An exhilarating tear-jerker of an adventure

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2016)

Without doubt one of the greatest feel-good pieces of cinema of the last 30 years, and the rightful winner of a bunch of academy awards including best picture, director, cinematography, and soundtrack.
Tom Hanks won yet another Oscar his portrayal of the title character, a dim-witted but kind and courageous boy growing up in the deep South of the USA in the 1950s. He proceeds to have the most extraordinary life, stumbling through a plethora of significant historical moments of the 20th century, as he pines after his one true love, childhood sweetheart Jenny.
Whether outrunning his school yard bullies, or running into Charlie's bullets in Vietnam, Zemeckis paints each moment with dramatic and cinematic artistry that would easily grace modern digital epics. It's a fantasy, a fable, a microcosm of human experience – of joy and sorrow, friendship and war, love and death. Really, it's that good.
p.s. If you feel like having your mind blown, I recommend you check out the Cracked Podcast episode on movie fan theories - the Forrest Gump one makes so much sense and will make it impossible for you to watch this film in the same way ever again.