My All-time Favorite Movies
These movies hold a very special place in my heart, mind, and imagination. I'm not saying that these are incredible works of art (though some of them are). Just that they speak to me deeply and profoundly -- and I'd watch them over and over and over again.
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- DirectorHark TsuiStarsBrigitte LinSally YehCherie ChungThe movie is set in chaotic 1920's China, when warlords fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's underground movement tried to establish a democratic republic. The movie tells the story of three young women and two young men who are thrown together. One young woman grabs a box of jewels during the looting when one warlord takes Peking. A deserting soldier joins her, but the jewels end up at the Peking Opera. Here we meet the daughter of the head of the troupe, who dreams of being an actress. But even female roles are played by men in the opera. Soon, the daughter of the currently ruling warlord and a male agent of the democratic underground are involved.Pure cinematic joy, unencumbered by cynicism, irony, or contempt, and enlivened by the love of theater and performance. The Washington Post's Hal Hinson said it best: "What Hark configures here is a poetics of velocity." Though I love other films listed here more, this is the one movie I would take with me if I was stranded on a desert island and could only choose one film to watch over and over and over….
- DirectorShekhar KapurStarsCate BlanchettLiz GilesRod CulbertsonThe early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.The film itself is very, very good, but what makes this is an all-timer is watching Cate Blanchett become a star. She is absolutely perfect in the role of England's "Virgin Queen", and her transformation, emotionally and visually, from young princess in love to untouchable royalty is pure awesome. I said after the movie was released that Blanchett would never have as good a role as this one, and I've been right so far. A "star-making turn" is an over-used cliche in the movie business, but this really is.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsKåre HedebrantLina LeanderssonPer RagnarOskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.A Nordic coming-of-age story, with an underage vampire girlfriend -- creepy and sweet! This movie displays an impeccable tonal balance (one or two degrees to one side or the other and it completely fails) that comes out of a true understanding of the main characters. Despite the absolutely ridiculous story, universal truths about children-turning-into-adolescents, bullying, broken families, and the need to be understood come through ice-coldly. Lina Leanderson is terrific.
- DirectorMartin CampbellStarsDaniel CraigEva GreenJudi DenchAfter earning 00 status and a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro.I maintain that this is the best James Bond to date. It's shockingly violent, visceral, masculine, and decidedly analog. It's also nuanced, heart-rending, and smart. Judi Dench's M has never been better, Eva Green's Vesper is a brilliant foil, and oh, Daniel Craig -- what a James Bond for the 21st century. How do you update something archaic-yet-appealing, someone who is anachronistic-yet-enduring? This is how.
- DirectorLen WisemanStarsKate BeckinsaleScott SpeedmanBill NighyPicking up directly from the previous movie, vampire warrior Selene and the half werewolf Michael hunt for clues to reveal the history of their races and the war between them.Actually, I'm staking this to the entire trilogy, i.e., the first three movies. My take: If Shakespeare had been alive today, he would've written and staged the Underworld movies.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.This movie about movies and dreams is a dream itself. Almost ten viewings and I still don't get a lot of it. But I know it's genius, and I know it moves me to tears. Shocking how something so big-budgeted, so carefully crafted and so full of gunfire and chases and fights could be so intimate and thoughtful, too. I suspect Christopher Nolan will never top this. I suspect most directors will never top this.
I love all the movies on my list here, but I don't say this about most of them: Inception will be seen and remembered as one of the greatest movies of all time. - DirectorNeill BlomkampStarsSharlto CopleyDavid JamesJason CopeViolence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.This is what "speculative fiction", to use the frontal-lobe term for sci-fi, is all about: Using the future or an alternate past to talk about the present. In the case of this bracing movie, the talk is about racism, or, less politically, "otherness", as in "alien". But unlike Alien, which is about cancer (yeah, I said it and I may be right), District 9's aliens could be ethnic minorities ... specifically black people. But, really, the film is about how otherness allows people to oppress, exploit, and humiliate fellow beings.
The movie is also a brilliant critique of the military-industrial complex, but it has its cake and eats it, too. What great visceral pleasure there is in watching those alien weapons at work! - DirectorJ.J. AbramsStarsChris PineZachary QuintoSimon PeggThe brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.Now this is how your reboot a pop-culture franchise. Smart, intelligent, knowing, and fun, this Star Trek takes great narrative and diegetic liberties ... but earns them all. It is an amazingly difficult high-wire act to balance between the knowledge and expectations of Trekkies versus the unwashed masses who just want a good sci-fi flick. This movie pulls it off. I love also all the little twists and surprises (Spock and Uhura, hello!).
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSusan SarandonGeena DavisHarvey KeitelTwo best friends set out on an adventure, but it soon turns around to a terrifying escape from being hunted by the police, as these two women escape for the crimes they committed.Arguably Ridley Scott's finest film, most probably because it was the finest source material he's ever had to work from. So fundamentally feminist and so fiercely all-of-a-piece - Khouri deserved the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay that she won that year. I have watched this movie nearly ten times, and each viewing reveals just how beautifully acted, perfectly shot and edited, and finely soundtracked it is. Geena Davis, in particular, is a revelation.
Ironic, or perhaps totally fitting, that it took a European to craft the perfect American road movie. Thelma and Louise speaks to something very deep inside me. - DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonEdward FurlongA cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.Actually, this should be both the first "The Terminator" movie and its sequel. Two of the best B-movies ever made.
The original had a sci-fi time-twisty plot that you can chew on for years, plus a strangely barren Los Angeles setting that somehow seems much more meaningful than it probably is. Michael Biehn is terrific and Schwarzenegger has never been used to better effect.
The sequel has some of the best 1990s-era set pieces, Hollywood-style, ever executed. AND a Linda Hamilton-as-maternal-action hero turn that still incites shouts of "yeah!" from audiences of both genders. - DirectorJûzô ItamiStarsKen WatanabeTsutomu YamazakiNobuko MiyamotoA truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.Truly delicious. An Eastern noodle Western, rather than an Italian spaghetti Western - engaging and witty and funny and fun. You cannot watch this movie and not be ravenous by the end.
- DirectorSiu-Tung ChingStarsJet LiBrigitte LinMichelle ReisLing Wu Chung decides to hide from the chaotic world. Before leaving, he visits his friends, a tribe of snake-wielding women warriors. However, he finds that the tribe have been attacked, and their leader Yam Ying Ying has been abducted.What can you say about a story wherein an evil warload castrates himself and becomes a woman in order to gain invincible martial arts skill? Both films exist like hyper-kinetic supernatural dreams - blood gushes from wounds, hearts explode from chests, warriors run through the air, needle-and-thread can kill. Yet this chaos is artfully and vibrantly orchestrated with nuance and pathos. Brigitte Lin is a Star of the highest magnitude - you cannot keep your eyes off her. Also, a gender-twisted subtext that is the stuff of Ph.D. dissertations.
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.I was ten years old when I saw Star Wars in a movie theater (!) and it changed my life. I saw it at least a dozen times that summer and have seen it dozens of times since my childhood. And it never gets old. The later sequels and prequels and lateral expansions vary in epic-itude but are highly commendable overall as contemporary imagined mythology. But it is the seminal work ... Lucas' boyish wonder and imagination translated through a familiarity with 20th century cinema, ILM's still-fantastic model-based special effects, John Williams' incredible symphonic score, Ben Burtt's unmatched sound design ... that holds a special place in my heart.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyWith the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.Still the best Star Trek movie ever. The best-written and best-acted, capturing the very soul of Star Trek in a way none of the other movies has. Best use of Shakespeare in any ST film, too. For me, the definitive ST movie.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsJack BlackMike WhiteJoan CusackAfter being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band.This is the movie Jack Black was born to make. Perfectly balanced between cute and rockin'. Truly funny. Truly heart-warming. Not a false note (ha!) in the entire movie. And the children, ah, the children!
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsJean RenoGary OldmanNatalie Portman12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.Do not be distracted by (i) Besson's completely unrealistic rendering of Manhattan, (ii) puritanical tizzies over so-called "pedophilia" subtext, or (iii) Oldman's campy performance. This is a brilliant film. It is a love story, a mentoring fable, and, above all, a surgical deconstruction of American action films. Consider: In 1994 when Léon, as it was titled in France, was released, so was The Specialist, a standard Hollywood actioner starring Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. In Luis Llosa's movie, Stone's character hires Stallone's "specialist" to kill the people who murdered her family when she was a girl. In Besson's film, Portman's girl wants Reno's hitman to train her to become an assassin so she can kill the DEA agents who murdered her family. Stallone ends up battling CIA agents. The parallels are fascinating - even the title of Besson's movie is a rebuttal to American action movie-making: professional rather than clumsy. The set pieces, and there are only three, are marvelous in their precision and pacing. But ultimately, the brilliance of the film comes down to the relationship between Portman and Reno. The emotional impact resonates for a long spell.
- DirectorDavid YatesStarsDaniel RadcliffeEmma WatsonRupert GrintAs Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.I've watched all the Harry Potter movies several times and this is my favorite one. The tone, look, and most importantly, the emotional depth of this installment gets me every time. By now, the students at Hogwarts have passed firmly into adolescence and their grappling with adult themes and issues is compellingly depicted. And that dovetails perfectly with the thematic arc of the HP series itself ... from fun to wizardry to evil to sacrifice to death and, finally, to love.
A very close second is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, with its spectacular assault on Hogwarts, its incredible Harry-versus-Voldemort showdown, and most of all, the big Snape reveal (so, the whole story has really been about Snape!). But there is a crisp, dimensional and aching power in Half-Blood Prince that puts it into my all-time favorites list. - DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.This is not a "virtual reality" movie a la the dreadful Johnny Mnemonic (ironic that Reeves plays the hero in that dog as well). Instead, this comic book-styled action theology epic is the first great computer-game movie a la Doom, Quake, and Marathon. Therefore, the movie is more in the mold of Streetfighter: The Movie (but don't let that comparison scare you away). It's also the first American action flick to finally capture the giddy essence of Hong Kong kung-fu movies (since the Wachowski brothers had the inspiration to hire Yuen Wu-Ping, a veteran kung-fu action choreographer known for his high-wire stuntwork). The movie combines adolescent existential themes (meaninglessly meaningful) with a Reeves whose blankness is only matched by his pan-sexual allure to achieve a sort of post-modern classic status. Someday there will be no distinction between computer gaming and watching Hollywood movies - and The Matrix will be looked back upon as the first [un]real step in that direction.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsChow Yun-FatDanny LeeSally YehA disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded."Heroic bloodshed", "balletic violence", "operatic carnage" … clichés by now, but accurate descriptions of this paradigm-shifting movie. The truest distillation of what Woo and Chow Yun-fat are about (as seminal as Scorsese's Taxi Driver starring De Niro), this incredibly sentimental (and stupendously homoerotic) ode to honor and loyalty puts most Hollywood "action" movies to shame. Woo's use of the camera is like kineticism invented anew. Chow's portrayal of the last honorable assassin is iconic. So good it makes you hate all the imitations and "homages" that have followed.
- DirectorPatricia RozemaStarsSheila McCarthyPaule BaillargeonAnn-Marie MacDonaldScatterbrained Polly gets a job as a secretary in Gabrielle's art gallery. Polly aspires to be a professional photographer, and idolizes Gabrielle for her artistic ability. When Gabrielle rekindles an old romantic relationship with the younger painter Mary, Polly becomes jealous, and discovers Gabrielle is not who she claims to be.This film was a revelation to me when I first saw it in college. How original, how lyrical, how wonderful, I thought! Also, deeply feminist. But it's no political melodrama or agit-prop artifact … it's true independent cinema, shot through with sensitivity and ingenuity. What's it about? Art, authorship, and indentity. I'll leave it at that and urge you to find a copy to screen yourself. Sheila McCarthy's shy, painful, hilarious, and ultimately touching performance is unforgettable.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroVal KilmerA group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.Mike Clark of USA Today said this is a film of "staggering technical virtuosity and rare psychological depth" and I couldn't agree more. This is a flawed masterwork. It's too short at two hours and 45 minutes; some of its flaws -- partially painted minor characters, sub-subplots -- would be erased had it run three and a half. And I would gladly watch the longer version. Mann has crafted an exciting and beautiful epic about professional obsession and men losing themselves in their work in order to find their identities. The acting is marvelous throughout and the set pieces, oh the set pieces ... each is an epic in and of itself. The bank heist+shootout in the middle of the film ranks with the hospital seige in Hard Boiled, the ship sinking in Titanic, the rescue of Morpheus in The Matrix, and the shogun battles in Ran. Also worth noting: This is one of the finest "LA movies" ever made, capturing the sleek soul and wide horizontal beauty of the city of angels.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsChow Yun-FatMichelle YeohZiyi ZhangA young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.So it took a soft-spoken, mild-mannered Taiwanese immigrant who went to NYU film school to craft the most successful martial-arts crossover movie ever. No wonder. A delicate melding of HK chop-socky sensibilities with American art-house cinema, Crouching is near-perfect in its balance. The movie is artful without be arty, epic without being ponderous, and visceral without being heartless. Also brilliant: How the movie is really about the female characters -- but guys don't notice it. Superb and special and one-of-a-kind.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsBrigitte LinTakeshi KaneshiroTony Leung Chiu-waiTwo melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.Lyrical, impressionistic, startling, and resonant. How many films can you accurately describe that way? I have been in love (I still am), I have been lonely and wanting a way out, I have felt lost in the big city, and I have been struck dumb by moments of coincidence, whimsy, and happenstance ... this movie captures all those feelings perfectly - wrapped around a subtext of China's reclamation of Hong Kong and all the anxieties and uncertainties that brought. The emotional pitch of the film is astounding. And the humor and smile-inducing moments are truly original. Absolutely lovely.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.I love the original theatrical versions but the director's cut is clearly superior ... and actually quite a different movie compared to the original. The removal of Harrison Ford's dubbed narration (so poorly written in the first place), the inclusion of a five-second "dream" sequence in the middle, and theoriginal ending (minus the tacked-on "happy" ending with borrowed footage from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining) combine to make the director's cut much more ambiguous and ruminative. Because of the lack of narration, viewers are drawn deeper into the still-astounding visuals - the film is an unsurpassed marvel of production design - and can better appreciate the multi-layered soundtrack (Vangelis' score is haunting). The fact that this film has been copied repeatedly in look, feel, and style for two decades is a testament to Scott's and his team's brilliance. And the visual effects . . . Douglas Trumbull proves conclusively that, at least at the end of the 20th century, physical miniatures and actual lighting still best CGI, hands down.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.This is critically lazy of me, but so be it: Amelie is a French Chungking Express. C'est magnifique!
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.Truth be told, Ridley Scott's Alien is probably a better piece of cinema, but the two films aren't worth comparing because they're so different. Cameron's action tour de force is a maternal war movie. It set the standard, still unsurpassed, for female action heroines in the scripting and performance of Weaver's Ripley. Note: The "Special Edition" released on DVD is qualitatively different because of 17-minutes' worth of previously edited-out footage.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungTony Leung Chiu-waiChang ChenA couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
- DirectorWayne WangStarsTamlyn TomitaRosalind ChaoKieu ChinhThe life histories of four East Asian women and their daughters reflect and guide each other.
- DirectorGareth EdwardsStarsFelicity JonesDiego LunaAlan TudykIn a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsNicolas CageHolly HunterTrey WilsonWhen a childless couple--an ex-con and an ex-cop--decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated.