Somewhat motivated by a chat with my friend Dilan Fernando as well as the Sight & Sound list that is published every ten years, at 43 years old I am now finally climbing every cinephile’s Mount Everest: a list of my favorite films ever. I hope reading this is as much fun for you as compiling it has been for me. All of these are movies that I own and watch repeatedly, and would recommend to most people.
1. Magnolia– Read my earlier blog post below this one.
2. The Departed– Martin Scorsese takes an amazingly accomplished script by William Monahan and brings to bear his infinite abilities, resulting in a 151-minute film that goes by like it’s 90 minutes without sacrificing an inch of its vast complexity and emotional power.
3. High Fidelity– If I am being honest with myself, the protagonist that John Cusack plays in this is the closest, along with Max Fischer in Rushmore, that a fictional character has come to being like the real me. That, plus an outstanding soundtrack, equals bliss.
4. Rushmore– For the reason stated above, and because Rushmore is both quite funny and sneakily minor-key.
5. The Tree of Life– A very complex film, though for all that it tugs at the heart a bit more than it teases my mind.
6. A Clockwork Orange– Stanley Kubrick’s disturbing satire is most definitely not for everybody, but the fact that it troubles me and makes me laugh in equal portions makes for a potent mix.
7. Clueless– A very, very funny movie, but what stands out even more is that it’s got its heart in the right place. The way so many of its characters decide to choose kindness and emotional generosity as the keys to living a great life is endlessly inspiring and quite moving.
8. Juno– Has the same strengths as Clueless, so they make a perfect double bill.
9. Terminator 2: Judgment Day– Action with a brain, ultimately about respecting life and living it to its fullest. Stocked with spectacular action setpieces and truly special effects, this movie is so entertaining and endlessly rewatchable. For such an action movie to also contain a scene in which a kid teaches a droid about when and why humans cry, and put tears in my eyes in doing so, lets me know that writer-director James Cameron is in The Zone.
10. The Matrix– To what I wrote above about Terminator 2, The Matrix adds life-saving, down-to-the-bone love. For even more of my thoughts on The Matrix, read this.
11. Raiders of the Lost Ark/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade– Steven Spielberg is the best director ever at entertaining the 8-year-old-boy that will always be inside me, and I’ve watched each of these two over 30 times and at no point have they aged or been any less entertaining than they’ve always been.
12. Star Wars: A New Hope/The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi– Basically the same comments as the previous entry, with George Lucas as the second-best-ever director at engaging 8-year-old-me.
13. Jackie Brown– Such a warm, funny, engaging, romantic movie, with Quentin Tarantino at the peak of his form.
14. Manhattan– Like many of the movies already on this list, Manhattan engages my head and my heart in so many ways: it’s in love with love but also with New York City; it’s in love with its characters but doesn’t hesitate to show them sometimes at their worst. Most importantly, it ends with a profound insight into human nature: you have to have faith in people.
15. Talk to Her– A film about how love has the equal propensity to enrich or destroy a life, Talk to her always moves me to tears. The fact that it’s in my mother tongue affects me dearly too.
16. Y tu mama tambien– An absolute love letter to my homeland, Mexico, in all its glory and also weakness.
17. Biutiful– An amazing Javier Bardem performance in an amazing film.
18. Pan’s Labyrinth– Rarely has a film contrasted the darkness of its themes with the exuberant joy of its making to the extent that it does here.
19. Lost in Translation– A beautiful movie, better experienced than written about, so just go watch it right now.
20. Silver Linings Playbook– Like in all great screwball comedies, and this one adds a lot of drama to that, the female lead, in this case Jennifer Lawrence, sets her eyes on getting her man and nothing, not his wedding ring, not the Philadelphia Eagles, not her being in mourning for her dead ex-husband, will stand in her way. This film sees life as a banquet with many great dishes, but you better come ready for anything or someone else is going to steal your plate.
21. The Insider– The best movie about journalism that these eyes have seen, it takes a very complex subject and makes it come alive through dynamic personalities and great tension.
22. Boogie Nights– PTA’s constantly moving camera dazzles, but what really stays with you is the characters experiencing a lot of heartbreak and, eventually, just a little transcendence.
23. Pulp Fiction– A relentlessly fun, very very entertaining movie, in love with cinema and its many possibilities.
24. The Royal Tenenbaums– With a killer soundtrack and Gene Hackman performance, and one of the most moving single lines in movie history (“I’ve had a rough year, Dad”), this film is full of wonders.
25. Goodfellas– Another relentlessly entertaining movie that makes 145 minutes feel like 90, and a landmark in Martin Scorsese’s career-long project in getting under the characters’ skins so much that you think he is endorsing their behaviour when he is really not.
26. Casablanca– Wartime intrigue, romance, comedy, and with the Nazis getting their comeuppance, this movie has it all.
27. Some like it hot– Marilyn Monroe sells sex, especially hers, in this movie so well that I almost forget all the other things this film is great at: it starts out as a crime film then pivots to a cross-dressing farce, it’s so funny and well-written, and all three leads are fabulous.
28. The Philadelphia Story– Funny, dazzlingly romantic, and extremely wise about human nature, even over 80 years after it was first released (“The time to make up your mind about people is never.”).
29. Almost Famous– The fact that Cameron Crowe is able to tell his own story without rose-colored glasses, especially the kindness and emotional generosity he gives to Frances McDormand’s and Kate Hudson’s characters, the mother and the groupie, marks this film as an all-time triumph of humanism.
30. Wonder Boys– Another warm comedy/drama with oodles of love and kindness for all of its characters.
31. Ghost World– Merely typing those two words into my list put tears in my eyes, that’s how special Ghost World is.
32. Apocalypse Now– A mad folly that could have ended in Martin Sheen’s or Coppola’s death, but instead found a great film in the midst of chaos.
33. Waking Life– Three cheers for a movie that uses animation in such a fascinating way.
34. The Shining– Jack Nicholson is the best over-the-top actor in movie history, and his performance and Kubrick’s artistry mark the most disturbing film I’ve ever seen, though it’s also far more entertaining than that makes it sound.
35. Sideways– Paul Giamatti makes a sad, flawed, ordinary guy very likeable despite his many flaws, and the film’s mix of the bitter and the sweet matches his effort. All hail Alexander Payne, a criminally unsung filmmaker!
36. All about my mother– The first flowering of Pedro Almodovar into the outstanding filmmaker that he hasn’t stopped being since.
37. Children of Men– Such a sad view of what the world could turn into if we are not careful, but it does give its characters a few moments of grace in the midst of much tragedy.
38. Three Kings– A total original, you start to think that Three Kings is a war movie but it’s really a very moving, heartfelt account of men finding their better selves.
39. Heat– Another blazing entertainment, in which 170 minutes go by like 120, and endlessly fascinating and rewatchable.
40. Out of Sight– Almost as cool a movie as Pulp Fiction, though a great deal sexier.
These next 10 films contain the same comment: they make me laugh so hard and so often that I can’t eat while watching them for fear of choking to death.
41. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
42. Superbad
43. Liar Liar
44. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
45. Billy Madison
46. The Hangover
47. What’s up, Doc?
48. Bridesmaids
49. The Jerk
50. Dumb and Dumber
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
51. Annie Hall– Funny, luminous, heartwarming, romantic, the birth of the modern romantic comedy begins right here.
52. There will be blood– Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis is awesome, but Paul Dano holds his own, and PTA has so much on his mind.
53. Jaws– A great entertainment that will never age.
54. 2001: A Space Odyssey– Truly, an astonishing film.
55. Requiem for a Dream– A public service announcement as much as a harrowing work of cinema: don’t do hard drugs!
56. The Station Agent– A film that speaks softly but has strong emotional power, it sneaks up on you and rewards multiple viewings.
57. The Shawshank Redemption– Contains a great lesson for living: have patience, bide your time, wait for your opportunity, then take advantage when you get it!
58. Election– Savagely funny, a great satire.
59. The Truman Show/Being John Malkovich– Both of these films were so ahead of their time in predicting that reality television and the internet would cause people to become “instant” celebrities, and what that might do to our culture.
60. Traffic– Very very smart yet very entertaining, a tough balance to pull off.
61. The Conversation– A paranoid classic, and one of the four films in a row that Francis Ford Coppola made that comprise one of the greatest hot streaks in cinematic history: The Godfathers I and II, this, and Apocalypse Now.
62. The Aviator– Along with Alice doesn’t live here anymore, this is the warmest that Scorsese ever gets towards his protagonist. DiCaprio, usually playing very flawed leads, clearly loves Howard Hughes, at least in this era, also.
63. Once upon a time in the west– The best western these eyes have seen, and Sergio Leone’s finest film.
64. Kill Bill Volume 1/Kill Bill Volume 2– As usual with Tarantino, these films’ love of cinema bursts right off the screen.
65. The Lady Eve– The kind of class-conscious, deeply wise comedy that never gets made anymore. Barbara Stanwyck gives a performance to savor.
66. Broadcast News– A sparkling romantic drama, with outstanding chemistry between the three leads. Holly Hunter, WOW!
67. His Girl Friday– More sterling comedy, with dialogue you can chew on for hours.
68. The Silence of the Lambs– A sneakily feminist serial killer drama, with two astounding performances by the leads.
69. Master and Commander: The far side of the world– Peter Weir is another director that deserves a lot more attention, and in this film he shows absolute control of the craft.
70. Unforgiven– A great revisionist western, and as with many of Clint Eastwood’s best films, a piercing look at the consequences of violence.
71. Inception– Like The Matrix and Terminator 2, great entertainment that also makes you think.
72. The Dark Knight– Same as above.
73. Hannah and her sisters– What a lovely film, compassionate and exceedingly generous to its characters.
74. Alien/Aliens– Two films that are quite different, made by quite different directors, but both are equally masterful.
75. Mulholland Drive– Burrowing deeply into this movie always scares me a little bit that I’ll never find my way back.
76. Bull Durham– I’m a major baseball fan and this is the best baseball movie ever made, so it’s a no-brainer for this list. Funny and sexy too.
77. Moonstruck/Big Night– Two films with big hearts, in love with Italy, America, and what the two cultures can bring to one another.
78. The Devil’s Backbone– Like Pan’s Labyrinth after it, a film documenting such painful emotions, but doing it in a loving, passionate way.
79. The Last Waltz– The best concert film I’ve ever seen.
80. The New World– A sublime film if there ever was one.
81. Vertigo– This film goes to very dark places and deals with such risky material, but it never sets a foot wrong.
82. Psycho– Deeply unsettling, but so so good that you enjoy the ride anyway.
83. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon– An awesome entertainment, and hasn’t aged a second since its release.
84. Face/Off– John Woo, Nicolas Cage, and John Travolta are all in The Zone, and the result is this amazingly fun ride.
85. Braveheart– Amazing, and amazingly violent.
86. Chinatown– A film very famous for its performances, but tops of all is John Huston, playing what might be the most vile man in film history.
87. Groundhog Day– The best kind of redemptive arc, about a sarcastic grouch who becomes, over a long time, a much better man.
88. The Rock– A brilliant ride, with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery playing off of each other as if they’ve known one another for decades.
89. Fargo– That the Coen Brothers can make such a panoramic look at life, and its many characters, in a mere 98 minutes is amazing.
90. The Big Lebowski– Another movie that could have only been made by the Coen Brothers, those kings of uniqueness.
91. Say Anything…– Cameron Crowe made this great tale of first love as his directorial debut, showing that he had the goods at the very beginning.
92. School of Rock– Instead of reading this list, get thee to a TV and watch this movie, right now!
93. The Heat– So funny, and with so much heart.
94. When Harry met Sally…– Same comments as the previous film.
95. Finding Nemo– A big part of Pixar’s freeing of animation from the shackles of “children’s entertainment.”
96. Wall-E– Same as above, part deux.
97. There’s something about Mary– Peak Cameron Diaz, funny, sexy, and romantic. The film is too.
98. L.A. Confidential– Scintillating cinema!
99. Casino Royale– The only James Bond film that is essential.
100. True Lies– James Cameron makes it look easy, with this spy film that is better than all of the James Bonds except the one above.
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