Good art films

by Dbro7 | created - 12 Oct 2015 | updated - 12 Oct 2015 | Public

These are not nonsense facades, but well thought out movies (even if they didn't have a real script). These are any movies that set out to be art, and most of them have a loose narrative. I would consider pretty much anything that plays at a big film festival to be considered and "art film" These are in no specific order

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1. Frances Ha (2012)

R | 86 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

82 Metascore

A New York woman apprentices for a dance company and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.

Director: Noah Baumbach | Stars: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen

Votes: 94,356 | Gross: $4.06M

2. The Tree of Life (2011)

PG-13 | 139 min | Drama, Fantasy

85 Metascore

The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.

Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken

Votes: 184,177 | Gross: $13.30M

3. To the Wonder (2012)

R | 112 min | Drama, Romance

58 Metascore

After falling in love in Paris, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Their church's Spanish-born pastor struggles with his faith, while Neil encounters a woman from his childhood.

Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams

Votes: 29,978 | Gross: $0.59M

4. The Master (2012)

R | 138 min | Drama, History

86 Metascore

A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by the Cause and its charismatic leader.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons

Votes: 186,291 | Gross: $16.38M

5. Enter the Void (2009)

Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Fantasy

69 Metascore

An American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.

Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Olly Alexander

Votes: 88,094 | Gross: $0.34M

6. Taxi Driver (1976)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Votes: 921,383 | Gross: $28.26M

7. Paris, Texas (1984)

R | 145 min | Drama

81 Metascore

Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.

Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry

Votes: 119,166 | Gross: $2.18M

8. Upstream Color (2013)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

81 Metascore

A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.

Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Amy Seimetz, Frank Mosley, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig

Votes: 34,976 | Gross: $0.44M

9. Donnie Darko (2001)

R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

88 Metascore

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne

Votes: 850,463 | Gross: $1.48M

10. The Wrestler (2008)

R | 109 min | Drama, Sport

80 Metascore

A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.

Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark Margolis

Votes: 320,052 | Gross: $26.24M

11. Primer (2004)

PG-13 | 77 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

68 Metascore

Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.

Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya

Votes: 114,221 | Gross: $0.42M

12. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

R | 124 min | Drama

67 Metascore

A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Director: Charlie Kaufman | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener

Votes: 98,274 | Gross: $3.08M

13. Her (2013)

R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

91 Metascore

In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.

Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara

Votes: 670,039 | Gross: $25.57M

14. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

R | 100 min | Drama

86 Metascore

A sexually repressed woman's husband is having an affair with her sister. The arrival of a visitor with a rather unusual fetish changes everything.

Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo

Votes: 59,478 | Gross: $24.74M

15. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama

87 Metascore

A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough

Votes: 666,776 | Gross: $42.34M

16. Drive (I) (2011)

R | 100 min | Action, Drama

79 Metascore

A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks

Votes: 704,908 | Gross: $35.06M

17. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

R | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy, War

98 Metascore

In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú

Votes: 703,308 | Gross: $37.63M

18. Boyhood (I) (2014)

R | 165 min | Drama

100 Metascore

The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.

Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Elijah Smith

Votes: 367,259 | Gross: $25.38M

19. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

PG-13 | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

84 Metascore

Two 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.

Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray

Votes: 366,846 | Gross: $45.51M

20. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

78 Metascore

Socially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone-sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious Lena.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Andrews

Votes: 177,590 | Gross: $17.84M

21. Whiplash (2014)

R | 106 min | Drama, Music

89 Metascore

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser

Votes: 990,552 | Gross: $13.09M

22. Ida (2013)

PG-13 | 82 min | Drama

91 Metascore

A novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela

Votes: 60,727 | Gross: $3.83M

23. Moon (2009)

R | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

67 Metascore

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.

Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw

Votes: 376,827 | Gross: $5.01M

24. Trainspotting (1996)

R | 93 min | Drama

83 Metascore

Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.

Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd

Votes: 726,008 | Gross: $16.50M

25. Black Swan (2010)

R | 108 min | Drama, Thriller

79 Metascore

Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.

Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder

Votes: 825,298 | Gross: $106.95M

26. Rosetta (1999)

R | 95 min | Drama

76 Metascore

Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.

Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Émilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux, Olivier Gourmet

Votes: 15,594 | Gross: $0.26M



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