Is there a single movie that is completely realistic?

Define realistic. Lots of/most movies don't have light sabers, killer sharks, dinosaurs, creative deaths, or aliens.

 

Even movies based on true events have scenes that are altered for dramatic purposes. It would be boring if they didn't do that.

 

There are 1000s of movies that pertain to be realistic, but they do use creative license so as to keep things interesting. None of them can emulate reality exactly and you wouldn't want them to either; cinema is an escapist medium. However, some succeed more than others in being relatable and not pure fantasy.

 

Marly & Me?

 

I'd say Saving Private Ryan comes pretty close. Suspension of disbelief is fairly low in that movie, as it's all based on real events, and what actually happened during WWII was so extreme that there's little need for Hollywood flair.

100% realism though? Never going to happen unless you do your whole movie with a legitimate hidden camera. Even in a movie which makes adherence to reality its main selling point will have stylized dialogue for the sake of understanding. Real conversation is hardly ever as clear and focused as movie lines.

 

With the exception of the monolith and the last 20 minutes, 2001: A Space Odyssey is pretty realistic, especially for sci-fi. It moves slowly, like real life. Most of the conversations are completely irrelevant and don't say anything important. It doesn't try to make cheesy jokes every 10 seconds. No loud laser wars in space. Actually, no sound in space, just like reality. Most of it seems very possible, with no "That could never happen" or "he should have been dead!" scenes, except the end, which was probably the weirdest and most confusing sci-fi I've ever seen.

 

I think a lot of foreign film seems to be that way, as well as independent film. There's one that I remember, an Italian film called Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips), sorry if i spelled that wrong. It was so relatable and all the things that happened were very possible and realistic.

 

There are tons of movies that fit this description (though the over-dramatic part is dubious, as dramatic things happen to people in real life all the time). Most cinema has borrowed from the literary realism of late 19th and early 20th century, which is pretty much the standard in the Western world.

Though you must not forget that with realism "the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is." What we call "realistic" is still just a system of conventions used to imitate reality, but artistic movies are just fictions, they are not real life, no matter their pretense. And other methods of presenting reality are in no way inferior (as long as they aim to go beyond mere escapism, of course, but that's the fault of the author himself, not of the style of representation), and they can be just as effective (if not more so).

 

Trainspotting was pretty realistic, though it's a bit hard to grasp the realism unless you've actually been addicted to heroin or another opioid or know someone who has.

 

we go to movies to escape reality

 

Not sure exactly what you mean by 'completely realistic' but there are thousands of films which portray events that could feasibly happen in real life. I have no idea why that would make those stories boring though, interesting things are happening around us all the time, without lightsabers and dinosaurs.

 

Majority of your most realistic films probably date from the 1970's. Try Five Easy Pieces or Dog Day Afternoon or Harry and Tonto.

 

There's this foreign film I like called "Tomboy" (it's a French movie) and it's completely realistic. Everything in that movie could happen in real life. I think there are a lot of movies out there that can be realistic, but there's the effects of making some scenes more dramatic than they should be, etc. I don't know.

 

Jackie Brown by Quentin Tarantino isn't that farfetched.

Fargo; one of my favourites, is based on a true story, and everything about the movie is realistic, especially the dialogue.

Pregnant cop investigating a murder in a sleepy town, and one of the few movies with police in it that don't glamourize being a cop. They are viewed as just regular old joes, even when investigating the murder scene, no fancy terminology. Just "Oh geez" and "Golly", and some puking; from pregnancy.

I actually tend to gravitate towards boring and realistic movies.

Those three movies are basically in my top favourites, and are really interesting.

Bernie is another relatively realistic movie, again based on a true story. Really weird to see Jack Black play a character like that.

Casino is another one that isn't that far off, and was based on mafia activity in Las Vegas during the 1970's. A lot of raw emotion, and no fake love stories. Really good movie.

There are tons out there.

 

Yeah this, although I wouldn't say boring :icon_bigg Some of my favourite films virtually nothing happens in the way of action, it's all about people how people interact with each other.

Like Reservoir Dogs for example, pretty much the whole thing is set in just this one room. There's still so much drama though because the dialogue is so good and the whole thing hinges on what people say and how they react to each other, rather than a car chase and explosions or something, which I actually find way more boring.

12 Angry Men is similar, also almost entirely set in just one room but it's gripping to see people reacting to one another and the way the situation constantly changes as a result, it's so good.

And American Beauty is pretty much perfect for me, the way there's so many mini stories going on that are all connected and most of it just happens in this one street and it's all just based on dialogue and brilliant acting, no special effects, it's perfect.

So yeah, I disagree fundamentally that a movie needs light sabres, killer sharks and aliens to be interesting, in fact the fewer the better :icon_bigg

Also Jackie Brown, Fargo and Casino are all brilliant. Might have to check out Bernie on the strength of those, it had best be as good or I'm blaming you :lol:

 

How about movies like An American Crime which are based on accounts of true crime?

 

I assume from your examples you mean sci fi movies. Someone once said the difference between fantasy and sci fi is that with good sci fi you keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

It's amazing that some of the old sci fi is now either science fact, or their are valid science theories to suggest that things that were once considered impossible are now at least possible someday.

My boyfriend and I are both sci fi fans. I love him dearly, but sometimes he really gets on my nerves when he analyzes a movie about what all is wrong with it scientifically. It's like I'm dating one of the cast of the Big Bang theory at times. When we were watching the movie Gravity, he started to whisper to me something that was wrong in the movie, and I wanted to grab his balls and threaten to squeeze if he didn't shut up. I've never had that problem with any same sex partners. Is this a guy thing?

 

Well, some of the middle-schoolers in the class I help teach think Twilight and Jersey Shore are realistic... (among other shows/movies) (-_-')