The feeling is there. You have been keeping it at arm's length by turning it into something you can think about rather than something you have to feel, which is not avoidance exactly, more like a delay you have negotiated with yourself. You name the patterns, you read the relevant material, you build the case for how this happened and why. These films will not interrupt that. They carry their emotional weight through precision and craft, and the feeling arrives anyway, from the side, the way it always does when you are looking somewhere else.
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.
It gives your mind something real to work with. The feeling is present but arrives through craft and precision, which is the angle you need right now.
Something to think with
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort
Complex enough to keep your analytical side engaged. The emotion lands anyway, just from a direction you weren't watching.
Earns its feeling
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
It earns its weight through structure. Your brain gets the workout it came for, and something true gets through underneath.
Mind first, then heart
The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill's true parentage.
Smart enough to meet you where you are. The grief is inside the architecture of it, not on the surface where you would have to deal with it directly.
Precision over sentiment
These films work not because they explain the feeling but because they earn your trust before they go near it.
Two 13-year-old boys spend an idyllic summer together, but their connection is put to the test when they become the subject of speculation at school.
It gives your mind something real to work with. The feeling is present but arrives through craft and precision, which is the angle you need right now.
Something to think with
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
Complex enough to keep your analytical side engaged. The emotion lands anyway, just from a direction you weren't watching.
Earns its feeling
A bullied teenage girl forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious young man who protects her from her assailants, while she copes with the pressures of her final examinations.
It earns its weight through structure. Your brain gets the workout it came for, and something true gets through underneath.
Mind first, then heart
High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.
Smart enough to meet you where you are. The grief is inside the architecture of it, not on the surface where you would have to deal with it directly.
Precision over sentiment
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 b
It gives your mind something real to work with. The feeling is present but arrives through craft and precision, which is the angle you need right now.
Something to think with
In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the
Complex enough to keep your analytical side engaged. The emotion lands anyway, just from a direction you weren't watching.
Earns its feeling
May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-s
It earns its weight through structure. Your brain gets the workout it came for, and something true gets through underneath.
Mind first, then heart
In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries an unorthodox new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential... and perhaps even their genius.
Smart enough to meet you where you are. The grief is inside the architecture of it, not on the surface where you would have to deal with it directly.
Precision over sentiment
The right film gives your mind somewhere to go. These do.