THX 1138
I see what Lucas was doing here and I see why this is more of a cult favorite than a revered classic. I love a lot of all-seeing eye and mundane day by day drudgery and the masturbation machine but I think the small budget kind of hampered Lucas's vision. The ending is completely unfulfilling. The whole film felt like a rushed, low budget Brazil without the charm. To be honest, I was kind of bored.
Brazil
I've had this movie in the queue for quite a while but tonight I finally got around to watching it. To put it lightly, it's amazing. It may be close to two and a half hours long but I never noticed. The Wikipedia page sums it up nicely but it can't come close to touching on how well done this movie is. One of the ways I knew this was how I couldn't tell what year the movie was made by those tell-tale signs of age nearly every film carries. Everything in it is familiar but it has a very distinct style to it, like the computers that function more like typewriters with screens and how flex duct is absolutely everywhere. It takes place in "the future" but nothing insanely sci-fi marrs it, no lasers, no holograms, no space ships. It's probably as close as I've seen to a movie that could define "timeless". The ending is genuine and traumatic. I was fortunate (or smart) enough to not have it spoiled for me (despite the movie being highly praised and older than my sister) so I'll simply say that when it got to that point, I almost felt ill.
Go rent Brazil. Or download it. Or god forbid buy it.