English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In Czech we say it's "viewer-demanding" (divácky náročný). This can either mean it's "a movie that requires deep comprehension on the part of hte viewer" or that it's "a movie that requires being an artist or a movie critic".
How could I say something like:
The OA is not a series for the late Sunday night. It requires you to concentrate and to be sensitive to every little allusion in the way people speak.
Is there a similar idiom in English?
Is this film not for the general public because it's offensive to some people or because it's intellectually demanding so that many people won't enjoy it?
In the first case we might in the US say the film is "X-rated" (if it has extremely graphic sexual content) or "R-rated" (if it is not suitable for children due to suggestive sexual content or violence) or "for mature audiences".
In the second case, we might call the film an "art film".
To add on to Photon's answer:
An intellectual film
A thought-provoking film
An art / art-house / artsy film
A specialty film.
In some cases these might be also called "experimental" films or "independent" films.
