Some of the most productive films of all time have flaws that aren’t terminal, but are striking: questionable acting, a problematic element, an ending that doesn’t happen. That’s fine: a movie that takes risks and doesn’t stick to the Usually, a touchdown is preferable to a technically competent but boring movie, and a movie can be wonderful without being perfect.
However, there are films that have nothing to complain about; Films whose flaws (if we can say they have any) have such good compatibility with the whole that it’s to distinguish them from touches of genius. Nothing in life is perfect, yet those 50 videos are pretty much there.
Black, for the most part, thrives on disrepute: the most productive thing about the genre is videos that look shiny and disjointed, as if there isn’t enough money or time to apply a coat of polish (think DOA or Detour). And yet, here is Double Indemnity: a decidedly primary-studio film (Paramount) with bankable stars and a director, Billy Wilder, who had already made a call. Barbara Stanwyck (skillfully aided by a truly unforgettable hair) puts all her talents to clever use in her portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson, an unapologetic old-school femme fatale who drags Fred MacMurray into her insurance fraud scheme through murder. Fred MacMurray plays Walter Neff with the kind of ordinary, slightly silly quality he would later bring. to his work on sitcoms, but here he’s surely holding on to enough slightly suppressed emotion to take Phyllis straight to hell. And don’t blame him. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Stephen King hated Kubrick’s adaptation of one of the writer’s most famous novels, and it’s not hard to see why: In the book, we must see Jack Torrance as an intelligent husband and father, with his abusive tendencies exacerbated by a substance. an abuse challenge that he can’t fully (as well as an evil hotel that helps keep encouraging him). The book is great, but the movie holds up nicely for the precise explanation of why King hated him: Torrance here is a bastard from the start, and we’re not encouraged to see his abusive habit as something that requires a redemptive arc. The hotel doesn’t push you to evil, it just encourages you to lash out. The once-ridiculed Shelley Duvall shines here as a woman who, presumably, can’t bear the strain of living in a secluded hotel with her increasingly unhinged husband. Add to all this Kubrick’s planned and deliberately disorienting taste for mise-en-scène, and you have a masterpiece of the domestic scene. horror. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
It’s just a triyeta of Humphrey Bogart’s unique charm that he’s played one of the greatest bastards (Fred C. Dobbs) in American film history, and yet we’re in a position to cast him in his quest for gold. The film feels quintessentially American in its preoccupations: Dobbs and the corporations head to the mountains of the title in hopes of promised gold, but greed and paranoia take over the party in an increasingly horrific way: It’s transparent to us, and to them, simply sharing the genuine abundance on offer would give everyone an advantage. . . And yet, a very greedy and sweaty American greed is leading them to their doom. We were still a year or two away from the horrors of HUAC and Red Scare, but Bogart and Huston were on the front lines of civil liberties defense at the time, so this movie comes across as more than a little prescient. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
There’s a bit of artistry and a lot of commerce in our (waning?) preoccupation with superhero movies, but in a sea of things, there are a handful of authentic triumphs. Among the most recent: this brilliantly animated birthday party of teenage heroism, full of central yet frenetic beauty. It doesn’t look like anything before or since, and even though there’s a lot going on (including the multidimensional spider), it returns to the story of a teenager looking to discover himself in a vast and confusing world. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
This quirky comedy from Preston Sturges is one of the most productive films to emerge from the old Hollywood studio formula and acts as a defense of that same formula. The story of an exhausted, low-key comedy director looking to navigate genuine hardships for his “art,” Sullivan’s Travels effortlessly combines comedic discussions and quirky characters with social observations about privilege and poverty that still work in the 2020s. —Stephen Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Made in Australia on a shoestring budget, this sci-fi action film explains the look and feel of post-apocalyptic cinematic societies of all time. Its battle car plot takes off and director George Miller will never get past it until the end credits. a natural dose of adrenaline from a movie, but it’s never stupid or shallow. —Stephen Johnson
Where to stream: Tubi
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s visually creative romantic comedy is the final word on the charm of the French (at least in the movies). It’s the kind of movie you should hate because fantasy is out of the ordinary, but Amélie melts to the max. Frozen hearts because sweetness never gets cloying. —Stephen Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Every symbol in Paul Thomas Anderson’s study of the complex rendezvous between a 1950s cult leader and his shattered companion is fascinating. Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman gave the performances of their lives, and the richness of the cinematography and attention to detail of the time made the post-war period. America is a character in her own right. It’s not the kind of movie with a numerical plot; Instead, its stream of conscious flavor buries itself in your brain and stays there. Stephen Johnson
Where to stream: Tubi, The Criterion Channel
Sergio Leone’s epic film unravels the entire cinematic myth of the American West, presenting cowboys as demigods or living ideals covered in filth, trapped in an eternal struggle, detached from the affairs of mere mortals. Unforgettable music, perfectly acted actors, visionary cinematography, and editing create one of the most important films ever made. —Stephen Johnson
Where to stream: Maximum
Just as it occurred to him that he had come out, Dr. Frankenstein called again. Director James Whale followed what would have been the biggest monster movie with one of the most impressive feats in American film history: anything completely funnier, weirder, and weirder. Deeply queer, with gay icon Ernest Thesiger strutting through gothic settings, providing evil lines and seducing his former protégé to reanimate the dead once again. That’s it before Elsa Lanchester swaps her Mary Shelley outfit for the bride’s corduroy wig, giving birth to an icon with just a few shorts. moments of film and no dialogue. Obviously, the whales and the company are having a lot of fun, but the point of detail in the plot, makeup, and sets ensures that nothing feels sloppy. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
When we think of the lively, clever taste in the most productive silly comedies, we think of His Girl Friday. Or we deserve to be. There are few more important examples of this form, and director Howard Hawks deserves much of the credit for insisting on a fast, unforgiving pace: the film was based on a popular, dialogue-filled play that had already been filmed once under the name The Front Page.
This edition brings some inventions to the original, the ultimate meaning of which takes into account the main character Hildy Johnson: a boy in the previous editions, here “Hildy” is short for Hildegard and is played by Rosalind Russell, now the ex-wife. of Cary Grant’s character, but he’s still a relentless journalist and the equivalent (and more) of all the men in the newsroom. There is not a single moment that collapses. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Vudu, Tubi, Crackle, Kanopy, Freevee, and many more
Everyone knows Citizen Kane, but I suspect his reputation for cinematic greatness deters a lot of other people who would like him. Which is a shame, because it’s beyond great: it’s good. Incredibly charming to look at, with style and technological inventions that remain impressive today, it’s also quirky, funny, and impressively topical in its portrayal of an American whose younger idealism is frozen in the presence of his own developing strength and wealth (and a media mogul whose interest, in fact, fades with the passage of time). time). —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Casablanca is a product of Hollywood’s golden age: a clever film, to be sure, that makes it easy to underestimate. From their initial chase through the city streets to the poignant and all-time memorable finale, there’s nothing here that doesn’t paint beautifully, with an out-of-this-world chemistry between all the main characters, not just Bogart and Bergman.
What makes it even better is its ambiguities: it takes place in an underground world where other people may be doing some of the right things, but no one is good. Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine, is one of cinema’s most beloved characters. history, it flatly refuses to bow its neck in the face of Axis aggression until it is surely inevitable. This anti-heroism saves the film from its own production values. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Maximum
All the films are products of their time, but the comedies are particularly delicate. Laughter is based on a habit that goes against social norms, so what’s fun for one generation may seem replaced or toothless a few decades later. That’s why it’s remarkable that writer-director Preston Sturges’ quirky farce from 78 years ago is still so hilarious.
The plot is much more adult than you’d expect from the ’40s: Trudy Kockenlocker, a little woman from the city, is in a bar partying with the boys before going to war. She has eaten too much and wakes up the next morning with a ring on her finger, but she no longer remembers who she married (“. . . There was a Z on it. Like Ratzkywatzky. Or was it Zitzkywitzky?”). Even worse, she soon realizes that she is pregnant and does not have a marriage license.
The innuendo-laden plot, which gets crazier and crazier from there, naturally ran afoul of the censors of the time, and while it’s incredibly tame by today’s standards, it’s still accurate and funny throughout. (If you’re an old movie aficionado and think this list also includes Sturges’ The Lady Eve, I can’t argue too much. ) – Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Hoopla, Kanopy
Director Robert Wise remains underrated precisely because he didn’t seem to have a unique style, spanning a variety of genres (he’s best known for his astute Hollywood musicals like The Sound of Music and West Side Story). Very different: a sweaty, claustrophobic and brutal black boxing about a boxer who has prepared to throw himself. No one told him; It’s so bad that we assume you’re going to lose, but that’s not the case. It’s as dark as black and doesn’t impede any of its animated 70 minutes. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Tubi
Commonly cited as a film with one of the most productive stories ever written, Naked Eve is a behind-the-scenes Hollywood satire that is of its time and timeless. It’s a bitter feud between a beloved and aging actress, Margo Channing (played perfectly through Bette Davis), and the ambitious young newcomer Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), who is willing to do anything for a star. Mixed with sharp wit and deep cynicism and impeccably acted (the cast earned a total of five nominations at the 1951 Academy Awards; Marilyn Monroe also kills him in a small four-line role), All About Eve will delight fresh audiences who love Ryan Murphy’s lewd work. —Joel Cunningham
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s Rashōmon is one of the most admired films ever made. The ubiquity of its once-new core narrative concept — reviewing the same series of events through the eyes of three other characters, providing a different attitude about the truth, if it exists — has taken on a shorthand status. (The AV Club recently described 2021’s The Last Duel as Ridley Scott’s own edition of this “influential ode to subjectivity. “)
The mythical Toshiro Mifune plays a lumberjack who claims to have discovered in the forest the frame of a slain samurai warrior. He is summoned to court along with other witnesses, with another explanation of how the frame ended up there and why. Even after being imitated and parodied everywhere from The Last Jedi to The Simpsons, the original still fascinates. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Criterion Channel, Kanopy, Tubi, Max
A film about watching movies, Hitchcock’s vintage is as meticulous as anything he’s ever produced, but it requires enthusiasm to adapt his audience to our own voyeuristic tendencies. It’s not that it’s harder to keep an eye on our friends and neighbors, and the movie line. “What other people deserve to do is get out of their homes and seek change” is at least as true today as it used to be in 1954. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Coming from a film culture dominated by musicals and adventure films, Satyajit Ray has preceded not only Indian cinematic traditions, but also those of Hollywood and even the French New Wave to shoot an ultra-realistic yet superbly photographed story, either universal (especially in its fraught circle of family dynamics) and connected to its time and place. The magic of the film (and its two equally brilliant sequels) lies in the fact that during its duration, the separation between rural India in the 1950s and world fashion almost disappears. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Kanopy
Ingmar Bergman has a reputation for being taciturn, and while that’s not entirely true, the fact that his most prominent film is about a game of chess with death in a medieval landscape ravaged by a plague doesn’t help. Lots of extremely human moments. Bergman is far more interested in exploration than in answers or morals, but the suggestion here is that the moments of love, sex, and hard-won circle of death-defying family members are even more precious. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
Forget Die Hard: The Lion in Winter is my favorite Christmas movie. This decidedly unepic medieval tale is a duet between Peter O’Toole’s Henry II and Katharine Hepburn’s Eleanor of Aquitaine, when they meet at the king’s home in Touraine, France, to discuss Problems of Politics and Succession. Henry needs his son John (Nigel Terry) to inherit the throne, while Eleanor prefers her son Richard (Anthony Hopkins).
There are other stories afoot, however, thanks to the interference of King Philip of France (Timothy Dalton), but it’s actually two hours of gloriously written storylines (the Oscar-winning screenplay is by James Goldman, based on his play) between the king and queen is more desirable than any war that can be fought on the battlefield. —Joel Cunningham
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
The premise of a B-movie produced with the most productive talent, the sci-fi-horror hybrid Alien is a masterpiece of both genres. The cast is a giant gathering of soon-to-be-legendary actors, all of whom manage to paint convincingly. Laborers are forced to do so without the help of their employer. Equally important is that H. R. Giger gave the film its iconic monster, one that hasn’t been matched in terms of originality and natural alien in the decades since. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Hulu
A masterclass in screenwriting, BTTF’s script features both a joke and a plot point, balancing the arcs of other versions of dozens of characters across timelines without dropping a single bullet. That alone can earn it a reputation for excellence, but the film probably wouldn’t be as appreciated without the manic power of Christopher Lloyd and the laid-back, lighthearted touch of Michael J. Fox at his coolest ’80s, both bringing personality and taste to balance (and hide) the machinations of the film’s temperamental character. , twisted story. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Spike Lee’s third film is perhaps his masterpiece. Set in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on an incredibly hot summer day, Do the Right Thing explores the latent racial tensions in the community, fueled by widespread gentrification, unfair policing, and general prejudice. The plot, as it stands, is about a clash that arises between black citizens and the Italian-American owners of Sal’s, the community pizzeria, but the film is most notable for the way this clash sheds light on this individual’s life. and how injustice can force other people to take sides and act when they really prefer to keep the peace. But more than that, it’s as vibrant, funny, and full of life as it is tragic. There’s a lot to say about America. And he’s 30 years old and more applicable than ever. —Joel Cunningham
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Is it the most productive romantic comedy ever made?In fact, it’s a movie without bad scenes. Perhaps the sexual politics are a bit outdated: the whole film starts from the premise that men and women can never be friends (because “the sexual component gets in the way”), which means the dates between the inseparable Harry (Billy Crystal). and Sally (Meg Ryan) are destined to implode or become something more; However, I have also had similar discussions with my wife, 33 years later. Produced right in the middle of director Rob Reiner’s miraculous adventure (which includes The Princess Bride, another film on this list), and with an incredibly quotable script by a never-better-than-Nora Ephron, this might be the most playable film ever made. —Joel Cunningham
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
I’m going to tell you something about this one, but after countless seasonal views, I claim that this violent, cartoonish Christmas harvest does its job perfectly, which is probably why we all keep seeing Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) slap himself in the face. 32 years later. This is not to say that all of this is realistic, but it doesn’t matter. A million holes can be made in the installation (how can parents have a child at home?Why would criminals be so stupid as to plan such a series of high-profile robberies?) without letting escape the bizarre antics of the transients. An orphaned boy’s attempts to protect his home from bad guys, or the misery of the boy’s mother (Catherine O’Hara, the film’s real secret gun) feels when she continually fails to communicate with him, and then she does, just in time for Christmas. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Disney
Like Rashômon, Groundhog Day is based on a plot that has since become a staple of the story. It’s a shame that everything went right the first time. As grumpy meteorologist Phil Connors (Bill Murray), snowing in and through the best village of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, is forced through an inexplicable cosmic possibility to repeat the vacation over and over again until he learns to be a bigger one. No one, all of us are forced to face the frightening fact that we only have one chance to live life. Well, we better make it worth it. On some levels, it works like a high-end romantic comedy, and while it’s satisfying to watch Phil grab the girl, it’s much more fun to contemplate its philosophical core. Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Digital rental
Robert Wise never came across a genre he couldn’t master (think The Sound of Music and West Side Story among his musicals, The Set-Up as a noir film, or the classic sci-fi The Day the Earth Stood Still). This 1963 film, founded on Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House, is one of the definitive horror films of its time and remains a scary, unsettling, strangely moving, and eventually unsettling film about a haunted space that meets your expectations. It’s a perfect fit for Julie Harris as Nell, a deeply lonely woman who doesn’t know where to begin to relate to others. He almost establishes a romantic bond with Claire Bloom’s Theo but, in the end, the film functions more productively as a (often spooky) love story. between a woman and a creepy old space. Mike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries is also a cool and very different adaptation of Jackson’s book; It’s more productive to avoid the 1999 remake. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Actor Charles Laughton directed exactly one movie in his lifetime, and then stopped because the critics were fierce and the audience didn’t understand anything. Those who understood him were not exactly inspired by his vision of devout hypocrisy. Yet it’s a film that has the elderly brilliantly: full of haunting imagery, dark satire, and chilling acting through Robert Mitchum as the traveling preacher and serial killer Harry Powell, traveling from city to city and murdering a succession of wives. Full of devout passion, Harry Powell has no doubt about his quality as a hero of history, and the inhabitants, inspired by his fervor, are content to follow him to hell. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Tubi
This is a war film that takes place entirely in the shadow of war. It’s surprising that director William Wyler and company were so clear about the costs of confrontation so soon after the end of World War II. The drama tells the story of three American servicemen who readjust to civilian life after tours: Al left his country as a successful bank employee, but his post-war promotion is in jeopardy due to his excessive drinking and gentility. when granting loans to people. veterinary colleagues; Fred suffers from PTSD and struggles to find work; while Homer has lost both hands and struggles to be the object of pity. Screen finalists Fredric March and Dana Andrews play the first two, while veteran amputee Harold Russell plays Homer, the kind of stunt casting that shouldn’t work, but gives the film an even more potent feel. really tearful. , it is almost shocking to see the struggles that veterans would face not only after World War II, but also in each and every war that followed. All the performances are top notch and there is credibility in everything that is being sold each and every moment. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Prime Video, Peacock, Freevee
One of the most beloved films in cinema. It’s sometimes said that a particular movie has something for everyone, but that may be true when we’re talking about director Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, based on William Goldman’s book. The script (via Goldman himself) superbly blends genres and tones in a lighthearted cacophony, where it may have been simply a hodgepodge. There’s action, fantasy, comedy and delicious kissing. There isn’t a moment here that isn’t entirely memorable. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Maximum
Alejandro Amenábar’s gothic ghost tale deserves its position here, in part, thanks to its resilience: Even though the film involves one of those twists and turns that upsets everything you thought you knew, it’s still terrifying, even terrifying, when you watch one. after another. Nicole Kidman plays Grace, a mother who is raising her children in a giant space in the Channel Islands, in the shadow of World War II, when things start to get really weird. Like the best ghost stories, this one is never about Grace and her fragile state of mind. He’s not a wonderful person, but it’s a triyeta of Kid’s functionality and Amenábar’s direction that we never lose interest, or completely lose our sympathy. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Filmed just as this is happening, the film documents what is known as the “Brookaspect Strike” against the owners of the Brookaspect Mine and Composites Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky. Director Barbara Kopple’s original goal of creating a film about efforts to overthrow the then-highly corrupt leader of the United Mine Workers of America, W. A. Boyle, who to many seemed to be in the wallet of mine owners (he was later convicted of conspiracy in the murder of the entire circle of relatives of an opponent of reform) This explosive story, However, it turned out to be a sidenote to the brutal, bloody, and violent opposition faced by the striking miners and their families.
Kopple and his team’s laser on the local strikers and their families is the smartest choice, and as a result, the film holds up brilliantly. It comes at the right time in its depiction of corporate overreach, but it also serves as a time capsule of a time when unions were more potent and effective forces. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield fit perfectly here in this drama, which takes place in 1933, about a Louisiana sharecropper couple and their family. Tyson’s Rebecca is forced to make do as best she can when her husband Nathan is sent. to the criminal for very stupid reasons. Racism is very common and is one of the main drivers of the plot, but, cleverly, this is not a movie about racism. It’s a wonderfully acted drama about a circle of family members affected by American-style racism. , but it is more than the sum of white cruelty. There is sadness, but also a lot of joy. This is partly due to the history of Lonne Elder III, but also to Tyson and Winfield. All 3 were nominated for Academy Awards, as was the film itself for Best Picture, though neither won awards. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, Freevee
What makes a slasher the best? In a way, it’s tempting to pass through something like Friday the 13th, brilliant in its own way for being a fast and effective device that delivers precisely the kind of smart weather you could want. Halloween is something else entirely, though, and a lot of that has to do with the behind-the-scenes talent. Although John Carpenter was still in his infancy, his talent was fully demonstrated in his almost Hitchcockian ability to create tension and suspense. It also has to do with the brilliant and underrated producer Debra Hill, who also co-wrote the script and brought to life the daily interactions between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. The film cleverly blanked Michael Myers, and was also encouraged by the racial violence Carpenter witnessed as a teenager, transplanted from New York to Kentucky as a teenager. This ability to see Michael as a universal evil, or as something more insidiously specific, is a giant component of the character’s resilience (for better or worse). —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Shdder, Crackle, AMC
Films made jointly by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, including The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death, are among the best-photographed films. . . Of all time? Maybe never. And yet, Black Narcissus, with a photograph by the wonderful Jack Cardiff, is probably the most charming of them all, a fact that serves to emphasize and contrast the plot, about an organization of nuns invited to open a school in a ruined palace. in the Himalayas. . . What begins as an inspirational drama temporarily turns into something vaguely resembling horror, as the startling but austere environment and mental isolation begin to take their toll on others. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Freevee, Shout Factory TV
Eve’s Bayou, director Kasi Lemmons’ incredibly confident deyet film, transports and evokes a world of mystery and Southern gothic magic that never loses sight of the emotional realities of its main characters. Jurnee Smollett plays the main character, who begins the film. With the promise of a story: the one in which he killed his father at the age of ten. The film tackles dark and thorny themes, but does so with a Rashōmon-like understanding of the mutability of reminiscence and how time can radically replace our view of events. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Freevee, Mubi, Starz
The Truguy Show would be extraordinary if it had predicted the rise of truth television and our next obsession with being the main characters in a narrative unfolding on the internet and social media. But this sci-fi fable about a guy who is unknowingly the star of The World’s Most Popular Series is also a poignant exploration of the preference of grown-ups for questioning our origins and finding a way to live meaningfully, despite the dangers involved. Director Peter Weir brings the perfect blend of concrete and surreal to Andrew Niccol’s high film. Screenplay outlined, and Jim Carrey totally deserved the Oscar nomination he didn’t get. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Paramount
Pedro Almodóvar’s films are, through nature, noisy, colorful, and wild, to the point that calling one of them “perfect” sounds like a slight compliment. Excellence can be boring, and Almodóvar never is. All About My Mother reimagines melodrama (and expands it). Our Ideas About Motherhood) with this bizarre, sexually positive, and funny story of a heartbroken mother who discovers a whole new family on a trip to Barcelona. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
A wonderful ending to a twist can really make a movie, but the true mark of quality is if there’s more to it than just the twist. You can cut the definitive reveal of this blockbuster about a child (Haley Joel Osment). that you can see the ghosts and the psychologist (Bruce Willis) trying to help you, and you’d still end up with one of the most emotionally devastating and expertly crafted horror videos ever made. Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan made a call for himself, thanks to him and never came out of his shadow. Which is understandable, because how do you make a movie that’s as perfect as possible?—Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: FXNow, Fubo
Come on, I don’t want to tell you why The Matrix is perfect, right?Beyond the speech, beyond the divisive sequels, it’s one for all ages: an ever-greater blend of martial arts action, anime-style, flashy. Science fiction and thematic depth, it only gets bigger as time goes on. Wow. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Max, Netflix
Hayao Miyazaki’s love for animation as an art and his fondness for his own story are reflected in each and every frame of Spirited Away. There is not a second, not a single symbol in the film that is not incredibly detailed, to the point that we have the impression of falling into the symbol and living in it for a long time without getting bored. I’m not sure if Spirited Away is any better or less better than several of Miyazaki’s other films, but it is the story of a lonely boy. He who gets lost in a dark fantasy land is among the most mobile. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Maximum
Christopher Nolan’s seminal film, this crime mystery is less flashy than his later hits like Inception and Tenet, but it’s no less conceptual: on the contrary, it tells the unhappy story of a guy with no short-term memory who’s looking for his wife’s killer, and at the mercy of whoever controls his narrative at any given moment. It plays like a magic trick; Even after you see it played back and forth, you can’t perceive how the director did it. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Peacock, Freevee, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV
This mind-bending comedy-drama is that rare example of a “romantic comedy”: a movie about two other people whose dates are so obviously doomed to fail that you can’t help but hope they’ll end up together. Music video director Michel Gondry brings a grunge, cunning, low-tech charm to the crazy story of a dysfunctional couple (played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) who use new technologies to erase each other’s memories from their minds (“Technically speaking, the procedure is a brain injury,” notes the doctor), yet manage to locate each other. Which suggests that even a love (perhaps) doomed to failure is better than no love at all. In the wrong hands, Charlie Kauffman’s script would seem confusing or too misanthropic. Instead, it’s one of the most productive doomed love stories ever told. Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Starz
The only challenge with this near-Western crime mystery from brothers Coen and Cormac McCarthy is that it’s not so easy that it borders on nihilism, which means it’s not exactly the kind of movie you need to watch over and over again. There’s no false note in the nightmare of cascading violence that follows a drug deal gone wrong, as a small-time criminal (Josh Brolin) is hunted down by an almost supernatural hitman (Javier Bardem in an iconic film). Sober, methodical, and uncompromising, it is a dark exploration of the border between destiny and self-determination, set in the utter emptiness of the American West. —Joel Cunningham
Where to Stream: PlutoTV
If you weren’t there to witness the fervor generated by the release of Get Out (blockbuster, mega-awards, instant meme status), you’d be excused for wondering how on earth Jordan Peele managed to get enshrined as the long-running cinematic horror. After just one movie. But you were, so you know what I’m talking about.
In a way, this sinister sci-fi fairy tale plays out like an episode of The Twilight Zone, when a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) apprehensively visits his wealthy girlfriend’s family estate in upstate New York and discovers an oddity going on. beyond the expected cultural framework and social classes. Peele’s tongue-in-cheek script mixes surreal laughter with authentic horror, while creating an ideal metaphor for the black experience in a “post-racist” America in which those in place claim that inequality and injustice are relics of an earlier, unenlightened era. , and even though they continue to derive advantages from any of them in terrible and transformative ways. —Joel Cunningham
Where to stream: Prime Video, FXNow, Tubi, Prime Video
Two, more or less, between Tom Cullen and Chris New, Andrew Haigh’s Weekend signals a new verisimilitude in queer cinema. Just two guys who meet with nothing in mind but with a quick date and realize that there is a lot to report about others else. over the course of the headline weekend. The encounter turns out to be very particularly gay, and also perfectly normal, without any hate crimes. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Mubi
Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai’s magnificent, dark triumph, follows an incredibly mismatched couple (Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai) as their dates fall apart on a trip to Argentina. The couple, very sexy, but deeply codependent, helps to remain withdrawn. in each other’s basins, and they make it seem like being young, gay, sweaty in love is so cool that you can’t help but hope they’ll make it. The cinematography here is stunning, with a sense of framing and similarity to both of them. some mini art paintings.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
We’ve noticed those kinds of celebrity homicide mysteries before (including in Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express a few years earlier), but never with this kind of style. Keeping everything frothy, a laugh at the closed-chamber mysteries of the past (and more), Rian Johnson’s film delves into the dark hearts of our assortment of suspects, while still being willing to laugh at the expense of their white butts. And rarely has a solution been so satisfactory. —Ross Johnson
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Bong Joon-ho’s ambition here is nothing less than to sweep the rug out from under us, examining the scaffolding that holds our social structures in combination before making a clever case for destroying each and every one of them. The genre-defying masterpiece starts out as a black comedy before fitting into something that looks like a horror movie. At several points, it turns out that Bong’s film is on the verge of being completely derailed, but each and every painstakingly traveled twist and turn only makes the film even more exhilarating. —Ross Johnson
Where to stream: Maximum
Former child star turned dog owner.
Joel Cunningham is the Associate Editor at Lifehacker. Previously, he was Content Marketing Editor at Barnes.
Stephen Johnson is a contributor to Lifehacker, where he covers pop culture and adds two weekly columns, “The Disconnected Adult’s Guide to Children’s Culture” and “What People Get Wrong This Week. “She graduated from Emerson College with a bachelor’s degree in writing, literature, and literature. Publication.
Previously, Stephen was editor-in-chief of NBC/Universal’s G4TV. At G4, he won a Telly Award for writing and was nominated for a Webby Award. Stephen has also written for Blumhouse, FearNET, Performing Songwriter magazine, NewEgg, AVN, GameFly. , Art Connoisseur International magazine, Fender Musical Instruments, Hustler magazine, and other media. His paintings have been shown on Comedy Central and screened at the Sundance International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Chicago Horror Film Festival. in Los Angeles, California.