Must-Watch Movies & TV

A list of must-watch movies and television series, all according to me of course! There are so many more movies that should be on this list, but all of these have some special meaning for me. All cover photographs and descriptions are borrowed from IMDB.com.

The Fountain (2006)

As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.

Why I like it: The Fountain is like an epic love poem about impermanence and death.

Inherit the Wind (1960)

Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

Why I like it: Inherit the Wind highlights some important aspects of the debate about evolution and creation.

Fight Club (1999)

An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.

Why I like it: Fight Club touches on a lot of concepts that deal with the downsides of capitalism and society.

The Matrix (1999)

A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.

Why I like it: The Matrix is a nice introduction to some of the basic ideas that comprise a study of metaphysics.

Luther (2003)

During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Why I like it: Luther highlights an incredibly important period of Western history.

Dead Poet’s Society (1989)

English teacher John Keating inspires his students to look at poetry with a different perspective of authentic knowledge and feelings.

Why I like it: Dead Poets Society is a celebration of life and is a testament to the importance of the Humanities.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Why I like it: Requiem for a Dream exposes the dark side of drug use and abuse, both illicit and pharmaceutical.

V for Vendetta (2005)

In a future British tyranny, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of “V”, plots to overthrow it with the help of a young woman.

Why I like it: V for Vendetta presents in a fictional model the possibilities and dangers of authoritarian government.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

A husband-and-wife team play detective, but not in the traditional sense. Instead, the happy duo helps others solve their existential issues, the kind that keep you up at night, wondering what it all means.

Why I like it: I Heart Huckabees is a hilarious examination of existentialism and existential psychology.

Back to the Future (1985)

Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.

Why I like it: Back to the Future opens up the imagination to the possibilities of scientific discovery and the paradoxes of time travel.

The NeverEnding Story (1984)

neverending-story

A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.

Why I like it: The NeverEnding Story was a movie that I watched many times as a child and it holds a deeper meaning about nothingness and human creativity that I probably did not comprehend as a child.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

 

Fraternal twins set out to rid Boston of the evil men operating there while being tracked down by an FBI agent.

Why I like it: The Boondock Saints explores the morality behind simply destroying (what we consider) evil men.

Waking Life (2001)

A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.

Why I like it: Waking Life takes a bunch of philosophical concepts and mashes them into one artistic compendium.

American History X (1998)

american-history-x

A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.

Why I like it: American History X explores the ideas and dangers of blind racism.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.

Why I like it: A Beautiful Mind examines the life of an intellectually gifted man that suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

Into the Wild (2007)

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

Why I like it: Into the Wild is all about simplifying life and finding oneself in nature.

Office Space (1999)

Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

Why I like it: Office Space offers an intensely fun perspective on meaningless labor.

Silence (2016)

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Why I like it: Silence explores the clashing of worldviews and offers a unique and insightful perspective on religion and the faithful.

The Discovery (2017)

A love story set one year after the existence of the afterlife is scientifically verified.

Why I like it: The Discovery has a very interesting premise that serves to present some even more interesting ideas.


Lost (2004-2010)

The survivors of a plane crash are forced to work together in order to survive on a seemingly deserted tropical island.

Why I like it: Lost contains so much food for thought throughout the development of its various characters and events.

Mad Men (2007-2015)

A drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.

Why I like it: Mad Men provides an interesting look into the business world and private lives of people in the 1960’s.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

A documentary series that explores how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time.

Why I like it: Cosmos is a great introduction to the science behind contemporary cosmology.

Breaking Bad (2008-2013)

A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine in order to secure his family’s future.

Why I like it: Breaking Bad explores in highly dramatic form the thoughts and actions of a semi-nihilistic/narcissistic man and the violent consequences of his actions.

House of Cards (2013- )

A Congressman works with his equally conniving wife to exact revenge on the people who betrayed him.

Why I like it: House of Cards offers a fictionalized look into the cutthroat world of politics.

Game of Thrones (2011- )

Nine noble families fight for control over the mythical lands of Westeros; A forgotten race returns after being dormant for thousands of years.

Why I like it: Game of Thrones is an epic tale that explores morality and politics in many forms.

The Walking Dead (2010- )

Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma, to learn the world is in ruins, and must lead a group of survivors to stay alive.

Why I like it: The Walking Dead offers some insight into the human condition and explores what lies at the heart of humanity.

Westworld (2016 – )

Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, explore a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.

Why I like it: Alongside raising questions of human nature, Westworld explores the complications involved in the development of artificial intelligence ranging from ethical to existential concerns.

Black Mirror (2011- )

A television anthology series that shows the dark side of life and technology.

Why I like it: Black Mirror takes some really interesting ideas and presents them as possible technological disasters in the near future.


I could keep going and have probably missed some real gems, but that’s all for now! Maybe I’ll do books next time… or video games?

Memorable Movie Quotes

What you lookin’ at? You all a bunch of fuckin’ assholes. You know why? You don’t have the guts to be what you wanna be? You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin’ fingers and say, “That’s the bad guy.” So… what that make you? Good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don’t have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There’s a bad guy comin’ through! Better get outta his way!

– Scarface

Now you will receive us! We do not ask for your poor or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim! It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath we shall hunt them down. Each day we will spill their blood, ’till it rains down from the skies! Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace! These are not polite suggestions. These are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost! There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth, not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain. For if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three and on that day you will reap it! And we will send you to whatever god you wish.

– The Boondock Saints

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

– V for Vendetta

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra… Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic. It’s all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns. The things you own end up owning you. Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions. When deep space exploration ramps up, it’ll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale thinks he’s gonna run this up the flagpole? Make a name for himself? Maybe get elected some two-bit congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here? No, I tell you. No, sir! Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.

You buy furniture.  You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life.  Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled.  Then the right set of dishes.  Then the perfect bed.  The drapes.  The rug.  Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, never wanted you, and in all probability, he HATES you. It’s not the worst thing that can happen. Fuck damnation, man! Fuck redemption! We’re God’s unwanted children, SO BE IT!

– Fight Club

Motherfucking, cocksucker, motherfucking, shitfucker, what am I doing? What am I doing? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m doing the best that I can. I know that’s all I can ask of myself. Is that good enough? Is my work doing any good? Is anybody paying attention? Is it hopeless to try and change things? The African guy is a sign, right? Because if he isn’t then nothing in this world makes any sense to me; I’m fucked. Maybe I should quit. Don’t quit. Maybe I should just fucking quit. Don’t fucking quit. Just, I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do anymore. Fucker. Fuck. Shit.

Nobody sits like this rock sits. You rock, rock. The rock just sits and is. You show us how to just sit here and that’s what we need.

But there’s no way I could stop it’s use in my lifetime is there? I mean, Jimmy Carter would have an electric car by now. I could have a Cadillac Escalade and it could be electric. I wouldn’t have to ride my bicycle.

What are they thinking? They’re thinking that it’s running out. It’s running out… and ninety percent of what’s left is in the Middle East. This is a fight to the death.

– I Heart Huckabees

Death is a disease. Its like any other. And there’s a cure, a cure — and I will find it.

It’s all done except the last chapter. I want you to help me. Finish it.

Death as an act of creation.

Death frees every soul.

Death is the road to awe.

– The Fountain

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Now, after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. Alexander Supertramp. May 1992.

The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing the blind, deaf stone alone with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed.

I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them. And work which one hopes may be of some use. Then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor. Such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps. What more can the heart of a man desire?

Happiness only real when shared.

Chris measured himself and those around him by a fiercely rigorous moral code. He risked what could have been a relentlessly lonely path, but found company in the characters of the books he loved from writers like Tolstoy, Jack London and Thoreau. He could summon their words to suit any occasion, and he often would. I forgot to ask what quote he’d have picked for his graduation dinner, but I had a good idea of who the primary target would be. It was inevitable that Chris would break away. And when he did, he would do it with characteristic immoderation.

– Into the Wild

We don’t have a lot of time on this earth! We weren’t meant to spend it this way! Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements!

I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be.

– Office Space

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

– Dead Poet’s Society

Yes. The individual human mind. In a child’s power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted “amens” and “holy holies” and “hosannas.” An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man’s knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.

– Inherit the Wind

End of Watch (2012)

end of watch

“I am the police, and I’m here to arrest you. You’ve broken the law. I did not write the law. I may disagree with the law but I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathy. Nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with gray bars. If you run away I will chase you. If you fight me I will fight back. If you shoot at me I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. I am a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I can be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me and I them. We stand watch together. The thin-blue-line, protecting the prey from the predators, the good from the bad. We are the police.”

End of Watch is probably my favorite movie released this year. I would describe it as a real, true to life movie version of the television series Cops. I typically view law enforcement officials as members of just another large group of armed “gangsters,” working under a pretense of “justice,” deluded into enforcing unjust laws and believing that they are somehow superior to the “criminals” they incarcerate, and also responsible for quite literally holding me prisoner and stealing my car. But, alas, they are a necessary evil if we wish to live civilized lives. However, the two police officers depicted in this movie managed to gain my respect as individuals, which, by that fact alone is a testimony to it’s greatness.