movies that appeal to and celebrate intelligence
My own list of movies that either made me think deeply in a philosophical sense, or presented a clever puzzle or that celebrate intelligence. In alphabetical order.
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22 titles
- DirectorDenys ArcandStarsRémy GirardDorothée BerrymanStéphane RousseauDuring his final days, a dying man is reunited with old friends, former lovers, his ex-wife, and his estranged son.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJohn CusackCameron DiazCatherine KeenerA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsEric BraedenSusan ClarkGordon PinsentThinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.
- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsSam RockwellDrew BarrymoreGeorge ClooneyAn adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), in which he purports to have been a C.I.A. hitman.
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsRobert CrumbAline Kominsky-CrumbCharles CrumbAn intimate portrait of controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb and his traumatized family.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsMichael RenniePatricia NealHugh MarloweAn alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaWalter MatthauFritz WeaverA technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsSteve BuscemiThora BirchScarlett JohanssonTwo eccentric best friends graduate high school and respond to a man's romance-seeking newspaper ad as a gag, only to find their lives becoming increasingly complicated.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorBill CondonStarsIan McKellenBrendan FraserLynn RedgraveThe last days of Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale are explored.
- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsDavid StrathairnGeorge ClooneyPatricia ClarksonBroadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsRobin WilliamsMatt DamonBen AffleckWill Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
- DirectorDon McKellarStarsDon McKellarSandra OhRoberta MaxwellA group of very different individuals with different ideas of how to face the end come together as the world is expected to end in six hours at the turn of the century.
- DirectorTom HunsingerNeil HunterStarsDouglas HenshallTom HollanderBill NighyThree intersecting stories about people whose lives are affected by the death of a gay restaurateur.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
- DirectorJ.C. ChandorStarsZachary QuintoStanley TucciKevin SpaceyFollows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsBrad PittRobin WrightJonah HillOakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
- DirectorStephen GaghanStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonAmanda PeetA politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsMichael DouglasBenicio Del ToroCatherine Zeta-JonesA conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America's escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron's wife attempts to carry on the family business.
- DirectorStephen DaldryStarsKate WinsletRalph FiennesBruno GanzPost-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.