Movies that leave you thinking about the real world

True stories, and films with something honest to say about the people they are about.

This is cinema used as an argument. The best of them change how you look at something real, and they do it without ever raising their voice.

Lights Down calls this The Compass

You want it to be about something.

Not a lecture, though. A film that tells you what to think loses you as fast as one about nothing at all. What you're after is a story that puts you close enough to a life you haven't lived that something shifts, and then doesn't tidy it up at the end. You'll still be bringing those up years later, usually to someone who hasn't seen it yet.

Films that sit at the center of it

• Schindler's List
• Selma
• The Florida Project
• Moonlight
• Spotlight

Is this how you watch?

Know your taste in 60 seconds. Fifteen swipes, and it lands on whichever of the ten profiles fits how you actually pick.

Lights Down is free. It will stay that way. Works on your own or with someone else watching.

Close to this

movies that are going to make you cry, and older movies that still hold up.