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What do you want to watch tonight?

Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.

Closest to Flee first

  1. Waltz with Bashir 2008

    Documentary

    A film director from Israel interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

    The sides of Waltz with Bashir

    • An Israeli director who can't remember his war
    • Interviews with fellow veterans of Lebanon, 1982
    • Animated memories that end on real footage

    Good for you if

    • you want to know what a war does to the memory of those who fought it.
    • you like a director investigating his own past.
    • you like dreamlike animated images, like soldiers rising from the sea at night.

    Bad for you if

    • you'd rather not see a war documentary in animation.
    • you won't read subtitles. It's in Hebrew.
    • you can't take a film about guilt and the dead of a war, seen through a soldier's nightmares.

    About: memory · guilt · war

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  2. In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

    The sides of Grave of the Fireflies

    • Two orphaned children in wartime Japan
    • An abandoned bomb shelter as a home
    • A tin of fruit drops

    Good for you if

    • you want a film that leaves you crying.
    • you want to see the war from the side of Japanese civilians.
    • you like a brother trying to keep his little sister alive.

    Bad for you if

    • you need some hope by the end.
    • you can't bear to watch children go hungry.
    • you don't watch anime.

    About: war · childhood · pride · hunger

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  3. Grizzly Man 2005

    Documentary

    Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

    The sides of Grizzly Man

    • A man who spent thirteen summers among Alaskan grizzlies
    • His own video footage, shot alone
    • Werner Herzog's voice weighing his choices

    Good for you if

    • you like a portrait made from a man's own tapes.
    • you like bears filmed close, in the wild.
    • you like trying to understand someone who chose to live outside the world.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't watch a film built around a real death, his and his partner's.
    • you want a gentle animal film. This one leaves you uneasy.

    About: obsession · nature · death

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  4. The war is over, and Violet Evergarden needs a job. Scarred and emotionless, she takes a job as a letter writer to understand herself and her past.

    The sides of Violet Evergarden

    • A former child soldier with mechanical arms
    • A letter writer paid to put other people's feelings into words
    • A country learning to live after the war

    Good for you if

    • you like one letter from a dying mother to her daughter undoing your evening.
    • you watch for light, rain and ink drawn with care.
    • you want a woman who was used as a weapon learning what people feel.

    Bad for you if

    • you don't watch anime.
    • you can't sit with grief, war wounds and dead parents every episode.
    • you need momentum, and this moves at the pace of a letter.

    About: grief · war · learning to feel

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  5. Into the Wild 2007

    Film

    After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

    The sides of Into the Wild

    • A graduate who gives everything away
    • A road trip across America
    • An abandoned bus in Alaska

    Good for you if

    • you like wide landscapes and life in the wild.
    • you like a young man searching for meaning.
    • you like the true story of a graduate who gave away his savings and hitchhiked to Alaska.

    Bad for you if

    • two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
    • you can't watch parents suffering. His family waits two years with no word from him.

    About: freedom · family · nature

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  6. Paris Is Burning 1991

    Documentary

    Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

    The sides of Paris Is Burning

    • Harlem ball houses competing for trophies
    • House mothers taking in young people with nowhere to go
    • Voguing, shade and reading, explained by the people who made them

    Good for you if

    • you want the ballroom scene from the people who built it, in their own words.
    • you want to spend an hour with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey and Willi Ninja.
    • you want New York in the late 1980s as it was lived in Harlem.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't sit with the poverty, the AIDS years and the violence these lives carried.
    • you want something light, and the joy in it comes with real loss.

    About: identity · chosen family · survival

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  7. At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind's last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later, that day has come... but this time, humanity is ready to fight back with terrifying bio-mechanical weapons known as the Evangelions. Watch as Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the rest of the mysterious shadow agency Nerv battle to save earth from total annihilation.

    The sides of Neon Genesis Evangelion

    • A boy ordered by his father to pilot a giant robot
    • Angels attacking Tokyo-3
    • A final two episodes inside his head

    Good for you if

    • you like a series that leaves you with more questions than answers.
    • you care more about the pilots' minds than the robot fights.
    • you like an ending that goes somewhere no one expected.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't take depression and self-loathing on screen.
    • you don't watch anime.

    About: depression · fathers and sons · loneliness

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  8. Night and Fog 1956

    Documentary

    Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

    The sides of Night and Fog

    • The grass grown back over Auschwitz ten years after
    • Archive film and photographs from the camps
    • A commentary written by a deported poet

    Good for you if

    • you want the camps documented a decade after, while the sites were still standing.
    • you want the record itself, the archives and the places as they were left.
    • you can face what was done there, stated plainly.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't look at archive images of the dead and the survivors of the camps.
    • you need a film to leave you some hope, and this one closes by asking who is still keeping watch.

    About: the camps · memory · war

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  9. New York, 1980. Three complete strangers accidentally discover that they're identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-year-olds' joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives – and could transform our understanding of human nature forever.

    The sides of Three Identical Strangers

    • Three 19-year-olds who discover they are triplets
    • Talk shows and fame in 1980s New York
    • A secret study behind their adoption

    Good for you if

    • you like a happy story that turns dark halfway through.
    • you like hearing the brothers tell it themselves.
    • you want to think about what we owe to genes and what we owe to parents.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't take mental illness in a real family, told by the people who lived it.
    • you want the joyful reunion to stay joyful.

    About: identity · nature and nurture · brotherhood

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  10. Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.

    The sides of American Murder: The Family Next Door

    • A family's own videos and messages
    • Police bodycam from the night she vanished
    • A husband speaking to news cameras

    Good for you if

    • you want a case told only through the footage and messages left behind.
    • you want to see a family from the inside, a marriage under strain and two small daughters.
    • you follow real investigations closely.

    Bad for you if

    • a case built around a young mother and her two children is more than you can watch.
    • you need a documentary that leaves you some hope.

    About: grief · domestic violence · denial

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  11. Cobain: Montage of Heck 2015

    Documentary

    Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.

    The sides of Cobain: Montage of Heck

    • Home videos and cassettes from Cobain's own archive
    • Animated sequences built from his notebooks
    • Seattle before and after Nirvana

    Good for you if

    • you want his own tapes and drawings rather than someone else's version of him.
    • you came for Nirvana and the noise behind the records.
    • you want the portrait of one person, his family and his marriage, not a tour of the hits.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't sit with addiction, depression and an ending you already know is coming.
    • over two hours this close to someone's pain is too much for one evening.

    About: addiction · fame · family

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  12. U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle takes his sole mission—protect his comrades—to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.

    The sides of American Sniper

    • The deadliest sniper in US history
    • Four tours in Iraq
    • A family waiting at home

    Good for you if

    • you like long, silent moments behind a rifle scope.
    • you want a war story that really happened.
    • you like a soldier who can't leave the war behind.

    Bad for you if

    • killings seen through a scope, children included, are too much.
    • war trauma and its toll on a family are too heavy tonight.

    About: duty · trauma · family

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  13. After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.

    The sides of Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me

    • Six years filmed on tour and away from it
    • A pop star talking about her mental health
    • Days when the work has to stop

    Good for you if

    • you want the person and not the press tour.
    • you like staying with one person over six years.
    • you want the rehearsal rooms and the stage around a life.

    Bad for you if

    • you'd rather not spend an evening with illness and hard days.
    • you want something warm and easy tonight.

    About: mental health · fame · loneliness

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  14. The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

    The sides of Schindler's List

    • A businessman who saves his workers
    • Black and white, and a red coat
    • A list that means life

    Good for you if

    • you like striking black and white images, and a little girl in a red coat you won't forget.
    • you like a villain who's frighteningly human.
    • you want to understand a true story from the inside.

    Bad for you if

    • the Holocaust on screen is too much for you tonight.
    • over three hours is too long for one evening.
    • black and white puts you off.

    About: humanity · courage · evil

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  15. The Pianist 2002

    Film

    The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

    The sides of The Pianist

    • A pianist hiding in Warsaw
    • Years alone in empty flats
    • Music for an enemy officer

    Good for you if

    • you like a quiet performance of pure survival.
    • you like a true story that stays with you.
    • you like watching someone hold on through everything.

    Bad for you if

    • the Holocaust shown in detail is too much tonight.
    • two and a half hours is too long for your evening.

    About: survival · art · humanity

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  16. The Act 2019

    Series

    Gypsy Blanchard struggles to deal with the toxic relationship with her overprotective mother, but her attempts to free herself lead to murder.

    The sides of The Act

    • The true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard
    • A mother who kept her daughter ill
    • A murder in Missouri

    Good for you if

    • you want to understand a true crime from inside the house.
    • you like Joey King and Patricia Arquette in a mother-daughter story.
    • you like dread that builds toward something you know will happen.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't stand child abuse and medical cruelty on screen.
    • you need some hope, and Gypsy's life is a cage that keeps closing in.

    About: control · abuse · freedom · motherhood

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  17. Blackfish 2013

    Documentary

    Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

    The sides of Blackfish

    • Tilikum, a captive killer whale
    • Former SeaWorld trainers telling what they saw
    • The death of a trainer during a show

    Good for you if

    • you like former trainers admitting what they didn't want to see.
    • you care about how intelligent animals live.
    • you like seeing a company's story taken apart piece by piece.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't watch real attacks and a real death described in detail.
    • you want a light animal film. This one leaves you angry.

    About: captivity · guilt · profit

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  18. Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.

    The sides of The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

    • A teenager helping build RSS and Reddit
    • A download of academic papers at MIT
    • A federal prosecution with decades at stake

    Good for you if

    • you want his family, friends and lawyers telling the story.
    • you want to see what a state can bring against one person.
    • you like spending time with a mind that never stopped asking why.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't sit with a story that ends in a suicide.
    • you need an ending that leaves you some hope.

    About: open access · the law · conviction

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  19. City of God 2002

    Film

    In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

    The sides of City of God

    • A boy with a camera in a Rio favela
    • Kids who become gang lords
    • Twenty years of a neighbourhood

    Good for you if

    • you like a film shot with raw, restless energy.
    • you like stories based on real places and people.
    • you like watching a drug gang take over a Rio favela, from small hold-ups in the 60s to open war in the 70s.

    Bad for you if

    • children with guns and brutal killings are too much for you.
    • you won't read subtitles. It's in Portuguese (a dub exists).

    About: violence · poverty · escape

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  20. Moonlight 2016

    Film

    The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

    The sides of Moonlight

    • One life in three chapters
    • A boy taught to swim
    • A diner, years later

    Good for you if

    • you like a quiet film that hurts and heals.
    • you like blue, gold and pink light.
    • you like silences that say everything.

    Bad for you if

    • you want things to happen. It's quiet.
    • a mother lost to crack and a boy bullied at school are too much for you.

    About: identity · masculinity · love

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