As one of the internet‘s largest entertainment discussion hubs with over 50 million engaged users, Reddit offers invaluable insight into movies that achieve widespread popularity. The films most frequently raved about in subreddits like r/movies indicate terrific cinematic triumphs that stand the test of time.
Examining Reddit‘s most enduring favorite movies reveals critically acclaimed films across genres that connect deeply with viewers thanks to ambitious filmmaking and compelling stories.
In this post, we‘ll highlight 10 standout films that Redditors constantly cite as amazing. Analyzing these widely beloved movies will uncover just what makes them such exemplary works of cinema.
The Evolution of Reddit‘s Taste
Before diving into the individual movies, it‘s worth examining how Reddit‘s preferences have evolved over time. Since the site launched in 2005, certain genres and filmmakers have risen and fallen in esteem among the highly engaged user base composed predominately of young adult males.
In Reddit‘s early years, clever dialogue-driven movies like Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, and The Big Lebowski ruled discussion threads. These films‘ repeatable quotes and cool protagonist archetypes enraptured young tech-savvy audiences.
As Reddit grew more mainstream around 2010, more recent pop culture phenomena like Christopher Nolan‘s cerebral blockbusters Inception and The Dark Knight led the conversation. Around 2015, indie favorites from directors like Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright permeated subreddit discourse.
And in the last few years, international genre-bending sensations like Parasite and astounding cinematic technical showcases like 1917 and Mad Max: Fury Road generated intense discussion on Reddit.
Across eras, smart science-fiction like Children of Men, emotionally powerful animations like How To Train Your Dragon, and harrowing psychological thrillers like Se7en remained everpopular on Reddit. The following 10 amazing films span decades but share a consistent acclaim among Reddit cinephiles.
10 Extraordinary Movies Redditors Obsess Over
The following films run the gamut from charming foreign dramedies to horrifying sci-fi nightmares. But they all exhibit stellar filmmaking and storytelling that helped them emerge as enduring Reddit favorites.
For each movie, we‘ll break down why Redditors never stop gushing – the technical mastery, quotable lines, recommended watching orders, and more. If you somehow have not already seen these sensational works, it‘s time to fix that ASAP!
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quinten Tarantino single-handedly reinvigorated independent cinema with this nonlinear tale of several interweaving criminal threads in Los Angeles. Nonstop memorable dialogue, an eclectic soundtrack, sudden shocking violence, and dark hilarity collide in a hugely influential mosaic masterpiece.
The film established Tarantino‘s flair for lengthy philosophical conversations, ruthlessly clever criminals, and references/homages to obscure films from multiple eras. Pulp Fiction endures as his signature film thanks to career-defining performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta along with one of the absolute coolest on-screen presences ever in Christopher Walken‘s cameo.
Beyond just endlessly quotable lines like "Zed‘s dead, baby" and "Say What Again!", Redditors praise how the fragmented timeline keeps audiences guessing and analyzing. Decades later, fans still debate the glowing contents of the suitcase and the meaning of the final Biblical speech. Pulp Fiction set a template for the indie auteur wave that followed thanks to its rule-breaking format and sheer revolutionary coolness.
2. Amélie (2001)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s surreal 2001 French romantic comedy Amélie stands as an irresistibly charming classic thanks to its quirky visuals, magical realism, and radiant lead performance. Following the shy but whimsical title character as she plays anonymous matchmaker to the delightfully oddball residents of Paris, this funny and heartwarming film transports audiences to an idealistic and picturesque little world that‘s hard not to fall in love with.
Through voiceovers and daydreams, we experience the intimacy of Amélie‘s thoughts and emotions as she grows bolder. When she finally chases a mysterious stranger who‘s captured her interest, her personal liberation empowers viewers to pursue happiness too.
And Jeunet packs each frame with little wonders, like a photographic memory man who forgets nothing but himself or a obese recluse who only knows his apartment. This adventurously pretty spectacle overflows with joie de vivre. No wonder Redditors find it impossible to watch without grinning ear to ear!
3. Jurassic Park (1993)
Decades later, Steven Spielberg‘s adaptation of Michael Crichton‘s bestselling dinosaur cloning sci-fi thriller remains an unmatched technical marvel that balances childhood fantasies of majestic prehistoric giants with genuinely shocking scares. No matter one‘s age, Jurassic Park transports audiences to island theme park filled with towering animatronic attractions that break loose with devastating chaos.
Spielberg masterfully handles the philosophical questions around scientific ethics raised by geneticist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum in breakout form). Malcolm‘s warning that "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should” set up the unintended consequences soon to follow once Dennis Nedry‘s corporate sabotage unleashes the Tyrannosaurus Rex and vicious Velociraptors upon park staff and visitors.
And while Sam Neill and Laura Dern give grounded performances within the fantastical scenario, the real stars remain the lifelike dinosaurs in all their terrifying glory. Seamlessly blending cutting-edge computer animation and impressive full-scale practical creatures, Jurassic Park sells its central conceit while also blowing minds with the epic T-Rex‘s every move. Spielberg at his blockbuster best, this thrilling creature feature deserves endless rewatches.
4. Alien (1979)
With his seminal 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien, Ridley Scott crafted both an exemplary monster movie as well as a profoundly naturalistic fantasy in space thanks to committed performances and H.R. Giger‘s Academy Award-winning creature design. Claustrophobic, visceral and dripping in atmosphere, Scott‘s breakthrough film set the blueprint for all future films in the genre.
We Experience the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo‘s crew awakening from cryo-sleep after detecting a distress call from a nearby planet. As per company policy, they must investigate. But in doing so, the blue-collar worker team played by fantastic character actors John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton unknowingly allows a deadly Xenomorph to hitch a ride back onboard.
The terrifying "chestburster scene” andplays engineer Brett‘s gruesome death rank among horror‘s most shocking moments. And Sigourney Weaver established herself as one of cinema’s greatest heroines, fighting back against the seemingly unstoppable alien menace. Alien proves full of surprises four decades later while also exploring corporate indifference to human life in powerful subtext.
5. Children of Men (2006)
Director Alfonso Cuarón plunges viewers into a hauntingly plausible dystopia with Children of Men, depicting societal collapse following two decades of human infertility. Within the believably worn urban landscapes and refugee camps, Cuarón stages bravura tracking shot action choreography amidst striking commentary on the desire for rebirth. Powerful lead performances anchor the ambitious vision.
As the youngest citizen dies at 18, Britain stands as one of the last vestiges of order while countries descend into nuclear war and chaos without a next generation to inherit the future. But the discovery of the first pregnant woman in twenty years sends shockwaves through the authorities and remaining populace.
Cuarón keeps focus tight on the gripping journey of cynical bureaucrat turned unlikely rebel protector Theo Faron (Clive Owen) and the miraculously expecting Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey). By witnessing this world through Theo’s growing drive to ensure hope survives, we invest deeply in the stakes. And technical wizardry like a stunning continuous take through a war zone refugee camp provides exhilarating filmmaking. Roundly considered one of the 21st century’s best films, Children of Men finds universality in the search for rebirth.
6. Se7en (1995)
David Fincher solidifed his status as modern cinema’s maestro of the macabre with Se7en, a shockingly gruesome cat-and-mouse tale depicting the desperate hunt for a serial killer recreating the seven deadly sins as murders. Dripping in doom courtesy of Darius Khondji’s dark cinematography, Fincher’s major studio debut reconstructed the crime thriller into an unsettling examination of moral decay through the hellish hunt for an antagonist who chillingly believes he’s doing God’s work.
We feel the creeping dread as veteran detective Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) guides impulsive rookie David Mills (Brad Pitt) in investigating the string of elaborate and disturbing deaths throughout a perpetually gloomy unidentified metropolis (actually a mix of New York and Los Angeles shooting locations). The closer they get to the killer John Doe, the further they descend into inky, rainy darkness.
By centering the procedural on the obsessive cat-and-mouse search, Fincher tightly turns the screws by making the protagonists’ increasing desperation ours as well. And just when the mystery seems solved, one final shattering twist shifts our understanding of everything we’ve witnessed. Forever remembered as an iconic gut punch ending, Se7en haunts the psyches of all who reach the devastating final frames.
7. Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese crystallizes everything electrifying about the gangster genre into one masterful true crime saga both dangerously glamorous and repulsively ugly. Charting mobster Henry Hill’s life in the Italian mafia from starry-eyed youth to coked-out collapse, Goodfellas functions as Scorsese’s brutal thesis statement on organized crime’s destructive toxicity from one who intimately understands its trappings. Through breakneck pacing and kinetic camerawork, living fast before dying violently emerges vivid and vicarious.
Weaving interviews with Henry Hill along with portrayals by Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro as a ruthless capo, and Joe Pesci in volatile firecracker form as Hill’s closest friend Tommy, Scorsese casts an unsentimental gaze at pursuit of power built on brutal violence and turncoat tendencies. The drugs, drink, piles of cash, and ruthless retributions against rats all glitter until they don’t. And when you fall from your made man status, you fall hard. By turns intoxicating and nauseating, Goodfellas earns its place in the pantheon of cinema’s best crime sagas.
8. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
DreamWorks Animation delivered the ultimate crowd-pleaser that soared equally with family audiences and critics with this touching 2010 fantasy. Intertwining rousing aerial adventure sequences with adolescent identity search and transformative interspecies friendship, How to Train Your Dragon beautifully blends thrilling animation with sincere character journey.
When skinny awkward viking teenager Hiccup manages to capture an injured dragon, he slowly realizes through nurturing it back to health that the feared fire-breathing beasts actually bond closely with their riders. By befriending the creature he names Toothless, Hiccup revolutionizes his village’s traditions around dragon slaying and exposes a sinister enemy in the process.
The rich relationships ground epic flying chases through painterly Nordic landscapes with emotional stakes. And Hiccup prevailing over Viking body standards through his intellectual gifts resonates powerfully with young viewers feeling ostracized. It remains DreamWorks Animation’s crowning achievement. No amount of sequels dulls the soaring miracle that is this fantasy phenomenon.
9. Parasite (2019)
With his genre-defying tour de force black comedy thriller Parasite, South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho racked up unprecedented Oscar wins and redefined what audiences consider prestige cinema. Embedding scalpel-sharp social satire within an unpredictable family identity swapping scheme, Bong holds a mirror uncomfortably close to figurative parasites from different poles of society feeding off one another.
The struggling lower-class Kim family gradually cons their way into jobs within a gullible wealthy Park family by posing as unrelated professionals. In doing so, Bong wickedly examines class exploitation and performance of elitism while keeping tension taut as secrets unravel violently. By turns laugh out loud hilarious and emotionally devastating, Parasite deservedly became a history-making international phenomenon.
As the desperate Kim father Ki-taek, Song Kang-ho impressively pivots between pathetic, sympathetic and shockingly dangerous several times over. Wealthy tech CEO Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) makes for an oblivious antagonist whose politeness barely masks his condescension. And through son Ki-woo’s university student eyes, we enter the Parks’ sleek modernist mansion as imposter outsiders ravenous to keep up appearances, gifting audiences Bong’s incisive perspective on social mimicry and backstabbing advancement. Once the desperate lower-class and callous upper-class begin intertwining in deceitful ways, shocking potency follows.
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Visionary filmmaker Michel Gondry explores the essence of love and loss through the mind-bending sci-fi concept of selectively erasing exes from one‘s memory. Collaborating with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Gondry unfolds the relationship in reverse as Jim Carrey‘s heartbroken Joel tries in vain to cling to cherished memories of the sarcastic free spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet) during the experimental procedure. Lyrical visuals stunningly realize the disintegrating bond and significance of painful endings in starting anew.
As technicians (Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo) invade Joel‘s memories from beach bliss to volatile domestic fights, Gondry leaps nimbly across surreal mental spaces. Winslet plays several versions of Clementine with reckless charm as she fluctuates between playful seductress and exhausting provocateur with Joel‘s distorted perspective guiding how she appears. We grasp at remnants with Joel, filling in emotional gaps while reconstructing their jagged chemistry.
Carrey terrifically grounds the fantastical conceit with heartbreaking nuance amid chameleonic set pieces. By sneaking off into unconscious sanctuaries trying to save Clementine, Joel recognizes their Pierce he must surrender amidst all the magic they kindled together. For all the ingenious visual imagination realizing forgetting onscreen, it‘s the resonant message about embracing the full continuum of a relationship rather than rewriting the end that leaves an eternal sunshine glow.
Why Redditors Can‘t Stop Raving
Clearly Reddit shares great cinematic tastes! In looking across the 10 extraordinary movies highlighted, commons threads indicating why the website‘s crowds speak so highly of them quickly appear.
They all feature sharp direction and novel, rule-breaking storytelling structures many not strictly linear). Often centered on some incredibly compelling protagonist/performance drawning us deeply into an immersive envisioned world, these films excel at world-building.
Dark themes are explored with fearlessness and sophistication. And whether revitalizing a genre, paying homage to forebears, or pioneering new techniques, these filmmakers spin technical craft and needle-moving concepts into profoundly affecting works.
It‘s also telling to note the primary emotions that these Reddit-beloved films elicit tend towards shock, thrills, uncomfortableness and catharsis rather than easily resolved cheer. Often haunting as much as heartwarming, their ability to consistently generate heated discussion and analysis explains the endlessly high praise.
So consider adding any you haven‘t already taken in to your watchlist queue and get ready for some powerful stuff! Then hop onto r/movies threads to join fellow passionate fans dissecting why these standout films endure as paragons demonstrating the medium‘s artistic heights.
