Phone in hand, film on screen. These survive the split attention.
In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.
Holds up to partial attention. You'll get what you need from it even drifting.
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
Four inseparable friends try to face their midlife crisis with daytrips and pranks at the expense of their families and the people around them.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
Holds up to partial attention. You'll get what you need from it even drifting.
Some films you can drift in and out of without losing anything. These are those films.
Individual scenes work on their own. Very safe to half-watch.
In Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
In postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband. When a mysterious letter arrives, she discovers the courage to change the circumstances of her life.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Holds up to partial attention. You'll get what you need from it even drifting.
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Holds up to partial attention. You'll get what you need from it even drifting.
Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.
You can pick your phone up and put it down without losing the thread.
These films were chosen for the state you're in, not the state you wish you were in.