There’s time in every young adults’ life where you find yourself stuck on a couch. Maybe a little hungry? Eyelids feeling heavy? Paranoid? Going through an existential crisis? The only thing certain is that your couch is comfy and you really wish you remembered that one movie your shifty eyed acquaintance told you to watch in this situation. Fear not, I’m also a shifty eyed friend and here’s a couple movies just for this situation.
If you’ve never seen Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” this is definitely the time. It runs a bit on the long side at two hours, but with most of Tarantino’s work, it doesn’t feel that way at all. Time flies as you find you’re engrossed by a story that weaves seemingly unrelated people and events into a two-hour crime epic.

Things happen out of chronological order, so it’s extremely stimulating when you get that “aha” moment of clarity as you see where one event might have led to an earlier one as the stories coalesce into a graspable timeline.

All of this goes without mentioning the credits read like a list of every prominent 90’s actor with names like John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Bruce Willis.

Even if you’ve seen it already, it’s easy to find yourself excited by every scene; counting down to your next favorite line, or appearance of a character.

Another film that’s at the top of your shifty eyed friend’s list is Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. Contrary to Pulp Fiction, Fear and Loathing isn’t concerned with what you think of the story being told.

It’s made clear early on that what the movie lacks in cohesive story, it makes up for in sheer atmosphere. You won’t understand much of what the main character is talking about in his inner-monologues. You’ll be lucky if you can even follow his motivations and what he’s talking about to the other characters.

The two main characters are masterfully played by a young Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro respectively.

The paper-thin plot only serves as a vehicle to deliver a flawless, all encompassing atmosphere that few movies have matched since it’s release almost two decades ago.

Both films will be around four hours of run time, plenty of time for the aforementioned symptoms to pass.