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We may earn a commission from links on this page.Discourse crops up now and again about acceptable movie-watching etiquette: Is it OK to fast-forward through boring parts? Younger moviegoers even admit to watching slower movies at double speedthough it's certainly not just the youngest film-watchers: if we're gonna talk about attention spans, we have to talk about how we aint got em anymore.Im not saying I blame these folks. Modern tech takes advantage of our brains addictive tendencies by training us to use our phones like were on a ravenous hunt for serotonin. Meanwhile, blockbusters have gotten longer, but also faster and loudertheres a big difference between three hours of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and three hours of Avengers: Endgame. When were asked to listen too long to a bit of dialogue, or gaze at a vista that doesnt seem to be directly advancing the plot, were pulling out our phones. (Im also guilty of this when watching at home, which is part of the reason I love seeing movies in the theater, where I am duty-bound to actually pay attention.) But theres an art to the boring movie, and some of them wouldnt be half as compelling if they actually tried to thrill us with every frame. Here are great movies that invite you to be bored by injecting a bit of silence or lingering on a long conversation. Theyll move you deeply, challenge your preconceptions, or maybe put you right to sleep. Any would be a win, really. To paraphrase the great philosophers Mae West and Xtina: I like a movie what takes its time.Nosferatu (2024) Run time: 132 minutesRobert Eggers is no stranger to a languid pace, and Nosferatu, in tone, resembles his modern folk horror classic The Witch (or, if you prefer: The VVitch). Like that 2015 film, this vampire remake is full of creepy build-up punctuated by moments of shock that are generally few and far between. Reviews for Nosferatu were good, but audiences were divided: Some found its pace seductive, some somnolent. I'm in the former camp, personally, and it's hard to deny that the movie's most disturbing elements stick with you. You can rent Nosferatu from Prime Video. Nosferatu (2024) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Power of the Dog (2021) Run time: 126 minutesJane Campion is another master of deliberate pacing, including with her most recenta movie that slow-walked its way into a Best Picture Oscar nomination and won her a Best Director prize. Unlikely western star Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, the stoic and casually cruel leader of a group of cowboys in 1925 Montana. His demeanor masks deeper secrets, gradually brought to the surface as his soft-spoken younger brother falls for a local widow and threatens Phil's power and equilibrium. It's not a movie of big, explosive moments, though, but one whose characters reveal themselves on gradually and with extreme reluctance against a beautifully photographed western backdrop. You can stream The Power of the Dog on Netflix. Power of the Dog (2021) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) Run time: 93 minutesA lovely and poignant romance from German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ali charts the cross-cultural, May/December romance between 60-year-old widow Emmi (Brigitte Mira) and the title's Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a much younger (and, it must be said: extremely hot) Moroccan guest worker who draws her eye when she steps into a bar out of the rain. The unlikely pairing draws snickers and open condemnation from Emmi's family and neighbors who think that she has taken leave of her sensesthat social schism gradually taking its toll on the relationship. There are dramatic moments, certainly, but it's largely quietly understated, with whispers speaking more loudly than shouts. You can stream Ali: Fear Eats the Soul on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Skinamarink (2022) Run time: 100 minutesWriter/director Kyle Edward Balls film began life as a YouTube channel devoted to recreations of the childhood nightmares submitted by users. What plot there is in this feature-length take on that idea involves a four-year-old named Kevin who injures himself while home alone with his six-year-old sister, Kaylee. What follows makes little narrative sense, and its certainly easy to understand why the micro-budget film was polarizing for audiences. Where the film succeeds, and brilliantly, is in recreating the sense of a childs twilight world, one in which even a familiar home can feel bizarre, unsettling, and terrifying under the right circumstances. Ball takes his time creating that moodand its nearly all mood. Im not sure what hes trying to do has ever been done better. You can stream Skinamarink on Hulu and Shudder or rent it from Prime Video. Skinamarink (2022) at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu Inland Empire (2006) Run time: 180 minutesIve seen just about everything that David Lynch has ever produced, and I still have no idea how to talk about Inland Empire. If you dont count Twin Peaks: The Return (the 18 hours of which Lynch wants you to consider a film), this is the most recent of the directors features, though it was released way back in 2006 (the first film to be shot entirely on digital video, its recently been remastered). There are sex workers and anthropomorphic rabbits in a story about a woman who gives her all to get a part in a Hollywood movie, only to descend into a nearly three-hour fever dream. Its either a moving and surreal dive into some kind of cinematic collective unconscious, or an impenetrable collection of non sequiturs. No one musters emotions of unease and dread like Lynch, even if we, as viewers, arent even sure what were so anxious about. You can stream Inland Empire on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Inland Empire (2006) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) Run time: 81 minutesAt a mere 81 minutes, it's hard to get too bored by David Gelb's documentary, but the stakes here are more personal than world-altering. Set to a score by Philip Glass, the film follows the title's Jiro Ono, the then-85-year-old sushi master who's regarded as one of the world's greatest living sushi chefs. He makes sushi that looks (and, presumably, tastes) incredible, crafting the same sushi day after day alongside his sons, while continuing to refine his skills into his 80s and beyond. That's pretty much it. Just a gentle exploration of the idea that the key to happiness might be getting really good at something, but also never being completely content with your talents. You can stream Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Tubi and Prime Video. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Lost in Translation (2003) Run time: 102 minutesBob (Bill Murray) takes a business trip to Tokyo smack dab in the middle of a major midlife crisis. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a young Yale grad tagging along on a trip to the city with her celebrity photographer husband. The two outsiders spend time together, experiencing the city with a kind of not-quite-romantic melancholy. Plot-wise, that's pretty much it, but it still winds up being deeply moving. You can rent Lost in Translation from Prime Video. Lost in Translation (2003) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Vitalina Varela (2019) Run time: 124 minutesVitalina Varela plays the title character here (who shares the actress's name and some of her biography) in the quietly powerful story of a Cape Verdean woman who travels to Portugal to meet with her estranged husband following an absence of decades, only to discover that he's recently died. There's not much more to the plot than that: the story of a migrant worker who all but melted away in his desire for a better life, and the wife who comes to learn about her own husband after a very long time. You can rent Vitalina Varela from Prime Video. Vitalina Varela (2019) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Run time: 132 minutes (theatrical cut)Theres a scene in the first Star Trek movie thats controversial not for its political or philosophical content, but for its length: a nearly five-minute shuttle flyby of the newly re-designed USS Enterprise, accompanied by a rousing bit of Jerry Goldsmith scoring. Its either a nearly erotic bit of spaceship porn, or one of the dullest sequences ever put to film, depending on your perspective (Im very much team spaceship porn). The rest of director Robert Wises movie, rushed into theaters before it was quite finished, is similarly stately paced. Theres no fighting, little action, and plenty of self-serious pontificating. In some ways, it feels like its trying too hard to be 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it has a strange power of its ownespecially with the circa-2001 director's cut. You can stream Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+ The Blair Witch Project (1999) Run time: 81 minutesSo much of the ur-found footage films runtime involves slightly (but realistically) annoying people wandering around lost in the Maryland woods while disturbing, but rarely thrilling, events put them on edge and turn them against each other. Little actually happens before the memorable closing minutes, but it all serves to effectively build up an unbearable sense of tension. This is definitely one where the sum adds up to more than the (often boring) parts. You can stream The Blair Witch Project on Starz or rent it from Prime Video. The Blair Witch Project (1999) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) Run time: 81 minutesTaiwan's answer, in a sense, to Cinema Paradiso, this film takes place almost entirely during a screening of the (real) 1967 wuxia classic Dragon Inn at an old Taipei movie theater on its last night. It's all very deceptively simple, alternately following filmgoers of various persuasions and motivations: a woman looking for food, a Japanese tourist looking for a good time with another man (any man, really), an elderly actor from the film, etc. With a sense of the absurd but also a sweetly poignant take on the death of the cinema experience, director Tsai Ming-liang takes his time to build a film in which the sum of individual moments builds to a greater whole. You can rent Goodbye, Dragon Inn from Prime Video. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) Learn More Learn More Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Run time: 127 minutesWhen we think of spy dramas, we tend to think of Bond (James Bond), Bourne, or Atomic Blonde...but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is something else entirely, a quietly paranoid film set in a grubby, dingy 1970s. Gary Oldman plays John Le Carre's George Smiley, here brought out of retirement to help uncover a mole within the highest ranks of British intelligence. There's barely any action, and nary even a raised voice (in stark contrast with Oldman's more recent spymaster role in Slow Horses). Instead, Tinker Tailor makes the case that spy craft is about information: who has it, who controls it, and who knows how to get it. You can rent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy from Prime Video. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Russian Ark (2002) Run time: 96 minutesAs boring Russian movies go, Russian Ark is especially challenging, but also, ultimately, really lovely and rewarding. Its also a supreme technical feat, unfolding in a single, uninterrupted take. Filmed in the the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, the story, such as it is, involves an unnamed narrator who wanders the halls of the building, encountering real and fictional people from the citys 300-year history. The discussions are largely philosophical, but the scope increases as the movie progresses. By the end, weve encountered 2,000 people and multiple orchestras, all seamlessly maneuvered through time and space. You can rent Russian Ark from Prime Video. Russian Ark (2002) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Run time: 159 minutesFew Stanley Kubrick movies couldnt appear here; the director loves his deliberate pacing. Eyes Wide Shut is a particularly interesting case, though, since a movie about Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and a kinky sex cult doesnt sound like something in danger of putting people to sleep. And yet, people were initially put off by the movies chilly formalism and distant, dreamlike feel. Kubricks swan song was a bit of a bait-and-switch, promising a peek under the covers of one of Hollywoods then-hottest couples, and instead offering a slow-paced cautionary tale about the dangers of sexual obsession. You can stream Eyes Wide Shut on the Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Ikiru (1952) Run time: 143 minutesJapanese director Akira Kurosawa is best known for epics such as The Seven Samurai and Rashomon, but even in those relatively action-packed films, an ambivalence toward lives filled with violence breaks through. His filmography is also filled with quieter, more contemplative works, with 1952's Ikiru (meaning, roughly, To Live) among the best. Kanji Watanabe (Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura) plays a veteran bureaucrat who has worked in the same monotonous job for decades. At the same time he discovers that hes dying of stomach cancer, a group of parents arrives in search of permits to clear a cesspool and build a playground for the local children. Watanabe commits himself to going against everything hes learned about playing by the rules in order to help the parents cut through the red tape that would likely put an end to their dream. Its both a universal and a uniquely Japanese story about heroic deeds, even if they mostly involve shuffling paperwork. You can stream Ikiru on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Ikiru (1952) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Run time: 3 hours and 10 minutesWhat do you mean you're not into watching a three-plus hour courtroom scene? Director Stanley Kramer followed up Inherit the Wind with this legal drama depicting a fictionalized version of one of the twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals that determined the horrifying extent of Nazi war crimes following World War II. Spencer Tracy leads one of the most star-stacked casts ever(?), including Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift, among others. You can stream Judgment at Nuremberg on Tubi and MGM+ or buy it from Prime Video. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Beau Travail (1999) Run time: 90 minutesGaloup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his experiences in Djibouti, leading a section of men as part of the French Foreign Legion in writer/director Claire Deniss sun-baked queer classic. Everything is going great for Gallup until the arrival of Gilles Sentain (Grgoire Colin), who inadvertently threatens Galoups relationship with his commander, and inspires Galoup to a nearly irrational jealousy. Theres the potential for violent drama, but the film favors the languid and elliptical (also the very sweaty), building tension through stunning scenery and brilliant camerawork. Beau Travail makes frequent appearances on Best-Movies-of-All-Time lists, and deservedly so. You can stream Beau Travail on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Beau Travail (1999) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max The Straight Story (1999) Run time: 112 minutesThis one is a David Lynch movie so uncharacteristic of the director that it hardly feels like his movie; watch this Disney release back-to-back with Inland Empire and feel your brain melt. The great Richard Farnsworth, joined by Sissy Spacek, plays the real-life Alvin Straight, who crossed the country to visit his ailing brother on a riding lawnmower, going around five miles per hour, which is also about how fast the narrative moves. Lynchs sensibilities somehow bring a feeling of newness to the slow-moving story set in a rural landscape. You can stream The Straight Story on Disney+ or rent it from Prime Video. The Straight Story (1999) at Disney+ Learn More Learn More at Disney+ Weekend (2011) Run time: 97 minutesAndrew Haighs slice-of-gay-life romantic drama stars starring Tom Cullen and Chris New as a couple of guys who hook-up at club and spend the titular weekend together. They talk about their interests and pasts, eat, go for walks, and engage in some frank (especially for the time) fuckinghonestly, its still rare to find a mainstream-ish movie with even a basic understanding of the mechanics of cis gay male sex. Anyway! A planned move on Monday ups the stakes by putting a time limit on their relationship, but otherwise the dramatic beats are all emotional, with the movie providing a charming, poignant, and generally real-feeling look at modern relationships. You can stream Weekend on AMC+ and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Weekend (2011) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Before Sunrise (1995) Run time: 101 minutesJulie Delpy and Ethan Hawke wander around Vienna, having casual conversations and offering up monologues relating to their views on life, art, and love. Director Richard Linklaters minimalist, flawlessly cast movie is simultaneously soaringly romantic and completely down to earth, its no-plot premise feeling as daring and risk-taking as anything in cinema. If you like it, two more similarly slow-paced installments follow. You can rent Before Sunrise from Prime Video. Before Sunrise (1995) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Paterson (2016) Run time: 118 minutesJim Jarmusch directs Adam Driver as the title character, a bus driver and poet who follows pretty much the same routine each and every day (which is deeply relatable, even if its a lot more common in real life than onscreen). Paterson drives his bus, walks his wifes dog, and stops at a bar for a beer in the afternoon, each day writing some poetry in his notebook. As a movie, its deliberately non-dramatic, even as it turns on the kind of small event that can cause major upheaval in your life. You can stream Paterson on Prime Video and Freevee. Paterson (2016) at Freevee Learn More Learn More at Freevee Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Run time: 201 minutesEven the name of Chantal Ackermans masterpiece is long, with the finished film clocking in at over three hours and taking place over just three days, with a camera that, by design, hardly seems to move. And yet! The film captures the highly disciplined schedule of a widowed mother who goes through the same routine each day, one that includes fairly joyless sex work involving a single customer before her son gets home from school. Its all quietly captivating. When the drudgery of Jeannes day-to-day live begins to unravel, very slowly, the resulting breakdown is as fascinating, hypnotic, and as subtly horrifying as everything that came before. You can stream Jeanne Dielmann on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Jeanne Dielman (1975) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max It Follows (2014) Run time: 100 minutesWhile its pacing might not be nearly as languid as others listed here, the premise of It Follows makes clear that were on an entirely different spectrum from other chase-based horror movies; even the slowest of slow zombies could outpace the threats in writer-director David Robert Mitchells breakout film. The plot involves something that could be described as a sexually transmitted curse, in which a victim is pursued by an entity that can look like anyone. It doesnt chase you, nor is it even overtly threatening, but it will pursue you to the ends of the Earth, if need be, while taking its sweet-ass time. Its probably the movie most responsible for the elevated horror discourse; some would argue the entire sub-genre is boring as hell. You can stream It Follows on Max or rent it from Prime Video. It Follows (2014) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) Run time: 121 minutesGreek writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos, whod go on to get a pile of Oscar nominations for The Favourite the year after this one came out, is clearly never in a hurry, with each of his movies employing pacing best described as leisurely. In The Favourite, that style serves to heighten the satire; here, it helps to build a deeply unsettling atmosphere. Inspired by Greek tragedy (Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, specifically), the film introduces a seemingly perfect family (led by Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman) who come into contact with a mysterious teenager (Barry Keoghan) who gradually insinuates himself into their lives. We know hes up to something, and eventually, they do toobut its not until the final act that we fully grasp his motives, and his relentlessly planned revenge. You can stream Killing of a Sacred Deer on Max or rent it from Prime Video. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max The Seventh Seal (1957) Run time: 96 minutesTheres plenty of incident in Ingmar Bergmans historical fantasy, but theres also an awful lot of quiet. Many of the directors films build waves of deep emotion that start as bubbles just under the surface, cresting only sporadically, but powerfully. Here, instead, we have the Black Plague-era story of people at various stages of acceptance amid the sure knowledge that God, if Hes not dead, is at least entirely silent and disinterested in them. Max von Sydow plays cynical knight Antonius Block, who memorably plays chess with Death even as he encounters a parade of peasants in his travels whose only hope for happiness lies in defying entropy and embracing life. You can stream The Seventh Seal on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. The Seventh Seal (1957) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max A Ghost Story (2017) Run time: 92 minutesDirector David Lowery has a pretty stellar track record, at least outside a couple of perfectly fine Disney movies, and A Ghost Story is probably among the best contemplations of death ever put to film. A man dies unexpectedly, but instead of moving on, he haunts the wife he left behind, while wearing a traditional ghost sheet. Thats pretty much it as far as plot goes, but theres poignant beauty in the mans slow walk through the afterlife, and his growing realization that change is painful, but often hurts less than holding on. Never before or since have I wept at a scene in which a grief-stricken woman eats an entire pie. You can rent A Ghost Story from Prime Video. A Ghost Story (2017) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Drive My Car (2021) Run time: 179 minutesThe story on which the movie is based, from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore, IQ84) only runs to around 45 pages, and yet this film adaptation stretches to three hours. Its the story of a widowed theater director who forges a bond with the young woman assigned to drive him to Hiroshima for his latest project. It offers little in the way of incident, and relatively minimal dialogue, though the cinematography the sound design make those silent stretches captivating. Ultimately, its a story about the transcendent beauty of human connection, even through all of the pain that keeps us apart. Its also a film about how, sometimes, its OK to chat with your Lyft driver. You can stream Drive My Car on Max or rent it from Prime Video. Drive My Car (2021) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Barry Lyndon (1975) Run time: 185 minutesKubrick, who never really hit the same genre twice, had a go at historical drama with astounding effecteven if its probably the least watched film of his peak era. Its not hard to understand why, given the long running time and lack of sci-fi/horror trappings in the styles of a 2001 or a Shining, but its very much a Kubrick film, with all that entails. Emotions run deep but distant, and its a technical triumph, full of exquisite period detail. Though the pace is undeniably slow, sometimes to the point of languid, the story of a ruthless social climber (Ryan ONeal) is also probably the directors funniest (in a very dry way), and also his most deeply cynical. If his other films are reaching to find the goodness in humanity, this one makes the argues that some people are just shits. You can rent Barry Lyndon from Prime Video. Barry Lyndon (1975) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Thin Red Line (1998) Run time: 185 minutesIts been said its nearly impossible to make a true anti-war film, given that movies are so often in the business of enthralling and thrilling us, and how do you have a war movie without action? Writer/director Terence Malicks The Thin Red Line isnt an anti-war film, precisely, but its far more focused on the philosophy of war and its effects on the lives and minds of the soldiers that fight in it. Instead of battle sequences, were most often watching the faces of the grunts witnessing them. The result might not be the greatest war film ever, but it is something unique in the history of that genre. You can stream The Thin Red Line on Prime Video. The Thin Red Line (1998) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Valhalla Rising (2009) Run time: 92 minutesAs with Malicks unconventional take on the war film, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn does something wholly unexpected with the many Viking-adjacent movies and TV shows of the past decade. The mute One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) is a fighter, but only because hes been made to be one. In thrall to a Norwegian chieftain in the Scottish highlands, his escape sees him befriended by a slightly more talkative boy as they set out toward the coast, beset by terrifying visions (mostly) and real threats (occasionally). The film is far more concerned with mood than violence, of which theres only a bit; in the long interludes of walking and mysterious dreams lie the storys heart. You can stream Valhalla Rising on Netflix and Shudder or buy it from Prime Video. Valhalla Rising (2009) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Paris, Texas (1984) Run time: 147 minutesTravis Henderson (the late, great Harry Dean Stanton) wanders out of the desert, bewildered, and seemingly with no knowledge of who he is. A doctor manages to find his brother Walt (the also late, also great Dean Stockwell), and Travis begins a journey back to himself, and his family, and the choices that defined his life up until that point. Wim Wenders is a brilliant director of desolation, and presents the modern American west as an alien landscape equally strange, mysterious, and healing. And you get to see a lot of that landscape over the films nearly three-hour runtime. You can stream Paris, Texas on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Paris, Texas (1984) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Solaris (1972) Run time: 166 minutesSolaris is ostensibly a sci-fi thriller about first contact with an unknowable alien entity. It also includes a five-minute uninterrupted scene of a car driving through a tunnel. (Nothing exciting happens in the tunnel.) Based on the Stanislaw Lem novel, this 1972 Soviet film from boring film artiste par excellence Andrei Tarkovsky takes you to another world that also doesnt seem to have much going on, as astronaut psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to the remote Solaris space station to figure out whether its worth continuing the mission to study the planet below, which appears to be nothing more than one vast ocean. But theres something going on beneath those waves, and a beneath the endless, drawn out shots of the churning waves and the empty corridors of the station; both the movie and the alien world seek to lull you into a false sense of security. Tarkovskys goal was to move past what he saw as the cold materialism of Western science fiction into something more emotionally resonant, and damn if he didnt succeed (while also being a little dull). You can stream Solaris on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Solaris (1972) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Run time: 139 minutesOne more from Mr. Kubrick, clearly a master of very deliberate pacing. 2001 is thrilling in its scope (from the dawn of humanity, to a future enhanced and endangered by artificial intelligence, to our ultimate(?) evolutionit's easy to forget how many graceful, elegant asides there are on the journey. A shuttle docks to a space station to the Blue Danube Waltz, and that's just the first of many sequences with minimal dialogue and maximum classical music scoring. Even the film's kaleidoscopic and consequential finale eschews traditional thrills in favor of something more cerebral. Ponderous to some, there's a reason that the movie's messages and meanings have been debated for decades. You can stream 2001 on Max or rent to from Prime Video. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Stalker (1979) Run time: 161 minutesWhen the Soviet State Committee for Cinematography criticized the pace of Stalker upon its initial release, Andrei Tarkovsky allegedly retorted: "The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts." Though the "main action" here is also fairly subdued, if we're being entirely honest. In a nebulous near-future, an event of some kind has created an area known only as "The Zone," a region in which the normal rules of physics don't apply, and that's equally full of wonders and terrors, even if the aesthetic is mostly dusty post-apocalypse. It's off-limits, but there's a market for Stalkersindividuals who know their way around enough to help others find what they're looking for. In this case, our Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) is tasked by characters known only as "The Writer" and "The Professor" to help them find a room that can grant your deepest desire. It's easy to get lost in Tarkovsky's world if we're willing to give ourselves over to it, and the philosophical ideas at playincluding the question as to whether getting your heart's desire would be anything other than a disasterare genuinely compelling. You can stream Stalker on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Stalker (1979) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max La Notte (1961) Run time: 122 minutesLike all of Michelangelo Antonioni's significant films, La Notte ditches the plot in favor of telling its story through atmosphere. In modern terms? It's all vibes. Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau play a married couplean embittered novelist and his increasingly detached wifewho carry on a day's worth of social engagements despite their growing understanding that the marriage isn't working. Antonioni can find beauty in the most prosaic settings, and his ennui is more interesting than the action of many others' movies. You can stream La Notte on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. La Notte (1961) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max
