There are many worthy films in the world that deserve attention. Some captivate with their stories, others amaze with their spectacular visuals, and some – with deep meaning, the message of which each person interprets in their own way. I’ve put together a page with movies and series, dividing them into general genres I enjoyed the most. In other words – a personal list of recommendations.
Exam(2009)
Director: Stuart Hazeldine
Eight candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a final test with just one seemingly simple question. However, it doesn't take long for confusion to ensue and tensions to unravel.
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Shutter Island(2010)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Two US marshals are sent to a mental institution on an inhospitable island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient.
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The Machinist(2004)
Director: Brad Anderson
An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.
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Dorian Gray(2009)
Director: Oliver Parker
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
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Contact(1997)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.
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Interstellar(2014)
Director: Christopher Nolan
When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
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Moon(2009)
Director: Duncan Jones
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.
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Inception(2010)
Director: Christopher Nolan
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
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Slingshot(2024)
Director: Mikael Håfström
An astronaut struggles to maintain his grip on reality aboard a possibly fatally compromised mission to Saturn's moon, Titan.
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A Beautiful Mind(2001)
Director: Ron Howard
A mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
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Mr. Nobody(2009)
Director: Jaco Van Dormael
A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn't choose, anything is possible.
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The Intouchables(2011)
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.
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The Illusionist(2006)
Director: Neil Burger
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a magician uses his abilities to secure the love of a woman far above his social standing.
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Seven Pounds(2008)
Director: Gabriele Muccino
A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
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Demolition(2015)
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
A woman and her son befriend a successful investment banker whose life begins to unravel following the death of his wife.
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Fight Club(1999)
Director: David Fincher
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
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Joker(2019)
Director: Todd Phillips
Arthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrace the life of chaos in Gotham City.
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The Judge(2014)
Director: David Dobkin
Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.
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Crash(2004)
Director: Paul Haggis
Racial tensions collide in a collection of intertwined stories involving residents of Los Angeles.
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Groundhog Day(1993)
Director: Harold Ramis
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
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Bruce Almighty(2003)
Director: Tom Shadyac
A whiny news reporter is given the chance to step into God's shoes.
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A Thousand Words(2012)
Director: Brian Robbins
After stretching the truth on a deal with a spiritual guru, literary agent Jack McCall finds a Bodhi tree on his property. Its appearance holds a valuable lesson on the consequences of every word he speaks.
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The Shawshank Redemption(1994)
Director: Frank Darabont
A banker convicted of uxoricide forms a friendship over a quarter century with a hardened convict, while maintaining his innocence and trying to remain hopeful through simple compassion.
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The Green Mile(1999)
Director: Frank Darabont
A death row guard learns that a gentle giant in his charge possesses a mysterious gift.
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Pearl Harbor(2001)
Director: Michael Bay
A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.
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Saving Private Ryan(1998)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose comrades have been killed in action.
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The Imitation Game(2014)
Director: Morten Tyldum
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
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Hacksaw Ridge(2016)
Director: Mel Gibson
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, serving during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
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War Horse(2011)
Director: Steven Spielberg
A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
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Valkyrie(2008)
Director: Bryan Singer
A dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.
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All Quiet on the Western Front(2022)
Director: Edward Berger
A young German soldier's eagerness to serve his country quickly fades when he witnesses the horrors of combat on the Western Front during World War I.
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1917(2019)
Director: Sam Mendes
April 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
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Looper(2012)
Director: Rian Johnson
In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
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Predestination(2014)
Directors: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
As his last assignment, a temporal agent is tasked to travel back in time and prevent a bomb attack in New York in 1975. The hunt, however, turns out to be beyond the bounds of possibility.
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Déjà Vu(2006)
Director: Tony Scott
After a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.
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Tenet(2020)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Armed with only the word "Tenet," and fighting for the survival of the entire world, CIA operative, The Protagonist, journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a global mission that unfolds beyond real time.
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Project Almanac(2015)
Director: Dean Israelite
A group of teens discovers secret plans for a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.
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The Butterfly Effect(2004)
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
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The Matrix(1999)
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
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The Matrix Reloaded(2003)
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Freedom fighters Neo, Trinity and Morpheus continue to lead the revolt against the Machine Army, unleashing their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation.
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The Matrix Revolutions(2003)
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
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The Matrix Resurrections(2021)
Director: Lana Wachowski
Return to a world of two realities: one, everyday life; the other, what lies behind it. To find out if his reality is a construct, to truly know himself, Mr. Anderson will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more.
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Ex Machina(2014)
Director: Alex Garland
A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.
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I, Robot(2004)
Director: Alex Proyas
In 2035, a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.
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Warcraft(2016)
Director: Duncan Jones
As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war.
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Director: Peter Jackson
A reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home, and the gold within it, from the dragon Smaug.
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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Director: Peter Jackson
The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring.
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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Director: Peter Jackson
Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants to keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Director: Peter Jackson
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Director: Peter Jackson
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his armies of Isengard.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Director: Peter Jackson
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Director: Chris Columbus
An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Director: Chris Columbus
An ancient prophecy seems to be coming true when a mysterious presence begins stalking the corridors of a school of magic and leaving its victims paralyzed.
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Director: Mike Newell
Harry Potter finds himself competing in a hazardous tournament between rival schools of magic, but he is distracted by recurring nightmares.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Director: David Yates
With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Director: David Yates
As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Director: David Yates
As Harry, Ron and Hermione race against time and evil to destroy the Horcruxes, they uncover the existence of the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world: the Deathly Hallows.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Director: David Yates
Harry, Ron, and Hermione search for Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes in their effort to destroy the Dark Lord as the final battle rages on at Hogwarts.
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Sherlock(2010–2017)
Creators: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
The quirky spin on Conan Doyle's iconic sleuth pitches him as a "high-functioning sociopath" in modern-day London. Assisting him in his investigations: Afghanistan War vet John Watson, who's introduced to Holmes by a mutual acquaintance.
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Westworld(2016–2022)
Creators: Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
At the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, waits a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.
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Band of Brothers(2001)
Creators: Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston
The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
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Stranger Things(2016–2025)
Creators: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
In 1980s Indiana, a group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, the children unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries.
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Chernobyl(2019)
Creator: Craig Mazin
In April 1986, the city of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union suffers one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Consequently, many heroes put their lives on the line in the following days, weeks and months.
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Prison Break(2005–2017)
Creator: Paul T. Scheuring
A structural engineer installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to save his falsely accused brother from a death sentence by breaking themselves out from the inside.
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Black Mirror(2011–...)
Creator: Charlie Brooker
Featuring stand-alone dramas -- sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales that explore techno-paranoia -- "Black Mirror" is a contemporary reworking of "The Twilight Zone" with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world.
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Squid Game(2021–2025)
Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children's games. A tempting prize awaits, but with deadly high stakes.
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Game of Thrones(2011–2019)
Creators: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.
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The Boys(2019–2026)
Creator: Eric Kripke
A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.
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Bodyguard(2018)
Creator: Jed Mercurio
War veteran David Budd finds work as a police sergeant in the Royalty and Specialist Protection branch. He is assigned to protect the home secretary, the Rt. Hon. Julia Montague MP, a controversial and ambitious politician.
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