Rokkenjima, what are your favorite movies?

[U4ea]

So, we already have a thread about animated movies, but what about live action ones? Or your favorite movie genre? Just talk all about the movies you love, ok?

Grabs popcorn
Anyway, without further ado, here’s some of my favorite movies in no particular order.

Doubt
This movie is set in church during 1964. In this church school, there is a single black boy named Donald. One of the nuns notices a closeness between Donald and the priest. One day Donald comes out of the priest’s quarters smelling of alcohol. All of the nuns meet together and the head of the nuns convinces herself that the priest sexually assaulted Donald, and that it is her duty to get the priest out of the clergy entirely. Meanwhile, the priest claims that he is protecting Donald from the racist comments of his classmates, and that no sexual assault occurred. The audience, along with the other nuns, are left to doubt which side of the story is truth, and which side is fiction.

The Silence of the Lambs
A classic horror film. An FBI trainee named Clarice Starling is pursuing a killer named “Buffalo Bill”. But the only way she can catch this killer is to learn the way in which serial killers think. So she goes to jail and interviews Hannibal Lecter, who is a psychiatrist and cannibal. He offers to help Clarice only if she transfers him to another prison. She agrees, and the two help each other. Hannibal attempts to psychologically manipulate Clarice by reminding her nightmares. Eventually, she realizes who Buffalo Bill is and arrests the killer. Anthony Hopkins really makes this movie so wonderfully creepy.

Grave of the Fireflies
I love Miyazaki films, but this one takes the cake for me. Set in WWII, our protagonists are 14 year old Seita and his little sister, 4 year old Setsuko. While their father is off fighting the war, the two escort their mother to a nearby bomb shelter. However, they get caught in the crossfire and their mother becomes horribly burned. She is taken to a doctor, but ultimately dies from her wounds. Setsuko and Seita move in with their only living relative, their aunt, that’s mean to them. Eventually Seita becomes fed up with the living conditions and leaves, taking Setsuko with him. The two set up at a nearby abandoned bomb shelter, but food shortages make life increasingly difficult. At the end of the movie, you too will be asking, “why do fireflies die so soon?”

From Russia with Love
This one’s super dated, but I love it anyway. SPECTRE is seeking revenge on everyone’s favorite spy, James Bond for killing an agent. Meanwhile, the Russians are trying to steal a decoding device and are using a female agent named Tatiana to lure Bond into helping them. The two go to Istanbul where both the Soviets and SPECTRE are trying to capture Bond. Like all the other Bond films, it’s filled with lots of action, suspense, and a suspicious amount of one-liners. It’s Bond. James Bond.

Anyway, go tell me all about your favorite movies and why you love them! I hope to find new movies to fall in love with.

[sayocherit]

Hm, some of my favs would be

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ever thought about what woukd happen if someone aged backwards? Well here is your answer. The movie was beautiful and I never get tired of watching it.

Fight Club
The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.

The Godfather
A good classic that I also never get tired of watching nor can I find any faults in. It also inspired many crime themes movies nowadays. From the acting to the storyline this was overall incredible.

Dark Knight/Dark Knight Rises
Never was a fan of DC except for Batman. The movie was very entertaining and gets you clutching to your seat while you’re watching. I have very basic taste but I can’t forget the spectacular experience while watching this.

Some additions would be
Pulp fiction
V for Vendetta
Django Unchained
Inception
Spirited Away

[Sapphire]

For myself, I mostly am into European art house films, or rather art house films from anywhere really. I like it a lot how artistic and imbued with symbolism and metaphor or general avant-garde they are. I could never pick a favourite film, there’s way too many to pick from, but some filmmakers that I like, new and old, are: Ingmar Bergman, Luchino Visconti, Andrei Tarkovsky, Louis Malle, Wim Wenders, Lars von Trier, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino, Aki Kaurismaki, Leos Carax, Agnes Varda, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Susanne Bier, some other more contemporary names I’m forgetting, the list goes on… I’m as of recently trying to get more into Asian cinema too, particularly the Indian, Japanese and Korean ones. And into more early films from the 20th century. I like American cinema too, though I still haven’t explored much of it.

But anyhow, the last film that made the most impression on me was Tarkovsky’s Stalker. It’s a film that intertwines science fiction and mystery themes. It depicts the journey of Stalker, (in the film, the name stalker does not have its usual meaning, but rather a Stalker is someone who leads people into the Zone), alongside two clients, a writer and a professor, that he takes to a restricted area known as the Zone, where it is said that a person’s innermost wishes will be fulfilled. They travel through debris to reach this place and meanwhile have very interesting discourses with one another.

I’d really recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it, it is an extremely well-made one.

[Usagi]

I don’t really know about favorites movies…

… but I thought I’d add these “mindfuck titles” in a 07th community.

Live action : Anything by David Lynch. Let’s go with "Lost Highway"
Such a complete and total mind blender. I’m not sure how to go around to explain what this movie is about.

Animated : Perfect Blue
Girl is having her delusions paralleling with the role she’s playing in a TV series and the actual real life events that happens in her life. Not enough? She’s also dreaming about those at night.

[Vayalite]

Most of the good things have already been spoken for, so now for a slightly less-seen movie

August: Osage County
A story about the derailment and division of extended family through their unmoderated and heated interactions when the family patriarch goes missing and the matriarch sees fit to reopen emotional wounds in her family as well as drive new ones in.

Although the description may drive you away, the movie is touching in its own way and asks questions about personal commitments

Page Eight, Turks and Caicos, Salting the Battlefield
A TV movie series starring Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter in the main roles trying to unveil the government’s secret policies of witness torture in cases relating to national security, along with an organisation trying to take advantage of overpricing in exorbitant amounts during a global recession. Recommended for those who like spy movies, although this can’t be called a thriller in the conventional sense

[Scorch]

My tastes are kinda mainstream, it’s obvious that my monologue about Forrest Gump will not enlighten English-speaking audience.
Better to use the situation and promote some recently released Russian films, which I consider to be strong social dramas.

The Fool (2014)

“What will happen to you if you try to help proles” or “The Fool” for Western viewers.

Leviathan (2014)

Another reincarnation of 1984. Evil government oppresses bla… yello… Jesus, maybe our hero is at least female transgender on a wheelchair? No? Fucking hell, how then should I advertise it? Okay, a simple white men is oppressed by sinful government. Zvyagintsev (it’s director and writer at the same time, didn’t you read IMDB, dumbass?) gave bitch slap to the church via this movie, probably because of Patriarch Kirill who was was involved in some scandals IRL. Modern Russian liberals believe that Orthodox Church is corrupt as fuck but in general church’s reputation is still high in society despite 70 years of state atheism in the USSR. Line of endless suffering and comparison with Job were pushed too hard, scene with local priest was absolutely unnecessary.

With Fire and Sword (1999)

Caution, this is non-Russian movie! Educate yourself with the most decent historical film about Polish–Ukrainian relations during 17 century. Dead Jews and massive hussar cavalry charge, all in one set and only in limited quantities!

[Seiichi9000]

That depends. But my favorite is Spider-Man (2002) However. Dark Knight is my second favorite.

But many movies to count. But one favorite recently is Spider-Man Homecoming.

[FlareNetworkC]

OHHHHH SO MANY. As an aspiring filmmaker, I have a lot of favorite films. Casablanca, Bonnie and Clyde, The Incredibles, The Spy Who Loved Me, Spotlight, La La Land, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and probably my favorite film of all-time: The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

[Antra]

Hmm… I never paid enough attention to movies to decide which are my favorites, but the all of the Kung Fu Panda movies and Disney’s Zootopia are my favorites.

[Usagi]

I’m going to add a movie I think no one added yet? (sorry if it did) and may be relatively unknown there.

"Life Is Beautiful"
I don’t even know how to properly describe it, but it’s about a jewish father who is sent to an internment camp during WW2 and manages to “hide” his child with him and somehow manages to completely fool his own child into thinking this is a “fun game” rather than a hellish prison until being rescued by the allies. It’s definitively a unique movie to me, but it’s probably not for people who are mostly into action stories.

[Hachi]

John Wick is a man of focus… commitment… sheer will.

[amenenee]

All you guys are into deep movies and here I am obsessed with Finding Dory.

[SleepingPliskin]

oh " La Vita e Bella" by Roberto Benigni. That movie was really sad but really heartfelt.

[Usagi]

Glad to know anyone knows of it ehehe

[Doldod]

Well it is a pretty popular movie, hehe. I think it’s in imdb 250 list.
And yeah, I liked that movie a lot, maybe I’ll rewatch it at some point.

[U4ea]

I’ve seen Life is Beautiful too (ironically, I just saw this movie like a month ago, and before seeing it I never knew it existed.) I cried a river . I really loved the idea of masking a terrible situation as a “game”. The idea of masking a terrible situation with sugar coating to cope reminded me a lot of how Maria in EP4 of Umineko chose to see herself as being happy, even if everyone around her saw her as a lonely and pitiful child.

And don’t worry, @isofrag! I really liked Finding Dory too! It’s ok to like movies that aren’t super deep. I think that’s why I like From Russia with Love so much.

[akafa123]

I don’t really watch films, but I really liked some of them.
First one is Tarkovsky’s Mirror. It just has so much soul in it, so much beauty. Very cool!
The Girlhood by Sciamma. Very nice portrayal of friendship and coming of age, feels very arthousey and weird, but packed with a great soundtrack and visuals. I’m not the girl but it was very interesting to watch.
2015 And there were none miniseries are incredible, really amazing portrayal of a Agatha Christie’s work that inspired Ryukishi to write Umineko.
And my last one is World of Kanako, really loved it, even wrote a review on letterboxd. Tetsuya Nakashima is the author who also did Confessions another really great movie. The World of Kanako is really compelling story about loneliness, parenting, despair and I think the main character is even comparable to Junko from DR lol. Story itself feels like a puzzle, and maybe there weren’t some complete shocking plottwists still I really liked the message.

[Real]

I’m really not a live-action movie person, but I recently came across a little-known Beat Takeshi film that not many people have heard of, and I absolutely loved it. It’s called Boiling Point, and it’s excellent.

For those who might not know, Beat Takeshi is a Japanese directer who does a lot of amazing action movies that are pretty much all recommendable to some degree. However, Boiling Point is a slow crime thriller without much action, but the tension that slowly rises is pretty amazing. It is in no way a typical film though, and the final scene flips everything on it’s head. Really great time, albeit a little disturbing at some moments.

[Sapphire]

Tarkovsky’s Mirror. It just has so much soul in it, so much beauty. Very cool!

Oh, I can’t wait to watch this one soon!

[Karifean]

My three favorites overall are Intouchables, Gran Torino and Invictus. Though I haven’t seen a movie that really wowed me in a loooong time. I was gonna write why I like them but I’ve been procrastinating on it for weeks sooo yeah.