Movie Recommendations for Puzzle-Lovers Like Me [Live Post]

Nov 24, 2022 recs

It’s hard to find a curated list of movies that I or my friends would like. I’ve tried to get my movies from the Cannes Film Festival winners, or the A24 trailers, or from the IMDb top movies, or from the Oscar nominees, or my friends – even then, it’s hard to isolate why people like specific movies and stick to spoiler-free reviews. Personal recommendations are rare and treasured, and I wish there was a place that all my friends put their favorite movies up so I could steal from that list instead. I like indie and international movies especially – classic Hollywood eschews controversy in favor of tropes and standard storytelling methods to maximize profit and agreeability at the box office; indie films tend to be a lot more unique and interesting. See my similar TV doc for TV recs, or my Goodreads for book recs.

Puzzle making is pretty lossy and inaccurate representation of this list. I generally love any movies that are more sci-fi themed (like Dune), or have a complex plot that takes focus to fully understand (ahem Tenet), or make you feel a ton of emotions (damn, Better Days), or have you sniff out lots of little clues that the filmmaker plants, each one changing the implications of the movie (see: Us). I think this list is pretty broadly recommendable, but specifically I think more technical folks or people who love puzzles will particularly love this list. I don’t include any spoilers, but more of a broadstrokes review. For reviews with spoilers, I usually search metaphor.systems for blog post analyses, which has been far better than Google or ChatGPT. This list is largely inspired by Nick Sweeting’s similar list and Max Langenkamp. If you have any recs for me having looked at this list, I’d love to hear them – you can dm me on Twitter! To calibrate, anything 8 or above means I highly recommend that others watch it, and 10 is a must-watch. ⭐ My top movie of the year is marked in stars ⭐.

This alive doc will be updated every time I watch a movie, and is in reverse chronological order. Maybe one day I will also reflect these on Letterboxd.

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
Want To Watch

2024

Jawan: 8/10. Watched because I enjoy feel-good Robinhood revenge plots like Now You See Me. The slow motion and color grading gave the movie a really interesting pace and look. I enjoyed that it was a take on Krishna’s story, and that all of the revenge plots were based on real events in Indian history.Docked points because there was too much action (i.e. the truck scene felt drawn out) and I didn’t feel the villain’s team was well explained.
Past Lives: 7/10. Two friends recommended this one to me very highly, and said I should go into it blind. This movie takes one very simple idea, the idea of pursuing a past what-if in the present day, and lives out the crazy fantasy we surely play out about our own pasts. There are a number of great one-liners, and I think offers the characters closure in a way that even I felt closure over it.
Inside Out 2: 10/10. Admittedly Inside Out was my favorite Pixar movie of all time, so I was biased. Most of the new characters in this one were not deeply explored, but I felt that it was intentional to background them (unlike the first movie) to more strongly focus on Anxiety. The movie made me appreciate my own depth of emotions more, as well as understand both my and others’ anxieties better.
Weathering with You: 7/10. Common consensus is that this movie was worse than Your Name, an impossibly high standard for anyone to set for their future work. There were some odd things that felt thematically off at first (like guns, prostitution, and police), but I chalked it up to the author’s intent to show the lack of choices that the poor have and the ease of falling into those. The ending was unpopular, but I liked the interpretation that it emphasized the aloneness they feel in the choice to stand up for themselves. Almost like the children of Omelas, everyone roots for their suffering; every time that they choose each other, it inconveniences others, and as they come to accept that as their reality, the ending is inevitable. There were a few open plot lines (like, the solid things falling from the sky) that I would have wanted closed, which is why I docked a few points. The imagery and cinematography were beautiful as expected.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: 5/10. This movie seems to be critically acclaimed for its depiction of the female gaze, which I appreciated getting more of an insight into. It’s languid (a bit too much for me), and focuses on shots with striking lighting and colors, and subtle character movements. The entire film felt like slow buildup to the last 15 minutes where the most emotionally punchy scenes happen. I’d be curious to compare how the female gaze here differs from the male gaze of a different popular lesbian movie, Blue Is the Warmest Colour. They did have one excellent scene about Orpheus and Eurydice, that had a really nice parallel with the ending.
Dune 2: 9/10. As usual, the visual sequences are stunning, the soundtrack is impactful, and the costumes were convincing. Reviews (critical, positive) make good points. It’s kind of insane to me that sci-fi that is so insanely beautiful and well-shot like this can be so mainstream, even after so much of the critical context from the book was cut for time reasons. I docked a point only because of the inherent limitations of a movie form of Dune and my favorite book parts that got cut.
Attack on Titan, Season 4 Final Movie: 10/10. See my TV post for more details on why I loved this show. The final episode was perfect and beautiful – it had an incredibly complete resolution, and left me obsessed, thinking and analyzing it for literally days after. There’s a reason this is considered the a top 3 greatest anime of all time – even though I usually hate fighting and action, I loved how the show evolved and ended.
Promising Young Woman: 10/10. This movie discussed rape and sexual assault in a way that didn’t feel trite – vigilante justice was both fun and tragic to watch. I think this movie conveyed the emotions that victims feel incredibly well without resorting to pity, and had multilayered symbolism throughout the plot that only the best indie movies have.

2023

This year was marked by Japanese cinema. I spent the year steeped in the culture, from the music to the anime shows to the movies, and even working from Tokyo for a few weeks.

Kiki’s Delivery Service: 8/10. This Ghibli classic imparted a sense of whimsicality, and definitely made me tear up a few times. Miyazaki’s story changes from the original written tale definitely seemed for the better here.
Dungeons and Dragons Movie: 7/10. It was more a comedy than a drama; it had a more mainstream brand of humor which I still enjoyed. The plot was formulaic so it wasn’t like super standout, but I was impressed by the variety of scenes and stories they were able to cram into the runtime, and still have it not feel too rushed.
Elemental: 9/10. This film looked like Zootopia, Inside Out, and Soul all smashed into one – those are my favorite animated movies, so I was particularly excited to watch. The movie did an incredible job with themes around immigrant families, relationships of dissimilar people, and emotional punches. Gags around element interactions kept even tropey scenes fresh, and the internationally inspired soundtrack fit really well. I didn’t really get the sense that she was in love though, and there was one scene near the end that was a bit too cliche. The trailer was mid and early reviews were bad which caused poor performance, but I thought the film was far, far, better.
Barbie: 5/10. There were a few gags and Ken discovering patriarchy were pretty funny. It had some self-aware criticisms of Barbie, but the main events and conclusion of the movie fell flat for me. It felt icky how the women caused the men to get jealous of each other, and the final line offered a mid-tier joke in place of a satisfying conclusion – I wish they had done more to actually address the good questions that the film raised, or have an ending with even a sense of a call to action.
The Village of Lovers: 5/10. This is a documentary film about one of the longest-running alternative communities named Tamara, in which free love underscores an independent and self-sustaining eco-community. The film focused on a few isolated and specific parts of the culture, but I was more curious to see a cohesive picture of how the community actually managed to structure itself to self-sustain for so long. The director commentary afterwards also came off a bit self-centered.
Oppenheimer: 8/10. This movie was wonderful – a good number of the events were based on truth, the tension between science and government was fascinating, and the evolution of Oppenheimer throughout different stages and responsibilities was illuminating. I also highly recommend this wonderful essay compendium on Oppenheimer by Ash Jogalekar, which describes in detail how the movie breaks from the truth and the source material. It caused me to fully understand the movie, in which there were a few scenes with minor characters that originally had me a bit lost. I think Scott Alexander makes excellent critiques of the movie. While I personally was engaged but not riveted by the half-a-movie of committee hearings, I think my favorite part of the movie was entirely separate: the character portrayal of someone brilliant enough to lead the smartest scientists in the world on a mega-project, but not brilliant enough to guess what the military would do with it. We get to see how to interacts with friends, with girls, and with coworkers – even if not 100% accurate, surely representative of the vibe. I thought this was cool fodder to both pattern match the types of people who end up in such positions and blind spots they might have. I did think that Nolan’s other fictional films (Inception, Tenet, Interstellar) rank higher on my list as they were far more engaging plot-wise, which is to be expected of a historical biopic.
Suzume: 8/10. This film was breathtaking and beautiful, just like all of Shinkai’s animations. The sound track was incredible (did you know Radwimps sourced a smalltime Tiktok singer to do the title song?), the story had me in tears, and the characters have the goofiness of a Ghibli classic. While most seem to disagree with me, I actually think that this film failed to live up to Shinkai’s greatest masterpiece (and my movie of the year) Your Name – Suzume felt a bit too Miyazaki-ified to feel like a unique evolution, and the romance was a huge step down (Shinkai was forced to include a romance even though he didn’t want to). But it does emotionally punch you with the themes he wanted to communicate, namely remembering the countless lost in natural disasters, and the enduring trauma that reverberates for decades.
The Banshees of Inisherin: 4/10. Indie Scottish comedy and Oscar nominee. Had some gruesome scenes I had to close my eyes for. The whole movie is a bit too nonsensical and abstract for me and has a lot of pretty slow scenes, and humor that’s only funny if you’re watching with other people.
Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse: 9/10. It’s hard to imagine what could beat the genre-defining first film, but this sequel managed perfectly. I loved Gwen’s character development, the insanely ambitious animation across so many different styles that took 1000 animators 5 years, the nuanced villains, and the fresh plotline. I have no idea how they are gonna top this for the final film without having us wait like 10 years. The coolest thing is that a 14 year old animated all of the Lego scenes, directly interfacing with one of the directors biweekly. Docked a point for the ending, which in a sense was necessary for the rest of the film to shine the way it did.
Spirited Away: 9/10. It’s incredible that the greatest animated film of all time is so surreal and fantastical, but also grounded in very human themes like anti-capitalism, pro-environmentalism, anti-greed, pro-kindness etc throughout. A few blog posts helped me really understand all of the symbolism – the best ones were these: social commentary analysis, character analysis, and this kind of extreme prostitution conspiracy.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0: 9/10. This is a prequel to the first season, and OK watching standalone (unlike Made in Abyss). This is my favorite anime for a reason – the story is both deeply emotional and hilarious, and the cast of characters is memorable and immediately lovable. Docked a point for a few scenes with unclear and/or unmotivated dialogue.
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul: 7/10. I hesitate even mentioning this in the movie section, because it’s the third in a sequence of movies where the first two are better-laid out versions of the first season of the show. With that context though, I found it much more action packed and compelling – there are a few missing details from the manga that would have clarified a lot of my confusions about the movie, but the main villain is surprisingly complex and consistent despite acting in what initially seems like inconsistent ways.
Black Panther 2: 5/10. I wanted to watch this due to the 5 minutes that takes place at MIT. Without Chadwick Boseman, I’ll admit they were dealt a pretty tough hand. To be honest, the first 45 minutes or so was really compelling. I was really sad by the second half, where they unfairly villianized the really interesting Mexico-inspired country they set up – it felt like they were forcing a conflict that didn’t exist, and I would have loved a more nuanced plot here with more consistent empathy throughout. The main character didn’t even try to do the right thing for most of the movie, and the character arc felt pretty unmotivated and sometimes contradictory. The plot itself was also super formulaic and not really compelling or surprising; the last hour was predictable enough to not be interesting. A steep decline from Black Panther 1.
⭐ Your Name ⭐: 10/10. This movie had the most beautiful animation I’ve ever seen (here’s a 10 second tiktok preview) – and it tells a beautiful story that is so deeply emotional, that you hardly give a passing glace to the reason time and identity work so strangely. It is the top 5 grossing anime films of all time, for good reason – the beautiful music was from a Japanese rock band that yet achieves an incredibly soft and alluring soundtrack, the scenery is depicted so vividly unlike any animation I have ever seen, and the characters tug on your heartstrings. It imbues a sense that you can love a kind of person without knowing their identity yet, and you feel a sense of something you are yearning for – an alluringly romantic take in today’s app swiping era. It doesn’t hurt that my favorite-ever sci fi anthology, Axiomatic by Greg Egan, had a direct influence on the director (the “The Safe-Deposit Box” story specifically).
Akira: 7/10. This movie is weird – but insanely influential for all the sci-fi to come after it. At the time, it was the highest budget Japanese animation ever – they were able to create things no previous animation had created. They created the first cyberpunk cityscape and the iconic motorcycle slide replicated literally hundreds or thousands of times in media since then. Just to name a few, their depiction of child experimentation directly inspired Stranger Things, and the neo-Tokyo visuals and red puffer fashion directly inspired Kanye. While I think that it’s interesting and provoking, it was almost so shocking and unpredictable that I was caught off-guard (that’s probably what made it so genre-defining though). Because of that, you can’t really stop thinking about it though, and I’d bet that my rating would be higher on a rewatch or having seen a bunch more anime first.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 9/10. This movie seems to be about forgetting and regret and breakups, but it’s really about love. About how it’s the genuine feeling and not the words themselves that make you love someone, and about how you choose someone again and again both with incomplete and with complete information. It might sound cheesy, but I think the movie did a great job not falling into that trap, mostly because of the sci-fi element (but what do I know, I’ve seen like 3 total romance movies). I think movies about repeating relationships fall flat for me since I feel like people change so much that repeating a relationship is a completely different journey, but also most people probably whiplash their personality less than I do.
The Prestige: 8/10. This had been on my list ever since watching ‘Now You See Me’. This movie about two vengeful magicians is a magic trick itself, filled with clever misdirections. The portrayal of obsession was well motivated and captivating.
Fight Club: 9/10. I’d never watched this before because the name sounded unappealing, but it was not at all what I thought it would be about from the name. It has the vibes of a cult classic – zany characters do very strange but surprisingly understandable things, and it explores more complex themes than just pointless testosterone-fueled fighting. Has one of my favorite scenes of all time (the one with Raymond).

2022

This was an excellent year for movies. I spent a significant amount of time combing through trailers, award shows, and off-the-beaten path recommendations, and it heavily paid off. I hope that others can benefit from it!

Triangle of Sadness: 5/10. This felt like a pretty overdone, trope-y cross of Lord of the Flies and “ugh rich people are so stupid and hierarchical”. The absurdism was funny and well-placed, but it didn’t explore any surprising or interesting themes. The director scene breakdowns were also pretty mediocre compared to others I’ve seen.
Minions: The Rise of Gru: 8/10. Love these little guys, who more than make up for the lack of story. Degenerate childhood nostalgia.
⭐ Better Days ⭐: 10/10. Wholesome coming of age romance story. Starts with bullying, but evolves into a way more complex and emotional story. Was censored by the CCP, so there are a few scenes that don’t make 100% sense, but a few articles quickly cleared it up. Some trailers have previews of some of the cut scenes too. First Academy Award nominated film from a Hong Kong director. Had me thinking about the film for like a whole day after. On Netflix.
3 Idiots: 10/10. Rewatched this after 10 years. This is my favorite Bollywood film of all time; a touching story told through an educational satire. Has some legendary songs and probably shaped a good amount of my young identity.
Clue: 9/10. Really incredible adaptation (of the board game!). Probably my favorite movie pre-1990, they did a great job making murder lighthearted and keeping the audience guessing.
Aaron Swartz: The Internet’s Own Boy: 10/10. Aaron’s death was an abhorrent tragedy, but his life and values were incredibly uplifting and inspiring. This documentary is incredibly personal for me: nearly all the values that I try to uphold are either directly inspired by or were deeply held by Aaron. My life has been significantly impacted by both his story and the projects he worked on: my entire life right now is focused on improving trust in governance and open access education, things Aaron deeply cared about. I cried probably 5 times in this documentary, even though I already knew the entire story.
Howl’s Moving Castle: 10/10. My first Studio Ghibli film. I absolutely loved Calcifer’s character design, the animation was really well executed and heart warming, and even through the almost absurd story, you couldn’t help but root for the odd band of characters.
MIT: Regressions: 10/10. This is simply the most mindblowing documentary I’ve ever seen, and it’s available for free online. There is a ton of batshit crazy footage from the last 60 years of MIT-related history: unreleased moon landing footage, Nixon tapes where he says some insanely stupid things about education, students fighting admin and police en masse, and incredibly thoughtful and unique commentary on the MIT’s political and social evolution and the impact on the world. I think this meaningfully changed the way I look at both MIT and myself, and in my opinion is an absolute must watch.
Nope: 6/10. I had high hopes for a Jordan Peele film after Us topped my 2020 list, but was let down. This film explored spectacle and animal treatment, themes that I think made for less complex plots. It was cool though how two seemingly disparate plots connected in ways that implied non-obvious subtexts about each one. The movie theatre itself was absolutely sick though – Nitehawk Cinema in NYC; they serve you food and drinks in your seat!
Hadestown: 10/10. Broadway musical, so not technically a movie (though they usually movie-ify these things a few years out). Best play I’ve seen since Hamilton – the music, the story, the acting, the characters, the set: everything really stood out and made you tear up at the end.
jeen-yuhs: 9/10. (rated before Kanye got cancelled) This man was such a lunatic that before his first album, he got a documentary videogapher to follow him around. As a result, there’s a ton of crazy primary source footage, and a really compelling narrative that colors in a lot of what did and didn’t change with Donda around. Only really recommended for Kanye fans.
Look at Me: 8/10. Another documentary that fills in the troubled story of the most-streamed hip hop artist of our generation. It’s crazy to see this mans electric stage presence from the very first show. He was a complex person, and the documentary managed to both give a fair portrayal of his crimes and explain the circumstances that led to it. I wish we could have seen him live out the redemption arc that the movie painted, but maybe he never would have. Again, only highly recommended for fans of his music.
Summer Wars: 6/10. A comical anime about a fake boyfriend who’s taken to meet his fake girlfriend’s family, where he uses his computer, videogame, and math skills to save 2009 Japan’s conception of the metaverse. A fun story for the family and an interesting conception of the “metaverse”, but nothing particularly standout artistically.
3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri: 10/10. It has an excellent unique plot from the get-go, and sets up a really unique protagonist/antagonist arc. Standout indie film.
Arrival: 7/10. While the visuals put it a notch above the book, I thought the movie editorialization from the book to add a “reason” for the events hurt the story. It gets rid of my interpretation, of the story being the romantic idealism of the completely selfless. Perhaps if I’d watched this independently of the short story, I’d like it more.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: 9/10. A24’s standout movie; absurdist comedy. Excellent indie filmmaking and reflection on themes of parental empathy and nihilism. Am pretty happy I watched it with my family, we had a lot to talk about afterwards (though the hot dog scenes were not particularly comfortable lol). I think this is the only absurdist film I’ve really liked: they did a great job on keeping a compelling narrative that conveyed the emotional punches they wanted to convey.
Badla: 9/10. This is a more recent Hindi film about a surprisingly well-told mystery — I won’t spoil it, but I found the story more refreshing than any other previous mystery movie I’ve watched (it was way better than Knives Out). It’s the fourth foreign language remake of a similar Spanish mystery movie, The Innocent Guest, so you can rewatch in different languages!
Ek Tha Tiger: 4/10. Classic feel-good action/romance Hindi film about the spy that falls in love. I thought the message was pretty standard and some of the reveals were fairly predictable so wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s a nice feeling to be able to recognize and predict tropes sometimes!
Tick Tick Boom: 9/10. This year’s Lin Manuel Miranda release. The relationship dialogue felt really authentic, and it’s really fun to see the maturation of the character’s vision throughout time. Confused how 30/90 is the most popular song from the album, I put it dead last on my ranking. Alexandra Shipp is my newest celeb crush for sure.
Tenet: 10/10. This is one of the few films I’ve ever rewatched immediately, since the plot was so complex and addicting to puzzle out. After spending a long night analyzing it, I think it’s self-consistent and I finally was able to wrap my head around all the story lines and questions. I think I really enjoy these cerebral multi-layered plots; it reminds me a bit of unwrapping the onion plots of ‘Us’ or ‘Interstellar’, but this one is like 5x as complex, and has a surprisingly excellent, non-tropey take on time travel. On the first watch, I was unfortunately too sleep-deprived to understand even half of what was going on – I recommend watching with full focus.

2021

Watched a lot of weirder movies this year due to my film class.

Dune: 9/10 if you’ve read the book, 8/10 if you haven’t. Really incredible seeing the amount of thought gone into this, and how similar the feelings were when reading the book. There’s a ton of context that is covered extensively in the book but barely scratched in the movie, so I do think that reading the book will fill in a lot of the small plot questions (though the film does stand quite well on its own). Incredible visuals and music. I wish I could see director breakdowns like this for every single scene.
Shang-Chi: 8/10. Pretty high for a Marvel movie, good family vibes and really nice to see Marvel giving representation.
Churchill: 5/10. Good acting, but that doesn’t really make up for the overly simplictic plot. The movie kind of overplays Chuchill’s role and the movie takes too many factual liberties.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: 6/10. Iranian vampire movie, very unique but also a bit too simplistic of a plot for me to enjoy it.
Invictus: 6/10. Interesting, and portrayed parts of his leadership that were particularly surprising that I think any leader can learn from. I feel other movies about Mandela will do a better job depicting the harder battles he fought for his country.
Kamikaze Girls: 8/10. I did not expect to like this as much as I did. Was assigned by a film class, but this is just told in such a fresh style that I’ve never seen any American cinema ever have the creativity for. The only Japanese non-anime film that I’ve seen so far probably.
His Girl Friday: 8/10. Surprised how much I enjoyed this. I think this movie set the record for fastest words per minute, and is a hilarious story about yellow journalism in the 1900s.
Amelie: 8/10. This is a classic – from the color palette to the strange character, to the feeling of clever retribution. Made me fall in love with Yann Tiersen’s song Comptine d’un Autre été: L’Après-Midi.
Rashômon: 7/10. One of Kurosawa’s finest films. Deals with truth and interpretation in a pretty interesting way, although the ending is a bit abstract.
Cleo from 5 to 7: 2/10. I don’t like French new wave style that much – very few interesting things happened in this movie.
The Conversation: 3/10. Ugly, brutalist aesthetic. Very boring and simple storyline.
Pulp Fiction: 6/10. I didn’t like it that much, but the style of interconnected plot lines seemed pretty novel for the time. There’s also a ridiculous number of memes that refer to this movie.
Citizen Kane: 6/10. Funny how much this says about the powerful today.
In the Heights: 8/10. Love me some Lin Manuel Miranda.
⭐ We Are As Gods ⭐: 10/10. Absolutely incredible, underrated documentary about Steward Brand, “the person that all the people you look up to, look up to.” I think hearing his story gave me the freedom to pursue what I want, how I want to. Online for like $5, or you can dm me for a copy. Probably favorite of the year.
Taxi Driver: 6/10. Psychologically disturbing. Scorsese told a creative story in a style I’ve never seen a movie follow, but I just found it a little unnerving for my taste.
Malcolm and Marie: 3/10. As much as I love Zendaya, I feel like the film was a pretty surface-level argument between a couple that the movie tried to deepen via cool black and white shots.

2020

Many of these movies were chosen jointly with my family during COVID, so I didn’t get as much of a chance to explore deeply.

Gully Boy: 9/10. Fun movie about upcoming rapper from Indian slums. Better depiction of poverty than Slumdog Millionaire, and more inspiring.
The Lighthouse: 3/10. Some sea shanties portray a fall into insanity, abstract black and white movie.
⭐ Us ⭐: 10/10. Favorite movie of the year. One of those movies with a massive retcon, and spent like 4 hours afterwards analyzing how all the little symbols and scenes actually fit together insanely well and imply super crazy things. The feeling of revalation I got from analyzing this is the feeling I wish English class had been able to convey.
Dead Poets Society: 9/10. I love stories about replacing school with miseducation, and Robin Williams here is incredible.
Kal Ho Na Ho: 10/10. Starts slow, but becomes very emotional. A classic Shah Rukh Khan drama with all the Bollywood movie tropes. Would recommend starting here for Bollywood movies.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: 9/10. Another classic about three friends adventuring and exploring love on a bachelor trip; moving, hilarious, and filled with mischief and adventure. Not particularly deep but has some iconic scenes that most Bollywood fans will recognize – the tomato scene especially. This is the kind of movie that will addict you to Bollywood films and has a hit-filled soundtrack.
Into the Woods: 7/10. Mishmash family friendly fairytale musical, themes of morality, perception of evil, and supporting even through mistakes.
The Last Airbender : 4/10. A terrible movie with lots of potholes and not very good acting and mediocre special effects and just everything was little bit sad. I haven’t even watched the show and I thought it was bad.
Hamilton: 10/10. Lin Manuel Miranda classic.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: 9/10. Classic romance Bollywood movie with forbidden marriage.
Little Women: 3/10. Couldn’t fully tell the main characters apart, wasn’t invested in any characters, and poorly depicted present/past jumps.
August Rush: 5/10. Annoyed by the classic boy genius perception that ignores all the hard work in favor of miracles. Family feel-good tale, but one-dimensional love story.
Soul: 10/10. Great character design, message, and feelings. Really loved it, and it came at a particularly well timed point in my life.
Jumanji 2: 6/10. Didn’t have a unique enough take from the first movie.
21: 8/10. Love me some MIT.
Frozen 2: 8/10. Honestly mostly nostalgia from Frozen 1.
Catch Me If You Can: 10/10. I love how this is based off a true story, and shows about mischevious male leads are always fun to me.
The Inventor (Theranos): 7/10. There are like a million adaptations of Holmes’ story now, this one was more like a documentary instead of a drama which I preferred.
Enola Holmes: 4/10. Nothing particularly interesting about it; there are many better mystery films. This one did a poor job of information setup and Enola’s depiction did not do her potential justice; likely any episode of Sherlock is better.
Ratatouille: 10/10. Second time watching this after 5ish years! Classic. Great thoughts on being the chef vs the cook, mentorship, and balancing the value of family and becoming independent.

2019

At this point and before, I watched mostly just mainstream movies.

⭐ Parasite ⭐: 10/10. Incredible story, cinematography, music, characters, symbolism, everything. This was the movie that got me interested in international cinema.
Spiderman Far From Home: 10/10. I loved the leads and relatability. The story was incredible, and the animation was
Aladdin Live-Action: 9/10. Great family movie.
The Hate You Give: 6/10. I wish the character had showcased her strength and growth better in the end, it was pretty unsatisfying to see the final external outcome of the internal growth of her confidence and voice.
Avengers: 6/10. As a kid there’s some feeling of closure you want after having seen so many Marvel movies; so I keep watching. Nothing particularly interesting about the plot or storytelling, classic superhero stories.

2018

Psych: The Movie: 10/10. Anything Psych I will give a 10/10 gauranteed.
Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse: 10/10. A deeply relatable story with a mindblowing, artistically risky, and genre-defining animated comic book art style.
The Big Sick: 8/10. Just completely insane that this was a real story. Was a 9/10 when I watched it, but downgraded because I think present me wouldn’t enjoy it as much.
Bird Box: 8/10. Haven’t watched an apocalyptic movie in a while, was fun.
Baby Driver: 8/10. Pretty fun heist movie.
Crazy Rich Asians: 7/10. Classic; I think I wasn’t as interested or intrigued by the plot.
⭐ Inside Out ⭐: 10/10. If you can’t tell yet, I’m a Disney simp. This is probably my favorite Disney animation.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?: 9/10. Has an absolutely banger song and is a pretty fun modern take on the Odyssey.
Ready Player One: 7/10. I liked this more than the sci-fi critics, plus it came out before metaverse was memed out of relevance. Had pretty one dimensional characters with overly simplistic motivations, which didn’t feel authentic.
Slumdog Millionaire: 7/10. A film about India made by a non-Bollywood studio. Wouldn’t recommend starting here, it’s a pretty white take on Indian poverty. Is told in an interesting way though, and is moving.

2017

Straight Outta Compton: 10/10. An incredible story about the start of mainstream hip-hop with NWA.
A Brilliant Young Mind (X+Y): 10/10. This is a story about the IMO, about romance, about the beauty of math. It reflects a lot of my own experience, and felt really deeply relatable: the male lead went on to much bigger stardom, and I had a massive crush on the main female who unfortunately seems to have not acted for the last 10 years.
deadpool: 10/10. Ryan Renolds is an absolutely lovable clown.
Da Vinci Code: 10/10. The allure of a worldwide puzzle with a dizzying reward is so beautiful: part of the reason I love geocaching is that I get the slightest glimpse into such a double layer on reality.
It: 6/10. Classic horror movie.
Interstellar: 10/10. Beautiful Christopher Nolan masterpiece.
The Greatest Showman: 8/10.
Inception: 10/10. Another classic Nolan banger.

Earlier

Crazy, Stupid Love: 8/10. Fun watch for a high schooler – the only mainstream depiction of ‘pickup’ in media that I know of.
Green Hornet: 10/10. Pretty sure this was like 13 year old me’s favorite movie.

Want To Watch

The notes for these movies are just summaries of what friends have told me about. Approximately ranked with most-want-to-watch at the top.

Shoplifters: Director is very good, and this one won a number of international film festivals. Usually recommended for people who liked Parasite.
The Last Five Years: An Anna Kendrick musical that goes through a deteriorating relationship forwards and backwards in time, simultaneously. I found this dynamic in Tick Tick Boom fascinating so I think I would like this.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: This seems to have the same indie vibe as others I’ve liked, and people rave about how it made them feel.
The Secret and Their Eyes (original Argentinian version): Action thriller with plot intricacies to endlessly discuss. Personally recommended to me due to plot.
Hack, Punt, Tool: Musical about MIT’s hacking culture.
The End of the Tour: A drama by and about David Foster Wallace, based on the book ‘Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself’ about a 5 day roadtrip with the man. I loved his commencement speech so much that I think this would be a wonderfully relatable movie; at the very least, a great recommendation for others.
Drive my Car: A Murukami classic.
Handmaiden: Korean, sexual mystery, gripping and edgy themes, strange straightforward romantic movie
Whisper of the Heart: OG Miyazaki film recommended to me.
City of God: IMDb darling. Seems to have an interesting premise, portraying two communities of youth in a violent neighborhood.
Amores Perros: A car crash from three different storylines that affect each other in really interesting ways.
A Man Called Otto: Both the original and the remake seem to be really well received movies.
Primer: “Primer is on the Most Complicated Films IMDb list, thanks to Time Travel, Second Hand Storytelling, and a case of The Ending Changes Everything. There is an explanation for almost everything that happens, but you have to watch the movie at least twice to put all the clues together.”
Weathering with You: Movie by the same director and similar animation style as ‘Your Name’
PK: Bollywood movie that seems to be about an alien but is really about being human.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Well made, 2x recommended to me. The first 20 minutes were really slow to me unfortunately.
Tar: One filmmaker I met said that this was one of the most interesting and culturally relevant films she’s ever seen, and that the director was directly mentored by Kubrick – surprisingly high praise for such a recent film. I watched the first 10 minutes and couldn’t stand the pretentiousness of it.
Ghost in the Shell: A classic sci-fi film, recommended alongside Akira.
Children of Heaven: Iranian film about lost pair of shoes that was nominated for Academy Awards. This was my film teacher’s favorite movie of all time.
Enemy: Denis Villeneuve psychological thriller with scary ending, exploring themes of the subconscious and mistakes.
Song of the Sea: Scottish film with Anime vibes.
Grave of the Fireflies: Studio Ghibli classic. Supposed to be very sad.
Birdman: 2014 film with enough magical realism that it takes a while to decipher what the ending actually meant. From here.
Deadpool 3 (2024): Deadpool 1 and 2 were staples of my childhood; Ryan Reynolds has a great sense of humor.
Kahaani: Hindi film.
All the Rage: Saved by Sarno: A movie about Sarno’s methods for chronic pain and their impact.
Petit Mamam: French movie, more about feelings than dialogue
Farewell My Concubine: About two people growing up in opera during China’s change.
Yi Yi: 2000 Taiwanese classic
2001: A Space Odyssey: 60s sci-fi classic.
Silent Voice: Anime with mute girl, touching movie with themes of forgiveness
Mindf*ck Movies: Nick Sweeting’s Movies doc > Mindf*ck section

Curious about Inside, The Man from Toronto, Minari, and Tunnel to Summer as well. Want to watch Moana 2 and Zootopia 2 when they come out!