Films for Seekers
an annotated list
The movies listed here convey, in my view (which can be somewhat dark; this is not a Hallmark list), some degree of depth either tacitly or explicitly. The entire film may be profound, or there may be as little as a single scene or snippet of dialogue to recommend it, but each one has some possible relevance for someone seeking deeper truth or meaning.
About a quarter of the 194 entries I consider to be exemplary seeker films; these are indicated with a ∞. Additionally, some of my comments themselves can serve as pointers for deeper reflection, independent of any value the film as a whole may have. Those are indicated with a Ω. I will mention that a few of the titles covered are television series (including two single episodes) and video pieces rather than feature films. Six are short films.
Please note that, with only three exceptions, what follows are neither formal reviews nor essays, but a simple annotated list expressing very brief and subjective opinions. Some of these opinions are actually critical and so the element of "recommendation" is qualified. Also included in numerous entries are relevant quotations from the film. And since many of my comments don't synopsize the plot, I've included a short Plot Summary from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) on entries where it might be useful. Additionally, each title that is catalogued on the IMDb is linked to its entry there.
Finally, only movies I’ve seen are on the list, although others I’ve heard of or know something about but have yet to see may surely be worthy. There are also a handful of films of possible interest listed without comments, though comments might yet be added at some point.
The order of the list is alphabetical by title.
There's also a playlist on my YouTube channel with many additional non-theatrical videos that may be of interest.
And there's my website featuring short writings on philosophical, metaphysical, and psychological subjects: Reflections & Ponderings.
I welcome thoughtful correspondence at the email address linked to my name in the Copyright notice at the end of the page.
IMDb Plot Summary: A New York philosophy grad student turns into a vampire after getting bitten by
one, and then tries to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood
Filmed in grainy black and white and featuring Lili Taylor as the protagonist, the movie uses vampirism (a decade before it got trendy) as a metaphor for addiction, and—at the risk of reaching a bit beyond the filmmaker’s intent—addiction as a metaphor for self. “I'm not like you. […] You're not a person. You're nothing!” “To face what we are in the end, we stand before the light and our true nature is revealed. Self-revelation is annihilation of self.”
It seems that Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay was inspired by the work of John C. Lilly, the major pioneer of consciousness exploration using isolation tanks and drugs, with elements of Carlos Castaneda thrown in for good measure. Highly entertaining story of a neuroscientist’s passionate search for the primordial essence of consciousness, which, no surprise, he believes is found in the brain’s limbic system. The ‘love saves all’ theme might seem like an easy out, though: “You redeemed me from the pit. …I was in that ultimate moment of terror that is the beginning of life. It is nothing. Simple, hideous nothing. The final truth of all things is that there is no final truth. …[W]hat I'm trying to tell you is that moment of terror is a real and living horror, living and growing within me now, and the only thing that keeps it from devouring me is you.”
Taking the narrative point of view of a dead man who achieved a measure of wisdom and serenity right before his untimely demise, this film engagingly explores the premise that there is transformative potential amidst even the most dysfunctional of circumstances, if one looks beyond the surface of things. More to the point, the Ricky Fitts character (he of the cosmic bag dance), in particular, is one of popular cinema’s more authentic and persuasive representatives of an awakened perspective. “That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. …I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.”
And Everything Is Going Fine (2010)
Documentary anthology of interviews and previously unreleased monologue clips by the late storyteller and actor, Spalding Gray. “…[A]nd I lean over and kiss Kathy and cry, and bend down and cut the umbilical cord and the crimson blood flies, and I look down at this glorious accident, Theo—we just grabbed that name out of the air in case it was a boy; Theo, short for nothing, short for the study of God—and back at me is coming this totally perplexed face, with the big why? ‘Why this?’ ‘Why something and not nothing?’ And I totally identify with it, and I know that he’s not mirroring me—hasn’t been in the world long enough to pick up on my face. He’s brought this in with him. And I think, ‘oh little one, you may have already spent the best days of your life in there.’”
Andrei Rublev a.k.a. Andrey Rublyov (1969)
Epic masterpiece by Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, about the life of the titular medieval icon painter. The film is a study in interior work: the conscious striving to transmute suffering and desire amidst the exigencies of life.
Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film (2002)
Adams was an artist of the highest caliber: a visionary and mystic deeply attuned to the transcendent element of nature, and gifted with the unique talent to evoke a sense of that transcendence through the ‘eloquent light’ of his photographs. The bulk of his celebrated oeuvre reflected his lifelong love affair with the Sierra Nevada in images of haunting, stark beauty. This flawless documentary by Ric Burns was part of the PBS series The American Experience.
The Answer Man a.k.a. Arlen Farber (2009)
Quotable, cute, but annoyingly formulaic rom-com featuring Jeff Daniels as a reclusive and grumpy author of a best-selling spiritual/self-help book called “Me and God.” This amusing scene should especially tickle any reader of Franklin Merrell-Wolff:
Young Girl: “Excuse me, I’d like to sell you this book.”
Store Clerk: “Okay. [reads title] Consciousness Without an Object. Wow! Sixth grade is different than I remember. Why do you want to get rid of it?”
Young Girl: “I just found… I found… [fishes out crumpled note] ‘I find the idea that you can use a conscious object to consider non-objective consciousness absurd. This book is poison to me.’”
Long-term labor of love for writer/director/producer/star Robert Duvall, about an intense, flawed and complex born-preacher who must strive to atone for murdering a man. An uncommon depiction of someone who makes everything in his life material for his inner work.
Comment forthcoming. Please check back later.
In this bleak and brutal offering from Abel Ferrara, the reliably intense Harvey Keitel is absolutely electrifying as (according to the film’s tagline) a “Gambler. Thief. Junkie. Killer. Cop” who’s gradually seized by an inner revolt and tooth-and-bloody-nail struggle for deliverance when a young nun who was gang-raped in church not only declines to press charges but, emulating the example of Christ, genuinely forgives her attackers.
Sumptuously filmed in 70mm, this wordless documentary captures man’s interactions with his environment in 24 countries, and includes footage of many indigenous religious ceremonies. The director/cinematographer’s stated objective was to show “humanity’s relationship to the Eternal.” Soundtrack features a blend of exotic instruments and chanting. The title is a Sufi word meaning ‘blessing’ or, according to J.G. Bennett, “enabling grace.”
Before Sunrise (1995); Before Sunset (2004); Before Midnight (2013)
In Before Sunrise, a young French woman and American man meet sweet on a train ride through Europe. They hit it off and impulsively disembark in Vienna, spending the remaining day and night wandering the scenic city, discussing a wide range of ideas, and falling in love. My synopsis hardly does this extraordinary film justice. There is pure magic here, with a brilliant closing montage—nostalgically evoking the transience of things—that will haunt the viewer long after the film ends. The subsequent entries, Before Sunset and Before Midnight, revisit the couple—played by the same actors, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, who both cowrote with director Richard Linklater—at successive nine year intervals. Although the two later films might forgivably lack the ‘lightning in a bottle’ magic of the first, watching all three (now collectively referred to as ‘The Before Trilogy’) back to back has an effect perhaps akin to an intimate narrative version of The Up Series Documentaries (below).
Follows a man (Robin Williams) as he schleps through five incarnations from pre-history to the present. Low key, sweet and occasionally amusing, the dominant theme here seems to be that there is essentially one human story with perhaps many variations.
IMDb Plot Summary: A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads
literally into the head of the movie star, John Malkovich
Deliciously absurd and fascinating comedy that playfully questions the notions of self and soul. There’s a metaphysical bit about the portal into a “ripe vessel” (mature human) getting blocked and diverting one helplessly into a “larval vessel” (infant human) that sounds quite a bit like something from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In addition, the main premise of someone being governed by a constantly shifting parade of separate identities could have come straight from the mind of Gurdjieff.
Tender, poignant 18 minute documentary short that observes a day in the life of Herbert Fingarette, an elderly, frail philosophy professor and author as he reflects (in gentle voiceover) on mortality, and on how much he misses his late wife. The latter makes this a deeply emotional experience. But it’s quite revealing and even astounding to see someone of his stature—a philosopher who, ironically enough, has written books about both death and self-deception—nearing the end of his life genuinely nonplussed as to why he fears death despite a lifelong conviction that it’s not rational to do so, while apparently not recognizing that this conviction is based on a belief that death is a vanishing into eternal non-being. Of course, he was right to surmise that coming to a once-and-for-all end is not to be feared, but what if death isn't the end? What if the physiological basis of consciousness is assumed rather than truly known? Now there's uncertainty about what death might hold in store, and thus fear. Never underestimate the power of unexamined assumptions.
This breezy documentary explores the surprisingly far-ranging and vital uses of origami—the ancient art of paper folding—not just by artists, but by mathematicians and scientists, who use it to model new theorems. An inspiring look at the integration of art, philosophy and life.
Beyond Thought (Awareness Itself) (2011)
Interesting feature-length YouTube video by a young man who, inspired by an epiphany that awareness itself is the most significant facet of any experience, sets out to interview numerous ordinary people, asking each if they’ve ever truly noticed this purely subjective element that underlies—and gives reality to—their lives. Initially put off by the cloying narration accompanying a too-cutesy animated opening sequence, I was ultimately won over by the guy’s earnestness, and especially by the intrinsic value of the theme.
Fascinating and revealing documentary in which film director and writer James Toback explores some of the views on love, death, meaning, and identity held by various people in the fields of the arts, sports, business, crime, science, etc. Thus, e.g., the director: “I’m trying to get at who people are, who they really are. People walk around assuming they exist, and […] I think that the self people present is very tenuous; […] that underneath this construction is nothing, just as behind the beginning of the universe is nothing;” a philosopher/nun: “I’ve experienced different selves. I think I’m probably enough of—or too much of—a philosopher to let go of the old Greek sense that somehow if there’s nothing, then why something?;” a film producer (on what happens at death): “I think that there’s probably a revelatory experience awaiting everyone that has to do with finding out who and what you really are, and I think when that occurs—if it occurs—you reach nirvana-dash-heaven, and the degree to which you don’t reach that place of realization, you’re in eternal hell;” and a famous female restauranteur (on whether she can imagine her ‘I’ disintegrating): “No, because I’m too strong of a personality to disintegrate; it will turn up in another way in another form. So…there is no end.”
Dialogue-based three-hander that takes place almost entirely in a hotel hospitality suite, in which two jaded older salesman and their young, idealistic, born again Christian protégé hash out the differences in their value systems.
Black Mirror; season 3, episode 2: “Playtest” (2016)
This whole technology-cautionary British sci-fi anthology series is great, but this particular episode—about a guy who volunteers to test a new augmented reality interface designed to tap into the player’s deepest fears—is such an intense mindfuck that it almost threatens to unhinge the viewer’s own accustomed reality interface.
Sci-fi noir classic that uses doomed androids with implanted memories to probe the question of what makes us human. Who or what are we without our often hazy, highly impressionistic and ever-changing/fading memories to provide backstory? The recommendation is for the 2007 final cut without the narration or happy ending.
The Bothersome Man a.k.a. Den Brysomme Mannen (2006)
Following an apparently ‘successful’ suicide attempt, a man finds himself deposited in a Nordic city of gleaming sterility populated by soulless Stepford-types, where blandness prevails and one’s every superficial whim is catered to. In the guise of lampooning consumerism and Scandinavian ennui, this black comedy suggests that hell—for one with a soul, at least—is a world that is all surface.
Inspired by a New Yorker magazine article titled ‘Jumpers,’ a documentarian set up cameras at the Golden Gate Bridge and recorded for one year, capturing most of the two-dozen suicides that took place off the bridge during that time (and apparently preventing several other attempts that looked imminent while the cameras were attended). The resulting film also includes interviews with friends and family of the deceased, and one of the rare jump survivors, now a mental health advocate. The graphic images of people in the final moments of their lives—ultimately the defining moment of a crisis that in most cases had likely been many months or years in the making—should prompt a deep contemplation on one’s own mortality and the soundness of one’s meaning-making strategies in light of it.
IMDb Plot Summary: A world-weary baby-boomer struggles with everyday life, his past
and the question of the existence of God, in a painfully humorous quest for happiness
Brimming with both humor and poignancy, the story, characters and dialogue in this well made low budget indie have an immediacy and authenticity that make it a treat to watch. This may be the first American film in a narrative format to feature explicit references to, and language from, non-dual teachings, though its treatment tends to tread a middle ground between facile and profound.
IMDb Plot Summary: After a traumatic accident, a woman
becomes drawn to a mysterious abandoned carnival
Truly creepy micro-budget movie that explores the possible ramifications of the mind’s inability to assimilate the shock of the encounter with death.
IMDb Plot Summary: A FedEx executive must transform himself physically
and emotionally to survive a crash landing on a deserted island
This film is a powerful and fundamentally spiritual meditation on life, death, love and the arising and passing away of all things. The protagonist (Tom Hanks, engaging as always) faces death not once but three times, in three different ways: first, involuntarily, via his plane crash; second, consciously, via his courageous leap-of-faith attempt to escape from the island; third, at the end of the movie, as he prepares to cross the threshold between the old life he has died to and the new life which beckons, unknown.
Based on the book Flowers for Algernon, the story of a mildly mentally disabled man who undergoes an experimental procedure to boost his intellect. The operation sends his IQ off the charts, but also promises a crash-and-burn. A bit corny in parts, but the transformational arc of the protagonist (Cliff Robertson, in an Oscar-winning turn) is as riveting as it is dynamic. Score by Ravi Shankar.
Sincere video documentary intercuts segments of a group of earnest young collegiate seekers discussing what the search for truth means for them, with interviews of three older men who found the answer to their decades-long quest. There’s not a false note here, and the three interviews in particular—each representing a unique expression or embodiment of the stateless state known as enlightenment—contain a wealth of insight and wisdom. Also, don’t miss Meetings With Remarkable Women (below) for this filmmaker’s female-centered look at these themes.
The Colours Of Infinity (1995)
Nifty documentary hosted by Arthur C. Clarke (and scored by David Gilmour) explores some of the mind-blowing implications of the Mandelbrot Set, a most simple mathematical equation whose plotted boundary produces an organic looking fractal shape of infinite self-similar iteration.
Ten-episode BBC series, written and hosted by James Burke, explores the astonishingly unlikely chain of historical events that led to many of today’s most seemingly indispensible technologies.
Based on Carl Sagan’s book of the same title, illustrates the opposition that often exists between the way of faith and the way of science. On the one hand, criticizes the prevailing attitude of scientism, which tends to deify science at the expense of truth; on the other hand, doggedly advocates science’s empirical approach to discovering and evaluating truth. The climactic scene where the heroine (Jodie Foster, exuding fierce intelligence and heart) returns from a life-altering encounter with a superior intergalactic intelligence with no hard evidence to show for it is an interesting contemporary take on the classic dilemma of the mystic. “No words… No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet… So beautiful… I had no idea.”
Comment forthcoming. Please check back later.
David Blaine: Above The Below (2003)
Perhaps unparalled in history as both a magician and endurance artist, Blaine’s skills and feats are so next-level jaw-dropping that they serve to inspire one to question the limits of what’s possible, and even what’s real. Fearless is a video compendium of his first three TV shows, two of which—Street Magic (1996) and Magic Man (1998)—as can be guessed, showcase his magic; the third, Frozen In Time (2000), his endurance feat of being sealed in a block of ice for 72 hours. In Above The Below, made by Harmony Korine, he fasted on water alone for 44 days while suspended in a clear plexiglass box over the River Thames (his tricky refeeding later made for a valuable case study in a medical journal).
Very funny and light hearted exploration of the importance of overcoming one’s fears before facing death, from writer/director/star Albert Brooks.
IMDb Plot Summary: A hotshot lawyer gets more than he
bargained for when he learns his new boss is Lucifer himself
What is free will and do we have it? Can one escape one’s fate? Worth watching even just for Al Pacino (as the Devil incarnate), in his distinctive gravelly baritone, delivering lines such as: “You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god… and where can you go from there?” Also powerful is the film’s suggestion of the recurrence of self and the metaphysical futility of trying to escape it.
Diary Of A Country Priest a.k.a. Journal D’un Curé De Campagne (1951) ∞
Robert Bresson’s spiritually mature depiction of the struggle of a young priest to sustain his faith amid the apathy and antagonism of his new provincial parish. Commentators tend to interpret the character’s trajectory as one of increasing loss of faith and ultimate despair, whereas to me he appears almost transformed at the end, as suggested by his concluding statement that “all is grace.”
IMDb Plot Summary: A troubled teenager… escapes death when a jet-engine crashes in his bedroom… Donnie
is drawn into an alarming series of events that may or may not be a product of growing insanity
Powerfully wrought metaphysical cult phenomenon, rich with carefully layered symbolism and apocalyptic metaphor. The depth and significance of the film increases with each viewing, as does appreciation for how beautifully and artfully orchestrated the whole thing is.
IMDb Plot Summary: In the distant future, a man appears who
may be the prophet that a long-suffering galaxy has been waiting for
Lumbering fable about “the sleeper who must awaken” to reclaim his birthright. Based on the Frank Herbert novel of the same name.
Dying To Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary (2014)
Shortly before Timothy Leary’s death in 1996, a filmmaker reunited him with his old friend and colleague, Ram Dass, and just let the camera roll as the pair explored their views on consciousness exploration, and their lifelong interest in pushing the limits of that exploration toward the ultimate frontier of death. This is combined with both older archival material and newer footage to flesh out a story of two pop cultural mavericks and psychonauts.
Comment forthcoming. Please check back later.
Electric Dreams — season 1, episode 5: “Real Life” (2018)
An especially strong, engaging and even poignant play on the virtual reality theme, as a woman’s life alternates with a very different life in parallel—but which is the real life, and which is the virtual one, and how to know? Series is based on the works of Phillip K Dick.
Enlightenment Guaranteed a.k.a. Erleuchtung Garantiert (1999)
Amusing story follows a pair of very different German brothers and their sojourn at a rural Japanese Zen monastery. One thing that rings true for me here is that it’s the non-‘spiritual’ brother—the guy endlessly bitching and sobbing over a failed marriage, and who after all was just tagging along with his more serene bro to avoid being alone—who seems to ‘get it’ by the end (that’s not really a spoiler).
IMDb Plot Summary: An American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed
in a drug deal gone bad. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection
Gaspar Noé’s lurid and overwrought attempt at a cinematic rendering of The Tibetan Book of the Dead aims for the jugular in the spiritual rubber-necker in us all. If a reasonable two hour anti-director’s cut (with the first two-thirds left intact and the relentless and prurient final third significantly edited) is ever released, it might be an improvement. Be that as it may, the film is significant in that it is shot entirely in the first-person perspective, complete with blinking camera eye, and thus manages to draw the viewer in and convey a sense of death that is immediate and bracingly visceral.
An indescribable plunge into a darkly humorous and unnervingly familiar dreamscape, this cult classic seems to have emerged directly from the filmmaker’s subconscious mind, and communicates directly to ours. One of the most palpable evocations of the extent to which the mind creates our heavens and hells.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) ∞
IMDb Plot Summary: A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their
relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with
Beautifully resonant, almost wrenchingly poignant exploration of the tenuity of memory and the fragility and impermanence of the bonds of love within it.
IMDb Plot Summary: Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as a game designer
who creates a virtual-reality game that taps into the players' minds
Taking an elaborated form of virtual reality as its vehicle, the film explores the question of how—or indeed whether—we distinguish reality from fantasy. If one is open to it, there are some disquieting moments here in which the viewer may share the existential confusion and panic of the characters. Unlike the flashier The Matrix (below)—which completely eclipsed it upon its release—David Cronenberg’s film doesn't rely so much on exposition and special effects, much to its credit, and earns bonus points for having a sense of humor.
In a Los Angeles hospital circa 1915, a paralyzed and suicidal movie stuntman weaves a fairy tale for an injured little girl, whose vivid imagination brings the story to life. Comparisons to The Princess Bride and The Wizard of Oz (below) are justified, though this film is thematically darker and considerably less charming than either. It is also a hugely ambitious, breathtakingly stunning visual feast, having been filmed over the course of four years in two-dozen countries and featuring a parade of vivid, fantastic tableaux.
Fearless (1993) ∞ Ω
“This is it. This is the moment of my death…” Peter Weir’s potent film contains much wisdom and transcendent beauty (the haunting plane crash sequence is the very epitome of poetry in motion). Most powerful of all—and critically relevant to anyone pursuing self-realization—is Jeff Bridges’s lucid performance as a man transformed by his encounter with death. But is he? This film effectively addresses what could be called the ‘premature enlightenment syndrome,’ in which an individual’s state is in some way fundamentally altered by a brush with death, until it becomes apparent that the state lacks balance or grounding—a vital connection to everyday life. The story’s choice of resolution may be symbolically valid, yet feels disappointingly pat, and is perhaps the only thing keeping the picture from being an unqualified masterpiece.
Loosely based on a non-fiction book titled Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live and using its list to profile 15 people under headings like ‘Work,’ ‘Meaning,’ ‘Humor,’ ‘Death,’ ‘Intoxication,’ ‘Friendship,’ ‘Solitude,’ ‘The Body,’ etc., this documentary’s slight 83 minute runtime only allows for about five minutes and change for each topic, and thus feels like sitting down for a meal and instead sampling a bunch of tasty hors d’oeuvres. Still, one is bound to find some sustenance among the many little sketches.
IMDb Plot Summary: An office employee and a soap salesman
build a global organization to help vent male aggression
Tapping and celebrating the zeitgeist in a way not seen since Pulp Fiction (below), this ever-popular flick resounds with dialogue that reads like Self-Inquiry 101: “You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank… You're not the contents of your wallet…” “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” In addition, the famous reveal near the end—where the narrator discovers the true identity of Tyler Durden—serves as a fair analogue of the nondual realization.
The Fire Within a.k.a. Le Feu Follet (1964)
Vintage Louis Malle film about an alcoholic playboy who had “squandered away his youth carousing,” now released from a sanitarium supposedly cured. Believing, however, that he will inevitably only descend into further dissipation and despair, he calmly plots his suicide and spends his last day revisiting old friends, discussing the reasons for his decision, and perhaps groping to find a connection to something he could live for. Fairly bleak depiction a man beyond hope, but essential viewing for its unflinching meditation on what Camus called the “one truly serious philosophical problem.”
Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality (2003)
Based on the work of Ernest Becker—and in particular his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death—this documentary posits that much of society’s violence owes to an unconscious strategy to avoid the full awareness of one’s mortality. A sobering reflection on the darker aspects of human nature, though the research experiments carried out by the film’s chief interviewers seem procedurally suspect (apparently ignoring double-blind protocol, they admit they set out to prove a thesis: that being reminded of death will increase a person’s propensity to become aggressive—and lo, that’s just what they found).
Amiable and amusing slice-of-life that follows a philosophical slacker (the underappreciated James Le Gros) in post-riot L.A. Standout is a cameo by John Cusack as a barroom sage: “The thing about spirituality, which seems to be […] far more important than intelligence, is it seems […] there’s two givens: one is that it’s a real, identifiable thing […] that can be cultivated through discipline… The second thing is that it requires a complete and total leap of faith to believe in it enough to cultivate the discipline to do […] the yoga or the meditations or prayer or whatever. […] You can’t think your way there. […] And our problem is that there’s a complete difference between understanding an idea intellectually and actualizing change in your life.”
Oscar-nominated film documents the first manned Apollo mission to the moon. Uses audio voiceovers of the various astronauts, as they describe the (now) famously life-altering impact of their impressions—e.g., the first view of our little blue planet from space.
Gorgeously photographed, this simultaneously mind-bending and heart-rending fable uses three thematically related stories spanning a thousand years to depict an archetypal hero’s quest to overcome death and rescue the Beloved via the fountain of eternal life.
IMdB Plot Summary: Two strangers find their lives colliding in an impossible way.
Alex is a methodical cargo thief working for a dangerous cartel. Sam is a determined
paramedic trying to save the world while running from her past
“Either we’re crazy, or something much bigger is happening.” Colorado-based auteur Jamin Winans’s follow up to the cult fave Ink (below) is a smartly romantic meta-fable that blurs distinctions between media and reality, while exploring the themes of connection, fate, breaking free of limiting patterns, and the struggle against despair.
Frequencies a.k.a. OXV: The Manual (2013)
In a slightly altered reality in which everyone’s place in life is determined by their measured “frequency,” a vibrationally out of sync young couple work on altering their resonance in the interest of love. Enjoyable and intelligent British sci-fi/romance that works well on several levels of meaning.
A pitch-black character study of a neurotic, manipulative, stridently unlovable New Yorker
whose roommate aptly describes him to his face as "a burbling troll in his underwear"
I watched this after seeing Patton Oswalt quasi-rave about it during his visit to The Criterion Closet, and in another clip on Trailers From Hell. I can totally see why this film would appeal to almost no one, but I have to say I found it intriguing as a dark but vaguely humorous character study and mood piece. I'll admit that it was tough going at first, as I struggled to find something to either connect with or understand about it. But as it went on I got more and more into it.
I agree with one commentator's tastefully discrete suggestion of the main character's "neurodivergence," as that came through strongly to me while watching the film (being "on the spectrum" myself, I tend to find cinematic depictions of the condition alternately fascinating and exasperating; this was much more of the former than the latter). That said, I don't think his suggested neurodivergence was a matter of "just an amalgam of stereotypes," as has been stated, because Dore Mann's portrayal in the film gets so many specifically autistic traits so right that I'm tempted to wonder if the actor isn't on the spectrum himself (not that he'd need to be; that's why it's called acting ;-).
Some further reflections on the movie:
In the opening scene, I wondered how this guy even had a girlfriend, if that's who the Laura character is supposed to be. (Side note: the fact that she sports an old green Army jacket made me wonder if this was a reference to the Lindsay Weir character from Freaks and Geeks.)
While watching, I thought the Sandy character had to be Keith's brother, because what normal/functional person would be friends with someone like that. But according to every review of the film I've read, he is indeed supposed to be Keith's only friend
I suppose one of the modest successes of the movie is that it made me want to know more about the other people in Keith's life, such as Laura (what's with the numbered scenarios in her notebook? She appears to be a student—if it's high school, why is she hanging out with twentysomething Keith?), and Sandy (why's he wearing a t-shirt with an NYPD logo in his last scene with Keith? Did he work for the police dept. prior to becoming a waiter? Or, maybe he is or was a social worker with professional ties to the police, which could explain not only the t-shirt, but also how he came to know Keith, and why he ostensibly feels some kind of obligation to help Keith.)
I thought the brief scene with Keith disclosing to a psychotherapist a pivotal incident from his childhood was a nice touch. And the way the therapist tried to guide Keith to insight about who he feels "betrayed" him in the incident felt authentic.
Roger Ebert, in his review, wondered about the purpose of the test-taking "digression." As I watched the movie, I entertained two ideas about the test-taking sequence: (1) it might serve as an audience break from the patience-trying and empathy-challenging assault of Keith's locked-in character; and (2) it looks like turning the tables on the roommate, Charles, who in one of the previous scenes had berated and belittled Keith; but then in the stairwell scene after the LSAT test, Charles himself is treated the same disparaging and scornful way by the other test-taker, who seems more intellectually dominant and verbally expressive than Charles, just as Charles is (or at least comes off as) more intellectually dominant and verbally expressive than Keith. Basically, the scene seems to demonstrate a hierarchy of intellectual bullying.
As for the complaint among some commentators that the film "doesn't go anywhere," I don't think the absence of a plot or contrived dramatic tension are necessarily deficits in any film; as mentioned in a comparison from one online review, Slacker (1990) is both plotless and meandering, though I'll agree that it's a vastly more entertaining movie than Frownland. And I've seen many other effective and evocative films that are much less about plot than about character, atmosphere, and/or stringing together otherwise unconnected vignettes.
But even apart from that, it seems to me that there might be something like a character arc in this movie: in the early scene where the female friend is sobbing to the point of dripping with mucus, Keith tries to explain to her that he can't cry, and then proceeds to force his eyes to water by spreading them wide open for over a minute. But by the end of the story, he's undergone such a maelstrom of humiliation and frustration that he's finally been brought to an emotional catharsis even more extreme (and disgustingly mucusy) than Laura's.
The fact that this last act transpired over what almost looked like a Dantean descent into hell (note the red glow of the room where the drunk guys toy with him), followed (post-purgation) by a later re-emergence into the rooftop sunrise (rebirth?), further suggests that there wasn't literally nothing happening in this film, and moreover, that what did happen was actually meaningful.
A powerfully crafted documentary that tells the story of a bright, educated, but schizophrenic woman who, upon release from a New Hampshire mental institution with nowhere to go and no notification of her family, wanders to an abandoned farmhouse where she spends the next four brutally cold winter months subsisting entirely on apples and rainwater while waiting for either God or Steve, her imaginary lover, to rescue her. While the conversation this film will most likely (and justifiably) provoke among mainstream audiences will be about the failures of mental health bureaucracies that allow folks like this to fall through the cracks, the relevance to the seeker is in the extraordinary steadfastness of will that it must take for someone to undergo an ordeal like starvation in pursuit of their ideal of salvation—however skewed or tainted by mental illness that ideal may seem to others.
A guy plans a goodbye party before he kills himself. At just over nine minutes, this short is barely longer than a movie trailer, but what a great little film it is. The balance of wry tone, incisive and witty writing, brutally uncompromising vision and dark subject matter is a real achievement, and an awkward pleasure to watch.
In vast and violent Los Angeles, several people from very different socio-economic circles are drawn together in ways that are meaningful, enriching and potentially transformative.
IMDb Plot Summary: After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a
skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of ravenous wolves haunts their every step
There’s a scene towards the end of the movie where one of the remaining crew, after surviving many savage attacks that some of his mates didn’t survive—and still very much relentlessly stalked by the wolves—simply stops and says, “I just had the clearest thought: I’m done. I’m done.” Not just the sentiment itself and the calm certainty of its delivery, but especially the fact that he knows stopping means he’ll be finished off violently by the wolves, powerfully conveys the most important moment a seeker of truth might ever be fortunate enough to be reduced to.
Wonderful comedy presents a twist on the Nietzschean/Ouspenskian theory of ‘eternal recurrence,’ only instead of a person living the same life over again and again, the protagonist (Bill Murray, in vintage form) must relive the same day—over, and over, and over. Effectively portrays the thorough exhaustion of the self-centered orientation that’s necessary before any real change can occur. Also hints at the indestructibility of the source behind that self.
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2012)
Aside from being an immediately recognized and well-respected character actor for well over half a century, (and quite a soulful singer, as demonstrated here), the laconic and weathered subject of this biographical documentary reveals a depth of insight rare among those in his profession (and rare in general, actually). Asked to describe himself, he says: “There’s nothing. There is no self.” And “I’m nothing… when you’re nothing you have no problems.” And “we’re not in charge of our lives at all, despite what we think.”
The latest work by avant-garde multimedia artist Laurie Anderson is a whimsical yet deeply felt tribute to her beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle, as well as an almost trance-inducing tone poem on death, post-9/11 fears, and personal memories and reflections from Anderson’s life.
A sensitive and lonely writer in an unspecified future bonds with his Artificially Intelligent computer operating system. A number of profound themes are explored in this warm, surprisingly affecting story. “The past is just a story we tell ourselves.” “The heart is not like a box that gets filled up; it expands in size the more you love.” “It's like I'm reading a book... and it's a book I deeply love. But I'm reading it slowly now. So the words are really far apart and the spaces between the words are almost infinite. I can still feel you... and the words of our story... but it's in this endless space between the words that I'm finding myself now. It's a place that's not of the physical world. It's where everything else is that I didn't even know existed…” (The preceding three quotes are from the ever-evolving OS.)
This solemn Clint Eastwood-directed drama follows three unrelated people around the world who are impacted in different ways by death: a little British boy who lost his twin brother; a French woman who had a near-death experience; an American psychic who’s trying to turn his back on his ability to channel the deceased in the interest of living a more ‘normal’ life. Two things I very much appreciate in this sensitively handled film are that it distinguishes between charlatans and those who are genuine (rather than dismissing even the possibility of the latter because of the prevalence of the former), and especially that it strongly evokes the sense of being an outsider that tends to mark anyone whose perspective on death is derived from firsthand experience.
A young woman (Kate Winslet) in early 1970’s Morocco seeks to be initiated by a renowned Sufi Sheikh. The more explicit seeking aspect of this movie is actually relegated somewhat to a background theme. Although the great Sheikh dies before her arrival (this is not a spoiler), it’s interesting that the heroine, for all her talk of “dying to the ego,” comes to herself enough in the presence of the new head Sufi that she suddenly feels her unpreparedness for such a radical pursuit.
An impressively balanced and nuanced depiction of evangelical Christianity from character actress Vera Farmiga, who both directs and stars as a woman grappling with doubt and searching for a genuine experiential grounding of her life-long beliefs. The intelligent questioning and sense of longing for something real will resonate for many, regardless of the particulars of their paths.
The Holy Mountain a.k.a. La Montaña Sagrada (1973)
Über-provocateur Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal and outré film was based, in part, on René Daumal’s seminal allegory Mount Analogue… but don’t be overly swayed by the respectable pedigree. This art house carnivàle is largely for the intrepid viewer prepared to wade through lots of meretricious weirdness overlaying the spiritual symbology—which, to be fair, is equally abundant.
Update upon rewatching this almost 20 years later: I struggled with whether to delete the above critical remarks and say something more respectful and generous, as what struck me about the film this time is how extraordinarily striking and beautiful it is. It's truly a work of art.
Holy Sh*t, We're in a Cult! (2016)
As this 16 minute video essay from The Atlantic shows, those who get wrapped up in cults aren't necessarily stereotypical rubes looking for an authority figure to sheepishly follow. These people were well-educated and savvy urbanites, and yet even they found themselves committing to a situation they hadn't foreseen or desired. On the other hand, as cults go, this one (EnlightenNext) was relatively mild and the abuses of its leader (Andrew Cohen) seemingly limited to the sort of toxic narcissistic assholery that would be right at home in many corporate settings.
Written and directed by Jane Campion and featuring Kate Winslet as a newly initiated sannyasin whose overly-alarmed family hires a deprogrammer, this film would make a good double-feature with Hideous Kinky (above). The film raises more serious questions than it answers, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. The interplay between Winslet and Harvey Keitel as the "cult exiter" is fascinating. Features actual video footage of Osho/Rajneesh and others as part of the deprogramming.
After suffering a trauma that prompts a reevaluation of his life, a successful Hollywood film director sets out to interview a number of luminaries from the worlds of literature, science, politics and spirituality. His primary questions for each are What’s wrong with our world? and What can we do about it? There’s a few missteps—most notably some new agey pseudo-science about the heart; and an attempt to determine whether mankind is fundamentally either selfish or cooperative (it’s both and more, not one or the other)—and the ‘we’re all one’ message comes off like a feel-good cliché precisely to the extent that its true basis goes unrecognized. Still, the documentary is sincere and well worth a look.
Intoxicating wild ride through what for many will be pretty bewildering ‘mind fuck’ territory. Those familiar with Advaita-type teachings, however, might find this delightful and refreshing. It’s already uncommon to find serious philosophical/existential questions explored cinematically. It’s exceedingly rare to find this in a mainstream, big-name Hollywood flick that’s actually fun to boot. Reportedly, the filmmaker, David O. Russell, was inspired by his mentor, Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman, and motivated by the events of 9/11. Thus, one character, a traumatized firefighter, asks: “How come we only ask ourselves the really big questions when something bad happens?”
A young molecular biologist and his assistant (who both look improbably like models) work on altering the DNA of sightless creatures to give them vision, ostensibly to disprove the theory of intelligent design. Meanwhile, a parallel plotline draws the researchers into a more personal investigation of a possible thread between the human eye, identity and reincarnation. As unwieldy or nutty as this may sound, the film is actually very coherent, artful and well-acted. An altogether impressive achievement.
Akira Kurosawa’s life-affirming classic film is a sweet, gentle, moving tale of an aging, bored bureaucrat who learns he has terminal cancer, prompting him to search for a meaningful way to make use of his last days. His quest traces a universal template of dead-end seeking that brings him back to his formerly meaningless work, now humbly transformed and capable of a similarly potent (if posthumous) impact upon his colleagues.
Somewhat dark but ultimately hopeful and redemptive fantasy in which the personified forces of good and evil vie for the souls of a grief-stricken widower and his estranged preteen daughter. An uncommonly striking and meaningful film from ambitious, truly independent visionary Jamin Winans.
Interstate 60: Episodes Of The Road (2002) ∞
A young man at a major life juncture meets a mythological wish-granter and Trickster (Gary Oldman, perfect), and is offered one wish (the Trickster aspect comes out only when people ask for selfish and trivial things). Responding from his heart, the man says he wants “an answer to my life,” and is thus sent on a singular journey along a road that doesn’t exist on any map. If this sounds authentic and true, and not at all like typical Hollywood fare, it is. Not only are the titular episodes on the road densely packed with deep significance, the film itself is tonally complex and surprisingly non-formulaic. This movie is a real treat.
In The Hands Of Alchemy (2006) ∞
Comprised of three short films, from 1979, 2001 and 2004, which document the extraordinary work and philosophy of Jerry Wennstrom, an artist whose life is an exacting testament to the transformative power of trust and surrender. If nothing else, use the video as an invitation to read his book, The Inspired Heart.
Into Great Silence a.k.a. Die Große Stille (2005) ∞
A uniquely and authentically meditative immersion in the daily life of the Carthusian monks at the ancient Grand Chartreuse monastery. A rare glimpse into a virtually unknown milieu, the film’s titular silence and glacial pace may tax the patience of even the more adventurous viewers accustomed to narration and regular, quick editing, but will reward those seeking a cinematic taste of the transcendent. The filmmaker, Philip Gröning, wrote to request permission to make this documentary way back in 1984, and was granted access sixteen years later.
Based on the true story of Chris McCandless, a fiercely idealistic youth who, upon graduating from college, donated his life savings to charity, abandoned his possessions, and embarked on a two year odyssey of self-discovery through raw experience, culminating tragically in the Alaskan wilderness. Having read the source book several times since its release in the mid-90s, I can vouch for both the fidelity and the elemental power of Sean Penn’s adaptation of this deeply vital story.
Irreversible a.k.a. Irréversible (2002) Ω
Exploiting a seedy, locals-only underbelly of Paris, this troubling film is replete with graphic violence so intense and repulsive, very few will be able to endure it. So why is it relevant to a list like this? The movie’s story begins at the ‘end,’ with an act of seemingly senseless brutality. Then, using the reverse chronology last seen in Memento (below), gradually moves into a ‘beginning’ which looks perfectly idyllic but is now—for the viewer but not the characters—so heavy with the pall of fait accompli as to be beyond tragic. The import? Most of us, as characters immersed in our stories, glide to our deaths more or less oblivious to the true significance of what we’re in for, while the seeker of truth wants to know; s/he actually wishes to consciously encounter that death in all its potential starkness well before the ‘end.’
Dark, nightmarish and unsettling depiction of a man’s very bardo-like journey through his post-war life. Chronically haunted by flashbacks of his critical wounding in Vietnam, and disturbing encounters with demonic creatures who seem to be trying to hunt him down or make him crazy, he receives some enlightened guidance from an important friend: “[Meister] Eckhart saw hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of life—your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.”
Joe Versus The Volcano (1990) ∞
A wonderful and humorous contemporary fairy tale about facing the fear of life, and seeking a more authentic experience of living. The movie is a full-bodied parable for our era and culture—and is just great fun to boot. Also features one of the most searing moments of genuine, spontaneous, awe-induced prayer ever rendered in a narrative film: “Dear God, whose name I do not know: thank you for my life… I forgot how big… Thank you. Thank you for my life.”
Comment forthcoming. Please check back later.
Wordless documentary endeavors to show that human activity is out of balance with nature by juxtaposing scenes of the awesome geophysical majesty of our planet with the harried, driven mechanicality and rapacity of Urban Man. Somewhat manipulative (man at his worst against nature at her best) but undeniably powerful, with effective cybertronic score by Phillip Glass.
The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988)
“It is accomplished!” Daring parable illustrates how there can be no transformation without real sacrifice—going on the cross in a way perhaps unique to each who would die to realize Truth. The alternative path of fearful avoidance, portrayed here by Willem Dafoe’s Jesus as a householder hiding from his fate, just won’t cut it.
Ken Wilber refers to this one as “the Zen of self-destruction: when drinking, just drink.” That about sums it up. Compare to The Fire Within (above).
Life Is Beautiful (a.k.a. La Vita è Bella) (1997)
Multiple Oscar-winning Holocaust story of a man (Roberto Benigni, who also directed and cowrote the screenplay) who protects his small son from the horrors of their internment camp by pretending the whole thing is a game with a prize. Given the grim subject matter, this is a remarkably playful and inspiring film.
IMDb Plot Summary: Lama Norbu comes to Seattle in search of the reincarnation of his dead teacher,
Lama Dorje... Interspersed with this is the story of Prince Siddhartha, later known as the Buddha
Thanks to the technical advice of two genuine Tibetan rinpoches (who also have roles), this movie is fairly authentic in terms of its treatment of Buddhist doctrine. Not bad for a film in which Keanu Reeves is Buddha and Bridget Fonda is the mother of a reincarnated Buddhist master.
While non-linear shifts in chronology are all the rage in contemporary film, this movie features quantum shifts in identity—presenting a kind of particle/wave duality of the psyche. Bizarre, idiosyncratic and vaguely disturbing as only David Lynch can be.
Woody Allen whimsically explores two of his favorite topics while satirizing great Russian literature.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s seeming homage to the great Robert Altman (especially his Short Cuts) uses a sprawling ensemble cast to explore the themes of meaningful coincidence and redemption, punctuated by one of cinema’s most incredible and unforgettable deus ex machinas. Also, the bright-eyed adolescent quiz show champ played by Jeremy Blackman beautifully illustrates what it can look like when a preternaturally high IQ and a genuinely deep, curious, open intelligence coexist in the same person (compared to the boy’s adult counterpart, a discontented former quiz show star (William H. Macy), who has the IQ but is otherwise fairly stunted).
In a life characterized by change and transformation, this bio-pic shows the profoundly transformative impact that Malcolm X’s pilgrimage to Mecca had on his life and his message—an impact so radical that many still today don’t seem to recognize its significance (hint: it’s deeper than race).
Man Facing Southeast a.k.a. Hombre Mirando Al Sudeste (1986) ∞
Argentinian film about a man who mysteriously shows up at a mental hospital claiming to be an extraterrestrial. His psychiatrist—himself haunted personally and conflicted professionally—is sure his strange new patient is delusional, yet is intrigued by his astute, penetrating and persuasively objective critiques of mankind; the impact of his seemingly compassionate acts on everyone around him; and several obvious parallels to the life of Christ (at one point even referring to the man as a ‘Cybernetic Christ’). An artful film with great music, and dialogue that reads (in the English subtitles) almost like decent literature. Far superior to the American film K-PAX (2001), which is so similar thematically that it’s often taken to be a remake (which, according to its source novel’s writer, it isn't).
A dialogue-driven film that takes place entirely in a small cabin, in which a college professor confesses to a group of friends and academic colleagues that he has been alive for 14,000 years. Going into this I was curious to see if the issue of existential exhaustion would come up. It never did. On the plus side is the creative choice—likely dictated by extreme budgetary constraints—of having a story stripped down to an often electrifying discussion of an intriguing ‘what if…?’ scenario. On the down side, it felt as if some of the character reactions were artificially histrionic, and the direction seemed a bit clunky, with characters entering and exiting scenes by stagey authorial fiat (insofar as it takes place in one room, this may be unavoidable). In addition, the story might have worked better for me had it not insisted on placing the protagonist so conveniently at the very epicenter of numerous major historical events, like the Wandering Jew as Forrest Gump. But all nitpicking aside, this is a valuable film that’s well worth a look.
IMDb Plot Summary: A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal,
high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin
towers in 1974, what some consider "the artistic crime of the century"
Breathtaking. That someone can evince such palpable freedom and joy performing under such uniquely dangerous conditions is revelatory. “Whenever other worlds invite us, whenever we are balancing on the boundaries of our limited human condition, that’s where life starts, that’s where you start feeling yourself living.”
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IMDb Plot Summary: A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about
the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against the controllers of it
Innovative, influential and hugely entertaining film brings numerous profound ideas into a pop-cultural milieu, hopefully to stir people up and arouse some deeper reflection about life, but more likely to get drowned out amid all the fun and flashy comic book wizardry. “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth… [t]hat you are a slave… Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”
Yes, as some reviewers have relished pointing out, the meaning of life is indeed revealed during the course of this hilarious and disgusting Monty Python film, but not where they think it is—not at the end, where it ostensibly is. Pay careful attention to the boardroom discussion about hats at around the halfway mark—and by all means ignore that strange building outside the window!
Meetings With Remarkable Men (1979) ∞
Book-to-Film adaptations are notoriously problematic and frequently contentious. Not only is it exceedingly difficult to translate the often internal quality of a book's narrative structure using dramatic devices, but the end result—no matter how artfully done—often provokes apples-to-oranges comparisons that almost invariably favor the apples... which is to say: the books.
The difficulties are even greater when the book in question is allegorical. Meetings With Remarkable Men provides a good case in point. Ostensibly the autobiography of the great spiritual teacher/rogue sage G.I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949), the book seems, on the surface, like a very colorful, picaresque travelogue. It is supposed to portray the events in Gurdjieff's search for deeper knowledge among certain esoteric spiritual schools in Central Asia.
Students of Gurdjieff and his teaching, however, tend to agree that this simple form (all of Gurdjieff's other writings tend towards mind-numbing complexity of expression) belies a profound metaphor for the search for meaning in our lives.
Now the film of Meetings... seems to take a very straight-forward, even literal-minded approach to portraying Gurdjieff's search, which basically follows his growth from a rascally and inquisitive schoolboy, to an intense young man consumed by a hunger for the knowledge of life's meaning.
I think that the above-mentioned literal-mindedness is one of two factors that cripple the film and keep it from being what it might have been.
For example, one of the episodes in the book has young Gurdjieff and a group of fellow seekers caught in a violent sandstorm in the middle of the desert. They each climb to the upper rungs of some very tall stilts, effectively rising above the sandstorm. Perhaps written as a kind of litmus test, designed to separate those who readily take whatever they read at face value from those with more independence of thought, to most readers of average perspicacity, this little episode might represent something psychologically symbolic. But one thing it's not likely to represent is a bunch of guys walking across the desert on huge stilts. And yet, when we see exactly that in the film, it tends to strain credulity even more than reading it in the book does. In fact, it seems downright silly.
The other problematic factor in this film is the acting, which at times is stilted in the extreme. There seems to be a mingling of well-known, professional actors (Terrence Stamp, Athol Fugard, Warren Mitchell, Bruce Meyers), and perhaps less experienced performers. Dragan Maksimovic, in the title role, may have been an experienced performer in his native Yugoslavia, but was hampered by the fact that he knew no English until just before filming; the actor who plays Gurdjieff as a boy fares less well. Regardless of actorly competence, the delivery of dialogue is so stiff at times it's almost painful to watch. Two scenes stand out in this regard: Vitvitskaia (the director's wife, Natasha Parry), plucking at a harp next to a large spider's web, solemnly explains: "We're studying the effect of vibrations..."; (Gurdjieff's magisterial reply is priceless: "You're working in the dark!"); or the earlier scene following young Gurdjieff's near-death experience during the firing-range stunt: Karpenko (Gerry Sundquist): "What did you think about?"; Young Gurdjieff (Mikica Dimitrijevic): "What is it like not to be here...?" In the book these scenes—especially the latter—are vivid and meaningful; here they feel like we're watching a grammar school play.
The film is directed by Peter Brook, who has done much more work in theater than in film. In fact, several of Brook's films—in particular Marat-Sade (1967) and The Mahabarata (1989)—have a deliberately theatrical or stagey quality, which probably befits a production that originated on the stage. This isn't to say he isn't a capable film director—his Lord Of The Flies (1963) stands as one of the all-time preeminent book-to-film adaptations—but one wonders how comfortable he is with the subtleties of cinematic language. Some may argue that Brook's approach in the this film deliberately eschews conventions of cinematic polish and narrative sophistication in favor of a more rough-hewn authenticity. But this idea stems from the premise that something essential in Gurdjieff's story would necessarily be lost if the translation to film were done in the manner of, say, David Lean or Stanley Kubrick, which I don't believe to be the case: Good acting and visionary direction are not antithetical to depth.
That said, there are at least three very good reasons to see Meetings...: First, it is one of the very few films to portray the spiritual search vividly and honestly; despite its cinematic flaws, this alone is a remarkable achievement. Second, the film is beautifully shot in Central Asia and features many indigenous people as extras and in smaller roles. Third, and most importantly, the film closes with a rare ten minute sequence of "sacred dances"—what Gurdjieff refered to as "Movements." It's during a viewing of these movements that one feels the call of something deeper; that "something" which no doubt Gurdjieff sought and found, and which formed the subject of his books and his entire teaching effort.
The bottom line is that this film may find its most appreciative audience among those who are already familiar with Gurdjieff's life and work—and in particular, with the book on which this film is based. To a viewer who is already familiar with the book of Meetings... many of the events in the film will play like a cinematic shorthand, and will thus "make sense" (e.g., young Gurdjieff grabbing the snake at his father's behest, or the "Where is God just now?" conversation between the father and Dean Borsh). Casual viewers, on the other hand, may not know quite what to make of such scenes, which are presented without narrative context or explication.
Meetings With Remarkable Women (2011) ∞
Engaging and illuminating interviews of five women who talk about the origins and fruitions of their respective paths. As with Closer Than Close (above), filmmaker Shawn Nevins’s first documentary, the perspectives on tap here are invaluable. In addition, the topic of possible gender influences on the path is broached. Interview segments are interspersed and enriched with poems and tasteful acoustic music.
The always provocative Lar von Trier uses a rogue planet on a collision course with Earth as both a metaphor for depression and a trope to illustrate the ways different psychological types handle the prospect of imminent annihilation. The implication here seems to be that those deepest in despair are closest to truth (a view shared, sort of, by another famous melancholy Dane, Kierkegaard). Be that as it may, I found this film to be at once utterly gorgeous—visually and in its prominent use of Wagner’s majestic Tristan und Isolde—and sublimely haunting, with its sustained atmosphere of disquiet and awesome mystery.
Memento (2000) ∞ Ω
Unfolding alternatingly from present to past and from past to present is this fascinating and appropriately disorienting story of a man with an injury that has left him unable to form new memories, as he attempts to track down the person he believes raped and murdered his wife. Forget the plot (pardon the pun), which is standard crime noir fare. The real meat here is what the film has to say about how 1) identity is founded on memory, and 2) to some extent identity is or can be based on a root lie that keeps the search in motion. Taken at an even deeper level, which we must do in order to understand how we who don’t have anterograde amnesia could be so prone to self-deception, we might ask ourselves whether the protagonist’s affliction and resulting confusion are an only slightly exaggerated form of the fragmented and distracted state each of us generously refers to as our ‘waking consciousness.’
Featuring a screenplay co-written by doyen of scientist-cum-new age authors Fritjof Capra (The Tao Of Physics), and directed by his brother Bernt, this film uses three characters—a politician, a scientist and a poet—to explore the need for a holistically-minded new paradigm in our culture. The seriousness of the dialogue—delivered while walking around historic Mont Saint Michel—may strike some as overly didactic, but the film is of value because it directly addresses ideas that are meaningful and uncommon in film. The scene where the poet uses a Pablo Neruda piece to reconcile or reframe the other two characters’ views is a chill bump-inducing high point.
Story of an 18th Century Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) and the former slave-trader/murderer (Robert De Niro) he saves from suicide, working to convert indigenous people of the remote South American jungle. The scenes of De Niro’s character’s intense striving for expiation are especially powerful.
IMDb Plot Summary: In the year 2092, 118 year old Nemo is recounting his life story to a
reporter… He tells of his life at three primary points: age 9, age 16 and age 34. The confusing
aspect of the story is that he tells of alternate life paths, which also intersect…
"Every path is the right path. Everything could've been anything else, and it would have just as much meaning." At certain major junctures in the life of the title character (Jared Leto), when he is put in an untenable position of forced-choice known in chess as zugzwang, multiple alternate lives develop in parallel from the potentiated moment of indecision. An exhilarating exploration of some of the theoretically infinite cosmic wormholes of possibility opened up in choosing among paths. The movie is a symphony of profound themes, arresting cinematography and stellar music.
Mister Rose (1993) ∞
Recorded in 1991, this lengthy video documentary follows the powerful “American Zen master” Richard Rose as he delivers a talk to a group of students at NCSU, is interviewed on a radio show, and hosts a gathering of seekers visiting his West Virginia farm. Along the way, Rose speaks at length about his life, his cataclysmic enlightenment experience as a young man, and his views on a variety of topics. Also featured are candid and illuminating interviews with many of the young students who found themselves drawn to Rose. An unprecedentedly intimate look at a man who worked tirelessly and selflessly to help others in their search.
Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979) ∞ Ω
Monty Python’s superbly comedic and insightful commentary on the tendency toward fanatical devotion to authority and blind adherence to dogma in salt-of-the-earth religious followers. Using a would-be savior (and very naughty boy) who’s a contemporary of Christ, the Python troupe manages, as always, to leave no faction unscathed while putting across a fundamentally sound tenet. Indeed, the “You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves!” message is applicable to even the most well educated and sophisticated frequenters of suburban satsangs.
Classic philosophical chatfest between humanist actor/playwright Wallace Shawn and errant theater director André Gregory. Ever pragmatic and incredulous, Shawn provides a canny foil for Gregory and his fantastic tales of adventure and mystical experience and insight.
With only a few months to live and a first child on the way, a man begins video taping his life as a gift to the son he will never know. At the same time, afflicted by a lifetime of not-so-suppressed anger and drivenness, his initially reluctant encounters with a traditional Asian energy worker precipitate a healing journey. Don’t be put off if this sounds like Hallmark material—it’s not. There’s deep authenticity and insight here, especially during the sessions with the healer, as well as winning humor from star Michael Keaton. Written and directed by Bruce Joel Rubin, best known for penning Ghost (1990) and Jacob’s Ladder (above).
The Nature Of The Beast (1995)
Gimmicky serial killer flick recommendable solely for a hardcore existentialist monologue delivered powerfully by Eric Roberts: “How much [‘eating, sleeping and fucking’] he does depends on how big that hole is inside him—[the hole] that rips open inside everyone when they suck in their first screaming breath: it’s why babies scream. […] I’ve seen men try to fill it with women, with other men, with the Good Book—thank you, Jesus! […] with money, power […] And what finally separates the men from the boys [is] The Wisdom, the Knowledge of the Ages: That hole… it can’t be filled. We pretend, because no one’s got the balls to live with the truth; the truth being that inside that hole is what we really are: nothingness.” While this is profoundly true, it puts a nihilistic spin on the recognition that tends to foreclose an even more profound and encompassing truth.
Subtle, trenchant satire of self-involved L.A. glamorati and their spiritual tourism by Michael Tolkin, the writer of (the far more brilliant) The Player (1992). Anyone who’s ever been involved in a contemporary spiritual movement will appreciate the film’s wry treatment of such guru-isms as “Live with the question” and “Watch…” A highly underrated and much misunderstood gem of a movie.
Comprised of raw footage from a documentary that two French filmmakers just happened to be shooting at a New York fire station at the time of the attacks, this film provides a unique and unforgettable immersion in the catastrophic events of the morning of September 11, 2001.
No Country For Old Men (2007) Ω
IMDb Plot Summary: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some
dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande
May seem an odd choice, but the villain character of Anton Chigurh (masterfully embodied by Javier Bardem) is so completely unified and unwavering in his quest, that if you can strip away the particulars of that quest’s sinister objective, you will see the archetypal ideal of a seeker of truth. For a more wholesome depiction of this same archetype, see The Straight Story (below).
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge a.k.a. La Rivière Du Hibou (1961)
IMDb Plot Summary: A Civil War civilian is to be executed by hanging, but when the plank’s kicked
away, instead of breaking his neck, he manages to miraculously escape unscathed, or did he?
French short film, based on a story by Ambrose Bierce. First presented to American audiences courtesy of a very special episode of… Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (sorry, couldn’t resist).
A teenage girl who is apparently an alien devises a way to save humanity from doom. A bit flat for the most part, but redeemed by some truly poetic imagery, an amazing soundtrack and more than a few striking parallels to the pursuit and realization of absolute truth. “You're not in control. No one's controlling this. It's not personal. It's not about us. Don't fool yourself into thinking you understand it. You can either service it or resist it. Either way, in the end it wins.” Title is a fragment of a Rumi poem.
A novice documentarian poses a series of Big Questions to many prominent spiritual teachers. A worthy and inspiring effort, despite slick editing that reduces the responses to mere sound bites.
Open Your Eyes a.k.a. Abre Los Ojos (1997) ∞
One of the best entries in the burgeoning things-are-not-what-they-seem category of storytelling follows a wealthy, handsome playboy whose grasp of reality begins to unravel when he is disfigured by a jilted lover. Remade in the U.S. as Vanilla Sky (2001).
Wim Wenders’s masterful film about redemption and identity follows a man (Harry Dean Stanton) emerging from years of silent wandering in the desert, as he strives to reunite with his young son.
A Passage Through Self (1987) ∞
A three hour video taped talk in which the Christian ‘no self’ author and former cloistered nun, Bernadette Roberts, explores the various stages in her unique and profound firsthand view of the contemplative journey.
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc a.k.a. La Passion De Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
Stunningly beautiful silent film depiction of the trial of the great 15th Century martyr. The pristine mid-1980s restoration featuring the choral Voices of Light score is truly sublime.
Gritty, paranoiac, equally mystical and intellectual. One of the rare contemporary films that represents a perfect artistic whole: the cinematography, acting, dialogue and soundtrack seamlessly merge to produce an indelible impression of a man whose very intensity threatens to consume him before he finds the answer to his search. In this sense, his fevered quest to find the mathematical basis for the meaning of life works like the koan given to a Zen student, in order to exhaust the dualistic mind and allow illumination to occur.
IMDb Plot Summary: Emmy Award winning, 11-episodes, 5-years in the making,
the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC…
Quite simply, this is a mystical experience in a box. The cumulative impact of taking in the astounding diversity, complexity, beauty and mystery of life on this planet was, for this viewer, a new appreciation of why the Hindus refer to life and the universe as lila—divine play. In this regard, the narration—with its confident assertions about the supposed evolutionary whys and wherefores of this singular play—is almost entirely superfluous.
IMDb Plot Summary: The stories of two mob hit men, a boxer and a
pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption
We all already knew that Jules (the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson) was the smart one of the two hip hitmen, but his response to ‘The Miracle’ near the end of the movie gives us a taste of what true intelligence—in the deeper sense of the word—is all about: “Vincent, you’re judging this thing the wrong way. Whether or not what we experienced was an according-to-Hoyle ‘miracle’ is insignificant. What is significant is I felt the touch of God; God got involved. Why?... I don't know why, but I can't go back to sleep.”
Comment forthcoming. Please check back later.
A sublime meditation on the Pythagorean idea of the transmigration of souls through four stages of existence—human, animal, vegetable and mineral (the title means ‘The Four Times’ and was filmed in the Italian village that was home to that most famous mathematician and metaphysician). Although not a documentary, the film is entirely free of dialogue and music, but is also rife with quiet humor and pathos.
Documentary explores the life of the renowned spiritual guide and former ousted Harvard psychology professor Richard Alpert, a.k.a., Ram Dass, both before and after the massive stroke that rendered him largely wheelchair-bound. The fierce grace of the title refers to Dass’s uncommon view of this turn of events, which he considers the gift of having been “stroked” by the grace of his long-deceased guru.
Ram Dass, Going Home a.k.a. Walking Each Other Home (2017)
Lovely half-hour follow-up to the above-listed Fierce Grace features its subject, who is at times moved to tears of gratitude despite his physical disability and frailty, gently reflecting on his life as he nears its coda—or, perhaps, its transition, as Dass himself sees it.
Should be required viewing for anyone calling themselves ‘saved’ or ‘born again.’ Explores—realistically at first—the perennial conflict between faith and reason, as the protagonist (Mimi Rogers) goes from unabashed hedonism to inner bankruptcy, then to religious zeal, and from there to a true crisis of faith. The film gets both fanciful and literal towards the culmination, which is nevertheless fairly powerful if the viewer can meditate on what it’s supposed to represent.
The recommendation is for the remake because I haven’t seen the 1946 original, nor have I read the Somerset Maugham book on which both films are based. Bill Murray chose as his dramatic debut this story about a man returning from war infused with a thirst for spiritual meaning in his life. His quest takes him to the remote Himalayas, then back into urban life again, where he tests his new insight and energy trying to help a deeply self-destructive friend (played with intensity by Theresa Russell).
After barely surviving a horrific car crash that claimed her husband, a woman emerges from a powerful near death experience with the ability to heal others. This film was very much a labor of love for its star, Ellen Burstyn, who also produced, and that love shows in the authenticity of her performance.
Run Lola Run a.k.a. Lola Rennt (1998) ∞
IMDb Plot Summary: A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find
and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket
Like π (above), the action, camera work and music create a sense of urgency and energy as the flame-top Lola races through minute variations of the same scenario again and again, each time setting off a dramatically altered chain of events via the butterfly effect. An electrifying demonstration of the interconnectedness of all.
The Sacrifice a.k.a. Offret (1986)
IMDb Plot Summary: At the dawn of World War III, a man searches for a
way to restore peace to the world and finds he must give something in return
Filmed in rural Sweden using Ingmar Bergman’s longtime cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film is a slow, solemn rumination on the spiritual auteur’s lifelong themes, which often play out (and do here) in a way that blurs the line between waking reality and dreams. “We live, have our ups and downs. We hope. We wait for something. Finally, we die, and are born again. But we remember nothing. And everything begins again, from scratch.”
Another gorgeous 70mm spectacle from Ron Fricke, the writer and cinematographer of Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi (both listed above), and continuing in very much the same vein. Although the film is free of narration, it is also, like the aforementioned works, not entirely free of sometimes heavy-handed visual editorializing. Agenda notwithstanding, this is a must-see film. The title is a Buddhist term referring to the panoply of cyclical, phenomenal existence, but with the connotation that it is all fundamentally unreal.
The Sea That Thinks a.k.a. De Zee Die Denkt (2000) ∞ Ω
Giddy and delirious, a soaring juggernaut of a film about a man writing a film about a man writing the film you are watching. That's not a typo. This elaborate use of recursion at times gives the impression the film will devour itself and bring the dislocated viewer with it. Additionally, the picture boasts masterful stagecraft, with ingenious Escher-like optical illusions that are designed both to subtly throw the viewer off balance, and to demonstrate that the ‘I’ projected in the mind is entirely based on a skewed point of reference: shift the reference point and the illusion is seen through. Woven into the narrative are sophisticated discussions of the paradox of the ‘I’’s attempts to know itself and to transcend or ‘delete’ itself. Top it all off with photography so rich and poetic, almost any still chosen at random could illuminate a gallery wall. Dutch wunderkind Gert de Graaf took 13 years to complete the film, and the result is truly astonishing and peerless.
A sort of overlooked gem from the Coen brothers about the Job-like travails of a nebbishy Jewish physics professor (in the suburban Midwest of the late 1960s) whose rapidly disintigrating life prompts a search for meaning.
The Seventh Seal a.k.a. Det Sjunde Inseglet (1957) ∞
IMDb Plot Summary: A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence
of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague
Ingmar Bergman's seminal and iconic allegorical meditation on the meaning of life, death, and suffering. Rewatching this recently for the first time in many years, I was struck by how much humor there was throughout the film—something that makes this masterpiece all the more remarkable.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
In order to illustrate man’s spiritual predicament, the metaphor of prison has often been used: not only because we are said to be trapped in a kind of bondage analogous to jail, but because in order to escape one must be exceedingly crafty…and patient. That’s why, in addition to being masterfully entertaining, this movie has also worked for me as an allegory, even if that was not the original intent of writer or filmmaker. Tim Robbins’s character displays some of the ideal attributes that one should strive to cultivate in order to escape the prison of suffering and separation.
Through works as diverse as Mean Streets (1973) and The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988) (listed above), and perhaps a few more recent titles, Martin Scorsese has a history of using his art to touch on Catholic themes of sin and salvation. But this film, about a pair of Jesuit missionaries and their struggles to introduce Christianity in 17th century Japan amidst violent persecution, is probably his richest, most mature and profound treatment of these and related themes—in addition to being gorgeous and masterful on purely cinematic terms. Anyone who’s felt the anguish and forsakenness of continuing their inner search for ______ (fill in the blank) despite that search taking them through seemingly endless desert or dark night (herein lies the meaning of the film’s title; think of it as a cinematic rendering of the famous Christian poem ‘Footprints’), will surely be moved and, perchance, inspired.
Six Degrees Of Separation (1993)
The dissertation discourse that Will Smith (in his most inspired performance) gives on the theme of ‘The Imagination’ in The Catcher In The Rye is magical and profound. Even more profound is a scene at the end of the movie, in which another character asks, in essence, How do we keep from turning such indelible experiences into mere anecdotes over time? How do we make them real in our lives? (“I am a collage of unaccounted for brush-strokes. I am all random.”)
Effective and well-crafted chiller elaborates the idea that ghosts are entities whom death has so caught by surprise that they don’t know they’re dead yet. As with other films of this theme, there’s a basic lesson about the need to achieve release through resolution. The only potential liability of this message that if one fails in life, there’ll be another chance in death, is that it can foster complacency. But taken at another level, maybe we’re all akin to the wandering ghosts, unless by traumatic shock or a special alchemy of skillful effort and grace, a fundamental realization occurs that jolts us from our sleep of death in the puppet theater.
A London woman’s life spins into two very different scenarios that play out in parallel, depending on whether she catches or misses a train one morning. One of the best films to play with the alternate realities theme.
Half-hour short film documents a young North Carolina man’s decision to go into the woods alone and do a month long water fast in search of deeper truth. A laudable subject, though the film’s marketing blurb is a bit misleading.
Solaris a.k.a. Solyaris (1972)
Based on a book by sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, about a space station orbiting a planet that appears to emanate consciousness. The influence exerted by the sentient planet seems to manifest the subconscious desires and obsessions of the orbiting crew.
Fearless filmmaker Steven Soderbergh reportedly went directly to Lem’s book, rather than simply remaking the Tarkovsky original. Not having read it, I can’t comment on the fidelity of the adaptation, but in terms of atmosphere and affective resonance, this version really connects.
IMDb Plot Summary: When a tragedy shatters her plans for domestic bliss, a
seemingly typical Southern newlywed gradually transforms into a spiritual seeker
Quiet and engaging character piece about a non-religious young woman beginning to seek deeper meaning in life beyond the roles she’s come to identify with, at one point even visiting The Abbey of Gethsemane, the Trappist monastery in Kentucky that was home to Thomas Merton for over a quarter century. Noteworthy, also, is the use of solo piano music both from and inspired by the unique Gurdjieff /de Hartmann oeuvre.
The Sound Of Insects: Record Of A Mummy (2009) Ω
Based on a novella by Masahiko Shimada, about a man who went into a remote forest to starve himself to death while diarizing the event, the film records the man's every dying day in posthumous voiceover. Having had much personal experience with long water fasts, solitary retreats in remote settings and, I will admit, sustained bouts with suicidal despair, I went into this film expecting something profound, but was somewhat disappointed. The main problem for me was the sheer banality of many of the character's journal entries, which deal more with trivial minutiae about weather conditions and bowel movement progress than with the fundamental questions that one who is facing death in a real way must, it seems to me, sooner or later confront. And in the several instances where the narrative does bother to muse on death more directly, the matter is treated in rubber stamp fashion with stock concepts about the Ferryman and the river Styx, or Dante's Inferno. There’s nothing wrong with mythology or allegory, of course, but they feel like an avoidance strategy in the face of imminent oblivion.
This, after all, is supposed to be the record of a 40 year old man who was so thoroughly exhausted or disgusted with the world that he was ready to take himself out of it, and not just in a quick and painless way, but instead the most protracted and excruciating way possible. And yet the record this character leaves behind is that of a vaguely droll cipher with no apparent inner life, who, incredibly, is so afraid of the dark that he must leave a radio playing all night (and when the radio finally beats him to the finish line he must call out his own name in the dark, lest he disappear), but who's apparently content to face his ultimate moment with a few pat notions taken from some books and a flippant aside about notifying afterworld officials that his soul is incoming. To me, this is a glaring character contradiction that just doesn't ring true. Perhaps Shimada and screenwriter/director Peter Liechti were as galvanized by this subject as I am, but had never confronted or seriously reflected on their own death before and so were simply not able to imbue the story with any true depth. I don't know. Or, maybe I'm totally wrong, and there really are people who end their lives with little or no self-confrontation or exploration of their underlying beliefs and fears, and this is just a fictionalized account of one such case. Reportedly, Shimada based his work on an actual diary of a man who'd starved himself to death, but I've never read the diary and so don't know how much of the novella is invention or speculation.
On the plus side, and despite the above misgivings, it's great to see a film like this get made, and to even garner some good professional reviews around the web. The basic storyline is fairly grim and almost inherently uncommercial, but its real value in my estimation is that by holding such a steady and unsentimental gaze on death, it might prompt the viewer to reflect on the meaning of his or her own life in the face of its inevitable end. And any film that even attempts that is both uncommon and valuable, in my opinion. Also, for what it's worth, having read Shimada's short story, I can attest that Liechti's screenplay hews to its source almost verbatim, while significantly expanding on the diary entries (the short story skipped many days, whereas in the film every day is represented by a narrated entry). This was a good choice, I think, since the dragging on of time it imposes serves to give the viewer a more visceral sense of the protagonist's ordeal.
Bottom line: I appreciated the idea of this film but felt it squandered its greatest potential on a relatively shallow protagonist. Then again, that is just my opinion and doesn’t necessarily reflect a flaw in the film as such. As far as general watchability goes, if you're someone who needs a plot or characters interacting in order to sustain interest in a movie, you might want to look elsewhere. If you're someone who liked Two Years at Sea, for example, you might well like this similarly slow and atmospheric film.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring a.k.a.
Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)
Set at a one-room temple floating on a lake amidst the mountains of rural Korea, this gorgeous and beguiling film unfolds in five season-themed segments, each representing a major phase in the life of an aspiring Buddhist monk, and each demonstrating an essential (if painful) life lesson.
One of the more renowned and quintessential ‘seeker’ films, by Russian director Tarkovsky, is a parable revealing truth at many levels. The Stalker of the title is a guide through a treacherous route to a secret place in ‘the Zone’ where one’s most primal wish will be granted, which points up the need for the seeker to have a clear understanding of what s/he wants. Like a bodhisattva, the Stalker has declined the ultimate fruit of the Zone’s wish-room in the interest of helping others to attain it. The film’s closing sentiment, about the hopelessness of artists and intellectuals to grasp the significance of the Zone, may seem a bit cynical or bitter but all too often proves true.
Based on the true story of 73 year old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), and his near-400 mile, two-state trip on a vintage riding lawn mower to make peace with his estranged and recently stroke-stricken brother. Many powerful themes are at play here: forgiveness, redemption, dauntlessness and resourcefulness in the quest. But shining through all is the homespun Zen-like wisdom, humor and serenity of Farnsworth’s swan song portrait.
A despondent man who has improbably survived countless unsurvivable (and increasingly disfiguring) attempts to end his life hires a hit man to do the job for him. But the fellow has come to recognize a sort of cosmically sinister irony: the hit will prove fatal only if/when he’s come to feel he wants to live. While this piquant Australian black dramedy might be decently entertaining in general terms, it’ll arguably find its most appreciative audience among the handful of despairers and failed suicides for whom this film’s seemingly over-the-top premise rings all too true.
Cormac McCarthy penned and Tommy Lee Jones directed this contentious, dialogue-heavy two-hander about a suicidal atheist professor (Jones) and the religious ex-con (Samuel L. Jackson) who prevented him from jumping in front of a train earlier that day. The movie is really a filmed play that takes place entirely in a single room set, and consists of the two men challenging each other’s views and beliefs.
Jackson: “I ain’t a doubter, but I am a questioner.”
Jones: “What’s the difference?”
Jackson: “A questioner wants the truth. A doubter wants to be told there ain’t no such thing.”
Jones: “Show me a religion that prepares one for nothingness, for death. That's a church I might enter […] Who would want this nightmare but for fear of the next.”
Jackson: “The light is all around you but you don't see nothing but shadow. And you're the one causing it. It's you. You're the shadow! That's the point.”
IMDb Plot Summary: A theater director struggles with his work and the women in his life, as
he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play
Brilliant and byzantine, this sprawling meta-flick may be the apotheosis of Charlie Kaufman’s ongoing exploration of the interplay of mind, identity, meaning and death. “What was once before you, an exciting, mysterious future, is now behind you: lived, understood, disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone’s experience… The specifics hardly matter. Everyone is everyone… As the world forgets you; as you recognize your transience; as you begin to lose your characteristics, one by one […] you learn there is no one watching you, and there never was…”
Taste Of Cherry a.k.a. Ta'm E Guilass (1997)
Gentle, reflective film from Iranian writer/director Abbas Kiarostami follows a successful middle aged man as he drives around Teheran in search of someone he can pay to bury him after he commits suicide (he’s already dug the hole). Between the deliberate choice to omit any back-story to explain the man’s actions, and the equally ambiguous ending, this is a film that will turn the viewer back on her- or himself. The title refers to a story told by one of the main characters.
This is a film that many people will pass over because of overly narrow categorization, thinking of it only as a ‘war movie,’ when in fact it’s a sensitive, meditative exploration of the nature of war and its origin in the inner conflict and violence of Man. The rich hues and exotic sounds of the jungle are juxtaposed against the brutal dynamics of battle as a soldier’s voice-over narration wonders: “What’s this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? Is there an avenging power in nature—not one power but two?” and “Maybe all men got one big soul everybody’s a part of; all faces of some man: one big Self.”
Three Colors: Blue (1993); White (1994); Red (1994)
a.k.a. Trois Couleurs: Bleu; Blanc; Rouge
Taken as a whole, Krzysztof Kieslowski's inspired and masterful trilogy evokes a sense of the underlying unity of life. (This is more or less a placeholder comment until I can rewatch the films, having not seen them in many years. I think they deserve more substantive treatment.)
Australian crime thriller miniseries from Jane Campion, featuring an edgy, aloof Holly Hunter as a sagacious but reluctant women’s support-group leader named GJ, loosely based on the nihilistic, colorfully contrarian anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti (not to be confused with the much better known—yet unrelated—Jiddu Krishnamurti, though as it happens, the two share more in common than a name).
Hollywood's ultra commercial treatment of Phillip K. Dick's short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale probably loses quite a bit in the homogenous translation, but begins from an intriguing question: "What if your whole life has been a dream?"
MIT philosophy prof. Terrence Malick’s fifth film in 38 years is his most elliptical and pensive (to this point), as well as his most visually and thematically ambitious. Framed by the stories of a troubled family in 1950s Texas and that of one of its grown children in the present day, the movie uses spectacular depictions of the Cosmic origin of existence, from the birth of the galaxies to the genesis of Earth and the evolution of life upon it, as a sort of God’s-eye perspective in answer to the characters’ prayerful, yearning questions. Not without its flaws, it is nonetheless a beautiful example of the heights to which cinema can aspire in exploring the deeps of human striving.
A man has spent his entire life on an elaborate island film set. All the people around him—even his ‘family’—are actors, all the events of his life are scripted, even the weather is controlled and modulated, and this ‘life’ of his has been broadcast on network TV around the world 24 hours a day. The most salient feature, however, is the fact that he has been kept unaware of this situation by the producer-mastermind of the show. He is, as the tagline for the movie goes, on the air, unaware. The import of the parable comes as he begins to become aware of his situation and stealthily sets about engineering his escape, relinquishing the false security and comfort of his accustomed life for the uncertainty and freedom of real life.
Stanley Kubrick’s classic film masterpiece manages to convey something of the inconceivable vastness and silence of space, while positing the esoteric notion of the consciously guided evolution of mankind within it. A deeply meditative and graceful experience.
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988)
IMDb Plot Summary: In 1968, a Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a
woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives
Vivid, haunting adaptation of Milan Kundera's novel. The marketing for the film focused mainly on its eroticism, but there are many deep insights here, both subtle and shattering.
“The scariest thing is to not know your place in the world, to not know why you’re here.” Thoughtful, somber, expertly-crafted film develops the idea that comic books are contemporary myths about the perennial struggle of the hero against the forces of evil. The most intriguing—and compellingly allegorical—element of this movie is that it depicts the hero realistically, as an ordinary family man existentially suffocating under self-imposed limitations, then awakening to the truth about himself and embracing—tentatively at first—his extraordinary gift.
An alien in human female form (Scarlett Johansson) cruises around Scotland at night, on a mission to seduce lonely men to their death, until an awakening sets her on a new course. An eerie, noirish sci-fi mood piece.
The Up Series Documentaries: ∞
Seven Up! (1964), 7 Plus Seven (1970), 21 Up (1977), 28 Up (1984),
35 Up (1991), 42 Up (1998), 49 Up (2005), 56 Up (2012), 63 Up (2019)
In 1963, a group of British children from very different backgrounds is interviewed for a TV program, ostensibly to explore the effects of the English class system on the outlook and development of the kids. The group is then revisited and interviewed every seven years (some decline to participate as the series progresses, only to reappear later). What emerges, especially from a single, marathon viewing session of the entire series to date, is a staggering, almost overwhelming experience of the scope and significance of human life. To call it ‘epic’ is an understatement. It becomes clear, as one commentator put it, that one is not watching ‘someone else.’ This is, in essence, one’s own life—and indeed, life itself. Absolutely essential viewing.
Like a more philosophical, less lunatic-fringe version of his earlier Slacker (1990), this Richard Linklater film (shot digitally with live actors and then computer rotoscoped) follows a character through a series of dreams-within-dreams, as he tries to wake up. Along the way he meets a variety of thoughtful and colorful characters who offer their views on life, death, dreaming, and the relationship between mind and reality. “There’s just this one instant, and it’s right now, and it’s eternity; and it’s an instant in which God is posing a question… [which] is basically ‘do you want to be one with eternity?’ And we’re all saying ‘No thank you—not just yet.’ So time is just this constant saying ‘no’ to God’s invitation… [T]his is the narrative of everyone’s life. …[B]ehind the phenomenal difference there is but one story, and that’s the story of moving from the ‘No’ to the ‘Yes.’ All of life is like ‘no thank you, no thank you, no thank you,’ then ultimately it’s ‘yes, I give in,’ ‘yes, I accept,’ ‘yes, I embrace.’ That’s the journey. Everyone gets to the ‘Yes’ in the end, right?”
After a tragedy strands them in the Australian outback with only the clothes on their backs, a 14 year old girl and her 6 year old brother meet an aborigine youth who’s on his long rite-of-passage walkabout in the desert. An unforgettable and devastating look at the clash of urban and indigenous cultures and values.
Documentary about Thich Nhat Hanh and his Zen community in France. Quite enjoyable even just visually and sensually, but also in terms of some of the situations captured—e.g., a little girl whose doggie just died and who asks him how to feel less pain, and his sweet, simple response; a female member visiting her elderly dad in a nursing home. And the voiceover readings of Hanh’s early journal description of his awakening were particularly profound. Mostly, though, it was the long stretches of quiet that communicated the most to this viewer.
What The #$*! Do We (K)now?! (2004)
Largely a new age cult propaganda flick sporting dubious talking heads, specious science and at least one apocryphal story passed off as historical fact. But kinda fun anyway, even if watched with a wary eye.
Who’s Driving The Dreambus? (2009) ∞
Fairly decent documentary presents interviews with numerous popular spiritual teachers who discuss non-duality and awakening. Presents a reasonable counterpoint of seasoned, traditional views and the more radical, neo-Advaita type approach.
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East? a.k.a. Dharmaga Tongjoguro Kan Kkadalgun (1989)
Korean film about an elderly Zen master whose death is immanent, and his work with his disciples. As might be expected, this is a very slow, quiet and cryptic film, and beautifully photographed. The title is actually a traditional Zen koan.
Wings Of Desire a.k.a. Der Himmel Über Berlin (1987) ∞
Two angels move amongst the populace of contemporary Berlin, eavesdropping on people’s thoughts, while longing to cast aside their eternal divinity for a taste of the tenuous existence humans take for granted. Beautiful, haunting and elegiac, the film, according to director Wim Wenders, was inspired by his love of Berlin and his admiration of Rilke. In fact, those familiar with that great poet’s work will immediately see his influence on some of the dialogue in the film. One refrain (though not Rilkean) goes: “When the child was a child, it was the time for these questions: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Is life under the sun not just a dream? Is what I see and hear and smell not just an illusion of a world before the world? Given the facts of evil and people, does evil really exist? How can it be that I, who I am, didn’t exist before I came to be, and that someday, I, who I am, will no longer be who I am?”
In a powerful and nuanced performance, Emma Thompson (who also cowrote the screenplay) plays a renowned and exacting English professor who is diagnosed with a virulent form of cancer. As the disease and its aggressive treatments take their toll, she is gradually reduced to the humbling realization that her formidable intellect and wit cannot help her prepare for death. Between the insensitivity and aloofness of hospital staff, the endless batteries of medical exams, the sheer weight of time in the absence of diversion, and not least, the withering trajectory of the disease itself, this film is as unflinchingly realistic as it is deeply affecting, and never maudlin.
It’s very unlikely that anyone reading this has never seen this movie, so I won’t bother with a précis. Aside from being a beloved classic for several of generations of viewers, this enchanting film is also a beautifully realized allegory of the spiritual journey: the primordial fall and feeling something lost; the search for ‘home’; the need for balance and integration on the path (head, heart, gut/scarecrow, tin man, lion); the value of camaraderie in the quest (idem); pulling back the curtain to reveal the fallacy of a controlling entity pulling the strings (and also exposing one’s fears as phony). And most salient of all, the entire journey takes place in sleep, and only upon waking is it revealed that nothing real was ever lost: the seeker had truly never left home.
Woman In The Dunes a.k.a. Suna No Onna (1964)
An entomologist from Tokyo, collecting specimens in a rural seaside village, is tricked and trapped into servitude by a woman living at the bottom of a huge, inescapable sand pit. As with any allegory, multiple interpretations are possible, each valid on its own level. Perhaps the most profitable take on this moody, atmospheric and sensual retelling of the myth of Sisyphus is that the only true freedom is inner freedom.
Oscar-nominated animated sci-fi comedy short (like, really short @ 16 min.) has a third-generation clone time-travel back 227 years to our time to meet her ancestral “prime” and explain to her how the world of the future will be, including the finer points of how consciousness will be uploaded, stored, and accessed digitally. But since this ancestor is presently a child of about three years old, most of this intel is completely—and comically—over her head. Funny stuff, but ideas of real substance are dispensed along the way: “You will feel a deep longing for something you cannot quite remember.” “When the night is at its most quiet, I can hear death.” “We mustn’t linger; it is easy to get lost in memories.” “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly.”
World On A Wire a.k.a. Welt Am Draht (1973)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s baroque 3-1/2 hour telefilm adaptation of the prescient 1963 novel Simulacron 3, by Daniel Galouye, imagines a world in which virtual reality is used for corporate espionage. While far ahead of its time thematically, this one gains points for having a character in existential crisis acknowledge a distant antecedent in Plato when positing that “nothing exists.”
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
A lovelorn guy offs himself, landing his soul in a life that sucks just a little worse than the one he fled. Soon, he embarks with some newfound companions on a we’re-off-to-see-the-wizard type road trip through an underworld that looks an awful lot like the outskirts of L.A., towards a dénouement that will surprise pretty much no one. Often perfunctory but occasionally clever, the film’s opening scene is pure gold, and worth the price of admission (or rental): after meticulously cleaning his entire apartment from top to bottom, the protagonist goes into the bathroom, opens his wrists and collapses to the floor, whereupon in his fading consciousness he notices a huge dust bunny that had somehow eluded his broom. If only the whole flick were that wry and incisive.
Documentary follows a group of Austrians on a 7,000 mile road trip and surfing odyssey from Los Angeles to Costa Rica. While most of the depth here is below the waves in the Pavones, the extensive, hard-boiled Hunter S. Thompson-esque voiceover narration explores the ontological implications of ‘zero’ (e.g., in the math of the Mayans) and its possible relationship to the Zen-like state of no-mind achieved by surfers. Thus: “For surfers, emptiness is nothing scary. Process and result are equivalent. The zero-state, the balance, is the goal. It is life on level zero; on sea level. Leveled out.” And: “Once you figured it out, you haven’t figured it out. It sort of works itself out.”
The title actually gives a pretty good idea of the gist of this playful indie confection. Sporting perma-stubble, cocked fedora and a haunted past, a 1940s-style gumshoe finds himself increasingly confounded as he attempts to investigate a mystery at a Buddhist temple. The tone is somewhat uneven and the Zen tends toward the pussycat variety. But hey, any flick where the same character who utters the line “The morning fog clung to the city like the scent of desperation on an aging drag-queen” turns around and quotes Pascal’s famous “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” is aces in my book.
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