10 Best NEON Movies, According to Letterboxd (2024)

Neon has quickly and easily proven itself to be one of the premier and most effective independent production and distribution companies of the modern film era, with many amazing films under its belt. The studio has released numerous iconic, amazing, and award-winning titles that range greatly in style, approach, and genre. From hilarious comedies like Palm Springs to powerful dramatic biopics like I, Tonya, the studio has already made a powerful namesake for itself despite only being around since 2017.

As the premiere center for modern and younger film fanatics in the modern sphere and community surrounding film, Letterboxd has acted as the perfect platform to share thoughts on Neon, another modern titan of independent film. A great number of Neon films have etched themselves into the site's history by being some of the highest-rated and most beloved films on the site, continuing the powerful legacy that Neon holds in the modern day. While recency bias will always play a part and impact the rankings, the truly memorable and best of the best have cemented their spots in the top 10.

10 'Apollo 11' (2019)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.1/5

Apollo 11 is an in-depth documentary that follows the leading up and story surrounding NASA's Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon, led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin. The film acts as one of the most in-depth and mesmerizing visualizations of one of the most important events in American history, with an array of never-before-seen footage upscaled and designed for the biggest and most beautiful screens.

Apollo 11's graceful and respectful retelling and usage of classic NASA footage have helped make it one of the most beloved and highly regarded documentary films in recent memory. The film perfectly understands and cultivates the unbelievable achievement at the center of its story. It tells an exciting and informative story to make it engaging even for those who are knowledgeable about exactly what happened. The film is also filled with numerous breathtakingly beautiful shots and sequences, making it a visual delight from start to finish.

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9 'Petite Maman' (2021)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.1/5

Petite Maman follows the story of eight-year-old Nelly, who, after having just lost her grandmother, goes along with her parents to clean out her mother's childhood home. While on this trip, Nelly finds herself traveling and adventuring in the same woods that her mother did as a child and soon finds herself meeting a new friend, a girl the same age as her. However, as their new friendship begins to develop and evolve, Nelly soon makes a discovery and realization about the truth and origin of her newfound friend.

Petite Maman harkens back to the classic feel-good fairytales of old with its mythical and otherworldly story with an important core message about growing up and moving on after loss. It's a film that is powerfully effective for audiences of all ages, which combined with its incredibly brisk runtime of only 72 minutes makes it a highly engaging and easy-to-watch viewing experience. The film is a perfect example of how Neon as a studio is able to cultivate and release enlightening and impactful films for all audiences, not just more mature audiences.

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8 'Perfect Days' (2023)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.1/5

Perfect Days follows the story of Hirayama, an easygoing and pleasant Japanese public toilet cleaner whose simple and humanistic lifestyle has brought him surprising amounts of joy and contentedness. Outside his more structured and repetitious everyday routine, he makes time to enjoy his passion for music and books, as well as enjoy the environment and nature around him. As a number of unexpected encounters happen to Hirayama day after day, more and more of his secretive and unknown past is revealed.

While the film hasn't had its major release date yet, the wide number of Letterboxd users who have seen the film at various film festivals and limited releases has already given the film massive praise. The film makes a terrifically powerful statement about the beauty and joy that can be found in everyday life, no matter how innocuous and unassuming one's life may be at first glance. Especially with a world growing more and more dour and depressing day after day, having a cinematic reminder of the magic and beauty of the world makes a major difference when done so effectively here.

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7 'The Worst Person in the World' (2021)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.1/5

The Worst Person in the World is a Norwegian romantic comedy that chronicles four impactful years in the life of Julie, a young woman who is navigating the difficulties of her love life and attempted career path. The constant ups and downs that are facing her life throughout her young adulthood have her taking a nuanced and realistic look inside herself in order to find out the type of person that she truly is.

It's rare for coming-of-age movies to actually focus on the growth and experience that people gain throughout their young adulthood, with the age range usually being the cutoff point for such stories. However, The Worst Person in the World perfectly encapsulates all the stresses and difficulties that come from this period of life, with a greater understanding of the world resulting in a more difficult and terrifying search for the meaning of it all. Even for those who aren't as experienced with international filmmaking, The Worst Person in the World is a genuine marvel of a film that every young person should experience.

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6 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed' (2022)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.2/5

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an in-depth documentary that follows the life of artist Nan Goldin as well as her notable battle with the infamous Sackler family which would lead to their downfall. The Sackler family was a pharmaceutical dynasty who were greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic and an insurmountable high death toll, and their battle with Goldin would serve to be critical in their demise.

Especially for a story that has impacted so many millions of lives yet has rarely been explored and told with such detail, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed does a masterful job of providing insight into one of America's most impactful artists. The film is recognized as one of the most powerful and resonating documentaries in recent memory, as it is able to effectively conjure up powerful emotions in its audience from its raw and personal story at its center.

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5 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' (2020)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.2/5

Quo Vadis, Aida? is a highly realistic and grim story that follows Aida, a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica, Bosnia in July 1995, near the end of The Bosnian War. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens who are searching for shelter in the UN camp, and as an insider to the negotiations, Aida has access to crucial information she needs to interpret. In a highly tense and calculated position, Aida must do what she can in order to save her family's lives while also doing her duties.

It's difficult to find a story and experience more bleak and depressing than the one found in Quo Vadis, Aida? as it shows a powerful and heartbreaking story of a woman's countless pleading attempts to save her family. The film uses the terrifying reality behind the death and destruction of The Bosnian War to show the harsh and dreadful truth that war and its impact has on a community and the many difficulties and miscommunications that come with attempting to stop it. Few films make an impact on the viewer as much as Quo Vadis, Aida? does, as it masterfully builds up tension until its dreadful yet inevitable ending.

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4 'Anatomy of a Fall' (2023)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.2/5

Anatomy of a Fall is a French courtroom drama mystery film that follows the events surrounding the death of Samuel Maleski, who fell from the attic of his home and was found dead in the driveway. When the autopsy comes back and reveals that his head wound was inflicted before his body hit the ground, suspicion soon lands upon his wife, Sandra Voyter. Now suspected of her husband's murder, the duo's blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness to the suspected crime.

One of the most recent successes from Neon, Anatomy of a Fall takes an unexpected and highly compelling rendition of a classic courtroom drama, as it slowly drip-feeds information to the audience throughout the film. Even despite its 2+ hour runtime, the film has near-perfect pacing as it goes through all the elements and complications surrounding the death and the truth behind it. This all comes to a head with the film's highly original and unexpected ending, one that goes against the very conventions and preconceptions of courtroom dramas as a whole.

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3 'Flee' (2021)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.2/5

Flee is an animated Danish documentary that chronicles the story of Amin, who arrived in Denmark as an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan over 20 years ago. In the present, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend, but before he can get married, he must share the truths behind his secret past with his partner. Sharing the truths behind his story is something that threatens to ruin the life he has been building for himself since he arrived in Denmark, as he shares his story for the first time ever with his close friend.

Flee makes an amazing evolution and adaptation of the documentary genre as a whole with its implementation of animation in order to visualize and tell its story in a highly compelling way. Especially for such an interpersonal and intimate story as Amin's, being able to use the original recording of Amin telling his story with a visualization of what happened does wonders for its impact on an audience. It's a highly original method of documentary storytelling that makes Flee a must-see both for fans of documentaries and animated films as a whole.

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2 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (2019)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.4/5

Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells an intimate love story on an isolated island in Brittany during the end of the eighteenth century, between a female painter who is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman. As a part of the painter's progress, she follows and observes the life of her subject to paint the best picture of her possible, and in the process, soon finds herself falling in love with her subject.

Forbidden love can sometimes be the most engaging and powerful type of love in the cinematic space, as most effectively shown off throughout Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The film is filled with undeniable passion and love in nearly every scene, as the blossoming yet forbidden love between its core duo is one whose emotional prowess easily rubs off on the audience. The film was a massive hit among Letterboxd users upon its release, with the film having secured a high spot at #30 on the Letterboxd top 250 narrative features of all time.

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1 'Parasite' (2019)

Letterboxd Average Rating: 4.6/5

The masterfully crafted Best Picture-winning film by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, Parasite tells the story of a barely holding on unemployed family doing anything they can to get by. They soon make a breakthrough when they take a peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous lives of the Park family before they eventually all find themselves working under them while hiding their familial ties. It all seems good at first, with the family finally getting a piece of the pie, before they soon find themselves entangled in an unexpected terrifying development.

It's hard to deny the impact and legacy that Parasite has already cemented as one of the greatest and most beloved movies of the 21st century so far, already being considered one of the best of all time. The film has almost single-handedly ushered in a new wave of interest in international filmmaking as a whole from younger and more modern film audiences, proving that world cinema can provide some of the most powerful and impactful stories possible. The film continues to be one of the highest-rated movies of all time on Letterboxd, and while it doesn't hold the #1 spot anymore, it is still in the top 10 at #7.

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NEXT: NEON's 10 Most Underrated Movies