my absolute favorites

by johnny-574-421928 | created - 14 Dec 2013 | updated - 11 Dec 2022 | Public
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1. The Prestige (2006)

PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

66 Metascore

After a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine

Votes: 1,440,671 | Gross: $53.09M

2. City of God (2002)

R | 130 min | Crime, Drama

79 Metascore

In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.

Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen

Votes: 800,723 | Gross: $7.56M

3. Apocalypto (2006)

R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

68 Metascore

As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.

Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood

Votes: 331,200 | Gross: $50.87M

4. Cloud Atlas (2012)

R | 172 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

55 Metascore

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving

Votes: 374,337 | Gross: $27.11M

5. Into the Wild (2007)

R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

73 Metascore

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden

Votes: 657,977 | Gross: $18.35M

6. The Wrestler (2008)

R | 109 min | Drama, Sport

80 Metascore

A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.

Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark Margolis

Votes: 319,894 | Gross: $26.24M

7. Strictly Ballroom (1992)

PG | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

72 Metascore

A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.

Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson

Votes: 29,397 | Gross: $11.74M

8. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)

G | 99 min | Drama, Family

A skilled flyer but very rebellious young seagull is kicked out of his clan. However, instead of being sad or lonely, he decides to enjoy and explore his newfound freedom.

Director: Hall Bartlett | Stars: James Franciscus, Juliet Mills, Philip Ahn, David Ladd

Votes: 2,327 | Gross: $1.60M

9. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi

77 Metascore

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke

Votes: 881,067 | Gross: $6.21M

10. The Lives of Others (2006)

R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

89 Metascore

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur

Votes: 410,375 | Gross: $11.29M

11. Taxi Driver (1976)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Votes: 920,248 | Gross: $28.26M

12. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western

90 Metascore

A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè

Votes: 810,923 | Gross: $6.10M

13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

R | 133 min | Drama

84 Metascore

In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.

Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco

Votes: 1,072,058 | Gross: $112.00M

14. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 950,074 | Gross: $78.90M

15. The Elephant Man (1980)

PG | 124 min | Biography, Drama

78 Metascore

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Votes: 258,373

16. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

PG-13 | 118 min | Drama

73 Metascore

A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.

Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen

Votes: 254,000 | Gross: $9.17M

17. The King's Speech (2010)

R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

88 Metascore

The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.

Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi

Votes: 707,818 | Gross: $138.80M

18. The Intouchables (2011)

R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama

57 Metascore

After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.

Directors: Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano | Stars: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot

Votes: 928,988 | Gross: $13.18M

19. Amores Perros (2000)

R | 154 min | Drama, Thriller

83 Metascore

An amateur dog fighter, a supermodel, and a derelict assassin, all separately struggling to find love, find their lives transformed by a devastating car wreck in Mexico City.

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero

Votes: 252,837 | Gross: $5.38M

20. American Beauty (1999)

R | 122 min | Drama

84 Metascore

A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley

Votes: 1,210,567 | Gross: $130.10M

21. Donnie Darko (2001)

R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

88 Metascore

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne

Votes: 849,820 | Gross: $1.48M

22. Interstellar (2014)

PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

74 Metascore

When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy

Votes: 2,098,472 | Gross: $188.02M

23. Gran Torino (2008)

R | 116 min | Drama

73 Metascore

After a Hmong teenager tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a disgruntled, prejudiced Korean War veteran seeks to redeem both the boy and himself.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley, Ahney Her

Votes: 814,796 | Gross: $148.10M

24. Up (2009)

PG | 96 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

88 Metascore

78-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.

Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson | Stars: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger, Christopher Plummer

Votes: 1,124,544 | Gross: $293.00M

25. Life of Pi (2012)

PG | 127 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

79 Metascore

A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu

Votes: 666,692 | Gross: $124.99M

26. Pelle the Conqueror (1987)

PG-13 | 157 min | Drama

When his wife dies, Lasse takes his 12-year-old son, Pelle, from their home in Sweden to Denmark in search of a better life.

Director: Bille August | Stars: Pelle Hvenegaard, Max von Sydow, Erik Paaske, Björn Granath

Votes: 11,855 | Gross: $2.05M

27. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

30 Metascore

Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.

Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson

Votes: 521,007 | Gross: $57.94M

28. Departures (2008)

PG-13 | 130 min | Drama

68 Metascore

Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.

Director: Yôjirô Takita | Stars: Masahiro Motoki, Ryôko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Votes: 54,963 | Gross: $1.50M

29. Mulholland Drive (2001)

R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

86 Metascore

After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates

Votes: 383,696 | Gross: $7.22M

30. The Help (2011)

PG-13 | 146 min | Drama

62 Metascore

An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.

Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard

Votes: 492,651 | Gross: $169.71M

31. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

PG | 76 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy

82 Metascore

Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.

Director: Henry Selick | Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey

Votes: 375,067 | Gross: $75.08M

32. Her (2013)

R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

91 Metascore

In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.

Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara

Votes: 669,316 | Gross: $25.57M

33. Inside Out (I) (2015)

PG | 95 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

94 Metascore

After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.

Directors: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen | Stars: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling

Votes: 785,030 | Gross: $356.46M

34. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War

75 Metascore

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava

Votes: 115,900 | Gross: $70.00M

35. The Revenant (I) (2015)

R | 156 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

76 Metascore

A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson

Votes: 874,057 | Gross: $183.64M

36. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

PG | 135 min | Western

69 Metascore

Missouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney

Votes: 79,818 | Gross: $31.80M

37. La La Land (2016)

PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

94 Metascore

While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.

Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons

Votes: 670,990 | Gross: $151.10M

38. The Walk (II) (2015)

PG | 123 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

70 Metascore

In 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale

Votes: 135,475 | Gross: $10.14M

39. Captain Fantastic (2016)

R | 118 min | Comedy, Drama

72 Metascore

In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.

Director: Matt Ross | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso

Votes: 235,015 | Gross: $5.88M

40. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

R | 164 min | Action, Drama, Mystery

81 Metascore

Young Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista

Votes: 664,729 | Gross: $92.05M

41. Ex Machina (2014)

R | 108 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

78 Metascore

A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.

Director: Alex Garland | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno

Votes: 588,927 | Gross: $25.44M

42. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

PG-13 | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

86 Metascore

Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.

Director: Benh Zeitlin | Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Lowell Landes

Votes: 85,054 | Gross: $12.80M

43. A Man Called Ove (2015)

PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

70 Metascore

Ove, an ill-tempered, isolated retiree who spends his days enforcing block association rules and visiting his wife's grave, has finally given up on life just as an unlikely friendship develops with his boisterous new neighbors.

Director: Hannes Holm | Stars: Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg, Ida Engvoll

Votes: 68,457 | Gross: $3.48M

44. Death in Venice (1971)

GP | 130 min | Drama, Romance

While recovering in Venice, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.

Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci

Votes: 23,031 | Gross: $0.15M

45. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

R | 95 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

60 Metascore

When he discovers his adopted son is a genius, a New York sportswriter seeks out the boy's birth mother: a ditzy porn star and prostitute.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino, Pamela Blair, Rene Ceballos

Votes: 42,792 | Gross: $6.70M

46. Nightcrawler (2014)

R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

76 Metascore

When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.

Director: Dan Gilroy | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed

Votes: 604,394 | Gross: $32.38M

47. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

R | 174 min | Drama, Romance

80 Metascore

A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili, Isa Danieli

Votes: 282,790 | Gross: $11.99M

48. Joker (I) (2019)

R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

59 Metascore

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy

Votes: 1,487,634 | Gross: $335.45M

49. 1917 (2019)

R | 119 min | Action, Drama, History

78 Metascore

April 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays, Colin Firth

Votes: 675,107 | Gross: $159.23M

50. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

R | 115 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

88 Metascore

A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones

Votes: 554,830 | Gross: $54.51M

51. Parasite (2019)

R | 132 min | Drama, Thriller

97 Metascore

Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.

Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik

Votes: 958,625 | Gross: $53.37M

52. A Cure for Wellness (2016)

R | 146 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

47 Metascore

An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps, but soon suspects that the spa's treatments are not what they seem.

Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Ivo Nandi

Votes: 109,576 | Gross: $8.11M

53. Black Swan (2010)

R | 108 min | Drama, Thriller

79 Metascore

Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.

Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder

Votes: 824,363 | Gross: $106.95M

54. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

81 Metascore

After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver

Votes: 742,592 | Gross: $132.09M

55. District 9 (2009)

R | 112 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

81 Metascore

Violence 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.

Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Vanessa Haywood

Votes: 716,662 | Gross: $115.65M

56. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

PG-13 | 117 min | Biography, Drama

64 Metascore

A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career

Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Thandiwe Newton, Jaden Smith, Brian Howe

Votes: 560,528 | Gross: $163.57M

57. An Angel at My Table (1990)

R | 158 min | Biography, Drama

79 Metascore

Janet Frame was a brilliant child who, as a teen, was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Explore Janet's discovery of the world and her life in Europe as her books are published to acclaim.

Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Iris Churn

Votes: 8,680 | Gross: $1.05M



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