Interpretations · Symbols · Debate
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Where you find out what films are about.
Explore the meanings, symbols, references and ideas hidden inside the films you love.
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Each film opens with one editorial reading — and the community's verdict on it.
Fight Club
1999 · Drama / Thriller · David Fincher
“A man so hollowed out by consumer life that he invents a second self to burn it all down.”
The Matrix
1999 · Sci-Fi / Action · Lana & Lilly Wachowski
“An allegory about awakening from an artificial reality and questioning the systems that control us.”
Interstellar
2014 · Sci-Fi / Drama · Christopher Nolan
“Beneath the physics, a film about a parent and child separated by time and trying to speak across it.”
The Shining
1980 · Horror / Drama · Stanley Kubrick
“A haunted-house film in which the haunting is a family already broken before it arrives.”
Pulp Fiction
1994 · Crime / Drama / Black comedy · Quentin Tarantino
“A mosaic of Los Angeles criminals whose lives intersect through chance, choice and moral improvisation.”
Inception
2010 · Sci-Fi / Thriller / Heist · Christopher Nolan
“A thief who steals secrets from dreams is asked to plant an idea instead — and confront the memory he cannot escape.”
The Godfather
1972 · Crime / Drama · Francis Ford Coppola
“The youngest son of a crime dynasty is drawn into the family business and slowly becomes the very thing he once rejected.”
Parasite
2019 · Thriller / Drama / Black comedy · Bong Joon-ho
“A poor family infiltrates a wealthy household one job at a time — until the house reveals a secret that turns the scheme upside down.”
Blade Runner 2049
2017 · Sci-Fi / Neo-noir / Drama · Denis Villeneuve
“A young blade runner searching for a missing predecessor discovers a secret that could shatter the boundary between humans and replicants.”
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 · Sci-Fi / Adventure / Mystery · Stanley Kubrick
“Humanity's journey from ape to star-child, interrupted by a black monolith and an artificial intelligence that refuses to die.”
The Grand Budapest Hotel
2014 · Comedy / Drama / Adventure · Wes Anderson
“A legendary concierge and his loyal lobby boy fight to prove his innocence after a wealthy guest is murdered.”
Get Out
2017 · Horror / Thriller / Mystery · Jordan Peele
“A young Black man visits his white girlfriend's parents and discovers a conspiracy that turns visitors into prisoners of their own bodies.”
A Clockwork Orange
1971 · Crime / Sci-Fi / Satire · Stanley Kubrick
“A charismatic young thug is 'cured' of violence by the state — and loses the one thing that made him human: the ability to choose.”
The Godfather Part II
1974 · Crime / Drama · Francis Ford Coppola
“Michael consolidates his empire while his father's rise is told in parallel — two stories about what it costs to protect a family.”
Chinatown
1974 · Neo-noir / Mystery · Roman Polanski
“A private eye hired for an adultery case uncovers a conspiracy over Los Angeles' water — and a crime too deep to fix.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · Drama · Miloš Forman
“A rebel fakes insanity to avoid prison work and starts a war of nerves with the ward's quiet tyrant.”
Jaws
1975 · Thriller / Adventure · Steven Spielberg
“A beach town keeps its summer open while a shark keeps feeding.”
Taxi Driver
1976 · Drama / Crime · Martin Scorsese
“An insomniac veteran drives through New York's night until his loneliness becomes a mission.”
Star Wars
1977 · Sci-Fi / Adventure · George Lucas
“A farm boy leaves home to rescue a princess and discovers the myth he was born into.”
Apocalypse Now
1979 · War / Drama · Francis Ford Coppola
“A captain travels upriver to assassinate a colonel who has gone beyond the war's rules.”
Alien
1979 · Sci-Fi / Horror · Ridley Scott
“A tired commercial crew answers a distress call and brings back something perfect.”
Stalker
1979 · Sci-Fi / Drama · Andrei Tarkovsky
“A guide leads a writer and a scientist into the Zone, toward a room that grants your deepest wish.”
Raging Bull
1980 · Drama / Sport · Martin Scorsese
“Boxer Jake LaMotta wins in the ring and loses everything outside it.”
The Empire Strikes Back
1980 · Sci-Fi / Adventure · Irvin Kershner
“The rebels scatter, Luke trains with Yoda, and a confession changes everything.”
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1981 · Adventure / Action · Steven Spielberg
“An archaeologist races Nazis to find the Ark of the Covenant.”
Blade Runner
1982 · Sci-Fi / Neo-noir · Ridley Scott
“A burnt-out cop hunts escaped replicants who just want more life.”
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1982 · Sci-Fi / Family · Steven Spielberg
“A lonely boy hides a lost alien and learns to say goodbye.”
The Thing
1982 · Horror / Sci-Fi · John Carpenter
“An Antarctic crew discovers a creature that can imitate any of them.”
Scarface
1983 · Crime / Drama · Brian De Palma
“A Cuban refugee builds a cocaine empire in Miami and wants the world.”
The Terminator
1984 · Sci-Fi / Action · James Cameron
“A cyborg from the future hunts a waitress whose unborn son will lead humanity's resistance.”
Back to the Future
1985 · Sci-Fi / Comedy · Robert Zemeckis
“A teenager travels to 1955 and must make his parents fall in love.”
Brazil
1985 · Sci-Fi / Satire · Terry Gilliam
“A clerk in a bureaucratic dystopia chases a woman from his dreams.”
Blue Velvet
1986 · Mystery / Neo-noir · David Lynch
“A young man finds a severed ear and descends into his small town's hidden underworld.”
Full Metal Jacket
1987 · War / Drama · Stanley Kubrick
“Marines are built in boot camp and tested in the ruins of Huế.”
Akira
1988 · Animation / Sci-Fi · Katsuhiro Otomo
“In Neo-Tokyo, a biker gang member gains psychic powers he cannot control.”
My Neighbor Totoro
1988 · Animation / Family / Fantasy · Hayao Miyazaki
“Two sisters move to the countryside while their mother is ill and meet a forest spirit.”
Do the Right Thing
1989 · Drama / Comedy · Spike Lee
“On the hottest day of the year, a Brooklyn block reaches boiling point.”
Goodfellas
1990 · Crime / Drama · Martin Scorsese
“Henry Hill always wanted to be a gangster — and the film lets us feel why, until it doesn't.”
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Thriller / Horror / Crime · Jonathan Demme
“An FBI trainee asks one monster to help her catch another.”
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 · Sci-Fi / Action · James Cameron
“The machine that hunted Sarah Connor returns to protect her son.”
Reservoir Dogs
1992 · Crime / Thriller · Quentin Tarantino
“A heist goes wrong and the survivors try to find the rat — without ever showing the heist.”
Groundhog Day
1993 · Comedy / Fantasy / Romance · Harold Ramis
“A cynical weatherman relives the same day until he becomes someone worth tomorrow.”
Schindler's List
1993 · Drama / History / War · Steven Spielberg
“A profiteer who came to Kraków for money ends up saving more than a thousand lives.”
Léon: The Professional
1994 · Crime / Thriller / Drama · Luc Besson
“A lonely hitman takes in a girl whose family was murdered by a corrupt cop.”
The Shawshank Redemption
1994 · Drama · Frank Darabont
“A banker sentenced for murders he didn't commit keeps hope alive for nineteen years.”
Heat
1995 · Crime / Thriller · Michael Mann
“A master thief and an obsessive detective realise they are the same man.”
Se7en
1995 · Crime / Thriller / Mystery · David Fincher
“Two detectives track a killer staging the seven deadly sins.”
Trainspotting
1996 · Drama / Comedy · Danny Boyle
“Edinburgh heroin addicts choose not to choose life — until one does.”
Fargo
1996 · Crime / Thriller / Comedy · Joel and Ethan Coen
“A car salesman arranges his wife's kidnapping; a pregnant police chief cleans up the mess.”
The Big Lebowski
1998 · Comedy / Crime · Joel and Ethan Coen
“A slacker called the Dude is mistaken for a millionaire and pulled into a ransom plot.”
The Truman Show
1998 · Comedy / Drama / Sci-Fi · Peter Weir
“A man discovers his entire life is a television show.”
American Beauty
1999 · Drama · Sam Mendes
“A suburban father wakes up from his life and tries to start it again.”
Spirited Away
2001 · Animation / Fantasy / Family · Hayao Miyazaki
“A girl must work in a bathhouse for spirits to rescue her parents.”
Mulholland Drive
2001 · Mystery / Drama / Thriller · David Lynch
“An aspiring actress helps an amnesiac woman in Hollywood — until the dream collapses.”
Memento
2000 · Mystery / Thriller · Christopher Nolan
“A man without short-term memory hunts his wife's killer through notes and tattoos.”
Amélie
2001 · Comedy / Romance · Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“A shy Parisian waitress secretly improves strangers' lives while avoiding her own.”
Oldboy
2003 · Thriller / Mystery / Drama · Park Chan-wook
“Imprisoned for fifteen years without reason, a man is released and given five days to find out why.”
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004 · Romance / Sci-Fi / Drama · Michel Gondry
“After a breakup, a man erases his ex from memory — then fights to keep her.”
No Country for Old Men
2007 · Crime / Thriller / Western · Joel and Ethan Coen
“A hunter takes drug money; a killer with a coin follows.”
The Dark Knight
2008 · Action / Crime / Drama · Christopher Nolan
“Batman faces a criminal who wants to prove anyone can be corrupted.”
Donnie Darko
2001 · Sci-Fi / Drama / Mystery · Richard Kelly
“A troubled teen is told by a rabbit that the world ends in 28 days.”
Mad Max: Fury Road
2015 · Action / Sci-Fi / Adventure · George Miller
“A warrior helps enslaved wives escape a tyrant in a two-hour chase.”
Themes
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Films connect through what they are wrestling with. Pick a theme and follow it.
01
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02
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03
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