I’ve been having a writer’s slide lately. It’s not like writer’s block, in which a writer can’t get going. It’s the kind of writing that can get started but flows out of control like momentum on black ice.

So I’ll bite. I don’t have favorite movies or colors, songs, or even friends for that matter. Still, depending on the season, I can recommend 10 movies at any given moment. Here are 10 films that are certainly part of my favorites and that I certainly recommend to others—but they are not necessarily my only favorite films.

I recommend these movies because many people I know have not seen them, and I believe they exemplify works of art that promote thinking.

1. Tuvalu (1999)

Tuvalu is a Chaplin-esque film by Veit Helmer, a German filmmaker and screenwriter. Set on the backdrop of a blighted town and a decaying natatorium, Anton preserves the illusion of yesteryear for his blind father, who believes all is well, and staves off the nefarious Gregor, who will stop at nothing to seize the building for personal gain.

The movie has a strong agenda for capital vs. creativity, greed vs. love, innocence vs. wickedness, and hope vs. desperation. I saw this movie at the Taos Film Festival in 2000 and met Veit when I was 15 years old. When leaving the screening, Veit was at the theater doors handing out clips of the film. I wound up with a 35mm frame of Chulpan Khamatova, who plays Eva, the lead actress.

You can watch the entire movie on YouTube, linked above. I recommend getting a DVD copy of it or finding it on a streaming service in HD. The cinematography, sets, details, and coloring of the film are incredible—down to the rubble and the wrinkles. I also own the soundtrack, and it is one of the rarest albums I own.

2. The Nasty Girl (1990)

The Nasty Girl is a story about the childhood, young adulthood, and career of Sonja (Lena Stolze), whose talents as a researcher and writer unveil her beloved town’s history and involvement in the Holocaust. This Brechtian film blends metafiction, theater, and cinema in an incredible and memorable film experience.

This movie is a must-see for anyone, but I particularly recommend it for young women, who the world depends on for telling truth to power.

3. Falling Down (1993)

This movie changed my life. I was 8 years old when I saw it. I saw the iconic movie poster and knew immediately I wanted to see it. So did my mom. We saw it together in theaters when it came out, and it blew my mind.

Falling down deals with serious moral questions about civilization. Who is good? Who is bad? What fantasies do we maintain? What happens when they, like the London Bridge, come falling down? What happens when our values, which we told were valuable, are not reciprocated or even rewarded by the world?

Most people know this movie for the fast food restaurant scene, but the one scene that I didn’t get as a kid, but I understand now is the economically viable scene, and it is still relevant today.

I work in homeless services now. The vestiges of redlining and financial discrimination are some of the root causes of homelessness because—for generations—banks and cities ensured that some people could not accumulate generational wealth. In a hyper-competitive society, it is easy to become outmoded, outsourced, outdated. And in a postmodern world, who is right, and who is wrong?

4. Z (1969)

Whenever I watch Futurama, I think about how the theme song was derived from a song from Z, which was derived from “Psych Rock,” by Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier (1967). But I digress.

Z is a film by Konstantinos “Kostas” Gavras, based on the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos, and scored by Mikis Theodorakis. The film is about the assassination of a leftist politician at the hands of a corrupt, authoritarian regime. I recommend reading the book if you want a more in-depth story about how right-wing authoritarianism manifests and commissions street thugs to do their bidding and hide the crimes in state-controlled media. If you want an uncomfortable political thriller that will leave you angry and dismayed, then watch the movie.

5. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

Don Hertzfeldt is widely known for his animated, hilarious short films such as “Rejected,” but in 2012, he released It’s Such a Beautiful Day, which shook me to my core. Anyone who has dealt with the mystery of health, especially when their or another person’s health is declining, can relate to this film. It is humorous, jarring, and moving. Hertzfeldt deals with themes like love, family, relationships, jobs, loneliness, forgiveness, and our humbling connection with the cosmos in a weirdly packed experience called life.

6. Tree’s Lounge (1996)

Steve Buscemi directed this underrated film, which deals with the themes of going nowhere, living with shame, and chasing the day. It’s an eye-opening movie when you take a step back from the alcoholism that consumes people’s lives and see that the underlying shame of addiction, estrangement, and immorality goes deeper than our behavior.

Fun fact: This movie is referenced in Fallout 2, an early version of the popular post-apocalyptic video game. It’s a deep-cut of an Easter egg because most gamers have no idea that a random dialog with an NPC refers to a scene in this film.

7. In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

By the time I was 10 years old, I had seen many inappropriate movies—Full Metal Jacket, Candy Man, Hell Comes to Frog Town, Coming to America, or anything overnight on HBO. But this movie… this movie… was the first movie that made me close my eyes in the theaters with my mom, of course.

In this John Carpenter film, Sam Neill is a claims investigator who is hired to track down Sutter Kane (the initials SK are an homage to Stephen King), a mythical horror author who has gone missing before a major release.

This movie’s themes include the relativity of scientific reason and the horrific paradoxes of predestination. What is real? What is fiction? It all plays out on the screen in this film, named somewhat after a collection of stories by HP Lovecraft, In the Mountain of Madness. If you are a fan of metafiction or being scared out of your mind for memorable tension and jump scares, then please watch this movie that is akin to the scary version of Groundhog’s Day.

8. Kiss the Water (2014)

In the past 15 years, innumerable documentaries have zoomed into a narrow subject and looked through the narrow scope to reveal its mysteries and insights, which pose irreverent or significant implications for the viewer. Most of these documentaries fail to convey earnestness. Kiss the Water does not. The movie is narrated by the interviewees, scored beautifully, and features animated paintings.

Megan Boyd was a prolific fly-maker, the feathery apparatus for catching salmon and entertaining the likes of people such as Prince Charles in her remote cottage. Her flies are some of the most coveted in the world, comprising feathers that—if I remember correctly—are no longer available because of the birds they came from.

The documentary’s outcome was completely unexpected. It was so upsetting that I rewound the film and inhaled every concluding impression to understand the story’s unfairness and reconsider the philosophies of beauty, which coexist with the realities of irrelevance.

9. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Bringing Out the Dead is not a widely accepted Martin Scorsese film or a Nicholas Cage film. Reactions to it were lukewarm at best. But I would consider this a classic Scorsese before he delved into the epic-length features he is known for today.

This film is gritty, weird, dark-humored, and insane. It deals with difficult themes—life as a grind, work as an isolator, and people as mere archetypes of wants and needs. It asks peculiar questions about people’s suffering. Don’t they just get shot and stabbed anymore? Why is it always the heart? How do I save people when I’m the one who needs saving?

I recommend this movie still because it’s a classic, New York noir that reminds us that life isn’t good, and maybe it’s not supposed to be.

10. Starship Troopers

When I saw the trailer for Starship Troopers, it had “Song 2″ by Blur as the music. The marketing failed miserably, painting it as an action movie for a younger generation. The movie was quite different.

Starship Troopers is a masterpiece of satire. You can’t make satire like Starship Troopers anymore because it’s too authentic. This move lampoons the naivety of youth, public service, war propaganda, xenophobia, leadership development, war, and so on. At the same time, the viewer is exposed to the necessity of winners and losers, picking sides, and answering the call of service—even when doing so means offering your life for a cause that is hardly yours. And why? Because other people need you to.

11. The Target Shoots First (1999)

Okay, you’re getting a bonus, and the entire film is on YouTube. This documentary captures the filmmaker’s journey when he finishes college and enters the marketing department at Columbia House. This documentary shows the industry’s transition from cassettes to CDs and those mail-order CD deals from the 90s. The filmmaker shows a behind-the-scenes account of the day Kurt Cobain’s body was discovered, and the news broke out that he committed suicide in April 1994. Some documentaries are a slice of life; The Target Shoots First is not only a slice of life but a slice of industry at a crossroads in culture and physical media.

Thanks

Thanks for reading this movie list. I can recommend many movies in addition to these, and I hope you enjoy any of them soon. Some movies I think are great but didn’t make this list are Candyman, Chinatown, Run Lola Run, Trainspotting, Dark City, City of Lost Children, The Lives of Others, and so on.