63
Items on this list73%
Average Rating124h 18m
Total Runtime$3.7B
Total Revenue1
Sophie's Choice
150: If you've seen the pivotal scene, you'll probably understand why I'll never watch this movie again. A brilliant Oscar-winning performance by Meryl Streep (playing a guilt-ridden Polish immigrant in post-war Brooklyn) deservedly made her a star.
Movie
December 8, 1982
2h 31m
$30M
2
The Founder
149: The perfectly-cast Michael Keaton plays McDonald's “founder” Ray Kroc in an absorbing biopic that nicely captures the genius and optimism and vulgarity of the American entrepreneurial spirit.
Movie
November 24, 2016
1h 55m
$24.1M
3
The Squid and the Whale
148: Two New York intellectuals undergoing a divorce inflict damage on themselves and their children. The father (an insufferable man-child played by Jeff Daniels) is one of the most punchable characters to ever appear on screen.
Movie
October 5, 2005
1h 21m
$11.1M
4
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
147: The best early Spielberg film because of its quirkier casting and more arresting visuals, interesting social-political underlays, and a screenplay that, unlike that of Jaws, doesn't lag toward the end.
Movie
December 14, 1977
2h 17m
$306.9M
5
Mulholland Drive
146: David Lynch's most ambitious movie is unconventional in structure, filled with irony and symbolism and weird imagery, and elusive in meaning. Polarizing when it was released. My date and I argued in the car for an hour about what it meant.
Movie
June 6, 2001
2h 27m
$20.3M
6
Crossing Delancey
145: This forgotten gem works because of the decency of the male protagonist, a Lower East Side pickle shop owner (Peter Riegert) in love with a woman who doesn't think he's good enough for her. The film delivers the happy ending he deserves.
Movie
August 17, 1988
1h 37m
$16.3M
8
All About Eve
143: An aging theater star (Bette Davis) views an admiring young actress with suspicion. Although it is the only film in Oscar history to receive four actress nominations, it's George Sanders as a caustic and cynical drama critic who steals the best scenes.
Movie
November 9, 1950
2h 19m
$8.4M
9
2001: A Space Odyssey
142: Yes, I realize this is one of the greatest movies in film history. But Kubrick's static and self-conscious style and glacial pacing leave me mostly cold, and so it ends up near the bottom of my list. Prescient and enormously influential.
Movie
September 27, 2018
2h 29m
$71.9M
10
The Last Picture Show
141: Peter Bogdonavich's acclaimed big studio directorial debut follows the generational rites of passage of high school friends (and peripheral adults) in a windswept and defeated Texas town in the 1950s. Bleak, elegiac, moving.
Movie
November 30, 1999
1h 59m
$29.1M
11
Se7en
140: A detective nearing retirement and his young partner try to stop a serial killer. Worth watching just for the workshop in naturalistic acting put on by Morgan Freeman — a stark contrast to the mannered efforts of Brad Pitt. The finale is (in)famous.
Movie
February 15, 1996
2h 7m
$327.3M
12
The End of the Tour
139: A journalist (Jesse Eisenberg) is assigned to interview the acclaimed writer David Foster Wallace (played by Jason Segel) at his home and on the final stop of a book tour. In this scene he asks Wallace about rumors of his heroin addiction.
Movie
July 31, 2015
1h 46m
$3M
13
In the Bedroom
138: Weighed down by regret and buried rage, a husband and wife grieve differently after their son is killed. Brilliantly acted (three Oscar acting nominations), Bedroom is a restrained but devastating film with no redemptive arc for its protagonists.
Movie
November 23, 2001
2h 10m
$44.8M
14
Take Shelter
137: A blue-collar family man in Ohio (Michael Shannon) is convinced that his town is going to be devoured in an apocalyptic storm. Shannon's powerful and haunting performance anchors a psychological thriller that keeps us guessing until the end.
Movie
September 30, 2011
2h 0m
$3.7M
15
The Passion of Joan of Arc
136: The only silent film to appear on my list, Carl Theodore Dreyer's masterpiece features the first truly great performance by an actor in cinema — Maria Falconetti as Joan — as well as Dreyer's groundbreaking cinematography.
Movie
April 21, 1928
1h 22m
$18.1K
16
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
135: A movie that somehow manages to be both wistful and violent. It makes my list because it's set in my favorite moment in American cultural history: The anxious and nearly-going-off-the-rails California of the late-60s and early-70s.
Movie
August 15, 2019
2h 42m
$392.1M
17
Ordinary People
134: An emotionally austere and perfectionist mother (Mary Tyler Moore brilliantly playing against type), a loving father, and a guilt-crippled son struggle in the aftermath of a family tragedy. Robert Redford's Oscar-winning directorial debut.
Movie
September 19, 1980
2h 4m
$54.8M
18
Synecdoche, New York
133: Its ideas are the ideas of literature, and they don't translate very well to the screen. You contend with two hours of Jungian and PoMo self-indulgence until you reach a sense-making and moving finale — the reason the film is on my list.
Movie
October 24, 2008
2h 4m
$4.4M
19
Kramer vs. Kramer
132: A film that went against the grain of the 70s by making a mother the (ultimately sympathetic) villain in a movie about divorce. The chemistry between Dustin Hoffman (the father) and Justin Henry (who plays his five year-old son) is memorable.
Movie
December 7, 1979
1h 45m
$106.3M
20
Three Colors: Blue
131: Brightening the tail end of the golden age of European art house cinema, each of the films in Krzysztof Kieślowski's “three colors” or "French flag" trilogy draws metaphorically from one of the French ideals (of liberty, equality and fraternity).
Movie
September 8, 1993
1h 38m
$1.5M
21
Three Colors: White
131: Brightening the tail end of the golden age of European art house cinema, each of the films in Krzysztof Kieślowski's “three colors” or "French flag" trilogy draws metaphorically from one of the French ideals (of liberty, equality and fraternity).
Movie
January 26, 1994
1h 32m
$1.3M
22
Three Colors: Red
131: Brightening the tail end of the golden age of European art house cinema, each of the films in Krzysztof Kieślowski's “three colors” or "French flag" trilogy draws metaphorically from one of the French ideals (of liberty, equality and fraternity).
Movie
May 12, 1994
1h 40m
$4.1M
23
L.A. Confidential
130: A modern noir, an LA period piece, a biting social commentary, a reflection on the human condition, a showcase for first-rate ensemble acting — a satisfying movie that's all of these, wrapped in an old-fashioned thriller.
Movie
November 20, 1997
2h 18m
$126.2M
24
Crazy Heart
129: The cliche of the down-and-out alcoholic country singer gets the Jeff Bridges treatment and becomes something real and deeply felt. Not as good a film as the similar Tender Mercies, but good enough to get Jeff Bridges the Oscar he had long deserved.
Movie
March 4, 2010
1h 52m
$47.4M
25
Amélie
128: This movie doesn't work without that face. And luckily Audrey Tautou has a good one. Thoroughly original, charming, visually luscious, bighearted, sentimental, very French.
Movie
December 31, 2001
2h 2m
$173.9M
26
The Last Seduction
127: A low-budget neo-noir thriller that gave us one of film's most memorable femme fatales thanks to a whip-smart script and Linda Fiorentino's coolly malicious lead. Imagine Double Indemnity's Barbara Stanwyck as a brunette, but eviler and hotter.
Movie
May 26, 1994
1h 50m
$5.8M
27
Rear Window
126: Hitchcock's sexual anxieties and pathologies start to appear in his movies in the 50s. Rear Window's thematic and metaphorical interests in voyeurism, passivity, impotence and fear of intimacy give the film an extra psychological heft.
Movie
October 7, 2008
1h 52m
$37M
28
Barcelona
125: How much of the film is earnest? How much of it is intended to be ironic? Or satirical? It's a Whit Stillman film. We're not supposed to ask. Another garrulous and quirky observation of WASP manners, but this time set in sensual Barcelona.
Movie
July 29, 1994
1h 40m
$0
29
Bottle Shock
124: A Paris-based wine merchant in the 70s discovers that California vineyards are producing great wines. A slight and fun (and imperfect) film loosely based on actual events that doesn't try to do anything other than tell a good story.
Movie
September 5, 2008
1h 50m
$4M
30
The Ice Storm
123: Yet another film about emotionally thwarted WASPs, set in the anxious 1970s. The scene at the center of the movie — an unsettling spouse-swapping "key exchange" at a party — gives way to tragedy and a final act that hits hard.
Movie
September 27, 1997
1h 52m
$8M
31
East of Eden
122: Elia Kazan's crisp but expansive direction and James Dean's mannered but potent method acting make the adaptation of John Steinbeck's repurposing of the Cain and Abel story memorable.
Movie
April 10, 1955
1h 55m
$0
32
Heat
121: A smart and sleek crime thriller that manages to elevate the cliches of the cop-chasing-crook genre to something textured, suspenseful and emotionally complex under the meticulous direction of Michael Mann.
Movie
February 29, 1996
2h 50m
$187.4M
33
Knife in the Water
120: Simmering sexual tension and the threat of violence hang over this understated psychological drama about three people on a sailboat. Roman Polanski's debut feature film (the only movie he ever made in his native Poland) does a lot with very little.
Movie
March 9, 1962
1h 34m
$0
34
Election
119: Alternating between light tragicomedy and playful if occasionally mordant satire, Election is a bleak (if superficially cheerful) observation of the moral corruption of politics, with an Omaha high school serving as the setting.
Movie
April 23, 1999
1h 43m
$14.9M
35
Starting Out in the Evening
118: After a long successful career as a stage actor, Frank Langella got his first truly meaty lead role in a film at age 70 as an emotionally-blocked writer falling for an ambitious and much-younger woman.
Movie
November 23, 2007
1h 51m
$0
36
Reds
117: Reds is too long, too forgiving of the politics of its characters, and too burdened by Warren Beatty's self-conscious acting. But as a glimpse of an interesting chapter in history it's compelling, and as a love story about two flawed people surprisingly moving.
Movie
December 25, 1981
3h 15m
$40.4M
37
Lost in America
116: A dryly funny satire in which an affluent couple decide to leave behind bourgeois comfort so they can “be free” and “touch Indians” by traveling around America in a luxury RV. But their plans get derailed when they lose money gambling in Vegas.
Movie
February 8, 1985
1h 31m
$10.2M
38
You Can Count on Me
115: Few movies concern themselves with relationships between sisters and brothers, and few also manage to portray their complicated and damaged protagonists as empathetically as this one does. An overlooked gem.
Movie
November 17, 2000
1h 51m
$11.2M
39
Zodiac
114: A gripping and almost dreamlike serial killer movie that gets most everything right, from its no-nonsense direction and brisk start-to-finish pacing to its dead-on period authenticity and unexpectedly brilliant appropriation of a Donovan song.
Movie
May 31, 2007
2h 37m
$84.8M
40
My Dinner with Andre
113: Two guys talking at a restaurant table for two hours. That's the entire movie.
The first time I saw it was with a girlfriend — she identified with the pretentious Luddite, and I with the down to earth mensch. Worst relationship I ever had.
Movie
October 11, 1981
1h 50m
$5.3M
41
Get Shorty
112: Like a lot of the best movies of the 90s, Get Shorty is violent, dryly funny, and driven by ambivalently likable characters. Intended to briskly entertain rather than edify, it nonetheless manages to sneak in a biting satire of Hollywood.
Movie
October 20, 1995
1h 45m
$115.1M
42
Being John Malkovich
111: It makes my list because it's so bracingly original and enormously inventive that it's hard not to admire. But on later viewings — the novelty having worn off — its thematic concern with identity and consciousness seems more cartoonish than deep.
Movie
October 29, 1999
1h 53m
$22.9M
43
Hoosiers
110: The basketball team from a tiny rural high school in Indiana makes it to the 1954 state championships. If you argued that this is the best feel-good sports movie ever made, I probably wouldn't have a very good rebuttal.
Movie
November 14, 1986
1h 54m
$28.6M
44
Anatomy of a Murder
109: An Otto Preminger-directed film that was unusual in its time for its naturalistic courtroom scenes, morally ambiguous characters, sexual candor and controversial “non-ending”.
Widely considered to be one the finest legal dramas ever made.
Movie
July 1, 1959
2h 41m
$8M
45
The Dig
108: A melancholic movie about a discovery made by a self-taught archaeologist on a wealthy young widow's property, distinguished by the rich and understated acting of Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan and the lyrical cinematography of Mike Eley.
Movie
January 29, 2021
1h 52m
$0
46
The Limey
107: An expertly crafted (and oddly overlooked) neo-noir revenge thriller from director Steven Soderbergh that features one 60s film icon (Terence Stamp playing an English career criminal) hunting down another (Peter Fonda playing a wealthy LA music producer).
Movie
October 8, 1999
1h 29m
$3.2M
47
The Accidental Tourist
106: An emotionally inert travel writer, unable to come to terms with the death of his son, meets a quirky dog trainer with a boy of her own, and defying every psychological defense he has painstakingly erected, finally allows an aperture to open.
Movie
December 23, 1988
2h 1m
$32.6M
48
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
105: The taut and unsentimental adaptation of John Le Carré's third novel brought a moral complexity and realism to a film genre that had come to rely upon simplistic good-evil binaries and gee whiz gadgetry.
Movie
December 16, 1965
1h 52m
$0
49
Incendies
104: After their mother's death in Canada, two daughters travel to war-torn Levant to uncover her mysterious past. The movie contains one of the most emotionally devastating scenes I've ever watched, as well as a truly shocking twist near the end.
Movie
September 17, 2010
2h 11m
$6.8M
50
Manhattan
103: Woody Allen's luminous Gershwin-drenched love letter to his hometown foreshadows many of the thematic interests of his later films, as well as, in its depiction of a romance between the protagonist and a teenage girl, his subsequent personal scandals.
Movie
April 25, 1979
1h 36m
$40.2M
51