Hi this isn’t MBTI related, but I was wondering what your favourite movie is since you’re an INTJ and I don’t know any.

I don’t really have a favourite movie. I just have a very long list.

Many of the movies that I tend to lean towards the most don’t necessarily appeal to the masses as films they’d want to see over and over again (while others do).

Movies that make you think

I love the movies that make me think (#Christopher Nolan fan), or any movie about a tortured genius, which sort of makes me the black sheep of my family when it comes to film-tastes. For instance, when my family watched the movie Transcendence, and I was literally the only person in the family who was enthralled by it (everyone else was creeped out).

Any time I have to follow complex logic in a movie, you can count me in, especially if you throw in some astrophysics or philosophy.

Most people, when their brain is fried, want to sit down and watch a mind-numbing movie that will help them relax by not having to think about whatever the heck they’ve been thinking about. But I want to sit down and watch a movie that will get my brain revved up again.

I’m also intrigued by films about the nature of mental illness, or films that deal with interesting psychological concepts.

Tragedies and emotionally charged films

As a student of philosophical ethics, I naturally crave films that depict the intense beauty and complexity of morality and the human spirit. Un-coincidentally, the films that depict both of those things are usually the more emotionally traumatising kind.

Shakespeare is always there for me when I need him. Furthermore, I love tragedies because they make me feel something.

My favourite part in Empire of the Sun is the moment where the fighter pilots are shooting at the camp, and  Jim jumping up and down on the rooftop thinking aloud about how if he and the other prisoners had died building the runaway, they would have been buried in the runaway.

Dr. Rawlins comes up and shakes Jim to his senses, shouting “Try not to think so much! TRY NOT TO THINK SO MUCH!”

And the moment Jim stops thinking, he’s forced to confront his emotions. He breaks down in tears, realising that he doesn’t remember what his parents looked like.

Cult-films

Lastly, my favourite films tend to be very cultish (fandomwise), the kind that very few people love. (for instance, Harold and Maude, The Truman Show, Swing Kids, Dead Poets Society and Empire of the Sun).

Swing Kids, for instance, is pretty much only talked about as a must-see, we-all-love-it film by members of the Swing dancing community. Same goes for Fred Astaire movies such as Swing Time (which I love for the dancing, and literally no other reason).

Dead Poet’s Society is an English Major’s film, but also a school-hating nonconformist film, so you’ve kind of got to be both to like it (which naturally excludes anyone who dislikes Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau).

The only reason I can figure for this is that as an INTJ, I just don’t flow with the crowd for anything. Naturally that would include movie tastes.

Period Dramas and Literature based films

I also enjoy period dramas –mostly a lot of dramatic war stories. It doesn’t really matter which war, just so long as it brings up fascinating moral questions and/or a beautiful story about human nature.

I also enjoy movies based on the books I’ve read (mostly classics). Anything literary and you can typically count me in, unless it’s Jane Austen…at which point, I really have to be in a trivial mood to watch it. The Importance of Being Earnest, no matter which version, is always a go for me.

Also, anything Shakespeare will have my face plastered to the computer screen for hours. Let’s just say I’m a wee bit bard-obsessed.

You know how everyone has that one go-to movie that they watch when they’re miserable? Mine’s Hamlet. No joke.

Steampunk and Dark Humour

Anything Steampunk, you can pretty much count on me watching. All the Discworld movies amuse me heartily, and there are a lot of movies that I will watch purely for their steampunk appearance.

Treasure Planet was my favourite disney movie as a kid.

I also have a relatively dark sense of humour, so most of the comedy I enjoy isn’t necessarily enjoyed by most of the people I know.

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Here’s a list of movies that Iike very much –first 20+ I thought of in no particular order:

• Waiting for Godot
• Discworld: Going Postal
• The Truman Show
• The Wiper’s Times
• October Sky
• Dead Poets Society
• The Theory of Everything
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Valkyrie
• Harold and Maude
• The General (and anything else Buster Keaton)
• The Batman Trilogy
• The Imitation Game
• A Beautiful Mind
• The Prestige
• Hamlet (various versions, but my favourite is the Royal Shakespeare Company addition)
• Star Trek
• War Horse
• Transcendence
• Serenity
• Swing Kids
• The Great Gatsby
• Much Ado About Nothing (various versions)
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Stonehearst Asylum
• Gladiator
• Inception
• Vitus
• Discworld: Hogfather
• X-Men (not all of them, though)
• Empire of the Sun
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Interstellar
• Napola
• Rear Window
• An Ideal Husband
• Discworld: The Colour of Magic
• The Way Back

And just to avoid future questions, here’s a list of my favourite TV shows:

• Firefly (all-time favourite…in case anyone’s wondering)
• Sherlock
• Doctor Who (favourites would have to be the 4th and 12th doctors)
• The Monocled Mutineer
• The Hollow Crown
• Generation War
• Duetschland 83