Sometimes, a movie ends and feels instantly rewatchable. It can be played on loop and still be enjoyable every time. Some films, however good they are, are only good the first time. Whether they're too sad, too disturbing, or too anxiety-inducing, not every good film bears rewatching.
From Oscar winners to forgotten classics, some films warrant only one watch. Even if they are top-tier films, some are better admired once and simply remembered for their production quality, performances, and writing. It's hard to get lightning to strike twice within the same soul.
10 The Father Is Too Heart-Wrenching To Watch Twice
The Father won Anthony Hopkins his second Academy Award for Best Actor. Here, Hopkins portrays a man in various stages of dementia as he interacts with his daughter (Olivia Colman) and other family members.
Due to Hopkins’ emotional performance and the film's incredibly poignant ending, The Father, which was directed by Florian Zeller, often leaves viewers reeling. It makes viewers consider their own health and the health of their family members, and what they might do if they were in the position of either Colman or Hopkins’ characters.
9 Requiem For A Dream Is The Best Anti-Drug PSA Ever
One of Darren Aronofsky’s most critically acclaimed films, Requiem for a Dream follows four individuals’ paths in drug addiction. The story, which is adapted from Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel, doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of addiction, making for disturbing subject matter. Along with the strong performances from Ellen Burstyn, who received an Academy Award nomination, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, and Jared Leto, this film is nearly unwatchable the second time round.
It’s hardly a film that can be called enjoyable, but there’s no doubt that it’s good. This is evidenced by the wording of many reviews, like one from The Guardian, stating: “a formally pleasing piece of work– if pleasing can possibly be the right word.”
8 Spotlight Is A Tough True Story
Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and it was well-deserved, but its subject matter makes it a difficult watch the first time around, let alone on a rewatch. Directed by Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is loosely based on the real-life Spotlight team from The Boston Globe, and the events that won The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
The ensemble cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Liev Schreiber. The plot follows The Globe’s Spotlight team as they uncover child sexual abuse in Boston churches on a scale that was covered up for decades. It’s an incredibly well-made and well-acted film but is simply difficult to watch more than once because of the real-life pain it's portraying.
7 Villeneuve's Incendies Has An Wild Plot Twist
Denis Villeneuve is best known for his sci-fi work on Dune and Arrival, but he has a significant filmography of poignant French-Canadian films as well. Incendies follows a pair of twins who travel to their mother’s home country in the Middle East to uncover her past after she passes away unexpectedly.
The story recounts how their mother survived a brutal civil war, imprisonment, and an incredibly jarring plot twist. Villeneuve is an incredibly talented director and everything about the film is done well. However, it's a very dark and painful movie and it's hard for viewers to sit through it more than once.
6 Melancholia Keeps Viewers On Edge The Whole Time
Melancholia is an anxiety-inducing apocalyptic drama written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsburg as two sisters, Justine and Claire, as they respond to the news that another planet is going to collide with Earth.
Filled with strikingly beautiful visuals, Melancholia is a stunning film. Von Trier manages to fill the entire runtime leading up to the disaster with a feeling of impending doom that bleeds through to the screen. Combining Dunst’s anxiety, Gainsburg’s melancholy, and other characters’ seeming apathy, this film elicits a whirlwind of emotions that viewers might not want to experience a second time.
5 Mommy Has A Harrowing Ending
Xavier Dolan’s fourth film, Mommy, follows a mother and her sometimes violent teenage son in a fictional Canada where parents can institutionalize their children without cause. The film is convincingly emotional; Anne Dorval as Diane, the mother, and Antoine Olivier Pilon as Steve, the “troubled” son.
The film's intense performances and its harrowing ending make this film tough to watch more than once. Every film Dolan writes and directs is intense and emotional, but Mommy may be his most emotionally resonant and harrowing work.
4 Nocturnal Animals Has A Distressing Plot
Jake Gyllenhaal gives an Oscar-worthy performance as two separate characters in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals. When Susan (Amy Adams), a wealthy art gallery owner, receives an unpublished manuscript dedicated to her from her ex-husband Edward (Gyllenhaal), she immediately notices similarities between the story and their old relationship.
The manuscript tells an incredibly disturbing story that viewers might have a difficult time watching play out. Even so, Adams' performance as Susan is unforgettable, and the film is notably well-made, featuring other impressive performances from Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon.
3 The Realities Underlying Dallas Buyers Club Make It Tough To Rewatch
Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club is a biographical drama that tells the true story of Ron Woodruff, as played by Matthew McConaughey. Woodruff was an AIDS patient who smuggled unapproved drugs into Texas to treat his symptoms and the symptoms of others with HIV and AIDS, establishing the “Dallas Buyers Club."
Dallas Buyers Club received critical acclaim upon its release, with McConaughey winning the Oscar for Best Actor and Jared Leto winning Best Supporting Actor for his role as a trans woman named Rayon. The film contains harrowing performances and touches on the reality of the AIDS epidemic, making it a tough film to rewatch despite there being no argument that it is an engaging, well-crafted film.
2 Mandy Has Mind-Bending And Disturbing Imagery
Directed by Panos Cosmatos, Mandy is described as a “psychedelic action horror arthouse film,” which sums it up nicely Filled with gore and intense psychedelic imagery, this Nicolas Cage film takes viewers on a ride but it's difficult to imagine watching a second time.
The plot follows Red (Cage) and his girlfriend Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) who live a calm, quiet life near the Shadow Mountains. When Mandy is kidnapped by an egomaniacal cult leader, Red does whatever it takes to get her back and exact revenge on those responsible. The film gets increasingly surreal, as Red faces monstrous bikers that could easily be conjured from his own id, and this decent man is twisted beyond recognition.
1 First Reformed Creates Anxiety From All Angles
Paul Schrader is a master at writing stories that create a sense of anxiety and impending doom. Even with that noted, First Reformed may be one of the most anxiety-inducing films in his entire filmography. The film stars Ethan Hawke as a Protestant minister who encounters a crisis of faith following a series of traumatic events involving a radical environmentalist.
This is a quiet film but there isn’t a moment where viewers can feel calm. Instead, they're always left anxiously wondering what will happen next. From the protagonist's crisis of faith to the climate anxiety the film induces, it takes a special kind of person to want to re-watch this film, despite Schrader's impressive writing and a movie replete with beautiful images.