123 Movies Like Citizen Kane (1941) (Page 7)

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Green Day's Bullet in a Bible has certainly aged well. Maybe it's even better now with time and hindsight, and knowing that the once punk group would commit to their alternative sound from that point forward. Green Day with their American Idiot tracks and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's stage presence absolutely belongs as a stadium-level act, but you could argue they could've cut down on the heavy American Idiot representation to have more of a mix of albums in the setlist. The film could've also had less of the vignettes and montages with edgy editing—we don't need that many breaks from 14 songs—but it's all nitpicking, really. Say what you want, but this concert marks the birth of Green Day as rockstars.

Genre: Documentary, Music

Actor: Adrienne Armstrong, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jason Freese, Jason White, Mike Dirnt, Samuel Bayer, Tre Cool

Director: Samuel Bayer

Rating: NR

Though Eternal Summer isn't able to fully engage with its queer characters—maybe due to its being released in the mid-2000s—it still makes for a more interesting character study than you'd expect. This romance between three school friends has more on its mind than simply pitting two romantic pairings against each other. Unrequited feelings, unspoken secrets, and identities that are constantly in flux make Eternal Summer compelling just for the way these people try to dance around one another's emotions. And since it's shot in the muted colors of early digital filmmaking, this is a love story that becomes all the more melancholic just in the way it looks.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Joseph Chang, Kate Yeung, Ray Chang

Director: Leste Chen

Rating: 0

For better or worse, The Reason I Jump isn't a documentary made for autistic viewers but for a neurotypical audience that may not be very knowledgeable about autism. This means the film doesn't really offer anything new to the conversation, and it misses the opportunity to truly let its main characters express themselves in their own unique ways, uninterrupted. That said, The Reason I Jump still structures itself smartly (with stunning filmmaking to boot) by having each of its five characters introduce us to different aspects of the autism experience, from sense and memory to communication and community.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: David Mitchell, Donna Budway, Emma Budway, Jeremy Dear, Jordan O'Donegan

Director: Jerry Rothwell

This Danish movie is about a failed 38-year-old bodybuilder who lives with his mom and has never left Denmark. In an expected move, and while telling his mom he’s going to Germany, he travels to Thailand in hopes of finding love. It might at first seem like a disastrous storyline (of sex tourism), but that part of the movie is almost accidental. Teddy Bear is actually a sweet and likable story of a man who wants to break away from his domineering mother, and a journey of someone who starts growing up later in life.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Chanicha Shindejanichakul, David Winters, Elsebeth Steentoft, Kim Kold, Lamaiporn Hougaard, Lamaiporn Sangmanee Hougaard, Per Otto Bersang Rasmussen

Director: Mads Matthiesen

Rating: Not Rated

Unlike in many films about old people on the doorstep of death, the titular grandmother in this movie is excited to leave for good. But when her town insists on celebrating her bid to be named the oldest in the world, unresolved conflict among her descendants begins to resurface. Quiet and unabashedly sentimental, Lola Igna offers a uniquely offbeat perspective on death—one that starts from a place of contentment, and only gets more conflicted as more characters reveal how much still has to be said and done. It has all the charm of a low-budget Filipino film, made all the more poignant by Angie Ferro's authentic and deceptively layered performance.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Angie Ferro, Chamyto Aguedan, Joel Saracho, Maria Isabel Lopez, Meryll Soriano, Peewee O'Hara, Rener Concepcion, Royce Cabrera, Sarah Pagcaliwagan, Soliman Cruz, Yves Flores

Director: Eduardo Roy Jr.

While love and longing can transform people into their best selves, it has famously transformed couples into their worst selves too, and this change captivates our imaginations of how the relationship was formed. Deep Crimson revisits the Lonely Hearts Killers, dramatizing their exploits with a darkly comic flair. As Mexican auteur Arturo Ripstein brings their tale to Mexico, he and his screenwriter wife Paz Alicia Garciadiego dive deep into these undeniably evil characters, spotting the ways their jagged edges fit and make them whole, which creates a twisted bond that isn’t easily torn apart. Profundo Carmesí is an unforgettable take on an unforgettable crime duo.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Álvaro Carcaño, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Esteban Soberanes, Gastón Melo, Julieta Egurrola, Marisa Paredes, Paco Mauri, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Regina Orozco, René Pereyra, Rosa Furman, Sherlyn, Verónica Merchant

Director: Arturo Ripstein

It's slower and stranger than most comedies you may be used to, but there's still lots of heart to be found in the way Classmates Minus follows the lapsed hopes and wishes of its core characters. Beneath all its stereotypically male yearnings for control and romantic wish fulfillment, there are potent ideas here about how a tired economy and jaded political culture can turn those in their middle age into completely different people. Writer/director Huang Hsin-yao provides narration for his own film, but rather than being distracting or conceited, his words add a level of needed sympathy to everything we see on screen.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Ada Pan, Chen Yi-wen, Chen Yiwen, Cheng Jen-shuo, Cres Chuang, Evelyn Yu-Tong Cheng, Evelyn Zheng Yu-tong, Hung Shiao-ling, Jacqueline Zhu, Jacqueline Zhu Zhi-Ying, Jennifer Hong, Joanne Yang, Kuan-Ting Liu, Lan Wei-Hua, Liu Kuan-ting, Lotus Wang, Ming-Shuai Shih, Na-Do, Nadow Lin, Rexen Cheng Jen-Shuo, Shih Ming-shuai, Taka Katou, Tong Chih-Wei, Yi-Wen Chen

Director: Huang Hsin-Yao

Although limited by the timeframe in which it was released—that is, before its characters really got to finish organizing themselves in response to the film's subject matter—Aftershock still provides a detailed primer on the ways the American healthcare system has been manipulated to take advantage of the underprivileged. The documentary can get technical but since it grounds its reporting on two tragic stories of preventable loss, there's more than enough reason to pay full attention. It definitely isn't meant to answer every question about pregnancy care, but it definitely compels deeper inquiry into the ways we've been socialized into perceiving romantic notions about childbirth.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee

As Nicole Holofcener's directorial debut, Walking and Talking stands out not only for its honest dialogue and wonderful performance from the young Catherine Keener, but also for its portrayal of female friendship in a genre which too often portrays mindless cliches. The movie focuses on two best friends as one of them gets engaged and the other fears their friendship is getting lost in the middle of the excitement around her friend's marriage. Catherine Keener does a brilliant job as the likable but depressed friend and Anne Heche does an equally as good job playing her sympathetic half. A great movie if you're in the mood for something sweet, honest and sometimes sad.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alice Drummond, Allison Janney, Amy Braverman, Anne Heche, Bettina Skye, Brenda Denmark, Catherine Keener, Harold Ramis, Heather Gottlieb, Joseph Siravo, Kevin Corrigan, Liev Schreiber, Lynn Cohen, Miranda Rhyne, Rafa Alvarez, Randall Batinkoff, Todd Field, Vincent Pastore

Director: Nicole Holofcener

Rating: R

There are people in life that have a one of a kind voice that you can’t help but listen to, as they provide different perspectives that challenge your own in compelling ways. The Whole Wide World tries to capture the fairly elusive pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard, but through the perspective of the one love he once had, Novalyne Price. It’s a unique perspective, one that contrasts the choices the real life couple made that diverged their paths– pursuing the road less travelled over what’s socially expected– and director Dan Ireland crafts some pulp-like moments, especially with the rousing score and the excellent performances. That being said, Ireland does play it safe with his debut, as The Whole Wide World leaves things as vague as Howard did in his relationship with Price.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Ann Wedgeworth, Antonia Bogdanovich, Benjamin Mouton, Harve Presnell, Helen Cates, Libby Villari, Marion Eaton, Michael Corbett, Renée Zellweger, Vincent D'Onofrio

Director: Dan Ireland

This original comedy-drama is about a young man on the autism spectrum called Luke. Propelled by a scandalous grandpa with no filters, Luke decides that what he needs in his life is to lose his virginity.

His dysfunctional family setting, which includes a mother who left him and a neurotic step-mother, makes his search more difficult but more also pressing. Luke decides he first has to get a job, and with a world that doesn’t expect much from him, his unbreakable determination is a joy to watch.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Al Sapienza, Ann Holloway, Art Hindle, Cary Elwes, Dewshane Williams, Jayne Eastwood, John Boylan, Kenneth Welsh, Kristin Bauer, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Lisa Ryder, Lou Taylor Pucci, Mackenzie Munro, Michael Kinney, Pam Hyatt, Sabryn Rock, Seth Green, Tyler Stentiford, Zoë Belkin

Director: Alonso Mayo

Rating: Not Rated

This journey is as much about Jake Roberts overcoming his addiction and damaged self-outlook, as it is about the heroic, life-changing efforts that DDP made to get him there. DDP's brand of aggressive wholesomeness and belief in Roberts is palpable, and the rawness of the presentation only accentuates how real this friendship is, and how urgent DDP's mission is—he will do this himself because no one else can. The documentary is inspiring with its vulnerability alone, as the underlying story is of men renouncing toxic behaviors that keep them looped into destructive habits. It doesn't waste time with fluff minutes or details, just straight to your heart from start to finish.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Adam Copeland, Aurelian Smith Jr., Chris Irvine, Chris Jericho, Cody Hall, Cody Taylor Hall, Dustin Runnels, Gene Okerlund, Jim Duggan, Jim Ross, Page Falkinburg Jr., Scott Hall, Steve Austin, Ted DiBiase Sr.

Director: Steve Yu

If you wanted to watch an epic historical drama about the three assassination attempts against the first emperor of China, 2002’s Hero is the better known, and better acclaimed, choice. Nevertheless, the drama that depicted this four years earlier, the Emperor and the Assassin, is a fairly decent watch, with nearly three hours to parse out Ying Zheng’s career with extravagant production design and excellent performances to marvel at. The film is also slightly more accurate, taking its characters from actual historical record. The Emperor and the Assassin may not be perfect– it’s aggressively sepia-tinged, and it does struggle to maintain the plot’s focus– but it depicts the history well, regardless.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Chen Kaige, Ding Haifeng, Gong Li, Li Hongtao, Li Qiang, Li Xuejian, Lü Xiaohe, Pan Changjiang, Sun Zhou, Wang Qian-Yuan, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Benshan, Zhiwen Wang, Zhou Xun

Director: Chen Kaige

Rating: R

Most of us don't get to live our lives with our first loves, but sometimes that separation leads us to the love of our lives. This is true of the Orked trilogy, the third installment of which is named after the one other love Orked had before Jason. Without the interracial dynamic, one might expect that the dynamic between Orked and Mukhsin would be more simple, and sure, with her tomboyish self-confidence, it starts in that familiar way we would expect from a coming-of-age movie. However, writer-director Yasmin Ahmad challenges this expectation through a nostalgic, but no less honest, depiction of this love in a rural Malay village. It may not have the same obvious challenges, but Mukhsin proves through an endearing first love story that there are much more factors that could make or break even the most innocent childhood relationships, specifically Orked doesn't exactly fit in the ideal her community expects of her. It's not totally groundbreaking, but Mukhsin nonetheless sets the stage for Orked, and girls like her, to understandably seek for connection elsewhere.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Actor: Adibah Noor, Ho Yuhang, Mislina Mustaffa, Noorkhiriah, Sharifah Aleya, Sharifah Amani, Sharifah Aryana, Syafie Naswip, Taiyuddin Bakar, Yasmin Ahmad

Director: Yasmin Ahmad

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With his dad in jail and mom lost to a drug overdose, Michael lives a lonely life with his grandpa in Dublin.

A minor drug bust sends him to jail for three months and implicates his grand-father with a gang.

Michael Inside uses this brief period of incarceration to offer commentary on the Irish underclass, both inside prisons and out. It's a tough watch that aims for realism and doesn't miss.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Ally Ni Chiarain, Dafhyd Flynn, Elaine Kennedy, Frank Berry, Hazel Doupe, John Burke, John Quinn, Lalor Roddy, Moe Dunford, Robbie Walsh, Shane Gately, Steve Blount, Steven Blount, Tony Doyle

Director: Frank Berry

Rating: N/A