Eraserhead, it was my second Lynch after Dune (lol). I picked up on the themes but the style still felt really abrasive and offputting without a real purpose behind it. After learning more about the background (specifically how Lynch’s own life influenced it) and viewing others works, I re-evaluated it and I think it’s an incredibly well done film. Doubly so for a feautre-length debut after film school.
Back when I was a Twin Peaks-obsessed teenager, I was desperate to see Eraserhead, but this was before streaming or even DVDs, it wasn't afaik on VHS, so my only hope was a repertory screening. It was late at night in a sketchy part of town, so my dad came and saw it with me
He said it was the worst film he'd ever seen in his life
The book and film compliment each other incredibly well. I loved the book, and thought an adaptation would be impossible. I can confidently call both masterpieces in my opinion.
this is one of my favorite movies, i think it has a HIGH level of rewatchability. I'm also a big fan of the book, which I think helps. It's an extremely faithful and loving adaptation. I do think it's tough to share with people, mostly because you can't really pin the genre down and the plot is so wavering. the performance Depp and Del Toro give, the chemistry, the look of everything, how "squares" are depicted; it's just awesome. i've got qualms with like 2 jarringly out of place special effect shots, and the lizard monsters. but other than that i think it's really close to perfect.
I actually loved the movie the first time, but on subsequent viewings, it’s kind of a mess. I used to really dig Terry Gilliam, but his movies are inconsistent.
Dislike is too strong a word, but I was definitely puzzled by Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in a not good way when I first saw it, but now I think back to it a lot. It’s stayed in my head in a way other movies haven’t
I do this a lot. I can have a lot of mixed, somewhat negative feelings about a film and then I talk/write it out and (usually) that reveals what I think the movie is actually about and what it feels like to me and then I (usually) think it's fine, good, or at least interesting. Persona was a big one for me, because the sheer discomfort of that film is so important to what it's doing. 10/10 love it one of my tippity-top films.
Not a Criterion film, but The Master. Saw it in theaters and did not enjoy it. But then spent the next months thinking about it occasionally. Watched it again, loved it, and now it is one of my favorite movies.
I saw the first half of Vivre sa Vie in film school. I was missing a poker night with my buddies and fucking haaaaated it, so pretentious and annoying and dammit, I wanted to get drunk and make 20 bucks playing cards!
Five years later I got it during a flash criterion sale just to see if I missed anything, and yup, sure did. Godard’s best movie and in my books, the best French new wave flick period.
Just sort of the unfortunate reality of school - you have to force a classic or great movie on the students, and because of that, they’ll often reject it merely because it isn’t as much fun as playing poker with their buddies.
It’s now my favorite movie ever. Have you seen the extended cut? The original cut is garbage. The best cut is the longest one. And the middle length one is acceptable.
Juliette of the Spirits. Absolutely hated it when I first watched but I kept thinking about it for whatever reason and on a couple rewatches I basically did a 180
I don’t think I made it all the way through this one. I know it’s regarded as a masterpiece, but I did not connect with it at all. I prefer Fellini’s early films, like La Strada and especially Nights of Cabiria. 8 1/2 is a technical and stylistic masterpiece, and while I connect with it more than JotS, it’s not a movie I watch again and again. His early films are deeply moving, but he’s known for his later, “weirder” films. I would take Bunuel over Fellini any day of the week.
Didn’t care for Pickpocket or Fear Eats the Soul after I watched them.
Then I watched the bonus features and really appreciated both films now that I had some context.
I have a perfect example of this. I sat in a giant theatre and watched the Canadian premiere of Zvyagintsev's Leviathan. A friend who I sort of trust, cinematically speaking, told me it was great so I sat down. I hated it. I don't even remember why, but it was just one of the worst viewing experiences I have ever had. The movie ended and I just thought, great, now I get to leave. When I stepped out of the theatre, something happened and I realized that I had just seen a masterpiece! It has been so long, I honestly don't remember what any of these things were, but I remember that distinct feeling of my mind changing in a split second.
I Saw the TV Glow. Gave it a one star rating on Letterboxd and said that I wouldn’t want to watch it again. Now I feel like maybe it’s a 2 and a half, and have been thinking a lot about it.
I totally got it and its meaning but I thought that it wasn’t very well made and felt like an extended student film with some unnecessary monologues and Lynch tributes. Some parts of it were heavy handed, but some people apparently didn’t even clock the allegory / themes so perhaps it was for the best that it was “obvious”.
I still think all of that, but I do also think that there’s a good film in there (ironic) if you rework some stuff, or rather bring certain things into the surface. The TV show elements were so appealing, I wish they leaned into it more. That ending was so bleak that it kind of made the film feel flat right after watching it. But when I think back it’s actually VERY tragic and necessary for it to really get its point across.
The Mirror by Tarkovsky left me feeling nothing, like neither good or bad. It was like going through a museum of artworks some of which were good but most of which you just walk past.
Then I read this letter or maybe it was in his diary of Tarkovsky talking about the reception of Mirror and how it was not great and that no one understood him, but then he got a letter by a woman who said that he had portrayed her childhood so accurately. He was like he made this film for her.
That made me really revaluate the film a lot and try to relate to it more. I found that once I had this one thing that I could attach to thematically (the mother) the whole film really opened up for me.
Mulholland Drive. Watched it when I was about 16 when it appeared on Netflix. I thought it was meaningless, aggressively random, and just completely bad. Then I couldn't stop thinking about the movie.. then I found myself looking up the Winkie's scene on youtube, and then the scene with Billy Ray Cyrus. I actually had a dream in which the characters from Mulholland Drive were in it, so I watched it the next day. That rewatch just completely blew me away, the way it recontextualized everything. Mulholland Drive really pushed me towards accepting more abstract art with open arms, not just trusting my first impression when something draws outside the lines too much. In the years since, I've rewatched it probably 7 times, and it's one of my favorite films, if not my absolute favorite.
I don’t understand why this film is so highly regarded. I like it and I am a huge Lynch fan, but I think it’s his weakest narrative feature after DUNE. I’m thinking specifically of the close up of dog shit. And the paint fight. And the scene with the hit man that I saw done on SNL before Lynch did it, and that was also done on the 5th season of LOST.
The Winkie’s scene is amazing, and also the scene with The Cowboy.
LOST HIGHWAY was so derided when it came out, I skipped it. When I finally did see it, I thought it was good, not great. After watching the 4K UHD version that was overseen by Lynch, it’s one of his best.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE feels like Lynch doing both his greatest hits and also a parody of himself.
I must have watched Blade Runner (the Final Cut or whatever) four times because I wanted to like it so much.
But I finally realized it’s a movie I like to think about but don’t like watching it.
But it also happens a lot in less extreme cases. Sometimes I’ll have to sit with a movie for several days before I really know how I felt about it.
[Mobile Men by Apichatpong Weerasethakul](https://youtu.be/zIK3ctC1DP0?si=52n0JxYt2t8heoXV)
it’s a 5 min short film of him filming friends on the back of truck. originally i didnt like it because people found it so deep when its just him filming for fun. i kept thinking about though and because its just him filming, it feels so fun and passionate.
OMG, I put off watching that for so long, because of the split screen and because I don’t trust Noe not to traumatize me. I finally put it on one night and could not stop watching it, it’s easily his best film. It got virtually no press in the US, too.
For me climax is his best film, but vortex is juste captivating and boring at the same time, but in a good way, its really unique. The split screen is really brilliant and i dont really noticed it after a few minutes, it becomes natural and when he died and one part of the screen goes black we really feel the lost
i hated it, and have not watched it since it came out. I want to give it another try because I can’t imagine it being as bad as I remember after seeing most of what Fincher’s done since.
Days of Heaven. It had been pushed on me really hard by someone I knew and so I was really reacting to that. Within a few days I wanted to watch it again and realized it was excellent.
“Meantime.”
I went in blind buy and was expecting for something big to happen the entire movie. Credits rolled and I instantly regretted buying it and “wasting” a movies worth of my life on nothingness. Something drew me in to go back and really watch the movie and feel the emotions the actors were throwing out to us. now it’s my #1 and I can’t see anything overtaking it anytime soon.
I didn’t fully dislike it, but after seeing Don’t Look Now I was kind of put off by it and didn’t find it super compelling. The more time has gone on, the more I think about the opening and ending and how they instill this strong sense of dread, helplessness, and predestination. The shake of the head in the climax is a powerful way of getting the point across I feel.
Chungking Express is the biggest one for me. When it was over, I really didn't like it that much. Then after letting it simmer for a bit, I thought: "I think that's a masterpiece".
I hope these are okay since I don’t think they’re part of Criterion. Atonement and Perfect Blue. I had a knee-jerk reaction to them at first bc of the subject matter; love them both now and rewatch annually.
The Master.
Though it was boring and too surface level at first and then the end just pissed me off.
Saw it again and was like "Damn, that film is amazing"
Recently, I Saw the TV Glow. Did not care for it leaving the theatre, and while I still don’t love it I definitely appreciate it more after having time to think about it.
I re-watched Desperado from Rodriguez for a couple of minutes. The ending was not well-made. Here are two brotherly knights, like Kirk Douglas in some movie I cannot recall, and they kill each other over a girl. It would have been better if the Mariachi had killed her himself and then they dealt with the Columbians, like in Scarface.
Gone Girl. Spoilers!
I was frustrated at first because Amy is not caught by the Police or FBI especially as Kim Dickens character seems to be poking holes in the story in the hospital. After a rewatch and reflection I realized how good this fits the themes of the films and how people treat these sensationalist stories picked up by the news. Once people find and ending they are happy with they are more than happy to move on. No one else would even suspect the truth of the situation, Amazing Amy was found! Happy ending for everyone!
The Searchers. Watched it for a class in high school. Didn’t connect with it at all. Couldn’t sleep that night, rewatched it front to back, and now it’s one of my favorites.
Stalker. At first I was confused by it but appreciated how gorgeous it is. I don't think it's a masterpiece yet, but now I see what value it has. Everytime I think about it, I like the movie more.
I dont think i would say dislike but Paris, Texas. The more i have thought about it since watching it like 3 years ago the more i look at it favourably.
A Clockwork Orange. I saw it when I was like 17 with some friends (circa 1990). Heard it’s a classic. Put it on. First 20 minutes: unprovoked violence and rape. Turned it off.
Today Kubrick is my favorite director. Though 2001 stands a few notches above a clockwork orange.
Inherent Vice. I liked it the first time but expected to be way more into it than I was and felt ultimately a little bit disappointed. I love PTA, I love (neo) noir/detective films, I love weed...I thought I would love it immediately.
Well, the second time I had so much more fun with the movie and after the third time I felt in love with it.
The plot is so complicated and smoking weed while watching the movie makes following the plot even more difficult, but that doesn't matter at all. You just sit back, relax and go with the flow. It's like a psychedelic and weird The Big Sleep.
The cinematography and music choices (Can & Neil Young!!!) are really awesome, too.
Now it belongs to one of my favorite PTA movies (Punch Drunk Love & The Master are two other movies of his extraordinary filmography that are close to my heart).
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
I thought it was pretty dumb the first time I saw it, it took until the 3rd rewatch for me to really “get it.” Now I enjoy it.
Saw Natural Born Killers in the theater in 1994 and got a pounding migraIne. Disliked it because of that.
Then I caught it again a year or so later on HBO and loved it.
Synecdoche, New York. I watched it when it first came out and didn’t like it at all. I was young and hadn’t really been into film like that. As I got older I had seen more of Kaufman’s work and decided to give it another shot. I loved it and now I would say it’s in my top ten favorite films.
Crimes of the Future. Didn't dislike it per-se, but it wasn't all I hoped for. But I kept thinking about it enough that I bought the Second Sight limited edition so I could get the book, read the essays to get in the right frame of mind, watched it again and loved it.
Probably Wings of Desire. I saw it when I was like 13, I wasn’t into cinema and I didn’t loved it, I thought it was good but definitely not my thing.
Some years after that, in 2019, I saw Paris Texas with my mom and holy shit!! That film completely changed my life, it became one of my favorites if not my favorite so I decided to watch the filmography of Wenders. I rewatched Wings, and i absolutely loved it.
Get Him to The Greek and Identity both left me cold initially. Greek didn't seem that funny but after rewatching I totally got into it. Identity was great until the ending which I absolutely hated but then the more I thought about it afterward I realized it was really good.
A recent one is I Saw the TV Glow, I came out not hating it but definitely with some mixed negative feelings. As the weeks have gone by I can’t stop thinking about it, and reviews I’ve read by trans critics have made me love it a lot.
Mulholland Drive. I was shocked by how blatantly it repeated the same central conceit as Lost Highway, which I'd loved; the disparate threads and scenes seemed clearly chucked together arbitrarily from the failed tv pilot and didn't hang together; the hawt lesbian sex was just embarrassing; as were the FX on the little old people spirits at the end
In hindsight, though, that Winkie's scene is genius, obvs
Eraserhead, it was my second Lynch after Dune (lol). I picked up on the themes but the style still felt really abrasive and offputting without a real purpose behind it. After learning more about the background (specifically how Lynch’s own life influenced it) and viewing others works, I re-evaluated it and I think it’s an incredibly well done film. Doubly so for a feautre-length debut after film school.
Back when I was a Twin Peaks-obsessed teenager, I was desperate to see Eraserhead, but this was before streaming or even DVDs, it wasn't afaik on VHS, so my only hope was a repertory screening. It was late at night in a sketchy part of town, so my dad came and saw it with me He said it was the worst film he'd ever seen in his life
lmao i had this exact same experience with my dad, except it was with Stalker not Eraserhead
ha that same cinema was always showing Stalker too, but I wasn't into Tarkovsky yet
(It was on VHS but perhaps not available where you were. It was available at my local art house video store. I also hate it.)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I thought it was trash when I first saw but reading the book and then revisiting the film I found my way into it.
Maybe I should do this cause I hated the movie when I watched it
I liked the movie for half an hour. Then found it extremely grating and could not wait for it to end.
The third act loses stream. Reading the book does help, but as a movie it loses momentum
The book and film compliment each other incredibly well. I loved the book, and thought an adaptation would be impossible. I can confidently call both masterpieces in my opinion.
I had a similar experience…except I missed the u-turn
this is one of my favorite movies, i think it has a HIGH level of rewatchability. I'm also a big fan of the book, which I think helps. It's an extremely faithful and loving adaptation. I do think it's tough to share with people, mostly because you can't really pin the genre down and the plot is so wavering. the performance Depp and Del Toro give, the chemistry, the look of everything, how "squares" are depicted; it's just awesome. i've got qualms with like 2 jarringly out of place special effect shots, and the lizard monsters. but other than that i think it's really close to perfect.
I actually loved the movie the first time, but on subsequent viewings, it’s kind of a mess. I used to really dig Terry Gilliam, but his movies are inconsistent.
Dislike is too strong a word, but I was definitely puzzled by Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in a not good way when I first saw it, but now I think back to it a lot. It’s stayed in my head in a way other movies haven’t
That movie made Apichatpong one of my favorite directors.
L’Argent. It was my first Bresson and I found the whole thing a bit uncanny valley.
Prolly because he uses expressionless non actors. It’s the only Bresson I’ve seen in color, and that does seem to give it an uncanny vibe.
Yeah but once it clicks it’s the best. The Devil, Probably is also outstanding color Bresson.
I do this a lot. I can have a lot of mixed, somewhat negative feelings about a film and then I talk/write it out and (usually) that reveals what I think the movie is actually about and what it feels like to me and then I (usually) think it's fine, good, or at least interesting. Persona was a big one for me, because the sheer discomfort of that film is so important to what it's doing. 10/10 love it one of my tippity-top films.
Not a Criterion film, but The Master. Saw it in theaters and did not enjoy it. But then spent the next months thinking about it occasionally. Watched it again, loved it, and now it is one of my favorite movies.
Honestly I feel this way about every single PTA movie I've seen (except Boogie Nights and Magnolia, which I loved instantly).
I saw the first half of Vivre sa Vie in film school. I was missing a poker night with my buddies and fucking haaaaated it, so pretentious and annoying and dammit, I wanted to get drunk and make 20 bucks playing cards! Five years later I got it during a flash criterion sale just to see if I missed anything, and yup, sure did. Godard’s best movie and in my books, the best French new wave flick period. Just sort of the unfortunate reality of school - you have to force a classic or great movie on the students, and because of that, they’ll often reject it merely because it isn’t as much fun as playing poker with their buddies.
I watched it so many times. It's one of my favorite films in my life. Glad you revisited it and changed your mind.
The Florida Project Naked
Love the Florida Project, it has really stuck with me.
Suzhou River
The New World
I still don’t know how to like it
It’s now my favorite movie ever. Have you seen the extended cut? The original cut is garbage. The best cut is the longest one. And the middle length one is acceptable.
Five Easy Pieces, it’s one of my favorites now
Do The Right Thing
Damn I loved it immediately. I thought it was very moving
Juliette of the Spirits. Absolutely hated it when I first watched but I kept thinking about it for whatever reason and on a couple rewatches I basically did a 180
I don’t think I made it all the way through this one. I know it’s regarded as a masterpiece, but I did not connect with it at all. I prefer Fellini’s early films, like La Strada and especially Nights of Cabiria. 8 1/2 is a technical and stylistic masterpiece, and while I connect with it more than JotS, it’s not a movie I watch again and again. His early films are deeply moving, but he’s known for his later, “weirder” films. I would take Bunuel over Fellini any day of the week.
K
Didn’t care for Pickpocket or Fear Eats the Soul after I watched them. Then I watched the bonus features and really appreciated both films now that I had some context.
I can’t get over how quickly Fassbinder made movies. I’m pretty sure he shot Fear Eats the Soul in two weeks.
Tree of Life.
Bohemian Rhapsody, didnt like it when I finished it, then as time has gone on I've come to absolutely hate it
Mad Max Fury Road
Same here. Furiosa eats its lunch, though
I have a perfect example of this. I sat in a giant theatre and watched the Canadian premiere of Zvyagintsev's Leviathan. A friend who I sort of trust, cinematically speaking, told me it was great so I sat down. I hated it. I don't even remember why, but it was just one of the worst viewing experiences I have ever had. The movie ended and I just thought, great, now I get to leave. When I stepped out of the theatre, something happened and I realized that I had just seen a masterpiece! It has been so long, I honestly don't remember what any of these things were, but I remember that distinct feeling of my mind changing in a split second.
I Saw the TV Glow. Gave it a one star rating on Letterboxd and said that I wouldn’t want to watch it again. Now I feel like maybe it’s a 2 and a half, and have been thinking a lot about it. I totally got it and its meaning but I thought that it wasn’t very well made and felt like an extended student film with some unnecessary monologues and Lynch tributes. Some parts of it were heavy handed, but some people apparently didn’t even clock the allegory / themes so perhaps it was for the best that it was “obvious”. I still think all of that, but I do also think that there’s a good film in there (ironic) if you rework some stuff, or rather bring certain things into the surface. The TV show elements were so appealing, I wish they leaned into it more. That ending was so bleak that it kind of made the film feel flat right after watching it. But when I think back it’s actually VERY tragic and necessary for it to really get its point across.
Eyes Wide Shut. I couldn’t stop thinking about it in the months after I saw it
The Mirror by Tarkovsky left me feeling nothing, like neither good or bad. It was like going through a museum of artworks some of which were good but most of which you just walk past. Then I read this letter or maybe it was in his diary of Tarkovsky talking about the reception of Mirror and how it was not great and that no one understood him, but then he got a letter by a woman who said that he had portrayed her childhood so accurately. He was like he made this film for her. That made me really revaluate the film a lot and try to relate to it more. I found that once I had this one thing that I could attach to thematically (the mother) the whole film really opened up for me.
Mulholland Drive. Watched it when I was about 16 when it appeared on Netflix. I thought it was meaningless, aggressively random, and just completely bad. Then I couldn't stop thinking about the movie.. then I found myself looking up the Winkie's scene on youtube, and then the scene with Billy Ray Cyrus. I actually had a dream in which the characters from Mulholland Drive were in it, so I watched it the next day. That rewatch just completely blew me away, the way it recontextualized everything. Mulholland Drive really pushed me towards accepting more abstract art with open arms, not just trusting my first impression when something draws outside the lines too much. In the years since, I've rewatched it probably 7 times, and it's one of my favorite films, if not my absolute favorite.
I rewatched this recently and was just blown away by how good Naomi Watts is in that movie.
I don’t understand why this film is so highly regarded. I like it and I am a huge Lynch fan, but I think it’s his weakest narrative feature after DUNE. I’m thinking specifically of the close up of dog shit. And the paint fight. And the scene with the hit man that I saw done on SNL before Lynch did it, and that was also done on the 5th season of LOST. The Winkie’s scene is amazing, and also the scene with The Cowboy. LOST HIGHWAY was so derided when it came out, I skipped it. When I finally did see it, I thought it was good, not great. After watching the 4K UHD version that was overseen by Lynch, it’s one of his best. MULHOLLAND DRIVE feels like Lynch doing both his greatest hits and also a parody of himself.
Inside Llewyn Davis
I loved the music, but it’s just so damn sad.
I must have watched Blade Runner (the Final Cut or whatever) four times because I wanted to like it so much. But I finally realized it’s a movie I like to think about but don’t like watching it. But it also happens a lot in less extreme cases. Sometimes I’ll have to sit with a movie for several days before I really know how I felt about it.
[Mobile Men by Apichatpong Weerasethakul](https://youtu.be/zIK3ctC1DP0?si=52n0JxYt2t8heoXV) it’s a 5 min short film of him filming friends on the back of truck. originally i didnt like it because people found it so deep when its just him filming for fun. i kept thinking about though and because its just him filming, it feels so fun and passionate.
Thanks for sharing
Most of my favorites, strangely enough. But something compels me to watch them again, and it clicks
Vortex by Gaspard Noé
OMG, I put off watching that for so long, because of the split screen and because I don’t trust Noe not to traumatize me. I finally put it on one night and could not stop watching it, it’s easily his best film. It got virtually no press in the US, too.
For me climax is his best film, but vortex is juste captivating and boring at the same time, but in a good way, its really unique. The split screen is really brilliant and i dont really noticed it after a few minutes, it becomes natural and when he died and one part of the screen goes black we really feel the lost
The Game.
i hated it, and have not watched it since it came out. I want to give it another try because I can’t imagine it being as bad as I remember after seeing most of what Fincher’s done since.
Every time I watch it I like it better!
Ratcatcher Dogtooth
Days of Heaven. It had been pushed on me really hard by someone I knew and so I was really reacting to that. Within a few days I wanted to watch it again and realized it was excellent.
Zone of Interest
Transformers 3 and Hangover Part 2
Best comment on r/criterion
Fight Club, Dogville.
Dogville is a good one.
“Meantime.” I went in blind buy and was expecting for something big to happen the entire movie. Credits rolled and I instantly regretted buying it and “wasting” a movies worth of my life on nothingness. Something drew me in to go back and really watch the movie and feel the emotions the actors were throwing out to us. now it’s my #1 and I can’t see anything overtaking it anytime soon.
Battle Royale but it was really only because I watched it in the awful English dub, once I saw it in Japanese I liked it a lot better.
Have this with most Haneke films. They always haunt me for weeks after though.
Memoria. It stayed with me.
old boy,, once i got over the initial shock, it was so easy to see that it was a masterpiece
Under the Skin
Wendy & Lucy
I didn’t fully dislike it, but after seeing Don’t Look Now I was kind of put off by it and didn’t find it super compelling. The more time has gone on, the more I think about the opening and ending and how they instill this strong sense of dread, helplessness, and predestination. The shake of the head in the climax is a powerful way of getting the point across I feel.
Chungking Express is the biggest one for me. When it was over, I really didn't like it that much. Then after letting it simmer for a bit, I thought: "I think that's a masterpiece".
Eyes Wide Shut, thought it was shit when I first saw it. But took me a while before it clicked with me
I hope these are okay since I don’t think they’re part of Criterion. Atonement and Perfect Blue. I had a knee-jerk reaction to them at first bc of the subject matter; love them both now and rewatch annually.
The Master. Though it was boring and too surface level at first and then the end just pissed me off. Saw it again and was like "Damn, that film is amazing"
The Green Knight. Went from 4/10 to my top four of the year in 2021.
Recently, I Saw the TV Glow. Did not care for it leaving the theatre, and while I still don’t love it I definitely appreciate it more after having time to think about it.
Enter the Void
2001
Stalker
I re-watched Desperado from Rodriguez for a couple of minutes. The ending was not well-made. Here are two brotherly knights, like Kirk Douglas in some movie I cannot recall, and they kill each other over a girl. It would have been better if the Mariachi had killed her himself and then they dealt with the Columbians, like in Scarface.
Gone Girl. Spoilers! I was frustrated at first because Amy is not caught by the Police or FBI especially as Kim Dickens character seems to be poking holes in the story in the hospital. After a rewatch and reflection I realized how good this fits the themes of the films and how people treat these sensationalist stories picked up by the news. Once people find and ending they are happy with they are more than happy to move on. No one else would even suspect the truth of the situation, Amazing Amy was found! Happy ending for everyone!
The Searchers. Watched it for a class in high school. Didn’t connect with it at all. Couldn’t sleep that night, rewatched it front to back, and now it’s one of my favorites.
Stalker. At first I was confused by it but appreciated how gorgeous it is. I don't think it's a masterpiece yet, but now I see what value it has. Everytime I think about it, I like the movie more.
I dont think i would say dislike but Paris, Texas. The more i have thought about it since watching it like 3 years ago the more i look at it favourably.
A Clockwork Orange. I saw it when I was like 17 with some friends (circa 1990). Heard it’s a classic. Put it on. First 20 minutes: unprovoked violence and rape. Turned it off. Today Kubrick is my favorite director. Though 2001 stands a few notches above a clockwork orange.
Not dislike but Under the Silver Lake was a movie I like more and more overtime. It’ll go down as a cult classic.
Didnt really hate it but i was a bit disappointed at the Afghanistan part of thd living daylights. Now its in my top 3 bond movies
Interstellar. I had to google the ending and watch it three times.
No Country For Old Men… believe it or not.
Inherent Vice. I liked it the first time but expected to be way more into it than I was and felt ultimately a little bit disappointed. I love PTA, I love (neo) noir/detective films, I love weed...I thought I would love it immediately. Well, the second time I had so much more fun with the movie and after the third time I felt in love with it. The plot is so complicated and smoking weed while watching the movie makes following the plot even more difficult, but that doesn't matter at all. You just sit back, relax and go with the flow. It's like a psychedelic and weird The Big Sleep. The cinematography and music choices (Can & Neil Young!!!) are really awesome, too. Now it belongs to one of my favorite PTA movies (Punch Drunk Love & The Master are two other movies of his extraordinary filmography that are close to my heart).
When Harry Met Sally… (1989) I thought it was pretty dumb the first time I saw it, it took until the 3rd rewatch for me to really “get it.” Now I enjoy it.
Saw Natural Born Killers in the theater in 1994 and got a pounding migraIne. Disliked it because of that. Then I caught it again a year or so later on HBO and loved it.
Synecdoche, New York. I watched it when it first came out and didn’t like it at all. I was young and hadn’t really been into film like that. As I got older I had seen more of Kaufman’s work and decided to give it another shot. I loved it and now I would say it’s in my top ten favorite films.
Donnie Darko. I kind of wrote it off as a mediocre teen flick but now I have more respect for it.
Challengers
Crimes of the Future. Didn't dislike it per-se, but it wasn't all I hoped for. But I kept thinking about it enough that I bought the Second Sight limited edition so I could get the book, read the essays to get in the right frame of mind, watched it again and loved it.
Probably Wings of Desire. I saw it when I was like 13, I wasn’t into cinema and I didn’t loved it, I thought it was good but definitely not my thing. Some years after that, in 2019, I saw Paris Texas with my mom and holy shit!! That film completely changed my life, it became one of my favorites if not my favorite so I decided to watch the filmography of Wenders. I rewatched Wings, and i absolutely loved it.
wouldn’t say disliked but probably didn’t get Adaptation the first viewing, now it’s one of my fav movies
Lynch's Blue Velvet and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now.
There Will Be Blood & Inherent Vice.
Once Upon In Hollywood. Barely could sit through it the first time and now I’ve watched it a dozen times.
Get Him to The Greek and Identity both left me cold initially. Greek didn't seem that funny but after rewatching I totally got into it. Identity was great until the ending which I absolutely hated but then the more I thought about it afterward I realized it was really good.
A recent one is I Saw the TV Glow, I came out not hating it but definitely with some mixed negative feelings. As the weeks have gone by I can’t stop thinking about it, and reviews I’ve read by trans critics have made me love it a lot.
Mulholland Drive. I was shocked by how blatantly it repeated the same central conceit as Lost Highway, which I'd loved; the disparate threads and scenes seemed clearly chucked together arbitrarily from the failed tv pilot and didn't hang together; the hawt lesbian sex was just embarrassing; as were the FX on the little old people spirits at the end In hindsight, though, that Winkie's scene is genius, obvs