Highest-Rated Movies about 'Self Discovery'

Leon - The Professional (1994), American Beauty (1999), Udaan (2010), Wild Strawberries (1957), Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004), Into the Wild (2007), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), A Christmas Carol (1951) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Self Discovery movies.

#1. Leon - The Professional (1994)

Storyline: After her father, mother, older sister and little brother are killed by her father's employers, the 12-year-old daughter of an abject drug dealer is forced to take refuge in the apartment of a professional hitman who at her request teaches her the methods of his job so she can take her revenge on the corrupt DEA agent who ruined her life by killing her beloved brother.

Plot Keywords: older man young girl relationship, neo noir, girl, hitman, cult film, sexual attraction, die hard scenario ...

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#2. American Beauty (1999)

Storyline: After his death sometime in his forty-third year, suburbanite Lester Burnham tells of the last few weeks of his life, during which he had no idea of his imminent passing. He is a husband to real estate agent Carolyn Burnham and father to high school student Janie Burnham. Although Lester and Carolyn once loved each other, they now merely tolerate each other. Typical wallflower Janie too hates both her parents, the three who suffer individually in silence in their home life. Janie tries to steer clear of both her parents. Carolyn, relatively new to the real estate business, wants to create the persona of success to further her career, she aspiring to the professional life of Buddy Kane, the king of the real estate business in their neighborhood. Lester merely walks mindlessly through life, including at his job in advertising. His company is downsizing, and he, like all the other employees, has to justify his position to the newly hired efficiency expert to keep his job. Things change ...

Plot Keywords: unfaithful wife, adulterous wife, cheating wife, midlife crisis, cheerleader uniform, unfaithfulness, drug dealer ...

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#3. Udaan (2010)

Storyline: After being abandoned for eight straight years in boarding school, Rohan returns to the small industrial town of Jamshedpur and finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half brother who he didn't even know existed. Forced to work in his father's steel factory and study engineering against his wishes, he strives to forge his own life out of his given circumstances and pursue his dream of being a writer.

Plot Keywords: father son conflict, domineering father, alcoholic father, tyranny, absent father, abusive father, father son relationship ...

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#4. Wild Strawberries (1957)

Storyline: With the exception of his elderly housekeeper Miss Agda who he treats almost like a surrogate platonic wife, widowed seventy-eight year old Dr. Isak Borg, a former medical doctor and professor, has retreated from any human contact, partly his own want but partly the decision of others who do not want to spend time with him because of his cold demeanor. He is traveling from his home in Stockholm to Lund to accept an honorary degree. Instead of flying as was the original plan, he decides to take the day long drive instead. Along for the ride is his daughter-in-law Marianne, who had been staying with him for the month but has now decided to go home. The many stops and encounters along the way make him reminisce about various parts of his life. Those stops which make him reminisce directly are at his childhood summer home, at the home of his equally emotionally cold mother, and at a gas station where the attendants praise him as a man for his work. But the lives of other people they ...

Plot Keywords: professor, nostalgia, doctor, loneliness, regret, self discovery, flashback ...

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#5. Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004)

Storyline: A love story between an 18-year-old girl named Sophie, cursed by a witch into an old woman's body, and a magician named Howl. Under the curse, Sophie sets out to seek her fortune, which takes her to Howl's strange moving castle. In the castle, Sophie meets Howl's fire demon, named Karishifâ. Seeing that she is under a curse, the demon makes a deal with Sophie--if she breaks the contract he is under with Howl, then Karushifâ will lift the curse that Sophie is under, and she will return to her 18-year-old shape.

Plot Keywords: anime, steampunk, based on novel, witchcraft, spell, witch, castle ...

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#6. Into the Wild (2007)

Storyline: Based on a true story. After graduating from Emory University, Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire savings account to charity, and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters who shape his life.

Plot Keywords: wilderness, self discovery, alaska, based on true story, journey, following a dream, isolation ...

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#8. A Christmas Carol (1951)

Storyline: Stubbornly refusing to believe in Christmas, and to be separated from his inexhaustible wealth, the Victorian money lender and parsimonious recluse, Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim), can't be bothered with the poor and destitute at the most festive time of the year. Intent on spending the holy night alone, instead, the sceptical curmudgeon is visited by an unexpected and sympathetic friend, Jacob Marley (Sir Michael Hordern), who will pave the way for the inevitable visitation of the otherworldly spirits of Christmas Past (Michael Dolan), Present (Francis De Wolff), and Yet to Come (Czeslaw Konarski). But, what do the pale ghosts want? Can a wicked old miser admit the error in his ways, and embrace change? In the end, is Scrooge ready to love and be loved?

Plot Keywords: christmas, based on novel, victorian era, greed, self discovery, change of heart, redemption ...

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#9. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Storyline: In tiny Anarene, Texas, in the lull between World War Two and the Korean Conflict, Sonny and Duane are best friends. Enduring that awkward period of life between boyhood and manhood, the two pass their time the best way they know how -- with the movie house, football, and girls. Jacy is Duane's steady, wanted by every boy in school, and she knows it. Her daddy is rich and her mom is good looking and loose. It's the general consensus that whoever wins Jacy's heart will be set for life. But Anarene is dying a quiet death as folks head for the big cities to make their livings and raise their kids. The boys are torn between a future somewhere out there beyond the borders of town or making do with their inheritance of a run-down pool hall and a decrepit movie house -- the legacy of their friend and mentor, Sam the Lion. As high school graduation approaches, they learn some difficult lessons about love, loneliness, and jealousy. Then folks stop attending the second-run features at the movie...

Plot Keywords: 1950s, texas, nostalgia, child molester, sexual awakening, small town, character's point of view camera shot ...

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#10. Big Fish (2003)

Storyline: United Press International journalist Will Bloom and his French freelance photojournalist wife Josephine Bloom, who is pregnant with their first child, leave their Paris base to return to Will's hometown of Ashton, Alabama on the news that his father, Edward Bloom, stricken with cancer, will soon die, he being taken off chemotherapy treatment. Although connected indirectly through Will's mother/Edward's wife, Sandra Bloom, Will has been estranged from his father for three years since his and Josephine's wedding. Will's issue with his father is the fanciful tales Edward has told of his life all his life, not only to Will but the whole world. As a child when Edward was largely absent as a traveling salesman, Will believed those stories, but now realizes that he does not know his father, who, as he continues to tell these stories, he will never get to know unless Edward comes clean with the truth before he dies. On the brink of his own family life beginning, Will does not want to be the ...

Plot Keywords: fish, father son relationship, death of father, liar, based on novel, legend, father son estrangement ...

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#11. Dances with Wolves (1990)

Storyline: Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs "Two-socks" and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man's ways.

Plot Keywords: friendship, native american, 19th century, cult film, military officer, club, directorial debut ...

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#12. Now, Voyager (1942)

Storyline: Boston spinster Charlotte has had her life controlled entirely by her mother; a wealthy mother, Mrs. Henry Vale. Feeling despondent, she's convinced to spend some time in a sanitarium. Soon, Charlotte's transformed into a sophisticated, confident woman. On a cruise to South America, Charlotte meets, and begins a torrid affair with Jerry Durrance, a married architect. 6 months later, she returns home, and confronts her mother with her independence. One day, after a brief argument, her mother has a heart attack and dies. Charlotte inherits the Vale fortune but feels guilty for her mother's death. She returns to the sanitarium, where she befriends a depressed, young adolescent, named Tina. The young girls' depression brought on by having been rejected by her mother; Charlotte's former lover, Jerry's wife. Charlotte takes Tina home to Boston with her

Plot Keywords: domineering mother, emotional blackmail, mother daughter relationship, mental illness, dysfunctional family, self esteem, nervous breakdown ...

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#13. Groundhog Day (1993)

Storyline: A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the 'following' day he discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realisation that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day.

Plot Keywords: time loop, suicide, cult film, alarm clock, bed and breakfast, blizzard, existentialism ...

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#14. Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Storyline: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It's the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old young man, spends his days in his family's 17th-century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio's sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old American college graduate student working on his...

Plot Keywords: gay romance, male male kiss, father son relationship, american abroad, gay sex, bisexual, first gay sexual experience ...

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#15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Storyline: In a castle high on top of a hill lives an inventor's greatest creation - Edward, a near-complete person. The creator died before he could finish Edward's hands; instead, he is left with metal scissors for hands. Since then, he has lived alone, until a kind lady called Peg discovers him and welcomes him into her home. At first, everyone welcomes him into the community, but soon things begin to take a change for the worse.

Plot Keywords: scissors, coming of age, self discovery, magical realism, love, waterbed, castle ...

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