It can also be considered an angrier film, slamming both the controlling TV networks (represented by Ed Harris’s messiahlike Christof) and us, the viewing public, for making a game show of other people’s lives.—Phil de Semlyen, “Nothing is written,” spits the stubborn T.E. Martin Scorsese’s vision of vigilantism is filled with an uncomfortable ambience, and Paul Schrader’s screenplay probes philosophical depths that are brought to vicious life by Robert De Niro’s unforgettable performance.—Abbey Bender, The jewel in Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli’s crown, Spirited Away is a glorious bedtime story filled with soot sprites, monsters and phantasms—it’s a movie with the power to coax out the inner child in the most grown-up and jaded among us. This is cinema.—Anna Smith, On the road to becoming the most significant filmmaker of the last 20 years, Paul Thomas Anderson transformed from a Scorsesian chronicler of debauched L.A. life into a hard-nosed investigator of the American confidence man. With a noir-inspired aesthetic and a haunting synth score by Vangelis (a massive influence on Prince), Blade Runner is iconic not just for its era-defining look, but also for its deeper philosophical examination of what it means to be human. But there once was a moment when he needed to get serious, and this is it.—Joshua Rothkopf, Forget The Artist—sorry Uggie—and relish instead the sheer, serotonin-enhancing verve of MGM’s glorious epitaph to cinema’s silent era. As director, producer, cowriter and star, Welles cemented his status as an innovator. The gags come almost as fast as you can process them, with the typically pinpoint Chaplin slapstick conjured here from scenarios that seem purpose-built to end in disaster. Still, it’s shocking to remember that The Shining—so redolent of the director’s pet themes of mazelike obsession and the banality of evil—was once considered a minor work. As Max von Sydow’s medieval knight travels the land witnessing the apocalypse, loads of life-affirming moments lighten the load. The movie’s theme is vigilance: We must protect our children, but who will protect society from itself? So limited releases that saw only festival screenings or had very small theatrical time and number of theaters, but then was available broadly on a streaming service, were included as well. This film is arguably his sharpest and most psychologically complex; inarguably, it’s his bitchiest. The Best Movies of 2020 (So Far) – Best New Films of the Year, Best Horror Movies of 2020, Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch, Hear Us Out: Digimon Is the Superior Franchise about Small, Fighting Monsters, Everything We Know About Game of Thrones Prequel Series House of the Dragon, The Haunting of Bly Manor First Reviews: Netflix’s Hill House Follow-Up Is Filled With Heart, But Lacks The Original’s Scares. The sci-fi–inflected tale of two halves of a broken-up couple going through a memory-erasing procedure takes many surprising, poignant turns; the film’s impeccably executed combination of authentically quirky imagery and philosophical inquiry has become a signpost of modern independent cinema.—Abbey Bender, The title is still a killer piece of marketing, suggesting something much gorier than what you get. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 90. In some ways a kinder, gentler version of Network, The Truman Show is a TV parable in which a meek hero (Jim Carrey) wins back his life. The movie has lost none of its relevance or power; if anything, it’s gained some. Coppola approaches each of her characters with a warmth and sensitivity that exudes from the screen—and ensures that “Brass in Pocket” will remain a karaoke favorite around the world (pink wig optional). Anyone who watched In The Mood for Love when it was released in 2000 may have said yes. The service also offers a rapidly expanding library of streaming movies … It tells of a sailors’ revolt that morphs into a full-blown workers’ uprising in the city of Odessa; the movie is most famous for one breathtaking sequence—much copied and parodied since—of a baby carriage tumbling down a huge flight of steps. So limited releases that saw only festival screenings or had very small theatrical time and number of theaters, but then was available broadly on a streaming service, were included as well. His Spanish soldier, Don Lope de Aguirre, finds himself with only these furry friends for company, his dreams of finding the mythical El Dorado in tatters. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), 92. Orson Welles’s iconic film, made when he was just 25, forever altered the language of cinema and set the auteur on a long path of fiercely iconoclastic work (and the Hollywood misunderstandings that unfortunately came with it). The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), 67. 6 Shows to Binge-Watch This August. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), silencing naysayers after having single-handedly crossed deadly desert terrain. The results have been consistently exquisite over the years, funneled into period musical-comedies (Topsy-Turvy) and brutal contemporary dramas (Naked) alike. If the movie were any more hard-boiled, you’d crack your teeth on it.—Phil de Semlyen, Exploding drummers, amps that go to 11, tiny Stonehenges, “Dobly”: This spoof rock documentary—rockumentary, if you must—is monumentally influential on cinema, cringe comedy and, possibly, the music industry itself. Claudette Colbert’s spoiled heiress and Clark Gable’s opportunistic reporter hit the road and bicker their way toward a happily-ever-after ending, class barriers be damned. In short, it’s cinematic perfection.—Ian Freer, Made in the middle of Italy’s boom years, Federico Fellini’s runaway box-office hit came to define heated glamour and celebrity culture for the entire planet. The movies have been made, their stories yearning to seek an audience, whether through a traditional theatrical route or through more creative streaming means as studios indie and major have experimented with these past months. His conclusion was grim: There would be no winning. Nuclear annihilation was a subject in which Kubrick immersed himself, reading virtually every unclassified text. The revolution triggered by Goodfellas is only now becoming apparent: Without it, you don’t have The Sopranos, the golden age of television or the Reservoir Dogs diner scene. A rescue mission? Taking cues from grand master George A. Romero and his counterculture-defining Night of the Living Dead, Peele infused white liberal guilt with a scary racial subtext; the “sunken place” is precisely the kind of metaphor that only horror movies can exploit to the fullest. Henry Fonda’s icy stare, composer Ennio Morricone’s twangy guitars of doom and the monumental Charles Bronson as the last gunfighter (“an ancient race…”) are just three reasons of a million to saddle up, As unsparing as cinema gets, the influence of Elem Klimov’s sui generis war movie transcends the genre in a way that not even Steven Spielberg’s, 4. The dialogue is snappy and delicious; the morals are as empty as Times Square at dawn—Dave Calhoun, This German Expressionist masterpiece came out in 1920, a long time before the invention of the spoiler warning. Ironically, the movie’s portrayal of this milieu as vapid and soul-corrodingly hedonistic appears to have passed many viewers by. Eligible movies are ranked based on their Adjusted Scores. 2019, Ridley Scott’s vision of a dystopian future is one of the most stylish sci-fi films of all time. Updated September 28, 2020. With its shifting, unreliable narrative structure—in which four people give differing accounts of a murder—the film is remarkably daring and serves as a reminder of how form itself can beguile us. This one, her celebrated breakout, is something of a spin on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd—but that’s like calling Jaws something of a spin on Moby-Dick. Spielberg proved that less is more when it comes to crafting a feeling of dread, barely even showing us the beast that went on to haunt a whole generation.—Dave Calhoun, The deliciously dark, stylish genre of film noir simply wouldn’t exist without Double Indemnity.