Of all movies that you gotta watch more than once to really understand, what is your favorite and why?

Hot fuzz. Because the first watch is enjoyable, but every subsequent rewatch makes you appreciate Edgar Wright more and more. He is just the most incredibly meticulous story teller with the most dense movies.

- SHUT IT!
And then you gotta go watch the breakdowns and side by sides on YouTube to fully appreciate it on another watch. Hot fuzz is one of my favorites.
- Definitely Hot Fuzz! Every single throw-away line early in the film is a callback later on. It's incredible trying to notice them all!
Good pick. Definitely reawrding to rewatch. The supporting actor dvd commentaries are something special as well.
Fascist!
- Hag!

Memento.

Though, being real, I would say that it's a movie that gets more interesting on second watch rather than being one out need to watch twice to get. I honestly haven't ever run across a movie like that.

Along the same lines: Inception. There's tons of little details that you don't pick up in your first watch.
Primer also falls into this category.
That's a fun one. You get to see the same movie twice but it's different both times.
Agreed!

I like primer, but I'm not sure I really understand it even with all the charts and diagrams that are out there

There's only one chart that matters when it comes to Primer.
- I don't even have to click this link, I know where it goes 😂
I honestly don’t think Primer is meant to be understood. I think I read somewhere that their goal was not to make a cohesive storyline, but rather something that was open to interpretation.
- I saw a full explanation video on YouTube a couple years ago. The story makes total sense, but it's buried in several Layers of recursion, which takes a while to resolve
My wife and I spent a few days really digging into Primer, and I feel like we understand like... 85% of it, which is pretty good imo. Love that movie.
Yeah, I watch that about once a year. It's, I think, the only time travel story that actually follows it's own rules. Have you seen Upstream Color? Same guy, really interesting story. It can lead into Blade Runner 2049 elements about consciousness and memory.
This movie gets a lot of love among a certain crowd I feel. I watched, but I feel the diagram and timeline exploration takes so much effort and energy it's not really a story any more. It's just mental masturbation (kinda like tenet).
One of the few movies I have rewatched.

The plot is both intricate and simple, it is very well done.

Okay this isnt a movie but a show, but arrested development (especially the early seasons) are filled with situations, puns, innuendos and jokes that are set up over several episodes, sometimes even seasons. It is impossible to catch and appreciate them all on first watch. I have seen the show probably a half dozen times over the years and i still stumble over the occasional thing i missed.

Omg you are so right!
Arrested development was way ahead of it's time and has some of the most clever writing of any show, especially for the time is was first made (pre Netflix.) The word play and subtle running gags are absolutely hilarious. And the characters are all written hilariously well.

Everything Everywhere All At Once.

It's just... really good.

I love how it makes just enough sense to hold the plot together. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Also, it’s the lead of the class of millennial parental apology fantasy films, one of my favorite genres ;)

https://www.vox.com/culture/23025832/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-parental-apology-fantasy-turning-red-oscars
- Millennial parental apology fantasy… oh man I really love this.
Good movie but how does it require multiple viewings to understand?
- Not OP, but to me it's one where getting to the ending gives you the context/lense to reinterpret the earlier portions. Sorta like memento or fight club, where the ending recontextualizes the earlier scenes.
I had to pause that movie several times on my first watching. Not because it was bad or anything, it was amazing, but because there was so much stuff going on at once. It's now one of my fave movies to recommend to people
This is a masterpiece for sure!
I can never not upvote Absurdist philosophy.

not so much for understanding but, fight club is a different movie the second time around.

Just watched again last night.

Such a good movie.

Donnie Darko. Besides being confusing, it’s just a great story. Plus, it’s remarkably well cast.

If you have the opportunity to watch the deleted scenes, I highly recommend it - especially the one with the dad. His role in the cinematic version is pretty small, but there’s a deleted scene where he has a quiet chat with Donnie, and tells Donnie about his past mental problems. It’s fantastic, and rounds out his character perfectly.

I've watched this one 3 times and I still don't understand it :) cool movie still!
- Did you watch the theatrical or directors cut? The latter explains a LOT more.
  
  TL;DW If I remember it all correctly. The plane crash caused a "Final Destination"-esque rift in spacetime? Or fate? Or reality? And Donnie should have died, but didn't and because he didn't the universe will implode unless he fixes it in time by dying. He also gains powers to see the future as part of the deal (represented by the weird trails in front of people walking) and he realizes the future is everything ending unless he dies to seal up the rift. Frank, the bunny is like a guide or messenger or something.
Is that in the director's cut? I tend to recommend the theatrical cut. I don't find it confusing but I can understand how it might be possible to get lost if you miss a key scene or two.
- Don’t know. It deserves to be.
  
  I used to have a DVD of the theatrical cut, which I got before I even knew a director’s cut existed.
- I like how this movie's fanbase is split on a group of people recommending the theatrical cut and another group recommending the Director's Cut. I haven't found another movie that has something similar.
One of my favourites for sure. I just love the struggle the character has for what is and what isn't reality in that movie.

Groundhog Day. It gets better with subsequent watches.

Watching Groundhog Day once is already like watching Groundhog Day five times
- You can say that again
That's why I rewatch it every year. You can just pick a theme and watch it with that lens for the year.
It is like you are in the loop.
I had a roommate who was addicted to this movie. The frequent rewatches were annoying at first, but you’re right!
True!

The Big Lebowski. I've never seen another movie gain so much value over time and rewatches

The Prestige.

SPOILER ALERT-- do not read further if you haven't seen the movie.

When my husband is being a jerk, I tell him I want the other brother back, the one who loves me.
- By the way, you can use spoiler tags on Lemmy!
  
  ::: spoiler This is a spoiler Now the movie is ruined! :::
  
  This is a spoiler
  
  Now the movie is ruined!
- Ouch!
A few weeks ago, I finally saw this for the first time, knowing virtually nothing about the plot. WOW. I’m looking forward to watching it again!

Snatch.

There's like 15 main characters. Every scene is important but it is impossible for it all to be apparent on a first watch.

It's really brilliant storytelling. Watching Lock To k & Two Smoking barrels, you realize that guy Ritchie might be a one trick pony. But that's okay, it's a great trick.

It's too tight
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  It's too tight
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
It wasn't till my 4th or 5th viewing that I realized when we first meet Brad Pitts character he is likely taking a shit behind some truck.

The Big Lebowski. You pick up on stuff with each watch, and it just gets funnier when you do.

Perfect example. Almost all of the dude's lines are things he heard a scene or two before.

There's so many things foreshadowed in the movie that you'd only catch the second or third time around.

The Sixth Sense, if you can go into it blind. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out a movie's plot twist, but this one caught me completely by surprise. Then when you watch it again you pick up on all the dropped hints.

I was fortunate enough to see this one in theaters. Had no clues. Great reveal. It would really ruin it to know the twist going in.
- What’s great, though, is that knowing the twist doesn’t ruin it. It’s worth a rewatch anyway.
- I had it spoiled for me about 30 min before I went to the theater to see it by a coworker. I never forgave him.
I have never watched it and probably never will- I’m sure it’s a great movie but the twist is one of the most spoiled in internet history :(
- To be fair, it is a twenty-five-year-old movie. That's a long time to keep anything unspoiled.
- It's a very solid movie, and worth watching, even knowing the twist
I recognized the twist at a certain conversation early in the movie. It's not really hidden, or at least not well.
- 👏
Just watched this tonight for my 12 year old son, coincidentally. He loved the twist!
I figured out the twist within like the first 5 minutes of my first watch (nobody spoiled it for me, but I knew that there would be a twist and was looking for one) and it made the movie pretty boring imo

Akira. It's weird and confusing. Goes from cyberpunk eye candy to bizarre metaphysical reality warp real quick.

Also body horror

Shutter island watches completely differently on the second watch, same with Primer, The usual suspects, and Moon (2009).

Oh yes, Moon is fantastic ! very thick and tense atmosphere.

2001: A Space Odyssey

It's my favorite because of the cinematography and atmosphere. It's my favorite because of the themes and philosophy. It's my favorite because space and psychedelia are cool.

It's just an all around great movie if you can appreciate the slow pacing and intentionally jarring or tense aspects that drag on. 30 minutes of monkeys fucking around for seemingly no reason (at least, at first). Discordant wailing that lasts so long it nearly leaves your ears ringing. Space shots with no sound at all, or just the hissing of the space suit, which linger on the slow drift of a character moving from one location to the next. A character begging for his life as another dismantles his brain bit-by-bit.

To me, this movie always flys by, and it always feels like i was there in it, fully immersed. To my friends, it lasts a week and has one cool part that took an eon to get to.

Also it begs for multiple watchings to develop a theory of what the fuck is happening at the end and what the obelisk is and where it comes from.

It also raises philosophical questions that are interesting to come up with and grapple with in new ways with each viewing. Is HAL alive? Whats the next leap in evolution? can uncomfortable art be good? Who owns the moon? How did consciousness evolve? What's happening to Dave?

Mind boggeling that it was made in the 60’s. Incredibly prescient.
- it truly is, especially visually. The vfx are incredible for any time. And I'm not ever talking about the ending, which is mostly just film-editing; I'm talking about the space scenes that actually feel like space, or the scene where frank makes a complete loop running through the ship, or the zero g scene when the space age is first introduced. That's all astounding, and it boggles the mind to think how they achieved that with practical fx
  
  And this was made around the time of the original Star Trek and before Star Wars.
  
  Its prescience is a whole other layer on top of that. It was obviously influenced by the space race and how that captured the public imagination: what will we find on the moon? Will we have a moon colony? Will we have commuter class space travel? What's next, travelling to another planet? Will computers be sentient?
  
  And lo and behold, they were only about 25 years off with some guesses. And it's looking more and more likely that the rest are coming down the pipe.
Did you watch second part, 2010: The Year We Make Contact? Really like quality of effects.
- I did not, but you're also the first person I've met who liked it. Does it add much to the original?
This is a really good summary. Such a ground breaking film, good shout for this post.

Primer. Gotta watch that one a dozen times and still not understand it fully.

And read essays and visual representations of the timelines and… still not understand it fully
- https://xkcd.com/657/
I think the point isn't to sort out all interactions and travels, but rather to convey the feeling that "this has gotten out of hand". I interpret the confusion to be the intended message.
This is the only movie I've ever watched twice back-to-back.
This is the correct answer.

Ghost in the Shell

FYI: There's a series too - can highly recommend

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

Shaun of the dead has so many jokes in that its hard to catch them all. There is some good YouTube videos that also explain them in case you missed any.

Hot Fuzz for me. Similar reasons, but I think it's funnier. Like they took the lessons of Shawn and refined it. I know not everyone agrees though.
- I remember showing my late dad Hot Fuzz. He was laughing so hard and practically wheezing at how relatable it was, from a US law enforcement background lol. (Especially when he's fielding outrageous questions at the primary school LOL)
  
  That was a really good time spent with my dad. I love that movie. We'd be quoting it all the time hahaha.
  
  "Aww man did ya say anythin cool?"
  
  "I uh, smashed him over the head with a pot and said 'playtime's over'."
  
  [racks shotgun] "You're off the f###ing CHAIN!!"

Predestination. I did understand the first time but there are so many little details that I had to watch a second time, now knowing the plot, to absorb everything.

Ps: Please, don't ask what it is about. if someone explains you will lose a very cool crazy movie. just go warch it.

I'm watching it right now. 20 minutes in.

spoiler

The columnist is talking about aging out of the orphanage and some guy is offering him a job as an astronaut.

I took your advice and know literally nothing about it other than it came out in 2014, and falls under the "Action, Drama, Sci-Fi" genres. Still, I wanna write this down now so I don't end up saying "I called it" after the fact and have no credibility, and if I call it wrong, we can all have a good laugh:

spoiler

I have the weirdest feeling that time travel is going to be involved at some point. And also something is just screaming "All You Zombies" adaptation at me.

spoiler

Might just be because he's trans.

spoiler

And telling a bartender his story. And there's some secret organization that's been teased... And the surgery in the beginning.

Okay I paused the movie because it was starting to bother me how much there was in common, looked up the story, and wow. I haven't read it in a decade or more; I didn't remember the character was given a title, but it's right there in the first sentence. Glad I'm not just crazy.

It was the weirdest feeling, to feel so strongly that there was a connection but not sure enough to trust the feeling. Like a compulsion, or an intrusive thought. Just a weirdly intense sensation.

One of my all time favorite short stories, I didn't know they made an adaptation. I am so excited now.
- loved the live feed lol Never heard of a short story but hope you liked the movie, I sure did.

Primer

When you first watch Primer you have no idea what's going on. You need to watch it at least three more time for you to still have no idea what's going on
The best time to watch Primer is immediately after watching Primer.
Such a great film. Everything unravels so quickly.
Came here to say this, glad I am not alone.
It really is a great movie. I found this timeline a while back that helps you make sense of it all...

https://i.stack.imgur.com/FwEK0.jpg

The matrix and Fight club ( both released in 1999 )

It was a great year for film.

Triangle HORROR/BLOOD

I absolutely PROMISE you a fulfilling time, and this is a movie that could be discussed at length for a long time and still have more to say. Please don't research or you'll spoil it some, but there's more than just that. I love this move with EVANGELICAL passion.

Timecrimes on steroids.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/

Yea, it is a weird one, watched it years ago. Definitely brainfuck potential
One of my favorites. I'll watch it every two years or so

L.A. Confidential

There are multiple investigations/cases and multiple character arcs, and it all comes together so beautifully. The [REDACTED] reveal is amazing.

Edited to remove potential spoiler.

I've never watched it, taking notes!

Vanilla Sky! It’s a truly mind bending movie, with an absolutely perfect soundtrack. I’ve probably seen this movie more than any other. I still find personal meaning in it 20+ years after my first watch as a kid when my older brother decided to see it in the theaters and took me along. I was confused but moved by it and I didn’t know why. Love came after the second watch.

I've never been more attracted to a movie character than Penelope Cruz in this movie! 😍
- Jacks and cokes?
- And she’s in the Spanish original as well, I believe.
Do I need to have seen Iron Sky first to understand the plot?
- Ya but I think you need to watch October Sky before that.

Memento

seen it twice, got nothing new out of it the second time. What am I missing?
- Not much. Nolan’s films are extremely well made, but about as deep as a puddle. What you see is what you get. If you have been paying attention at the start, at the end you can put together the complete puzzle.
  
  And that’s not meant as a dis, it’s extremely difficult to make a film like that. It’s easy to give the audience too much info or too little. But Nolan mostly gets it right.
  
  Also, he tends to give you the answer in the first scene.
  
  Edit: my pet theory for the different perspectives on Nolan films is that a lot of people just don’t retain information for which they don’t have context. So the first time around, they see the stuff that’s out of place, and that requires an explanation, and they just shrug it off. Then, after the reveal, they remember there was stuff that didn’t make sense, but don’t remember exactly what, so they need at least one watch to make sense of it.
  
  On the other hand, others (mostly people trained by watching and reading tons of SF, to be honest) mentally put these observations in a “spare pieces” box and start actively fitting them to their current understanding of the plot. When they get the final piece of the puzzle, everything makes sense.
- The trick is to watch it backwards
- I caught new stuff on the 4th viewing. It changed my answer to a pivotal question.

Satohi Kon's "Paprika" is still my favourite movie, and there is a lot to discover and reflect on, on second and third and umpteenth watches.

Legendary film. Stunning animation, excellent scifi and a mind-bender.

For me, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Every subsequent watch, I add more to the commentary of "Is he crazy?" and "Is Nurse Ratched evil or just doing her job?"

Waking Life.

If you wrap your head around it after the 2nd viewing, you're doing better than most people.

It took me a few watchings of Akira to really have it all sink in.

Koyaanisqatsi

Visual poetry. Literally. It's conveying a message, it's just you have to come up with the dialogue. Beautiful work. The sequels are fantastic as well.

I've wanted to see Koyaanisqatsi for a long time and finally put it in my list yesterday. This week or next weekend, can't wait!
- It's very meditative. I find it kinda more "taxing" in that regard than Baraka. But it won't be taxing at all if you are like water

Tenet. I’ve watched it probably four times. Got my sister onto it and I think she’s seen it like seven times now.

Very rewatchable. It can make sense but I’d say it takes you at least two viewings to follow along. Probably three.

I wish there was a sequel but I don’t think that’s Christopher Nolan’s style.

I see other Nolan movies listed here. There’s definitely a theme in them with time, story order and apparently, dead wives?

Tenet, watched it thrice to get the jist of it.

Until EEAAO came.

Tenet had that rollercoaster feel, which was surprisingly good. EEAAO was gentle, slowly elevating to the "showdown".

The parallel universes and alternate lives? by far the coolest.

I heard Tenet sucked, so it was firmly in the maybe column on my list of movies to watch. I finally watched it and was really fascinated by it. I didn't like it nearly as much as Inception and Interstellar, but it was a fun movie with unique ideas. I don't know how it got such a shitty reputation. I think people were just dumb and rather than admitting that they didn't get it they said that the movie was bad. It was certainly flawed in several ways, but it didn't deserve the level of criticism it got when it came out.
- I think a big part of the criticism is that it was kinda neat but came off as "Wrapping your head around director's obtuse-gimmick-idea is the whole point of the movie."
  
  Which I guess you could argue was Inception as well, but I feel like it was overall more relatable.
- I think people were just dumb and rather than admitting that they didn't get it they said that the movie was bad.
  
  Definitely me. I hated the aesthetic or lack thereof and couldn't make sense of the events. Since it took itself so seriously I felt I couldn't relate. But then again I watched it on the plane... I really should know better

Would serial Experiments Lain count? Anime series that seems to change after each rewatch.

The Holy Mountain. I suggest just watching it.

Deja Vu with Denzel Washington and Jim Cavisal or however you spell it. Terrorist murder mystery with a bit of a look into the past.

Clerks, there are so many great gems buried in that movie.

I love this movie and have seen it many times, but I'm not sure rewatching it makes it all that much different. Do you have any examples to share?
- I would, but I'm not even supposed to be here today.

Titanic. The ending recontextualises everything and I'm still talking about it

Wait... Like the boat sinking?
- Whoa, spoilers man, c'mon!
- I really thought they were going to clutch it at the last second tbh
can you talk about it some more? i didn't think this movie was difficult
- There are multiple lenses and been through many of them at different points in my life. I really did not like it when it first came out, but then came to understand the romantic fantasy from a young woman's perspective, and then the class aspects about how the upper classes vampire the vitality, dynamism, and culture of the lower classes to rejuvenate themselves, etc etc.
  
  I'm not sure I would say I even like the movie yet, but I have talked a lot about it with friends and partners over the decades. So I guess it's a good movie to talk about
Care to elaborate? It's pretty straight forward to me.
- Please see my reply to the unfortunate named user elsewhere in this thread

Primer because you don't know what's happening at the start, and then you start to piece it together, but you really have to watch it a few times because the details you pick up provide context for what's happening allowing you to piece more of the puzzle together.

I really want to watch this but it's not available on any streaming service in Australia. It's been years too.

I might have to just buy it
- it's definitely worth it
- https://rentry.co/megathread-movies-and-tv#streaming
  
  Just make sure you have an adblocker so you don't get computer aids

Enter the Void (2009). Super trippy and one of those movies that leaves you wondering about everything each time you watch it.

Not a movie, but bojack horse man. On the first watch it all just seems like shitty bojack. After learning all the back story its more like, oh poor bojack.

It's mostly shitty Bojack. Sure he had trauma and depression, but he always made the choice to continue the self destructive cycle.
- Relevant Bojack scene

The Sixth Sense

Glad I wasn't the only one.

Enemy (2013). lots of people's least favorite Villeneuve movie, but I really liked it. no shot you'll have any idea what happened after just one watch.

Been meaning to rewatch this one. It was great but I definitely had to do some reading afterwards to make sense of it all.

Tenet. If you don't know why, you haven't seen it

I’ve seen it and I don’t know what you mean. It was alright, idea was cool, but it didn’t seem that deep.
- It wasn't. It's full of plot holes.
I want to watch it just because even without knowing a single thing about it I absolutely love this parody video and would like to get a more sophisticated appreciation for the comedy there.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  this parody video
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

I want to put in my ticket for What Dreams May Come, one of Robin Williams more heartfelt and serious roles, and one rarely mentioned. You can "get" the movie on the first watch and only really begin to understand all the nuance and subtlety during the second or third run.

Angel Heart. We discussed what happened in that movie for weeks while returning to the theater at least once more each, some three times

I'd go with Possessor by Brandon Cronenberg. I've only seen it once so far, and the unfolding of the story was such that you had to work for it. It wasn't impenetrably dense, but I definitely had to give it the attention it demanded.

That looks interesting. Thanks.

American Psycho for me. I had a lot of questions after watching it for the first time. It doesn't have what I'd call a "satisfying" conclusion, but that's what makes the movie what it is. It's kind of a mindfuck, and the subtle humour in it is just top notch.

BladeRunner: 2049 gets better and better with every viewing. Even more so if you've read Pale Fire, which is referenced a few times in the movie. A masterpiece in every way.

Merrily We Roll Along

Marathon Man.

It's all in the details. The cab driver in the very first scene picks up a different character later in the movie.

Also, the torture scene gets worse every time.

Is it safe?

Stay - great movie with Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Hard to figure out and beautiful to watch, very gripping.

Yaboughtitthewaysyousawit