Best Minimalistic Movies of Our Time

I was watching The Terminal with Tom Hanks again (hadn't seen it in years) when it occurred to me what fun it would be to compile a list of the best minimalist movies ever! I'll start off with my personal favorites. These are just the ones which immediately came to mind. I know I've forgotten some doozies, so bring 'em on. I promise you, I did not Google! Some of these I feel are minimalistic because they were made out of practically nothing. Others had a big budget with a simple yet beautiful theme, or characters living a simpler life:

1) Castaway
(Does it get any simpler than a guy marooned on an island? IMHO, he becomes his best self)

2) Clan of the Cave Bear
(Talk about traveling light and using what the earth has provided!)

3) The Terminal
(Bloom where you're planted. Victor finds a way to bloom over and over despite obstacles)

4) Open Water
(Miniscule budget, two actors treading water - clean, beautiful, moving performances)

5) Open Water II: Adrift
(Another small budget - great relationship dynamics, more actors treading water)

6) Before Sunrise
(2 people meet on a train and spend the one night they have walking around talking - nice)

7) Blair Witch
(Tiny budget - 3 kids, the woods and a lot of improvisation. Less is more scary, to me)

8) My Date with Drew
(One guy, one borrowed camera and one dream of lunch with a Hollywood starlet)

9) Grey Gardens
(Former socialite mother and daughter living in squalor - the focus is all relationship)

10) Big
(Walks away from his entire life, loses sight of what's important, but regains it in the end)

11) Being There
(Mentally disabled gardener ousted from his home discovers the world & enlightens it)

12) The Parrots of Telegraph Hill
(One guy living very simply as he cares for a flock of wild parrots)

13) My Life
(Terminally ill man trying to live long enough to see his son born - focus shifts to relationships)

14) One True Thing
(Daughter's values shift from career to family as she cares for her terminally ill mother)

15) The House of Sand and Fog
(Alcoholic woman loses her home & gains a new appreciation for life)

16) The Big Chill
(Group of college friends examine their lives & values after one of them commits suicide)

17) Off the Map
(An IRS henchmen's life is changed when it's saved by a family living very simply in desert)

18) The Bridges of Madison County
(A complicated love story during a simpler time out on an Iowa farm)

19) Spanglish
(Young mother & daughter flee Mexico with a couple of suitcases and a lot of hope)

20) What dreams May Come
(It doesn't get much more minimalistic than dying and leaving it all behind)

21) Shawshank Redemption
(Simple living, simple dream - freedom. Great relationships key to survival)

22) The Bucket List
(Time is running out. What's really important in th end?)

23) Chantilly Lace
(Completely improvised, a group of women reunite time and again, exploring their values)

24) Misery
(One hobbled novelist, one crazed fan, one doomed pig and lots of determination)

25) Finding Forrester
(Agoraphobic novelist revived by his accidental relationship with one budding writer)

26) Field of Dreams
(A guy, a field, a dream and a ghostly baseball team)

27) That thing You Do
(A group of young one-hit-wonders travels the country, learning about life & love)

28) Angela's Ashes
(Impoverished Irish family struggles to survive and produces Pulitzer Prize Winner)

29) Forest Gump
(Is Tom Hanks a closet minimalist? Am I outing him?) (Life through the eyes of an angel)

30) Jeremiah Johnson
(Aspiring mountain man braves the wilderness to build a simple life in nature)

31) Dances with Wolves
(Military man abandons his post to live a simpler life among Native Americans)

32) Into the Wild
(College grad abandons his life and society's rules on a pilgrimage to Alaska and peace)

33) An Angel for May
(A young boy accidentally travels through time to a simpler way of life & new family)

34) The Road
(A man and his boy trying to survive after the apolcalypse - pure relationship, pure inspiration)

35) Thelma & Louise
(2 women, one convertible and the road)

36) Over the Hedge
(Consumerism & selfishness vs. nature & family - beautiful and hilarious for all ages)

37) Nim's Island
(A man & daughter living on an island, separated then reunited by an agoraphobic novelist)

38) Flushed Away
(Roddy the rat flushed from his lonely life of privilege to discover friendship in the sewers)

39) Finding Nemo
(One fish's search for his son - no possessions - a story of friendship and determination)

40) Fly Away Home
(A man, his daughter and how they taught a flock of wild Canada geese to fly)

41) Charlotte's Web
(A little girl, a spider, a pig and a bittersweet display of ingenuity and friendship)

42) Babe
(One talking pig, no possessions, just a will to survive and color outside the lines)

43) Nell
(One woman secluded in a cabin for years, living in nature, can also be an incredible teacher)

44) Touching Wild Horses
(A broken woman & her orphaned nephew living on an island with wild horses)

45) Mr. Mergler's Gift
(One dying piano teacher discovers the student of a lifetime in a young Chinese girl)

46) Driving Miss Daisy
(One chauffeur, one stubborn old woman, a series of cars and layers of friendship)

47) Terms of Endearment
(Mother and daughter get to the bottom of their relationship and what's important)

48) Tuesdays with Morrie
(One dying teacher educates one misguided student in what's really important)

49) Regarding Henry
(One man's rebirth after a gunshot wound to the head - shallow jerk to childlike angel)

50) Pollack
( 2 painters, their life in the city, the country & her struggle to keep him alive, sober and painting)

I can't wait to read your favs! Some of these might seem like a stretch, but I have a feeling defending our favorites will be just as much fun as listing them... just a hunch :)