A troubled young woman returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls, where the memory of a long-ago kidnapping quickly ensnares her.
I think this is a legit terrible title for a legit great movie.
If you’re a fan of deadly serious true crime stories wherein a troubled normal person gets wrapped up in a tragic investigation, this is going to be the strongest cup of tea you’ve had in a while. I will no longer trust anyone who runs a true crime podcast!!!
I think my answer for 30-50 self acclaimed “cinephile” is Inception. That hits the entire age group. Dark Knight is a close second, but I could see some I don’t do comic book films.
I woud say Godfather is the closest to ~0% for a film buff in that age range to not have seen.
If we know that age is closer to 25 one of the recent Nolan’s might become a better guess.
Parasite is also a recent one that everyone with an interest in movies has seen (and if you change the question to “seen and liked” this might be optimal, as it’s not divisive like Nolan or Tarantino could be).
fwiw I’m a film buff who has never seen Shawshank (and most likely never will). I’m not an American though, and it’s not especially famous here, don’t remember ever hearing it mentioned in a conversation.
I’m right in the middle of the 25-45 age range and would be very surprised if a supposed film buff hadn’t seen Godfather. He’ll I’ve seen it and I almost never watch old classics.
Pulp Fiction has aged well and has an argument for being number one as it relates to this question - if not one, top five for certain. I would suspect that every cinephile under the age of 40 has seen it as well, not just those 40+. I don’t buy that it’s zeitgeisty either, I never think when watching it that it’s “so 1994”. It feels far more like a 70s film then anything that was coming out in the early 90s.
Literally every important and influential piece of art has spawned hacky imitations.
Studios ruled the landscape in the 80s and the auteur days of the 70s were gone. Pulp Fiction reopened that door. Films like se7en do not exist at that specific time without Pulp Fiction. Fincher, PTA, Jonze, Kaufman, Aronofsky. They don’t get the creative license and promotion for their films without Pulp.
I find it impossible that Pulp Fiction would not be in your, or anyone’s, first 100 guesses.
I appreciate POVs on cinema that show the extensive impact of certain movies.
Kind of a tangent but there’s a fantastic time paradox book called Replay by Ken Grimwood about a guy who replays his life from a certain point every time he dies.
In one life, he sees what happens if he makes Star Wars before George Lucas.
I didn’t realize the OG was being re released with a brand new translation that at least one critic (Dave Chen at Filmcast) says elevates an already fantastic movie. I’m gonna have to watch it again too.
FTR I rewatched Pulp Fiction a couple years back and mostly enjoyed it, it actually held up better then I expected, excepting the Keitel/Tarantino scene which is inexcusably bad and as thoroughly 90s as a scene could be. A rare genuine example of something that “couldn’t be made” at most any other time as well as one that would justifiably offend a huge proportion of folks in the specified age range if they saw it (which most have not).
Of course a self identified cinephile, especially a US male, is more likely to have gone back and watched it. But I would guess that there are a bunch more likely films that they would get too first. Maybe not, i dunno, but Pulp Fiction wouldn’t be one of the obvious names that comes to mind for me.
Also, I beleive se7en was actually in the can when Pulp Fiction was released.
