Movies you feel are brilliant

[Emelee]

You may not always have brilliant movies as your favorite movies. Some of your favorite movies might be favorites for other reasons (such as great actors, feel-good or silly comedy).

So now I wonder: What movies do you feel are brilliant? Brilliant as in incredibly well told, deep on more than a superficial level, terrific script and a wonderful production.


Some of the movies I find brilliant are:

Magnolia (1999)
Babel (2006)
The Intouchables (2011)
Life of Pi (2012)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Amelie (2001)
The King's Speech (2010)
Seven (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
I am Sam (2001)

 

[Angela Channing]

In no particular order:

1. I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) - It's an old film but still packs a punch. Moving, thought-provoking and dramatic with an outstanding central performance by Paul Muni.
2. Les Miserables (2012) - Visually stunning, great songs, epic story telling. A modern day classic.
3. Ladri Di Biciclette - Eng. Bicycle Thieves (1948) - Beautifully shot, genuine tension, wonderfully developed and engaging characters, a simple story brilliantly told
4. Romeo & Juliet (1968) - The best cinematic version of a work by Shakespeare. Stunning cinematography, very accessible even for non Shakespeare fans and genuinely moving.
5. Crash (2004) - Complex interwoven stories superbly executed. Funny, dramatic, tense, sad are just some of the emotions this film evokes so effectively.
6. Jean De Florette (1986) - Wonderfully picturesque, story is beautifully told with pathos and humour. Great empathetic characters.
7. Krotki Film O Zabijaniu - Eng. A Short Film About Killing (1988) - A simple story of a vicious murder so awesomely told that you feel sympathy for the murderer and feel his eventual execution is almost as brutal a crime as the murder he committed.

The Intouchables (2011)

I agree this is an amazing film. I particularly loved the dance scene.

 

[Sarah]

Jaws
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Annie (original)
Silence of the Lambs
Tootsie
Meet The Parents
Meet The Fockers
Scream
The Fog
The Omen
Poltergeist
Drop Dead Fred
United 93
Flight 93
Hush
Hush (there are two movies called Hush, one with Jessica Lange)
Dracula Prince of Darkness - and also basically any Hammer Horror film
Stir Crazy
Young Frankenstein
Love at First Bite
The Monster Club
Air Force One
Clue
Misery
IT
Cujo
Gone Girl
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake, the original doesn't scare me at all). I mean how is this:

....more frightening than this:

(I would s*** myself)

Halloween (original)

The Mothman Prophecies (that thing scares the life out of me)

The Exorcist

Jaws II

Friday the 13th

Nine Lives

Psycho

Orphan

The Ugly Daschund

Everest


That's loads I know but I love movies. Absolute love nothing better than unwinding with a glass of wine and a good one

 

[Barbara Fan]

I like biographical movies based on people most of all

A Man for all Seasons

Argo

Chariots of Fire

Elizabeth

Local Hero

Marathon Man

Notorious

Oliver

On Golden Pond

Passage To India

Saving Private Ryan

Schindler’s List

Serpico

The Killing Fields

The Odessa File

The Railway Children

Vertigo

Witness

Casablanca

 

[ginnyfan]

Jaws
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Annie (original)
Silence of the Lambs
Tootsie
Meet The Parents
Meet The Fockers
Scream
The Fog
The Omen
Poltergeist
Drop Dead Fred
United 93
Flight 93
Hush
Hush (there are two movies called Hush, one with Jessica Lange)
Dracula Prince of Darkness - and also basically any Hammer Horror film
Stir Crazy
Young Frankenstein
Love at First Bite
The Monster Club
Air Force One
Clue
Misery
IT
Cujo
Gone Girl
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake, the original doesn't scare me at all). I mean how is this:

....more frightening than this:

(I would s*** myself)

Halloween (original)

The Mothman Prophecies (that thing scares the life out of me)

The Exorcist

Jaws II

Friday the 13th

Nine Lives

Psycho

Orphan

The Ugly Daschund

Everest


That's loads I know but I love movies. Absolute love nothing better than unwinding with a glass of wine and a good one

To me, the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre mad men looks much better. It actually looks like an amateurish kind of mask/look a psycho guy would make by himself. The remake one looks like a well produced work done by 20 Hollywood make up artists on a big budget. That's the main difference between the movies as well, the original looks raw, real and low budget, as it was. The only modern horror that can compare is Blair Witch Project.

The original TCM is still one of the most disturbing and scariest horrors I've seen, and I've seen it only once in fact. I really need to rewatch it but I don't think I'm ready.

 

[ドグラマグラ]

Car Cemetery
La Collectionneuse
Mondo Cane
Florentina Hubaldo,CTE
Dogville
Kaos
Sátántangó
Sayat Nova
Miguel Gomes' Arabian Nights
Blokada
Daguerreotypes
Cleo from 5 to 7
Roma
Persona
Dogtooth
Funeral Parade of Roses
Throw Away Your Books Rally in The streets
Night and Fog
My Night with Maud
Loveless
Outside Satan
Double Suicide
The April Chill
The Terence Davies Trilogy
The Dance of Reality
The Skin I Live In
Vivre Sa Vie
Lines(Mazomenos)
Dans la Ville Blanche
A Fost Sau N-A Fost?

 

[Justine]

The Fugitive is a movie I re-watched recently - it's one of those films I could literally watch a million times and I would still be enthralled. Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones had a brilliant dynamic.

 

[Toni]

A few here from all ages:

- Gone with the Wind.
- Vertigo.
- My Fair Lady.
- All About Eve.
- Some Like It Hot.
- Days of Wine and Roses.
- Star Wars (aka A New Hope).
- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
- Sunset Boulevard.
- The Hours.
- Breakfast at Tiffany´s.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

My picks:
Harold and Maude
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Rosemary's Baby
Vertigo
Macbeth( Polanski version)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Jaws
The Wages of Fear
The Matrix
Three Women
Greed
Halloween (The very first one).
Le Jete
Badlands
The Shining
Cat People(original)

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Fugitive is a movie I re-watched recently - it's one of those films I could literally watch a million times and I would still be enthralled. Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones had a brilliant dynamic.

James Newton Howard's score is wonderfully tense. I listen to it frequently.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

This is a wonderful post. It gave me a lot of new movies to see from other posters' suggestion list.
What came up for me personally is hoq I define the word "brilliant." There were many movies I could have listed that I loved, but I was stuck on if they reached that special status of brilliance. I guess I consider movies that I could see over and over and still have something about which to think. So, now movies I'd like to add to my list of brilliant movies:
The Exorcist
The Ninth Configuration
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Happiness( Couldn't only sit through this once. It would have received an Oscar if not for the subject matter.)
The Rapture
The Passion of the Christ
Jacob's Ladder

Movies tuat were awesome, but I'm not sure if they are "brilliant," (a purely subjective term.)

Poltergeist
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A Miracle on 34th St(Original version)
White Heat
Mildred Pierce
Double Indemnity
A Woman's Face
Superman: The Movie
Moonstruck

 

[Jessie]

My list

Grease
Carrie -Original
Halloween-Original
Seven
Silence Of The Lambs
Psycho -Original
Spirited Away
Brokeback Mountain
A Mirror Has Two Faces
A Star Is Born -Barbra Streisand
Little Women
Rocky
Prince Of Tides
Main Event
The Mothman Prophecies
Jaws
Jaws 11
Mrs. Doubtfire
Electric Horseman
Nine To Five
The Dark Knight
The Notebook
Dirty Dancing
Awakenings
Love Actually
The Fog
All About Eve
Cleopatra
Butterfield 8
The Sandpiper
Gone with The Wind.
E.T
Gremlins