Brokeback Mountain (2005)
[9] Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as Ennis and Jack, young cowboys who take a job herding sheep in the mountains of Wyoming during the summer of 1963. Isolated from the rest of the world for months on end,…
Anora (2024)
[7] Mikey Madison stars as Anora, a New York stripper and escort who accepts a marriage proposal from a super-rich Russian playboy (Mark Eydelshteyn) during a lavish excursion to Las Vegas. The romance burns fast and bright before the boy's…
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
[10] Director Miloš Forman (Amadeus, The People vs Larry Flynt) adapts Ken Kesey's novel about R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a trouble-making convict who enters psychiatric care to avoid hard labor. While there, he befriends the patients -- a motley bunch…
L.A. Confidential (1997)
[9] In 1950s Los Angeles, three police officers with very different approaches overcome their differences to collaborate on a murder case that ultimately unveils widespread corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement and the government. Guy Pearce plays the…
Tender Mercies (1983)
[7] Robert Duvall earned the Best Actor Oscar for his subtle but moving performance in Tender Mercies, the story of a divorced, alcoholic country singer who hits rock bottom before slowly rebuilding his life. A single mother (Tess Harper) hires…
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
[9] Here we have a horror film so well executed, it swept the Academy Awards. Anthony Hopkins (The Lion in Winter) and Jodie Foster (The Accused) each deliver career-defining performances as cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter and neophyte FBI agent…
Promising Young Woman (2020)
[8] Carey Mulligan (Shame, Never Let Me Go) is equal parts sympathetic and terrifying in writer/director Emerald Fennell's psychological thriller Promising Young Woman. Mulligan stars as Cassandra, a medical school dropout whose life was derailed after the sexual assault of…
One Battle After Another (2025)
[3] It's possible I'll see this movie again in the future and understand it better. I have to assume this is possible, because I love several other Paul Thomas Anderson movies, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, and…
Sinners (2025)
[7] In this period horror film from writer/director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther), twin Chicago gangsters named Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their Depression-era Mississippi home town to create a more legitimate life…
Dead Poets Society (1989)
[9] Robin Williams headlines this period drama from Australian auteur Peter Weir (Witness, Picnic at Hanging Rock) centered around teen boys coming of age at a late 1950s New England prep school. Williams plays Professor Keating, their inspirational English teacher,…