East of Eden (1955)
[10] James Dean received the first posthumous acting nomination from the Academy Awards for his riveting performance as the troubled Cal in East of Eden, his first major film role. (He died in a car accident just a few months…
Sunshine (2007)
[8] Before winning the Oscar for directing Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle teamed with The Beach author Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina) to give us this underseen and under-appreciated sci-fi thriller. As the Earth's sun dies and sends humanity into an…
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
[10] James Dean gives one of the most iconic performances in movie history as Jim Stark, an angst-ridden teenager who quarrels with his parents almost as much as he tangles with high school bullies. I normally hate tough guy movies,…
Hugo (2011)
[8] In 1931 Paris, an orphaned boy named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) lives in a train station and gets caught up in a mystery involving a broken automaton and a cranky old toy-maker (Ben Kingsley). With the help of an adventurous…
Michael (2026)
[8] The undisputed 'King of Pop' gets a music-heavy biopic from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) that covers his life from the early days of the Jackson 5 in Gary, Indiana, up to the 'Bad' tour in 1988, with the…
Touch of Evil (1958)
[8] Writer/director Orson Welles also co-stars in his adaptation of Whit Masterson's novel Badge of Evil, a sinister late-era film noir thriller set at the U.S.-Mexican border. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican narcotics officer who spars with Welles's corrupt American…
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,…
Dead End (1937)
[8] Humphrey Bogart's star was on the rise when he appeared in this ensemble drama based on a popular Broadway play by Sidney Kingsley. Bogart plays a murderous gangster who returns to his riverside slum in New York City after…
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…