Reviewing the spiciest films to guide your viewing experience.
If you’ve ever watched a movie solely because it got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and been disappointed, this resource might be what you’ve been looking for. The purpose of this site is to recommend and boost visibility for films that the next generation of cinema lovers should appreciate. Other movie databases have rating systems that don’t accurately reflect the cinematic experience. The films selected are those in the spotlight, notable or popular movies with supposedly high reviews to validate whether they are really worth the watch. Anything 3 and above is likely good while 2 I did not like. Just remember that any film that makes this list is already spicy, Spice Level just reflects how spicy. That means I won’t be reviewing a lot of generic films, including comedies and mindless popcorn flicks. Instead of researching and sifting through dozens of random movie lists online for certain genres or decades, I’ve researched and compiled them all for you into one filterable list.
How Spice Level works.
What determines how spicy a film is? A film’s merit considers many things: a comedy for how funny it is, a horror for how scary it is and we naturally react to films differently based on their genre or how seriously it takes itself. You just don’t evaluate comedies and thrillers the same. Popcorn flicks are recommended in different ways than a serious drama, though I attempt to balance writing, depth and artistry with fun and entertainment. What I consider a cinematic experience may be different than you, especially because of my bias toward cinematography, substantial writing and indifference toward PG scripts and romance.
The Spice Level rating is not primarily how good a film is, but rather how exciting it is and how strongly I’d recommend it. There will be cases where a rating may be lower because I didn’t think the story was that good or the film simply didn’t excite me even if the cinematography or other aspects are great and vice versa. The overall experience is what matters and the deciding metric is how much it accomplishes what it intends to do. All films have a specific aim and the quality of the rating reflects my judgment for whether it hit that mark. This means an awesome film could have a low Spice Level if it’s weak in a crucial regard. Sure, a bad story could have brilliant cinematography, or a vampire comedy might actually have a wonderful romantic lesbian subplot but we care about the steak, not the mashed potatoes. This system hopefully works across genres and through my personal biases so even if you disagree, it’s fairly consistent. What is spicy for you, might not be for me, though anybody should still be able to utilize my recommendations based on expectations from my other ratings.
“Anyone watch a good movie lately? Can you recommend an art house crime film shot on anamorphic film in the 2010s with handheld camera movement on Netflix?”
What started out as a personal resource to recall films I’ve watched has manifested into Filmspice. This is my memory and how I mentally categorize cinema. Under each film, I’ve provided recommendations for comparable films using my hand-tagged system. Maybe you’re looking for the best films of a certain era or a reference to a specific cinematography technique. Or maybe you just need some stills, just care for spoilers (they are all provided under fair use). Selecting filters within the same dropdown expands the criteria while selecting filters across dropdowns narrows that search. The search bar is strict meaning instead of ‘happy’ movies, you’d have to search ‘heartwarming’. Tags are consolidated, so a Mini LF will be under Arri Alexa LF. You can also see how many movies are shot on which cameras and lenses with the film counter.
Support FILMSPICE
This resource takes an incredible amount of time especially as it’s just me compiling everything. The amount of effort required takes away from my other projects, but it has always been a mission of mine to contribute to the film community. If you would like to support me in my efforts of keeping this site up for free, you may purchase music and assets from my store or donate here (It only costs 360 USD a year to maintain this site). Any support will help fund improvements for the user interface on the site.
If you have recommendations or suggestions feel free to message me.