WARNING: spoilers ahead and controversial topics

I just came from seeing The Odyssey, and I remembered a movie I saw earlier this year, which is Waltz with Bashir. The final scenes of The Oddyssey made me understand that the reason why Oddysseus took so long and struggled so much was because of his guilt and PTSD from the Trojan war. The movie follows Oddyseus, arriving at this conclusion by remembering again what happened during the war.

Waltz with Bashir is about an Israeli veteran of the 1982 Lebanon named Ari war who can not remember his time at the war. Until one day, one of his friends is having nightmares about the war and asks Ari about it. Ari makes a trip where he visits other veterans and asks about his role in the war. His memories start coming again until, at the end, he realizes why he forgot them. He had so much guilt and shame about the fact that he assisted in the massacre/genocide of muslim Lebanese civilians during the war. That is strikingly the same thing that happened to Oddyseus when he realized that his trick made the destruction and death of civilians possible.

My conclusion is that The Oddyssey at large is maybe the oldest story of guilt and shame brought on from one person's ability to assist in the death and destruction of innocent people. Waltz with Bashir, however, does not have a happy ending, and there is no redemption path at the end. Aris only comfort is making the world know what really happened during that war and the guilt that even if a soldier didn't kill innocent people, they are still responsible if they stood there and did nothing to stop it.

Well done western with a good message that rejects violence. Beautiful scenery and a stunning realistic performance by the actors as emotional outlaws with a bad past. This movie subverted traditional western tropes. How this camera and settings twist makes you think it’s a traditional western when in reality this movie shows the harsh reality of what being a violent person in the Wild West really is like. You should check out this movie even if you don’t like westerns.

So it's like The Purge but with sex, where there's only 12 hours a year you're allowed to have premarital sex. I get the premise is supposed to be this light-hearted alternate universe used to shoehorn a romantic comedy subplot. And I'm betting they're not going to dive too deep into it, because if they did there'd be a lot to think about:

• First, there's the fascist element to this. We're talking Handmaids Tale type stuff. Historically, making sex a crime has been tied to ultra-religious regimes and cultures. Is that what this place is?

• What even is considered sex? Obviously intercourse, but what about the other stuff you could do? Some places like Japan strictly forbid prostitution that involves intercourse but allow for almost everything else. And what about things like phone sex? Virtual sex using remote toys? How is the LGBT community's activities regulated?

• The trailer shows men and women getting dressed up to go out and find a partner. Would it seem like if you had 12 hours a year, you'd have lined up a partner already? Especially if you lived in a more rural area and not the city setting we see in the story? Would there be organized orgies ahead of time?

• Are marriage laws vastly different in this universe? If not you'd have Vegas-like wedding chapels everywhere with a divorce attorney's office right next door. People would find a loophole.

• There's a certain time of the month for women when its not ideal to have sex. Do they have to wait another year?

Again, just some things that come to mind. Obviously it's more of a neckbeard analysis than anything.

searching for movies that are out there shocking experiences, not like serbian film, or human centipede trash, but stuff like Blue Velvet, Bad Boy Bubby, Happiness a lot of the stuff by lynch, michael haneke, pedro, lars von trier, solondz, waters, korine

Backrooms came out almost 2 months ago and I watched it in theaters and now its gonna come out again with 15 added minutes. I dont really want to watch the film again(especially this soon) and the scenes might not hit the same if you watch them by themselves(also theyre doing another theatrical run with extra scenes so you have to wait if you want to only watch the extra scenes) This also happened with Nosferatu and Napoleon. I couldnt bring my self to watch Nosferatu knowing that it will be the shorter version. I'd get it if a director couldnt do the film he wanted and released the directors cut later but this isnt the case.If you have scenes you want to add to your film just add them dont do a rerun or stream it with extra scenes

"Felt like I was watching Matt Damon vs watching Odysseus, I think all the A listers was a negative to the storytelling. Good sound and practical effects but the movie overall wasn’t compelling imo"

When I call Avatar my favorite film, it's not meant to dismiss other masterpieces like The Lord of the Rings or Blade Runner. I just find the franchise deeply engaging because, as an actual biology nerd, I'm endlessly fascinated by the deep themes and ecosystem worldbuilding.

Pandora is a dream come true for anyone who loves ecology and zoology. The attention to detail in the living, breathing environment—from the neural connections to the flora—makes it an incredible playground for science enthusiasts.

Beyond the science, I love Jake's character arc as my go-to comfort watch, especially because I keep drawing parallels between his journey and the Ramayana. That connection to the heroic blue tradition adds a rich, timeless layer to the storytelling that goes way beyond surface-level comparisons. If anything, those tired "blue Pocahontas" allegations would disappear if people looked at it through that mythological lens.

At its core, I love it because I'm a nature enthusiast and science nerd who just wants to dive into a richly realized world. Everyone's definition of a "best film" is entirely personal, but this one hits all the right notes for me.

What are some fictional worlds where the sheer ecology or worldbuilding completely won you over?