Movies with Good Conversations

[Frybird]

Tarantino DUH

thats his trademark thing...

Although i'd be careful with that.

With Death Proof, he had gone too far into "pointless conversations about nothing important that helps the story" wich made the film incredibly tedious, and many dialogues in Kill Bill Vol. 2 felt incredibly dense, especially the Superman Monologue.


That said, although sometimes pretentious and or dumb (in latter case at least sometimes intentionally), i still liked the dialogue scenes of Donnie Darko

 

[Vault101]

Although i'd be careful with that.

With Death Proof, he had gone too far into "pointless conversations about nothing important that helps the story" wich made the film incredibly tedious, and many dialogues in Kill Bill Vol. 2 felt incredibly dense, especially the Superman Monologue.

obviously he's going to have some hits and misses, thats what you get

but that opening scene and dialouge in Inglorious basterds is certainly very memorable to me XD

also I can't wait for Jango Unchained..I wonder if it will be a hit or miss for me

 

[hazabaza1]

I'm not much for movies but The Walking Dead game has some pretty great dialogue.

 

[Rawne1980]

Stand By Me.

Absolutely fantastic film.

 

[verdant monkai]

A little unrelated but the 2003 Hulk film was ruined by conversations. It was like 70% blah blah blah, 10% flash back and 20% Hulk.

So remember not to have too much conversation in your film, I know it really depends on your film but constant dialogue can get boring. I am not a huge Michael Bay fan or anything in fact I generally only enjoy things if it has a good plot, but dont get carried away with the word speakings.

Please post your film when you are done with it

 

[zumbledum]

another vote for pulp fiction, just follow vincent and jules arc to make it short

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdkksDaSXPU

 

[capper42]

A film called Carnage that came out last year is outstanding for this. The whole film revolves around the conversations of two couples discussing their children after one of them hit the other with a stick. It sounds boring, but it's outstanding and the very funny.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692486/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Another similar film is Abigail's Party. This is older (released 1977) and British (I don't want to make the annoying assumption that American's "won't get it", I just thought I'd mention as it may affect your perception of it) but also very funny, and similar to Carnage.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075622/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

These are two fairly similar films that revolve entirely around the dialogue of the characters. Both are worth checking out, but Carnage is probably the more enjoyable for a modern audience. Funnily enough, both were originally written as plays.

For something with a bit more action but also with great dialogue, I'm going to mimic others and say basically anything written or directed by Tarantino. Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs are particularly dialogue heavy.

Edit: Forgot to say the Coen brothers are also especially good at writing dialogue. The Big Lebowski is my favourite (seriously, watch it) but Fargo also deserves a mention for this.

Edit 2: This will be the last one, I promise haha. I also want to add In Bruges, which is another heavily dialogue driven film. Don't watch the trailers, it was marketed completely wrong. It's a good, quite dark film with touches of black humour, as a hitman tries to come to terms with the accidental murder of a child, whilst in Bruges with his partner.

 

[Pinkamena]

Pretty much anything by Tarantino. Especially the opening scene of Inglorious Basterds is tense as fuck, despite being nothing more than a conversation. Rereservoir dogs is also a really good movie, entirely driven by conversation.

 

[Woodsey]

You've gotta beware of losing your audience's attention if you want to go down that path however.

Aaron Sorkin would disagree with you on that..... Look at Charlie Wilson's War or his biggest hit the show West Wing.... If you do it right a conversation can be more engrossing than the biggest most awesome splosion scene in any action film.

And on that note: The Social Network. People say that good dialogue is more like two or more monologues being delivered in between one another, as opposed to two people actually talking and listening. That film has it down to a fucking tee.

 

[DustyDrB]

No one talks like a real person in the movie, but I enjoy the dialogue on Thank You For Smoking a great deal. It's one of those weird times when I like the movie better than the book.

 

[Legion]

Also 12 Angry Men

Bah. Beaten to it.

The entire film more or less is 12 men conversing, so it's a pretty good study seeing as they managed to make an interesting film out of it.

 

[hermes]

12 Angry Men is a pretty good example. There are a lot of other movies that could be considered "remakes" (besides actual remakes) of that movie that work quite well considering they only have one location and nothing but dialogue.

The last one I saw in those lines was Sunset Limited (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1510938/). Highly recommendable... only 2 characters and it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

 

[Dethenger]

Tarantino DUH

thats his trademark thing...

Second for Tarantino, he's just good at it. He has the best casual conversations, he has the best intense conversations. Most of the films are conversation driven anyway, even though his movies can get pretty violent, the focus of the majority of the scenes is the dialogue.

 

[II2]

I drink ur milkshake?

I dunno, it's not hard to find movies that have examples of dialouge that doesn't serve as exposition or to advance the plot, but to find ones that make that conversations worth hearing... *shrug*

I don't know if these even qualify but:

- Brazil
- Lost Highway / Mulholland Drive / Inland Empire / Eraserhead
- Ghost in the Shell 1 (feature film)


Blah. I'm out.

 

[sinsfire]

Both Before Sunrise and Sunset have some of the best dialogue you´ll ever hear, so definitely check these too out. And pretty much everything else by Richard Linklater.

I remember watching Before Sunrise a long time ago. Never saw the sequal and I am curious if the original holds up. They are on my to do list for movies but I was wondering your take on if they still hold up or if they were only good during the time they were released?

OT: How has no one said The Breakfast Club? Am I the only child of the 80's here?

 

[HardkorSB]

I'm going to point to some movies that have good dialogue but aren't known for it:

The Matrix series - while Neo is flat and emotionless, other characters have some great lines there (I especially like Smith and Morpheus)
The Saw series - while the movies are known for the gore, the 1st movie has little of that and is very dialogue based, the 2nd one has good exchange between Jigsaw and the main cop, 3rd one has good scenes with the dying Jigsaw and the 2 main females (I'm not good with the names, there's just too many characters there , every part has at least 1 good talking scene
Ted - the movie is at it's best when it's just 2 characters talking about whatever

 

[Dangit2019]

The long and short of this thread (Of many I plan to type up for this week), is that I am writing a movie, and I need great conversations, to study.

Try almost anything by Richard Linklater. Epecially Waking Life and Slacker. Those movies are essentially big series of thoughtful conversations that stick with you. Seriously, check him out.

 

[Trivun]

Not really a film, but a TV show - The Royale Family. This British sitcom was renowned not just for the quality of the acting and the comedy, but also for the fact that the dialogue was always grounded in real conversations - the things the family say are the sort of things that any normal family would say in real life conversation (and indeed I happen to know a family just like them, and this family are some of our closest friends...). Although The Royale Family is a sitcom, it also has some very deep and grounded dramatic and emotional moments too, so watching any given episode (particularly the Christmas special from a couple of years ago where Nana dies) will give you plenty of material to work from in terms of knowing what a real conversation is like for film and TV.

Another thing to do, and this is what the Royale Family writer did (as well as what the comedian Peter Kay used to do), is to record real conversations and play them back. If you do that while writing, OP, you'll get plenty of material for inspiration if needs be, as well as plenty of experience in understanding what makes good realistic dialogue. Take it from me, I know what I'm talking about - as a writer myself, I'm not much good at description, but dialogue has always been my strong suit ;D.

 

[Bestival]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100519/ *** Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
This one is genius, I rented it on a whim once because Gary Oldman is in it and holy shit did it impress.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/ *** The Man from Earth
This one is a bit heavier, but entirely conversation based and pretty thought provoking.

And like others said, you can't go wrong with Tarantino... Or Kevin Smith, his old stuff has some great dialogue in it. Chasing Amy or Dogma, both are good.

 

[shogunblade]

It depends on what kind of genre is is. Dialogue based anything is difficult to do, much less do right. Especially writing it as you don't have actors to convey emotion.

Titanic has some incredible dialogue. The part where they are talking about the damage to the ship and how it will sink is some of the best conversation in both writing and timing I've ever seen.

What genre are you working in? I might be able to recommend some better examples with a narrower perspective.

(I'm a writer too so I study these things a lot as well)

It is a drama with some comedy elements. It's mostly a character study sort of movie. The characters who will do the talking (only two characters, man and woman), are complete opposites; She's actually the weird one (Going by the author's writing style), and the guy is more free spirited (Or perhaps more honest to say, he just seems a bit more social, but he really seems to fancy her, and judging by the fact he doesn't talk to anybody else in the story, it's possible it might only be her).

But that said, I'm just looking for good conversations, not necessarily in any genre, just movies with good conversations.