Sea of Love (1989)
[7] Al Pacino stars as a New York detective working with John Goodman to solve a series of murders -- all men shot in the back of the head, face down on their beds, presumably by a woman out for revenge. When…
Goodfellas (1990)
[8] Director Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Raging Bull) returns to the gangster subgenre that made him a household name. Goodfellas is based on the true story of Henry Hill, a Brooklyn youth who quit his primary education to start working for the…
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
[5] Leonardo DiCaprio gives a strong early-career performance in this film based on the life of Jim Carroll, a promising young basketball player and writer whose life was derailed by drug addition in the late '60s and early '70s. The film transplants…
There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
[6] Director Douglas Sirk (Written on the Wind) mines male middle-aged malaise in this melodrama that reteams Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity) for their fourth and final film together. MacMurray plays a successful toy manufacturer with a wife and three…
Bridge of Spies (2015)
[7] Steven Spielberg dramatizes the true Cold War-era story of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an American lawyer tasked with defending a Russian spy named Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in court. When Abel is convicted, Donovan pleads to keep the death penalty off…
Young Guns (1988)
[5] Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips lead an ensemble cast in this film based loosely on the life of William H. Bonney, aka 'Billy the Kid'. Billy (Estevez) is an aimless street kid in 1870s New Mexico when he's…
All I Desire (1953)
[6] Barbara Stanwyck stars as a theater actress returning to the small, gossip-ridden town where she abandoned her family ten years earlier. Richard Carlson (It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon) plays her husband, who is at first angry…
Wuthering Heights (2026)
[7] Die-hard fans of Emily Bronte's classic gothic romance novel are bound to be befuddled or enraged by this loose, more sexually charged and stylistically modern adaptation of Wuthering Heights from Oscar-winning writer/director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn). The film focuses…
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
[10] In this darkly comic noir masterpiece from Billy Wilder, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter (William Holden) moves in with a delusional silent film star named Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who wants him to write the script for her big comeback. But when…
The Mission (1986)
[8] Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons star in this historical drama from director Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, City of Joy) and screenwriter Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia, A Man for All Seasons). Irons plays Father Gabriel, a Spanish Jesuit priest who…