Ask Lemmy

Adding in some documentaries, I'd highly recommending watching these climbing docs as a trilogy to understand the scope of what's being achieved as well as understanding the different approaches to the sport:

The Dawn Wall: Introduces you to climbing legends such as Tommy Caldwell and the difficulty of the sport, with the main focus being one climb in Yosemite.

Free Solo: Takes the dawn wall and makes it look entry level, focuses on Alex Honnold who climbs 'free solo' meaning without ropes or a partner.

The Alpinist: Difficult to put into words, focuses on an almost completely unknown climber called Marc-André Leclerc who is to climbing as Michael Phelps is to swimming. This guy completes climbs even the greatest in the sport consider far from humanly achievable, with part of the doc being a battle to even find the guy to film as he doesn't care for media attention or fame for his climbs.

The docs all contribute to the understanding of what drives the people pushing the bar of what's considered possible, and in the subsequent docs the previous climbers appear frequently in interviews that adds a kind of continuum which is why I love these 3 together rather than as individual pieces.

City of God - movie about the struggles of growing up in a tough spot in Rio de Janeiro, it's just great

Gattaca - my favourite sci fi film, it's just a simple concept ... what if we could tell who you were going to grow up to be, just from your blood

I'm going to restrict this list to older movies and imports since there's already most of Hollywood's best listed by other people.

• Ran (1985): Japanese take on King Lear. Kurosawa.
• 12 Angry Men (1957): Fonda has doubts about the man charged. Sidney Lumet.
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Based on actual WWI British officer T.E. Lawrence, but more story than history. David Lean.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): Jack Nicholson leads this Milos Forman movie about what it was like in mental hospitals (based on Ken Kesey's book of same name -- see also Keroac book On the Road for more of that generation).
• The Man Who Would Be King (1975) : Sean Connery and Michael Caine star in John Houston movie based on Ruyard Kipling story. There are more famous names to pack in there, but mostly the story is great (though told from a supremely Colonial POV).
• Grand Illusion (1937): French Jean Renoir film classic about WWI.
• Beauty and the Beast (1946): French Jean Cocteau masterpiece of the fairytalke before it got Disney-fied.
• The Tin Drum (1979): German Volker Schlöndorff film of Günter Grass story about a boy who won't grow up.
• Amarcord (1973): Italian Federico Fellini film about growing up. You could sub in Nights of Cabiria or Satyricon as a starter Fellini pic.
• Kes (1970): British Ken Loach film about a boy and a bird.
• Winter Light (1963): Swedish Ingmar Bergman about a priest struggling with faith. The 7th Seal probably a better place to ease in to Bergman, though.
• A Man for All Seasons (1966): British Fred Zinnemann telling of how Sir Thomas More was stuck between his Church and his King. For an alternate take on same chunk of history, see Wolf Hall.

There's so many more. Rosselini's Open City, Jodorosky's El Topo/Santa Sangre, Errol Morris documentaries (Fog of War, etc.), Les Blank docs (from music to Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe), oh! and Herzog flicks! I should stop.

My thought process for this was asking myself what movie I'd recommend to people who have little to no experience or interest in specific genres. Tried to pick a wide range of movies

Comedies (my favorite genre)

• Kung Fu Hustle (probably favorite movie of all time): fun comedy action movie involving gangsters and a poor neighborhood. Think classic Hong Kong kung fu meets super hero movie. Haven't met anyone who didn't like the film
• Airplane: insanely funny movie with nonstop jokes. One of the best movies for comedy because you've got all types of jokes (puns, visual humor, recurring jokes etc)
• Blazing Saddles: revovles around a small western town through the perspective of a former slave turned sheriff. Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little have such great chemistry
• The Naked Gun trilogy: if you liked Airplane you'll love the Naked Gun. Has a lot of ridiculously silly lines told with a straight face.

Action

• LOTR trilogy: I feel like this needs no explanation.
• Star Wars original trilogy: no hate to the prequels (and a lot of hate to the sequels) but nothing quite hits like the OG Star Wars trilogy
• The Mummy: fun, interesting plot, charming characters just the quintissential 90s action movie. Also a great first movie for many people's bi-awakening 👀
• Police Story (trilogy, but mainly 3): it's been a while since I've seen this trilogy but I distinctly remember really liking the third one because it features both Jackie Chan and Michel Yeoh as equal badasses. If you've never seen Jackie Chan's Hong Kong films, this franchise is a great start.

Animation

• Spiderman Into The Spiderverse: beautifully animated movie that does an amazing job of capturing the feel comics in both style and vibes. Definitely way better than the sequel, in my opinion.
• Tokyo Godfathers: touching anime movie about 3 homeless people who ind a baby on Christmas. Don't want to spoil any more than that but it has a good balance of comedy and drama and unlike other anime movies I've seen, completes the story so well that you're not wanting more
• Up: my personal favorite Pixar movie and the first 20 min are a master class of short story telling. Was debating between this an Wall E but I think Up has a better story

Horror

Admittedly my least favorite genre. These movies are closer to thrillers than they are horror

• Train to Busan: zombie outbreak on a train. Premise is simple enough but the storytelling and characters are so well written that you get too attached and actually get anxiety when things are happening. It's a movie with an ending that stays with you
• The Silence of the Lambs: there's a reason Hannibal Lector is the most memorable part of this movie despite having only 16 minutes of screen time

Movies to watch only once

These are movies that will make you feel such intense emotions (usually sadness but not necessarily) that I would only watch once. No descriptions to avoid spoilers

• Grave of the Fireflies
• Schindler's List
• Old Boy

• Alien, then Aliens, then stop. If you watch Alien 3 then watch Alien: Resurrection, too, to get the taste out of your mouth, but then definitely stop.

• Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• House of Flying Daggers

If you watch Star Wars, then watch in this order:

• Episode 4 A New Hope

• Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back

• Episode 2 Attack of the Clones

• Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith

• Episode 6 Return of the Jedi

China Town

Young Guns 1&2

Naked Gun 1,2& 33 1/3

Repo Men

Everything Terry Gilliam ever made.

Ferris Buellers day off

Legend

Kung Pao Enter the Fist

Kung Fu Hustle

Tucker & Dale VS Evil

Evil Dead 1&2

Army of Darkness

American Werewolf in London

Spaceballs

Plains Trains and Automobiles

The Jerk

Beverly Hills Cop 1&2

Lucky Number Sleven

Snatch

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Event Horizon

Shane

Ghost in the Shell - everything

Akira

Vampire Hinter D

Spirited Away

The Irishman

Reservoir Dogs

Pulp Fiction

Real Genius

Tombstone

My Cousin Vinny

High Plains Drifter

Outlaw Josey Wales

Big

LA Story

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The Burbs

True Romance

Pump Up the Volume

Heathers

Beetlejuice

Multiplicity

Brain Candy and Strange Days

In no particular order, and not an exhaustive list

• The Big Lebowski
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Sin City
• Lord of The Rings Trilogy
• Star wars Original Trilogy & Rogue One
• Casablanca
• Mad Max Fury Road
• Arrival
• Pulp Fiction
• All the Studio Ghibli movies, but Especially Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited away, and Grave of the Fireflies
• Blazing Saddles
• Young Frankenstein
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Monty Python & the Holy Grail
• Jurassic Park
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Blade Runner
• Blade Runner 2049
• Mary & Max
• Akira
• Rocky
• The Godfather 1 & 2, and at that point I guess you might as well watch 3 as well
• Rashomon
• Chinatown
• Jaws
• All quiet on the western front
• Psycho
• Kill Bill 1&2
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Forest Gump
• Fight Club
• The Matrix (just 1)
• Silence of the Lambs
• Taxi Driver
• Back to the future trilogy
• The Usual Suspects
• Apocalypse Now
• Indiana Jones Trilogy
• Dune parts 1&2
• The Shining
• Dredd
• Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• The Room
• A Clockwork Orange
• Gone with the Wind
• V for Vendetta
• Trainspotting
• Fargo
• Ben Hur
• Children of Men
• Shoot 'em Up
• Logan *The Princess Bride
• Old Yeller
• John Wick series
• Most Disney/Pixar movies
• Most Don Bluth movies

A diverse list of my some films I like, in no particular order:

• Memento.
• The Anchorman.
• LOTR extended editions.
• Terminator 1, 2, and Salvation (Yeah, those are my guilty pleasures. You can skip the 3rd and ignore the ones after Salvation, imho).
• The Usual Suspects.
• Zoolander.
• Inglorious Basterds.
• The Matrix.
• The Abyss (1989).
• Parasite

Big Trouble in Little China

Tank Girl

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Princess Bride

Labyrinth

Old classics:

• It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)
• Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Drama/misc:

• Gandhi (1982)
• Network (1976)
• A Few Good Men (1992)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
• Pay It Forward (2000)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

PG sci-fi/fantasy:

• Back To The Future (trilogy, 1985+)
• E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• Jumanji (1995)

Action/etc.:

• The Matrix (1999)
• The Terminator (series, 1984+)
• Die Hard (series, 1988+)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Air Force One (1997)
• Independence Day (1996)
• Speed (1994)
• Limitless (2011)

Generally romance-centered (other than Casablanca):

• Titanic (1997)
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Notebook (2004)
• Ghost (1990)

Comedies:

• Duck Soup (1933)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
• Office Space (1999)

In no particular order:

• The Thing
• In The Mouth Of Madness
• Pulp Fiction
• Kill Bill (both volumes)
• The Princess Bride
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Thelma and Louise
• Secondhand Lions
• I ❤️ Huckabees
• Amadeus
• The Big Lebowski
• Princess Mononoke
• Spirited Away
• Red Line
• Summer Wars
• Evil Dead 2 *~
• Hellboy: The Crooked Man **
• John Wick 2 ***

*~ not a sequel, but a reimagining, if anyone's curious. No need to have seen the first to enjoy this.

** also not a sequel. By far the best live action piece to come out of this franchise. The only one worth watching tbh

*** direct sequel. They're all pretty good, but this one is, visually, as nice as the genre gets imo. The choreography and cinematography, both, are simply beautiful.

Edit: Fargo and Akira belong on this list too

Amelie

The Fall (mainly if you have a really nice screen and can watch full HD or 4k)

What Dreams May Come

There are way to few people recommending The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions. I recently rewatched them after not seeing them for a decade and I was surprised by how much growing older allowed me to better recognize the themes in the story. My wife watched them for the first time with me and she said they're the best movies she's ever seen.

Most of mine are already mentioned, but I don't think anyone said:

The Big Lebowski

I'd recommend asking this over at !moviesuggestions@lemmy.world.

As for my answer:

• The Departed
• Parasite
• Django Unchained
• The Princess Bride
• Arrival
• The Intouchables
• Ben-Hur (1959 version)
• Fargo
• Amadeus
• Little Miss Sunshine
• The Matrix

There are more, but that's a solid selection IMO.

The Princess Bride

Shawshank Redemption

Jesus Christ Superstar

Life Is Beautiful

• Lawrence of Arabia.

Ones I have not seen in other comments, although you probably have enough at this point:

• The Fifth Element - Yes I know the director is a sexual predator, it's still really really good. One of the most creative movies ever made
• Run Lola Run - Surreal modern-style impossible narrative movie from way before movies really did that, also very well done
• O Brother Where Art Thou - Damn, we're in a tight spot
• Schindler's List - Warning, very very very heavy obviously, but there is a reason it won all the awards
• Conan the Barbarian - You may or may not like B movies, but if you like "Sword and Sandal" B movies, this one is the king
• The Sting - Absolutely top-notch gangster movie from before your parents were born
• Office Space - If you have ever worked a crappy tech job this movie will become your spirit animal in time of need

I've also heard great things about "Highlander." Don't watch the sequels.

There are also miniseries. "Stranger Things" season 1, "Chernobyl," and "Game of Thrones" up until about season 5. Yeah, it's a shame they never made any more after that, but you can just let it be. You'll know roughly when. If the three female assassins from Dorne come on the screen, you went too far, just turn it off immediately and be sure to take a shower right away.

Edit: Additions

-there will be blood

-magnolia

-birdman

A few nobody has mentioned:

• A Mighty Wind
• Best in Show
• Dumb and Dumber
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Moonrise Kingdom

Modern Times

Psycho

Dark Star

WarGames

Chinatown

1984

Soylent Green

Planet of the Apes

Speed Racer (2009) by the Wachowskis