35 Best Movies People Find Boring
A debate comes up from time to time about acceptable movie-watching etiquette: Is it okay to fast-forward through the boring parts? Younger moviegoers even admit to watching slower movies at double speed, although it’s certainly not just the youngest moviegoers: if we’re going to talk about attention spans, we should talk about the fact that we don’t have one anymore.
I’m not saying I blame these people. Modern technology takes advantage of our brain’s addictive tendencies, training us to use our phones as if we were greedily hunting for serotonin. Meanwhile, blockbusters have become longer , but also faster and louder – there is a big difference between the three hours of Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Commerce, Brussels 1080 and the three hours of Avengers: Endgame . When we’re asked to listen too long to a little dialogue or look at a perspective that doesn’t seem to directly advance the plot, we take out our phones. (I’m also guilty of this when watching at home, which is one of the reasons I love watching movies in the theater, where I have to really pay attention.)
But there’s art in a boring movie, and some of it wouldn’t be half as exciting if it really tried to excite us with every frame. Here are some great movies that will keep you bored if you’re silent or stuck in a long conversation. They will move you deeply, challenge your preconceptions, or perhaps put you to sleep. In fact, either option will be a win. To paraphrase the great philosophers Mae West and Xtina: I like films that take time.
Nosferatu (2024)
Duration: 132 minutes
Robert Eggers is no stranger to sluggish pacing, and Nosferatu is reminiscent in tone of his modern folk horror classic The Witch (or, if you prefer, VVicha). Like that 2015 film, this vampire remake is full of creepy action interspersed with moments of shock that are usually few and far between. Reviews for Nosferatu were good, but audiences were divided: some found its pacing seductive, others soporific. Personally, I’m in the first camp, and it’s hard to deny that the film’s most disturbing elements stuck with you. You can rent Nosferatu from Prime Video .
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Duration: 126 minutes
Jane Campion is another master of deliberate pacing, including her latest film, a film that slowly worked its way toward an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and won her the Best Director prize. The larger-than-life Western star Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, the stoic and casually brutal leader of a band of cowboys in 1925 Montana. His behavior conceals deeper secrets that gradually come to the surface when his quiet younger brother falls in love with a local widow and threatens Phil’s power and balance. However, this is not a film with big explosive moments, but one in which the characters are revealed gradually and with extreme reluctance against a beautifully photographed Western backdrop. You can watch The Power of the Dog onNetflix .
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Duration: 93 minutes
A beautiful and poignant novel by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Ali chronicles the May-December cross-cultural romance between 60-year-old widow Emmy (Brigitte Mira) and Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a much younger (and, it must be said: very hot) Moroccan guest worker who turns heads when she walks into a bar under rain. The unlikely combination prompts laughter and open condemnation from Emmy’s family and neighbors, who think she has gone crazy – a social rift that gradually takes its toll on the relationship. Of course, there are dramatic moments, but they are mostly quietly contained: whispers speak louder than screams. You can stream Ali: Fear Eats the Soul on Max and The Criterion Channel, or rent it on Prime Video .
Skinamarink (2022)
Duration: 100 minutes
Writer-director Kyle Edward Ball’s film began life as a YouTube channel dedicated to recreating user-submitted childhood nightmares. This feature-length version of that idea features a story about a four-year-old boy named Kevin who hurts himself while home alone with his six-year-old sister Kaylee. What follows doesn’t make much narrative sense, and it’s certainly easy to see why the micro-budget film would polarize audiences. The film manages, and brilliantly, to recreate the feeling of a child’s twilight world, in which even a familiar house can seem strange, unsettling and frightening under certain circumstances. Ball takes his time creating this mood—and that’s pretty much the entire mood. I’m not sure what he’s trying to do has ever been done better. You can stream Skinamarink on Hulu and Shudder, or rent it from Prime Video .
Inland Empire (2006)
Duration: 180 minutes
I’ve seen almost everything David Lynch has ever made and I still have no idea how to talk about Inland Empire . Aside from Twin Peaks: The Return (the 18 hours Lynch wants you to review), this is the director’s most recent feature, although it was released back in 2006 (the first film to be released in theaters). Entirely shot on digital video, recently updated). The story of a woman who gives her all to land a role in a Hollywood film involves sex workers and anthropomorphic bunnies, only to find herself falling into a nearly three-hour fever dream. It’s either a moving and surreal dive into some kind of cinematic collective unconscious, or an incomprehensible collection of inconsistencies. No one feels the emotions of anxiety and fear like Lynch, even if we, the audience, aren’t even sure what it is that bothers us so much. You can stream Inland Empire on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video .
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
Duration: 81 minutes
Clocking in at just 81 minutes, David Gelb’s documentary is hard to get bored of, but the stakes here are more personal than world-changing. Set to music by Philip Glass, the film follows Jiro Ono, a then 85-year-old sushi master who is considered one of the greatest living sushi chefs. He makes sushi that looks (and presumably tastes) incredible, making the same sushi day after day with his sons while continuing to improve his skills until he is 80 years old and beyond. That’s it. Just a gentle exploration of the idea that the key to happiness can be being good at something, but never being completely happy with your talents. You can stream Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Tubi and Prime Video .
Lost in Translation (2003)
Duration: 102 minutes
Bob (Bill Murray) goes on a business trip to Tokyo in the midst of a major midlife crisis. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a young Yale graduate who embarks on a city trip with her famous photographer husband. The two outsiders spend time together, experiencing the city with a kind of not-quite-romantic melancholy. Plot-wise, that’s pretty much it, but it’s still very moving. You can rent Lost in Translation from Prime Video .
Vitalina Varela (2019)
Duration: 124 minutes
Vitalina Varela plays the title character here (who shares the actress’s name and part of her biography) in the quiet and affecting story of a Cape Verdean woman who travels to Portugal to meet her ex-husband after decades of absence, only to discover that he has recently died. There is not much to the plot: the story of a migrant worker who almost melts in his desire for a better life, and a wife who, after a very long time, finds out about her own husband. You can rent Vitalina Varela from Prime Video .
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Duration: 132 minutes (theatrical version)
There’s a scene in the first Star Trek movie that’s controversial not because of its political or philosophical content but because of its length: a nearly five-minute shuttle flyby of the newly redesigned USS Enterprise, accompanied by a rousing clip of Jerry Goldsmith’s voiceover. This is either an almost erotic piece of spaceship porn or one of the most boring scenes ever put on film, depending on your point of view (I really love team-up spaceship porn). The rest of director Robert Wise’s film, which hit theaters before it was even finished, has a similarly stately pace. There’s no fighting, little action and a lot of self-serious preaching. In some ways it feels like it’s trying too hard to be 2001: A Space Odyssey , but it has its own weird power, especially in the circa 2001 director’s cut. You can stream Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Paramount+ or rent it on Prime Video .
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Duration: 81 minutes
Much of the footage you’ll find of the film involves mildly (but realistically) annoying people wandering through the woods of Maryland while disturbing but rarely exciting events infuriate them and turn them against each other. Not much actually happens until the memorable final minutes, but it all effectively builds an unbearable sense of tension. This is definitely a case of the sum adding up to more than the (often boring) parts. You can stream The Blair Witch Project on Starz or rent it on Prime Video .
Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
Duration: 81 minutes
In some ways Taiwan’s answer to Cinema Paradiso , this film takes place almost entirely during the screening of the (real) 1967 wuxia classic Dragon Hotel at an old cinema in Taipei on its last night. It’s all very deceptively simple, alternately following moviegoers of very different beliefs and motivations: a woman looking for food, a Japanese tourist looking for a good time with another man (any man, really), an elderly film actor, etc. Feeling the absurdity, but also a sweetly poignant look at the death of the cinematic experience, director Tsai Ming-liang takes the time to create a film in which the sum of its individual moments adds up to a greater whole. You can rent Farewell Dragon Inn from Prime Video .
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Duration: 127 minutes
When we think of spy dramas, we tend to think of Bond (James Bond), Bourne or Atomic Blonde… but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is something completely different, a quietly paranoid film set in the dirty, dark 1970s. Gary Oldman plays John Le Carre’s George Smiley, who comes out of retirement to help uncover a mole in the top ranks of British intelligence. There’s barely any action or even a raised voice (in stark contrast to Oldman’s recent role as a spy ring boss in Slow Horses ). Instead, Tinker Tailor argues that espionage is all about information: who has it, who controls it, and who knows how to get it. You can rent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy from Prime Video .
Russian Ark (2002)
Duration: 96 minutes
Of the boring Russian films, Russian Ark is particularly challenging, but ultimately truly wonderful and rewarding. It’s also a supreme technical feat, unfolding in one continuous take. Filmed at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the story features an unnamed narrator who wanders the building’s halls, meeting real and fictional people from the city’s 300-year history. The discussions are mostly philosophical, but their scope increases as the film progresses. By the end we had met 2,000 people and several orchestras who moved effortlessly through time and space. You can rent the Russian Ark from the Prime Video company .
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Duration: 159 minutes
Some Stanley Kubrick films couldn’t appear here; the director likes its measured pace. However, Eyes Wide Shut is a particularly interesting case because a film about Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and a strange sex cult doesn’t seem like something that would put people to sleep. And yet people were initially put off by the film’s cold formalism and sense of detachment and fairy-tale quality. Kubrick’s swan song was something of a bait-and-switch, promising a glimpse beneath the surface of one of Hollywood’s hottest couples at the time, and instead offering a slow-burn cautionary tale about the dangers of sexual obsession. You can stream Eyes Wide Shut on the Criterion Channel or rent it on Prime Video .
Ikiru (1952)
Duration: 143 minutes
Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is best known for epics such as Seven Samurai and Rashomon , but even in these relatively action-packed films, ambivalence about a life of violence emerges. His filmography is also filled with quieter, more contemplative works, of which 1952’s Ikiru (roughly meaning “To Live”) ranks among the best. Kanji Watanabe (Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura) plays a veteran bureaucrat who has worked the same monotonous job for decades. At the same time, as he discovers that he is dying of stomach cancer, a group of parents arrive seeking permission to clean out the cesspool and build a playground for local children. Watanabe takes it upon himself to go against everything he has learned about playing by the rules to help his parents navigate the bureaucratic red tape that will likely end their dream. It’s both a universal and uniquely Japanese story of heroic deeds, even if they mostly involve paper shuffling. You can stream Ikiru on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video .
Nuremberg verdict (1961)
Duration: 3 hours 10 minutes
What do you mean you don’t want to watch a three-hour courtroom scene? Director Stanley Kramer follows up Inherit the Wind with this legal drama depicting a fictionalized version of one of the twelve Nuremberg military tribunals that determined the horrifying extent of Nazi war crimes after World War II. Spencer Tracy leads one of the most star-studded casts ever (?), which includes Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner and Montgomery Clift, among others. You can stream Judgment at Nuremberg on Tubi and MGM+ or buy it on Prime Video .
Bo Labor (1999)
Duration: 90 minutes
Galoupe (Denis Lavant) reflects on his experiences in Djibouti while leading a troop of men in the French Foreign Legion in writer-director Claire Denis’s sun-baked, weird classic. All is going well for Gallup until the arrival of Gilles Saintin (Grégoire Colin), who inadvertently jeopardizes Galup’s relationship with his commanding officer and inspires Gallup to an almost irrational jealousy. There’s potential for brutal drama, but the film opts for the languid and elliptical (and very sweaty, too), building tension through stunning scenery and dazzling cinematography. Beau Travel often appears on lists of the best films of all time, and deservedly so. You can stream Beau Travail on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it on Prime Video .
Straight Story (1999)
Duration: 112 minutes
This David Lynch film is so out of character for the director that it hardly feels like his film; Watch this Disney special at the same time as Inland Empire and feel your brain melt. The great Richard Farnsworth, joined by Sissy Spacek, plays the real-life Alvin Strait, who crosses the country to visit his sick brother on a lawnmower, traveling at five miles an hour, which also speaks to how quickly the narrative moves. Lynch’s sensibility somehow brings a sense of novelty to the slow-paced story set in a rural landscape. You can stream The Straight Story on Disney+ or rent it on Prime Video .
Weekend (2011)
Duration: 97 minutes
Andrew Haigh’s romantic drama about gay life stars Tom Cullen and Chris New as a couple of guys who meet at a club and spend the titular weekend together. They talk about their interests and backgrounds, eat, hang out and have explicit (especially for the time) sex – honestly, it’s still rare to find a mainstream film that has even a basic understanding of the mechanics of cis gay men. male gender Anyway! Monday’s move raises the stakes by putting a time limit on their relationship, but otherwise the drama is emotional and the film takes a charming, poignant and generally realistic look at modern relationships. You can stream Weekend on AMC+ and The Criterion Channel, or rent it from Prime Video .
Before Sunrise (1995)
Duration: 101 minutes
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke wander around Vienna, chatting casually and delivering monologues about their views on life, art and love. Directed by Richard Linklater and featuring an impeccable cast, the minimalist film is at once incredibly romantic and downright down-to-earth, its plotless premise feeling as bold and risky as anything in cinema. If you like it, two more equally slow parts will follow. You can rent Before Sunrise from Prime Video .
Paterson (2016)
Duration: 118 minutes
Jim Jarmusch directs Adam Driver as the title character, a bus driver and poet who follows pretty much the same routine every day (which is very interesting, even if it’s much more common in real life than on screen). Paterson drives a bus, walks his wife’s dog, and stops at a bar for a beer during the day, writing poetry in his notebook every day. As a film, it is deliberately undramatic, although it deals with a small event that can cause major upheaval in your life. You can stream Paterson on Prime Video and Freevee .
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Commerce, Brussels 1080 (1975)
Duration: 201 minutes
Even the title of Chantal Akerman’s masterpiece is long: the finished film is over three hours long, but takes place over just three days, with a camera that, by design, barely moves. And yet! The film captures the strictly disciplined schedule of a widowed mother who performs the same routine every day, including a rather bleak sex job involving a single client before her son returns from school. All this is quietly fascinating. As Jeanne’s hard daily life begins to very slowly unravel, the resulting disintegration is as spectacular, hypnotic and as subtly terrifying as anything that came before. You can stream Jeanne Dielmann on Max and The Criterion or rent it on Prime Video .
It Follows (2014)
Duration: 100 minutes
While its pacing may not be as sluggish as the others listed here, the premise of It Follows makes it clear that we’re on a completely different spectrum than other chase-based horror films; Even the slowest of slow zombies can outrun the threats in writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s hit film. The plot involves what can be described as a sexually transmitted curse in which the victim is haunted by an entity that can look like anyone. He doesn’t stalk you or even threaten you overtly, but if necessary, he will follow you to the ends of the Earth, taking his time. This is probably the film most responsible for the “sublime horror” discourse; some argue that the entire subgenre is boring as hell. You can stream It Follows on Max or rent it from Prime Video .
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Duration: 121 minutes
Greek writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos, who received a ton of Oscar nominations for The Favorite a year after that film’s release, is clearly never in a rush, with each of his films employing a pace that can best be described as leisurely. In The Favorite this style enhances the satire; here it helps create a very unsettling atmosphere. Inspired by Greek tragedy (specifically Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis ), the film presents a seemingly perfect family (led by Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman) who come into contact with a mysterious teenager (Barry Keoghan) who gradually infiltrates their life. We know he’s up to something, and eventually they realize it too, but it’s not until the final act that we fully understand his motives and his relentlessly planned revenge. You can stream The Killing of a Sacred Deer on Max or rent it on Prime Video .
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Duration: 96 minutes
There is a lot of incident in Ingmar Bergman’s historical fantasy, but there is also a lot of silence. Many of the director’s films create waves of deep emotion that begin as bubbles just below the surface and peak only sporadically but powerfully. Instead, we have a Black Plague-era story of people in various stages of acceptance, amid the certain knowledge that God, if not dead, is at least completely silent and uninterested in them. Max von Sydow plays the cynical knight Antonius Block, who memorably plays chess with Death, even as on his travels he encounters a parade of peasants whose only hope for happiness lies in defying entropy and embracing life. You can stream The Seventh Seal on Max and The Criterion, or rent it on Prime Video .
Ghost Story (2017)
Duration: 92 minutes
Director David Lowery has a pretty stellar track record, at least with the exception of a couple of fine Disney films, and A Ghost Story is probably among the best meditations on death ever put to film. A man dies unexpectedly, but instead of moving on, he haunts the wife he left behind, wearing the traditional ghost sheet. That’s about it for the plot, but there’s a poignant beauty in this man’s slow passage through the afterlife and his growing awareness that change is painful, but often hurts less than holding on. Never before or since have I cried at a scene in which a grief-stricken woman eats an entire pie. You can rent A Ghost Story from Prime Video .
Drive My Car (2021)
Duration: 179 minutes
The story behind the film, written by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami ( Kafka on the Shore, IQ84 ), is only about 45 pages long, and the adaptation runs three hours. It’s the story of a widowed theater director who forms a bond with a young woman tasked with taking him to Hiroshima for his latest project. There’s little incident and relatively little dialogue, although the cinematography and sound design make these silent moments exciting. Ultimately, this is a story about the transcendent beauty of human connection, even despite all the pain that divides us. It’s also a movie about hanging out with a Lyft driver sometimes. You can stream Drive My Car on Max or rent it on Prime Video .
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Duration: 185 minutes
Kubrick, who never approached the same genre twice, tried period drama to astonishing effect – even though it was probably the least-seen film of his peak era. It’s not hard to see why, given the long running time and lack of the sci-fi/horror trappings of 2001 or The Shining , but this is very much a Kubrick film, with all that entails. The emotion is deep yet distant, and it is a technical triumph, full of exquisite period details. While the pace is undeniably slow, even sluggish at times, the story of a ruthless social climber (Ryan O’Neal) is probably the director’s funniest (in a very dry way) and also his most deeply cynical. While his other films strive to find the good in humanity, this one argues that some people are just crap. You can rent Barry Lyndon from Prime Video .
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Duration: 185 minutes
It has been said that it is almost impossible to make a true anti-war film, given that films have so often captivated and moved us, and how can you make a war film without action? Writer-director Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line is not an anti-war film, but it is much more focused on the philosophy of war and its impact on the lives and minds of the soldiers who fight in it. Instead of battle scenes, we mostly watch the faces of the soldiers watching them. The result may not be the greatest war film, but it is something unique in the history of the genre. You can watch The Thin Red Line on Prime Video .
Valhalla Rising (2009)
Duration: 92 minutes
As with Malick’s unconventional approach to war films, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is doing something completely unexpected with many Viking-related films and TV shows over the past decade. Mute One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) is a fighter, but only because he was created to be one. Captured by a Norse chieftain in the Scottish Highlands, he is befriended by a slightly more talkative boy during his escape as they make their way to the coast, surrounded by terrifying visions (mostly) and real threats (occasionally). The film pays much more attention to mood than violence, of which there is very little; The essence of the story lies in the long breaks of walks and mysterious dreams. You can stream Valhalla Rising onNetflix and Shudder, or buy it on Prime Video .
Paris, Texas (1984)
Duration: 147 minutes
Travis Henderson (the late, great Harry Dean Stanton) wanders the desert, confused and seemingly unsure of who he is. The Doctor manages to find his brother Walt (also the late and great Dean Stockwell) and Travis begins the journey back to himself, his family and the choices that have defined his life up to this point. Wim Wenders is a brilliant director of devastation, presenting the modern American West as an alien landscape as strange, mysterious and healing. And you can see much of this landscape in the film’s nearly three-hour running time. You can stream Paris, Texas on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video .
Solaris (1972)
Duration: 166 minutes
Solaris is ostensibly a sci-fi thriller about first contact with an unknowable alien being. It also includes a five-minute continuous scene of a car driving through a tunnel. (Nothing interesting happens in the tunnel.) This 1972 Soviet film, based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem and directed by the supremely dull film star Andrei Tarkovsky, takes you to another world in which there doesn’t seem to be much going on either, like the astronaut. -psychologist Chris Kelvin. is sent to the remote Solaris space station to determine whether it is worth continuing the mission to study the planet below, which at first glance is nothing more than one vast ocean. But something is happening beneath those waves, beneath the endless, lingering shots of churning waves and empty station corridors; both the film and the alien world strive to lull you into a false sense of security. Tarkovsky’s goal was to move away from what he saw as the cold materialism of Western science fiction to something more emotionally resonant, and damn if he didn’t succeed (although he was a bit dull in doing so). You can stream Solaris on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video .
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Duration: 139 minutes
Another one from Mr. Kubrick, clearly a master of very deliberate pacing. The year 2001 is breathtaking in its scope (from the birth of humanity, to a future enhanced and threatened by artificial intelligence, to our final (?) evolution – it’s easy to forget how many graceful and elegant sides there are along the way. The shuttle docks at the space station to “The Blue Danube Waltz,” and this is just the first of many sequences with minimal dialogue and maximum classical music. Even the film’s kaleidoscopic and coherent ending escapes. traditional thrills. In favor of something more cerebral for some, there’s a reason the film’s ideas and message have been debated for decades. You can stream 2001 on Max or rent it on Prime Video .
Stalker (1979)
Duration: 161 minutes
When the USSR State Committee for Cinematography criticized the pacing of Stalker upon its initial release, Andrei Tarkovsky allegedly retorted: “The film should be slower and more boring at the beginning, so that viewers who enter the wrong theater will have time to leave before the main action begins.” . Although the “main action” here is also quite restrained, to be completely honest. In the hazy near future, some event has created an area known only as “The Zone”, a region in which the normal rules of physics do not apply, and which is full of wonder and horror in equal measure, even if the aesthetic is mostly dusty post-apocalyptic. It’s closed, but there is a market for stalkers – people who know enough about what’s going on to help others find what they’re looking for. In this case, the characters known only as “The Writer” and “The Professor” task our Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) with helping them find a room that can fulfill your deepest desire. It’s easy to get lost in Tarkovsky’s world if we’re willing to give ourselves over to it, and the philosophical ideas, including the question of whether the fulfillment of one’s heart’s desire would be anything other than catastrophic, are truly compelling. You can stream Stalker on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it on Prime Video .
La Notte (1961)
Duration: 122 minutes
Like all of Michelangelo Antonioni’s significant films, Night eschews plot in favor of telling its story through atmosphere. In the modern sense? It’s all vibrations. Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau play a married couple—an embittered novelist and his increasingly distant wife—who deal with social affairs on a daily basis despite the growing realization that the marriage isn’t working. Antonioni can find beauty in the most prosaic settings, and his boredom is more interesting than the action of many other films. You can stream La Notte on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it on Prime Video .