Recommend me movies you enjoy

[Psychotik]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Lion ticks all the bait boxes but I still think it's pretty good. Still worth seeing.

[XelNya]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

There is a noticeable dearth of animation in my diary. I tend to be averse to 3D animated films, but I do need to get into more anime. I have seen a lot of Perfect Blue during my time on Letterboxd, so I'll add both to my watchlist. I also understand that I need to watch more Miyazaki. Or any Miyazaki, actually. I've seen a third of Howl's Moving Castle and that's all. Would I be incorrect in assuming you have some knowledge of Studio Ghibli, and would therefore be able to provide a recommendation or two?

For Ghibli in particular, a specific recommendation beyond the generic ones is kind of impossible. That said, Castle in the Sky is my personal one I'd recommend.

But also I'd *strongly* recommend the A Silent Voice anime movie. It's extremely good if you're ok with some darker topics.

If you're looking for a hard avoid though, I'd say ignore the Your Name movie. I dunno why that gets the hype it does. I'd also say Weathering With You may or may not be a miss depending how the ending goes for you. (I saw it in a theater, and while I think it's animated super well, and I absolutely love the concept, I just don't really like the ending.)

[PhantomPuppy]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

a silent voice is probably the best anime movie i've watched, so i definitely second that if you haven't seen it yet.

[Wiosna]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Some recommendations that I think you'd like, from highest priority to lowest:
- Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
- It's Such A Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt)
- Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
- Eureka (Shinji Aoyama)
- All About Lily Chou-Chou (Shunji Iwai)

Stalker seems like the most obvious recommendation given your thoughts on Solaris. I like Solaris a bit more than Stalker (8/10 vs. 7/10), but I enjoyed both films. I'd also suggest The Handmaiden (Park Chan-Wook) for a similar reason, but Oldboy was a much more visceral watch in comparison to Handmaiden for me... but you might find more merits in Handmaiden than I would, I feel like.

I find it hard-pressed to recommend anime films to you because you don't seem to be the type to enjoy in-your-face drama/melodrama, and a lot of my favourite anime movies tend to be quite saccharine. I do feel that a lot of canonical anime movies focus more on (melo)drama, and as a result I don't think a lot of Japanese animation for you. There are many clear seminal exceptions to this (mostly sci-fi ones like Akira or End of Evangelion), but most contemporary anime films that are received well tug more on the heart in explicit ways. I wouldn't recommend any of them (including Your Name and Weathering With You, even if the films came from my favourite director).

If you're looking for animation in particular, I feel that Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki) and Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon) are best up your alley, though I wouldn't consider Perfect Blue my favourite film from Kon (Millennium Actress resonates more with me). Howl's Moving Castle in general feels like one of Miyazaki's most ambitious but also laser-focused given the motivations behind making the film, and I feel that Howl's Moving Castle also really shows what Miyazaki is like both as a director and person. I think Jin-Rou: The Wolf Brigade (Hiroyuki Okiura) is also a good shout.

[SubaruPoptart]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

I haven't really watched a movie in years but I will say I really enjoy Zombieland, and the Animal Crossing movie (Doubutsu no Mori) if you can find a fandub of it (that's what I did, anyway) or find a subbed version of it is worth a watch imo.

I have no idea how to navigate letterboxd and I can't ctrl+F to find titles so I have no idea if these are on there but I think 9 is definitely worth a watch. There's a few more I can't think of right offhand but I'll see if I can remember them

[MarioNintendo]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

I +1 mellon's suggestion of Paprika. The film does things that would only work through its animation style. It's a memorable and pleasing watch.

[mellonxcollie]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

There is a noticeable dearth of animation in my diary. I tend to be averse to 3D animated films, but I do need to get into more anime. I have seen a lot of Perfect Blue during my time on Letterboxd, so I'll add both to my watchlist. I also understand that I need to watch more Miyazaki. Or any Miyazaki, actually. I've seen a third of Howl's Moving Castle and that's all. Would I be incorrect in assuming you have some knowledge of Studio Ghibli, and would therefore be able to provide a recommendation or two?

You would not be incorrect at all! I love Studio Ghibli

My personal favourite Ghibli film was not directed by Miyazaki. It's called Whisper of the Heart. It is very slice of life, slow pacing, it's got fantasy elements but for the most part it is realistic boring school days of youth. Which is why I love it. It was directed by Yoshifumi Kondō who was meant to be Miyazaki's successor, but he tragically died at age 47

Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away would be my #1 suggestions otherwise

Also though I think everyone needs to watch Grave of the Fireflies. It's based on an IRL survivor of WWII's account of the nuclear bomb. It's one of those films you can't forget after you watched it

[radioamor]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

snip

This is a phenomenal and remarkably comprehensive list of recommendations. I greatly appreciate that you took the time to narrow down a few that you think I would enjoy based on what you know about my personality, and then further justified them. While I am certainly no fan of didactic cinema, I don't mind a bit of treacle. Not even the most weathered soi-disant cinephile can survive on a diet of downtrodden, anxiogenic films alone. One of my favorite films, Margaret (2011), is a contemplative pendulum that explores the swells and nadirs of human emotion, and it ends on a tender hug at the end of an opera. I can scarcely think of something more nominally saccharine than that.
I will admit that when my partner attempts to explain the merits of Japanese animation to me, she does it in terms that do not quite appeal to me. That may simply be a difference in value judgments, however, and I could extract meaning in ways she doesn't and vice versa. I'm loath to immediately disregard a film based on its initial presentation (unless it's a comedy with a poster that contains a white background behind the cast, in addition to the film's title with a pithy tagline written in red, 3D text. Those are uniformly trash.)
I watched Oldboy a while ago, but I would definitely benefit from a second viewing. I have been thinking about watching that and The Handmaiden on two consecutive nights. My watchlist may be precipitously ballooning here, but I trust your judgment enough to just watch both films.

snip

I figured you would have some advanced acquaintance on the matter, but I didn't want to be presumptuous. Thank you for the recommendations. This is a genre of film that is wildly out of my wheelhouse, but again, I would hate to dismiss a potential surfeit of good cinema because I am not accustomed to Japanese animation.

I am immensely grateful for everyone's suggestions, and I'm adding them all to my watchlist. Sometimes, however, I'm busy, and I'll even be out of town next week, so I'll progress through them rather slowly. I look forward to watching them all, though! I mean this sincerely, and not in the corporate email way that my parlance may communicate.

[Mahou]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

I run a plex server with 35 TB and I still don’t even watch everything that gets put onto it.

Probably the most recent films I’ve seen this year (in no particular order of quality) is recent Spider-Man film, death of the Nile, American underdog, the 355, coda (this is actually really good one), the tomorrow war, latest scream film, encanto (this movie isn’t that great to me), and dog (movie is hella cheesy).

Been meaning to watch Moonfall.

Out of the list I would say the latest Spider-Man film was the best one simply because of nostalgia.

[sweet2kill210]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Everything Everywhere All At Once. It has a little something in it for everybody, it's amazing. Such an eclectic film with a lot of different things to appreciate. The cinematography, the off-the-wall smorgasbord of scenes, the action sequences, etc. It'll make you laugh and make you cry. It replaced Donnie Darko (which I love for all the different interpretations it can have) as my favorite movie. Definitely a must-see, and I absolutely plan to watch it many more times in the future.

[BruceAdler]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Try the new apple tv series, severance is a great series

[Wiosna]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

After I've been in film hell for a while I think I can give more recs that aren't in your watchlist and are more targeted towards what you're into and are also distinctly what I'm into.

- Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
- Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda) / Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
- Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
- Joint Security Area (Park Chan-wook)
- The Chaser (Na Hong-jin)
- The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)
- A Better Tomorrow (John Woo)

As far as I know, Sound of Metal is already on your watchlist, but I felt that you'd resonate with that quite a bit, and you should push it up in your priority list. Pick your poison for the Kore-eda film! I heard that his newest film (Monster) was really good too, but I'm waiting for it to be on home video so that I can see it for myself. I'd also mention Infernal Affairs again since you're quite into The Departed, but you've heard me mention that film more than three times, so no need for me to mention it again I think.

[Rapta]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Let It Shine, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Maleficent, Greyhound, A Quiet Place Part 2

[Lambdadelta]

Re: Recommend me movies you enjoy

Oldboy is a Korean film I watched last year that I would highly recommend if you can tolerate subtitles as there is no English translation, however, there appears to be a Western remake of the movie but we all know what happens when the West tries to make an English Adaptation. Please do note that I've never actually seen the Western adaptation of the film so I don't actually know if it's actually trash or not, I'm just basing this off of past experiences.

I've added both the short and long versions of the synopsis depending on much you want to know before watching it.
The longer one obviously gives you more details about the movie as a whole but I don't think it really spoils anything other than just giving you a better idea of what it's about, but maybe it's best to just read the short version or neither of them if you want as little information as possible.

Please bear in mind this movie is uncomfortable to watch at times.

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.

Dae-Su is an obnoxious drunk bailed from the police station yet again by a friend. However, he's abducted from the street and wakes up in a cell, where he remains for the next 15 years, drugged unconscious when human contact is unavoidable, otherwise with only the television as company. And then, suddenly released, he is invited to track down his jailor with a denouement that is simply stunning.