Ghibli movies are a different class of movies, but the exact thing that you describe "absorbs us and takes away the awareness that we are watching a film" is what happends to me. The story is so intriguing that I even "forget" that I'm watching a painted movie.

Kurosawa did this better than anyone. He could make you sit through 2.5 hours of grinding drama and make it feel like barely 5 minutes have passed. Ran (1985) was like that.

For the academy awards, to its defense, it was competing against Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, or the Madness of King George. I can barely name one good movie a year these days, and certainly none that makes it to the oscars. The contrast with the 90s is brutal.

The Finnish importer tried this. They decided to call the movie “Rita Hayworth – avain pakoon”. It means “Key to the escape”…

These people would have presumably called Planet of the Apes “Distant future in Eastern United States”…

Reminds me of the Luc Besson film "Leon", which also went by the names "The Professional" and also "Leon: The Professional". A great film but there was definitely something going on in regards to getting crowds interested purely by messing with the title of the film.

the italian dubbing was named "le ali della libertà" (the wings of freedom), which is one of the rare cases where I agree with using a different name than the original, since nobody would have clue what "Shawshank" means.

In Greece it was released as "Τελευταία έξοδος: Ρίτα Χέιγουορθ" literally "Last Exit: Rita Hayworth". People were saying, jokingly, that the title was a spoiler.

In Brazil it was released as A Dream of Freedom. Gotta say it took me years to learn the original title.

In hungarian it's translated into "prisoners of hope" (A remény rabjai) which I think is pretty good even though I despise dubbing

In the US, my experience correlates with the rise of TNT and cable television - Ted Turner bought the rights to show certain films on his new cable channels and “Shawshank” got heavy rotation. It was akin to “background noise” sometimes. Others can probably recall the frequency.

Based on a Stephen King short story, I’m a fan. Never did catch “The Majestic” and no interest. Ebert was a national treasure, great share.

I lived in Germany, and movies are dubbed there, so the TV stayed mostly off. I did turn on the TV once. There was a movie that looked half interesting, so I focused on it. The scene was two guys at the airport to pick up a girl who they had a crush on in highschool. They're waiting for her at the arrivals. "There she is!", cut to... not the girl walking in looking all glorius, but a beer ad. I turned it off and looked for the movie on Torrent.

Andy has to be innocent for his escape (and bringing down of the warden) to be a redemption. It's a redemption of his life against the injustice he was subjected to, not a redemption of his soul for some evil that he committed.

If he was a double murderer, plotting to and successfully escaping isn't a redemption, it's just a murderer getting away with it.

Andy is by no means innocent, he’s just not guilty of any crime he should have been imprisoned in Shawshank for.

The guy who sits drunk in his car eyeing a revolver is not a Mary Sue. And his demeanor of resignation at Shawshank suggests he doesn’t consider himself just an unlucky victim of blind fate & a golf pro.

It was my first movie about prison life in the US and the failures of the American justice and correctional system. I since learned it was realistic in every aspect apart from the escape, and that not much has changed since.

Everything about it is depressing and somehow it’s the best movie ever.

Yes, it was a bit too uncomplicated to me and smacks of "Oscar Bait."

There's no space left for actual hits. Movies aren't even given proper theatrical releases. One week at the theater then straight to streaming, or even simultaneous theater and streaming releases.

K-pop demon hunters.

"Stand by Me" was based on "The Body" from that same book. Great collection.

You'll never know because there aren't that many good films to review.

It’s not the cost of movies going down as budgets keep going up. It is the cost of consumer video equipment that has lowered the bar to entry for production. Video equipment never looked as good a film until digital sensors and high speed storage. Not having a delay of getting film exposed and being able to see playback immediately after stopping the camera also lowers expenses.

The title of the Stephen King story that the movie is based on is "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption."

There’s a scene in the movie directly acknowledging this when they are sorting the books for the expanded library. Heywood calls it the Count of Monte Crisco by Alexandree Dumbass and Andy says it’s about a prison break. Heywood then suggests it should go in the educational section.

Parasite was excellent, and even has some of the same themes if you squint hard enough.

I rave about "The Secret Agent" (2025) to everyone. It's a slice of life movie about people living under a dictatorship. It's got a lot of heart.

“Sincere” and “authentic” are very much taste factors calibrated by whatever was the media environment when you were growing up.

Most people think the best year in pop music history was the one when they were 12. There’s a similar effect about the good old movies.

Banshees of Insherin is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. The understatedness is critical to the humor and story; it’s a juxtaposition of boring people in a boring town and the batshit plots that develop.

Other recent greats are maybe Poor Things, Challengers, and Conclave.

You wouldn’t mistake any for Shawshank, but that’s ok, it’s 30 years later. Shawshank is also qualitatively different from great movies in the mid 1960’s, like Dr. Strangelove or The Graduate.

A good, meditative film with a long arc of time and a bit of prison is Ash is the Purest White (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7298400/)

Watch japanese films. Or just generally don't watch american films

Kore-eda Hirokazu: Still Walking (2008), Monster (2023), Shoplifters (2018)

Hamaguchi Ryusuke: Drive My Car (2021), Evil Does Not Exist (2023)

A Story of Yonosuke (2013) from Okita Shuichi

Memories of Matsuko (2006) from Nakashima Tetsuya

Departures (2008) from Takita Yojiro

Perfect Days (2023) from Wim Wenders. Even though he is not japanese it's a very japanese film

but there are lot more

Jagten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_(2012_film)

Who is the new Stephen King? I suppose answering my question will automatically also give an answer to yours.

I wouldn’t exclude TV shows: Halt and Catch Fire, Dark Matter, Ted Lasso.

About Dry Grasses by Nuri Ceylan. Probably the best film I’ve seen in the past 10 years, which isn’t saying that much because the past 10 years have been among the worst in the history of film, but it’s still a very good movie.