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Top 10 High-Quality Movies (Tailored to Max’s Tastes, 2015–2025)

· 2 min read
Max Kaido
Max Kaido
Architect

A curated, intuitive, and surgically sharp list of films from the past decade that align with Max’s love for:

  • The White Lotus — satirical, sun-soaked, character-driven narratives
  • Wild Wild Country & Tiger King — true stories, cults, chaos, moral ambiguity
  • Documentaries and dramas that are seductive, cerebral, or socially revealing
  • Rewatch value, symbolic layers, and mood-enhancing background energy

1. The Favourite (2018, Yorgos Lanthimos)​

A twisted, opulent tale of power and pettiness in Queen Anne’s court. Wicked humor, psychological warfare, and lavish decadence. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

2. The Menu (2022, Mark Mylod)​

Satire served cold. A high-end culinary cult meets performance art murder fantasy. Feels like White Lotus crossed with American Psycho. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

3. TÁR (2022, Todd Field)​

A brilliant yet monstrous conductor spirals into scandal. Classy, psychological, slow-burn. Cate Blanchett devours the screen. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

4. The Square (2017, Ruben Östlund)​

A razor-sharp art world satire—absurd, uncomfortable, and sophisticated. Almost designed to provoke Max-style reflection. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

5. The House That Jack Built (2018, Lars von Trier)​

Controversial, philosophical, disturbing. A serial killer with god-complex narrates his work like it's art. Macabre brilliance. Expected Max Score: ★★★★☆

6. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020, Charlie Kaufman)​

A cerebral trip into loneliness, identity, and surreal dread. Perfect if you like puzzles and poetic nihilism. Expected Max Score: ★★★★☆

7. Under the Silver Lake (2018, David Robert Mitchell)​

Neo-noir paranoia in sunny L.A. Conspiracies, cryptic clues, and disaffected cool. Background rewatch gold. Expected Max Score: ★★★★☆

8. Three Identical Strangers (2018, Tim Wardle)​

Mind-blowing doc about triplets separated at birth for a sinister experiment. Real-life tension, emotional punch. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

9. Nocturnal Animals (2016, Tom Ford)​

A visual and emotional gut-punch, mixing a thriller within a love letter of vengeance. Stylish and emotionally loaded. Expected Max Score: ★★★★☆

10. The Act of Killing (2012/2015 release internationally)​

Not for the faint-hearted. Former death squad leaders reenact their crimes in surreal Hollywood style. Haunting. Expected Max Score: ★★★★★

Let me know which ones you’ve seen—or if you want this expanded to include more absurdist comedies, cult classics, or aesthetic background cinema.