MOVIEPIQ · FOR WHEN LIFE FEELS SMALLER THAN YOU EXPECTED

Films For When Life Feels Smaller Than You Expected Alone

Films for when life feels smaller than you expected alone. Includes The Father, Soul, Call Me by Your Name and more, curated by Moviepiq.

You had an idea of what this was going to look like. It does not look like that. These films are not about people for whom everything worked out. They are about people learning to see what is actually there.

The Father movie poster
1
2020 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

Treats small scale as enough

Soul movie poster
2
2020 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

Recognises the gap between expectation and reality without punishing anyone for it.

No false scale

Call Me by Your Name movie poster
3
2017 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

Treats small scale as enough

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind movie poster
4
2004 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

No false scale

The Hate U Give movie poster
5
2018 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

Treats small scale as enough

No false scale

Best watched alone. This is between you and the film.

All About Eve movie poster
6
1950 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

No false scale

The Shop Around the Corner movie poster
7
1940 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

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.

Recognises the gap between expectation and reality without punishing anyone for it.

Treats small scale as enough

There Will Be Blood movie poster
8
2007 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

Recognises the gap between expectation and reality without punishing anyone for it.

Treats small scale as enough

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri movie poster
9
2017 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

Treats small scale as enough

Prayers for Bobby movie poster
10
2009 · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Bobby Griffith was his mother's favorite son, the perfect all-American boy growing up under deeply religious influences in Walnut Creek, California. Bobby was also gay. Struggling with a conflict no one knew of, much less understood, Bobby finally came out to his family.

The scale is small. The film treats that as enough. That is the whole argument.

No false scale

The right film for the right state is a specific thing. These are specific.

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