Everybody has a movie, or maybe a few, that they can watch repeatedly without becoming bored of. But through the years, one also managed to compile a list of movies that might certainly be not watched again. And not just because they are bad films; just the contrary, they are so brilliant that they overwhelm you with emotion.
Marley & Me
This choice should come as no surprise, especially to anybody who has ever had to bid goodbye to a pet. Furthermore, seeing a movie about a dog dying is always a sombre experience. Marley & Me, a 2008 movie starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, is the story of John and Jenny, a newlywed couple who acquire Marley, a rambunctious puppy who flips their lives upside down.
Midsommar
Midsommar is a well-regarded and unsettling film that is considered one of the pinnacles of contemporary folk horror. It is the second film Ari Aster has directed. His first film, Hereditary, received positive reviews a year previously. Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, and Vilhelm Blomgren all appear in this 2019 production.
12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave debuted in theatres in 2013 to rave reviews. This Chiwetel Ejiofor and Steve McQueen movie is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup, an African American from New York who was abducted and sold into slavery to work on a Louisiana plantation for 12 years while experiencing horrific cruelty.
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ, a movie from 2004, is among the most emotionally challenging religious movies ever made. It follows Jesus Christ in the final hours before his death. Jim Caviezel, who plays the lead role, is accompanied by Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Christo Jivkov, and Francesco De Vito in the Mel Gibson-directed film.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Zachary Kurt Kuenne created the tragic documentary A Letter to a Son About His Father in remembrance of his childhood buddy Andrew Bagby. After Bagby was killed by his lover Shirley Turner, who subsequently disclosed that she was pregnant his child, the concept for the movie was born.
The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for multiple Academy Awards during his career, but it wasn’t until 2015 that he actually took home the prize for his work in Alejandro González Iárritu’s western thriller The Revenant, which was based on Michael Punke’s book of the same name.
Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream, a fascinating and distressing film starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans, offers viewers a look into the world of addiction and how it ruins people’s lives. From the same-titled novel by Hubert Selby Jr., it is directed by Darren Aronofsky.
The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter, a war movie from 1978, garnered director Michael Cimino his lone Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, as well as praise from critics and viewers. This gripping production, which features Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, centres on three friends whose lives drastically change as a result of their harrowing experiences in Vietnam.
Grave of the Fireflies
Grave of the Fireflies is a superb example of a cinematic classic that is too emotional to see more than once. Many animated films have a way of inciting more emotions than non-animated ones.
My Sister’s Keeper
Abigail Breslin portrays Anna, a child who was created specifically to serve as her sister’s bone marrow donor, in the 2009 movie My Sister’s Keeper. Anna endured several surgeries throughout her childhood to assist her ill sister, as her parents ardently encouraged. But the entire family experiences the worst crisis of their life when she sues her parents and demands medical emancipation so she may be the legal owner of her own body.
The Machinist
Christian Bale is accustomed to altering his physique for various roles. However, the actor’s role in Brad Anderson’s thriller The Machinist—for which he shed 62 pounds—might have been the largest career turnaround.
American History X
Tony Kaye made his directorial debut with the 1998 movie American History X, which also brought Edward Norton his one and only Best Actor nomination for the Academy Awards. He plays Derek, a neo-Nazi who, after doing time in jail for the death of two young Black boys, becomes rehabilitated and gives up his racist views in an effort to influence his younger brother.
Life Is Beautiful
Italian drama Life Is Beautiful will have you inconsolably crying for several hours. In the End, I Beat Hitler by Rubino Romeo Salmon and the true tale of Roberto Benigni’s father served as the inspiration for this 1997 movie, which Benigni also directed and starred in.
The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones, a drama movie directed by Peter Jackson and based on the same-titled book by Alice Sebold, had its debut in 2009. Despite receiving negative reviews, the film—which also stars Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, and Susan Sarandon—has won several awards.
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman was a critically acclaimed screenwriter for films including Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In 2008, he made his directorial debut with the movie Synecdoche, New York, which elicited sharply divergent reactions from reviewers.
Room
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay’s co-starring turns in Lenny Abrahamson’s drama picture Room, which received several acclaim and four Academy Award nominations in 2015, astounded reviewers. A mother who undertakes a complex escape after spending years imprisoned in a small room with her young son Jack in order to reclaim her freedom and give the kid access to the outside world.
Precious
The 2009 drama film Precious centres on Precious, a teenage girl who has been mistreated by both her parents. After her school principal places her in a substitute education programme, Precious has the chance to change her life.
Schindler’s List
In this play, Liam Neeson plays Oskar Schindler, a German entrepreneur and humanitarian who helped hundreds of Jews during World War II by hiring them as employees in his companies.
City of God
It is challenging to view again a production like City of God, which is regarded as one of the finest ever. It was filmed in some of Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighbourhoods and tracks the growth of the dangerous slum Cidade de Deus as well as the lives of some of its residents.
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick completes this list with a work that is both unsettling and divisive. In 1971, this movie divided spectators and critics alike, but as time passed, it started to get better reviews and gained cult status.