Not sad exactly. Not fine either. Just flat -- like the signal is there but nothing is coming through. These films do not try to fix that. They sit in it with you, and occasionally something breaks through.
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Quietly present
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
This film works for numbness because it does not demand feeling -- it creates the conditions for it.
Does not demand feeling
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Quietly present
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Does not demand feeling
A family dog – with a near-human soul and a philosopher's mind – evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, a race-car driver.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Does not demand feeling
Quietly present
Best watched alone. This is between you and the film.
Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who is failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.
This film works for numbness because it does not demand feeling -- it creates the conditions for it.
Quietly present
To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there's a mole among them.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Quietly present
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
The pacing is slow enough to meet you where you are. It does not push for a reaction.
Quietly present
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.
This film works for numbness because it does not demand feeling -- it creates the conditions for it.
Quietly present
In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.
This film works for numbness because it does not demand feeling -- it creates the conditions for it.
Does not demand feeling
The right film for the right state is a specific thing. These are specific.