Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Didn't like pursuit of happyness at all - probably because of the acting.
Matrix I reference a lot, Fight Club is also a core inspiration. Office space has lost its luster to me recently, but it is good.
I think everyone should also see Requiem for Dream, for the vicious cycle that can happen in life.
This list will be interesting to see what else pops up on this list

re: Matrix. I'm planning to re-watch these (never saw #3) with a less critical eye. I saw the first one a few times, and as I got older I regarded it more and more as a B-movie (e.g. "I know kung-fu."), but I will try to look past that for the message.
BTW I thought the most interesting of the movies of this genre--"which layer of reality is real?"--was "Existenz."

@Alex: Revolutionary Road! Of course, that is as relevant as it comes... That movie really rocked me as I feel like I am in the exact same position as the characters.
@NYC: Do not see Matrix 3, it is one of the worst things ever put to film. M1 was amazing, M2 was acceptably subpar... M3 is one of cinema's greatest failures.

@NYC ERE
I loved Existenz! Thirteenth Floor was also excellent.
Lots of great suggestions here that I'm going to check out, thanks guys & gals.

"Bye Bye Brazil" - a traveling carnival in Brazil goes toe-to-toe with the invasion of television. How is the small showman going to adapt & survive?

@Frugal Vegan Mom @Jacob
The movie was my original posting "Garbage Warrior"

There is only one Matrix movie. There are a couple of other movies with the same cast called Matrix #2 and Matrix #3, but other than name and cast, it's really hard to see how they are otherwise related. They are best forgotten; like any Rocky or Rambo movie after the first one.
Most of Animatrix (a collection of 10 animated short stories) is pretty good.

Come on! Rocky IV was awesome! It made good old Dulph! Kind of agree for Rambo...nothing compared with First Blood!

@ The Dude - Yes, it was Garbage Warrior!
@ Jacob, Re: No Impact Man - I guess it was also that it appeared to be an experiment for a set period of time in order to write a book instead of a permanent lifestyle. Like the wife couldn't wait to go back to shopping for $600 boots. Somehow it just didn't seem real enough to me, but still worth watching.
I'd like to add two more:
Into the Wild - at least for the first part of his journey!
Stranger Than Fiction

House of Sand and Fog... Shows an immigrant perspective on money.
quote from movie:

"Do you understand? Do not feel bad. Americans they do not deserve what they have. They have the eyes of small children who are forever looking for the next source of distraction, entertainment, sweet taste in the mouth. We are not like them. We know rich opportunities when we see them and do not throw away God's blessing."

Although not a movie Firefly's pilot episode(s).

@AlexOliver--Revolutionary Road is a perfect example of why anyone would want to achieve ERE. That movie sent chills all up and down my spine for WEEKS after I first watched it. It even pushed my girlfriend much further into wanting ERE with me...!

I hope no one watched Revolutionary Road on a first date. I just watched it and liked it. . . but save it for later in a relationship, if applicable!

"The Gleaners and I" by Agnes Varda. Great, meandering French documentary about "gleaners" in France, who take advantage of gleaning laws that allow scavenging of crops that would otherwise rot after the harvest, even on private property. One of my favorite films of any genre, partly because of the meandering.

John Carpenter's "They Live". (1988)
Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA8drfZwnXQ

How about 180 South? A bit fragmented documentary but still a nice portrait of simple living and importance of low environmental impact in our life.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1407927/

How about The Road. Based on the Pulitzer award winning book
The Road shares the premise of the novel on which it is based: a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) struggle to survive after an unspecified cataclysm has destroyed civilization, killed most plant and animal life, and obscured the sun; only remnants of mankind remain alive, reduced to scavenging or cannibalism. Man and boy are traveling southward, in the hope that it will be warmer. Along the way, they search for shelter, food, and fuel, and avoid bands of cannibals while trying to maintain their own sense of humanity.

Surio--I like The Road suggestion. Good call.
Here are a few with marginal ERE ties (or perhaps none at all but at least there is an argument):
- Last of the Mohicans: I love how Hawkeye gives respect to the buck he kills at the start of the movie. I'm a sucker for all frontier-type movies where people "do not live their lives ‘by your leave’! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, burying their children along the way!" [Maybe not the burying the children part--but you get the point.]
- Joe Versus the Volcano: Yeah, I should be mocked for this one but I recall scenes where the workers are depicted as drones to society. This is also when Meg Ryan looked like a human being.
- The Road Warrior: Flat out one of the best raw movies made.

I really enjoyed 'The Gleaners and I', good call Zev.
In a similar vein I'd recommend 'Dark Days' a documentary about people living under the subways in New York. They do a lot of similar foraging.

Fair warning: The Road is not for the faint of heart.