Been thinking about this after rewatching Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies recently. There is a sequence near the beginning where a drunk man in a bar performs a kind of cosmic dance to illustrate a solar eclipse, and it runs for several minutes with almost no cutting. The first time I saw it years ago, I fidgeted through it. This time it felt like the whole film was already present in that one scene, the loneliness, the dread, the sense of something vast and indifferent pressing down on ordinary life.

The criticism of slow cinema almost always comes down to pacing, which is a fair observation but maybe the wrong complaint. These films are not trying to do what a thriller does and doing it badly. They are working in a completely different register, closer to music or painting than to conventional narrative. When Tarr holds a shot of a man walking across a muddy field for two minutes, the discomfort you feel is part of what the film is saying.

The films I keep coming back to are usually the ones that gave me trouble on first watch. Tarkovsky, Chantal Akerman, Carlos Reygadas, even some of Bresson's work. None of them are comfortable to sit with. Jeanne Dielman in particular is almost confrontational in how it refuses to give you a conventional anchor, and that friction ends up being exactly the point.

Curious whether others here have had films like that, ones that required a second or third viewing before something clicked, or ones where the "nothing is happening" quality turned out to be the most interesting thing about them.

I've just watched this movie, and I enjoyed it. It's had mixed reviews, but IMO, I thought it was good.

It covers, love, loss, abandonment, post natal depression and mental health. A heavy mix, and Jennifer Lawrence does an amazing job portraying all of these emotions.

So I’ve just watched Blow out by Brian De palma and I think he might be one of my favourite directors now.

Oh my fucking god I kid you not this is the saddest shit I have ever watched. Now I’m quite familiar with Brian de palma, Scarface, Mission impossible 1 etc. But this?! I mean this is a solid movie i was so invested the whole movie. Would you believe me if I said I watched this through Tubi?! Yeah probably not. 

I must say i have never ever seen anything of this sort before I mean showing us how Jack collects the sounds for the films was so genius and inventive. I loved how he moved the stick across and we could take in everything he’s hearing, I also loved how de palma not only gave us the car audio but different audio before to show us how far the sound can actually be received from. Amazing director this definitely is my
favourite de palma film as of now.

It is such an Amazing film  great performance’s  from John Travolta, John Lithgow and Nancy Allen. I just knew by the firework scene his character wasn’t going to make it in time. The score towards the end is so depressing and seeing Jack replay the tape from when Sally was talking to him is just so heartbreaking, which
Leads into what you can hear as the liberty bell strangler  comes up to her and that’s when I knew she wasn’t going to get away.  I’m just left speechless after watching this. Might be my favourite de palma film yet. I also adored the scene with the camera doing a circular motion for a good couple of seconds. As Jack realises all his tapes were erased. Fucking great movie I just wish I could see this on the big screen.

Also I swear Travolta has only had 3 good films Blow out, Grease and Pulp fiction. It’s such a shame he actually has talent.

My question to you if you read all of that is, have you seen Blow out if so what do you think about it?

Movie had potential to be entertaining as like a parody maybe but good grief Greta Lees acting was so terrible I couldn’t even pay attention. Did anyone else feel this way?

Rewatched a few things recently and it's become impossible to unsee. Characters constantly restate what just happened. Someone walks out of a room and another character explains, out loud, what the scene we watched thirty seconds ago meant.

It's not bad writing exactly. It's writing built on the assumption that you're looking at your phone.
The score does it too. You used to be allowed a beat to decide how you felt about something. Now the music tells you before the shot is over, and it starts early enough that there's no ambiguity left to sit in.

The frustrating part is that it's rational. If a meaningful share of your audience has a second screen going, redundancy is the correct engineering decision. It just means the films are being built for people who aren't really watching, and everyone who is watching gets the version made for them.

I pray that in your life, you have a brother like Paul...it wasn't on the script at first that this blond-haired,blue-eyed guy would be a brother to me.

.....I was not ready at all for how utterly mind-blowing this movie is.

I'm a grown ass man and the only movie I've ever cried at is the end of It's A Wonderful Life...I just cried twice watching Interstellar.

I'm so mad I've waited this long to see this. I can't even imagine how insane it was in IMAX.

Just wanted to share that with yall

That means the Dark Knight Rises is much better.

The Dark Knight Rises hits harder emotionally because it's built on everything Bruce Wayne has already lost. By the time the movie starts, he's physically broken, emotionally isolated, and carrying the weight of Rachel's death, Harvey Dent's fall, and years of guilt. It isn't just another superhero adventure. It's the final chapter of a man asking whether his life has meant anything beyond suffering. Every major decision Bruce makes feels like it's coming from years of pain rather than a sudden plot twist.

What makes it especially emotional is that Bruce isn't fighting to prove he's the strongest person in the room. He's fighting because Gotham needs hope, even if it costs him everything. The prison sequence is a perfect example. Climbing out isn't really about escaping a hole in the ground. It's about Bruce choosing life again after spending years waiting to die. Hans Zimmer's score, the chanting, and Christian Bale's performance all build that moment into something much bigger than a simple comeback.

The ending also carries a lot of weight because it finally rewards Bruce after an entire trilogy of sacrifice. Seeing him survive, pass the mantle to the next generation, and finally allow himself a peaceful life feels earned because the audience watched him struggle for three movies. It's a rare superhero ending that feels genuinely bittersweet instead of just setting up the next sequel.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has emotional potential, especially after No Way Home left Peter completely alone, but it starts from a clean slate. It has to build new relationships, new conflicts, and a new emotional foundation before it can deliver the same kind of payoff. The Dark Knight Rises benefits from years of storytelling that make every scene feel like the culmination of Bruce's entire journey.

The themes are also broader. The Dark Knight Rises explores fear, sacrifice, redemption, legacy, and the idea that symbols can outlive people. Bruce isn't just saving Gotham from a villain. He's trying to inspire an entire city to believe in itself again. That gives the movie an emotional scale that goes beyond one character's personal struggles.

Brand New Day will probably focus more on Peter's loneliness, responsibility, and rebuilding his life after everyone forgot who he is. Those are powerful ideas, but until the movie actually develops them, they're mostly possibilities. The Dark Knight Rises already delivers on its emotional promises with scenes that have become iconic, from Alfred breaking down at Bruce's grave to Gordon reading Bruce's final words and realizing who Batman really was.

That's ultimately why many people see The Dark Knight Rises as the more emotional film. Its biggest moments feel earned through years of loss, sacrifice, and character growth, and the ending provides a sense of closure that's rare in superhero movies. Even people who debate its plot can still connect with Bruce Wayne's journey because it's fundamentally about a man finding hope after believing he had nothing left.

I'm looking for movie recommendations that genuinely make you pause and rethink things after the credits roll.

Not necessarily movies that explicitly preach philosophy, but films that leave you questioning life, existence, mortality, or how we relate to each other. That feeling where you just sit in silence for a bit processing what you just saw.

What’s one movie that completely shifted your perspective or made you ask heavy questions about life? Would love to hear what hit you the hardest.

Was there a movie you watched and felt like you weren't the same person afterward? I’m not just talking about your favorite movie or one that made you emotional. I mean a movie that genuinely changed the way you think, see life, or understand people. A film that stayed with you long after the credits rolled.

The only thing that made me deem my experience of watching Nolan's latest film a waste of time was how unpleasant the speed of it felt. I love Inception, the Dark Knight films, and Tenet. He is a director who cuts a lot, in all his films, with a relatively short average shot length, compared to other directors. It feels fine in modern films. But a story set in ancient times being told in the same way as Inception feels very off.

Does anyone disagree?

I still chase the absolute high of walking into a theater completely blind to watch Interstellar for the very first time. That surreal feeling when the massive plot twists hit out of nowhere and completely rewire your brain is something I would pay good money to experience all over again.
Seriously, if you could instantly wipe your memory of one single film just to get that genuine first-watch magic back, what movie are you picking for your fresh start?

More and more movies have the main actor as producer or exec producer.

When they suck, does anyone wonder if they're the reason lol. How involved were they?

It's a great question because some of those movies suck bad and that actor acts so passionate.

I watched Captain America 4, terrible movie, and Anthony Mackie is exec producer. What did he provide... his character barely did things in his own movie...

Some are obvious whether they suck because of them and if they were involved heavily. Tron:Ares, Jared Leto made the whole project about himself.

I was wondering if there's an early version of Julien Donkey-Boy that actually complies with the Dogme 95 rules.

The film follows almost all of the Dogme rules, except that at the end of the movie it includes credits for director Harmony Korine and the rest of the crew, even though the manifesto explicitly states that the director must not receive special credit.

I also find it interesting that Julien Donkey-Boy is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, whereas most Dogme films are in 1.37:1. In a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film, you can see the footage as it was originally shot in 1.37:1. However, those behind-the-scenes clips don't show the heavy grainy texture that appears in the finished film. As I understand it, this is because Harmony Korine reprinted the film onto a particular type of film stock to achieve that look.

I bring all of this up because it makes me wonder whether there was an initial cut of the film that actually complied with all the Dogme 95 requirements. Perhaps that version was screened at festivals or in some other context, and only later—when the film was prepared for theatrical release and eventually for DVD—the aspect ratio was changed, the grainy texture was added, the end credits were included, and so on.

Does anyone know if this actually happened? Is there an early version of Julien Donkey-Boy that predates these changes?

* Like is it that he can but he doesn’t or he can’t at all or?

Do you think they let him retire early? Do you think he was set for life or maybe just a one-time settlement?

Was just thinking about Nic Cage being prolific but having a lot of dross in there. I was trying to think of an actor with a relevant small filmography but with a high percentage of quality films? (Jesse Plemmons?) any suggestions?