For me it‘s Brother Bear, I watched it a dozen times when I was a child (23M rn) and a dozen times since I’ve become an adult, too. It still makes me weep every time I watch it.
Thelma and Louise. My best friend and I watched it pretty much on repeat for an entire summer, and then once a year. She passed away 16 years ago, and I haven’t been able to watch it since.
Requiem for a Dream—that scene with the mother and the pill mill doctor hits hard. I went through almost the exact same thing, and it haunts me every time I rewatch it. The whole movie does, honestly. It’s painfully realistic, like a fever dream, and it mirrors a lot of what I went through battling addiction.
The holiday. I know I know. But just the theme of suicide and getting away, stepping away from your life and seeing life from a different perspective. Just always gave me this great big feeling of hope.
The Lord of the Rings. The storyline is amazing (even in the movies), the soundtrack is stellar, the acting and attention to detail is stunning. I connect to a fair amount of the characters, but that isn’t why I like it. I watch it whenever I’m feeling sad, and although it has devastating points it has the message that everything can get better. I love it.
Easy Rider. The road I didn’t take. Ditto Almost Famous.
I have a wonderful life now, but I can’t sit through either of those movies without wondering what it would have been like had I just hit the open road as soon as I graduated high school.
Someone else mentioned this one as well. For me, it was “The Notebook”. I remember seeing it (by myself) at the theater. I was married to a man (about a decade at that point) who wasn’t a bad guy, perse. But I wasn’t “his” person and he wasn’t mine. That movie made me cry and triggered a lot of soul searching.
I have a few and feel emotionally connected to them in different ways.
Look Who’s Talking is a movie I watched so many times since I was small. It is nostalgic. I love the comfy way it was filmed. It approaches life from a simplistic point of view and I enjoy that.
Equilibrium I often wondered what an emotionless world would be like and for the longest time thought maybe it would have been best, this movie showed me the other side of things, of course it is fiction, but a good concept.
Mr.Nobody is a movie that wakes the philosopher in me and makes me ponder about existentialism.
Now and Then is a movie I watched a few times that seemed like a rather fitting coming of age movie. It touched on so many topics, from so many angles, I kind of enjoyed that.
Back to the Future is my absolute favorite, so I always enjoy it, it is a nostalgic happy movie for me.
Just Not that Into You is a movie that has seen me through times when I thought I wouldn’t find someone fitting of my own.
Only You is a movie I enjoyed for the way it showcases the paradox of fate versus making your own fate versus isn’t it fate that you made it your fate?
I really like older movies they were filmed differently. I have many others that I love and connect to, but I would say these are the ones that resonate the most with me.
I am sure there are more.
I love movies and especially the theatrical experience so much. These are tied with experiences that had tremendous impact for me.
Likely because I spent that summer begging to be taken to the cinema to go see it. But never was.
I had the bed sheets, the stationary, the comic books, you name it. But for whatever reason, my parents just would not take me to see the movie.
Near the very end of its run in the cinemas, I finally got to see it when we visited family friends whose kids were off to the local cinema to go see it (their 5th or 5th time). I was allowed to go with them.
It was worth the wait.
And luckily, no social media (or indeed internet as we know it now) to spoil it for me as I waited.
The Shawshank Redemption.
I used to watch it so much.
Being in every form of prison except the actual one (meaning, being holed up in a bedroom with no hope for myself, as well as a mental prison). One day, I guess it was just the right time, and this “bird” was uncaged and set free by a loving man. He is a Saint to put up with me and take care of me, haha.
I have very little in common with the day to day lives of the main boys, but my childhood crew and I went through a lot of similar emotional growth together because of our own situations; comparison to siblings, bullies, fist fights with each other but then a handshake. Early teen boy stuff.
Dear John with Channing Tatum. The movie at first seems like your typical RomDrama. But it turns out to be about the relationship he has with his autistic father, who he takes for granted until he becomes terminally ill. My dad was also autistic and I also took him for granted. I treated him just as shitty as Tatum did in the movie.
Seeing that movie (and crying my eyes out) changed how I treated him. I made it a habit to express my gratitude more and listen to unsolicited explanation of what he had cooked for dinner that day (just like in the movie). Whenever we’d see each other after I moved out I’d hug him so hard he’d moan in anguish, I’d tell him I loved him and he was the best dad in the whole world, after which he’d respond “the whole world including surrounding areas”!
Fast forward 12 years and my dad was suffering from advanced Alzheimers disease. Even though he didn’t really know who I was anymore half of the time, whenever I told him he was the best dad in the world he’d still raise his finger and reply “including surrounding areas!”.
Dear john, I want to thank you for opening my eyes back in 2010. So yeah, I have a deep emotional connection with that film. Even though I could never bare to watch it again.
Toy Story 3.
The first movie I took my son to as a toddler was Toy Story. The third one came out when he was in high school. The whole arc of Andy growing up hit home hard.
I know everyone cries at the end, I cried through the whole movie!
Steel Magnolias. The scene with Sally, Olympia, and Shirley after the funeral. The scene had us bawling like babies and on a dime did a 180° eliciting gut laughter!
As Good As It Gets. Not many movies from my childhood depict OCD the way we understand it today. I first watched that movie and realized the concept of being responsible for my behavior despite my feelings. Diagnosed with OCD 20 years later lol
I’d seen it countless times, but then I stupidly decided to watch it in hospital (back when Netflix loaned out DVD’s!) after pushing a blonde little toddler out of the path of a car (which hit me instead). I cried for hours, and still fill up now when I watch it or read the book
Hook. I always loved it as a kid and just watched it for the first time in many years and was surprised at how moved i was by Peter’s rediscovery of himself. When he cuts the coconut in half and drops the sword, almost in fear. There is this sense that he had unknowingly forgot the person he had told himself he was and in that, came back to the person he truly had always been. I was really moved. And just felt such a connection to the whimsy and theme of self discovery.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Minds. Watched this when I was depressed and emotionally vulnerable. Looking for some genuine connection and asking constantly how love should look like. Idk.
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For me it‘s Brother Bear, I watched it a dozen times when I was a child (23M rn) and a dozen times since I’ve become an adult, too. It still makes me weep every time I watch it.
Sorority Sluts 2 : Back On Campus
Ice Age, for whatever reason.
What Dreams May Come.
I had to deal with a lot of loss in my life and I always thought that movie offered such a beautiful idea of the afterlife.
Five Feet Apart
LOTR, I still remember how we were playing outside with my friends and we imagined that we are in the setting of this movie
Naked Gun
1917
The main actors just look so similar to some of my buddies, and I think of them every time I watch it.
The Battleship Potemkin.
Field of Dreams
The cell (2000)
Donnie Darko, watched it for the first time, next morning my Dad passed.
George from the jungle 1, watched it with my mother and brothers all the time
Aquamarine, Holiday in the Sun
Mary Poppins, gave me hope as a kid that maybe my family would get better.
Wall-E.
Free Willy
The Last Unicorn
Mannequin
The secret life of Walter Mitty
The Deer Hunter.
UP. Haven’t seen my 2 grandpas growing up. I never know what life is with a grandpa. That’s why I love UP.
Marley and Me
Hobo with a shotgun
It reminds me of when i briefly lived in massena ny many years ago
Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror Of Shamballa
Shawshank
Star Wars: a new hope
Thelma and Louise. My best friend and I watched it pretty much on repeat for an entire summer, and then once a year. She passed away 16 years ago, and I haven’t been able to watch it since.
The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling. Very emotional movie
Requiem for a Dream—that scene with the mother and the pill mill doctor hits hard. I went through almost the exact same thing, and it haunts me every time I rewatch it. The whole movie does, honestly. It’s painfully realistic, like a fever dream, and it mirrors a lot of what I went through battling addiction.
The holiday. I know I know. But just the theme of suicide and getting away, stepping away from your life and seeing life from a different perspective. Just always gave me this great big feeling of hope.
Into the wild
The Goonies
The Lord of the Rings. The storyline is amazing (even in the movies), the soundtrack is stellar, the acting and attention to detail is stunning. I connect to a fair amount of the characters, but that isn’t why I like it. I watch it whenever I’m feeling sad, and although it has devastating points it has the message that everything can get better. I love it.
Big fish, bad Santa and baby Bob. The 3 Bs
Walk the line
the perks of being a wallflower
Constantine. That was the film my school friends and I bonded over, back when I didn’t have any. That film will always have a place in my heart.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- the film that started my love for Harry Potter and being comfortable with myself.
Stand by Me. Saw it at a friends 10th birthday sleepover when it came out and many times since.
Carry On Camping.
Hahahah. My Grandad and I used to watch Carry On films together when I was a kid. I will always associate them with him. He has dementia now.
Practical Magic & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Labyrinth
Aliens 👽
Aladdin
The iron giant
Watched it a lot as a kid and recently saw it again now that I’m older. Still get teary eyed at the end
A Streetcat named Bob…I can’t watch it without crying my eyes out…and I am a grown up man
Casablanca. It was showing on tv the night my daughter was born and it’s the first movie we ever watched together.
Easy Rider. The road I didn’t take. Ditto Almost Famous.
I have a wonderful life now, but I can’t sit through either of those movies without wondering what it would have been like had I just hit the open road as soon as I graduated high school.
Forest Gump
Dazed and Confused. My friends and I used to bunk school when 15, get high and watch this weekly. Great days.
Secondhand Lions
The Parent Trap.
Lord Of The Rings.
matilda
Ponyo
Yentl
La la land. The music speaks to me
Lost in Translation.
Life is Beautiful.
The Neverending Story
The notebook
Moulin Rouge. I know it’s ridiculous but I cry every time.
John Carpenter’s Christine.
Really silly but moana! I’m a female sailor who started at the bottom so it means a lot to me to be honest!
The Sound Of Music
Xanadu
Dead Poets Society.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Dead Poets Society, in every aspect and thematic element
I first watched it 20+ years ago, but in retrospect, Koyaanisqatsi shaped most of how I see and understand the world today.
The Truman Show, now more than ever.
Weathering with You
Moulin Rouge.
I cried the first time I saw it, in theaters, when I was 18 years old. The way they find out she’s sick at the end, just crushing.
Fried Green Tomatoes. Story of friendship. Love it
Saving Private Ryan
My dad was KIA in a war
Inside Out. It gets me right in the heart every time.
Passengers!
A little princess
Willy wonka & the chocolate factory
The secret garden
Great expectation
Ratatouille 🐀
E.T.
Grave of the fireflies 💔 only because I can never watch it again
Last of the Mohicans. Soundtrack slaps
Big Fish
Titanic.
Had it on VHS since I can remember.
Someone else mentioned this one as well. For me, it was “The Notebook”. I remember seeing it (by myself) at the theater. I was married to a man (about a decade at that point) who wasn’t a bad guy, perse. But I wasn’t “his” person and he wasn’t mine. That movie made me cry and triggered a lot of soul searching.
We divorced about a year later.
Ever After: A Cinderella Story, The Secret of NIMH, and Titanic
Edit: Forgot to add 2005’s Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility
I have a few and feel emotionally connected to them in different ways.
Look Who’s Talking is a movie I watched so many times since I was small. It is nostalgic. I love the comfy way it was filmed. It approaches life from a simplistic point of view and I enjoy that.
Equilibrium I often wondered what an emotionless world would be like and for the longest time thought maybe it would have been best, this movie showed me the other side of things, of course it is fiction, but a good concept.
Mr.Nobody is a movie that wakes the philosopher in me and makes me ponder about existentialism.
Now and Then is a movie I watched a few times that seemed like a rather fitting coming of age movie. It touched on so many topics, from so many angles, I kind of enjoyed that.
Back to the Future is my absolute favorite, so I always enjoy it, it is a nostalgic happy movie for me.
Just Not that Into You is a movie that has seen me through times when I thought I wouldn’t find someone fitting of my own.
Only You is a movie I enjoyed for the way it showcases the paradox of fate versus making your own fate versus isn’t it fate that you made it your fate?
I really like older movies they were filmed differently. I have many others that I love and connect to, but I would say these are the ones that resonate the most with me.
The Accountant.
Original Little Mermaid
Stand by me.
Big Chill
Shawshank
Major League
Die Hard
Back to the Future
Super 8
Stand By Me
A Quiet Place II
Coco
I am sure there are more.
I love movies and especially the theatrical experience so much. These are tied with experiences that had tremendous impact for me.
Office Space
How to train your dragon
Jurassic Park
Likely because I spent that summer begging to be taken to the cinema to go see it. But never was.
I had the bed sheets, the stationary, the comic books, you name it. But for whatever reason, my parents just would not take me to see the movie.
Near the very end of its run in the cinemas, I finally got to see it when we visited family friends whose kids were off to the local cinema to go see it (their 5th or 5th time). I was allowed to go with them.
It was worth the wait.
And luckily, no social media (or indeed internet as we know it now) to spoil it for me as I waited.
The Shawshank Redemption.
I used to watch it so much.
Being in every form of prison except the actual one (meaning, being holed up in a bedroom with no hope for myself, as well as a mental prison). One day, I guess it was just the right time, and this “bird” was uncaged and set free by a loving man. He is a Saint to put up with me and take care of me, haha.
The Incredibles
Stand By Me.
I have very little in common with the day to day lives of the main boys, but my childhood crew and I went through a lot of similar emotional growth together because of our own situations; comparison to siblings, bullies, fist fights with each other but then a handshake. Early teen boy stuff.
I found it easy to project myself into Gordie.
The Last Unicorn
The Green Mile
requiem for a dream
Casino Royale, the love story destroys me
Harry Potter
Dear John with Channing Tatum. The movie at first seems like your typical RomDrama. But it turns out to be about the relationship he has with his autistic father, who he takes for granted until he becomes terminally ill. My dad was also autistic and I also took him for granted. I treated him just as shitty as Tatum did in the movie.
Seeing that movie (and crying my eyes out) changed how I treated him. I made it a habit to express my gratitude more and listen to unsolicited explanation of what he had cooked for dinner that day (just like in the movie). Whenever we’d see each other after I moved out I’d hug him so hard he’d moan in anguish, I’d tell him I loved him and he was the best dad in the whole world, after which he’d respond “the whole world including surrounding areas”!
Fast forward 12 years and my dad was suffering from advanced Alzheimers disease. Even though he didn’t really know who I was anymore half of the time, whenever I told him he was the best dad in the world he’d still raise his finger and reply “including surrounding areas!”.
Dear john, I want to thank you for opening my eyes back in 2010. So yeah, I have a deep emotional connection with that film. Even though I could never bare to watch it again.
The count of Monte Cresto 2002
Local Hero
Toy Story 3.
The first movie I took my son to as a toddler was Toy Story. The third one came out when he was in high school. The whole arc of Andy growing up hit home hard.
I know everyone cries at the end, I cried through the whole movie!
Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope will always have a special place in my heart.
Luca. Two boys with a limitation trying to find themselves. Love it.
,,Le grand bleu” (1988), Jean Reno
Not a movie but the UK series Skins
Gladiator ⚔🐎👑
Risky Business.
The Tangerine Dream soundtrack really drives home that feeling of late night ‘Lust and Loneliness’…
It’s my favourite film and I’ll never forget how much it blew me away when I first watched it!
Scott Pilgrim VS The World
Steel Magnolias. The scene with Sally, Olympia, and Shirley after the funeral. The scene had us bawling like babies and on a dime did a 180° eliciting gut laughter!
As Good As It Gets. Not many movies from my childhood depict OCD the way we understand it today. I first watched that movie and realized the concept of being responsible for my behavior despite my feelings. Diagnosed with OCD 20 years later lol
What Dreams May Come was another good mention
It’s silly because I’m a grown woman but Shrek… Just makes me happy for whatever reason and I can always count on it to cheer me up
The Sound of Music.
I feel like I’m going to be judged for this lol
Showing my age here but Fried Green Tomatoes.
Terms of endearment
The Green Mile
Pet Sematary
I’d seen it countless times, but then I stupidly decided to watch it in hospital (back when Netflix loaned out DVD’s!) after pushing a blonde little toddler out of the path of a car (which hit me instead). I cried for hours, and still fill up now when I watch it or read the book
Coco
Babe – this movie gets me every fucking time. It’s so good.
Toys – it influenced my career choice
Melancholia
gattaca
Do not know why but ,Neverending Story
Hook. I always loved it as a kid and just watched it for the first time in many years and was surprised at how moved i was by Peter’s rediscovery of himself. When he cuts the coconut in half and drops the sword, almost in fear. There is this sense that he had unknowingly forgot the person he had told himself he was and in that, came back to the person he truly had always been. I was really moved. And just felt such a connection to the whimsy and theme of self discovery.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Minds. Watched this when I was depressed and emotionally vulnerable. Looking for some genuine connection and asking constantly how love should look like. Idk.
Hoosiers + Rudy, I’m really into sports and I also lived in Indiana. There’s just something magical about sports in Indiana.
Lion King (1994)
The soundtrack, Mufasa, the story… all of it.
For me, it’s interstellar.