Staff Picks
Movies That Make You Feel Smart
- Bryan B.
- Monday, December 30, 2019
Collection
These works are cerebral and often deceptive. They feature brilliant characters in fantastic situations who either outsmart or are outsmarted in extreme, life-or-death situations. These movies are often heavy, and require all your attention to make sure you keep up with the twists and turns throughout.
2001 a Space Odyssey.
Published in 2007
A space voyage to Jupiter erupts in disaster when the ship's computer goes mad. Includes commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth, 4 featurettes, audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick, and trailer.
Arrival
Published in 2017
When mysterious spacecraft touch down around the world, a team ,including linguist Louise Banks, is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers, and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
Being John Malkovich
Published in 2012
An out-of-work puppeteer takes a filing clerk job on the cramped seventh floor of an office building where he discovers a hidden tunnel allowing him to enter the mind and life of actor John Malkovich for 15 minutes before being ejected onto the New Jersey Turnpike.
Birdman
Published in 2015
A darkly comic story of an actor famous for portraying an iconic superhero as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Published in 2004
Joel is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. He begins to undergo the same procedure, but from deep within his brain he attempts to escape the process.
Ex Machina
Published in 2015
Caleb, a 24-year-old coder at the world's largest Internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a retreat belonging to the company's reclusive CEO, Nathan. But when Caleb arrives he finds that he will have to participate in a fascinating experiment with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot woman, Ava. Truths, emotions, and motives are blurred as the relationship between Caleb, Ava, and Nathan intensifies.
Inception
Published in 2010
Dom Cobb is the best there is at extraction: stealing valuable secrets inside the subconscious during the mind's vulnerable dream state. His skill has made him a coveted player in industrial espionage, but also has made him a fugitive and cost him dearly. Now he may get a second chance if he can do the impossible: inception, planting an idea rather than stealing one. If they succeed, Cobb and his team could pull off the perfect crime.
Interstellar
Published in 2015
With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.
Jerome Bixby's The Man from Earth
Published in 2017
An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.
Limitless
Published in 2011
Thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language.
Looper
Published in 2013
In the year 2074, the mob sends problem people back in time, where a hired gun awaits to eliminate them. Joe is one such hired gun, good at what he does. But problems arise when the mob tries to 'close the loop,' and Joe comes face-to-face with his future self during a hit. When Joe's future self escapes after he hesitates to finish the assignment, Joe must chase himself down and finish the job.
The Martian
Published in 2016
After a bad storm blows across Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind. Now stuck on a hostile planet, he must find a way to signal to Earth and, in the meantime, survive on limited supplies.
Memento
Published in 2018
Leonard Shelby is searching for the man who raped and murdered his wife. He survived, but developed a mind block due to the attack. He can remember everything from before, but memories of anything that followed come and go every few minutes.
Moneyball
Published in 2011
The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.
[Pi]
Published in 2001
A brilliant mathematician teeters on the brink of insanity as he searches for an elusive numerical code that will allow him to predict patterns in the stock market.
The Prestige
Published in 2007
A bitter rivalry between two magicians turns deadly as one tries to find the secret to the other's most powerful trick. Bonus features include commentary, a photo gallery, and more.
Shutter Island
Published in 2010
When U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels arrives at the asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, what starts as a routine investigation quickly takes a sinister turn. As the investigation unfolds and Daniels uncovers more shocking and terrifying truths about the island, he also learns there are some places that never let you go. Includes featurettes.
Synecdoche, New York
Published in 2009
Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He instructs each to live out their constructed lives in a small mockup of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off track. His daughter, Olive, is growing up under questionable guidance. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress Claire into the ground. His daughter, Ariel, is mentally handicapped. He steadily blurs the line between the world of the play and that of his own deteriorating reality. As he pushes the limits of his relationships, both personally and professionally, a change in creative direction arrives in Millicent Weems, a celebrated theater actress who may offer Caden the break he needs.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Published in 2012
At the height of the Cold War, a precarious operation goes deadly wrong, and the head of British Intelligence wonders if a double agent is leaking vital secrets. Brought out of retirement to expose the potential mole, master spy George Smiley is the only one who can be trusted to expose one of their own. Or can he? As the emotional and physical tolls mount on the high-ranking suspects, Smiley will be forced into the ultimate international spy game where everyone's motives are in question.
The Truman Show
Published in 2017
An insurance salesman, Truman Burbank, begins to doubt reality when he realizes that his life is a TV program. Nominated for six Golden Globes.
The Usual Suspects
Published in 2002
A group of the 'usual suspects' is brought in for questioning for a crime. While together, the crooks team up and begin their own dealings, but get caught up with a mysterious criminal, Keyser Soze.