I’ve always been perfectly content to watch movies by myself. It’s all well and good if it’s 2 Fast 2 Furious or Uncharted, but there are movies that demand a little more attention and reward careful attention—and kids, partners, and even friends can be, frankly, distractions.
So these are some the best movies to get quietly lost in, without many of the typical attention-grabbing. They’re relatively quiet and generally thoughtful, which isn’t to say boring—though mileage will certainly vary on that count.
There are a lot of American films represented here, in part because quiet introspection is a bit more novel the closer you get to Hollywood. A list of introspective Swedish films, for example, or even Russian ones, would go on for much too long.
