Some stories stay with us not just because they were well-made, but because they struck something deeper – an idea, a feeling, or a thought we couldn’t shake off. This post is about the kind of stories across mixed genres that tend to stay with me, not grouped by strict category, but by the impact and thoughts they leave behind.

Superheroes
No, I don’t mean I’ve read every DC and Marvel comic book. I’ve watched just a few movies with superheroes, and some of them became special.

• The Dark Knight – Needless to say, the Joker is the best villain ever. The kind of chaos he creates and the dilemmas he puts people in really stood out. The way this film was grounded in reality made it much more than just a superhero story.

• Avengers (upto Infinity arc) – I liked the individual films for each hero more than movies like Civil War. I liked the series for its mix of sci fi, themes of working as a team, seriousness and humour, different ideas of what makes someone a ‘superhero’, clashes of perspectives and even a small bit of time travel.

Filmmakers I Keep Returning To

• Tarantino – His movies have a somehow unique style that I can’t get over. The kind of characters he creates, the extended dialogues, the strange humour and non-linear scenes always draw me in. My first one was Pulp Fiction and I went on to watch almost all his films over the years, which were usually worth it.

• Nolan – I like his movies for their thought-provoking storytelling and how he deals with ideas of time, memory and identity. His stories are original and often about something we may never have thought about before. My first one was probably The Prestige and my favourites were Inception & Memento.

Other Stories I Still Think About

• Stories where it turns out that the character was only imagining the existence of a person because of being unable to process some trauma, are often very unsettling. Movies like Forgotten (Korean), Fractured, Goodnight Mommy, The Machinist – they show how the human mind can sometimes create illusions to cope with a painful reality.

• Stories about highly trained spies with themes of shifting/hidden alliances are also interesting and re-watchable, like Infernal Affairs (HK), Goodachari (South Indian) and Hidden Blade (Chinese), while Salt changes the usual storylines by having a strong female lead instead. I also liked The Bourne Series for its fast paced action, clever abilities of [Matt Damon’s character] and the theme of regaining lost memory and identity.

• Movies like Cure (Japanese) show how sometimes just a slight push can make people act on their darkest impulses. I found the premise similar to the book Curtain (Agatha Christie), where a certain person “X” is the common thread in several murder cases.

• Then there are films that explore tragedies and sensitive themes. The Chalk Line (Spanish), Maharaja (Tamil) and Murder Affair at Horizon Tower (Chinese) start out as mysteries, but the layers reveal disturbing themes of girl child abuse. And films like Incendies make you sit still afterward and not say anything for a while.

• And some, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Requiem for a Dream and The Revenant, can leave a lingering impact.

Sometimes genre is just the surface. What these stories have in common isn’t their labels, but the way they stayed long after I watched them.