Smart, tailored film recommendations are one of the best ways to get friends and family more into movies. The right selection can open someone’s eyes to great cinema beyond Netflix originals and the occasional blockbuster at the local multiplex.
For many people, it’s not that movies are universally bad, it’s they rarely encounter films they really love. Local theaters show few films outside of big franchise blockbusters. Theaters are often old, with expensive tickets and unruly audiences. At home, algorithmic-based streaming recommendations tend to be poor and unfocused. Finding good movies can feel like chasing a moving target. Digital rental and streaming release dates are often unclear. Movies regularly shuffle in and out of streaming services every month.
However, through streaming services and digital rentals, a mainstream audience can access more high quality movies than ever before. Good recommendations in this landscape need minimal resistance. Access and convenience are key. Focus on movie recommendations from digital services your audience already uses regularly, be they monthly subscription services or rental stores. Services like JustWatch help to browse what’s available across multiple services.
To find a good recommendation, I like to start with a movie someone liked and break it down into what I call “subgenres”. A subgenre describes a specific type within broader genre categories like action, comedy, drama, mystery, romance, science fiction, or thriller. I make up these labels on the spot. Usually a series of descriptive adjectives followed by a specific genre works well like “grounded psychological thriller” or “bloody hand to hand action”.
For example, The Dark Knight and Guardians of the Galaxy share an epic superhero adventure subgenre. However, they differ widely in tone and realism. Knight combines dark crime thriller elements with grounded heist action inspired by director Michael Mann. Galaxy is an ensemble hangout comedy mixed with colorful, oddball science fiction.
Similarly, The Accountant 2, Love Lies Bleeding, and Rebel Ridge are all violent crime thrillers, but they’re otherwise very different. Love Lies adds bloody and surreal horror alongside a twisted, transgressive romance. Rebel Ridge is probably the most grounded and realistic of the three, with small scale martial arts action, and political drama themes. The Accountant 2 feels like a traditional buddy cop action movie combined with a puzzle box mystery.
For film enthusiasts familiar with the film in question, generating subgenres should be straightforward. Otherwise, I recommend looking up a movie on Letterboxd and reviewing its themes under the Genres tab. Then use personal favorites or other praiseworthy movies in the same subgenre to build recommendations.
Subgenres help avoid recommendations that are too generic or predictable. Too often, algorithms rely on broad genre generalizations instead of considering a movie’s storyline, aesthetics, or tone. This causes very different movies to be grouped together haphazardly.
Using subgenres leads to different, more nuanced recommendations. For The Dark Knight, I’d start with Michael Mann films like Heat and Thief, or morally complex cop thrillers like The Departed and Training Day. For Guardians of the Galaxy, The Fifth Element pairs well for fantasy sci-fi, while Ghostbusters and Edge of Tomorrow share its whimsy and goofiness.
For Love Lies Bleeding, I like A History of Violence and Oldboy given they share their bloody revenge and sexual transgressive themes. If your audience likes dreamlike logic and surrealism, try David Lynch’s filmography, especially Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway with their crime and noir underpinnings. For Rebel Ridge’s political and moral themes, I suggest movies like Zero Dark Thirty and A Most Wanted Man. For the film’s hard hitting martial arts, The Raid, Havoc, and Jack Reacher work well.
With The Accountant 2, big budget popcorn blockbusters like The Rock might be too obvious. But there are a lot of 1990s action movies that younger viewers might not know. If someone prefers unraveling mysteries with less action, David Fincher’s cerebral work like Gone Girl and Zodiac.
Regardless of selection strategy, you’re not eliminating personal taste and biases in your suggestions. The best recommendations balance familiar elements with fresh discoveries, giving your audience room to explore new directions. Ultimately, great film recommendations come from understanding what someone finds appealing below the surface, even if they haven’t fully processed why. One great suggestion can spark a deeper appreciation for cinema itself.