Help me with 2010s Movie Recommendations

@Allaby,
I tried watching Heaven Is for Real (2014), even though I don't usually watch religious movies, because it sounded interesting, and I like Greg Kinnear and Thomas Haden Church, but I stopped watching this as soon as the kid started playing with a big, nasty-looking spider.

Up until then, it seemed like a pretty good movie, but I have a terrible fear of spiders, (so bad that I can't even look at pictures of spiders, and just typing the word for this post is giving me heart palpitations), so I wasn't going to watch the rest to find out what the spider had to do with the movie.

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@kgaard,

I watched Blue Jay (2016), and I loved this movie. Most of the movie felt like a wonderful romantic stroll down memory lane. I loved the chemistry between Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson. It was easy to see how much Jim and Amanda love each other, and I spent a lot of the movie wondering why they broke up. This movie has a good chance to make my list.

Thank you for the great recommendation.

@Thursday Next, @Holden Pike, and @cricket,

I finally watched A Star Is Born (2018). It's a movie that I've been looking forward to seeing since it was in the theaters, but for some reason, I just never got around to it.

I've seen the earlier versions of A Star Is Born, so I had an idea of what to expect from this movie before seeing it, and it's a roller coaster of emotions, but I liked this version. It might even be my favorite of all of them. It started off strong, then it got a bit slow in the middle, but it ended even stronger than it began.

I've never been a fan of Lady Gaga, but I don't have anything against her either. The only thing I really knew about her before seeing this movie was that she's usually very flashy in her public appearances. But I loved her in this movie, both her acting and her musical performances, (except for the "Saturday Night Live" performance). And she had great chemistry with Bradley Cooper, who was also terrific in this movie.

Thank you for the great recommendation.

@Siddon,

I watched Under the Silver Lake (2018), but I almost turned it off at the very beginning when they showed a squirrel dying. I decided to give it a chance because the trailer looked interesting, the synopsis sounded like a good mystery, and I like Andrew Garfield. Then, I almost turned it off a few minutes later when there were two sex scenes within a few minutes and it started to look like maybe this wasn't my type of movie, but I figured that one of the two girls was probably just the girl who disappears, and the other girl could just be a red herring to throw us off the track. But I decided to stick it out and give it a chance anyway, but I probably should have gone with my first instincts.

This isn't really a bad movie. It's just a mystery movie that tries too hard, goes in too many directions, and leaves too many unanswered questions. After the first few scenes, the mystery part of the movie held my interest, (but kind of in the same way that you can't look away when you pass a bad car accident), and I wanted to see where it went, and ended, but unfortunately by the end of the movie, it was a bit of a let down. It just turned out to be an uninteresting conclusion to an interesting mystery.

However I liked all the references to old movies and old movie stars, including the movie posters on the walls that seemed to relate to things that were happening in the movie.

Thank you for the recommendation.

Never heard of this before, think I'll give it a try.

Lovely, so glad you enjoyed it!

You had exactly the same reaction I did. I went into the film incredibly predisposed to like it---love Garfield, really enjoyed the director's previous film, love a mystery/thriller, etc---and it just didn't work for me. It felt like a lot of interesting ideas, but none of them were executed well.

@Tugg, @Holden Pike, @cricket and @Thief,

It took me a while to get to it, but I finally watched La La Land (2016). I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it as much as I expected to, but I knew going in to it that I had high expectations for this movie, so it had a lot to live up to.

I love that it opened with a musical number, but to be honest, I wasn't impressed by the voices in that opening song. (And as they were jumping and dancing on the cars, it was making me cringe that they were denting so many cars, but that has nothing to do with my enjoyment of the movie.) The bright colors reminded me of another great musical, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

As much as I liked the movie, it seemed a bit more predictable than I expected.

The movie has some minor flaws that could get better on a second watch. I liked the song and dance numbers, but the songs weren't as memorable as I had hoped, and I don't think Ryan Gosling has a strong enough voice for musicals. But I liked the movie, and it might have a chance to make my list, especially if I have time for a rewatch.

Thank you for the recommendation.

@Citizen Rules,

I watched A Royal Night Out (2015), and I liked it, but it was not what I expected. I thought this was going to be a standard rom-com, but it's actually more of an adventure with some romance thrown in for good measure. It's just a fun movie with some great performances by the whole cast. If this had been a standard rom-com, we would have seen Elizabeth end up with Jack, but as a story that's loosely based on an actual evening about a real person, we knew that that wouldn't happen. But it's still a lot of fun to watch how the night played out.

Thank you for the recommendation.

@Chypmunk and @Citizen Rules,

I watched The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), and I loved it. There was a lot to love about this movie. I loved the chemistry between Manish Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon, and the relationship between Madame Mallory and Abbu.



Thank you for the great recommendation.

Glad you enjoyed it gbg!

I don't think anyone recommended this movie to me, but I watched Fences (2016). This movie was based on a play, and it still has the feel of a play, which works well for it. The stellar performances by the entire cast make this worth seeing, especially Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Denzel Washington's Troy is a bitter man, and that makes his relationships with his family tense. So tense at times that it's a tough watch, but it's a very good movie.

Oh good! I'm so glad you loved it, the wife and I really liked that movie too. It's a very positive movie and that's why I was drawn to it.

@Holden Pike,

I watched Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), and even though this movie was nothing like I expected it to be, I still enjoyed it. I thought this was going to be a sci-fi time travel movie, but it turned out to be a combination of adventure, drama, rom-com, and action, with an underlying sci-fi theme. I recently saw Mark Duplass in the movie Blue Jay (2016), (which I loved), and I liked this movie a lot too, so I may have to seek out more of his movies.

I liked following along with Darius as she got closer to Kenneth, and tried to figure out if he was legit, or just crazy. Jeff was kind of an annoying character because he was a borderline scumbag at times, but he seemed to have good intentions. The other intern, Arnau, was just boring. I wish they had given him a little bit more to do in the movie, like maybe if he understood a little bit about what Kenneth was trying to do, and he could have been the person who explained the technical jargon. But focusing on the main storyline, with Darius and Kenneth, I really enjoyed this movie.



Thank you for the great recommendation.

@thracian dawg and @Takoma11,

I don't usually watch foreign language movies, but Force Majeure (2014) aired on Showtime, and I didn't know that it was a partially foreign language film until after I started watching it. At that point, I figured that I already started watching it, so I decided to give it a chance.

This is the kind of movie that makes you think "what if?". Not only "what would I do if I were in that situation?", but also "what if Tomas had admitted what he did, and apologized for it?". Would Ebba have reacted differently? Was it the act of what he did that she was so upset about, or the fact that he wouldn't even admit that he had done it?

That's what made this an interesting movie. I got bored for a little while when the movie switched the focus to their friends Mats and Fanny, but I was glad to see that it was only a short scene. And I didn't understand the party scene. It just took me right out of the movie at that point, and it seemed like an unnecessary scene.



This movie won't make my list, but I liked it. Thank you for the recommendation.

Well Silver Linings Playbook was my favorite from that decade but I read you seen it. So I'll throw you a few hidden gems I thought.

Win Win - 2011
Cedar Rapids - 2011
Wind River - 2017
Looper - 2012

Win Win is criminally overlooked little comedy/drama. Cedar Rapids is a goofy little comedy I found very charming has my favorite John C Riely character in it. Wind River is heavy but worth the time with Renner and Olsen. And Looper is a cool little Sci-Fi flick with Bruce Willis and Joseph-Gordon Leveitt.

The big movies I dug were

Spotlight - 2015
Moneyball- 2011
Mision Impossible Rouge Nation - 2015 (my favorite MI movie)
Creed - 2015
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 2011 (Shame they couldn't make more of these Mara was crazy good)
True Grit - 2010
Inside Out - 2015 (Last truly great Pixar original imo)

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I don't think The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be gbgoodies' cup of tea due to content but Spotlight, Moneyball, True Grit and Inside Out are all good shouts, I'd second those recs.

i'd highly recommend the film Barfi! (2012). it's a really cute romance film and it made me cry at least 3 different times lmao.

Thank you for the recommendations.

I saw Looper a few years ago, and I liked it, but I don't remember much about it except I have a vague memory of the twist. It's already on my watchlist to rewatch it.

I've seen Spotlight, Moneyball, and Inside Out, and they are already on my potential list.

I've seen Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and True Grit, but I'm not really a fan of either of these movies.

I have the first five Mission Impossible movies on DVD, but I haven't watched them yet, but if I can just jump right into the Rouge Nation movie without seeing the rest first, then I'll watch it.

I think Hubby has Creed on DVD, but I'm not a big fan of the Rocky movies, so I'm not sure that this is my type of movie. (I don't mind sports movies, but I think boxing is too violent.)

I haven't heard of the other movies on your list, but they sound interesting, so I"ll look into them.

Thank you for the recommendation.

I haven't heard of Barfi!, but it sounds interesting. I don't watch a lot of foreign language movies, so it's not likely to make my list, but I'll consider this one because it sounds like my type of movie.