The best of film and TV: Suspension of Disbelief
As a culture all-eater and fanatic, I decided it was time I contributed to the art in the best way I can.
That's why I am making a list, not just any list, this will contain all the best film, cinema and television has to offer that was either produced, remastered or at the very least relatable to me.
That means I will exclude material I have not seen myself and I will disregard any influence and critiques associated with my picks, that includes IMDB score.
With that being said; Any movie-lover knows neither Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB score tells the whole story thus I hope you will entrust me with the responsibility of being careful before I add anything.
That's why I am making a list, not just any list, this will contain all the best film, cinema and television has to offer that was either produced, remastered or at the very least relatable to me.
That means I will exclude material I have not seen myself and I will disregard any influence and critiques associated with my picks, that includes IMDB score.
With that being said; Any movie-lover knows neither Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB score tells the whole story thus I hope you will entrust me with the responsibility of being careful before I add anything.
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- DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.There isn't many movies that are this good and revolutionizes the entire industry. If you were to ask me what movie that has had the most influence during my life-time and the last two decades, The Matrix would be my choice.
The Matrix isn't only referenced a lot. The entire inspiration behind the underlying philosophies, story structure, thought-provoking and stylish as well and technical innovations' embedded in in way or another in a majority of the subsequent films within the genres and The Matrix is in most of them.
It's a reflection of contemporary as well as past culture and religion, humanity as a species, philosophy as well as poetry are all traceable to intellectuals or pioneers within their field and you need to have a firm grasp of Western as well as Asian recent history and philosophers to fully appreciate every aspect.
Even so, anyone that has an open mind and hopefully not been exposed too much. For instance spoilers, satirical references, "that" friend whom couldn't stop talking about it or Keanu Reeves meme's. If you've not seen it you owe it to your self-respect as an intelligent being and consumer of art to watch it. - DirectorAndrzej ZulawskiStarsIsabelle AdjaniSam NeillMargit CarstensenA woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.This nihilistic, romanticist and visually poetic film isn't for everyone and certainly not if there's children present; nor sensitive teenagers and adults.
It's dark, uncomfortably realistic and abstract to the point of questioning if you are in-fact seeing and hearing the things you believe you do.
You will be suspended in a sensation of playing chess with your own emotions. What am I feeling? Am I feeling what I believe, or for some people; what I should feel?
If you're a true film enthusiast and haven't seen Possession, you are in for a treat and you can thank me later. - DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJoaquin PhoenixAmy AdamsScarlett JohanssonIn the near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.We've all seen what Joaquin Phoenix can do, or so I thought. This is one of those films where you forget you're watching a movie and begin to meditate on empathy; Your senses are dulled while you can focus on nothing but what you're feeling and what to expect.
If you are familiar with "Black mirror" this is likely a massive inspiration behind a lot of their episodes.
I won't mention anything that could potentially spoil this film for you but if you are able to watch it with your better half, significant other and teenage kids I would recommend it. Even though it's not promoted as a family film. - DirectorTodd PhillipsStarsJoaquin PhoenixRobert De NiroZazie BeetzArthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrace the life of chaos in Gotham City.It's hard to tell if this is the DC-Universe tailored and built around Joaquin after watching this movie. But it's not and before I watched Joker I had already made up my mind about whom the Joker was after seeing "The Dark Knight" starring Heath Ledger.
Fortunately for comic and movie-lovers they can both be the Joker without breaking the first law of "UWU"; DC have made it crystal clear while establishing their Universe that there is an infinite amount of parallel Jokers, Gotham's and Batmen thus no choosing is required.
If you do not like comics or movies based on their respective established universes I can tell you right now; Watch Joker, it's more a film than a movie and more about humanity than super-humans.
Enjoy - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroRay LiottaJoe PesciThe story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.Read my review about "The Matrix" if you want to understand my reference, either way this is the second most influential modern film and if you narrow it down to films about Cosa Nostra, Italian Mafia, American Gangsters and Crime, Drama, Thrillers and (yes this is true) based on Biographies you could argue that Goodfellas is top of the list.
Before Godfather acolytes plan a drive-by for saying so, please note that I narrowed it down.
".. based on Biographies"
If you have not seen it, make sure you have the entire evening free because it's a ride, a long ride that does not get boring for a second. And I have seen this film at least 10 times. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence. At the same time, his psychic son sees horrifying forebodings from both the past and the future.If anything this book adaptation and qualified modern-classic film is what shows the potential of Cupric as well as King. Ages well and keeps being awful in all the good ways. There's two adaptations made into film, this being the first and a second in the form of a mini-series by the original author whom (I've heard) did not appreciate Cupric's work. Ironically Cupric was a perfectionist and staying true to his nature was not as pleased with it as I and most of us whom have seen it were.
This is an instance where the IMDB score doesn't quite match mine. My grading of the films in this list isn't so much a reflection of how good or bad my experience was, watching it.
If a film has 7 out of 10 that usually means somethings have been taken into account.
Read my list information for details on that. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtAfter investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.Alien, the name says a lot but not all. Ridley Scott is the king of deep-space science-fiction which my list should be an indication of. If not accepted as such officially, he's still my king.
This is one of the influencers of film and movie that was first with a lot of innovative usage of camera, special graphics and more. Thus it's modern enough to have successfully avoided any and all awkward stop-motion special effects. At the same time it's way too old to have had access to CGI, If I were to guess and if any CGI was used in this film at all it would be used while creating the soundtrack.
Alien isn't predator because Alien is a film. Predator or any subsequent title about Alien and Predator should not be viewed under any circumstance by anyone, it doesn't matter if you like the originals. - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.I feel like a cliche having all these super famous titles in my list of the best (the best there is, period). But if I let too many variables or peer pressure and expectations pollute me I might as well preemptively add popular or hyped titles on my list which is the opposite of what I am doing.
This is a Quentin Tarantino film, meaning;
If you've heard of him or seen some of his films, you know that he has a unique or perhaps he is simply true to himself and his interpretation of what film is.
"Pulp Fiction" is a unique insight into Tarantino's platonic essence and metamorphosis to Godhood.
Not once will you be bored and even though it isn't intellectually challenging and does not really need to be because he captures what we are, what we like, he knows how to kidnap you and once his prisoner you realize that you've now got "Stockholm Syndrome".
Not very family-friendly thus I would recommend adults be present unless you're by yourself.
It's great! - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.I love astronomy, science, theoretical and experimental, books or par-taking alike as much as I love film.
This is an intellectually inspiring and without talking about its content too much; This film is why I chose to name this list, in part, Suspension of Disbelief.
It's a really good science-fiction although it doesn't feel like it and don't let that fact scare you off if you don't like sci-fi that much.
Like any good film the science-fiction part is just a tool to tell an engaging story about humanity, relationships, and the human condition which is what we all love and what separates a good film from bad, with very few exceptions.
Before you watch Interstellar I would recommend an eerily relevant film that has a lot in common with interstellar, apart from both being on my list, of course.
It's right under this one! - DirectorDanny BoyleStarsCillian MurphyRose ByrneChris EvansA team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.This is a masterful film. It is a science-fiction and I am well aware that there's a lot of preconceived notion about that genre which is why I'm going to share something personal.
I usually watch new films with my wife when the kids are sleeping and she is, not unlike many other women, not a big sci-fi fan.
So I had an experiment where I told her along with my mother that they should give Sunshine a go.
The results? They both loved it and became fans of the film just like me.
That's how good of a film this is, the genre reduced to a meaningless word in the context of the experience of seeing it. - DirectorMatt MaiellaroDave WillisStarsDana SnyderDave WillisCarey MeansAn action epic that explores the origins of Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, better known as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, who somehow become pitted in a battle over an immortal piece of exercise equipment.This is where most people are likely to lose the little respect for me and my list they had, if any, but you're only half-right in doing so.
The movie is an extension albeit stand-alone of a series with eleven minute episodes, very underground and hardly mainstream except for when the creators got on the news during a promotion for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".
Bomb-scare? Promotion? Yes, you bet.
They used small LED signs which they hung up in awkward or weird places around Boston with unintelligible (to most) characters that soon was presumed foreign writing and time-bombs.
The series is a mixture of adult and teenage humor, it's actually quite smart and a satire, much like "South Park" but with less political or cultural critiques.
ATHF (the acronyms usually used) is abstract time-less comedy and even if it's nothing like "South Park" it is still for adults and with an unique, cheap but not aesthetically unpleasant animation combined with brilliant voice acting and comedic timing it's one of those things most people will miss.
That is part of why it made my list.
If you share any of my appreciations for some, most or all of the work I've listed and you watch this movie, I am pretty sure you will want to binge-watch the series after. All seasons are available much like the movie, both online and on DVD!
Read about the Bomb-scare here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic - DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.This is everything you could want in a movie; Well executed at that. I would tell you more but.
The first rule of Fight Club... - DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.He is a former surgeon, psychiatrist, gifted artist and composer of classical music with a niche taste in food and well above genius intellect and I.Q. While highly socially-competent lacks the ability to feel almost any empathy.
She is a insecure yet goal-oriented and fearless FBI graduate with issues, a case to solve with a lot of dead ends.
This is great. Just great. - CreatorBryan FullerStarsHugh DancyMads MikkelsenCaroline DhavernasExplores the early relationship between renowned psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter and a young FBI criminal profiler who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.This is TV but I still consider it a masterpiece in film. If you are already familiar with Hannibal in "Silence of the lambs" or "Red Dragon" and if you are a fan, like I am, this will be a dream come true.
Hannibal (the series) is among other things made with great dedication to all aspects of film; It is aesthetically art, dialogue that is intellectually stimulating and surprisingly factual.
I began to wonder if this was romanticizing psychopathy before I realized that, as always, it was romanticizing human connection and gave so much while taking nothing.
You don't need to have read the books or seen any movies prior to watching Hannibal, either way will give you an unforgettable time.
I will unlikely be able to continue without risking spoiling something for you but don't let the position of my list fool you to think it's not good enough to be higher up, I simply add them as I remember or discover them.
This is the good stuff. You will get addicted and remember that I warned you! - CreatorNic PizzolattoIssa LópezStarsVince VaughnColin FarrellRachel McAdamsAnthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law.I've read the books. No this isn't an adaptation of a book. I read the books because they were referenced, subtly and with nothing to gain or sell by doing so.
I read the books because I became an acolyte after the first season and since the writer clearly appreciate these books I felt it was a way to try and understand more of the creator as well as the completed work, simply because it was that good.
The best crime/cop drama and thriller I have had the pleasure of watching (more than once) and if you got discouraged by the wildly hyped critiques of the subsequent seasons after the first you are making a mistake. All three seasons are masterpieces and film if there ever was one.
The first, though, breaks the scales. - DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsTom HardyKelly AdamsLuing AndrewsA young man who was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending three decades in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter-ego, Charles Bronson.Edgy, dark, funny, raw but not cheap or gory. Based on a biography and the very real friendship Tom Hardy developed with the man he portrays in this film, surely it is dramatized but I don't doubt for a second that the reality of the life Bronson has had deserves to be felt, understood and even though you are watching entertainment it is art, poetic and human.
A beautiful and raw reminder of the human condition we all live and, at least some, learn from.
Timeless! - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsFionn WhiteheadBarry KeoghanMark RylanceAllied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.This is a modern silent film backed up by gorgeous orchestra and soundtracks, a feast for the senses and an adrenaline rush while you experience the miraculous events that went down during WWII.
Unlike many other war era films it doesn't in anyway shape or form romanticize the brutal nature and unparalleled bravery of the men and women that fought for their countries and leaders.
Watch this on your largest screen with your HiFi system plugged in and blinders pulled down.
Get ready for goosebumps!
Oh, and no kids in the room, right? Thanks! - DirectorSam MendesStarsDean-Charles ChapmanGeorge MacKayDaniel MaysApril 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.This film barely made the list but I wanted to include the effort.
This film has a lot of potential and a lot of everything.
However, this is one of the few picks I need to critique before making a permanent installation to this list and that is the excessive, poorly executed use of "one-take" camera work.
Since this film is widely praised for that reason I think it's best I explain myself:
I am a jack of all trades and one of them is photographer, graphical designer and editor which puts me in a tough spot when a movie such as this causes distractions every time subtle flaws in the editing becomes obvious.
At times I manage to ignore or even forget these flaws due to suspended disbelief but unfortunately it didn't rescue the rest from my awareness and disbelief which made it hard to enjoy the film to the fullest.
I will not be able to guarantee that this holds the standard of my other picks but since I'm making that clear "1917" may stay on - for now! - DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJohnny DeppBenicio Del ToroTobey MaguireAn oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.I love this film and semi-biographical book inspired adaptation of the absurdly interesting and eventful life of the journalist, writer, nihilist and poet Hunter S. Thompson. It's a modern classic, it's not a stoner-movie nor does it encourage or depict drug abuse as something "cool".
It's hard to put this film into a genre however I want to make it perfectly clear that you would have to walk over my dead corpse to put this in the same list as any film with or inspired by "Cheech and Chong", that is what kills film and the movie industry.
But hey, that's just my opinion.
Thompson that died by suicide in 2005 - DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.It challenges the concept of a "Western" since many categorize it as one though by watching it, I certainly never felt like watching a western - even by modern standards - and this is as good as it gets. Even without Daniel Day-Lewis!
My wife wasn't seen this yet, which is killing me because I know she'll enjoy every second of it, just like I did.
Masterpiece. - DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsJames McAvoyAnya Taylor-JoyHaley Lu RichardsonThree girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.M. Night Shyamalan is famous for writing very engaging and unpredictable scripts. Split is according to me his best film yet.
I am aware of the fact that it's technically an origins movie and a part of an alternative antihero-ish universe, but so is Joker and that put aside Split is a really good movie on it's own merit, more so than as a part of whatever he attempted with the sequel.
Being interested in all sciences, human psychology (pseudo-science depending on whom you ask) I find this particularly intriguing.
James McAvoy is an under-rated thespian which he has proven, not least in "The Last King of Scotland", is simply brilliant.
You can critique the exposition monologues and some seem to feel almost offended, treated like their not smart enough by this.
I think there's a point to that and in most cases, less is more.
Whatever the case might be, as my list information states, I don't do "public opinion" and Split is a great film.