Events on the screen help to evaluate life from a different angle. Answers to banal questions about the world around us, the search for inner harmony are hidden among the philosophical reasoning of the characters.
It is hard to imagine that cinema without thought can exist at all. After all, the meaning of any work of art is born in the head of the viewer. Although many Youtube bloggers would argue. But there are films that are so sophisticated that it really becomes difficult to understand what it’s all about.
Action, blockbusters, banal comedies and tear-jerker romantic melodramas are not here. Today we offer you films of the last few years that make you think, rethink your life and your time. Movies that leave an aftertaste, movies that you might want to watch again.
We present to your attention a selection of films with a deep meaning that will help you look at many things in a completely different way.
The best movies with hidden meaning that can reboot the mind
Another Round
Boring history teacher Martin, along with other teachers, celebrates the 40th birthday of his colleague in a restaurant. During dinner, one of the teachers explains the hypothesis that having a small amount of alcohol in the blood helps a person become happier and more efficient.
Colleagues decide to test the hypothesis and get down to business. It would seem that what could go wrong?
The scenario is based on a theory put forward by the Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skarderud.
Parasite
An ordinary Korean Kim family lives in a dirty semi-basement in the slums of Seoul, stealing the Internet from neighbors and doing odd jobs. One day, Ki Woo, the son of a family, thanks to a friend and a forged diploma, manages to get a job as a tutor with a high school student in the wealthy Park family. Soon a great idea comes to his mind how to employ all his relatives.
A film with meaning, saturated with subtle humor, won four categories at the Oscars 2020 and received a palm branch of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
The Hunt
Children’s teacher Lucas, struggling with loneliness and difficulties, gradually begins to improve his life. After the divorce, he meets a new love and receives good news about the custody of his son.
But at one point, the innocent lie of a five-year-old girl who accuses Lucas of sexual harassment, which he did not commit, completely breaks the hero’s life.
“The Hunt” was warmly received by the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Foreign Language Film”.
Wonder
On the one hand, Auggie is an ordinary 11-year-old boy who loves to watch Star Wars movies, play computer games and spend time with his older sister.
On the other hand, the boy is very different from his peers. Auggie was born with a rare condition that deformed his face. The boy had to undergo 27 operations. For the first time, after home schooling, he will have to go to school with other children.
The script is based on the novel of the same name by American writer Raquel Palacio.
At the 2018 Oscars, the film received a nomination in the Best Makeup and Hair category. The disease that the hero suffers from is called Treacher Collins Syndrome.
Interstellar
In 2067, space is practically mastered by people, however, along with this, drought, dust storms and plant extinctions marked the beginning of a global food crisis.
A group of researchers and scientists are sent through a wormhole located near the orbit of Saturn in order to overcome the space-time barrier as soon as possible and find a planet with suitable conditions for people.
Of the five Oscar nominations in 2015, the film won one for Best Visual Effects.
Will Smith was originally supposed to play Cooper (Matthew McConaughey).
The script is based on the scientific works of the theoretical physicist Kip Thorne.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The film is based on notes taken from Benjamin Button’s diary. In 1918, an unusual person was born at the age of 80, and then he began … to get younger. The mysterious man, who had the appearance and health of an old man, could not stop time.
This is a story about his unique destiny, about people and events, about joyful moments and difficult difficulties that happened on the life path of the hero.
Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the lead role.
The film is banned from showing in Bhutan due to the Buddhist religion of the inhabitants of the country.
At the 2009 Oscars, the film won three out of 13 nominations.
An adaptation of the short story of the same name by Francis Scott Fitzgerald.
Mr. Nobody
2092 year. Waking up as a frail 118-year-old man, Nemo Nobody is the only mortal person on Earth. Mankind has become immortal a long time ago, and now the whole world is watching with incredible interest the reality show in which the decrepit and insane man Nemo is living his last days.
Finally, the dying hero decides to share his life story with a journalist, jumping from one life to another, parallel, having died several times during the story.
Collateral Beauty
In the life of Howard Inlet, the head of a New York advertising agency, a terrible tragedy occurs. He loses his little daughter, because of which, feeling that he can no longer be with his wife, he leaves her.
The hero falls into a severe depression and stops doing creative work. Friends and colleagues try their best to support Howard and come up with a highly unconventional plan.
To bring him back to normal life, they attract actors from a small theater. Their plan works, but in a very unexpected way…
Pay It Forward
An incredibly sincere movie with a deep meaning tells about the boy Trevor McKinney, who, despite everything, believes in the kindness and sincerity of people. An extremely good-natured and sympathetic seventh grade student decides to start the so-called “chain of goodness”.
Its action is to ask the person who has rendered you a significant service to thank not you, but three other people, who in turn will thank the following.
This is how Trevor believes you can change a cruel world by spreading warmth and kindness on a grand scale.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Katherine Ryan Hyde.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fantastic cinema meaningfully touches on the topic of human feelings, their nature and cause. Shy and melancholic, Joel lives a quiet, gray and unremarkable life. But one day, instead of going to work, he takes the train in the opposite direction and goes to the sea.
On the beach, Joel notices a cute girl with blue hair. Coming back, he sees her in the same car and decides to get acquainted. After a short conversation, both characters feel that there is a lot in common between them. Joel soon realizes that he really knew his companion, moreover, they once loved each other.
The Fountain
Talented oncologist Thomas Creo is desperately trying to save his wife, who is dying of a brain tumor. Realizing that classical medicine cannot prolong her life, Tom goes to Central America in search of the mysterious Tree of Life, the extract of which, as legend has it, bestows eternal life.
Initially, Brad Pitt was approved for the role of the main character, but due to disagreements with the director, he left the project, and Hugh Jackman was taken in his place.
The surname of the married couple Creo – translated from Latin as “I create”, and from Spanish – “I believe.”
The Man Who Wasn’t There
1949 Silent and always gloomy Ed Crane lives in a small California town and works as a hairdresser. His wife, Doris, is a big drinker, works as an accountant in a haberdashery, and cheats on Ed with her boss, Big Dave, who has just saved up money for a new store.
One day, a businessman visiting a barbershop offers Ed to raise money in a new dry cleaning business, but this requires initial capital. The hero decides to swindle the required amount by blackmailing Big Dave. However, a completely perfect plan soon ruins his life.
Fight club
A 30-year-old insurance company employee (a typical “white collar” suffering from insomnia), painfully tries to escape from the routine of gray days. One day, on the plane, the hero meets Tyler, a soap maker and seller who lives in completely different settings.
Tyler is sure that self-improvement is for the weak, and all you need to strive for in life is self-destruction. Together they organize the Fight Club, where anyone can come and feel the joy of simple physical cruelty.
Screen adaptation of the book of the same name by contemporary American writer Chuck Palahniuk.
Double
A modest hard worker Simon is an unremarkable person who performs boring and monotonous work in the office. Colleagues do not notice him, and the dream girl simply ignores him. It seems that this state of affairs will never change, but one day the unexpected happens to him: a new employee named James gets a job in the office.
Externally, he is absolutely indistinguishable from Simon, but internally – his complete opposite. Confident, charismatic James, to Simon’s dismay, gradually begins to take over the hero’s life …
The plot is based on the story of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Blade Runner
“Ridley, the movie looks amazing, but what the hell is it about?” the film editor asked after filming. Even the person who mounted the very first and, presumably, the most understandable version of the picture, could not unravel the message of the British nutcase. But after the studio redrawing of the canvas, the film turned into a patchwork quilt, for all the independently living pieces of which the viewer could not keep track at all. Moreover, the advertisement promised a peppy futuristic action movie.
The plot of one of the most complex films in history is simple. 2019, several replicants (either androids, or artificially grown people) of the latest model fled to Earth from an alien colony. The commander of the combat detachment Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), his beloved Pris (Daryl Hannah), the soldier Leon (Brion James), the prostitute Zora (Joanna Cassidy). A retired police officer, replicant hunter, blade runner Rick Descartes (Harrison Ford), who dreams of getting drunk every night and eating noodles in the rain, is thrown to catch the fugitives.
From 2021, following the path of Sir Ridley , one can guess that even then the director was occupied with the question of the divinity of a person capable of creating things that change the world. This makes it easy to see the parallels between the Alien prequels and the Runner universe. The creations of the human mind are infinitely better than man himself, they do not get sick, they are stronger and more promising as a species. Therefore, it is a separate pleasure for the creator to keep omnipotent beings, his creations, under control.
Crash
Primer
Multi-stationer Shane Carruth served as writer, director, lighting engineer, lead actor and mastermind in his first feature film. A year was spent on the script, studying physical laws, reading scientific papers and working out the logic of his work. Not surprisingly, there are dozens of diagrams on the Internet that explain the film and interpretations of the meaning of “Detonator”.
Two engineers, Abe and Aaron, are developing a device for reducing body weight in their garage, but they end up with a time machine . The device showed unrealistic power readings, and the clock inside the box counted 1300 times more time than it had passed outside. Having finally figured out what they have created, physicists use their invention to successfully play the stock market. The main thing is not to meet doubles from the past who remain in the cell. Together with the doubles, the guys multiply the time lines beyond their control. Paranoia and suspicion destroy the friendship of people who were once striving for creation.
Due to budget constraints (the film cost $7,000), all of the film’s scenes were carefully rehearsed and filmed in first take. This gives a kind of energy to the chamber film, which takes place mainly in the walls of the warehouse, and is also limited to the sixteen-millimeter film format. The viewer seems to be trapped in this very cramped chamber to move in time, where time already loses its meaning.
ENEMY
You can think about what the adaptation of the novel by José Saramago was about indefinitely. Unlike his other films, where the director likes to explain everything and poke the viewer’s nose into symbols many times, here Villeneuve works with allegory.
Adam, a rather boring teacher at a boring university, lives his own boring life and doesn’t like to rest. Somehow he decides to follow the advice and just watch the movie in the evening. And on the tenth plane he notices a guy who is like two drops of water similar to him. It turns out to be more interesting than the movie, and the teacher sets off in search of a double. It turns out that the desired actor Daniel is a complete idiot, but lives easily and cheerfully. Then Adam decides nothing less than to appropriate his life and even finds support from an unexpected side.
Yes, there is a lot of play with symbolism in The Enemy, which is more typical for novice directors, but Villeneuve attacks them pointwise. Just now everything was fine, the viewer was watching a strange noir reality, suddenly a gigantic spider was already walking imposingly around the city, then a smaller spider appeared in the bedroom. No explanation. It fascinates, frightens and makes the brain boil.
A Beautiful Mind
This is a biopic about the lightning rise of John Forbes Nash Jr. He was a prodigy in mathematics, able to solve problems that the world’s greatest minds had thought about for many years. The film describes his many years of suffering. John Nash overcame schizophrenia in order to finally receive the Nobel Prize and become a world …
Limitless
The writer Eddie has a black streak in his life: he is tormented by a creative crisis, moreover, his wife recently left him. But, fortunately, he accidentally meets his friend, Vernon, who, having learned about his friend’s condition, offers him to drink NZT pills, which greatly increase the efficiency and mental abilities of the brain. After trying the pills, Eddie finishes his book very quickly and soon becomes very popular. Now he has a lot of money, but there is also a problem – the pills cause …
The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne, a successful banker and vice president of a bank, is accused of the death of his wife and her lover. He is sentenced to two life terms in prison and sent to serve his sentence in Shawshank Prison, from which no one has yet managed to escape. In conclusion, Andy goes through the entire school of prison life, while showing courage and composure. But how does he get acquainted with the dark-skinned convict Red, in whose person he finds a friend. They both do not lose hope to get out of their cage. Thanks to their…
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump lives an amazing life. He was born a weak-minded boy, which is why he had no friends, he was offended at school. Only Jenny made friends with him on the first day of school, and this friendship lasted her whole life. Forest was kind, noble, with an open heart. In all his life he did nothing wrong, and always kept his word. At the university he was the best football player, in the army he was the best soldier. In the Vietnam War, he saved the guys and Lieutenant Den, for which then …
The Bucket List
The Truman Show
Living in a small town, you suddenly realize that everything around you is a fiction. That things, houses, streets are just well-crafted scenery. The people with whom you communicate throughout your life are just actors who play their role so well. The whole world around you, your whole life is a huge production of a TV studio and the result of the work of the author of the TV show himself. And you are the protagonist of this project, which has been going on for about thirty years. This is what happened to Truman, who…
Life of Pi
Pi is the son of an Indian zoo owner. His family is forced to emigrate to Canada, taking with them all their animals, which can only be transported on a cargo ship. Halfway through, they get caught in a storm and the ship is wrecked. Few can be saved. Pi himself and several wards of the zoo are in a small lifeboat: a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger. A small boat drifts alone in the middle of a vast ocean. Who will be able to survive in such a difficult …
Yes Man
Carl Allen gets along very badly with others, he is unsociable and constantly depressed, besides, he answers all questions with one word “No”. But one day Karl attends a seminar called “Yes – a new kind of no”, after which he decides to change his life tactics and answer “Yes” to all questions. He brings the idea to life, which begins to radically change for the better. Only, despite the positive aspects, this style leads Karl to serious …
Slumdog Millionaire
Jamail Malik spent all his 18 years in the poorest quarter of Mumbai and was also an orphan. And then one day he decides to take part in the quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire.” Jamail with enviable ease gets to the last questions of the game, and then he is arrested by the police, accusing him of fraud. In the station, the guy tells the story of his hard life, and he is released to answer the last question. Now the whole of India is clinging to their TV screens to …
Leon: The Professional
Leon is a professional killer, but others do not know about it. After all, people know only the outer part of his existence, in which he is a decent citizen, doing gymnastics, visiting cinemas and caring for his favorite flower. One day, Leon becomes an unwitting observer of a murder in a neighbor’s apartment. The criminal, whose face he did not see, dealt with almost the entire family, but Leon managed to shelter the little girl at home. A neighbor begins to learn Leon’s craft in order to …
Gladiator
20th century AD, Great Roman Empire. Emperor Marcus Aurelius decides to make the commander Maximus his successor. He is an honest man, and only he can return state power to the people and the Senate. The emperor’s son, Commodus, does not like this decision at all. He kills his father, destroys the warlord’s family, and tries to deal with Maximus himself. But it is not so easy to kill a brave commander – he returns to Rome and becomes …
Inception
Cobb is a thief. But he is no ordinary thief. He doesn’t rob banks or houses. He masters the subtle art of extracting valuable materials from the human mind during sleep. He receives many important orders, but because of such a dangerous job, he loses everything that was dear to him. And soon Cobb is given the opportunity to end this dangerous game once and for all. But the task is not an easy one – you need not to steal information, but to place it in the depths of the mind, to generate an idea in the human brain. For execution …
Schindler’s List
At the beginning of World War II, the enterprising Oskar Schindler arrives in Poland. He is not at all embarrassed by the complete lack of connections, he quite easily meets the right people and even organizes a profitable business. Schindler invites Polish Jews to the factory, who were driven into the ghetto and now lead a beggarly existence. Itzhak Stern, a member of the Jewish Council, is appointed manager of the factory. Immediately after his appointment, he tries to help the Jews save their lives. After the officer’s arrival in Krakow…
The Matrix
Thomas Anderson is the most ordinary office worker. Happy. But at night, he turns into Neo, a hacker capable of hacking into any network. But one day the hero learns the incredible truth – humanity has been enslaved by artificial intelligence, which is powered by people. Everything that happens around is just an illusion. And only Neo can put everything in its place. The main character receives a message: “Follow the white rabbit”, and soon he meets a girl with a tattoo in the form of a white …
The Godfather
Crime story-saga about the Sicilian mafia Corleone family based on the famous novel by Mario Puzo. The action takes place in 1945-1955. The head of the family, Don Vito Corleone, is no longer young and is gradually losing his position in the underworld. He is no longer as influential as before, which only plays into the hands of his competitors. Don Corleone is forced to turn over all his affairs to his beloved son Michael, the pride of the family and a war hero who is initially reluctant to take the cruel family business into his own hands. Until then…
Det Sjunde Inseglet
In the middle of the XIV century, the knight Antonius Block and his squire returned after ten years of crusades to their native Sweden. Blok is tired of life, and does not see anything around him for which it would be worth continuing to eke out his existence. But first he wants to make sure that God exists…
There Will Be Blood
Screen adaptation of the novel “Oil” by the classic of American literature Upton Sinclair. The book is set in late 1920s California and depicts the rise of an oil company owned by the ambitious and heartless tycoon Plainview.
The Pursuit of Happyness
The protagonist of the film “The Pursuit of Happyness”, from which it is impossible to take your eyes off watching online, is ready for any action that can bring income. He decides to invest all his savings in the trade in medical devices. Every day he visits various medical institutions, hoping to sell at least one device, but no one is interested in these devices. By chance, he becomes aware of the recruitment of brokers in the school. However, this requires an unpaid internship at the firm. As a result, according to its results, only one of the many applicants will get a job. Now, in the daytime, the hero is busy studying, gaining new knowledge, and in the evenings he tries to somehow make ends meet. The money that he so mediocrely invested in unnecessary equipment did not justify itself. So Gardner finally went bankrupt.
The Lobster
A love story set in the near future where lonely people are arrested and sent to a creepy hotel. There they are obliged to find a mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are turned into animals and released into the forest.
Revolver
Equilibrium
Arrival
The unexpected appearance of unidentified flying objects in different parts of the planet plunges the world into awe. The intentions of the aliens are not clear – the armed forces of the whole world are on full alert, and the best minds of mankind are trying to figure out how to talk with uninvited guests. The government turns to linguist Louise Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly for help in order to prevent a global catastrophe and find a common language with the aliens. From now on, the fate of mankind is in their hands.
Dark City
A killer with no memory of his name or past is pursued by police inspector Frank Busted. His wife Emma is looking for him, strangers are hunting him, and he is trying to figure out what is happening from fragments of memories.
In this list, I have provided a list of the best films with meaning that I have personally watched. If there are films that deserve to be here – write in the comments.
