movies & tv shows

top tier must-watch

Train Dreams (2025)

“When Robert Grainier died in his sleep sometime in November of 1968, his life ended as quietly as it had begun. He’d never purchased a firearm or spoken into a telephone. He had no idea who his parents might have been, and he left no heirs behind him. But on that spring day, as he misplaced all sense of up and down, he felt, at last, connected to it all.”

Rating: 9.6/10

A quiet masterpiece about meaning, beauty, love, loss, grief and one’s place in the world

Andor (2022)

“I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. […] I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude.”

“The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.”

Rating: 9.5/10

Arguably the best piece of Star Wars media; a gritty TV show about the grim realities of revolution and rebellion against tyranny

not top tier but still good

Dead Poets Society (1989)

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”

Rating: 8.9/10

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

“You start fighting wolves, and before you know it, everyone you don’t understand is a wolf.”

Rating: 8.5/10

Great commentary on religion, faith and love with a fun plot full of suspense

Mindhunter (2017)

“He’s gonna take it away from you, kill you with it, and then he’s gonna have sex with your face.”

Rating: 8.5/10

Creepy af

Minari (2020)

“Male chicks don’t taste good. They can’t lay eggs and have no use. So, you and I should try to be useful. Okay?”

Rating: 8/10

Good Will Hunting (1997)

“Sorry, guys; I gotta see about a girl.”

Rating: 8/10

Forrest Gump (1994)

“Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company [Apple computer]. So then I got a call from him, saying we don’t have to worry about money no more. And I said, that’s good! One less thing.”

Rating: 7.5/10

The Diplomat (2023)

“Stuart… I am a young, tiny, Asian American woman at the top of one of the most baldly paternalistic arms of the US government. I am furious all the time. [pause] If I could go after terrorist and human traffickers with an organization that didn’t have an 80-year legacy of racism and human right violations, I would. […] There is not another, better, CIA or America. The ones we have are fucked up. We make compromises. Some days we feel okay about that, some days we have gin.”