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My notes:
1) 12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed By: Sidney Lumet, Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall
- one of my all time faves, this is shot like a live tv drama, wherein reason overtakes prejudice, the individual stands up to the mob, and justice prevails. Its the way you wish it were, instead of how it is.
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick, Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
- Kubrick's trippy take on human evolution is ponderous and beautiful and incoherent. I don't think it has dated well.
3) The 400 Blows (1959)
Directed By: Francois Truffaut, Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Patrick Auffay
- saw it in film class but don't remember it at all. I do remember Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT, which probably says more about me than either movie.
4) 8 ½ (1963)
Directed By: Federico Fellini, Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee
- I've never been able to get thru this one, though i did love LA STRADA, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA and AMARCORD. As far as a director's self-indulgent auto-biopic goes, I prefer Fosse's ALL THAT JAZZ.
5) The African Queen (1952)
Directed By: John Huston, Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley
- Huston's uncharacteristically beautiful and romantic middle-aged love story in the jungle, against the backdrop of WWII… still works. The same can’t be said for a lot of other movies of this period.
6) Alien (1979)
Directed By: Ridley Scott, Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright
- The quintessential haunted house movie in outer space, where no one can hear you scream. It spawned careers and many imitators, and is deservedly considered a classic.
7) All About Eve (1950)
Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
- Hollywood in-joke still has some bite, but now it’s all a bit silly and dated.
8) Annie Hall (1977)
Directed By: Woody Allen, Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
- Woody makes the transition from jokester to critically acclaimed auteur. Still one of his best.
9) Apocalypse Now (1979)
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola, Starring: Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall
- Vietnam on acid; Oliver Stone can’t touch it.
10) The Battle of Algiers (1967)
Directed By: Gillo Pontecorvo, Starring: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag
- Saw it in a film studies class; I have no memory of it.
11) The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Directed By: Vittorio De Sica, Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
- DeSica’s masterpiece about the lengths we will go to protect our children can still break your heart. An absolutely defining moment of post-war European cinema. It’s the reason why they didn’t really need to film Cormac MacCarthy’s THE ROAD.
12) Blade Runner (1982)
Directed By: Ridley Scott, Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
- Ridley Scott’s accidental masterpiece defined SF filmmaking for generations after. I try to watch it at least 1x per year (the original theatrical release, not the moronic “director’s cut”)
13) Blazing Saddles (1974)
Directed By: Mel Brooks, Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens
- Sketch comedy gone mad, the highs of mel brooks western spoof outweigh the lows. This was the first “R” movie I went to, and times have changed to such a degree I don’t think a white director could get away with this movie these days. And that’s not a good thing.
14) Blow Up (1966)
Directed By: Michelangelo Antononi, Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles
- After enduring some other Antonioni films, I’ve elected not to see this one, though I hear it’s by far his most watchable work.
15) Blue Velvet (1986)
Directed By: David Lynch, Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper
- Weirdness for its own sake, but not without its charms. I prefer ERASERHEAD which doesn’t pretend to make sense.
16) Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Directed By: Arthur Penn, Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
- Controversial in its day for its blend of violence and black comedy, as well as its sympathetic treatment of the titular characters, it predated Peckinpah’s stylistically similar (and similarly received) WILD BUNCH. It remains strikingly modern in its approach, and thoroughly entertaining in its style.
17) Breathless (1960)
Directed By: Jean-Luc Godard, Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
- One of the few examples of the Nouvelle Vague that I could sit thru, Godard’s modern “gangster on the run” love story spins the genre on its head.
18) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Directed By: David Lean, Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins,
- Epic filmmaking in the final days of the studio system, I never had much attachment to this one.
19) Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Directed By: Howard Hawks, Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn
- This one put the screwballs into screwball comedy; often imitated, never duplicated.
20) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed By: George Roy Hill, Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
- Genial western about the end of the west was the end of the western. Still great, even if raindrops were fallin on their heads.
21) Casablanca (1942)
Directed By: Michael Curtiz, Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
- This was Pauline Kael’s answer to the Auteur Theory. Sometimes great movies don’t live up to their press (or don’t age well at least) and sometimes they most certainly do...guess which type this one is.
22) Chinatown (1974)
Directed By: Roman Polanski, Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
- The true story of the corruption at the heart of LA’s founding is buried beneath the fictional corruptions on its surface. You can’t forget it, Jake… its Chinatown.
23) Citizen Kane (1941)
Directed By: Orson Welles, Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
- Another masterpiece that has survived its own reputation, Welles’ cinematic roman a clef uses every trick in the book (and a few he made up) to create a mult-faceted gem about the unknowability of truth.
24) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Directed By: Ang Lee, Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang
- The Hong Kong martial arts “wire” movie gets a big budget Hollywood face lift without losing the heartfelt quality of its central love story. Beautiful, spectacular.
25) Die Hard (1988)
Directed By: John McTiernan, Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman
- Sure, its clichéd now, but it invented a lot of those clichés. Fun, but hasn’t dated well and doesn’t deserve to be on this list.
26) Do the Right Thing (1989)
Directed By: Spike Lee, Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee
- Stylish look at racism on a hot Brooklyn afternoon, it introduced a new and singular vision. Too bad spike hasn’t lived up to his early promise.
27) Double Indemnity (1944)
Directed By: Billy Wilder, Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
- The definitive noir, by one of the definitive auteurs of his generation.
28) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick, Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
- The darkest and heavy-handedest (?) of satires, yet still surprisingly spry and, unfortunately, still relevant.
29) Duck Soup (1933)
Directed By: Leo McCarey, Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx
- My favorite Marx Bros movie is a totally anarchic anti-war film without attempting to dilute it with a silly love story.
30) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg, Starring: Dee Wallace Stone, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore
- Emotionally manipulative? Sure? Artifice over art? Maybe. Overrated? Bite me.
31) Enter the Dragon (1973)
Directed By: Robert Clouse, Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly
- The one that introduced Bruce Lee to mainstream American stardom and subsequent death. No, not a great movie, but not without its own enjoyable qualities, and you can see the Lee charisma rising out of it like a phoenix.
32) The Exorcist (1973)
Directed By: William Friedkin, Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair
- Top 100 all time? Really? I mean, it’s ok, and certainly made a splash in its day, but the green pea soup didn’t make me jump, even when I was 12. And, according to the TV version, her mother sewed socks that smelled, which, while gross, certainly didn’t generate much of a fear factor.
33) Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
Directed By: Amy Heckerling, Starring: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold
- This teen coming of age comedy launched many careers and is still both true and hot to the teenager inside me.
34) The French Connection (1971)
Directed By: William Friedkin, Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider
- Friedkin gets 2 in the top 100? This one at least is worth discussing. Its gritty documentary style gave great energy to an otherwise generic cop film.
35) The Godfather (1972)
36) The Godfather II
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola, Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan,
- Together, these films tell an epic family saga that portrays the dark side of the American Dream. Actually, Coppola’s edited version for television (the Godfather Saga) combines the 2 movies in a more or less chronological structure that works in a different way from the 2 separate films, and deserves to be honored here as well.
37) Goldfinger (1964)
Directed By: Guy Hamilton, Starring: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman
- Often cited as the best of the Bonds, and it’s hard to argue. It provided the template for the modern action film, even if Bond was rendered obsolete in the modern age.
38) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
Directed By: Sergio Leone, Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
- This, the 3rd of Leone’s spaghetti western “man with no name” trilogy starring Eastwood, is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s hard to appreciate today, what with attention spans the length of a flea’s dick, that Leone could maintain a shot for MINUTES at a time, all the while building energy, tension, drama… it is operatic, in the best way possible.
39) Goodfellas (1990)
Directed By: Martin Scorsese, Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
- Not the best Scorsese movie, by a long way. Sure, it’s funny, dark, gritty, compelling, and totally deromanticizes the gangster film (the anti-godfather, if you will), but Ray Liotta is a big hole in the middle of this donut. Give me RAGING BULL right here.
40) The Graduate (1967)
Directed By: Mike Nichols, Starring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross,
- This satire of Middle Class morality was the right movie at the right time. Its heavy-handedness has not allowed it to age well, but it’s still worth seeing to see who we were, at a particular time and place. And I still wonder what is going through their heads at the end, in the back of that bus.
41) Grand Illusion (1938)
Directed By: Jean Renoir, Starring: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
Renoir’s anti-war film is the kind of ant-war film that would increase enlistment. It’s overrated, especially compared to Renoir’s subsequent dark comedy of manners, RULES OF THE GAME, or the modern anti-war movie that openly mocks it, THE STUNT MAN (1980)
42) Groundhog Day (1993)
Directed By: Harold Ramis, Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott
- A surprisingly moving romance that doesn’t allow itself to forget it’s a comedy. One of Bill Murray’s best works. Forget Groundhog’s day; it should be watched every Valentine’s day.
43) A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Directed By: Richard Lester, Starring: The Beatles
- The first mockumentary, or long-form music video, it still has a chaotic, absurd, pythonesque quality that keeps it surprisingly fresh and watchable.
44) In the Mood For Love (2001)
Directed By: Wong Kar-Wai, Starring: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
- I have not yet seen this Chinese romantic melodrama.
45) It Happened One Night (1934)
Directed By: Frank Capra, Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
- Capra-Corn doesn’t age well, but this romantic comedy still has a little sizzle.
46) It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Directed By: Frank Capra, Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
- I find this holiday classic, about a guy who was forced to give up all his dreams under the burden of familial obligations, to be endlessly depressing. But maybe it’s just me.
47) Jaws (1975)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg, Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Often credited (or blamed) for establishing the modern Hollywood blockbuster, it’s still a brilliantly crafted little monster movie that kept me out of the ocean for a summer or 2.
48) King Kong (1933)
Directed By: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Shoedsack, Starring: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong
- The original 1-and-only, better than either of its remakes.
49) The Lady Eve (1941)
Directed By: Preston Sturges, Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
- The unique charm of Sturges comedies should be celebrated whenever possible. They blend verbal sparring, sexual sophistication, and superior slapstick in an ageless stew of high and low comedy. And this isn’t even the best one.
50) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Directed By: David Lean, Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn
- Unlike KWAI, this Lean epic has not dated a bit, due to the moral ambiguity at its core. O’Toole is one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived, and this is his shining moment.
51) The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)
Directed By: Peter Jackson, Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen
- These amazing adaptations of Tolkein’s unadaptable fantasy epic capture the spirit, language and tone of the works while making them a uniquely cinematic experience. The greatest film fantasy epic ever told.
52) M (1931)
Directed By: Fritz Lang, Starring: Peter Lorre, Theodor Loos, Otto Wernicke
- Saw this one at a rep theater 20 years ago, playing on a double bill with METROPOLIS, and was generally unimpressed, except for a single shot of a child’s ball rolling away. I’ve seen much more engaging examples of German expressionism.
53) M*A*S*H (1970)
Directed By: Robert Altman, starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt
- Whether classified as a standard issue “service comedy” or an iconoclastic anti-war statement from the 60s, this darkly funny and brutal Altman tale of a MASH unit in “Korea” (ie., Vietnam) still has wit and bite and established Altman as a unique filmmaker. And that is one heckuva football game!
54) The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Directed By: John Huston, Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet
- Huston birthed the noir genre with this Chandler adaptation. It’s the stuff dreams are mad of.
55) The Matrix (1999)
Directed By: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
- It captured BLADERUNNER’S mantle as most influential SF movie of the modern era. Hell, I even liked the sequels.
56) Modern Times (1936)
Directed By: Charlie Chaplin, Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
- Before taking on Hitler, Chaplin’s target was nothing less than the dehumanization of industrial labor… communism with laughs. He created iconic imagery. Well worth a look.
57) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Directed By: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
- Absurdity stares at its own navel and announces itself to be a knight that says “Nee!” I’ve memorized the movie. My wife wonders why, but, like most modern art, explanation renders it inert.
58) National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Directed By: John Landis, Starring: John Belushi, Tim Matheson
- I was a college freshman when this landmark comedy came out, making it a formative movie of my college days, thus rendering me utterly unobjective on the subject of its greatness.
59) Network (1976)
Directed By: Sidney Lumet, Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
- It’s surprising how much heavy-handed satire makes this top 100 list. But it was pretty potent in its day, and the Ned Beatty speech should be shown to every class of MBA students on the planet.
60) Nosferatu (1922)
Directed By: F.W. Murnau, Starring: Max Schreck, Gustave Von Wagenheim, Greta Schroeder
- Slow, creepy, ponderous Dracula story, made fascinating by Marnau’s expressionistic lighting and design, and Schreck’s performance which made it seem as if Murnau had simply found a vampire to cast in the leading role. But frankly, I prefer Herzog’s remake.
61) On the Waterfront (1954)
Directed By: Elia Kazan, Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
- This “actor’s studio” movie reads like Kazan’s apologia for informing on his compatriots during the McCarthy era. Still, it’s a potent drama, and Brando is as iconic a figure as has ever graced the silver screen.
62) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Directed By: Milos Forman, Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield
- Ken Kesey’s ode to doomed individuality is perfectly captured by Milos forman, with a big assist by Jack Nicholson.
63) Paths of Glory (1958)
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick, Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou
- An anti-war film about WWI, Kubrick’s breakthrough movie deserves recognition if only for his tracking shots thru the trenches. But its got a lot more going for it than that.
64) Princess Mononoke (1999)
Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki, Starring: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver
- It’s ok, but I could think of a dozen better anime features to consider for such a list.
65) Psycho (1960)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock, Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh
- Sure, why not. Just cut out the last 5 minutes of psycho-babble.
66) Pulp Fiction (1994)
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino, Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman
- Tarantino’s circular bloodbath of pop cultural references is greater even than the sum of its not inconsiderable parts. Right honey bunny? It’s so good, in fact, I won’t even hold the reemergence of John Travolta against it.
67) Raging Bull (1980)
Directed By: Martin Scorsese, Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty-Gentile, Joe Pesci
- Now, we’re talkin! Scorsese and DeNiro at their absolute peak. Tragic, comic, violent, profound… one of the 10 greatest movies ever, much less top 100.
68) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg, Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
- Wow, Spielberg was on quite a roll, when he turned George Lucas’ reinvention of the Saturday afternoon adventure serial into a spectacular theme park ride.
69) Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
Directed By: Zhang Yimou, Starring: Gong Li, He Caifei, Cao Cuifeng
- Haven’t seen it.
70) Rashomon (1951)
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa, Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo
- The film has become an adjective to describe truth as a subjective viewpoint, but that doesn’t make it particularly watchable. I much prefer Kurasawa’s YOJIMBO and 7 SAMURAI.
71) Rear Window (1954)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock, Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr
- The sexual fever dreams that are at the heart of most good Hitchcock films are right up front in this one, one of his most engaging exercises in voyeurism and blonde fetishism. For pure sexual nuttiness, however, I’ll tack VERTIGO.
72) Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Directed By: Nicholas Ray, Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
- This coming of age psychodrama has lived off of James Dean’s iconography for long enough. It’s really hard to sit through at this point.
73) Rocky (1976)
Directed By: John Avildsen, Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young
- Stallone’s underdog story is still surprisingly touching, and rousing at the same time.
74) Roman Holiday (1953)
Directed By: William Wyler, Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert
- May / September romantic comedy hasn’t held up; I’ve tried to watch it but couldn’t get thru it.
75) Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg, Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore
- Brilliant execution, so-so story. Great beginning and ending, with a lot of wandering around in between.
76) Schindler's List (1993)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg, Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
- I’d like to say something dismissive and cynical about Spielberg’s obvious attempt to grow up with this one, but I just can’t. I’ve seen it twice and it’s wiped me out both times.
77) The Searchers (1956)
Directed By: John Ford, Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
- A story of loss and obsession that the ancient Greeks would’ve understood. Perhaps the best of John Ford’s westerns; Wayne should have won an Oscar for this one, not the hokey TRUE GRIT.
78) Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa, Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba
- Kurasawa’s epic samurai film was remade (but not improved) as THE MAGNFICENT SEVEN.
79) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Directed By: Frank Darabont, Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
- This modern classic, based on a Stephen king story, forces us to wallow in human misery but gives us such a satisfyingly just conclusion that it makes the trip worthwhile.
80) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed By: Jonathan Demme, Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn
- The monster of the modern horror film is the psychopathic serial killer, and Hopkins gave us a doozy in Hannibal Lechter. Foster is a worthy adversary, both vulnerable and tough. Demme gave us a modern classic.
81) Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Directed By: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelley, Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds
- Sure its corny as Kansas in August, but it is a colorful, tuneful, amusing, astonishing golden age musical. And that’s as good a thing to say as there is about anything.
82) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Directed By: David Hand, Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell
- Walt’s first animated feature created the template. I find the movie pretty hard to sit thru these days. Not for the hand-drawn style of animation (which was beautiful, and reached its zenith with SLEEPING BEAUTY), but because of its annoyingly dated worldview and vocal performances.
83) Some Like It Hot (1959)
Directed By: Billy Wilder, Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
- Like Sturges, any chance to celebrate the films of Billy Wilder is a chance worth taking. While I’m not somebody who automatically finds a guy in a dress hysterically funny (that is to say, I’m not British), this seminal romantic comedy definitely deserves all the plaudits it gets. Marilyn Monroe is heartbreaking, Tony Curtis is almost as pretty as she is, and Lemmon is a comedy genius.
84) The Sound of Music (1965)
Directed By: Robert Wise, Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
- Oh, puhleez! Somebody get me some insulin, stat!
85) Star Wars (1977)
Directed By: George Lucas, Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- This should be much higher on the list, and EMPIRE STRIKES BACK should be higher still.
86) Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Directed By: Billy Wilder, Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
- What I said about SOME LIKE IT HOT? Now double it. For what its worth, this one should be ranked higher than that one. It’s narrated by a dead guy, fer cryin’ out loud.
87) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Directed By: James Cameron, Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton
- Ok, it’s bigger and shinier than the first one, but it lacks the disturbing relentlessness of the original. I think I just prefer Ahnold as a villain.
88) The Third Man (1949)
Directed By: Carol Reed, Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
- Geez, is this a great movie or what? From the zither music, to the camera angles, to Welles’ harry lime, shot always in shadow, everything suggests a world askew. I also love Reed’s ODD MAN OUT and I’m taking this moment to say so.
89) This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Directed By: Rob Reiner, Starring: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest
- A career-making, trend-setting sub-genre creating indie film fave, the mockumentary that started it all is as spontaneously funny and absurd as ever. You should turn it up to 11.
90) Titanic (1997)
Directed By: James Cameron, Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
- Lets take one of the great tragedies in human history and turn into the background for a hot teen love story! Alright, sue me. I liked it anyway. There is a moment right at the end, where the old woman is asleep, and the camera sweeps past the photos of the life she lead, the life she promised young Leo DiCaprio should would live even as he was about to sink beneath the waves, and it touches me. Okay. I’m a girl.
91) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Directed By: Robert Mulligan, Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford
- The ultimate in sincere, well-meaning drama about our heroic fathers. I can’t watch this kind of drivel anymore.
92) Toy Story (1995)
Directed By: John Lasseter, Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles
- The movie that launched PIXAR, it is as clever, funny and touching as you remember.
93) The Usual Suspects (1995)
Directed By: Bryan Singer, Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne
- A modern classic crime thriller, it’s also about the nature of storytelling and, so, is one of those examples of post-modern art that is self-referential. But don’t let that scare you; it’s good anyway. Really good.
94) Vertigo (1958)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock, Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak
- Really disturbing tale of romantic obsession that ends in tragedy. None of the lightheartedness of Hitchcock’s earlier films, the only place for him to go from here was PSYCHO.
95) When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Directed By: Rob Reiner, Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher
- Stupid piece of crap. Nothing written by Nora Ephron should ever make a “best of “ list, unless it’s a list of best worst screenplays.
96) Wild Strawberries (1957)
Directed By: Ingmar Bergman, Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin
- I I never saw it, but was tempted once I heard that it was remade as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Still, if you’re only going to list one Bergman, why this over SEVENTH SEAL?
97) Wings of Desire (1988)
Directed By: Wim Wenders, Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander
- Heartachingly beautiful movie about the sadness of angels, with Peter Falk (as himself!) in a small role as a fallen angel. 2 Germanic thumbs way up!
98) The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Directed By: Victor Fleming, Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
- One of the greatest screen fantasies ever and it ranks 98? Really? Really!? [on edit: alphabetical order...Doh! Never mind.]
99) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Directed By: Pedro Almodovar, Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas
- I saw an Almodovar film once and swore I’d never subject myself to another.
100) The World of Apu (1959)
Directed By: Satyajit Ray, Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Swampan Mukerjee
- Ray’s “Apu” films are the kinds of movies you have to watch in film school but normal people are excused from such an obligation.
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