I'm a movie buff so this is one of my favorite questions for getting to know people. What are some of your favorite movies - specifically those ones that strike a particular chord with you? I'd be willing to bet there's a lot of overlap with this community. Themes of hidden worlds and trippy visuals and dreamlike storytelling.

I'll get started:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Fucking amazing. There's a scene where he's sitting in a car looking out the window at night - along the side of the road are piled up refuse from his breaking memories - all the pieces of his relationship, all the places he's known in random piles along the highwayside.

For All Mankind - Beautiful documentary on the Apollo missions. It isn't dry - no talking heads - it's about the emotional experience of BEING ON THE FUCKING MOON. It's all real film footage taken by the Apollo astronauts with voice-over from the men themselves talking about the experience. Watching all of this candid footage taken by guys who were essentially tasked with living out of their tiny house (the lem) on the moon for a few days and hearing Charlie Duke talk about the dream he had where he discovered himself, ancient and dead, on the lunar surface... By far the best Apollo/moon documentary made.

Brazil - Wild fucking manic beautiful hilarious bleak dystopian dream. Terry Gilliam's best movie.

The Matrix - It's The Matrix. I'll never forget the first time I saw it, back in theaters when I had no idea what in the hell "The Matrix" even WAS. Discovering it for the first time was incredible.

Dark City - Art deco dream. It's as if Edward Hopper was a dark surrealist.

Synecdoche, NY - Best movie I've ever seen at capturing dream logic. The movie's told from an interior space, where all fears and anxieties are manifest.

The Fountain - A bit of a mixed bag, with some cornball dialogue and writing... But the "astronaut" scenes are unholy-beautiful. Quiet, peaceful, melancholy cosmic journey in a spaceship that happens to be a tree-of-life snowglobe. Holy shit.

Spirited Away - When the veil to the spirit realm begins to thin at dusk early in the film, and the ghosts begin to appear in the marketplace - At this point I am SO DOWN for this movie that nothing could fuck it up. And it only gets better and better.

Modern Times - I adore Charlie Chaplin movies. City Lights and The Great Dictator are also favorites. Modern Times has some truly brilliant imagery. The worker caught in the cogs of the great machine, and when they put him on the assembly line and the repetition fries his brain - he takes his wrench on the street and, more automaton than human, attempts to tweak everything the wrench can fit, from fire hydrants to a scandalized woman's breasts.

Alien - The first act of this movie, touching down on the alien planet and discovering this ancient derelict vessel - it is so utterly strange, so dark, so alien, nothing has topped it in sci-fi since.

I could go on and on, but seeing as how I already have, I'll leave the door open for others.

Fear and Loathing

Just saw that one last year. Amazing movie. Definitely more than a vestige of truth in it!

The Nines was cool.

Movie Bin

Blue Velvet

Nice list so far. I'd add Baraka for a storyless documentary of global culture. Grave of the Fireflies for a look at WWII from the eyes of Japanese children. Miracle Planet is a fantastic documentary about the drama life on earth has gone through (we survived a full global fire and a full global freeze?!?!). Persepolis is a great narration of the Iranian struggle for freedom. Momento turns all of your thoughts on memory on its head.

I could go on, but I'll leave my list at that...

Baraka is one of my favorites as well. It's beautiful to watch and really shows the diversity of life around the world. Amazing cinematography as well.

I think Avatar is worth mentioning also.

Well I know ill never stop liking star wars

..may the force be with you! PrimateSphinx, something tells me George Lucas didn't totally miss out on the 'psychedelic 60s'..

i might throw in Solaris (original Russian and George Clooney re-make) Zardoz (John Boorman 70s, he also directed Excalibur, and The Emerald Forest, with the yopo-snuffing scene) & Simulation 3 (the original matrix-twist movie, based on the novel)
.

V for Vendetta. "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.

K-PAXX "Everyone on K-PAXX knows right from wrong"

Grave of the firefly.

Just watched Koyaanisqatsi the other night, which was a fantastic movie. I've seen Baraka before as well which is also excellent. Both were made by similar filmmakers if I'm not mistaken. Also, I just read that the maker of Baraka made a new movie which is a sequel in spirit titled Samsara. It should be released to DVD in the next few months.

Aside from cool art movies, I'm a huge fan of The Big Lebowski and basically every other movie by the Coen brothers. Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, and No Country For Old Men are some of my other favorites by them.

I've been watching a lot of Hitchcock lately. Rear Window is probably the best one I've seen by him.

Robocop is an ultra classic. One of my top five favorite flicks for sure. Some of the best villains ever put to celluloid, a great soundtrack, and loads of good humor, with great action to top it all off.

City of God is really incredible, and if anyone reading this hasn't seen it, go out and buy/rent/netflix a copy immediately. If you are a fan of movies you will not be disappointed.

"Breaking the Waves" by Lars von Trier.

The big lebowski
the secret of kells
the Life aquatic
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Where the Buffalo Roam - Awesome movie with Bill Murray playing Hunter S. Thompson
Human Nature
Strange Wilderness
Into the Wild
Good copy Bad copy
Super Troopers
Howard Marks Mr Nice
Ghandi
Dog Day Afternoon
How High
Rolling Kansas
Encino Man
Idiocracy
Charlie Wilsons War
Old School Planet of the Apes
Pineapple Express
Top Secret
A Beautiful Mind
Apocalypto
Dune
1984
Old School
One flew over the Cukcoo's Nest
Primer
Reservoir Dogs
The Doors
Shawshank Redemption
Youth in Revolt
Anything by Hicks, Carlin, or Mckenna
Carl Sagans Cosmos series
Reggie Watts
cheech & chongs movies

"The holy mountain" and "el topo" anybody?

pi is good, but it has annoying sounds sometimes...

Actually, Prot said that every being in the universe knows right from wrong.

Koyaanisqatsi is one of my favorite movies of all time. Like taking any big trip, I've never wanted to "overdo" it with that movie - only watching it once every chapter of my life. I don't want to watch it unless I feel like I will see it again with new eyes, with some new perspective. It will be an all-time classic. I sort of see that movie as a pre-apocalyptic record of the last chapter of humanity. For anyone who hasn't seen it, Koyaanisqatsi means "life out of balance". Oft-parodied, never topped.

The Coens!! Near the very top of my list of all-time favorite filmmakers. Barton Fink may be my favorite of the batch. I have a soft spot for that hellish old hotel and all the strange spirits that dwell within. The Hudsucker Proxy is a hugely under-rated flick. There are scenes in that movie so goddamn packed with visual storytelling that it boggles my mind this movie isn't more well-known. Visually fucking splendid and a hell of a fun look at corporate evil.

I'll add in one of my favorite tripping movies -
Fantastic Planet (La planète sauvage) - brilliant and very psychedelic sci-fi animation. Early on in the movie, you're given the perspective of this tiny human being cruelly toyed with by a giant blue humanoid. Soon as I saw this opening I knew this movie would have a special place in my heart - and it does. Wait until the massive revelation revealed on the moon. Mind-blowing, awesome shit. If anyone here hasn't discovered this movie, check it out asap!

Original Fantastic Planet trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgCxCZNkQ9E

Original Koyaanisqatsi trailer (EDIT with proper link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=546AUDxeHKs

same link.