Challenging movies serve beyond entertainment, pushing us to ask new questions about humanity and the world around us. If you’re hungry for some food for thought, here are the best thought-provoking movies and shows available to stream now.
Dir. Mascha Schilinski
Previous depictions of provincial living tend to paint the pastoral experience as idyllic, simple, and much more innocent compared to…
Dir. Mariska Hargitay
Unlike the other documentaries depicting “Hollywood’s smartest dumb blonde”, My Mom Jayne takes on a different approach to Jayne Mansfield.…
Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
In his last few months as president, Mariano de Santis has a few loose ends to tie up. This includes…
Dir. Jafar Panahi
You can probably predict from the title that an accident starts this thriller but what happens after is totally unexpected.…
Dir. Harry Lighton
Given the other depictions of BDSM on film, we weren’t sure how Pillion would turn out. Much more so with…
Dir. Hikari
Since the 1990s, Japan has offered the service of pretending to be one’s family, friend, or lover. Rental Family isn’t…
Dir. Francis Lawrence
The dystopian survival thriller isn’t concerned about the reasons behind its death marathon, only giving a short speech about a…
Following his sophomore feature Cha Cha Real Smooth, writer-director Cooper Raiff made his way to television with family dramedy Hal…
Alien has done it again. Another prequel installment, Alien: Earth gives another glimpse into the sci-fi vision that fans of…
Dir. Boris Lojkine
What is Souleymane’s Story? Right off the bat, that’s what everyone asks from Souleymane. It’s what his fellow immigrant asks,…
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
If it weren’t for the people involved, the English-language remake of the Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet might…
Dir. RaMell Ross
The first things that grab your attention in Nickel Boys are its beauty and technicality. Director RaMell Ross, a large-format…
Dir. Coralie Fargeat
There is nothing quite like The Substance right now. It’s unsubtle, it’s provocative, and its satirical humor can be a…
Dir. Magnus von Horn
Given the original real-life story behind it, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that The Girl with the Needle was so…
Dir. John Hsu
In the Dead Talents Society, ghosts haunting humans are less of a scare, and more a performance that can grant…
Dir. Bradford Thomason & Brett Whitcomb
For the longest time, television seemed to be the antithesis to reading– part of that belief still lingers to this…
After the only war the Americans have lost, American post-Vietnam war portrayals tend to lean as patriotic revenge fantasies or…
Dir. Ray Yeung
While the film is calm, contemplative, and never goes into histrionics, there’s a deep-seated anger in All Shall Be Well…
Dir. David Hinton
Is there anything more lovely than hearing Martin Scorsese talk about cinema? Maybe it’s just the film nerds in us–…
Dir. Jang Jae-hyun
For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was…
Dir. Shiori Itō
Continuing her fight to tell the world the truth about her sexual assault case, journalist Shiori Ito released Black Box…
Dir. Baltasar Kormákur
With the internet able to connect people from miles away, the concept of the one that got away has become…
Dir. Tim Mielants
Small Things Like These is the kind of film that doesn’t have a grand resolution, a dramatic climax, or a…
Dir. Erica Tremblay
Before she captivated the film world with her performance in Scorcese’s crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone…
Dir. Andrea Arnold
Given the genre being centered on a child protagonist, many coming-of-age stories sideline parents in the narrative, sometimes to the…
Dir. Dev Patel
Often deemed as South Asian John Wick, Monkey Man, of course, has plenty of the stylish action that’s been captivating…
Dir. Bertrand Bonello
Are connections truly fated, completely chosen, or purely circumstantial? The slow tragedy of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle…
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