Movies about the meaning of life?

July 7, 2022 8:26 AM

After watching "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once," I'm looking for more movies that deal explicitly with the topic of finding the meaning of life, particularly in a way that engages in philosophical debate rather than just leaving you with "life lessons." Any recommendations?
posted by roaring beast to Media & Arts (31 answers total)

I have not seen Everything, Everywhere, All At Once so I'm not sure how well this fits in with what you want, but Wings of Desire was my first thought.
posted by jabes at 8:33 AM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think this is true of many "great" films. Many films by Bergman (Persona) or Kurosawa (Ikiru) or Fellini (La Strada), for example, address the topic directly.
posted by vacapinta at 8:52 AM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

The Pixar movie Soul is surprisingly non-sentimental about these questions.
posted by EllaEm at 9:01 AM on July 7, 2022

I'm partial to the Coen brothers film 'A Serious Man' which loosely follows a Midwestern professor and his son's trials and tribulations. The movie is punctuated by talks with rabbis of varying seniority who each offer a story that speaks to your theme. The whole thing is a bit absurd and surreal, but I find that fitting.

I think the classics mentioned above (I'd add Bergman's Seventh Seal) definitely speak to these kinds of issues, but I didn't find them to have the same sense of humor about it. There's a lovely leap through the absurd that EEAaO has that felt really fresh to me. Humor's definitely a matter of taste though, so your mileage may vary.
posted by crossswords at 9:04 AM on July 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

Maybe What the $% Do We Know?
posted by hydra77 at 9:12 AM on July 7, 2022

If you're including documentaries, you could take a look at Examined Life, which consists of a series of conversations with current day philosophers. I found it somewhat uneven, but generally engaging.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 9:19 AM on July 7, 2022

I Heart Huckabees sort of bashes you over the head with it, but it is *definitely* a movie very explicitly engaged in philosophical debate, dueling philosophies, and characters hiring "existential detectives" to investigate the meaning of their lives. People were mixed on it but I always loved it and found it hilarious (and I think it's quirky enough to compliment Everything Everywhere nicely).
posted by windbox at 9:30 AM on July 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Maaaaybe if you're OK with humor the movie "Max Dugan Returns" about a con man grandfather "buying" from his estranged daughter the ability to spend his last months of life with his grandson. When the grandfather needs to make up a name he uses philosophers.

As far as philosophical debate, I think the interplay of the various characters are by their very natures engaged in debates: law, crime, justice, honor, family, money, friendships, athletics, etc.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, the father of the actor who played the grandson died in the time frame when the movie was being made. It's one of my favorite movies FWIW.
posted by forthright at 9:40 AM on July 7, 2022

It's a TV show, but this seems like so much what The Good Place is concerned with.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:43 AM on July 7, 2022 [8 favorites]

The movie Perfect Sense might work? I remember it being a pretty interesting delve into how our bodies make us human and about the human ability to cope and adapt.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 9:54 AM on July 7, 2022

Possibly not exactly what you're looking for, but Hector and the Search for Happiness is what popped into my head.
posted by poppunkcat at 10:26 AM on July 7, 2022

Terrance Malik's films are often about the meaning of life (even if the most eponymous one "Tree of Life" is the worst of his work.) Days of Heaven and The New World are awesome.
posted by RajahKing at 10:28 AM on July 7, 2022

Waking Life deals more with liminal states of consciousness, but explores life, consciousness, dreaming and other types of experience in a specifically philosophical way.

It has some heavy 'undergrad philosophy major' vibes to it, but I still find it relatively good, and an interesting primer on a number of topics related to life and consciousness.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:33 AM on July 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Magnolia
Groundhog Day (likewise, the new and good Palm Springs)
Drive My Car (so. fucking. money.)
High Life (oh so challenging)
Royal Tenenbaums
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Stranger Than Fiction
Lost in Translation

maybe more later...
posted by j_curiouser at 10:42 AM on July 7, 2022

"Inquiring Nuns"
posted by brainwane at 10:46 AM on July 7, 2022

And now for something completely different: The Meaning of Life.
posted by underclocked at 10:51 AM on July 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

In a similar vein of sci-fi, humorous films that explore the meaning of life, the animated short film World of Tomorrow and its two sequels might be up your alley.
posted by sincerely yours at 10:55 AM on July 7, 2022

The 1985 Film adaptation of Peter Carey's novel "Bliss" is a not bad entry into this genre, but even diluted by the 80s production values it has some triggering content.

And because no one has mentioned it yet, "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1972) has a lot of musings about meaning in it.
posted by Crosius at 11:42 AM on July 7, 2022

Some of my faves are:

The Big Lebowski
Her
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Harold & Maude
2001
posted by pazazygeek at 12:13 PM on July 7, 2022

The Razor's Edge (Bill Murray version (really!))
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
What Dreams May Come
Stranger Than Fiction
Kurosawa's Dreams
Tree of Life
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Cloud Atlas
Peaceful Warrior
Big Fish
posted by indexy at 12:25 PM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

The Good Place. Mike Shur
The last few minutes of Monthy Python's The Meaning of Life
posted by theora55 at 12:38 PM on July 7, 2022

Fearless, starring Jeff Bridges
posted by perhapses at 1:38 PM on July 7, 2022

My Dinner with Andre is a classic.

I really want to say Time Bandits, although the philosophical discussion is really about a more narrow issue.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:50 PM on July 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

I enjoy movies that make me feel things about the meaning of life rather than talking about the meaning of life, so these may not be to your taste, but below are some that have left me feeling how gloriously enormous and tiny and important and insignificant and completely entangled life is. List order is my guess at more-accessible to less-accessible.

The Illusionist
The Funeral
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Great Beauty
Cleo from 5 to 7
The Scent of Green Papaya
I Clowns
Koyanisqaatsi
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 4:25 PM on July 7, 2022

The HBO series Six Feet Under has done this spectacularly well.
posted by forkisbetter at 6:15 PM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

+1 for My Dinner with Andre
The other one that came to mind was Synecdoche, New York
posted by crocomancer at 2:50 AM on July 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Another Year. Hit me like a ton of bricks years ago and still think about it often. But then, Mike Leigh's movies have that effect on me.

Nthing The Good Place. That show should be required watching for everyone living in this society.
posted by gakiko at 3:10 AM on July 8, 2022

A bit on the sentimental side to modern eyes, but I still think about Grand Illusion.
posted by gudrun at 7:13 AM on July 8, 2022

I heart huckabees!
posted by autolykos at 8:21 AM on July 8, 2022

The Daniels who directed Everything, Everywhere hit a lot of the same notes of introspection through absurdity in their first movie Swiss Army Man.
posted by St. Sorryass at 3:03 AM on July 9, 2022

I have to say Better Things, which is very hard to summarise, but is deeply all about this, mostly through the lens of single mother-hood.
posted by idlethink at 5:35 AM on July 9, 2022