Trying to define what exactly an "existential" piece of art is is almost comical to pull off, because any work of art can make you question what it means to be human, what it means to be alive and have consciousness. I sat through Adam Sandler's "Click" back in the ninth grade and asked why I wasn't better off being dead; that movie was so bad it made me existential about my own mortality.

So here is our best approximations of what an existential film even is, and the best ones to watch on streaming services today, if you too are questioning your entire life at this point in history.

'Synecdoche, New York' (2008)

Maybe the saddest movie I'll ever recommend, this modern masterpiece from writer and director Charlie Kaufman might be the best film of the century. It runs through a man's life at the speed of light, as his theatrical project balloons all around him and encompasses his own life and everyone in it.

This is the type of movie that transcends the medium, and is so dense and layered it could take multiple rewatches until you finally get caught up on everything it's trying to do. This is a novel packed into a film, a tome of emotions and illnesses and lifetimes distilled into a bleak and hilarious examination of artists and their work

For fans of: "The Truman Show," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" and "Anomalisa."

Watch it on MUBI.

'A Serious Man' (2009)

This is the most personal movie Joel and Ethan Coen have ever made. It takes place in the '60s in Minnesota, which is when and where they grew up. The film is a Jewish story of Job, a man who keeps having his life go to ruin and every day asks why God is allowing these terrible things to happen to him.

But, it's infinitely more funnier than that set-up, because it's the Coen Brothers. Very dark, dry humor, a steel trap of a screenplay and a star turning performance by Michael Stulhbarg as Larry Gopnik.

For fans of: "Groundhog Day," "The Big Lebowski" and "Inside Llewyn Davis."

Rent the film.

'Brazil' (1985)

This is a futuristic roller coaster that's set in a far future sci-fi dystopia, where bureaucracy has taken over all aspects of life. When a fly gets caught in a machine and messes up some paperwork, one man becomes a fugitive of the state and goes on an adventure to destroy the government, with the help of Robert de Niro as a plumber.

You are not prepared for where this movie goes, and the questions it asks along the way.

For fans of: "The Trial," "The Matrix," "The Lobster" and "Stalker."

Rent the film.

'Ikiru' (1952)

Maybe the most pure existentialist film on this list, the plot sums up why it makes the cut: a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat struggles with the meaning of life in his final days. And, it's written and directed by Akira Kurosawa.

There isn't more I can say that should convince you to check it out, plus it's on Max right now!

For fans of: "Lost in Translation," "Birdman," "The 400 Blows" and "Bicycle Thieves."

Watch it with a Max subscription.

'Persona' (1966)

To describe what is going on in Ingmar Bergman's "Persona" is a futile exercise. It's allegedly about a nurse and her patient, but let me tell you that is the least of this movie's concerns.

No one can really agree on what this movie is about, because it's an avant-garde drama that touches on eroticism, breaking the fourth wall on filmmaking, vampirism, motherhood, abortion and so much more. It's an experimental breakthrough in visual art, time and space. And it's only 84 minutes long!

For fans of: "The Seventh Seal," "Wild Strawberries" and "8 1/2."

Watch it with a Max subscription.

'The Tree of Life' (2011)

Terrance Malick could easily dominate this list, but I decided to stick to his most expressionist movie, "The Tree of Life." It's hours of beautiful imagery, montage, music and a little bit of a family growing up in the '50s, I think.

The characters go to heaven — which is just a bunch of ghosts hanging out in a desert — we watch dinosaurs in the past, it goes through the history of living organisms on earth from its creation to its end, and will absolutely make you ponder your place in the universe.

For fans of: "The Fountain," "Breathless" and "Melancholia."

Rent the film.

'Solaris' (1972)

This got remade with George Clooney, so you could opt for that, but it won't really help explain anything about this story, of an astronaut who sees his dead wife on his spaceship.

Some people say this movie is boring, while others say it's too arty and slow. But we love to live in the gray area, the ambiguous place between meaning where the things on screen are there only to make you think and not to regurgitate another space epic.

For fans of: "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and "Primer."

Watch it here for free.

If you enjoyed this list, we have many more just like it here.

Update 8/15: A previous version misstated the year of "The Tree of Life."