Movies are there to entertain us, relax, get excited... and reflect. Because cinema, like the rest of the arts, is a powerful force for change. Therefore, today we bring you 14 of the best movies that make you think. With them, you will enjoy some of the best films that have been done and, in addition, they will leave their mark on you. Rest assured that you will be meditating for a long time on what you have seen and the topics they deal with.
Cinema is one of the best ways to escape and experience stories that we would never experience otherwise.
However, movies don't just provide us with escape and entertainment. They also serve so that their writers and directors reflect the issues that concern us all.
So if you want food good gourmet food To think about important issues, take good notes on these movies.
On important topics
We start the list with what is probably my favorite.
I'm thinking of quitting (2020)
Charlie Kaufman is one of the most interesting directors on the current scene who in 2020 wanted to adapt the novel of the same name by Iain Reid, and that it is organized as if it were a kind of puzzle where important topics are touched on, such as doubts within a relationship, and those universal problems that plague us and how we respond to them. Also, it helps to make this storytelling a complete wonder the way the director orchestrates all the scenes and even the events that he narrates. A rather unconventional little wonder.
Marriage Story (2019)
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson star in a moving story that deals with terrible rawness how an idyllic relationship between a theater director and an actress ends and the consequences it causes in their personal and professional lives. A reflection on the end of love and how people respond when exposed to extreme situations. It will make you rethink some convictions that you thought were very clear.
Forget About Me (2004)
One of my personal favourites, everything written by Charlie Kaufman will blow your mind for good, and it will leave you thinking. In Forget about me tells us about the life of Joel, who discovers that his girlfriend, Clementine, has erased his memories of his relationship with her.
Desperate, he has his own also erased from her. However, fate, love and chance (or not so much) will make the story go where you don't expect.
Una very intelligent reflection on love, the couple, destiny and many more things
It's so good, you even forget that the main character is played by Jim Carrey, that's quite an achievement. Special mention to Carrey also in the Truman Show, another of those movies that leave your brain running for a while.
Life imprisonment (1994)
The most valued film on IMDb has reason to be. It is not only an excellent film Based on an atypical story by Stephen King, it is also a very successful reflection on friendship, the society in which we live, loneliness and, above all, the hope.
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing ever, and nothing good ever dies," the movie says.
Of which leaves a residue that accompanies you for days and days.
Fight Club (1999)
Based on the great book by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight club is a reflection on how modern life alienates us and locks us up in an imaginary, but powerful jail. Today's masculinity, the nonsense of everyday life, loneliness... The topics on which it leaves you thinking are many.
My favorite part, oddly enough, is one that often goes unnoticed.
In it, Brad Pitt's character points a gun at a kid trapped in a dead-end job at a convenience store. When he is going to pull the trigger and execute him, he tells him that either he leaves there and dedicates himself to what he always wanted, or he will come back and put that bullet in his head.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Not suitable for sensitive Requiem for a Dream is a hard and realistic story about addiction. Without half measures, it is presented to us as the monster that it is, capable of changing people in an instant and taking them to limits they did not believe. And all to get another dose.
Intense like few, it will leave you a residue that will last much.
As a curious detail, Eternal Light, one of the songs on its soundtrack, has been used to exhaustion in a multitude of trailers and advertisements.
On hot topics
Undoubtedly, many films have dealt with themes that reflect the most important of today. These are some of the best.
Ex Machina (2015)
This sci-fi movie unexpectedly became a work of worship. I admit that, personally, I don't see much interest in it, probably because it is a subject that has been covered many times in science fiction. It is also true that its director, Alex Garland, is not one of my favorites (Extinction It's terrible and we'll meet in a duel at dawn if you want).
However, it must be recognized that it is one of the movies that has left many people thinking.
What it really means to be human or the ethics of artificial intelligence and the creation of life are hot topics today. For this reason, the value of this film lies in the fact that it makes you meditate on things that, in the not too distant future, will be in the limelight.
That, and the final twist, of course, which makes you wonder who was right or what you would have done.
Into the Wild (2007)
Towards wild routes is a film directed by Sean Penn that tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a model student who abandons his life and all his possessions to live in the wildest wilderness of Alaska.
A powerful reflection on how separated we are from the natural life we have evolved as for thousands of years, as well as reminding us of what we are destroying with pollution and climate change. The most interesting thing is that it is not a plea good guy, that presents a paradisiacal nature with which to commune, but the cruel and harsh reality.
It makes you want to be McCandless and escape from everything: the subway, the alarm clock, your boss and the bills… Or at least, until the end. Until the day comes when we finally escape the rat race, we can always listen the great soundtrack composed by Eddie Vedder (singer of Pearl Jam).
what the hell are you looking at
And, of course, we close with some of those movies that make you think about what you're watching and if what you believe is real, or if the director is going to surprise you where you don't expect.
All At Once Everywhere (2022)
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert sign the script and directing work for this wonder that shows us a different way of traveling through the multiverse. Evelyn Wang runs a laundromat with her husband and soon problems with the Treasury will begin to haunt her. In the middle of a visit to her financial agent, she will understand that her role in the world is more important than she thought, and she will have to face powerful dark forces that rule the multiverse beyond the limits of reality. .
This movie is a genius that will have you glued to the screen and it will force you to think a lot. So much so that we recommend you pay close attention to everything that is said and happens and, in case of doubt, start over to understand everything. Long live the Mapachuis!
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2021)
This genius filmed in Japan, which barely lasts 70 minutes, is an extraordinary exercise in cinema with time travel but seen through the perspective of a screen. A genius in which a group of kids (and others not so much) can see what will happen in the next two minutes of their lives thanks to messages that they themselves send through the televisions in a cafeteria.
Shot as if it were a single sequence shot, this film directed by Junta Yamaguchi has won countless awards and it shows that, beyond millionaire budgets and state-of-the-art digital effects, what keeps good cinema alive are the stories.
Tenets (2020)
Christopher Nolan is a director who subscribes to that type of film in which you have to put all five senses on the screen to understand what is happening. With Tenet we are going to do a master's degree on the subject since It will be mandatory to be clear about the concepts that it handles to understand something: entropy, objects that advance in time compared to others that go backwards. The result? A puzzle that surely needs several viewings to finish understanding exactly what is happening and in what order. Highly recommended for being one of those occasions in which a film does not treat us as passive beings. Think!
Origin (2010)
Pretty much along the same lines as Tenet does it move From, a film also by Christopher Nolan that dives into dreams to introduce us to some specialists who are capable of entering a person's dreams and stealing any idea or memory. Or maybe prompt him to do something? A convoluted plot, which at times will give you the impression that you don't know what is happening and that you must pay attention to detail. Oh, and when it's over it won't leave you indifferent.
Memo (2001)
Christopher Nolan's second film makes you run for the better, not like Tenet. In it, the story of Leonard, an insurance investigator with amnesia, is told, who has his entire body tattooed for a reason that we will not reveal, just in case you have not seen it.
The film it starts in the middle and it seems that the plot unfolds backwards. That makes you think all the time what is happening or what is going to happen next (or what happened in the past).
The kind that leaves your brain like a knot and one of the most recommended by Nolan.
First (2004)
We could not finish without giving you this recommendation in case you have not seen it. First is a time travel movie that has become a cult phenomenon.
Made in five weeks, with a mere $7.000 budget, its writer, producer, and director is a mathematician and engineer named Shane Carruth. And you can see it. His portrayal of time travel discovery is not only quite realistic, but he's going to make you think.
And a lot, if only because no one is quite sure they understand what's really going on or what's going on First. So, if you want a movie that is also quite a riddle and will break your head, this is undoubtedly your choice.
2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
Obviously could not miss what is considered as the paradigm of that cinema that comes a time when you don't know what they are telling you and you have to resort to conversations with family and friends to scratch some of that truth that the great Stanley Kubrick hid in his day. An incredible start and a knot within the margins of the conventional give way to an outcome that falls down a slide of images and sensations that is completely open to any theory we can imagine.
Based on the original book by Arthur C. Clarke, quickly became one of the biggest cult titles in cinema history and... also, of the films designed to make us think. No?
There have been many films that make you think about the inkwell. from almost any film from Darren Aronofsky, to the work of Terrence Malick going, of course, through David Lynch. The options are many, but, starting with any of these 7, the gears of your brain will be working for days after seeing them.