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MOVIEPIQ · RELATIONAL MOMENTS

Films for When Someone You Love Is Becoming a Stranger

The Moviepiq team selected these films specifically for when watching someone become a stranger. Chosen because they understand the specific weight of this moment.

Films for when someone you know is becoming someone you don't. The face is familiar. Almost everything else isn't.

You are watching someone become someone else and nobody asked you. That is the grievance: you did not consent to the revision, you signed up for the person they were, and the person they are becoming is someone you would not have necessarily chosen. The anger has nowhere clean to go, because people are allowed to change, and you know that, and it makes the anger harder to justify and no smaller. These films are for the anger that doesn't have a clean argument. The kind that is real and inconvenient and needs somewhere to be.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time movie poster
1
2021 · 155min · ★★★★☆ 7.8/10

In the aftermath of the Fourth Impact, stranded without their Evangelions, Shinji, Asuka and Rei find refuge in one of the rare pockets of humanity that still exist on the ruined planet Earth. There, each lives a life far different from their days as an Evangelion pilot. However,

It runs on the same fuel you are running on. The anger has somewhere to go inside this story, and it moves.

Runs on the same fuel

Perfect Strangers movie poster
2
2016 · 97min · ★★★☆☆ 6.7/10

During a dinner, a group of friends decide to share whatever message or phone call they will receive during the evening, with unforeseen consequences.

The film does not ask you to be reasonable about it. It lets the feeling run at the temperature it is actually at.

Lets the anger move

Forgotten Love movie poster
3
2023 · 140min · ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

A once-respected surgeon who's lost his family and his memory gets a chance at redemption when he reconnects with someone from his forgotten past.

Nobody is going to tell you to calm down in this one. The anger is treated as information, which is all you need right now.

No rush to the other side

A Silent Voice: The Movie movie poster
4
2016 · 129min · ★★★☆☆ 6.9/10

Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shouko and Shouya do not speak to each other aga

It validates the feeling without resolving it too quickly. You will come out the other side with slightly less pressure, on your own schedule.

Justified

The best thing about these films is that nobody is going to tell you to calm down.

Black Beauty movie poster
5
2020 · 110min · ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures.

It runs on the same fuel you are running on. The anger has somewhere to go inside this story, and it moves.

Runs on the same fuel

Impossible Things movie poster
6
2021 · 88min · ★★★☆☆ 7.3/10

After the death of her abusive husband, Matilde finds her new best friend in Miguel, her young, insecure, and disoriented neighbor.

The film does not ask you to be reasonable about it. It lets the feeling run at the temperature it is actually at.

Lets the anger move

Dedicated to my ex movie poster
7
2019 · 94min · ★★★★☆ 8.3/10

The film tells the story of Ariel, a 21-year-old who decides to form a rock band to compete for a prize of ten thousand dollars in a musical band contest, this as a last option when trying to get money to save their relationship and reunite with his ex-girlfriend, which breaks du

Nobody is going to tell you to calm down in this one. The anger is treated as information, which is all you need right now.

No rush to the other side

Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll movie poster
8
2019 · 90min · ★★★★☆ 8.1/10

Violet Evergarden, a former soldier returned from war, comes to teach at a women's academy and changes a young girl's life.

It validates the feeling without resolving it too quickly. You will come out the other side with slightly less pressure, on your own schedule.

Justified

The Hate U Give movie poster
9
2018 · 133min · ★★★☆☆ 7.3/10

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.

It runs on the same fuel you are running on. The anger has somewhere to go inside this story, and it moves.

Runs on the same fuel

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas movie poster
10
2018 · 108min · ★★★★☆ 7.5/10

After his classmate and crush is diagnosed with a pancreatic disease, an average high schooler sets out to make the most of her final days.

The film does not ask you to be reasonable about it. It lets the feeling run at the temperature it is actually at.

Lets the anger move

The Forge movie poster
11
2024 · 123min · ★★★★☆ 8.3/10

19 year old Isaiah Wright lives for basketball and video games. A year out of high school, he has no job, no plans, and no idea how to be a man. At odds with his single mother Cynthia, Isaiah is given an ultimatum - to step up or move out. Feeling the pull from his friends and th

Nobody is going to tell you to calm down in this one. The anger is treated as information, which is all you need right now.

No rush to the other side

Gabriel's Inferno: Part III movie poster
12
2020 · 102min · ★★★★☆ 7.7/10

The final part of the film adaption of the erotic romance novel Gabriel's Inferno written by an anonymous Canadian author under the pen name Sylvain Reynard.

It validates the feeling without resolving it too quickly. You will come out the other side with slightly less pressure, on your own schedule.

Justified

The anger will move when it's ready. These let it.

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