What makes you a genius/Is it the bookish knowledge, the knowledge of politics, high IQ level, or how you take things around you? Everyone is good in some or the other fields like some are experts in mathematics while some others in the painting. To introduce you to absolute geniuses we have come up with the list of best movies about absolute geniuses in the article below.
Movies have a lot to offers. Whether it’s motivation, knowledge, fun, inspiration, or even moral lessons. I personally like watching fun and action movies but once I watched this super amazing movie, “Gifted” and I genuinely loved it. Since then my taste in movies included inspirational movies too.
We present you with the best movies about absolute geniuses. Some of these are Gifted, X+Y, Goodwill hunting, hidden figures,2 idiots, Frida, Iron Man, Kingkong, The big short, and Rain man. Find out the detailed overview of these movies in the article below.
Here you will find all the details about these movies, their IMDb ratings, and many more. So keep reading and know more.
Table of Contents
27 Best Movies about Absolute Geniuses
Gifted
This movie is based on a true story. Marc Webb is the director of this movie. This is a beautiful story about a seven-year-old girl who is intellectually gifted. The film shows the custody battle of this little girl between her maternal grandmother and her maternal uncle. Find out who wins the custody and what happens next.
IMDb ratings: 7.6/10
Genre: Drama/Comedy-drama
Starring: Chris Evans
Lindsay Duncan
Mckenna Grace
Jenny Slate
Octavia Spencer
X+Y
This movie is influenced by the book Beautiful Young Minds. This is the story about a teenager, Nathan, having an extraordinary love for numbers. He finds it difficult to understand people but loves to play with numbers. This young mind experiences new challenges in life after representing the International Mathematical Olympiad in the UK. Get to know the pain and trauma he has gone through in his past and how he overcomes it in the last.
IMDb ratings:7.1/10
Genre: Romance/Drama
Starring: Asa Butterfield
Rafe Spall
Sally Hawkins
Eddie Marsan
Jo Yang
The Man Who Knew Infinity
This movie is a book adaptation of the same name written by Robert Kanigel.Its the story of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. This film shows the struggles of Srinivasa, a poor boy who manages to take admissions at Cambridge University through his hard work.
IMDb ratings:7.2/10
Genre: Drama
Starring: Dev Patel
Devika Bhise
Toby Jones
Jeremy Irons
Stephen Fry
Kevin McNally
Enzo Cilenti
Arundhati Nag
Dhritiman Chatterjee
Good Will Hunting
This is a very emotional and motivational movie. Think of having a disastrous childhood, where you are abused for your existence. It’s heartbreaking right. This movie shows a similar story of a boy who is having trust issues with all the people around because of bad childhood memories. Although being passed through a rough childhood he has amazing capability in solving mathematical problems in seconds that no other people of his age were capable of.
IMDb ratings:8.3/10
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Robin Williams
Matt Damon
Ben Affleck
Stellan Skarsgard
Minnie Driver
Hidden Figures
Women Power!! This movie is a book adaptation of the book of the same name written by Margot Lee Shetterly. This movie portrays the strength, Hard Work, and intelligence of women. Three African American female mathematicians served at NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Facing all the rejections and discrimination at their workplace, these three women never quitted and played an important role in the launch of the astronaut, John Glenn into orbit.
IMDb ratings:7.8/10
Genre: Drama/History
Starring: Taraji P.Henson
Janelle Monae
Octavia Spencer
Kevin Costner
Kirsten Dunst
Jim Parsons
3 Idiots
This is an Indian movie that is highly inspiring and includes genius minds. The storyline of this movie is about the life of three engineering students with different interests and mindsets. Rancho was a unique personality who loves machines and makes learning fun, Frahan is passionate about photography and takes Engineering under the pressure of his father, while Raju is from a poor family who believed that an engineering degree will change his life and financial conditions. See how conditions go against and in their favor to teach them bigger life lessons.
IMDb ratings:8.4/10
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Starring: Amir Khan
R.Madhavan
Sharman Joshi
Kareena Kapoor
Boman Irani
Omi Vaidya
Bad Genius
Teenagers will relate to the story of this movie. This is the story of a student who uses his brilliance to develop an excellent exam-cheating plan that reaches international heights. This movie is inspired by real-life exam situations . The storyline is so engaging that it is highly praised by the audience and the critics as well.
IMDb ratings: 7.6/10
Genre: Thriller/Heist
Starring: Chutimon
Chuengcharoensukying
Supapunpinyo
Teeradon
Chanon Santinatornkul
The Theory of Everything
Imagine how it feels to be a brilliant student and suddenly finding out that you have only two years to live all your life? This is the story of a student who is superb in astrophysics who finds out that he is suffering from a deadly disease called motor-neuron in which the nerves of our brain and spinal cord are not well coordinated and shows improper functioning.
IMDb ratings:7.7/10
Genre: Romance/Drama
Starring: Eddie Redmayne
Felicity Jones
Emily Watson
Charlie Cox
Simon McBurney
David Thewlis
Maxine Peake
A beautiful mind
This story is about a guy named John Nash. He suffered from Schizophrenia-a disease in which a person faces hallucinations, abnormality, Inability to act, and delusions. His life goes through big turns and twists after he takes charge of the project offered by William Parcher. Find out the swinging graph of his life by watching this true-life story.
IMDb ratings: 8.2/10
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Russell Crowe
Jennifer Connelly
Paul Bettany
Ed Harris
Judd Hirsch
Frida
This movie portrays the life story of a Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, showing light on her private and professional life. This movie won many awards like the Best makeup award, Best original score, and many other academy awards and The Oscar nomination as well. This movie is about the passionate, Flirty, and political-minded woman who has several affairs at a time. Watch how her life treats her in the longer run.
IMDb ratings:7.4/10
Genre: Drama /Melodrama
Starring: Salma Hayek
Alfred Molina
Valeria Golino
Mia Maestro
Geoffrey Rush
At Eternity’s Gate
This movie was released in the year 2018. This is a mischievous murder mystery in which two biographers Gregory White and Steven Naifeh try to speculate the full story behind this murder scene that is shown as a suicide. The director of this film is Jullian Schnabel. This film won many awards like the best motion picture drama award, Volpi Cup for best actor, Academy awards, and Film festival awards.
IMDb ratings:6.9/10
Genre: Drama
Starring: Willem Dafoe
Rupert Friend
Mads Mikkelsen
Oscar Isaac
Mathieu Amalric
Emmanuelle Seigner
The Social network
This is the story of a famous personality, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. This movie shows the story when Mark Zukerberg develops social networking site, Facebook with the help of his friend, Eduardo. So may successful people connect with him in this journey. Watch this movie to get inspired that how a strong will can bring changes in life.
IMDb ratings: 7.7/10
Genre: Drama/History
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg
Andrew Garfield
Justin Timberlake
Max Minghella
Armie Hammer
The Imitation Game
This film is based on a biography,” Alan Turing: The Engima written by Andrew Hodges. This movie is a tech-based movie that compels you to think ‘Can machines think like humans?’Alan Turning joins a cybersecurity kind of team for cracking the German Engima codes. He is joined by other mathematicians too in this cryptography team.
IMDb ratings: 8/10
Genre: War/Drama
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch
Keira Knightley
Matthew Goode
Rory Kinnear
Mark Strong
Charles Dance
The Big Short
This movie is directed by Adam McKay.This movie has won many awards along with the Oscar. The movie is about a group of investors who try to find out the marketing strategy of the US market. The mortgage market -a kind of loan for sale and purchase of property is betted upon by these investors. In this process they come to know that everything works with so much corruption and fraud.
IMDb ratings: 7.8/10
Genre: Drama/Comedy-drama
Starring: Christian Bale
Steve Carell
Ryan Gosling
Brad Pitt
King Kong
Who doesn’t remember the roar of King Kong? This movie is directed by Peter Jackson. The storyline of this movie is about a filmmaker who wants to explore an island to get some best and natural shots.For this he along with his crew visit the Skull Island,an island known for mysteries and danger.There they capture a giant creature ,the Kong.They take him to New York.The movie is so adventurous that you can’t get bored.This movie received many awards along with good reviews from critics.
IMDb ratings: 7.2/10
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Starring: Naomi Watts
Jack Black
Adrein Brody
Thomas Kretschmann
Colin Hanks
Iron Man
Ahh! How can’t you skip the Irin Man.This movie has all the hearts.The excellent performance of Tony Stark in it was remarkable that till date has its effects on the viewers.If you were looking for some superhero action and adventure movie,then what best than this.Tony Stark,develops a hi-tech armoured suit when he gets captured by some mean industrialists.He successfully manages to get out of their captivity.After which he decides to use the suit to protect the world from evil powers.
IMDb ratings: 7.9/10
Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Starring: Robert Downey Jr.
Terrence Howard
Jeff Bridges
Shaun Toub
Gwyneth Paltrow
Amadeus
The feeling of jealousy and envy leads us nowhere.It only creates mess and stress. This is a story with a similar plot. The storyline of this movie shows the rivalry between two people,an Italian composer Antonio Salieri and Mozart. The box made new records and was a hit.
IMDb ratings: 8.3/10
Genre: Drama/Musical
Starring: F.Murray
Tom Hulce
Elizabeth Berridge
Roy Dotrice
Christine Ebersole
Jeffrey Jones
Charles Kay
Searching for Bobby Fischer
This story is about a naturally talented chess player Josh. Josh is a kid who plays football as he loves to play that, but he has amazing talent in the game chess which later on his father recognizes and then encourages him to choose chess. This is a motivating movie. Watch this exceptionally talented kid play like geniuses in the movie.
IMDb ratings: 7.4/10
Genre: Drama/Docudrama
Starring: Joe Mantegna
Laurence Fishburne
Joan Allen
Max Pomeranc
Ben Kingsley
Shine
People are so talented and gifted in different fields. If given the right direction and support, they can dwell so well. This is the story of a boy David Helfgott who is a gifted pianist.His childhood was harsh and abusive as his father abused him alot.This let to his mental breakdown.But he manages to get out of that mental stress and breakdown and rises like a real legend.
IMDb ratings: 7.7/10
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Armin Mueller-Stahl
Noah Taylor
Geoffrey Rush
Lynn Redgrave
John Gielgud
Millennium Actress
This is an animation movie, directed by Satoshi Kon.This movie is shortly related to lives of Hideko Takamine and Setsuko Hara,two Actresses. In the movie ,the reality and the cinematic lives are openly disclosed.You will get to know the real life story behind every actor on screen and off-screen.
IMDb ratings: 7.9/10
Genre: Fantasy Drama
Starring: Miyoko Shoji
Mami Koyama
Fumiko Orikasa
Shozo Tsuda
Shozo Lizuka
Steve Jobs
Danny Boyle is the director of this movie. This movie is been awarded many renowned awards and recognitions like Golden glove award for best screenplay,academy awards,etc.The main character of the story is a businessman,Steve Jobs.He is a famous personality in business and marketing.But due to some problems he suffers professional and individual drawbacks.
IMDb ratings: 7.2/10
Genre: Drama
Starring: Michael Fassbender
Kate Winslet
Seth Rogen
Jeff Daniels
The Royal Tenenbaums
This is the story of three siblings, equally talented and gifted in their own ways, who tend to live away from each other due to some reason. They finally had to reunite as of hearing the news of their fathers’ bad health, who may die soon. Other than the serious storyline, this movie is full of drama and comedy.
IMDb ratings: 7.6/10
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Danny Glover
Gene Hackman
Bill Murray
Anjelica Huston
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
This movie is based on a true life story of a French Journalist. He mets with a stroke and gets paralyzed for whole life.The only way he can communicate is through his left eye,as no other part of his body is active after the stroke.Find out the challenges and hardships he goes through in his life by watching the movie.
IMDb ratings: 8/10
Genre: Drama
Starring: Mathieu Amalric
Emmanuelle Seigner
Marie-Josee Croze
Anne Consigny
Max von Sydow
Scent Of A Woman
IMDb rating
Rain Man
This is a great road drama movie featuring Tom Cruise in the role of Charlie Babbitt, who is shown as a selfish and mean wheeler-dealer. His father is a multimillionaire who left all his wealth to his other son after his death. Charlie kidnaps his brother and forces him to give all the property to him.
IMDb ratings: 8/10
Genre: Drama/Melodrama
Starring: Dustin Hoffman
Tom Cruise
Valeria Golino
Scent of a Woman
This is the story of a needy student who can do anything for money.He takes the job of a caretaker for a visually impaired man, who is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel.The colonel is a very unpredictable person who has his own plans.
IMDb ratings: 8/10
Genre: Drama/Coming of age
Starring: Al Pacino
Chris O’Donnell
Catch Me If You Can
Steven Spielberg is the director of this movie.This is the movie about a guy who uses different tricks to do fraud and earn a big amount.He mastered the skill of fraud so well that he was hired by FBI to help them catch forgers. This movie got so many positive reviews from the viewers both commercially and critically.
IMDb ratings: 8.1/10
Genre: Crime/Drama
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio
Tom Hanks
Christopher Walken
Nathalie Baye
Martin Sheen
Matilda
This is a fantasy comedy movie of a girl Matilda Wormwood.She uses her unusual brain powers to survive the oppression, ruthlessness and trauma given by her family and her Principal.A school teacher helps her deal with this situation and saves her from the bad behaviour of her Principal.This is a family movie.
IMDb ratings: 6.9/10
Genre: Family/Comedy
Starring: Danny DeVito
Rhea Perlman
Pam Ferris
Embeth Davidtz
Mara Wison
Conclusion
All these above-mentioned movies are filled with some or the other life lessons. Do watch them and get to know the bitter realities of life and the ways to face them boldly like the fictional characters in these movies did. Hope your search for the Best movies about geniuses ends here. Movies are great teachers, so make sure you are watching something worth it.Till then stay motivated,stay positive.