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…
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,…
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…
Project Hail Mary (2026)
[10] I strongly suspect directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) may have a few more Oscars headed their way after seeing their adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel Project Hail Mary. Lord and Miller cast the…
The Thing (1982)
[10] This movie does two things extraordinarily well. It transports me and it terrifies me. Before anything scary even happens, director John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Starman) succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that locks me…
All of Us Strangers (2023)
[10] Most films are designed with universal appeal to attract the widest possible audience. But some of the most powerful films you'll ever see are the ones -- the very rare few -- written and directed with such specificity and…
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
[10] In picturesque Italy, 1983, a seventeen-year-old boy falls in love with an older man who is working as his father's research assistant. That's it. That's all Call Me By Your Name is about. And it's marvelous. So many other…
The Witch (2015)
[10] I'll come right out with it: The Witch is my favorite horror film of the last ten years. Newcomer writer/director Robert Eggers serves up a masterfully creepy tale that's equal parts psychological and atmospheric, elegant and restrained, but not…
There Will Be Blood (2007)
[10] Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) serves up a masterful study of two ambitious men -- a turn-of-the-century oil prospector driven by capitalism and a young preacher eager to grow his flock. The two men come to conflict…
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
[10] I love road movies and ensemble pieces, but Little Miss Sunshine goes one step further by saying something we all need to hear from time to time: it's okay to fall short of ambition. The film throws six disparate…