I’ve realised that after watching a great movie, one can go a long time without discussing it. Things which are not repeated are forgotten. Which is why I wanted to reflect and come up with a list of top 10 of my favorites movies as of March 2023.

In no particular order

1. Whiplash

I watched Whiplash in my dorm room on my reliable old lenovo laptop which had a 720p 14inch screen. What was supposed to be an another random evening turned out to became a core memory just because of what a surpise the movie was. I had no expectations and then I experienced a masterpiece.

I think what I like about Whiplash is the sacrifice. Andrew (the protagonist) was willing to sacrifice himself to bring out the image he had of himself in his mind. Most of us are the main characters of our lives & how we precieve ourselves can differ vastly from how the world looks at us.

How many of us has ever realised the difference and how many of those have worked to actually become what they think they actually are.

2. The Matrix

I am sucker for science fiction movies and the matrix is a classic. In 1999 where the world barely had any 3D games, the matrix introduced us to an idea where technology has developed so far ahead that humans can no longer differentiate betwwen virtual pixels and real life.

I also feel like The Matrix was the first planet scale inception. The matrix would directly go on to inspire creation of anime like Sword Art Online, Naruto’s genjutsu of Uchihas and 10s of billions of dollars worth of investment by Meta on metaverse. Were it not for The Matrix, would metaverse exist?

Lastly the movie also has all of the elements of a fantasy. It has a novice hero with infinite potential, an old wise master, kick ass team, a love story and an insurmountable villian. All of which was exectuted in a perfect manner.

3. Inception

We just spoke of inception w.r.t Matrix but had it not been for the movie Inception maybe many of us would have lacked a word to accurately encapsulate and describe the impact of the movie The Matrix.

It’s no surprise that inception has made it to the list. From the cinematography, the sound score and the several parallel storylines of love, regret, disappointment and respect, Inception executed everything perfectly.

4. Mad Max Fury Road

Like Whiplash, Mad Max Fury Road was a surprise. I had no idea what to expect out of the movie, and I was not familiar with the lore before I watched Fury Road. I love this movie for the excellent world building & the novelity of potraying plot progression by literally just traveling more on a road (or lack thereoff).

5. Fight Club

We follow the rules.

6. The man who knew infinity

The Man Who Knew Infinity along with The Beautiful Mind, Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game are all excellent movies however what stood out to me about the movie was the magic of simplicity, limited access to knowledge, debates on faith and poetry.

Ramanujan in his early years only had access to very limited books and that allowed him re-digest the same information N number of times but while the book was the same the person reading the book was never the same. There’s magic in simiplicity, as a Software Engineer I continously learn new things from the things that I’ve already learnt. This is an absurd statement to make but it’s true. As I learn more, my ability to ask better questions improve and which allows me to extract out more information from a documentation than before. I feel like such was the case with Ramnujan as well. So in a sense, the movie provides a little sense of relatibility.

Secondly in the movie we see a clash of ideologies between the atheist Hardy and Ramanujan who often said that “An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God.” And yet, despite the conflict, both of them were able to work together succeesfully. There’s something romantic about how Ramanujan approached mathemetics, he credited all of his work to his god which is in sharp contrast with other characters who were fueled mostly by their ego.

7. 127 Hours

127 Hours made me ask myself would I’ve done the same and I answered yes.

8. The Karate Kid

Nostalgia.

9. Schindler’s List

“I could’ve done more”

10. First Contact

I really liked the conclusion of the movie. Unlike most movies on first contact, I feel like this is the most logical way a kind superior intelligence would introduce themselves to us i.e. through stories, gossip, messenger.

This is also the only movie in this list with a female protagonist & I think the cast and the character was excellent.

Worthy Mentions

Pulp Fiction, Intersellar, The departed, Suttler island, Spiderman, Good will hunting, Taare zameen par, Rockstar, Catch me if you can, Jo jo rabit, how to train your dragon, I am legend, the social network, coherence, american psycho, despicable me, iron man, the adventures of tintin, life of pi.