8 movies that will quickly improve your life

Here are 8 movies that improved my life, and maybe they'll improve yours too.

Number one: Catch Me If You Can. Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 film that is a true story. Obviously, there are probably some dramatic elements, and it stars Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, directed by Steven Spielberg. It's an absolute classic. The film is based on the life of Frank William Abagnale Jr., one of the most successful con men in American history.

He effortlessly performed some of the most depraved acts of deception by posing as a Pan-American Airlines pilot, a doctor in Georgia, and a prosecutor in Louisiana—all before his 19th birthday. This guy was an absolute prodigy. While I wouldn't recommend living your life like Frank William, I don't want you to con people more than you already do.

But what this movie teaches you is an invaluable lesson about how human psychology works. People know what you tell them. Catch Me If You Can teaches you about the power of presentation. By the way you dress, the way you hold yourself, you subconsciously signal to people how they should treat you. Do you carry yourself with dignity, confidence, authority?

If not, what does that tell other people about how they should treat you? It makes you wonder how many people that you look up to in life are actually full of totally faking it. They don't know anything, but they dress the part and have self-confidence. And on the flip side, it makes you wonder how many people genuinely know what they're talking about, have exceedingly valuable information, but have no presentation skills whatsoever, so you perceive whatever they're saying negatively.

Presentation is an amplifier. It will amplify the good in you or the bad in you. And in this world, tons of very bad people have very high charisma. So if you perceive yourself as a good person and you have strong values, I think it's a moral imperative to also develop charisma to present yourself and your information well to combat the evil charismatic people in the world. It's also just a fantastic film. It's so easy to watch, so entertaining, and you will leave this film with some new ideas.

Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy starring Bill Murray. The story follows a weatherman who finds himself reliving the same day over and over and over again. The thing I love about Groundhog Day is that it's not only an extremely easy film to watch, it's also a profound film about you and your own mental prison that you can fall into if you're not careful. Groundhog Day is a metaphor for the prison of the self.

Bill Murray's character was self-serving, and he robbed himself of joy because of it. Every one of his days felt agonizingly identical, and he wasn't able to escape it until he got outside of himself. Because going outside of yourself expands your world and adds meaning to your life. By watching Groundhog Day, you will be inspired to do things you haven't done before to escape the prison of your mind and stop being so selfish, so self-serving, so inside.

It'll also inspire you to detox your soul from irony poisoning—a thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. It'll help you identify that skepticism, sarcasm, pessimism, these things will eat you alive.

"Okay campers, rise and shine. I've been doing a little research on Aunt Helen's tumor, and it's totally clear that anybody with familial abdominopelvic polyposis should be supplementing platinum-based doublet regimens with icos and pentanoic acid."

Limitless. Everybody knows Limitless. Limitless is a 2011 film starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. It's about a struggling writer who gains access to a mysterious drug that enhances his intellectual abilities to superhuman levels, but it also exposes him to dangerous consequences. I learned to play the piano in three days.

Limitless is not art—I’ll say it right now—but its impact on me was undeniable. I watched Limitless on a plane when I was 15 years old, and it blew my mind. It got me thinking about the brain I have and how perhaps I'm not using it to its full potential. It got me thinking that perhaps the key to greatness is already within me. Everything that I have ever learned is not forgotten but lying dormant somewhere in my subconscious.

I just needed to find a way to access it. My brain was just pouring this stuff out—everything I'd ever read, heard, seen was now organized and available: "Here it is! Here you go!" This movie naturally is everybody's gateway drug into biohacking and nootropics. If you don't know what nootropics are, they're brain-enhancing supplements. Because when you watch a movie about a guy who solves all of his life problems by taking one mystery pill, it gets you thinking about whether or not this mystery pill exists in real life.

Okay, so what do we have here? Some unknown, untested, possibly dangerous drug scammed out of some unidentified lab somewhere, given to me by a highly unreliable guy I hadn't seen in years.

"So, you want some more?" "Yes, definitely." Watching Limitless will inspire you to use the brain you currently have to its full potential. It'll motivate you to think about your problems differently and ask the question, "If I were on NZT-48, how would I solve this problem?" If you haven't watched Limitless, watch it.

Next, let me tell you a little bit about Tyler Durden. There's not really much I can say about Fight Club that hasn't been said in a billion montages or film analysis videos, so I'm gonna give you the overly simplistic take. The reason why you should watch it if you want to improve your life is because of the energy Fight Club represents—an energy, a simple thought: that of embracing chaos.

Most of the time, it's not the actual external events that happen to you that will ruin your life, but it's your own fear of bad things happening. This constant rumination will rob you of life. Your fear of death will rob you of life. Fight Club will remind you that the answer to your life's problems isn't buying that new piece of Ikea furniture. It's not getting a matching cutlery set. It's not buying that beautiful, sexy 2023 Toyota Tundra because it won't make you happy.

It's all just stupid because, in a way, these are all just ways to avoid death. They're all little consumeristic traps that basically are a facade that taps into your instinct to self-preserve. Why do you need a nice house? Why do you need a matching cutlery set? Is that going to keep you from dying? Is that going to keep the chaos at bay in your life?

By watching Fight Club, you will become bolder, more willing to take risks. It'll really start to get you thinking, "Maybe discomfort not only isn't really that bad, but maybe it's exactly what I need." Like a monkey ready to be shot into space, watching Fight Club will also permanently imprint the character of Tyler Durden onto your brain. So when you're feeling a little too comfortable, you're afraid to ask a girl out, you're afraid to go for a run, you can ask yourself, "What would Tyler Durden do in this situation?"

Once again, not that Tyler Durden is a shining example of how to live your life, but just like Frank William Abagnale Jr., movies can have caricatures of the dramatic extreme end of certain philosophies that you can borrow when it's useful to you and then discard when it's not. "You are by far the most interesting single serving friend I've ever met." "To have this thing? Everything on a plane is single serving." "Even though I get it. It's very clever."

"How's that working out for you?"

What being clever?

Anyways, watch Fight Club. Definitely awesome. "Yeah, I mean if it's too much trouble you totally don't have to, but if you need someone, I mean, Duncan?"

Yes, there you go.

The Way Way Back is an underrated film. Not very many people have heard of this. It's a 2013 coming-of-age comedy-drama. Despite the fact that it's fairly unknown, it has some familiar faces in there. We have Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell, most notably. Steve Carell in this movie is an absolute jerk; he is not even a little bit funny, whereas Sam Rockwell is very funny.

Well actually, Sam Rockwell is always funny. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." "What? Yeah, you're gonna have to take off for getting complaints. You're having way too much fun; it's making everyone uncomfortable."

When you watch The Way Way Back, you just feel good, and I think the importance of that can't be understated. So much of what we soak in on social media wastes your time and leaves you with absolutely nothing, but this film kind of brightens up your mood and inspires you to be a good person.

It makes you really look up to Sam Rockwell's character because Sam Rockwell's character in the film doesn’t really have it figured out. He’s a smart ass, a little bit of a deadbeat, and probably doesn’t like himself very much, but even though he’s going through a hard time, he never lost his humanity. He was able to identify that a young kid looked up to him and with that knowledge, he was able to make a profound positive impact on him.

So if you're going through a time in your life where you feel like maybe you're not doing so well, maybe you're not qualified to help somebody out of a bad situation, I highly recommend watching The Way Way Back, because it will remind you that no matter where you are in life, you have the capacity for good. "That's why you can't buy into that nonsense. You gotta go your own way, my friend. You're going your own way."

"Everything I have learned, I will teach you: economics, mathematics, philosophy, science, to read, write... of course! When do we start?"

The Count of Monte Cristo. This movie is so underrated. The Count of Monte Cristo is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas and it tells the story of Edmund Dantes, a man who is wrongfully imprisoned and then seeks revenge against those who betrayed him.

The Count of Monte Cristo is the perfect tale of betrayal and vengeance. The main character, Edmund Dantes, endures the worst torture imaginable and then proceeds to have the biggest come up.

Few things in life make me feel more vicariously like a boss than seeing Edmund Dantes float down on that balloon in his party. It's like, "Come at me! I just arrived on a balloon!" This film is highly inspiring. It reminds you that in life, if you're stuck in the prison of Château d'If, if you are currently in your darkest timeline, you can keep your head down and make something out of it so that when you're finally released from the prison, you're prepared.

You didn't use your hardship as an excuse to waste away, even though you would have had every right to, and nobody would have blamed you. Isolation, loneliness, captivity—these things can all be leveraged to your advantage. There’s an upside to almost everything, but you have to find it.

By watching The Count of Monte Cristo, you'll be inspired to transform even the hardest times to your advantage. The Count of Monte Cristo will inspire you to strike at the right moment and to have the strength to take advantage of opportunity when it presents itself because you've been training, you've been proactive.

It'll also inspire you to go on an adventure to find lost treasure and have the biggest come up of your life, and overall, just be an absolute G.

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome, 'Do your worst, for I will do mine!' Then the fates will know you as we know you—as Albert Mondago!"

What happened to your feet? "What do you mean? These are my 407s." "Oh, they're 407s. Can I see them?" "Yeah, yeah, these offer a lot of support." "Right, wow. Come on! What, are you in a fraternity? Are you insane? Are you in a fraternity? You could have hit somebody!" "Where was that?" "I'm asking a question. You have a fraternity?" "No. Are you Steve Jobs?"

What?

Okay!

Crazy, Stupid, Love. Crazy, Stupid, Love might sound like a weird one on this list, because it kind of is, but its impact on me as a young teen was undeniable. Crazy, Stupid, Love is a 2011 romantic comedy starring Steve Carell once again, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone, and also Josh Groban—he makes an appearance; he's got a banana.

It follows the story of a middle-aged man who, after his wife asks for a divorce, seeks help from a young bachelor to navigate the dating scene. Basically, the utility of Crazy, Stupid, Love—you know you'll probably have your own takeaways from it—but my own takeaway when I watched it for the first time is that Ryan Gosling is a cool guy.

Ryan Gosling's character in Crazy, Stupid, Love was kind of my fashion and charisma icon as a teenager. This film taught me to be better than the Gap and to ditch my velcro wallet. "What, your wallet?"

It also inspired me to not be a bumbling doofus. I'm a cuckold—to put more effort into, you know, the way I dress, the way I present myself, and just be a cooler guy in general. But the thing about Crazy, Stupid, Love is that Ryan Gosling's character isn't without his flaws. He's kind of a slimy womanizer who has no soul.

Which is the nice thing about Crazy, Stupid, Love: it's a very human film. I like the message in this movie. It'll get you thinking, like, "Yeah, you know what? I should dress better. I should have some ribs. I should take care of myself." But happiness isn't found in buying things or using people, but rather in giving and in sharing life with the people that you love.

So absolutely take care of your appearance, because you're dignified so you should reflect that dignity by the way that you dress. But to weaponize aesthetic virtue to absorb pleasure from others? It's a vacuous behavior that will leave you hollow in the long run.

This is what happened to Ryan Gosling's character. He used his Ryan Gosling looks and style to take advantage of people for his own pleasure, and it left him hollow and profoundly lonely in the long run. Whereas Steve Carell's character was sort of on the opposite side of the spectrum. He loved and cared for his kids, but he sort of lost respect for himself, stopped taking care of himself.

The balance is somewhere right in the middle, where you're not so self-absorbed, but you take care of yourself so that you can increase your capacity to take care of others, because ultimately that's what helps give life meaning.

Take care of yourself.

Okay guys, hear me out. Elf is a 2003 Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, starring Will Ferrell. It tells the story of a human who was raised by elves at the North Pole and travels to New York City in search of his true identity.

You see, okay, Elf, it's not a great movie. I don’t know, guys. "He's an angry elf!" But I’d be lying if I said this movie didn't stick with me, and that's because of the father figure. The father figure of Elf is the emotional heart of the movie.

He sort of plays the straight man character; everybody can identify with the father figure. It makes you wonder, what would you do in this situation if this absolute freak, mentally unstable man-child entered your life? How would you deal with it? What if he was your son?

Like, you don't have to watch this movie; it's not very good.

Okay guys, I actually have like eight more movies in front of me, but I'm just running out of time to talk about them. So if you want me to continue this series, let me know in the comments section below. Thank you for watching this video!

This video is sponsored by Athletic Greens. AG-1 makes it insanely easy for me to make sure that I'm hitting my nutritional goals. Out of all of the multivitamins or supplements that I've ever taken, Athletic Greens has by far the most complex nutritional profile, packed with over 75 vitamins, minerals, whole foods or superfoods, and adaptogens in every single scoop.

AG1 makes sure that you're giving your body everything it needs to feel energized and focused throughout the day. My favorite thing about AG-1 is that it's made from whole foods, so it ensures that it's extremely bioavailable, which means that your body absorbs it very easily, and you don't just urinate it out like so many cheaper multivitamins.

So if you're interested in joining me in by far the simplest way to meet your nutritional needs, then if you use my link in the description below, you'll also get a year's supply of their vitamin D3 and K2 complex, which I also have every single morning, as well as five AG-1 travel packs with your first purchase.

So once again, make sure to take advantage of that link below, and thank you again to Athletic Greens for sponsoring this video.