The best films of this kind don't manipulate you. They just point at something true.
American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
This film slows everything down in a way that makes ordinary things look extraordinary.
Films that make you appreciate life usually work by contrast, or by slowing time down enough to see it properly.
Survival and stakes make ordinary life feel more vivid afterward.
Something to watch when sleep won't cooperate.
Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
The story of Tim Ballard, a former US government agent, who quits his job in order to devote his life to rescuing children from global sex traffickers.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with Catholic guilt.
This film slows everything down in a way that makes ordinary things look extraordinary.
In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
You finish it and look up, and whatever room you're in looks slightly different.
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.
This film slows everything down in a way that makes ordinary things look extraordinary.
Some films earn their effect. These do.