Being someone who has an active and visual mind, a selectively strong memory (I can remember licence plate numbers of junior school teachers) and experiences vivid (and occasionally lucid) dreams, I find myself being drawn to movies which deal with these and related issues - existence, reality, dreams, memory and the like - that is, themes which are philosophical in nature (or at least I assume are philosophical in nature, not being a student or aficionado of the field).
Generally, I prefer the pairing of philosophy with technology (e.g. virtual reality games) and/or science (e.g. time travel, Many Worlds theory etc.), so anything that’s more spiritually oriented or in a a non-modern setting is less likely to appeal, although I would welcome suggestions.
In particular I am fascinated by the notion of chaos theory/the butterfly effect as well as parallel universes. I’m greatly intrigued by the idea that by choosing one popsicle flavour over another when I was four years old I would effect large changes to my later life (e.g. if I had chose strawberry I would have been run over and killed by a car aged 11).
The films I have already seen and the categories in which I personally define them are as follows:
Layered/Virtual/Mock Reality or “How did we get here?”
eXistenZ
The Matrix series
The Thirteenth Floor
The Lawnmower Man
The Truman Show
Dark City
The Cube series
(Lucid) Dreams/Memories
Memento
Mulholland Drive
Vanilla Sky/Abre Los Ojos
Eternal Sunshine
Butterfly Effect / Parallel Universes
The Butterfly Effect (duh)
Lola Rennt - “Run Lola Run”
Donnie Darko
Mr. Destiny
Sliding Doors
Other/Mixed/Misc.
The Game
I Heart Huckabees
Swimming Pool
Fight Club
Minority Report
Groundhog Day - I love the concept of a time loop.
Clockstoppers - Ditto for time freezing.
Anything involving time travel, of which there are far too many movies to list.
I’ve probably forgotten to include some really obvious titles (damn you, fickle memory!) but I think that paints a picture of what I’m after.
So I put it to you, fellow Dopers, to suggest movies that are suited to the (somewhat broad) spectrum given above. I’m not averse to anything low-budget, cult or foreign, so bring 'em on.
Basically, anything that makes you think, makes you wonder, makes you question reality, makes you think of places in your memory that you’re sure don’t exist, makes you remember dreams, sights, smells and tastes, or makes you shout ‘THAT IS FREAKING COOL!’.