Movies & TV

Sorry to Bother You, Robocop, Snowpiercer, Elysium, or In Time.

Bee movie

Sorry To Bother You

Glass Onion. The key to the mystery is understanding how dumb the rich are.

Judas and the Black Messiah, especially since COINTELPRO never ended. There's a long list of young, charismatic BLM leaders who have mysteriously died, often in police custody.

Quinton Tarantino is also a zionist living in Isreal, so fuck him and his edgy bullshit.

Bugs Life

A bugs life lol

Sounds like you want to stay in the comedy-action-horror triangle, maybe with a little bit of room for a thriller. I wouldn't overthink it.

If everyone liked Rear Window try Under the Silver Lake. Male loneliness + Hollywood exploitation + Billionaire conspiracy. The movie itself has hidden messages and codes in it. Nothing subtly communist though. More like 70s paranoia but for today.

The Blob (1988) is supposed to be a nice inversion of the original, and counter to cold war sentiments of the time. I can't vouch because I have yet to watch it.

Enemy of the State, classic 90s Will Smith and Gene Hackman being an unofficial older version of his character in The Conversation. It has a faster pace and a bit more action than The Conversation. It got a jump on the post-9/11 surveillance state stuff.

None of these are particularly communist. However they might incept your friends with the idea that the government and elites are corrupt and dangerous.

Sorry To Bother You

Casablanca. Not exactly "communist" but I think any movie where the moral of the story is "fascists should be shot on sight" is in the right spirit. Plus it's just a fantastic movie with something for everyone.

Some that come to mind that might fit the request:

Shoplifters

Burning (edit: or maybe not since you said no downers. That narrows the field.)

District 9

Good Night and Good Luck (explicitly about red scare shit, but very normie-friendly + George Clooney)

Matewan (similar issues to above, not very subtle)

The Motorcycle Diaries (about Che of course but still just a beautiful film for anyone who isn't already anticommunist)

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Though that one is very heavy/downer, maybe could still work for the later showing)

But I also want to mention that it's always a good idea to talk to libs (or just people who aren't leftists) about the film afterward and emphasize the stuff that was actually leftist. I dont mean blatantly explain to them the left messaging in the film, but just casually mention a left-leaning theme or even relate a scene to something political irl "weird how much reminds me of <y current/historical event>. Because the sad reality is that most "apolotical" people and definitely libs will take the exact opposite message from what was intended, often relating the bad guys to communists (Star Wars' Empire was the Soviet Union!) or misinterpreting something satrirically critical as being an endorsement (Starship Troopers shows us how important it is to have a strong military!) etc. To be effective with your film choice, you also have to goad them in the correct direction (leftwards) or it will go over their head or have the exact opposite effect.

Here's an old comment from @dead@hexbear.net that I spotted saying the same sort of thing and also includes more suggestions:

The problem with movies that are not explicitly leftist is that wormbrained viewers will misunderstand the message or side with the bad guy. You can't radicalize somebody with consumption.

dr strangelove - satire of the cold war

they live - I am eating the trash all of the time

starship troopers - openly fascist america begins interplanetary imperialism and starts a war with a bug planet

network (1976) - news network controlled by evil corporation

full metal jacket - in case you ever wondered how films get access to film with military equipment or military bases, the USDoD provides equipment to movie studios in exchange for censoring and propagandizing the script. the USDoD has altered hundreds of films since the early 1900s. if you've seen a hollywood film with military equipment, the USDoD probably had their finger in it, including most of the capeshit. full metal jacket was not approved by the USDoD. Kubrick acquired the military equipment from military surplus stores and foreign militaries.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Dr. Strangelove

Any of those 90s kids movies abour real estate developers trying to ruin everything for profit. So Pom Poko is an option.

If you want something more high brow than Inglorious Basterds you could do Memories of Murder. Nothing about it makes it feel "political" but it plants a seed that can be harvested watching any other media about the police by asking "wait, why is this crap portraying the police as highly responsible professionals? Memories of Murder was so much more realistic!"

Slacker 1990 - It's a day-in-the-life comedy film set in Austin, Texas. Directed by Richard Linklater. "The film follows various eccentric and misfit characters and scenes, never staying with one character or conversation for more than a few minutes before picking up someone else in the scene and following them." "The characters include a talkative taxi passenger, a UFO buff who insists the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s, a JFK conspiracy theorist, an elderly anarchist who befriends a man trying to rob his house, a television set collector, and a hipster woman trying to sell a Madonna pap smear."

"Most of the characters grapple with feelings of social exclusion or political marginalization, which are recurring themes in their conversations. They discuss social class, terrorism, joblessness, and government control of the media."

The others can probably give you something more on the nose, but from the 'light-hearted class warfare' genre, Ryan Reynold's Waiting, and the ever-classic Office Space are what come to mind.

Rogue one! Resistance-pilled and-given the context of a phenomenal series connection to Andor- a surely popular watch

Strike! is great fun, especially with a good soundtrack.

Battle of algiers

Come and see

The People Under the Stairs

Sorry to bother you, but also its also pretty out there

Elysium? is that subtle or not subtle?

Monty Python's Life of Bryan

Wall-E