Recs for intelligent/cerebral movies
January 4, 2025 11:40 AM Subscribe
Help me find movies like Hidden Figures!
Some movies I've watched lately, and want to find the same vibe:
Hidden Figures
All the President's Men
The Imitation Game
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Good Will Hunting
Most are based on a true story, and that is great, but I mostly want that quiet intensity feeling. I prefer movies from the 70s-80s onwards.
Some movies I've watched lately, and want to find the same vibe:
Hidden Figures
All the President's Men
The Imitation Game
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Good Will Hunting
Most are based on a true story, and that is great, but I mostly want that quiet intensity feeling. I prefer movies from the 70s-80s onwards.
The Six Triple Eight. It's on Netflix which I don't have, but I watched it at my son's. Definitely resonates with "Hidden Figures"
posted by TimHare at 11:56 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]
posted by TimHare at 11:56 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]
If it's more the 'smart person/people' vibe, perhaps A Beautiful Mind
posted by TimHare at 11:57 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]
posted by TimHare at 11:57 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]
On the Basis of Sex (about Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
posted by SomethinsWrong at 11:58 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]
posted by SomethinsWrong at 11:58 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]
The Conversation (1974)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) -- hard to go wrong with Kubrick for cerebral movies anyways
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
Conclave (2024)
Any David Lynch movie
posted by extramundane at 12:00 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) -- hard to go wrong with Kubrick for cerebral movies anyways
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
Conclave (2024)
Any David Lynch movie
posted by extramundane at 12:00 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
The History Boys
Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire
The latter is a bit of a departure from your suggestions, but may be stimulating in some of the same ways.
posted by sueinnyc at 12:02 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire
The latter is a bit of a departure from your suggestions, but may be stimulating in some of the same ways.
posted by sueinnyc at 12:02 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
Margin Call
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:02 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:02 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
Just Mercy
posted by SomethinsWrong at 12:04 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
posted by SomethinsWrong at 12:04 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
October Sky.
posted by moosetracks at 12:11 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
posted by moosetracks at 12:11 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
Also, Apollo 13.
posted by moosetracks at 12:12 PM on January 4 [9 favorites]
posted by moosetracks at 12:12 PM on January 4 [9 favorites]
The Big Short.
posted by essexjan at 12:15 PM on January 4 [6 favorites]
posted by essexjan at 12:15 PM on January 4 [6 favorites]
Joy (2024) is about the development of the process of in vitro fertilization. I think the filmmakers took some liberties with the story, but the movie is good.
posted by edencosmic at 12:25 PM on January 4
posted by edencosmic at 12:25 PM on January 4
The China Syndrome
posted by Lemkin at 12:31 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
posted by Lemkin at 12:31 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
Primer and Coherence are rather heady, low-budget science fiction. Pretty good, too.
All of Cronenberg's films (except for Fast Company, Maps to the Stars, and arguably Cosmopolis) are similarly thoughtful projects.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:32 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
All of Cronenberg's films (except for Fast Company, Maps to the Stars, and arguably Cosmopolis) are similarly thoughtful projects.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:32 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
More a documentary, but how about N is a number, a portrait of mathematician Paul Erdos?
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 1:14 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 1:14 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
Man of Marble is a great movie. It's long.
There's this women student film maker in Poland right before Solidarity, and she wants to make her big student project as a documentary about one of the heroic workers of the Stalinist period, Birkut, who was greatly in the public eye but has since disappeared. She starts interviewing people who knew him and meets with obfuscation and is finally absolutely forbidden by her program to keep doing the film, but she continues to look for the worker. The film is about the memory/hiddenness of that period and about intellectual and moral corruption versus sincerity and (intentionally or not) about gender and the role of women. Considering the director's other work, I'm not sure if it's just coincidence, but in each segment of the interviews, there are women in the background who are exploited and/or critical to the action, and the only person in her program who ultimately helps the filmmaker is her woman mentor.
It's a long movie and you have to like movies that expect you to pay a lot of attention, but it is a truly great movie. It's intellectually exciting. You feel like you care about things more when you watch it.
Think about these godawful times we're in, real "worst are full of passionate intensity" times. Man of Marble is...it's about people who care about doing the right thing and how they can be crushed, but also how they persist. Both Birkut and the filmmaker expect communism/filmmaking to live up to billing and try to live as a communist/filmmaker should in the face of intense pressure to go along with the corruption that overtakes those two endeavors. In this lousy time, it's good to think about people who cared enough about their beliefs to suffer for them.
posted by Frowner at 2:08 PM on January 4 [4 favorites]
There's this women student film maker in Poland right before Solidarity, and she wants to make her big student project as a documentary about one of the heroic workers of the Stalinist period, Birkut, who was greatly in the public eye but has since disappeared. She starts interviewing people who knew him and meets with obfuscation and is finally absolutely forbidden by her program to keep doing the film, but she continues to look for the worker. The film is about the memory/hiddenness of that period and about intellectual and moral corruption versus sincerity and (intentionally or not) about gender and the role of women. Considering the director's other work, I'm not sure if it's just coincidence, but in each segment of the interviews, there are women in the background who are exploited and/or critical to the action, and the only person in her program who ultimately helps the filmmaker is her woman mentor.
It's a long movie and you have to like movies that expect you to pay a lot of attention, but it is a truly great movie. It's intellectually exciting. You feel like you care about things more when you watch it.
Think about these godawful times we're in, real "worst are full of passionate intensity" times. Man of Marble is...it's about people who care about doing the right thing and how they can be crushed, but also how they persist. Both Birkut and the filmmaker expect communism/filmmaking to live up to billing and try to live as a communist/filmmaker should in the face of intense pressure to go along with the corruption that overtakes those two endeavors. In this lousy time, it's good to think about people who cared enough about their beliefs to suffer for them.
posted by Frowner at 2:08 PM on January 4 [4 favorites]
If you can handle people talking about trauma, Spotlight (recommended above) and Women Talking.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:47 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 2:47 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]
If you're up for subtitle, then you should definitely check out The Lives of Others.
Secrets and Lies is also a much watch.
posted by brookeb at 2:57 PM on January 4 [5 favorites]
Secrets and Lies is also a much watch.
posted by brookeb at 2:57 PM on January 4 [5 favorites]
Arrival is one of my favorites
Going a bit older is Contact
posted by SegFaultCoreDump at 3:55 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
Going a bit older is Contact
posted by SegFaultCoreDump at 3:55 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]
The Great Debaters (2007).
A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at (Historically Black College) Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:14 PM on January 4
A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at (Historically Black College) Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:14 PM on January 4
The Polish film Ida. And seconding The Lives of Others.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 5:18 PM on January 4
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 5:18 PM on January 4
Contact (1997) is based on the Carl Sagan novel about the Very Large Array and astrophysics and the search for intelligent life in space. It is so good and Jodi Foster is awesome. All around a fantastic movie (that I also loved as a kid).
posted by forkisbetter at 5:35 PM on January 4 [4 favorites]
posted by forkisbetter at 5:35 PM on January 4 [4 favorites]
Goodbye Bafana. A prison guard assigned to Nelson Mandela for over 30 years gradually changes his views on Apartheid and the ANC.
Bridge of Spies. Not so much about spies, but about the lawyer who managed to negotiate exchanging the Russian spy Rudolf Abel for Gary Powers, the U2 spy plane pilot shot down over Russia.
Thirding The Lives of Others.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:23 AM on January 5
Bridge of Spies. Not so much about spies, but about the lawyer who managed to negotiate exchanging the Russian spy Rudolf Abel for Gary Powers, the U2 spy plane pilot shot down over Russia.
Thirding The Lives of Others.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:23 AM on January 5
Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011) is about a group of scientists trying to find a vaccine for a deadly virus. Not based on a true story, but remarkably prescient as to how Covid 19 pandemic played out.
posted by pangolin party at 6:23 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
posted by pangolin party at 6:23 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, either the BBC version from the seventies with Alec Guinness or the 2010 version with Gary Oldman. Both are excellent but quite serious and melancholy. Full attention needed.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 6:42 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 6:42 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
Seconding Arrival.
posted by number9dream at 7:46 AM on January 5
posted by number9dream at 7:46 AM on January 5
Cerebral??
My Dinner with André is just two arty intellectuals batting ideas about while eating at a restaurant. But here's the thing: there's an anecdote in which André Gregory describes a weird culty event in a forest in Poland. I was certain that the film had shown these follies, in grainy monochrome. But when I saw the film again 20 years later, it's just André talking. Lots of folks think the film is like watching béchamel dry on a plate; but ymmv, mine did.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:18 AM on January 5
My Dinner with André is just two arty intellectuals batting ideas about while eating at a restaurant. But here's the thing: there's an anecdote in which André Gregory describes a weird culty event in a forest in Poland. I was certain that the film had shown these follies, in grainy monochrome. But when I saw the film again 20 years later, it's just André talking. Lots of folks think the film is like watching béchamel dry on a plate; but ymmv, mine did.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:18 AM on January 5
La Belle Noiseuse, about a woman who poses (initially reluctantly) for an aging artist to entice him to finish his long-delayed masterpiece. Very slow and contemplative.
Note that justwatch has its listings for this all messed up. You want the 3 hour 58 minute version called La Belle Noiseuse. The filmmaker made a shorter version called Divertimento, cut to shift the viewpoint to a different character (I haven't seen it so I can't be more specific). The shorter version is called Divertimento. Justwatch has it wrong.
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Maybe Deep Impact? I haven't seen it since its original release, but I recall it differs from the contemporaneous Armageddon by focusing on the social impact more than the sci-fi adventure, but I might be misremembering it.
Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep is about a filmmaker shooting a remake of Irma Vep for reasons known only to him. I found it thoughtful and interesting.
Aaaand I'm going to go out on a limb to suggest Patlabor 2: The Movie. It's an anime about a standoff between the Japanese Defense Force mechas ("Labors") and the Police Force's mechas ("Patrol Labors," or "Patlabors") triggered by a third party who wants to watch them tear each other to the ground. There's some action at the beginning and the end, but the bulk of the movie is the different forces positioning themselves, people trying to find a peaceful solution and discussions about whether a just war is better than an unjust peace.
Justwatch tells me it's unavailable for streaming, but they don't search Kanopy so if you have that through your library you can check there. Or see if your library has the DVD.
If you can overcome objections to Lars von Trier, I recommend The Five Obstructions, I found it fascinating (I saw it before he made some very public and problematic statements...
And if you can stomach Johnny Depp, maybe Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Slow, contemplative, with gorgeous cinematography. I generally avoid Johnny Depp these days, but I feel ok recommending this because of the great work done by the rest of the personnel and it was before he revealed what a POS he is.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:54 AM on January 5
Note that justwatch has its listings for this all messed up. You want the 3 hour 58 minute version called La Belle Noiseuse. The filmmaker made a shorter version called Divertimento, cut to shift the viewpoint to a different character (I haven't seen it so I can't be more specific). The shorter version is called Divertimento. Justwatch has it wrong.
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Maybe Deep Impact? I haven't seen it since its original release, but I recall it differs from the contemporaneous Armageddon by focusing on the social impact more than the sci-fi adventure, but I might be misremembering it.
Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep is about a filmmaker shooting a remake of Irma Vep for reasons known only to him. I found it thoughtful and interesting.
Aaaand I'm going to go out on a limb to suggest Patlabor 2: The Movie. It's an anime about a standoff between the Japanese Defense Force mechas ("Labors") and the Police Force's mechas ("Patrol Labors," or "Patlabors") triggered by a third party who wants to watch them tear each other to the ground. There's some action at the beginning and the end, but the bulk of the movie is the different forces positioning themselves, people trying to find a peaceful solution and discussions about whether a just war is better than an unjust peace.
Justwatch tells me it's unavailable for streaming, but they don't search Kanopy so if you have that through your library you can check there. Or see if your library has the DVD.
If you can overcome objections to Lars von Trier, I recommend The Five Obstructions, I found it fascinating (I saw it before he made some very public and problematic statements...
And if you can stomach Johnny Depp, maybe Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Slow, contemplative, with gorgeous cinematography. I generally avoid Johnny Depp these days, but I feel ok recommending this because of the great work done by the rest of the personnel and it was before he revealed what a POS he is.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:54 AM on January 5
The new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, is great. We encountered an elderly couple who were there for the second time and couldn’t stop praising “that wonderful young actor”. Based on hype and the trailer, I’m betting you and I will both be into The Brutalist as well.
posted by caviar2d2 at 2:59 PM on January 5
posted by caviar2d2 at 2:59 PM on January 5
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posted by phunniemee at 11:45 AM on January 4 [12 favorites]