20 Great Movies That Will LEVEL UP Your English

hello everybody in today's lesson you will discover 20 movies that are excellent for you to practice your English with expand your vocabulary and improve your listening skills so you can start to understand natives without subtitles even when they speak fast at the end of the lesson we'll give you tips on how you can select the best movies for you to learn with yourself beyond the films that we're sharing with you today and we'll teach you a method for you to watch and learn at the same time and by the way do you want to be

able to understand everything that Ethan and I are saying on his podcast all the advanced words and expressions if so you want to watch this lesson on the real life app because we give you interactive subtitles that you can tap on and vocabulary flashcards so you never forget the words you're learning to start click the link in the description below to go straight to the real life app on your phone and unlock this lesson and we'll continue watching and having fun over there yeah all right Ethan so I'm really excited about today's lesson because basically

watching movies and learning with them was probably my my number one method for learning English and today we're covering 20 excellent movies that will help you guys improve your English to go from inmediate to Advanced so we're covering these three categories of movies going from intermediate to Advanced all the way to Pro I'm really excited about too just getting to think about some of these movies and it's kind of kind of a throwback to my childhood I tried to bring some that had a really big impact on me so look forward to sharing those with

you guys as well so this first category of movies is for intermediate level Learners so all of you guys who can understand us on this podcast but you struggle with movies in general this is for you so my first one is Finding Nemo now this is a total classic that besides being an animation I think it's really easy to follow so it's a really perfect one to start and the reason why it's really great for you to learn English is exactly compl in the narrative so as you guys probably know it's about this fish Marlin

who embarks on his epic journey across the ocean to find his son but he's really afraid of the ocean so he really feels like a fish out of water there but then he starts to meet all these different sea creatures who help him overcome his fears I remember seeing this one when it came out in theaters with my friend Haley and just we were last laughing our asses off sorry for the language but uh degenerous as character Dory is just Unforgettable sorry I suffer from short-term memory loss so if you haven't seen it it's definitely

a great one to check out and learn English with just keep swimming the just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep learning English so the first one that I added for my list was DodgeBall and this just has amazing performances as well from Ben Stiller and Vince Von they have the best Dynamic together and when I was a teenager I loved both their movies uh they had a lot of comedies in the 2000s and it's a hilarious Underdog Story where you're really rooting for the weaker team to revil but you're laughing the entire time and

there's also a lot of physical comedy in it so even if you don't understand all the jokes you'll still be laughing along a lot and as you're learning you'll understand the jokes better right and I just for me it was one that I watched many times when I was a teenager so you can watch it over and over again we watch it all the time my brother and I still remember a lot of the lines from it so definitely check it out what is an Underdog Story an underdog is in a competition the team or

the person who has lower chances to win so in general everyone loves an Andre dog story because we love seeing the person who No One Believes In actually be able to overcome something and be able to become a champion nice and the name of the sport is dodgeball and it has this word Dodge in it what what does it mean to to DOD Dodge means that you avoid something and it's actually really hilarious the whole premise of this movie because it's something we play when we're in school where it's two teams trying to throw balls

at each other and trying to not get hit because if you get hit you're out but it's adults playing this game so already just the premise or the theme of the movie is very humorous by the way guys Izzy and I are sharing some of our favorite movies and that we believe will be really helpful for learning English but we're really curious too what are some movies that you have have watched in English or that you have found really helpful so share them down below with your fellow real life English community members and maybe you

also want to take a look there and see if you can discover even more movies okay so before we continue let me just say this to our viewers and listeners that if you want to get more lessons like this that help you understand fast speaking natives hit the Subscribe button and also the Bell down below so you don't miss any of these lessons and on to my next movie uh that is School of Rock oh I love that song this one has a really it has a really wacky story right it's about this musician who

poses as a teacher he pretends to be a teacher and goes to work at this fancy school for rich kids so when he gets there instead of teaching regular school subjects he secretly turns his class into rock band so why am I recommending it for learning English I think Jack Black the actor who plays the protagonist he really has this Larger than Life personality so he's always using different phrasal verbs and slang like let's go kick some ass or Shred the guitar you know that's amazing I watched that one over and over again I remember

before bed as well so can highly recommend it I'm going to throw at you guys another animated movie it's not Disney it's called Rio and this one I've seen multiple times but it has a near and dear place in my heart because it's the first movie I watched in Portuguese I watched the dub version before I moved to Brazil and it's an adorable story I think that's great for basic Learners because it has simple uh vocabulary it's pretty easy to follow and you also get really immersed in the colorful Brazilian culture so definitely give it

a watch yeah I think adorable is the perfect we there to describe it but um it's interesting like uh you you've been to Rio right and I think they depiction of the city is pretty accurate in a lot of ways the all the colors right the vibe yeah they don't like try to hide the favellas or anything like that it all is integrated into the story right all right so my next one is The Devil Wears Prada so let me just say why this is really great for learning English uh it's the first one on

our list here that is awesome for learning English for business and it gives you all these different office Dynamics also that you can see there so the story is basically about this woman who lends a job as an assistant to this uh head of a fashion magazine in New York which by the way is known as one of the worst bosses ever in pop culture right Miranda Priestley I think is her name yeah I love that one as well it's a favorite and it's funny you mention about business English because it reminded me that we

actually did a lesson with this on our other channel learning TV series so people who are fans of that or want to get a taste of it might want to check that out all right so shifting gears a little bit my next one is this really beautiful movie called La La Land and I've watched this romantic drama several times I find the story really moving and that's probably what a lot of people feel because it won a bunch of different Oscars and I think this is the only one we're going to have on the list

that's uh at least that's not animated that is a musical and Izzy and I talk about this all the time that for both of us learning languages music has formed a really integral tool for us so so after watching this movie I got addicted to the soundtrack I I listen to it over and over again so you can almost kill two birds with one stone right by watching the movie and then listen to the music I think that there's that classic scene where they dance in the park it's so like Charming mhm uh and you

said the movie is moving what does that mean if something moves you it somehow impacts you emotionally and this does that in many different ways I don't want to say anything else to give any spoilers but just go check it out okay so my next one is called The Truman Show now this is one from the '90s and it's probably one of the ones that I can remember from my childhood that I watched the most it's about this guy called Truman if you haven't seen it but I think most people have watched it but it's

about this guy called Truman who lives a pretty ordinary life until he begins to suspect that something strange is going on you know so what happens is that his entire life is just a carefully constructed reality show and he doesn't know that that's happening so this is really great for learning English because you get to see Truman going about his day you know so it's great for learning everyday language man it made me think that I also grew up with so many of these Jim Carrey movies and he is just someone who we identified with

as one of the best comic actors but then in this movie he really showed his chops also as a dramatic actor so I think that he's someone I would really admire and that I believe is a great person to learn English with by the way there is he used a really nice expression that he's going about his day that's kind of an interesting combination of words what does it mean it's pretty much like when you're talking about somebody going through their daily routine so they're going about their day mhm it's usually used to present that

then there was a Twist or something happened so you could even use this if you're maybe telling a story you could say I was just going about my day and then and people would be expecting you're going to share something surprising that happened right which is exactly what happens in the movie so and no spoilers there because that happens early in the movie but anyway what's the next one so I chose one for so many of you that love cooking and food this one is called Julie and Julia and it's going to be perfect for

you if that's you it's a Feelgood movie that follows two true stories at once so one of them is about the famous American Chef Julia Childs and the second one is about a young woman who is named Julie that's why it's Julie and Julia and she's stuck in a rut and so she decides to challenge herself by cooking all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook and after watching this movie I actually bought Julia Child's cookbook and I tried to make many of the recipes in it myself and it was in the same period that I

was learning French so I would have this whole sort of ritual with it that I would whack on some music I'd open a bottle of French wine and I'd be cooking these recipes So Not only was I learning how to cook but I was having this whole French cultural immersion that really helped to motivate me in learning French so I believe this one for English Learners it shouldn't be too challenging but there is some more specific vocabulary related to cooking and food that you might need to be looking up while you're watching it wow I

think this movie is so you you Ethan because I still remember the day like you made uh rotto for for us in here in Brazil uh you came to Rio aay aluk kabu and you made us some Roto so yeah from that day on like I was just thinking like yeah Ethan is a guy who likes to cook so he must love all things food yeah and there you go I don't eat meat at least red meat nowadays so a lot of the recipes are off limits in that cookbook but when I was younger and

I ate meat there's a lot of delicious things but sure things can be adapted to vegetarianism so what's your next pick Izzy okay so my next one is The Lion King which is not just one of the best movies ever that is acknowledged by most people but is really great for learning English too uh I think characters that have really clear articulate speech and if you combine that with all the memorable quotes I think this movie just has really a legendary status for language learning I watch it many times when I uh was at an

intermediate level myself I think it's the first movie that made me cry so if people haven't you're probably living under a rock if you haven't seen it meaning that we use that expression living under a rock when it's something that everyone knows but maybe as the case for most people you might have only watched it ever in your native language right the next one on my list is so I did one for cooking the next one is for something else I'm passion about which is travel and the one I chose was e pre love and

this is another one that's based on a true story of Liz Gilbert who's the author also of the the book that came before the movie and it's a really perfect one because you get a taste of three different very strong cultures so Italy India and Bali and how this character Liz is adapting to all of them as she's traveling around the world and I just find her Evolution throughout the film just so compelling yeah and I love stories about self-discovery this movie just really has that because you you with the character you kind of evolve

you know and you go through uh an experience that that it really connects you with your own self-discovery Journey all right so our next category is for those of you who are a bit more advanced you might understand simple TV series like friends or animated movies without subtitles and these next ones will help you to challenge yourself a little bit more but before we do that let's say thanks to our learner of the [Music] week all right so this comes from a fan called Alam and they wrote in their message that the real life app

is really fantastic because it enables them to activate and improve their listening and speaking skills including gaining a wide range of vocabulary in every lesson and the flashcards which assist them in studying new vocab and keeping memorizing them a yeah Alam that was well said and if you guys out there if you want to be able to speak English just like I'm doing right now you should know that we developed the real life app app based on a method that I used and that thousands of other Learners just like you used to gain Advanced fluency

so do it just like Alam and activate your English and gain a wide range of vocabulary by downloading the real life app I'm going to leave the link in the description below and you can also search for real life English on Google Play or Apple's App Store and I'll see you there so Tom Hanks I think is a really great actor for English Learners because he tends to speak slowly and clearly so I wanted to include a movie from him on the list and I chose a more recent one called a beautiful day in the

neighborhood and this one follows Mr Rogers who is a real was a real person the star of a children's show that I watched when I was growing up and it's a really heartwarming true story about this kind humble and charitable man that really helps you to get in touch with American culture by watching this movie because Mr Rogers Neighborhood that's the name of this kid show is one that probably like anyone my age watched when they're growing up and and even older cuz it was on the air for like 40 years or something like that

I said I love I love movies that show uh a story of self-discovery but I also love movies that show the power of kindness which is totally what this is all about right and it shows how kindness can be a virtual cycle and it can create that ripple effect even yeah right I think it can this one can really put you into a reflective mood so it' be a good one if you're feeling like you want something that you can go a little bit deeper with by the way is what is a ripple effect it's

like a domino effect I think this expression exists in most languages right where uh one thing happens and then affects another thing which affects another thing nice so my next one is August Rush which is probably in my top three movies of all time and that's not for a technical reason I don't think is recognized as one of the best movies ever but for me I just love it it's about this musically gifted orphan who uses his talent his musical talent to try to find his birth parents so if you like music if you guys

like music this one is especially connected to music more spiritually I would say you know there's even this quote that says uh the music is all around us all you have to do is listen that's a really beautiful movie as well I have really good memories because it's also one of my mom probably like her top three or top five movies of all time and so I watched it several times with her when I was coming up and whenever I think about that movie I tend to think about my mom ah surprising to hear that

it is also in somebody else's uh top five or top three uh it's really great for learning English by the way because it's set in the streets of New York so there a lot of Street language there mhm so the next one is one of Jordy and my's favorite heist movies to watch together it's called now you see me it's all about magicians and I think that this one is definitely more challenging one on the list because there's a lot of twists and turns in the plot it has f speech in general from the characters

from the actors and also you have some jargon about magic that most people might not recognize and sometimes with these heist movies you think like you've seen it once and you can't watch it again but I think this one's great because even once you've seen it you want to go back and watch it because there's all sorts of details that you might not have caught the first time through you know uh by the way the name of the movie Now You See Me what does that mean what does that refer to yeah comes from some

sort of magical trick it's like now you see me now you don't where they disappear nice okay so my next one on his list is Shrek now you might be surprised that this one is uh for more advanced Learners because it is an animation but it really is that great for advanced Learners because shreak and Donkey they keep having these hilarious conversations where they use so many idiomatic expressions phrasal verbs Lang and it's so intricate and well-crafted you know that uh uh is just perfect for for learning all these Expressions uh and yeah don't overlook

the movie I know Shrek doesn't need any introduction everybody knows it but use it for learning English it's really awesome not to mention that Shrek has a Scottish accent and it's a mild one but that still might be something a lot of Learners are unfamiliar with and a lot of conversations they had like you said they're philosophical almost so you might miss things the first time around so similarly my next one might be one that people have already seen but maybe not in English yet it's Hunger Games and I chose this cuz I was trying

to think of Siri that many people really love just like the world that it's out of so I thought first of Harry Potter but I think almost everyone has seen that and I wanted to do something that might be newer or less familiar for other people series like this like Hunger Games Harry Potter they're really great because you can there's several movies you can watch them over and over again Hunger Games in particular I think it's the first book because they were books before movies that I stayed up all night reading it it's just it

really just has you hooked the entire time it's incredible and yeah I'm not going to say too much about this one cuz I think most of you probably are somewhat aware of it but it's pretty easy to follow as far as the language is concerned but there is some Advanced vocab that would say makes it more of an advanced movie mhm totally all right so my next one is National Treasure and it is another one that's on my maybe top five list of movies ever and I know it's quite weird for me to say that

uh it's probably not in anyone else's list but it isn't mine uh because I watched it so many times again for improving my English you know because let me just say this there is such a thing as watching a movie for learning purposes you can watch it for fun but if you add that layer of activator English with it I think it's you can get a lot from that and because I did that so much this movie just became really special for me so it's about this guy who is a historian and also a treasure

hunter and he embarks on his quest to find uh this treasure that dates back to the founding fathers of the United States so it's really crazy story almost like this wild goose chase you know I'm curious if people would know what the founding fathers are that to me sounds like a very American term ah yeah the founding fathers uh it's basically the the figures the people who were there to found the United States to declare the independence of the country yes people like Washington who was the first president Benjamin Franklin was very instrumental Thomas Jefferson

so a lot of these people who helped to form the Constitution I'd say it's a great movie too for that because it's got some of the sort of political history of the founding United States in it finally you mentioned a wild goose chase what is that a wild goose chase is when you're searching for something and you're just not successful with it and you keep doing it and you um in this in the case of this movie everybody knows that he's this treasure hunter who never finds a treasure so that's exactly what's happening there it's

a wild who chased because he's never really succeeding in finding a treasure all right so now let's move on to the next category of movies and these are for the pros you know if you guys feel that you're really experienced and you want to challenge yourselves with these ones these are the most advanced ones on our list uh what is that first one on your list Ethan all right so my last two so this one was a Netflix film from just a few years ago and it really blew my mind it's called don't look up

and it's hilarious while also being kind of sad about how true the situation that they're covering in it is it has this really star studded cast like Leonard DiCaprio Jennifer Lawrence M stre and so many more and I think it's going to be one of these ones that's quite challenging because it's a political satire so that means that it's a bit more complex and the humor and everything but it's definitely a great challenge for some of you more advanced Learners really has uh that double meaning there mhm and what's a satire by the way a

satire is something that pokes fun in a creative way at uh situation and so political satire it's kind of making fun of how politicians react to difficult things that are happening and how they're I don't know very motivated for example by money and things like that even when it's something that it's maybe questioning survival of the human race funny you mention uh Leo DiCaprio uh my next movie also features him so this one is Catch Me If You Can and it's really great for learning English first of all I should say that because has this

huge range of different American accents and both formal and informal speech in a million different situations because what happens is that uh Leo DiCaprio's character he's a con artist who impersonates uh a pilot a doctor a lawyer and he travels the entire country uh forging checks of like millions of dollars and then Tom Hanks the other guy he an FBI agent trying to catch him so yeah two great actors there in an amazing story I believe it's based on a true story as well isn't it yeah it is it is also based on a true

story yeah and you said he's forging checks maybe people won't be familiar with what it means to forge a check yeah if you forge a document or a check you are uh creating one that's not authentic MH right you're it's a false one it's a fake one but you're using it as if you were real all right so I really like that you had that one actually because it's a similar theme to the last one on my list and this is one of my favorite movies of all time for sure it's called into the wild

I put it as the last one because it covers some Advanced philosophical themes that I think could make it more challenging to understand some of the nuances some of the details and it also has various American accents and some of them some of the characters might be more difficult to understand uh it's another one that's based on a true story and it really captures this Spirit of Adventure uh I think that for me it was really impactful when I was in high school and college because it was a time also when I was sort of

discovering myself and that I also had experiences traveling and so on and I just watched the trailer again in preparation for this lesson and it like gave me chills so it's a really powerful uh film I think it was also popular at the time and one of the there's many great messages in this but one of it I I think is about connecting with people who are different from us because this main character Alexander is traveling all across the United States and meeting all these different sorts of people and for me it reminds me of

our big purpose here at real life English which is no matter what divides us that we unites us as far greater so it's a great Global citizen movie I'd say as well yeah and something else I should say about this movie at least that I feel more personally is that I don't know if you know uh did you know that it's a dream of mine to actually travel to Alaska oh man that's amazing don't learn from or do learn from his mistakes yeah want to say anything else spoilers but right now Alaska is really the

wildest of the wild in North America right which by the way what what is that like uh the name of the movie is Into the Wild what does that mean yeah the wild is like away from civilization which is really what this guy is all about is he's trying to break free of the capitalist consumerist culture of the United States anyway so my next one and final one as well is also based on a true story this is fascinating so one is based on a true story Into the Wild Catch Me If You Can and

don't look don't look up is a satire based on what's Happening so nice it's funny like the more advanc you get the more real life you get okay so this one is the pursuit of happiness there's a good chance you guys have seen it but let me tell you that there's a lot in that movie that maybe you didn't catch because there's so much culture in it um about the United States and also business English and he works at this office as a stock broker he lands he wants to land a job as a stock

broker in his financial firm so it's full of connected speech because Will Smith he really digs connected speech so you're going to get a lot of that too and it's inspiring story one of my favorite stories so I usually watch that movie once a year you know just to get that amazing uh shot of inspiration yeah is a truly powerful story and maybe it's no surprise that one of our most uh popular lessons on our learning TV series channel is with this movie so again that might be a good way for you to get started

before you go watch the full movie so we wanted to quickly share with you guys if you go through this list and you're looking for more movies to watch how you can choose your own movies and also how you can learn with them so when you're choosing a movie it's really valuable like Izzy and I have mentioned with several of these to choose something that you've already seen because if you've already seen your native language or you've already seen it once you know the story that's going to help you to understand and also we've been

talking about how repetition is very important right so you want to choose movies that you won't mind watching over and over again so that probably won't be something that's really Intense or that is maybe super artsy or something like this that you will get bored with quickly if you're trying to rewatch it and I'd say that depending on your level you might want to choose something that has a more simple theme or more complex theme or even specific topics so if you're at a more basic level you might want to look for something that's more

of a light Feelgood movie when we say like a Feelgood it's like one that you don't have to think too much about it doesn't have any deep uh you know underlying message or anything like that that'll be a lot easier to understand than for example an Oscar winner but you might want to challenge yourself with that if you're more advanced or even if say you're a doctor maybe you want to watch how to mocking bird or another movie that has sort of a legal core to it for example those are some great tips for actually

picking the the right movies now when you start watching it like I remember my own method for for Learning and I do know that You' learned uh for example Catalin also watching different movies Series right so what would you say is your method for learning a language with movie with a movie yeah I'd say it's very similar to what we do over on learning TV series right is I would recommend watching it all the way through if you're very basic you can even watch it the dubbed version in your native language but with most people

who are intermediate you should probably start with subtitles either in your native language or in English and then you can go back you don't have to watch the whole thing again but you could go back to certain scenes that maybe you took note of that you found especially difficult to understand and watch those scenes again with subtitles and all the while taking note of uh Advanced vocabulary Expressions difficult pronunciation or connected speech so you're really watching just being very curious about the language within that scene right MH finally then you're going to feel more prepared

to watch again without subtitles you're sort of testing your learning and you could even add on top of this by imitating the characters so you're working your pronunciation and your comprehension it's a complete experience it's sort of amazing how most people miss that if you use that to your advantage is sort is fantastic so in a real life way we have uh three superpowers that we talk about about that is to live your English which most people also Overlook that that English is something that you want to make a part a part of your life

um and you should activate your English and movies are great because you can do that and if it's a movie that's special to you that you really connect with you know uh with your identity with your personality you're also connecting it with your English which is the third superpower so it's one habit one practice that has it all you know and inside of activate we have two two Essentials that we talk about that is deliberate practice and be curious always be curious right so you already mentioned being curious and remember that you're watching movies with

the intention of learning so you are deliberately intentionally practicing that don't feel like oh man want to watch this again that's that's not the point you're you're you're missing the the angle there if you're thinking that really take advantage of the fact that are you watching it to get curious into to practice the The Sounds over and over again know repeat and really Master the connected speech the vocabulary in there you could spend an entire week right just studying one movie and maybe your reward at the end of the week is to watch it all

the way through without subtitles and just enjoy the story enjoy the fruits of your labor in other words enjoy actually understanding it without subtitles and give yourself a pat on the back for that accomplishment yeah and you can tell their people you know what I learned English with movies I actually talked about this in a newsletter I sent you guys can subscribe to our newsletter I'll leave the link in the description uh and if you're listening to us you can subscribe by typing in your browser reif global.com SL newsletter and yeah I talked about I

gave several tips about that too which as I said that was my number one habit for learning English which was watching obsessing over the same movie or the same series and just watching the same episode or movie over and over again all right Ethan this was fantastic and yeah we should do this more often uh not just movies other TV series I don't know so you guys can let us know uh in the comments below if you if you want us to do more lessons like this maybe with books you can tell us uh what

would be your kind of media that you prefer maybe podcasts too right so this has been a ball easy if you guys are enjoying these lessons a free way for you to support us is by again hit the Subscribe button and the bell down below or follow us on Spotify or apple podcast so you don't miss a single new lesson also if you're listening to us on Spotify Apple podcast or any other podcast service leave us a fstar review this really helps us to get out to other Learners from around the world who want to

take their English to the next level and of course if you are not yet watching and listening to this on the real life English app that is the best possible experience you're going to get you can get vocabulary flash cards for all of the difficult expressions and vocabulary that we've used today and never forget them with that smart flash card technology and so much more for you discover there so be sure to download that in the Apple App Store or Google Play store for free right now all right so thank you Ethan for joining me

in this one it was a lot of fun and guys as we always say on his podcast no matter what divides us that which unites us is far greater 1 2 3 a yeah I have noticed that most of my friends who have started learning English through courses or even online they complain to me over and over about the same issue that they can't improve their speaking skills because they're not friends with any natives or because they don't live in an english- speaking country or even because they can't pay for an exchange program so is

this by any chance how you feel if so I'm going to tell you the truth if you don't live in an english- speaking country you'll have to