Edge of Tomorrow. I’m a sucker for time-shenanigan movies and it was a fantastic surprise.

The Matrix in the theater was just amazing not knowing anything going into it. I thought it was gonna be some generic sci-fi action popcorn flick and was so wrong. Honorable mention to Knives Out and Everything Everywhere All At Once, both incredible movies in ways I didn’t expect.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a blind find for me when I was growing up

Think it was early to mid 10s I watched it when I was in college (UK - not uni). Which was when I was starting to really get into movies. I found out what indies were and was literally just looking up lists of movies, seeing the director and actors (even then sometimes just the title was enough) and I would just go and find a way to watch it.

Eternal Sunshine was the pinnacle find of this period in my life, I think. At the time it was my favourite film which didn’t get toppled till Blade Runner 2049 came out. I’ve watched it countless times and I still find out new aspects to the film that I either missed or have forgotten since the last rewatch. I always recommend it to people who haven’t seen it.

Donnie Darko - Just such a great, strange movie

Moon. Sam Rockwell was so great in that

Pulp Fiction

Dark City

I saw Parasite blind. My date picked the movie, think I saw part of a trailer once, but I’m not even sure. What an amazing movie to go in blind. I had no idea what was going to happen or when, it felt like a roller coaster with all the twists and turns.

The Fifth Element. I had NO idea what the movie was about when my cousin brought me to the theater. My nerd brain was like, “Is this a quest to find boron or something?” Became one of my all-time favorite movies.

I went to a double feature because I wanted to see The Tin Drum. First I had to sit through another movie I had never heard of that sounded really corny: Runaway Train.

Starring John Voight and Eric Roberts, and with a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, it was extraordinary. Certainly not just a cheap action flick.

Excluding pretty much everything that I saw as a kid - when you go into basically everything blind - it would be After Hours (1985). I either hadn’t read anything about it or hadn’t been paying attention. Standing outside the cinema, I just saw that it was by Scorsese and went in.

I still think that it is one of his most under-appreciated films. And I loved the Ted Lasso homage, combining it with the Divine Comedy.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I knew nothing before but it was super cozy. Still watch it once per year or so.

Society.

Don’t look it up. Just watch it.

Saw. I don’t watch much horror but that movie kept me thinking about it til years later wanting to get the same feeling the first time I watched it.

Sunshine is the most memorable, certainly. Never heard of it. Showed up at the campus theater. I was utterly enthralled - wondering how the hell I’d never heard of it. It’s a scientific suicide mission, with no meathead archetypes. Any other movie would stick a marine on there to be stupid and aggressive for shallow drama. Nope! This one just uses the cold equations and basic human decency to create conflict. And it has a deep-rooted dedication to its obsession with the sun. Characters sit in a barely-shielded room, staring at their target and their adversary, obsessed with the heavenly body that will kill them. They go on spacewalks in these gorgeous golden suits, reflecting as much light as possible, and even that’s not enough sometimes.

And then the third act is a stupid fucking horror movie shot by complete amateurs. I just. I have no idea how this movie happened, as a product. I’ve read articles where the director talks about the intent, and you can almost sorta kinda see it… but it’s still a turd.