny atmosphere and playful writing will cheer you up, for sure.
Pressure Point (1962)
This is the oldest movie on the list, but it was so insanely ahead of its time that it never received the praise it deserved until modern times. This movie is about a white psychiatrist who’s tasked with treating a black person who hates white people. His boss, a black man, is adamant about him staying on the case, due to the white racist patients that he had taken on in the past. This power dynamic is constantly stressed as the movie progresses, and as time goes on, tensions rise when the results aren’t necessarily positive in the black man’s treatment. If you have ever been interested in the impact of white-on-black racism and the way it had to be dealt with medically in the 60s, this movie should be on your list.
The Swimmer (1968)
Tossing the dice a few years into the future, Burt Lancaster plays his outstanding role of Ned Merrill, an extremely well-off advertising professional that suddenly decides to pool hop all the way home in his upscale suburban neighborhood. Previously feeling untouchable, Merrill progressively gets his ego dismantled when every single pool he hops into reminds him of his romantic, domestic, and economic failures over the years. Merrill falls apart when he runs into an old flame in his final pool visit. This is a great look inside the mind of a broken man who is covered in a thin film of confidence that’s extremely easy to break.
Bronson (2008)
Another Nicolas Winding Refn flick hits the circuit, but this time, we’re talking about Tom Hardy baby. This muscular man, this absolute acting genius, somehow managed to play a destitute, depraved madman and nailed his personality so shockingly well, that the actual Charles Bronson was impressed. Yes, Charles Bronson is a real person, and he is still in jail. For those who don’t know, Charles Bronson (Formerly Charles Arthur Salvador) is Britan’s most notorious and dangerous criminal. He is currently serving the longest sentence in British history for the lowest degree of crime outside of the walls of a jail. He thrives in prison, he is not insane, he is an artist, and violence (but mostly paint) is his medium.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
This strange love story is about two boys making a movie for their new friend that’s dying of leukemia. There isn’t much love involved per se, but the platonic energy that passes from person to person in this film is incredibly real and inspiring. These young men make their first, real, original movie about someone who will never see it, and they have to live with the implications of knowing that for the rest of their lives. Somehow, making sure their friend has a legacy is more important than her death to them, and she agrees.
Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
Rodriguez was a failed musician in America during the 1970s. Nobody cared about him, and he was rumored to have died without an opportunity to build his fame in his hometown. However, his music caught on in South Africa, and unbeknownst to him, he got even bigger and more important than the Beatles over there. Two men and a documentary crew do not believe that Rodriguez has died, and they embark on a long, confusing journey to track down Sugar Man Rodriguez and let him bask in his fame.
The End of the Tour (2015)
This is arguably Jason Segal’s most unique and intimate work. Segal plays a world-famous author (David Foster Wallace) who is entirely unsure of himself and does not accept his title of a literary juggernaut that brought modern literature into the current wave it resides in. Jessie Eisenberg plays an equally uncertain journalist. These two individuals embark on a country-wide tour for Segal’s newest bestseller, and they end up learning a little more about themselves than they had ever thought possible.
Mommy (2014)
A struggling, confident, yet impatient and mentally ill adoptive single-mother takes care of a troubled teenager, begrudgingly accepting help from a neighbor who stuck her nose a little too far into their lives. The teenager in question is particularly violent, erratic, and deeply perturbed from a life of abuse and crime. This is as much a recovery story as it is a family drama and the lives that are affected in this film mirror that of society accepting those who are shunned, welcoming people for who they are as opposed to welcoming them as criminals. This film is complex, but it’s understandable. You should give it a shot.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
This heartbreaking cinematic masterpiece is a stylized conversation about gentrification and how it inherently destroys communities of people of color in areas that were previously created by them. This is a demonstration of an entire lost culture, a forgotten civilization, culminated under a singular roof. This movie will make you cry, scream, run, jump, laugh, and cry again. It might also inspire you to get involved in your community.
The Souvenir (2019)
This movie is about an unsanctioned relationship between a young film student and a troubled, untrustworthy older professor. The student’s mother stands between both of them, but she is unable to stop the budding love that happens between the two. This movie is heartbreaking, and it feels wrong to view it in some parts. This sort of relationship regularly exists between subordinates and authority figures, and the power dynamic is often too uneven for the relationship to thrive, this movie highlights that fact.
Under the Silver Lake (2019)
Andrew Garfield stars as Sam, a nervous “creep” who lives in the same apartment complex as a woman named Sarah. Out of nowhere, Sarah invites Sam for a night of shenanigans in their communal pool, and the next morning, she vanishes. Sam spends his time in this film attempting to uncover the mystery of Sarah's disappearance, and it proves to be a little more difficult than he had originally thought. Strange clues that almost seem made up pop into Sam’s head and all signs point to the middle of Silver Lake.