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- Dead Poets Society
Dead Poets Society received numerous accolades including Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Actor for Robin Williams. The story centers on John Keating's unorthodox teaching methods at an all-male preparatory boarding school. He encourages his students to seize the day, rather than sticking them with mundane assignments and busy work. Keating himself is an alumni of Welton and upon learning he was a member of the Dead Poets Society, senior Neil Perry and his roommate restart the club where they read poetry. Dead Poets Society is often cited as one of the most inspiring and uplifting movies, mainly due to its core message to purse your passion.
- Actors: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Peter Weir
- 1Robin Williams20 Votes
- 2Ethan Hawke13 Votes
- 3Robert Sean Leonard14 Votes
- 4Kurtwood Smith12 Votes
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- Kill Your Darlings
Poets: Allan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac
One of the most important and notable periods in American literature was the Beat Generation. Kill Your Darlings is about the college days of some of the important figures of the movement including Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. The four form a group at Columbia and rebel against established laws and institutions. The biographical drama is a fascinating look at the young minds that would go on to become literary icons.
- Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, David Cross, Dane DeHaan, Ben Foster, Michael C. Hall
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: John Krokidas
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Poet: Virginia Woolf
Prolific writer Virginia Woolf was a woman ahead of her time. Plagued by mental illness and a society that hadn't progressed in its ideas about gender and sexuality, the author drowned herself in 1941 leaving behind her wealth of writing. The Hours focuses on three different generations of women and connects them to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Similar to the novel, the movie portrays themes of upper crust living, unsatisfying partnerships, and untreated mental illness.
- Actors: Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Toni Collette
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Stephen Daldry
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Kindergarten teacher Lisa lives a dissatisfied life. One day, she overhears her young student reciting a poem while waiting to be picked up. She recites the same poem at her poetry class and receives praise. She realizes her student is a prodigy and puts all her energy into nurturing his talent. Maybe too much energy. The Kindergarten Teacher is actually based on an Israeli movie of the same name and because of Maggie Gyllenhaal's commitment to the part, seems to retain the same level of brilliance.
- Actors: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gael García Bernal, Michael Chernus, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Sara Colangelo
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- Poetic Justice
Musical icons Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur star in Poetic Justice. Justice is a poet mourning the death of her lover by gun violence. She goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland accompanied by her friend and postal worker. Several notable actresses including Jada Pinkett, Lisa Bonet, and Monica Calhoun auditioned for the part of Justice but Singleton knew the role would only go to Janet. In fact, it's Jackson and Shakur's immense chemistry that anchors the film and has elevated it to a cult classic.
- Actors: Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Regina King, Joe Torry, Maya Angelou
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: John Singleton
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- The Basketball Diaries
Poet: Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll's early life was filled with hardship. After a close friend died of his cancer, his drug addiction spiraled out of control and threatened his status as a writer and elite basketball player. The Basketball Diaries is an adaptation of Carroll's own first hand account of his life by way of the diaries he kept at the time. Featuring a stunning performance from a young DiCaprio, The Basketball Diaries is a bleak tale of a troubled artist.
- Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, Ernie Hudson, Patrick McGaw
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Scott Kalvert
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- Sony Pictures Classics
Poet: Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde famously spent his last years as a penniless pauper before passing in 1900. The Happy Prince takes a look at his last days, starting in 1897, just after his release from prison. With his health in delicate condition, Wilde tries to rebuild his life including reuniting with old lovers and friends. A passion project for director Rupert Everett, The Happy Prince is a worthy tribute to one of the sharpest minds in the history of literature.
- Actors: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Rupert Everett
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Poet: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Sylvia Plath's best known works weren't published until after her tragic death. Sylvia chronicles the marriage between her and fellow poet Ted Hughes, who at the time was the more successful and popular of the pairing. The two raised two children together but Ted's infidelity and Sylvia's depression was a toxic mix fated to end badly.
- Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Amira Casar, Andrew Havill
- Released: 2003
- Directed by: Christine Jeffs
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9Set Fire to the Stars
Poets: John M. Brinnin and Dylan Thomas
Elijah Wood plays poet John M. Brinnin while Celyn Jones plays poet Dylan Thomas in this semi-biographical drama. The plot centers on Brinnan taking Thomas to his family retreat in the woods of Connecticut. With delicate performances from the two leads, Set Fire to the Stars is an underrated gem.
- Actors: Elijah Wood, Celyn Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Shirley Henderson, Kevin Eldon
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Andy Goddard
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Poet: John Keats
Written and directed by Jane Campion, Bright Star tackles the last three years of the poet John Keats. The flirtatious Fanny Brawne pursues the aloof Keats. He begins to give her poetry lessons and the two fall for each other. The touching love story is hindered by Keats sudden declining health and the Brawne family's reluctance to have Fanny marry a writer.
- Actors: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Edie Martin
- Released: 2009
- Directed by: Jane Campion
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11Poet: Allen Ginsberg
Howl is unique in that it both portrays the poems of Allen Ginsberg as well as the life of the poet himself. Using a variety of nonlinear cinematic techniques, Howl walks audiences through the early life of Ginsberg and includes his debut performance of “Howl” in 1955.
- Actors: James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Jeff Daniels
- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
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Poets: Mary and Percy Shelley
Mary Shelley follows Mary Shelley's first love and her romantic relationship with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The film focuses on both the ups and downs of her relationship with her husband as well as the inciting incident that would eventually “spark” the novel Frankenstein.
- Actors: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Tom Sturridge, Stephen Dillane
- Released: 2017
- Directed by: Haifaa Al-Mansour
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- Total Eclipse
Poets: Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine
Interestingly, this marks Leonardo DiCaprio's second time playing a poet in 1995. Total Eclipse aims to show a historically accurate account of the relationship between 19th-century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, which was marked by violent passion.
- Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane Bohringer, Dominique Blanc, Félicie Pasotti
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Agnieszka Holland
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- user uploaded image
14Neruda
Poet: Pablo Neruda
A mix of fiction and real events, Neruda is about the suppression of Communists in Chile in 1948. Prominent poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda had to go on the run, eventually escaping on horseback over the Andes. Critics rated the film positively, saying it managed to intelligently tell the story of Neruda even while blending in fictional details.
- Actors: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morán
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Pablo Larrain
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- Stealing Beauty
Starring Liv Tyler, Stealing Beauty is about a nineteen year old who returns to her poet mother's Italian hometown after her suicide. She hopes to encounter the boy who was her first kiss as well as write poetry just like her mother used to. The film serves more as an atmospheric piece than a straight narrative, with rich views of Tuscany and an easy going pace.
- Actors: Liv Tyler, Sinead Cusack, Donal McCann, Jeremy Irons, Jean Marais
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
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COLLECTION11 LISTS
Poetry? Oh Noetry!Lists about and ranking the best poets and poems of all times, including rhymes, haiku, sonnets, free verse, blank verse, epics, ballads, love poems, villanelles, and even limericks. 
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10 MORE LISTS
Poetry? Oh Noetry!
Lists about and ranking the best poets and poems of all times, including rhymes, haiku, sonnets, free verse, blank verse, epics, ballads, love poems, villanelles, and even limericks.
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