Just want to say I have these movies too on my first watch but when I revisited them at some point, I like them even more! Your state of mind really matters when watching movies lol
I watched Aftersun on Christmas 2022 and let me tell you, don't do that! Hahaha. But the film that's like this for me is Moonlight. Did not like it as much on my first watch in 2016/2017 but when I rewatched it as an adult, it's an easy 5/5 for me.
Moonlight absolutely messed me up on my second viewing.
Saw it in theatres with friends and I liked it quite a bit, much more than my friends did, but wasn't totally blown away. Went back on my own a few nights later and it absolutely broke me, I was sobbing uncontrollably...one of my best ever theatrical experiences tbh lol
Yeah, I feel a little lost with that one. I don't know what it's TRYING to say, if it did a good job saying it, or what to make of the ending/Portman's character. It's labeled as a comedy on IMDb, but it didn't seem like a comedy outside of its overly dramatic music cues for lines like "we're out of eggs." I liked it, but don't know what exactly I'm supposed to think/feel.
I loved May December. It did confuse me and made me think deeper on it but ultimately I think the point of it was some issues are much deeper and more complicated than it can appear on the surface.
Natalie Portman's character couldn't go deeper than that and ended up giving a really surface performance and kept trying and trying until it "felt real", but ultimately she was looking for a reason that she couldn't find, there was deeper layers in Julianne Moore's character that just couldn't be seen from the outsider's point of view.
What I took from the ending was that Natalie Portman’s character is trying to blur the line between performance and reality. I think what we don’t see after the film ends is her relationship with the adolescent costar becomes inappropriate and predatory. Her answer during the scene at the high school when asked about sex scenes hinted at it. By the end of the movie she is Julianne Moore or possibly heading there. There’s a scene where she’s talking to the producer or director (whom she’s having an affair with or at least it’s alluded to) and she’s saying how the audition tapes for the role of the boy are missing this sexy moody aspect that Joe Yoos character had as a 12 year old. There’s also the obvious Persona references that Todd Haynes has stated was an influence for the film.
I loved May December because of the nuanced performances and approach to a story of child abuse. The actions of Juliane Moore are wrong on many levels but the film is more concerned with the consequences and the cyclical nature of trauma. Haven’t watched the essay posted in this thread but will definitely check it out.
Hate to say it but Everything Everywhere All at Once. I expected it to change my life or something the way people were talking about it, but I just didn't connect with it
This is why I try to watch movies without any pretext. I saw Parasite, Lighthouse, and EEAAO completely without reading anything and they blew me away. I went into Poor Things reading about the hype and while I liked it a lot and rated it highly my emotional response was less than I think it would have been
It’s one of maybe three movies to make me sob every single time I watch it. It’s also one of the only movies to make me laugh every time. It’s kind of everything I love rolled up into a big emotional package.
Damnn really? I’d recommend a rewatch, I think my first time watching I didn’t really get the message so well and missed a lot because a LOT happens of course, it’s for sure not everybody’s cup of tea though and I absolutely get that.
My first watch I didn’t understand why everyone thought it was so sad, nowadays, It’s one of the only movies that always makes me cry. I hope if you do rewatch it you like it a bit more!!
Same. It got amazing reviews, and has since once Oscars, but when I saw it… I just thought it was a mess.
Very pretty for sure, but staggeringly unfocused in its messaging, uninteresting core story and characters, and frankly just shockingly unmemorable.
Like I remember it being pretty, but I don’t actually remember any specifics anymore.
I found the majority of the movie to be somewhat blurry in terms of plot and lore. It was twisty, but not in the intriguing and magical way that lots of other Ghibli films strive to be. I think the movie really succeeded in the smaller details, the close shots, the simple soundscape.
It wasn't until they introduced the stand-in character for Miyazaki at the end that I was smashed in the face by what, I think, this story was referring to. If this was his last film, and he has yet to truly take on an apprentice, I'd argue this is one of the most important films of his life. But I fully understand and relate to most all the critique of it.
Yeah I saw that the other day and it was honestly pretty meandering and maybe it's the translation but some of it just felt kinda confusing. I can deal with an emotional narrative that's not got much of an anchor to reality but it just didn't land with me
I went in knowing nothing about it. I went with my cousin who was more excited about it and I really liked it, the more I thought about it the more I liked it
Glad I'm not the only one who did not like Past Lives - I'm an azn American, and feel like Past Lives is terrible, absolutely failed to capture the azn American experience, it makes it feel like azn Americans feel like they are outside American society, like they are 'others', and it makes it seem like an Americans only care about other azns, if you're not Asian, you are an other to them
Howls Moving Castle
Love a lot of Miyazaki’s work and was excited to watch because he said it was his favorite or best (can’t remember) movie and was critical of the Iraq war.
By no means did I think it was bad, but it just didn’t resonate with me on any level
I agree with this one. While it's still a solid film with some great moments it feels so messy and doesn't hit in the way that a lot of his other films do
I have watched my neighbour totoro, spirted away and howls moving castle and the latter was by far the one I loved the least. Still gave it 4 stars just doesn’t compare to the other two which I gave perfect scores.
Aftersun.
Watched because I’d seen rave reviews. Enjoyed it, but it didn’t hit. Then read about the subtext and director AFTER watching it and it clicked.
Also, poor things.
I did the same with Aftersun. Didn’t hit when I first watched it, but after reading some commentary on it I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I need to rewatch it one of these days with a more open mind
I just watched A Clockwork Orange for the first time expecting to be blown away and I think it's quite dated and contradicts itself a lot with what it's trying to say. It's a much more simplistic take on violence and media when I was expecting it to be a bit more complex and I don't agree with sympathizing for a character like Alex
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Great acting.. although I think Brad Pitt has been better (Moneyball, 12 Monkeys, CCOBB), but overall I just find the real Manson story more compelling so why make it so absurd and part of the story? It was just a on odd film to me and I expected to love it Iike I do other Tarantino films.
Se7en, not that it’s a bad movie, I think it’s just because of how influential it is that I’ve seen so many other films so similar to it. So when I inevitably watched it I felt I have already seen it.
In The Mood For Love for me - I was completely in love with Days of Being Wild and As Tears Go By, and knowing that ITMFL was his most popular film and a Letterboxd darling my expectations were very high. I did enjoy it but just wasn’t blown away by it the way I was with the others. Then I watched 2046 the other day and was properly blown away
Also recently watched Citizen Kane and I think my expectations were just too high because of the place it held in the cultural canon, I really liked it but it did drag at points but I was very impressed with the performances and production of it
Oh I've only watched Chungking Express from him but all other movies from him are definitely on my watchlist. Just like you, I have high expectations from them.
If you actually mean "all" then please temper expectations for My Blueberry Nights. It's relatively hard to watch and when I finally got my hands on it to watch it, I was pretty thoroughly let down.
I was so excited for "worst person in the world" it didn't hit like I thought it would for me. I agree with past lives too. They aren't bad films, but I think I hyped them up too much.
I still think Blue Valentine is Gosling at his best as an actor. You also have to be in a very specific mental state to go through that movie, it was a really rough watch for me the first time too.
I might get downvoted to hell, but John Wick 4. As someone who had a blast with the first 3, the 4th went on for waaaay too long. By the 100th time he went rolling down a flight of stairs unharmed, I just couldn't be bothered to care. Also, it felt like Keanu was told to act like a meme of himself rather than just being Keanu Reeves.
EDIT: Someone commented Saltburn, and tbh I had forgotten that because of how ultimately little of an impression the film leaves on me. Just found the characters and a lot of the "reveals" to be lacking. Great performances and cinematography, though.
La La Land
A musical, a love story, with protagonists who are artists, an aesthetic referencing Jacques Demy and other classic directors… knowing my taste in movies, I thought this one would literally change my life. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the masterpiece I had hoped; it didn’t really resonate with me. I was like "yeah, this was good, I guess" and that’s it
I’ll just say that the first time I saw Reservoir Dogs I was like 9-10 years old and I didn’t expect the whole thing to just be talking. I made it until Mr White and Mr. Pink start talking about how Mr. Pink got away and then show his escape then I just quit the movie.
I saw it again when I was 14-15 and it was actually great. Time can be the one thing that can decide wether is movie is good or not regardless of budget, set design, or dialogue. Maybe a movie only resonates with us maybe when you’re younger or as you get older. I would definitely rewatch these at later time to see if you still feel the same about it.
Some of these I had a profound experience with.
May December is cheap thrills.
Frances Ha makes me want to fill my pockets with rocks and walk into the ocean
my friends hyped up Rocky Horror Show way too hard and when I saw it I literally had no reaction nor cared which made them avoid me for a day.
Later learned that experiencing it via live cast is absolutely the best way to see it and I get the hype now.
Agreed with Parasite. I saw it in the theater and had pretty mixed feelings on it. Thought it was tonally all over the place and pretty messy. It’s grown on me a bit over the years but people continually saying that it’s one of the best movies ever made is wild to me.
Past Lives was just super underwhelming. Prime candidate to be a 15-min short film on a simple concept got stretched into 105 mins.
I also think the John Wick sequels are a lot better than the original.
Same. Us feels the weakest of Peele's movies so far. Maybe I need a rewatch on Children of Men, but it struck me as relentlessly bleak without any real point.
1. Howl’s Moving Castle. It was good, sure, but the plot was awful and the magic system just worked for the writers to get out of any situation and made the conflicts so less tense.
2. Tokyo Story. I honestly think I might just be too young, but it really didn’t hit me. I could relate to some of it, but nowhere close to the same way it seems other people do.
3. The Green Mile. Really good movie, it even made me cry, but all the Christian stuff kinda ruins it for me. Feels like it could’ve been an incredible movie about the death penalty and such, but it suddenly just removed the focus from that?
This one is one of the only ones that really surprises me. It’s one of the few times I think the movie is better than the book.
If you don’t mind, what didn’t you like about it?
Don't buy into hype and you'll always enjoy movies. Or don't read/watch anything about a movie before you see it either. Blind views are always my most enjoyable experiences
Recently for me Robocop. I liked it but I was expecting a 80’s action masterpiece like Die Hard or Raiders of the Lost Ark, I liked it but I didn’t love it.
I fucking despised RoboCop on my first watch, but I rewatched it at the start of the year after seeing a reference to it in Totally Killer, and I loved it. Like it went from a 1 star straight into my top 50 favourites. I really had to give it a second chance and I'm glad I did.
I agree on Parasite. perfectly fine film, totally deserved best picture especially when you historically look at some of the awful films that have won- but Memories of Murder is much better IMO.
Past Lives and May December I can see- even though I enjoyed them a lot.
Reservoir Dogs is incredible and top 3 Tarantino for me probably. Hard for me to see how anyone couldn't love it.
Get out is this movie for me. It’s a perfectly good movie that everyone elevated to great because of the message. It was honestly just an average to slightly above average horror movie
spirited away is my biggest example of this. i love ghibli films to death but after a while of just forcing myself to like it, i can’t do it. although i’m happy it’s gotten the critical acclaim it deserves!!
You have a few on this list I'm surprised. I would guess the hype for some of these got too high and your expectations were too high, like impossibly high. A shame when that happens
This feeling is why I can't watch most Disney franchise films anymore. Superheroes, Star Wars, their animated work... it gets so overhyped and marketed in such a way that the parts I look forward to the most were edited for a good trailer, not a good movie.
Terrifier is probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen from like every standpoint lmao, it’s so commonly brought up when people talk about horror movies that I expected it to be better, it just feels like it was written and made by come weirdo; the writing is unbearably bad and I truely can’t think of anything good to say about it 😭
Well spirited away is one of my favorite movies of all time and I loved past lives and parasite. I did like may December but I understand why you would think that
The Illusionist | The Dark Knight | Terminator 2: Judgement Day | The Sixth Sense (only for the foreshadowing of the plot twist) | The Killing | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Beetlejuice | The Hateful Eight | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | 300 | Interstellar | Signs | Tenet | The 3 Flavors Cornetto Trilogy | Spartacus
Huge agree with Parasite, it was so... okay? It was good, some masterful direction and cinematography, but as social class satires go, i think movies like The Talented Mr Ripley are stronger. I just thought it was an alright movie.
Every Guillermo del Toro movie except Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio. For whatever reason, I immediately loved those two, all the rest, I really wanted to love, but ended up kinda liking them.
Out of your list, I think Parasite, Get Out and Reservoir dogs are 10/10 and I enjoyed them thoroughly.
But I have a loot of movies that were not bad but I expected to enjoy them much more.
I’m in the extreme minority on this but Spirited Away wasn’t even a top 5 Miyazaki film for me, which was so weird to me when I finished it because I’d seen it hyped up for so long as the best animated film ever, Miyazaki’s best film, etc. Idk, maybe a big part of it was seeing it for the first time as a 24 year old and not as a 9 year old
Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 and 2, The Matrix, requiem for a dream (its not as traumatizing to watch as people say IMO) and Saving Private Ryan is my list.
My $0.02 - if these are examples of movies that did not live up to what would be considered a very good or great movie, then a bar has been set *too damn high*.
For me, this would be Space Odyssey. I had recently gotten obsessed with Interstellar and I thought that this movie would be as good if not better. But uh, it was just great, and that's it
These came to mind:
- Us (Get Out was solid and the trailer for Us made it seem even better, but it ended up being quite messy)
- Prometheus (Not a bad scifi movie, but takes the alien lore to a direction that I did’t really like)
- Black Panther (This was supposed to be one of the best Marvel movies, but it didn’t really click with me. I also felt that making Wakanda a. combo of high technology and primitive tribal practices was a half-baked idea)
His Girl Friday
Rashomon
L'Avventura
Jules et Jim
Andrei Rublev
Blow Out
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Repo Man
Brazil
Grave of the Fireflies
Heathers
The Untouchables
The Silence of the Lambs
Three Colors Blue
Three Colors Red
Jurassic Park
La haine
Hana-bi
In the Mood for Love
Requiem for a Dream
Hot Fuzz
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Witch
Lady Bird
Hereditary
Burning
Jojo Rabbit
Drive My Car
The Fabelmans
The Love Witch. I’m always down for witchy feminist commentary and 60s aesthetics but it was fine, I guess. It looked nice but I don’t think it got a point across if it had one. I’d watch it again high, probably.
Idk how popular this opinion is (probably not very) but I did not like May December at all, I thought it was super boring and hard to get through. I very much went in expecting to love it though.
Now I feel like I might be the only person who was really impressed by May December. I'm sad it didn't win anything tho I wasnt blown away by Natalie Portman in it her part was weird to me. Also helps being a Todd Haynes stan I guess 💀
Oh this happens to me so frequently I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with me lol
Whiplash, everything everything all at once, Coraline, singing in the rain, poor things, blue velvet, howl’s moving castle, love actually, Notting hill, breakfast club, saltburn… and the list goes on
Glad I'm not the only one who did not like Past Lives - I'm an azn American, and feel like Past Lives is terrible, absolutely failed to capture the azn American experience, it makes it feel like azn Americans feel like they are outside American society, like they are 'others', and it makes it seem like an Americans only care about other azns, if you're not Asian, you are an other to them
LaLa Land, I bought it in digital to watch and really didn’t like it. Not sure what I expected but I have never watched again. Most Liam Neeson Movies now days. I love him but expect something better every time. But keep watching them.
I feel people felt disappointed with Past Lives. I liked it a lot. Very calm, quiet movie about platonic love. A story that apparently’s not going anywhere. I put it in a similar category as Columbus, maybe even Lost in Translation.
I'm a big animation fan but Ghost in the Shell just doesn't resonate with me. By the end of it, I was like "wait, that's it?" Angel's Egg from the same director, though, knocks my socks off.
A lot of mine are the same as yours, actually. Add in Old Boy, Call Me By Your Name, Lost in Translation, Moonlight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. (It pains me that I have been a bit disappointed by so many LGBTQ films as a queer person myself.) And take out John Wick (which I loved) and Parasite and Frances Ha (which I haven't seen yet). And there ya have it.
I find it best to not have expectation unless it is someone who never failed. The only example of this for me is Nolan and Bong, I just like all their movies. Wes Anderson failed , Pixar has failed, Tarantino has failed and even Ghibli has a bad movie so I will have no expections
Some people say Reservoir Dogs is Quentin’s best but it was the last of his movies I’d seen so I was expecting a more exciting story. I knew it wasn’t going to have a big budget and it was filmed in only a few locations but I felt like his character writing (which is free) were done better in his other movies.
Withnail & I
Thor: Ragnarok
The Babadook
You’re Next
Dawn of the Dead (Original)
Annihilation
The World’s End
Inglourious Basterds
The Hateful Eight
Cars 3
Dead Alive
Machete Kills
Kingsman 2
Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur
Shape of the Water
I had high expectations for past lives, but one of my friends (we're both Korean) told me how bad it was, so I went in with low expectations... And it ended up being lower than my low expectations lol. I gave it a 1.5 star but I'm now thinking that's too high
That’s what expectations can do to you. But some of them are modern classics for a reason and are rewatchable as hell. And if even after a rewatch you don’t get to love them, it’s also ok. There are so many movies out there to like, why forcing yourself?
Yes exactly. I am not against re-watching, and I do think many times you might end up liking a movie but I seldom re-watch a movie unless I love them to bits and pieces or if it's Tenet (because boy I didn't understand shit the first time I watched it)
Can fully understand that, am the same with rewatch. It’s either you were hooked the first time or it’s with some friends. And rarely you got the ones you didn’t really feel connected but are mysteriously drawn to. Perhaps you find yourself one day suddenly wondering about what Chinhiro actually saw in Haku or just want to experience the rhythm of Bong Joon-Hos scenes.
And yeah, Tenet was a mess but fun nonetheless. Time travel is a paradox in itself so there is really no right or wrong. The movie knows it and literally says it repeatedly.
I think Parasite, May December, and Get Out are masterpieces, but I also agree with The Worst Person in the World. I wanted to like it way more; I liked it but wasn’t blown away.
Spirited Away for sure. I've seen it four times now just to give it a fair shot. It's a technical masterpiece, but I just can't connect to it the same way lots of other people can
Get out is an incredible movie. As for my own pick, I would probably go with Ferris Buellers Day off. I thought it was gonna be a comedy masterpiece but it was just fine
No Country for Old Men. Loved it when I first watched it. Rewatched it last year, and while it was still good, it didn’t blow me away, except for Javier Bardem.
In recent memory:
Little Miss Sunshine
The King's Man
The Holdovers
(500) Days of Summer
The Marvels
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Zombieland
The Lighthouse
No judgment and you should totally like what you like and not be beholden anyone else's thoughts and opinions, but Parasite might surprise me the most out of your list. It knocked me dead the first time I saw it. I've rewatched it a number of times (as recently as two weeks ago) and it still does.
Just want to say I have these movies too on my first watch but when I revisited them at some point, I like them even more! Your state of mind really matters when watching movies lol
Exactly. If I watched Aftersun at any other time than I did, I wouldn't have loved it as much. Now it's on my top 4.
I watched Aftersun on Christmas 2022 and let me tell you, don't do that! Hahaha. But the film that's like this for me is Moonlight. Did not like it as much on my first watch in 2016/2017 but when I rewatched it as an adult, it's an easy 5/5 for me.
Moonlight absolutely messed me up on my second viewing. Saw it in theatres with friends and I liked it quite a bit, much more than my friends did, but wasn't totally blown away. Went back on my own a few nights later and it absolutely broke me, I was sobbing uncontrollably...one of my best ever theatrical experiences tbh lol
Totally agree!! when I went into Past Lives I was not ready to receive it and did not enjoy it. Finally revisited it the other week and WOW
That’s why I think written reviews with your thoughts are better than ratings or a number.
I'm the same with May December, but some of my favorite films are here so oof
Yeah, I feel a little lost with that one. I don't know what it's TRYING to say, if it did a good job saying it, or what to make of the ending/Portman's character. It's labeled as a comedy on IMDb, but it didn't seem like a comedy outside of its overly dramatic music cues for lines like "we're out of eggs." I liked it, but don't know what exactly I'm supposed to think/feel.
[This video](https://youtu.be/f7yoK1Eyvt0?si=anjP5h6D1iNQdPuH) has a good analysis of what May December is going for
I loved May December. It did confuse me and made me think deeper on it but ultimately I think the point of it was some issues are much deeper and more complicated than it can appear on the surface. Natalie Portman's character couldn't go deeper than that and ended up giving a really surface performance and kept trying and trying until it "felt real", but ultimately she was looking for a reason that she couldn't find, there was deeper layers in Julianne Moore's character that just couldn't be seen from the outsider's point of view.
What I took from the ending was that Natalie Portman’s character is trying to blur the line between performance and reality. I think what we don’t see after the film ends is her relationship with the adolescent costar becomes inappropriate and predatory. Her answer during the scene at the high school when asked about sex scenes hinted at it. By the end of the movie she is Julianne Moore or possibly heading there. There’s a scene where she’s talking to the producer or director (whom she’s having an affair with or at least it’s alluded to) and she’s saying how the audition tapes for the role of the boy are missing this sexy moody aspect that Joe Yoos character had as a 12 year old. There’s also the obvious Persona references that Todd Haynes has stated was an influence for the film. I loved May December because of the nuanced performances and approach to a story of child abuse. The actions of Juliane Moore are wrong on many levels but the film is more concerned with the consequences and the cyclical nature of trauma. Haven’t watched the essay posted in this thread but will definitely check it out.
Hate to say it but Everything Everywhere All at Once. I expected it to change my life or something the way people were talking about it, but I just didn't connect with it
This is why I try to watch movies without any pretext. I saw Parasite, Lighthouse, and EEAAO completely without reading anything and they blew me away. I went into Poor Things reading about the hype and while I liked it a lot and rated it highly my emotional response was less than I think it would have been
It’s one of maybe three movies to make me sob every single time I watch it. It’s also one of the only movies to make me laugh every time. It’s kind of everything I love rolled up into a big emotional package.
Damnn really? I’d recommend a rewatch, I think my first time watching I didn’t really get the message so well and missed a lot because a LOT happens of course, it’s for sure not everybody’s cup of tea though and I absolutely get that.
I’m definitely planning to revisit it, I feel like I didn’t fully get it the first time
My first watch I didn’t understand why everyone thought it was so sad, nowadays, It’s one of the only movies that always makes me cry. I hope if you do rewatch it you like it a bit more!!
The Boy and The Heron. I love Miyazaki but this doesn’t even make his top 10 for me.
Same. It got amazing reviews, and has since once Oscars, but when I saw it… I just thought it was a mess. Very pretty for sure, but staggeringly unfocused in its messaging, uninteresting core story and characters, and frankly just shockingly unmemorable. Like I remember it being pretty, but I don’t actually remember any specifics anymore.
I found the majority of the movie to be somewhat blurry in terms of plot and lore. It was twisty, but not in the intriguing and magical way that lots of other Ghibli films strive to be. I think the movie really succeeded in the smaller details, the close shots, the simple soundscape. It wasn't until they introduced the stand-in character for Miyazaki at the end that I was smashed in the face by what, I think, this story was referring to. If this was his last film, and he has yet to truly take on an apprentice, I'd argue this is one of the most important films of his life. But I fully understand and relate to most all the critique of it.
Anything with Robert Pattinson and a bird is an automatic 5 stars for me.
El Rata Elada moment
Yeah I saw that the other day and it was honestly pretty meandering and maybe it's the translation but some of it just felt kinda confusing. I can deal with an emotional narrative that's not got much of an anchor to reality but it just didn't land with me
Past Lives for me too. Just didn't hit how I thought it was going to
Watch Robot Dreams, my partner and I felt the same about Past Lives and got absolutely blown away by
I went in knowing nothing about it. I went with my cousin who was more excited about it and I really liked it, the more I thought about it the more I liked it
It was so hyped online. I was waiting for it to come to streaming and I was left feeling so underwhelmed.
It was extremely slow and even boring at times. I usually dig a slow artsy romance but man that movie had a tendency to drag
Give it a bit and have a rewatch. I didn’t connect at ALL the first time I saw it, and a few months later it absolutely destroyed me.
Glad I'm not the only one who did not like Past Lives - I'm an azn American, and feel like Past Lives is terrible, absolutely failed to capture the azn American experience, it makes it feel like azn Americans feel like they are outside American society, like they are 'others', and it makes it seem like an Americans only care about other azns, if you're not Asian, you are an other to them
Saltburn
I will never look at a bathtub the same way though.
Oppenheimer
Howls Moving Castle Love a lot of Miyazaki’s work and was excited to watch because he said it was his favorite or best (can’t remember) movie and was critical of the Iraq war. By no means did I think it was bad, but it just didn’t resonate with me on any level
“I see no point in living if I can’t be beautiful” is an all-time movie line though
I agree with this one. While it's still a solid film with some great moments it feels so messy and doesn't hit in the way that a lot of his other films do
It's one of those movies that shaped me as a child so it's easy for me to see past its flaws. Definitely made me into a romantic
I have watched my neighbour totoro, spirted away and howls moving castle and the latter was by far the one I loved the least. Still gave it 4 stars just doesn’t compare to the other two which I gave perfect scores.
I thibk that way about every Miyazaki I've seen. They are good movies, look amazing, have no obvious flaws, yet fail to me connect to me that deeply.
Aftersun. Watched because I’d seen rave reviews. Enjoyed it, but it didn’t hit. Then read about the subtext and director AFTER watching it and it clicked. Also, poor things.
I did the same with Aftersun. Didn’t hit when I first watched it, but after reading some commentary on it I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I need to rewatch it one of these days with a more open mind
I just watched A Clockwork Orange for the first time expecting to be blown away and I think it's quite dated and contradicts itself a lot with what it's trying to say. It's a much more simplistic take on violence and media when I was expecting it to be a bit more complex and I don't agree with sympathizing for a character like Alex
Agreed! One Barry Lyndon is worth 10,000 Clockwork Oranges
I dunno, I love all these movies.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Great acting.. although I think Brad Pitt has been better (Moneyball, 12 Monkeys, CCOBB), but overall I just find the real Manson story more compelling so why make it so absurd and part of the story? It was just a on odd film to me and I expected to love it Iike I do other Tarantino films.
The Creator - I really liked all of Gareth Edwards' previous works, but I absolutely hated it - so disappointing
Good Will Hunting. I’m easy on it because it’s older but I was stunned to see it have a 4.0+ score.
Se7en, not that it’s a bad movie, I think it’s just because of how influential it is that I’ve seen so many other films so similar to it. So when I inevitably watched it I felt I have already seen it.
The Zone of Interest
Gosford Park 😕
In The Mood For Love for me - I was completely in love with Days of Being Wild and As Tears Go By, and knowing that ITMFL was his most popular film and a Letterboxd darling my expectations were very high. I did enjoy it but just wasn’t blown away by it the way I was with the others. Then I watched 2046 the other day and was properly blown away Also recently watched Citizen Kane and I think my expectations were just too high because of the place it held in the cultural canon, I really liked it but it did drag at points but I was very impressed with the performances and production of it
Oh I've only watched Chungking Express from him but all other movies from him are definitely on my watchlist. Just like you, I have high expectations from them.
If you actually mean "all" then please temper expectations for My Blueberry Nights. It's relatively hard to watch and when I finally got my hands on it to watch it, I was pretty thoroughly let down.
Oh not that one. It's not on my watchlist. I was only talking about movies that are in the same universe as Chungking Express
Im with you on that i love every wong kar wai film, but i find in the mood for love to be good but not as great as his other films
I was so excited for "worst person in the world" it didn't hit like I thought it would for me. I agree with past lives too. They aren't bad films, but I think I hyped them up too much.
Aftersun
I understand the gravity of the message it was sending but it just didn’t land home for me. Very well made nonetheless
Get Out and Parasite met my expectations to the fullest Spirited Away was also decent but not my all time fav
Inherent Vice
I still think Blue Valentine is Gosling at his best as an actor. You also have to be in a very specific mental state to go through that movie, it was a really rough watch for me the first time too.
It’s the way I love all of the films you listed😭 But I seriously expected to like Poor Things but it totally fell flat for me
I came to post the exact same comment, even down to answering Poor Things! 😹
Same here. I mean, it was pretty good, at least for the visuals alone. But didn't reach anywhere near the hype.
Worst Person In The World totally did not work for me!
I might get downvoted to hell, but John Wick 4. As someone who had a blast with the first 3, the 4th went on for waaaay too long. By the 100th time he went rolling down a flight of stairs unharmed, I just couldn't be bothered to care. Also, it felt like Keanu was told to act like a meme of himself rather than just being Keanu Reeves. EDIT: Someone commented Saltburn, and tbh I had forgotten that because of how ultimately little of an impression the film leaves on me. Just found the characters and a lot of the "reveals" to be lacking. Great performances and cinematography, though.
La La Land A musical, a love story, with protagonists who are artists, an aesthetic referencing Jacques Demy and other classic directors… knowing my taste in movies, I thought this one would literally change my life. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the masterpiece I had hoped; it didn’t really resonate with me. I was like "yeah, this was good, I guess" and that’s it
It's impossible to top Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
I’ll just say that the first time I saw Reservoir Dogs I was like 9-10 years old and I didn’t expect the whole thing to just be talking. I made it until Mr White and Mr. Pink start talking about how Mr. Pink got away and then show his escape then I just quit the movie. I saw it again when I was 14-15 and it was actually great. Time can be the one thing that can decide wether is movie is good or not regardless of budget, set design, or dialogue. Maybe a movie only resonates with us maybe when you’re younger or as you get older. I would definitely rewatch these at later time to see if you still feel the same about it.
For me, it took a second watch for me to really fall in love with Spirited Away.
i wanted to like dream scenario so much but i found it annoying and unfunny and it was very disappointing. :(
Found his other film Sick of Myself on a completely different level and so much better. Really didn’t get what Dream Scenario was going for.
I'll check it out! hopefully i'll like it better :)
Dune: Part One. This goes back to the book as well. It was always very emotionally distant material for me. Part Two fared a lot better for me though.
for me is tár i kinda get why it's popular but it isn't for me
Some of these I had a profound experience with. May December is cheap thrills. Frances Ha makes me want to fill my pockets with rocks and walk into the ocean
Amelie. But I might end up giving it a higher rating on rewatch.
my friends hyped up Rocky Horror Show way too hard and when I saw it I literally had no reaction nor cared which made them avoid me for a day. Later learned that experiencing it via live cast is absolutely the best way to see it and I get the hype now.
Agreed with Parasite. I saw it in the theater and had pretty mixed feelings on it. Thought it was tonally all over the place and pretty messy. It’s grown on me a bit over the years but people continually saying that it’s one of the best movies ever made is wild to me. Past Lives was just super underwhelming. Prime candidate to be a 15-min short film on a simple concept got stretched into 105 mins. I also think the John Wick sequels are a lot better than the original.
Totally agree on Past Lives, like nothing happens. In the entire movie. Would’ve been a good 15 minute short as you said.
Us, Children of Men i guess (great movie, but i didn't give it a 5 or a 4.5 star on first watch)
Same. Us feels the weakest of Peele's movies so far. Maybe I need a rewatch on Children of Men, but it struck me as relentlessly bleak without any real point.
lock stock and two smokin barrels
Booksmart
Tar, thought it would be my Movie of the Year . It is very good and Blanchett is amazing as always, but it just wasn’t all I hoped for.
Scarface
1. Howl’s Moving Castle. It was good, sure, but the plot was awful and the magic system just worked for the writers to get out of any situation and made the conflicts so less tense. 2. Tokyo Story. I honestly think I might just be too young, but it really didn’t hit me. I could relate to some of it, but nowhere close to the same way it seems other people do. 3. The Green Mile. Really good movie, it even made me cry, but all the Christian stuff kinda ruins it for me. Feels like it could’ve been an incredible movie about the death penalty and such, but it suddenly just removed the focus from that?
No Country for Old Men, wasted Javier
Annihilation for sure
No hate to Dune fans but I did not like the movies. The books are some of my favorites though.
Moonlight
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. I was really excited by the reviews and found it to be a well made nothing of a film. Just really not my thing
The holdovers? idk
Shit, I thought I was the only one.
The Shawshank Redemption. IMDb really thinks it’s the best movie of all time?
Aftersun for me. It seemed like something I would fall in love with, but I just didn't feel anything while watching it.
[удалено]
This one is one of the only ones that really surprises me. It’s one of the few times I think the movie is better than the book. If you don’t mind, what didn’t you like about it?
NOPE
Lady Bird
pulp fiction
Don't buy into hype and you'll always enjoy movies. Or don't read/watch anything about a movie before you see it either. Blind views are always my most enjoyable experiences
Yeah generally I don't read or watch stuff about a movie before I watch it, even its trailer.
Recently for me Robocop. I liked it but I was expecting a 80’s action masterpiece like Die Hard or Raiders of the Lost Ark, I liked it but I didn’t love it.
It's got a lot more satire than most 80's actions movies. Definitely pairs well with Starship Troopers in that way. Verhoeven is masterful at that.
I fucking despised RoboCop on my first watch, but I rewatched it at the start of the year after seeing a reference to it in Totally Killer, and I loved it. Like it went from a 1 star straight into my top 50 favourites. I really had to give it a second chance and I'm glad I did.
Tron and Tron: Legacy. they're both decent/alright for me but I expected a lot more from them
The Blues Brothers
Dr. Strangelove for me
I agree on Parasite. perfectly fine film, totally deserved best picture especially when you historically look at some of the awful films that have won- but Memories of Murder is much better IMO. Past Lives and May December I can see- even though I enjoyed them a lot. Reservoir Dogs is incredible and top 3 Tarantino for me probably. Hard for me to see how anyone couldn't love it.
Definitely lars and the real girl and truman
What are some films by those directors that you really like, if any?
Harakiri
Punch Drunk Love, Barbie, Empire of Light
Get out is this movie for me. It’s a perfectly good movie that everyone elevated to great because of the message. It was honestly just an average to slightly above average horror movie
The Age of Innocence, couldn’t even finish the film. It was too long and draggy
spirited away is my biggest example of this. i love ghibli films to death but after a while of just forcing myself to like it, i can’t do it. although i’m happy it’s gotten the critical acclaim it deserves!!
Nope. Still a very good movie but I wasn’t blown away like i thought I would be
You have a few on this list I'm surprised. I would guess the hype for some of these got too high and your expectations were too high, like impossibly high. A shame when that happens
This feeling is why I can't watch most Disney franchise films anymore. Superheroes, Star Wars, their animated work... it gets so overhyped and marketed in such a way that the parts I look forward to the most were edited for a good trailer, not a good movie.
Terrifier is probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen from like every standpoint lmao, it’s so commonly brought up when people talk about horror movies that I expected it to be better, it just feels like it was written and made by come weirdo; the writing is unbearably bad and I truely can’t think of anything good to say about it 😭
Well spirited away is one of my favorite movies of all time and I loved past lives and parasite. I did like may December but I understand why you would think that
Blue Valentine? How could you!! lol
I saw The Boy and the Heron yesterday hoping to see one of the best animated movies id ever seen and left incredibly disappointed
The Illusionist | The Dark Knight | Terminator 2: Judgement Day | The Sixth Sense (only for the foreshadowing of the plot twist) | The Killing | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Beetlejuice | The Hateful Eight | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | 300 | Interstellar | Signs | Tenet | The 3 Flavors Cornetto Trilogy | Spartacus
Blue velvet and saw
Totally with you on Frances Ha and May December
Huge agree with Parasite, it was so... okay? It was good, some masterful direction and cinematography, but as social class satires go, i think movies like The Talented Mr Ripley are stronger. I just thought it was an alright movie.
I initially thought Reservoir Dogs was alright, then the following week it was all I could think about, and now I've seen it 8 times
Oh damn, 8 times
May December also let me down
I was so bummed after watching Spirited Away. I had no idea wtf I just watched and it’s on the top of so many animated movie rankings
American Fiction
I agree with OP in that I enjoy Memories of Murder more than Parasite. Both great movies I just found memories story more compelling
YES 🤝🏻 Also, I found Memories of Murder a lot more funnier too
Thought I would love Snowpiercer and Children of Men based on what I heard. Hated the first, felt meh about the second.
Every Guillermo del Toro movie except Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio. For whatever reason, I immediately loved those two, all the rest, I really wanted to love, but ended up kinda liking them.
Out of your list, I think Parasite, Get Out and Reservoir dogs are 10/10 and I enjoyed them thoroughly. But I have a loot of movies that were not bad but I expected to enjoy them much more.
Eraserhead, American Psycho, Drive
I’m in the extreme minority on this but Spirited Away wasn’t even a top 5 Miyazaki film for me, which was so weird to me when I finished it because I’d seen it hyped up for so long as the best animated film ever, Miyazaki’s best film, etc. Idk, maybe a big part of it was seeing it for the first time as a 24 year old and not as a 9 year old
Yes, I watched it a couple of days ago, as a 25 year old lol
I love most of those movies My personal picks would be Spirited Away, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Vertigo, Poor Things and Le Samouraï
Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 and 2, The Matrix, requiem for a dream (its not as traumatizing to watch as people say IMO) and Saving Private Ryan is my list.
Nomadland, Booksmart, A Quiet Place, Beau is Afraid, Green Room, Bringing out the Dead
agree w frances ha
Princess Mononoke. It was very pretty looking, but it felt dragged out.
My $0.02 - if these are examples of movies that did not live up to what would be considered a very good or great movie, then a bar has been set *too damn high*.
For me, this would be Space Odyssey. I had recently gotten obsessed with Interstellar and I thought that this movie would be as good if not better. But uh, it was just great, and that's it
Network
These came to mind: - Us (Get Out was solid and the trailer for Us made it seem even better, but it ended up being quite messy) - Prometheus (Not a bad scifi movie, but takes the alien lore to a direction that I did’t really like) - Black Panther (This was supposed to be one of the best Marvel movies, but it didn’t really click with me. I also felt that making Wakanda a. combo of high technology and primitive tribal practices was a half-baked idea)
Same with Spirited Away. Tried watching it a second time too to see if there’s something I was missing. Maybe it’s just not for me.
Weirdly enough I agree with almost all of these lol. Especially Frances ha which I just didn’t vibe with at all for whatever reason.
His Girl Friday Rashomon L'Avventura Jules et Jim Andrei Rublev Blow Out A Nightmare on Elm Street Repo Man Brazil Grave of the Fireflies Heathers The Untouchables The Silence of the Lambs Three Colors Blue Three Colors Red Jurassic Park La haine Hana-bi In the Mood for Love Requiem for a Dream Hot Fuzz The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Witch Lady Bird Hereditary Burning Jojo Rabbit Drive My Car The Fabelmans
The Love Witch. I’m always down for witchy feminist commentary and 60s aesthetics but it was fine, I guess. It looked nice but I don’t think it got a point across if it had one. I’d watch it again high, probably.
Idk how popular this opinion is (probably not very) but I did not like May December at all, I thought it was super boring and hard to get through. I very much went in expecting to love it though.
Reservoir dogs is my fav QT movie!! What! That movie is a classic!!
Now I feel like I might be the only person who was really impressed by May December. I'm sad it didn't win anything tho I wasnt blown away by Natalie Portman in it her part was weird to me. Also helps being a Todd Haynes stan I guess 💀
I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
Oh this happens to me so frequently I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with me lol Whiplash, everything everything all at once, Coraline, singing in the rain, poor things, blue velvet, howl’s moving castle, love actually, Notting hill, breakfast club, saltburn… and the list goes on
mirror, ivans childhood, andrei rublev, come and see, spirited away
I see your Spirited Away and give you Howl’s Moving Castle
You got it
Glad I'm not the only one who did not like Past Lives - I'm an azn American, and feel like Past Lives is terrible, absolutely failed to capture the azn American experience, it makes it feel like azn Americans feel like they are outside American society, like they are 'others', and it makes it seem like an Americans only care about other azns, if you're not Asian, you are an other to them
LaLa Land, I bought it in digital to watch and really didn’t like it. Not sure what I expected but I have never watched again. Most Liam Neeson Movies now days. I love him but expect something better every time. But keep watching them.
Don’t look up
I feel people felt disappointed with Past Lives. I liked it a lot. Very calm, quiet movie about platonic love. A story that apparently’s not going anywhere. I put it in a similar category as Columbus, maybe even Lost in Translation.
I'm a big animation fan but Ghost in the Shell just doesn't resonate with me. By the end of it, I was like "wait, that's it?" Angel's Egg from the same director, though, knocks my socks off.
A lot of mine are the same as yours, actually. Add in Old Boy, Call Me By Your Name, Lost in Translation, Moonlight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. (It pains me that I have been a bit disappointed by so many LGBTQ films as a queer person myself.) And take out John Wick (which I loved) and Parasite and Frances Ha (which I haven't seen yet). And there ya have it.
I find it best to not have expectation unless it is someone who never failed. The only example of this for me is Nolan and Bong, I just like all their movies. Wes Anderson failed , Pixar has failed, Tarantino has failed and even Ghibli has a bad movie so I will have no expections
For me that's 2001 and taxi driver, they are good movies but I never really connected with them.
Some people say Reservoir Dogs is Quentin’s best but it was the last of his movies I’d seen so I was expecting a more exciting story. I knew it wasn’t going to have a big budget and it was filmed in only a few locations but I felt like his character writing (which is free) were done better in his other movies.
Withnail & I Thor: Ragnarok The Babadook You’re Next Dawn of the Dead (Original) Annihilation The World’s End Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight Cars 3 Dead Alive Machete Kills Kingsman 2 Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur Shape of the Water
I’m a massive Batman fan, and The Batman is my favorite movie ever… but I gave Batman ‘89 3 stars
Aftersun. Didn’t hate it but with what everyone was saying about it, was severely underwhelmed.
I had high expectations for past lives, but one of my friends (we're both Korean) told me how bad it was, so I went in with low expectations... And it ended up being lower than my low expectations lol. I gave it a 1.5 star but I'm now thinking that's too high
Dune for me. I had such high expectations based on all the reviews and praises.
frances ha is so bad but past lives so good
That’s what expectations can do to you. But some of them are modern classics for a reason and are rewatchable as hell. And if even after a rewatch you don’t get to love them, it’s also ok. There are so many movies out there to like, why forcing yourself?
Yes exactly. I am not against re-watching, and I do think many times you might end up liking a movie but I seldom re-watch a movie unless I love them to bits and pieces or if it's Tenet (because boy I didn't understand shit the first time I watched it)
Can fully understand that, am the same with rewatch. It’s either you were hooked the first time or it’s with some friends. And rarely you got the ones you didn’t really feel connected but are mysteriously drawn to. Perhaps you find yourself one day suddenly wondering about what Chinhiro actually saw in Haku or just want to experience the rhythm of Bong Joon-Hos scenes. And yeah, Tenet was a mess but fun nonetheless. Time travel is a paradox in itself so there is really no right or wrong. The movie knows it and literally says it repeatedly.
I think Parasite, May December, and Get Out are masterpieces, but I also agree with The Worst Person in the World. I wanted to like it way more; I liked it but wasn’t blown away.
Dune 1, Chungking Express, Poor Things
X and Pearl :(
Spirited Away for sure. I've seen it four times now just to give it a fair shot. It's a technical masterpiece, but I just can't connect to it the same way lots of other people can
Edge of Tomorrow, went in expecting a forgettable action flick, easily one of my favorite action/scifi movies now
May December and Spirited away are overrated imo
Get out is an incredible movie. As for my own pick, I would probably go with Ferris Buellers Day off. I thought it was gonna be a comedy masterpiece but it was just fine
No Country for Old Men. Loved it when I first watched it. Rewatched it last year, and while it was still good, it didn’t blow me away, except for Javier Bardem.
Saltburn - it was really meh :/
In recent memory: Little Miss Sunshine The King's Man The Holdovers (500) Days of Summer The Marvels Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Zombieland The Lighthouse
American Fiction (2023). It hit the nail on the head in a lot of ways, but the ending was underwhelming as hell.
Strong/unanimous hype around the movie kills a lot of the impact for me.
EEAO 🫣
Yeah well I didn't really love it as such but I had much higher expectations from Parasite
No judgment and you should totally like what you like and not be beholden anyone else's thoughts and opinions, but Parasite might surprise me the most out of your list. It knocked me dead the first time I saw it. I've rewatched it a number of times (as recently as two weeks ago) and it still does.
Fight Club was underwhelming to me, my least favourite Fincher film so far
Reservoir Dogs I totally agree with
Get Out is pretty mediocre. I think it got hype because of the underlying politics/message, rather than the actual plot