https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1j7a8u8/great_movies_that_have_an_abysmal_cult_following/
created by kookookachu26 on 09/03/2025 at 15:40 UTC
983 upvotes, 63 top-level comments (showing 25)
The biggest culprit of this I think HAS to be the wolf of Wall Street. Everyone watched that movie and all the young people of the world thinks that they are now a financial expert and stock broker. I really truly think that this movie is what popularized all the efforts to make it big off of meme coins and penny stocks. I have seen so many different reels of people who have clearly watched this movie and start using words like, “price position,” and “leveraged,” when we all know they don’t know at all what they are talking about.
That being said, I do think that the wolf of Wall Street is a great movie and is one of Scorsese’s best films to date… it just gets slightly tarnished by the awful cult following it has.
Comment by free_billstickers at 09/03/2025 at 16:02 UTC
1536 upvotes, 8 direct replies
Wall Street was the OG wolf of Wallstreet. I used to work with stock brokers who had Gordon Gecko posters in their offices and would quote him...like yall missed the point of the film, didn't you?
Comment by adognamedcat at 09/03/2025 at 16:02 UTC
589 upvotes, 15 direct replies
The number of salesmen I have met that quote glen Gerry Glen Ross is disturbing
Comment by Goodlake at 09/03/2025 at 15:56 UTC
841 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Sick of all the Kane-heads out there hogging the toboggan hills, buying up newspaper companies, forcing their talentless wives into the opera. Enough already.
Comment by forzamaria at 09/03/2025 at 16:08 UTC
611 upvotes, 7 direct replies
As much as I love Scarface, Tony Montana is glamorised for all the reasons that led to his downfall lol
Comment by [deleted] at 09/03/2025 at 15:46 UTC
720 upvotes, 5 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by duggybubby at 09/03/2025 at 19:20 UTC
115 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I’m gonna go a different direction here and say David Lynch movies. Lynch was very vocal about not explaining the meaning of his work and it is a key part of his ethos that each thing means something different to everyone based on how they interpret it.
But there seems to be a cultish part of his fandom that aggressively believes that because there is no one true meaning, that means there is no meaning at all. And they will belittle you and tell you don’t understand Lynch’s work if you think there is any explanation to anything at all, even if it’s just for you personally. To the point where it there seems to be almost no engaging with the art further than just your emotional reactions.
To me, the point of avant-garde art is to show there isn’t one true explanation but actually 100 true explanations. Each individual audience member interprets the same images/ideas into different meaning based on their lives. And you are supposed to talk about it. The whole point of avant-garde is the conversation - when people talk about their ideas and they change and adapt. You are supposed to talk about it what you think it means.
I think it’s kind of a false intellectualism - like trying to appeal to some higher power that we don’t know about and Lynch is some genius who is able to tap into the 5th dimension. The same way someone might look at some complicated process in nature and say “god works in mysterious ways we aren’t supposed to know everything” when in fact it can be explained through science.
TLDR: something not having 1 true explanation is not the same as it having no explanation at all
Comment by The_Lone_Apple at 09/03/2025 at 15:48 UTC
230 upvotes, 7 direct replies
Wolf of Wall Street is apparently the psychic successor to Wall Street - a film some people walked away from with the completely opposite message. Kind of like Taxi Driver where some folks don't quite get it.
Comment by bmcgowan89 at 09/03/2025 at 15:43 UTC
991 upvotes, 18 direct replies
I think a lot of people miss the point of Fight Club
Comment by immagoodboythistime at 09/03/2025 at 15:58 UTC
153 upvotes, 5 direct replies
There was a movie from 2000 called Boiler Room that was The Wolf of Wall Street for goobs before The Wolf of Wall Street. Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel in a pretty similar story, cool hip dudes pushing penny stocks to rip people off. Many similar scenes like getting the sale on the phone from an unsure customer while everyone else listens and the customer gets made fun of.
That movie didn’t have the internet for dweebs to conjugate around so you’d have to encounter these people in the wild.
Comment by a-woman-there-was at 09/03/2025 at 18:57 UTC
98 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Taxi Driver is a thoughtful meditation on masculine violence and alienation and how society idolizes violent men for the same qualities that make them unstable killers. A disturbing amount of people looked at Travis Bickle and saw a role model instead including a wannabe presidential assassin trying to get the attention of Jodie Foster.
Comment by juno991 at 09/03/2025 at 16:21 UTC
365 upvotes, 5 direct replies
The Punisher and the cops who display his skull logo.
Comment by TheM1ndSculptor at 09/03/2025 at 16:08 UTC
110 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Not sure if this is exactly what you're going for but a lot of people definitely missed the message of (500) Days of Summer when that first came out
Comment by MirrorRude309 at 09/03/2025 at 16:23 UTC
20 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I think a lot of people in the comments might just know the same person.
Comment by tortoisewitchcraft at 09/03/2025 at 16:12 UTC
89 upvotes, 5 direct replies
American Psycho
Comment by Current-Feedback4732 at 09/03/2025 at 16:11 UTC
262 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Joker. That was easy.
Comment by NicCageCompletionist at 09/03/2025 at 15:45 UTC
377 upvotes, 12 direct replies
Nobody seems to hate Star Wars more than Star Wars fans.
Comment by Reasonable-HB678 at 09/03/2025 at 16:09 UTC
50 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I have tempered my opinion in recent years, but the love some people have towards Scarface baffled me.
Comment by kal8el77 at 09/03/2025 at 16:54 UTC
49 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Boondock Saints
Comment by FartingBob at 09/03/2025 at 18:05 UTC
44 upvotes, 1 direct replies
For a solid number of years the film '300' had a super annoying cult following, mostly group of dudes asking what their profession is.
Comment by ConfusedGrundstuck at 09/03/2025 at 15:52 UTC
54 upvotes, 2 direct replies
American History X and Fight Club by a fucking mile.
Comment by CliveBixby22 at 09/03/2025 at 16:23 UTC
57 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Not a movie, but every time I bring up Always Sunny with another dude I gotta vet them with questions to make sure they're not idolizing the characters or anything. It's Fight Club all over again but with a sitcom
Comment by Impossible_Walrus555 at 09/03/2025 at 17:37 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
American Psycho was not meant to be aspirational.
Comment by MeLlamoApe at 09/03/2025 at 15:45 UTC
175 upvotes, 7 direct replies
IdiOcraCy WAs a DoCuMenTarY
Comment by BewareOfGrom at 09/03/2025 at 15:59 UTC
78 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Sicario has a whole bunch of fans who just think its a cool crime fighting thriller while missing the entire anti-imperialist critique that drives the story
Comment by Emotional-Song-2602 at 09/03/2025 at 18:54 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
People idolizing 'fight club' and going to gym calling themselves Tyler Durden. They either didn't get the plot or are stupid enough to not find the irony.