It won't be everybody's idea of entertainment but the heady documentary "Examined Life" provides a sound forum for an influential cross-section of professional thinkers to theorize on such weighty topics as life and death, politics, the environment and disabilities.
Examined Life
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Canada · 2008
1h 27m
Director Astra Taylor
Starring Cornel West, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek, Peter Singer
Genre Documentary
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms and puts it back on the streets. The film showcases eight influential modern philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises, discussing the practical application of their ideas in contemporary culture. Examined Life reveals philosophy's power to transform how we see the world around us.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
A modest, intermittently engaging film.
By conducting her conversations in public spaces, and removing her interlocutors from desks and offices and book-lined studies and other appurtenances of intellectual authority, Taylor introduces a degree of playfulness and unpredictability that becomes the movie's M.O.
Ideas beam out from Astra Taylor's engaging new philoso-doc Examined Life; the viewer basks in the intelligence on-screen and, occasionally, soaks up the rays.
Slovenian-born writer-teacher Slavoj Zizek, narrator of the movie "A Pervert's Guide to the Cinema," provides the most entertainment.
Over the course of the film's 88-minutes, Taylor cuts away to what's happening around her subjects (the unexamined life, I suppose). Perhaps she's attempting to make connections the thinkers don't.
Users who liked this film also liked
Predator
Soon the hunt will begin.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Mexico • 1987
- Director John McTiernan
- Cast Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Bill Duke
- Genre Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Thriller
- Available on Hulu, fuboTV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, FXNow
Alien
In space no one can hear you scream.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1979
- Director Ridley Scott
- Cast Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm
- Genre Horror, Science Fiction
- Available on Hulu, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Dead Ringers
Two bodies. Two minds. One soul.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, United States • 1988
- Director David Cronenberg
- Cast Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas, Stephen Lack
- Genre Thriller, Horror
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory TV, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Cowboy Bebop
(カウボーイビバップ)
Amid rising crime rates across the solar system in 2071, bounty hunters, or "cowboys," chase criminals in exchange for rewards.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1998
- Creator Hajime Yatate
- Cast Koichi Yamadera, Unsho Ishizuka, Megumi Hayashibara, Aoi Tada
- Genre Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Western
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
(カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉)
The crew of the spaceship Bebop must stop a terrorist from destroying the human population of Mars.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United States • 2001
- Director Shinichiro Watanabe
- Cast Kouichi Yamadera, Unsho Ishizuka, Aoi Tada, Ai Kobayashi, Megumi Hayashibara
- Genre Action, Animation, Science Fiction
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Slumdog Millionaire
What does it take to find a lost love? A. Money, B. Luck, C. Smarts, or D. Destiny?
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States, France • 2008
- Director Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
- Cast Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Mia Drake Inderbitzin, Saurabh Shukla, Rajendranath Zutshi
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Microsoft Store
Mad Max: Fury Road
In an apocalyptic future, two rebels join forces.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Australia, United States • 2015
- Director George Miller
- Cast Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones
- Genre Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Philosopher Slavoj Zizek examines the hidden themes and existential questions asked by world renowned films.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Ireland • 2012
- Director Sophie Fiennes
- Cast Slavoj Žižek
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Apple TV, Kanopy, Hoopla
John Wick
An ex-assassin comes out of retirement to find the men who stole from him.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- China, United States • 2014
- Director Chad Stahelski
- Cast Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Dean Winters, Adrianne Palicki
- Genre Action, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, Spectrum On Demand, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fearless lives forever
- ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2018
- Director Bryan Singer
- Cast Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen
- Genre Drama, Music
- Available on Hulu, fuboTV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Joker
A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane, turning to a life of crime in chaos in Gotham City.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, United States • 2019
- Director Todd Phillips
- Cast Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham
- Genre Crime, Thriller, Drama
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man faces a crisis from across the multiverse.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Iceland • 2021
- Director Jon Watts
- Cast Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei
- Genre Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand