After re-watching the absolute masterpiece Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977), I was in awe. This got me thinking a lot about aliens, and it seems to me that that is an area where movies and TV shows have been lacking in recent years.

When I say "aliens", I mean something truly alien, foreign, mind-bending, even terrifying (although I'm not very fond of horror) -- so not the tame, often humanoid extraterrestrials that we fully understand, like you usually see in Star Trek and Trek-like shows. But rather stories of contact that make us rethink the boundaries of existence.

A recent movie that touches on that was 2016's Arrival, which has more than one similarity with Close Encounters.... Another is Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997).

Covid finally caught up with me and I'm going to be living like a hermit for the next 2 weeks. It's been a stressful month here so I'm looking to melt my brain (or at least the bits covid hasn't already melted). I'd love to check out your easy watching, good time having, feel good suggestions!

I’m trying to find movies where Rock and Roll is a character, not movies about the music.

Examples I can think of include:

Heavy Metal
Xanadu
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Rock and Rule

Maybe
Streets of Fire
The Hunger
Grease (technically a musical i guess)
Guardians of the Galaxy

I just signed back up for the Netflix dvd subscription and am looking for some sci-fi movie recommendations. I tend to not like the horror themes but am open to just about anything else (even "bad" movies that are so bad they are good). Looking for movies that have come out in the last decade or so. May also be open to television series that can be had on dvd that were not on Netflix streaming.

I watched Knives Out last night with my mother and we loved it. We used to love watching Hitchcock films, I’m in the mood for something more recent with a similar vibe. Like a modern Agatha Christie murder mystery. Any suggestions?

My Anniversary is coming up and I'd like to do a movie night for my wife. She likes romantic films but I don't so we don't often watch them together.

I'd like to come up with 3 or 4 of the best romantic movies ever to watch together as a gift to her. Since I don't ever watch these kinds of movies I don't know what's objectively good.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who responded! There are so many great options that I'm going to make a list of all of them to draw from on other special occasions too!

The end of the year has me in a movie-watching mood and I want to add the best of the best into my queue for the next few weeks. Similar to games of the decades, what are your movies of the decades and why?

Partly because of the nature of the subject, most true-crime documentaries tend to emphasize dread. Some of them employ formal devices similar to horror movies, such as ominous soundtracks, dark lightning, and moody camera movements. My interest in the problem of evil is philosophical, and the constant attempts to induce fear are distracting.

I'm interested in documentaries that are more like case studies, with a clinical, speculative or even scientifical approach to the problem of evil embodied in criminal acts.

Any suggestions?

Used to love reading the IMDB boards after checking out a flick. Up until, of course, Amazon's takeover and purging. Now I feel dirty using the site to check out info about films, and am trying to break the habit of using it as my 'go-to' site.

Letterboxd and TheMovieDatabase seem to be the 2 most credible alternatives. Any other suggestions on the Web3.0 (or 2.5) solution to a great community to kick back, contribute and learn with others about film?

After reading the recent ArsTechnica review of the latest Godzilla movie, I realized that I haven't really dived into the Kaiju genre and it might make for a fun weekend to watch a few of what you all consider fun and good. I know I have seen Kaiju movies in the past but this was when I was younger so any memory is long and forgotten. I am also not averse to non-english language movies as long as the subtitling is good!

Any you recommend and why you would recommend them?

I've realised that when people discuss film, I've missed out. There are so many influential and important films that I haven't watched.

Could you please recommend a (or more) films that you think is essential for an educated person to have watched? It can be a classic, or something less known.