Badlands (1973)

Badlands (1973)

[8]

What an odd, beguiling vigilante road-trip romance this is. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek star as two oddly unaffected youths who casually pair up and embark on what turns out to be a killing spree through South Dakota. This was director Terrence Malick’s (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) first feature film, and much of his trademark style is here — the beautiful scenery, cutaways to flora, fauna, and natural phenomena (including the most beautiful house burning put to film), as well as voice-over narration that begs a more poetic interpretation of the material.

American Graffiti (1973)

American Graffiti (1973)

[9] A close-knit group of teenagers relish their last night of summer vacation before their paths diverge, changing their lives forever, in George Lucas's American Graffiti. Most of the cast succeed in creating wholly believable characters with compelling dilemmas, and…
The Last Picture Show (1971)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

[10] Peter Bogdanovich adapts Larry McMurtry's nostalgic coming-of-age tale, creating a film so believably rooted in a lonely time and place (the early '50s Texas dust bowl), that you have a hard time shaking it when it's over. The film…
Harold and Maude (1971)

Harold and Maude (1971)

[9] Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon play one of cinema's most unusual but endearing couples in Harold and Maude, a delightfully twisted romantic comedy from Hal Ashby. Harold is a rich, sheltered boy obsessed with death, and Maude is a…
Deep End (1970)

Deep End (1970)

[8] A fifteen-year-old boy (John Moulder-Brown) begins working at a British bathhouse where a young woman (Jane Asher) goads his sexual awakening. The boy begins obsessing over the woman and her fiancee. He stalks them at night and tries to…
The Leather Boys (1964)

The Leather Boys (1964)

[9] A South London biker boy (Colin Campbell) finds himself caught in a romantic triangle, unsure whether to patch things up with his young wife (Rita Tushingham) or pursue an increasingly comfortable relationship with a fellow biker (Dudley Sutton). The…
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

[10]

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is lovingly adapted to film by director Robert Mulligan, screenwriter Horton Foote, and producer Alan J. Pakula. Gregory Peck earned the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, a lawyer of uncompromising morals who puts the safety of his family on the line to defend Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of raping a white woman. Finch is also a widower, raising his two young children with the help of his maid Calpurnia (Estelle Evans). The narrative is made a coming-of-age story through the eyes of Finch’s youngest, the feisty Jean Louise — or Scout (Mary Badham) as she’s nicknamed. Scout’s perspective on racism is balanced with her own fear and ignorance surrounding a neighbor named Boo Radley (Robert Duvall), who turns out to be her salvation when she and her brother are attacked by a bigot seeking revenge on their father.

East of Eden (1955)

East of Eden (1955)

[10]

James Dean received the first posthumous acting nomination from the Academy Awards for his performance as the troubled Cal in East of Eden, his first major film role. (He would die tragically just a few months after the film was released.) It’s a riveting performance, one of the most vulnerable and moving I’ve ever seen. The film, directed with style and elegance by Elia Kazan, is based on the last quarter of John Steinbeck’s sprawling novel. Steinbeck believed the power of storytelling was in its ability to remind us of our own humanity, and when I learned that, it helped me understand why I’ve loved this movie for so long.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

[10] James Dean stars 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, and I'd normally put teenagers with puffed-out chests in…
Bambi (1942)

Bambi (1942)

[9] Under the precious veneer of the Disney name lie some pretty damned spectacular pieces of motion picture art and Bambi is one of the best. With relatively little dialogue and an abundance of montage, Bambi plays out like a…