My Top 20 Movies - 5 Stars

1 CODA

CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults, and it’s a glorious film. Written and directed by Sian Heder, starring Emilia Jones as Ruby and Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin as her deaf parents, it was the first streaming film to win Best Picture, as well as the first male Best Actor award for Kotsur and Best Screenplay for Heder. Emilia Jones studied Sign for a year during filming, and grew close to Troy Kotsur, both of whom were away from their families for the filming and learned a great deal about the challenge of mixing deaf and hearing people. (Heder tried to find an actual Child of Deaf Adults for the role, and eventually decided it was even better to have Emilia in that role because she’d learn what it was like to interact with deaf adults, and the adults would learn what it was like to work with her.)

The scenes are filmed in and around Gloucester, in places that I know well, and it adds a huge element of authenticity and warmth. Many of the things that appear in the film, like the fishing cooperative, the quarry, the coves, the harbors, are real. (The school is actually in Beverly, not Gloucester.)

CODA does something I’ve never seen in a film before: it shows how a deaf family sees the world around them. They’re a fishing family in Gloucester, MA, the only deaf family around, and they need Ruby to keep the business going and to interact with all the hearing adults around. Ruby is the only hearing member of her family, so her parents and brother don’t understand how she sees the world. They watch her high school performance before she is accepted at Berkelee College of Music, and while everyone in the audience is blown away and applauding, they are mildly chatting with each other in Sign, because seen through their eyes, we realize they don’t hear anything or see the point. They’re bored.

They don’t agree when she wants to leave them to go to the Berkelee College of Music. Ruby is hurt and angry, but finally agrees they need her to keep the business going, so she will forego her college and career dreams, to stay and care for them. The mom is glad.

The dad is not.

I won’t tell you what happens next. I can’t spoil it, except to say that it caused me to cry, rewatch it, and cry again. And then watching the five minute “behind the scenes” interview afterwards, I cried again.

If you only watch one film on my list, choose this one: CODA. Children of Deaf Adults.

2 Kill Bill 1 and 2

It’s one movie. It was filmed as one, but at over four hours, it was released as two films six months apart. It’s all one incredible, glorious story.

It’s not told in a direct timeline; we don’t see the backstory until much later.

Uma Thurman wakes up in a hospital. Years earlier, Bill had ordered his team of Deadly Vipers to find and kill Beatrix (The Bride), because she was pregnant with his child and had run away. She survived the assassination attempt, but spent the next four years in a coma, and awakens to find that she is about to be raped, and the orderly has been selling access to her unconscious body for years. She has almost no body control, yet finds a way to kill them, starting by willing one toe to wiggle. From that moment, we know that she can do almost anything, and is committed to vengeance. She’s out to Kill Bill.

Uma Thurman is sensational as Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black Mamba. Quentin Tarantino delayed filming when Uma became pregnant, because he said the movie could only be made with her as the star. Other characters were also major stars: David Carradine as Bill; Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, and Michael Madsen, as the Deadly Vipers that Beatrix has sworn to kill; Julie Dreyfus, Vivica Fox, Chiaki Kuriyama, and Gordon Liu as former vipers or lieutenants. Any of the fight scenes is worth highlighting. Each of the opponents is powerful, well-trained, and armed; sometimes Beatrix is underpowered compared to them, once she is tricked, she is buried and supposedly killed after one battle, yet she finds a way to win or come back each time. (Again, having seen how she reacted to the attempted rapes in the hospital, we are not surprised at what she can do.)

We gradually learn more of the backstory. We see her track down the famous swordsmith Hattori Hanzo, who no longer makes swords, but for her, and to take down Bill, he agrees to do so. In later battles, when they realize she has a Hanzo sword, they are shocked, and afraid. The pace becomes relentless. There’s no longer any doubt about where she’s going. When she has to fight dozens of armed swordsmen (the Crazy 88s) and the insanely armed and crazy Gogo, she appears to be massively outnumbered, but by this point we know she’s not going to give up. She leaves one woman alive, to take a message to Bill.

She finishes killing the Vipers and finds Bill—who has their baby, now four years old. They talk about making peace, they act polite in front of the child B.B., but the final battle is inevitable. Bill has decades more experience and skill, but Beatrix knows something he doesn’t know.

The movie ends with Uma driving away with her daughter, and the caption says “The Lioness has rejoined her cub and all is right in the jungle.” There’s not a better ending to any movie. There’s not a better series of fight scenes in any movie. There’s not a more challenged, more committed hero in any movie.

Out of deep respect for Uma Thurman, I will note that she was one of many women who were assaulted by The Weinstein Company’s producer. Nothing can repair the harm done to Thurman and others by Miramax and The Weinstein Company.

3 The Shawshank Redemption

The idea of an unfairly-convicted prisoner, a corrupt prison warden, and a daring escape is not new. But everything about this film feels original, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming. Stephen King wrote the original story. It doesn’t have any of his trademark horror, and while plenty of rough things happen along the way, it all pays off in the end. The bad guys get what’s theirs. The good guys get what’s theirs.

It’s Tim Robbins’ greatest role, and he plays it with incredible humility and acceptance, despite the barbarity and injustice. He’s never smug, never angry—but he is quietly working in the background to achieve justice, and he does in the end.

Andy (Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman) are prisoners together at Shawshank State Prison, both serving life sentences. They help each other, and Andy also befriends a guard, the prison librarian, and other prisoners. Andy secretly helps the other prisoners, who are often mistreated, and they learn to appreciate and support him.

Meanwhile, the warden is accumulating stolen money and blackmailing Andy into laundering it, periodically beating him or placing him in prolonged solitary confinement to keep him afraid and in line. Andy acts like he’s doing what the warden wants, arranging for the warden’s fortune to be safely secured under a false identity.

When Andy finally finds proof that he did not kill his wife and her lover, he thinks the warden might help him in, exchange for all the work Andy has done to hide the warden’s stolen money. The warden has no intention of letting Andy go; you don’t release the goose that lays the golden egg. Andy has proof; he can’t believe the warden won’t accept it. He has had enough.

Stop here if you don’t want more spoilers.

*****

Andy doesn’t just escape; he takes all of the warden’s hidden money and releases information that will send the warden to jail for life. State police arrive to arrest the warden and the guard captain. The warden kills himself.

Andy disappears.

Red is released on parole. He remembers something Andy had told him, and goes looking for something Andy had promised to leave him. He finds money, directions, and an invitation. He violates his parole and leaves the country, finding a surprised and jubilant Andy on a beach in Zihuatanejo, which he has previously described as being a place where all their sins will be washed away in the ocean, “a warm place with no memory”.

It’s #1 on IMDB’s Top 250 list. It belongs on every Top 10 list.

4 Spotlight

This is one of my three most important stories ever told (along with The Imitation Game and Official Secrets). Spotlight is the only one that won the Best Picture Oscar.

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams are superb as Michael Rezendes, Robby Robinson, and Sacha Pfeiffer. Liev Schreiber (playing Marty Baron) is also powerful, but while his character is technically more important to the story (since he’s the one who challenged everyone and pursued the story), but his role is smaller than the other three. Spotlight is named after The Boston Globe’s famous investigative division, which generally works in relative secrecy and pursues stories for months or years. I lived in Boston while this story broke, so I knew the big picture; but I knew so very little of the true story.

The Spotlight team (Ruffalo, Keaton, McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James) wants to investigate one story about a pedophile priest in Boston, but the powerful Roman Catholic Church, the courts, a couple of somewhat-corrupt lawyers, and a large group of church supporters conspire to keep the story secret and the many court documents sealed. Their boss, Ben Bradlee (played by John Slattery) is not completely opposed to the story, and is not complicit in the coverup, but he’s not willing to take on the entrenched court and church powers. Their new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), sees the skeletons of this story and takes the Spotlight team off of their research into a minor police scandal and turns them onto this story. People all around are shocked at his presumption, and they expect him to be drummed out of town, or they actively work to get rid of him.

The Spotlight team is thrilled to turn their attention to this story. They know there’s something there. They pursue various leads, and pretty soon find a lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian (played by Stanley Tucci), and an ex-priest who have much more evidence about the length and depth of this corruption, as well as two lawyers who have been complicit in paying off hundreds of parents of abused children. (The settlements are generally around $20,000, and the local bishop meets each parent, lies that this is the only time this has happened, and promises to remove the priest from active duty. The parents sign non-disclosure agreements. The abuse continues.) The Spotlight team finds at least 87 priests who are repeated abusers, and every time, they have just been moved from one parish to another. Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law has been covering up these stories, and relocating the priests, for many years; it is only near the very end that the Globe team finds evidence showing that he has been doing this for forty years, and countless parents have gone along with the cover-up out of loyalty to their church (and perhaps fear).

They finally have the first story complete, about one priest. They are threatened by various church officials, lawyers. Ben Bradlee takes a huge risk and tells them to go to print. In the meantime, they prepare a second round of stories identifying the other priests. The first story is released, along with links to many of the victims’ stories and the names of those other priests, along with a hotline number to call if you have been a victim of similar abuse. The next day, the Globe is overwhelmed by calls from other victims coming forward. We learn that there have been thousands of victims and hundreds of priests in dozens of parishes around the world. Bernard Law resigns as Archbishop, but is moved safely to Rome. Conclusive evidence shows that he covered up hundreds of cases over many years, but he is never punished. Other senior bishops and cardinals have also gone along with settlements and coverups.

I noted above that this is one of the most important stories ever told. It is also one of the most horrifying, not just because of the thousands of children abused by priests, but because of the decades-long and unapologetic coverup by church officials. I will also note that Ben Bradlee Jr., Marty Baron, Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, Robby Robinson, Matt Carroll, and Mitchell Garabedian (the real-life Spotlight team, their bosses, and the victims’ lawyer) and the victims who came forward, are the true heroes. None of this story would be known if not for their courageous, dogged, and often-threatened work.

5 The Silence of the Lambs

Jodie Foster has been in many excellent films. Her performances in Flightplan, Inside Man, Panic Room, The Accused, The Mauritanian, and True Detective: Night Country were exceptional. (I haven’t seen Nyad yet.) However, while her acting is perfect, it sometimes feels like there’s a little space between Jodie the person and the characters she’s playing. It’s like watching a superb performance: you can applaud the acting while still knowing it’s a role.

That’s not the case with The Silence of the Lambs (or Contact, or Paper Moon). Jodie Foster is the person she’s playing. There’s no separation, no reason to notice the performance; the character she’s playing exactly matches who she is. I can’t pay any higher compliment to an actor. Despite all her great work in other pieces, The Silence of the Lamb is Jodie Foster incarnate; it’s Jodie Foster unleashed.

She is a new FBI agent (Clarice Starling) who seems to quickly get in over her head. She interviews the imprisoned “Hannibal Lecter” (Anthony Hopkins), a notorious serial killer and cannibal who eats his victims. Clarice does not know that she’s being manipulated by her boss to get information about a serial killer he is hunting, nicknamed Buffalo Bill. Lecter figures out the hidden agenda and gradually befriends Clarice, offering her information in exchange for favors. She knows he is extremely dangerous, but she wants the information, so they are both walking a thin line, working to get what they each want. Lecter gives her information that sets her on Buffalo Bill’s trail, as she realizes that Bill’s technique is to kidnap, skin, and kill innocent women, creating a disguise made from their skin. Just then, another hostage is kidnapped.

Not surprisingly, since Lecter has always been good at violence, deceit, and escape, he uses his cannibalistic traits to impersonate a guard and break out of prison.

Meanwhile, Clarice collects enough data to set the FBI on the trail, but her boss discards her contributions, ignores her requests, and goes to the wrong place. She is left on her own. She tracks down the killer—and the kidnapped hostage—on her own. Suddenly she is in extreme danger; she had not realized she would find both the killer and the captive right away, and she has no FBI support. Both she and the captive come very close to dying.

They don’t die. We have watched the transformation of Clarice Starling from FBI trainee to someone who knows herself and has mastered her skills. At this point, you can’t tell whether you’re celebrating Clarice Starling or Jodie Foster, but either way it’s well-deserved.

Lecter is not recaptured, and there is a disturbing final call from him to Clarice, where he says he is about to have a friend for lunch, but he will not pursue Clarice.

6 Spiderman: No Way Home

Benedict Cumberbatch is Doctor Strange, just starting to experience the Multiverse, but the real stars of this movie are Tom Holland as SpiderMan (aka Peter Parker), Zendaya (MJ), Jacob Batalon (Ned), Marisa Tomei (SpiderMan’s Aunt May), and the earlier Spider-Man actors brought in from their alternate universes, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. It was the highest-grossing film the year it came out (2021), despite the COVID pandemic, and the highest-grossing non-Avengers Marvel movie. It is my favorite Marvel movie.

Peter Parker’s secret identity as SpiderMan has been revealed, and he is now threatened by half the people who know him. (The other half are on his side.) He and MJ flee. Peter, MJ, and Ned all lose their MIT acceptances because of the controversy surrounding him. He gets Doctor Strange to cast a mind-wiping spell, but then repeatedly interrupts, asking for more and more favors, until he corrupts the spell.

SpiderMan’s enemies from other universes appear. He doesn’t know who they are, but they know who he is (or think they do, since they actually know the Peter Parkers from their own universes), and they are after him.

Doctor Strange sends MJ, Peter, and Ned after the villains. Some come along, but most of them fight. When Peter realizes they are going to be sent back to their original universes to die, he intervenes; he saves and cures Doctor Octopus and almost cures The Lizard, before the Green Goblin takes over Norman Osborn’s mind again and leads the other villains in an attack on Peter’s friends and family, killing Aunt May in the process. Peter is furious and wants to kill them all, but Aunt May’s dying words are “With great power, there must also come great responsibility”. This is a classic line from the comic books and all the previous SpiderMan films, but this is the first time Aunt May is the one to say it.

It gets through to Peter. He decides to try again to cure the villains, so they can go back to their universes without dying, and unexpectedly, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire show up as different versions of SpiderMan (all named Peter Parker). Once their confusion is addressed, they are a team; they are a loving, laughing, supportive team, which matters when they are not fighting (and trying to find cures, or to help each other), and matters even more when they go after the villains. Through a couple of huge battles, all three Spidermen save each other, and MJ, and the villains, who are cured and sent home safely.

By this point, it feels like three complete movies. You don’t want it to end. You don’t want the other Spidermen to go home. You certainly don’t want what happens next, when Doctor Strange tells SpiderMan the only way for this corruption of the multiverse to end is for everyone to forget who he is. Even Ned and MJ.

The first time I saw this, in a theater, I hated what happened next. When I saw it again, I thought I would skip the ending. But I didn’t. The third time I saw it, my heart sank again. But I decided it was as good as any movie I’d ever seen, even with the tragic ending.

Do I wish they’d found a different way to end it? Absolutely. Does it ruin the movie? Not anymore. Some movies have ups and downs, twists and turns, good guys and bad guys and people who change along the way, friends who are there for each other no matter what it costs, and heroes who find a way to pick up the pieces and move forward. This is one of those.

A sequel to this movie, in fact a new trilogy with Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon, has been announced, without any other details. I hope this is true, and I hope it reunites MJ and Peter.

7 Official Secrets

This is another of the three most important stories ever told. It received popular and critical acclaim, but as an independent Sundance Film Festival release, it did not reach a wide audience. I was surprised, shocked, horrified, and ultimately slightly relieved when I first saw it.

Kiera Knightly and Matthew Goode are in this film, as they were in The Imitation Game, and they are fighting a similar battle, this time against the lies of the British and U.S. governments rather than the WWII Germans. They’re joined in their crusade by Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, and Adam Bakri.

Knightly plays Katharine Gun, a real-life British intelligence analyst, which meant she had signed a document committing to keeping all the monitored intelligence secret. As part of her normal duties, she finds a memo about a joint effort between the United States and British governments to spy on foreign diplomats and blackmail them into supporting George Bush’s resolution to invade Iraq. She now realizes this proposed invasion is based on false information, and secretly gives the memo to an anti-war activist.

That activist tells her the government will call it treason, and Katharine responds, “I work for the British people. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie—to the British people.” It’s an extraordinary moment of courage and honesty.

Things move quickly from that point. Matthew Goode and Matt Smith, working for The Observer, get the memo and decide to pursue it, ultimately releasing it to the public. A conservative news site works with the British government to discredit the memo, which works for a time, long enough to convince the public that it’s fake; Matt Smith then produces the original memo, though it’s too late to affect public opinion. The British government charges Katharine with violating the Official Secrets Act and they bring her to trial. Meanwhile, she seeks out Liberty, a legal advocacy group, where a lead lawyer (Ralph Fiennes), considering her case, tells her, “You chose loyalty to your country over loyalty to your government, your marriage, and yourself. I think that speaks rather highly of you.” He agrees to represent her.

The case is ugly. The government had previously been told by its Attorney General that the pretext for war was illegal, and then had several Bush Administration officials and lawyers “convince” him to withdraw that claim. They continue to lie about this history, and present a strong case. Katharine does not deny what she did; she and her lawyer say she did this out of loyalty to the country, because it was an illegal war, justified by lies and blackmail, and they eventually come up with the proof that even their own Attorney General had come to that conclusion. The government offers her a settlement, but she refuses. By this point, she truly is putting her integrity ahead of her future.

When the trial starts, we’re all expecting her to be found guilty. They’ve established what she did, in violation of the agreement she signed. A terrified Katharine is standing before the court. It’s a dramatic and traumatic moment. Suddenly, the Crown prosecutor drops all charges. The crowd is stunned.

Katharine’s lawyer demands to make a final statement, even though the charges have been dropped. He says that the government had to drop the charges to avoid allowing evidence that showed Tony Blair and the British government had lied to justify the war. The government had seen Katharine and her lawyer’s proof, and it would have been admitted into evidence. He then confronts the prosecutor: the government had known all along that they would drop the charges, and had prolonged Katharine’s ordeal hoping she would plead guilty, and to make her a public spectacle.

George Bush is never charged; neither is Blair. The documents are eventually made public, seven years later, but neither the U.S. nor the British public were paying much attention by that point.

Every citizen involved in this story, from Katharine Gun to the activists to the journalists to the lawyers, is a hero. They did not stop the Iraq war, but they tried. The governments of both countries failed in their duty to the public trust. Knightly’s performance is outstanding, but the whole story only came out because of Katharine Gun, the reporters, and the Liberty legal group. Gun’s career in Britain was ruined as a result of these actions. It is disgusting and shameful what her government did to her.

Kiera Knightly has been in many good films (including Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Love Actually, and Pirates of the Caribbean). She is recognized as one of the most influential actresses and activists of her generation. I think Official Secrets and The Imitation Game are her two best works, and I’m grateful that she brought these two important historical stories to light.

8 Avengers: Endgame

I have three Marvel universe movies on this list, which some people might think is too many. This is the only Avengers one, and the reason is obvious to me: no other movie has so many incredible highs and incredible lows. Some movies have a really deep tragic low and two triumphant highs (one at the beginning and one at the end). This movie just keeps them coming.

I saw it in a theater with sixteen family members, on its second day of release, so no one knew what was coming. The audience had moments of sustained applause, too loud for us to hear the next few words; of loud gasps; and of sobbing, again loud enough to obscure some of the dialogue. When Thanos is first killed, it seemed like a complete letdown; why are we here if he’s already dead? Little did we know that a different Thanos would soon appear, with an alternate universe Gamora; or that Karen Gillan (Nebula) would, despite the character’s behavior in previous films, save both Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) despite Gamora’s horrifying treatment of her; or that Tony Stark would meet his father in the past, that Hulk would confront the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton, an earlier Sorceror Supreme in the past and she would give him the Time Stone, or that Steve Rogers would see his lost love and Thor his lost mother in the past.

And yet all of that interest and complexity pales as the battles get closer, as Thanos comes back with his hordes, as Hulk finally brings back the billions of people (and dozens of heroes) who were destroyed in the Snap. When the assembled heroes arrive, when Steve Rogers picks up Thor’s hammer, the audience couldn’t stop applauding. And then there’s a scene where all the female heroes come together to stop Thanos, with the audience again gasping and applauding, until he finally unleashes the Power Stone on Captain Marvel, and all seems lost again. Then Thanos says “I am inevitable,” and Tony says “I am Iron Man.” We immediately see both the highest high of the movie, and the lowest low. This movie is flawless.

9 Aliens

“Get away from her, you bitch!” - Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) most memorable quote, as she rescues Newt (yet again) from the alien queen.

I first saw this movie in a theater, and in the parking lot ten minutes later, I realized I was taking what felt like my first breath in an hour. Years later I saw it on streaming, and realized that yet again, I didn’t feel like I was breathing until minutes after it ended. Aliens really is that good. The evil corporate agent Burke (Paul Reiser) sets Ripley up in the beginning, claiming to be her advocate, then tries to kill her and smuggle the alien eggs home. The child Newt (Carrie Henn) is in constant terror but stands by Ripley, and when she is (yet again) rescued by Ripley, says she knew that Ripley would find her.

The marines (Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein) eventually stand up against Burke; Biehn, as Corporal Hicks, declares that it’s now a military action and as the last surviving officer, his command is to “Take off, nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Ripley had previously suggested that action, Burke had overruled her, and she had turned to Hicks Ripley smiles.

When Burke tries take the alien eggs back to Earth, saying they’re too valuable to the corporation, they’re actually the whole purpose of this operation, Ripley says no, the aliens must all be killed, and she tells the marines (Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein), “We should take off, nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Burke overrules her. She turns to Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) and says that it is now a military operation and he is the last surviving officer so it’s his call. Burke says it isn’t, it’s a corporate mission. Corporal Hicks looks back to Ripley and repeats her line: “I say we should take off, nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Ripley smiles.

Throughout the film, Ripley, without formal authority, takes charge, attacks, escapes, and comes back again to save more people. We’re terrified when she is almost killed by Burke, then almost impregnated with the alien egg, again by Burke, and we’re more upset when it seems like Burke will escape. So when Burke doesn’t get away, it’s a great moment, but then even more great moments follow, as Ripley rescues Newt, Hicks gives the order to nuke the planet, and then Ripley finally confronts the alien queen that has made it onto their ship.

For all that the original Alien (“In space, no one can hear you scream”) was a riveting story, a monumental change in cinema as important to the genre evolution as Star Wars had been just two years earlier, its sequel, Aliens, is better. Sigourney Weaver has played a lot of great roles; I think this is her best.

10 The Imitation Game

Is this Benedict Cumberbatch’s best performance? Despite his ongoing run in the Avengers universe (already being on this list twice in Avengers: Endgame and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness), and his work in The Courier, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hawking, Patrick Melrose, and his unceasing perfection in Sherlock, I think this is his best and most important role. He plays Alan Turing: brilliant, aloof, confrontational, and gay, and when his capabilities are questioned at Bletchley Park during World War II (by Alastair Denniston, playing the nasty elite aristocrat he often plays), he refuses to back down, forces them to hire a female genius for his cryptography team (Keira Knightly, in what might also be her best performance), and insists on creating a machine that could break the Enigma code used by the Nazis.

His employers try to shut him down, but he ignores them, even locks them out, and eventually proves that his machine works. (The “Turing machine” eventually became named after him.) He makes difficult decisions along the way, deciding the team can’t always act based on the codes they decipher, because then the Third Reich would know their code had been broken; and he has to lie to his wife (Knightly) to force her away from him for her own safety.

He and his team are eventually credited with saving millions of lives. This movie is almost superbly triumphant, and is one of the most important stories in modern history. Unfortunately—spoiler here—the last minute of the film is horrifying tragic, evil, and mean, as his life ends because he was exposed as being gay, despite what he’d done for his country and the world. He was posthumously pardoned 60 years later, and while that pardon could perhaps be honored, what stands out the most is that it took sixty years. When I rewatch this, I skip the tragic last minute, and I get angry anyway. I cannot praise a long-overdue pardon.

This is one of the three most important films ever made, partly because of Turing’s work enabling the Allied victory, but also because Turing died as a direct result of the British government’s ugly criminalization and incarceration of gay people. In the Stories part of my site, and in my bio, I talk about Tayler Jenkins Reid’s novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. That book, and its depiction of intolerance towards LGBTQ+ people, is powerful and important, and it accurately describes the homophobia and lies of that time period—but it’s not a true story. The Imitation Game is true, and Turing’s full story is told here.

11 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Four different versions of Doctor Strange (all played by Benedict Cumberbatch). Two Scarlet Witches (Elizabeth Olsen, as Wanda Maximoff). One Sorceror Supreme (Benedict Wong). An alternative Avengers-like team, the Illuminati (with Haley Atwell playing Peggy Carter/Captain Carter, in the role that the MCU should bring back and highlight over and over). Three different Christine Palmers (Rachel McAdams), who is Doctor Strange’s beloved ex in most of these universes. America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), with powers she doesn’t understand, and the Scarlet Witch hunting her.

A non-stop fast-paced chase through battles on Earth, in different locations; an all-powerful Scarlet Witch who attacks Kamar-Taj and then uses the Darkhold to travel the Multiverse to claim “her” lost boys. Battles on four different multiverses, with an evil Doctor Strange, and eventually an alliance, an extraordinary role for America Chavez (she asks Doctor Strange to take over for her, to sacrifice her, to do what she thinks only he can do, and he says no, it’s up to her), Patrick Stewart almost bailing them out, an alternate universe Wanda begging the Scarlet Witch not to steal her boys, the boys crying, the Scarlet Witch going back to Mount Wundagore (where she found the Darkhold), first to fight and almost kill Doctor Strange and America, then later, after realizing the harm she’s done, tearing down Mount Wundagore.

Does this sound a little silly? It very much is not. It was a breathless experience the first time I watched it in a theater; it felt like three different stories pushed together and moving at almost hyperspeed. It was even better the second time. And then better the third.

Doctor Strange is uncertain about America at first, then commits to saving her. He’s uncertain about Wanda, then when he sees her true plan and her Scarlet Witch powers, he has to defend Kamar-Taj against her, then chase her throughout the Multiverse.

He warns the Illuminati about Wanda, but they are confident in their powers and imprison Strange; seconds later, the Scarlet Witch appears and they are destroyed one by one, an entire battle never in doubt and concluded in minutes. Christine then frees Doctor Strange and America and leads them to safety, but they don’t stay away; they come back to stop Wanda.

The movie is as much about the Scarlet Witch, America Chavez, and Wong as it is Doctor Strange. The battles are never easy; defeat feels imminent. I can’t think of another movie with so many conflicted, complicated characters, alternating between good, almost bad, and bad.

12 You’ve Got Mail

How many great movies has Tom Hanks made? I have Apollo 13, Captain Phillips, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Sully on my 4.5 Stars list.

You’ve Got Mail gets 5 stars. It’s my only Tom Hanks movie on this top 20 list (although I will probably move Captain Phillips to this list, once I decide which movie to drop down).

I don’t recommend many romantic comedies. This isn’t one. It’s described that way, but it is so much more. It’s sometimes dismissed as a lesser romcom, despite the incredible presence of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, who had previously starred together in Sleepless in Seattle. What makes this better, and unique, is that the romantic part, the hope, the search, the hope, is subordinate to the story—until it isn’t.

Meg Ryan is Kathleen, and Tom Hanks is Joe. Meg runs a wonderful independent bookstore that is about to be put out of business by Joe’s large bookstore chain. They meet each other at Kathleen’s bookstore, but Joe does not admit who he is. Kathleen disparages the bookstore chain and what it’s about to do to her life and her customers. Joe leaves.

They meet again at a book party, where she learns who he really is. She is furious, and accuses him of spying, while he belittles her small store.

Separately, she has been having an online conversation with an anonymous man she met in a chatroom. They have agreed to keep their personal information private (but he has told her the name of his dog). She is Shopgirl, and he is NY152. They spend a lot of time online together. She asks him for business advice, still without giving the particulars (such as that it’s a bookstore she’s writing about), and he gives her good advice: stand your ground, defend what you have.

They still don’t know who is on the other end of the chat. We do. It’s Joe and Kathleen.

They agree to meet at a cafe. Joe sees her from a distance and realizes it’s Kathleen, his antagonist and a woman he has mistreated. He’s afraid to meet her, so he waits a bit; once she thinks she’s been stood up, he shows up and offers support, but that turns into another confrontation. She leaves, and later tells NY152 she feels horrible about how she treated this man at a cafe; she’d “stood her ground”, but regrets it. He in turn apologizes for not meeting her when he said he would.

Joe knows he is deeply attracted to Kathleen and tries to work out a way to meet her, despite their past. Now both Joe and Kathleen are talking by phone as themselves, while Shopgirl and NY152 are separately chatting online. Joe tells her he is sorry for his past behavior and, if he had met her under other circumstances, "I would have asked for your number, and I wouldn't have been able to wait 24 hours before calling you up and saying, 'Hey, how about—oh, how about some coffee or, you know, drinks or dinner or a movie... for as long as we both shall live?’ “ She says she has similar feelings but can’t let go of NY152 yet. He says, “How can you forgive this guy for standing you up and not forgive me for this tiny little thing of putting you out of business? Oh, how I wish you would.”

She goes ahead with her plans to meet NY152. She hears him calling his dog. She sees him. It’s Joe. He looks at her. She says, “I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly.” It’s the most beautiful and heartfelt ending to a movie I’ve ever seen. That scene and that line has never left my mind.

I wrote above that Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs completely inhabits her character, with no space between the actor and the role. The same is true of Meg Ryan here; in every moment, you can feel that what she says and does is who she really is.

13 Winter’s Bone

Winter’s Bone is the movie that quietly launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94. It was a low budget independent Sundance Film release, grossing $16 million on a $2 million budget. It was on almost every Top 10 list that year (2010). One reviewer wrote that “Her performance is more than acting; it’s a gathering storm. Lawrence’s eyes are a roadmap to what’s tearing Ree apart.” I loved it.

Lawrence plays a teenager named Ree, who is taking care of her mentally ill mother and her younger siblings. Her father, a known meth manufacturer (in an Ozark area that is known for and dominated by meth manufacturers) has been missing for some time. She is trying to take care of her siblings, protect them, and teach them, while also getting by with no income. (In an early scene, she shows them how to skin a squirrel; at that moment, you know you’re deep into traumatic territory. Lawrence learned to fight and to skin squirrels to prepare for this movie, in the effortless and committed way that she approaches so much of her work.) A sheriff shows up and says that if their father is not found, they will lose the home, because he put it up as collateral for his bond, before he disappeared.

From that point on, she has to juggle all the challenges and trauma of her broken family, threats and a beating from the local crime boss, a sketchy relationship with her addict uncle Teardrop (an amazing performance by John Hawkes, who of course is known for amazing performances), and a desperate deadline to find her missing father. Ree and Teardrop work together to find either her father, or proof of his death; when the sheriff stops and threatens them, the real Teardrop comes out and terrifies the sheriff into backing off.

For somewhat unknown reasons, the local crime family, including the women who had beaten her before, come to help Ree and Teardrop find proof of her father’s death. This releases the bail bond, even giving the cash portion of the bond to Ree’s family, and she promises to care for her siblings and never leave them. Teardrop, meanwhile, has a terrifying moment when he says that he now knows who killed her father, and he’s going to deal with them. My immediate reaction was fear, that he is now committed to vengeance and will fight to the death (his or theirs), followed by joy, because he is committed to righting that wrong.

Jennifer Lawrence has been in many movies, and is one of the most accomplished and highly-paid actors of her generation, but Winter’s Bone and Causeway are the deep, honest, conflicted, vulnerable, and committed version of Jennifer Lawrence, the truly unforgettable one. I will never stop watching this movie, despite the trauma and the anguish

14 Kimi

Kimi is not a movie that most people would expect to see on a list like this, since it was released straight to streaming on Max. But Steven Soderbergh directed it, and Zoe Kravitz stars in it; that was enough to get my attention (and a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It’s a superb film, and Zoe is amazing in it.

She plays Angela, a brilliant tech engineer who works from home because a previous assault has left her agoraphobic (afraid to go out in public. Mostly this doesn’t affect her life, since she spends all her time on her elaborate computer systems, but she is working hard to get better at going outside, even if for only a minute or two. The company’s CEO is Bradley Hasling and the AI monitoring software (“Kimi”) that Angela is constantly monitoring and improving is about to go public, thereby making a fortune for Haslings. But things don’t go as planned; he did not expect Angela.

Angela’s work on Kimi stumbles on evidence of what appears to be a sexual assault. As she investigates deeper, she finds it turning into an ordered assassination, and the victim is Haslings’ mistress (who has called out “Brad” in fear). Angela is required to report recorded assaults anyway, and this is made worse by the likelihood of Haslings’ involvement. She reports it to her boss, who sends her to his boss, where she is told she must come into the office immediately so they can bring in the FBI. Leaving her apartment, going to the office in person, is a big challenge for Angela, but she eventually manages to do it, where she soon realizes that there is no FBI, and in fact the same hit men have entered the building in order to capture and presumably kill her. She escapes, almost makes it to the FBI’s office on her own, but is again almost captured by the hit men. Protestors help her escape, but by this point the hit men, with help from Hastings, know where she lives and attack her in her apartment.

There is a battle, and some attempted calls for help, and an almost-defeat, and help from a visitor who is then badly wounded. Angela uses all her knowledge of computers and Kimi to confuse the attackers and escape to the attic. When they find her again, she finally fights back. She is still on the edge of losing, but another friend—her only other friend—arrives. The attackers are so terrifying and unfeeling; she is so close to losing; the corporation has everything on its side. And yet—she is Angela. If anyone can do it, she can.

I rewatched the last ten minutes over and over without getting bored at all. I wanted to applaud—and then I watched it again.

15 Hidden Figures

This movie surprised me. I knew it covered some famous Black female mathematicians who worked at NASA; I did not realize how powerfully it would detail the racism and segregation of that time period (the early 1960s), or the support they eventually got from a tiny group of their colleagues.

The lead character, Katherine Goble, has been a remarkably talented mathematician since third grade, and she is the first Black woman given a prominent role at NASA. The other two key figures are her supervisor, Dorothy Vaughan, and her colleague Mary Jackson. They work at NASA, despite the overt racism and scorn, because there’s nowhere else that would employ such talented mathematicians. (They’re not interested in the kind of boring life that is otherwise available to brilliant Black women.) They work with a larger group of Black women in a segregated building, the West Area, where their work is handed up to the white supervisors who dominate the rest of the campus. When the Space Task Group, headed by Al Harrison, finds that none of his team can do the analytic geometry that he needs to safely launch John Glenn into space, Katherine is brought over to that campus, where they immediately create a separate coffee table for “coloreds”. She quickly ruffles many feathers, including those of her direct boss, Paul Stafford, but Harrison sees that she can do things the others can’t, so he insists that she remain, and gives her bigger and harder assignments. He fails to notice, however, that they have created segregated spaces for Black people.

Every day, she has to go the West Area building, half a mile away, to use the bathroom. Harrison finally blows up at her, saying he depends on her, but she disappears every day for forty minutes. She says she is going to the bathroom, and he angrily questions why she needs so much time. She says she has to walk half a mile, often in the rain, because she’s not allowed to use their “whites only” bathrooms. He stops, dumbfounded, and it’s perhaps the most dramatic moment of the film. He looks around, and first he smashes the “colored” coffee table, then gets a crowbar and smashes all the “white” and “colored” bathroom signs, saying that all NASA bathrooms are now integrated. Then a group of government officials come to question the safety and accuracy of their planning, because they’re afraid to send John Glenn into space. Harrison brings her into the conference room. They have never allowed a woman in there before, let alone a Black woman. They are looking for reassurance, and Harrison gives Al Stafford a chance to answer, but he can’t. Harrison turns to Katherine, gives her a piece of chalk, and asks if she can do it. On the spot, she does the calculations. From that moment on, the other astronauts, and Glenn in particular, will only do things if Katherine does the math.

Meanwhile, an IBM mainframe has been purchased, and it appears that all the mathematicians in Katherine’s original group will be fired, but none of the white operators can make the machine work. Dorothy Vaughan has been studying FORTRAN and teaching her team; when Harrison realizes that only she can do this work, he asks her to take over, and she says she’ll do it only if she can bring her whole team over from the West Area. Glenn is launched into space, and when he runs into a problem on the return home, he asks for Katherine to craft the recovery plan.

There are other plots along the way, including a surprise proposal from the Colonel she’s been dating, but the overall story is of three brilliant black women who chose to work at NASA, despite the prejudice they faced, and rose to success. Katherine Goble was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2015 and the Langley Research Center’s Computational Building was renamed and dedicated in her honor. Dorothy Vaughan became NASA’s first black supervisor, and Mary Jackson their first black female engineer.

16 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This incredible film shows a version of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet that we haven’t seen before: she’s a wild uncontrollable extrovert, and he’s confused and adrift. They’re a new couple (Joel and Clementine) who met recently on a train back from Montauk. She thinks she knows him, but he doesn’t agree. They don’t remember previously being a couple—and we certainly don’t know they were—because they both agreed to a procedure that would erase their memories of each other (the “spotless mind” of the title).

Clementine did it first, without telling Joel. When he finds out that she no longer remembers him, he can’t live with that devastation, so he decides to undergo the same procedure. But it goes wrong: he sees other memories as his are being erased, and realizes that one of the techs has been playing with Clementine’s mind, using both their memories to seduce her. He tries to stop the procedure. The boss is called and forces the memory erasure to its conclusion, but Joel is left with one last memory, the day that he met Clementine in Montauk. Somehow, in his mind as it is being erased, Clementine tells Joel to meet her there.

There is more to the lab and the lab techs than we know. The boss and his secretary Mary had previously had an affair, and she wanted to run away with him, but had her memories erased. When the boss’s wife sees them kissing again, she demands that he tell Mary the whole truth. She is furious when she finds out about their past and the erasure, so she breaks into the lab and starts mailing out lab records to the people who had undergone this procedure.

Without Joel or Clementine knowing why, or remembering what led them to this, Joel and Clementine end up in Montauk. They don’t see each other and are both vaguely disappointed, so they head home. (There is a great almost-memory that reminds them of the day they first met.) They see each other on the train back home. The relationship starts again. They fool around. They then receive the records and tapes that Mary had sent them, and are shocked at how much they seemed to hate each other when they were together, and at how many nasty things they said about each other in their records. They wonder if they should turn away from each other again. But something has clicked for them yet again: the “eternal sunshine” of the title.

At the start (which is also essentially the ending), you have no idea how much is going to be dredged up through memories. And as it comes up, you don’t expect them to end up together. But they do. You can’t do anything but applaud (or cry) when they choose to try again. It’s the eternal sunshine caused by a spotless mind. It’s glorious. It’s everything you could want in a film about a couple who have broken each other’s hearts, and don’t let them stop them.

17 Nobody

“Nobody” is Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk), a supposedly-ordinary office worker: taking out the trash, getting shit from his kids, ignored by his wife, mistreated and laughed at by the two executives at his job (his father-in-law and brother-in-law). Thieves break into Hutch’s house and his son attacks them, but Hutch stops his son and lets them go with whatever they stole. The family is disappointed that Hutch let them go; his daughter thinks they took her bracelet.

Hutch privately tells his brother (rapper RZA) that he let the thieves go because he knew the gun wasn’t loaded. That’s the first indication that Hutch might be more than he seems. He then tries to track down his daughter’s missing bracelet, and men at the tattoo parlor realize that Hutch has unique talents and special intelligence training; some of them flee in fear, while others respect him, convincing him they know nothing about the bracelet. We’re getting more signs that Hutch is not just a “nobody”.

Frustrated, Hutch takes a bus home. Fortune seems to smile on him, because some Russian gang members board the bus and harass one of its passengers. When Hutch tells them to stop, they throw him out (literally breaking a window when they throw him out of it). He looks like he’s going to leave, but he’s actually just getting ready to go back in and destroy them. He saves one of their lives with an emergency tracheotomy, but leaves him unconscious. Now we’re sure: Hutch is more than he seems.

Things heat up from there. More gang members get involved, Hutch’s family is attacked, he kills most of them, and then finds the missing bracelet, which was never actually stolen. We then learn that Hutch’s father (Christopher Lloyd!) has a similar background, when gang members attack him in his nursing home and he kills them.

This sets up two major confrontations: first, when Hutch confronts the gang leader and burns his cash stockpile to the ground; and second, when the gang find and surround Hutch at his business, then learn that he is now aided by a couple of old friends and some very clever strategies. The gang is well-armed and they significantly outnumber Hutch and his allies. That doesn’t matter. They don’t know Hutch. Or his father. Or his brother.

This film is on my list just because it’s fun. No drama, no suspense, no important story, trauma, or life challenges. The action is great; the interplay of domestic life, fear, and comedy adds background; Odenkirk shows us an unstoppable action hero that we haven’t see before; seeing his history come out in a way that reunites him with his wife is wonderful; but the main impact is that it’s just fun to watch.

I’m disappointed that the movie left Max and went to Amazon’s Freevee with ads. I’ll never watch it with ads. It’s too much fun, too non-stop; ad breaks will ruin it. Fortunately, I’d already seen it three times, including with some of my kids on vacation. (They loved it as much as I did.) I still want to see it again.

18 The Lion in Winter

Roger Ebert wrote, “One of the joys which movies provide too rarely is the opportunity to see a literate script handled intelligently. The Lion in Winter triumphs at that difficult task.”

The movie is a joy throughout, whether King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) is being abusive towards his sons, endlessly jousting with his estranged and sometimes-imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn), plotting to imprison and then kill his sons (including a young Anthony Hopkins), sword fighting with all three sons at once, falling into Eleanor’s arms or kneeling at her feet, or at various times laughing with her.

Hepburn casually throws out the line, “Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It’s 1183 and we’re barbarians.” Later, she says to King Henry, “I adored you. I still do.” He replies, “Of all the lies you’ve told, that is the most terrible.” She replies, “I know. That’s why I’ve saved it until now.”

Both O’Toole and Hepburn are magnificent and were nominated for Academy Awards, but only Hepburn won. (I’ll never understand why Peter O’Toole did not win as well.) I have watched this movie three times, even though I know every piece of it by this point.

19 Silverado

This is the second movie on my list (after Nobody) that is just plain fun. Unrelenting fun. Probably the most fun movie on this list. It was released in 1985, the same summer as Pale Rider. But where Pale Rider is dramatic, engaging, and powerful, Silverado is just a whole lot of fun.

Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist) wrote and directed Silverado. He cast Scott Glenn (in the best performance of his career), Kevin Kline (his best, most dramatic and heartfelt performance), Danny Glover, Linda Hunt, a young Kevin Costner, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy (as Kline’s antagonist, the corrupt sheriff Cobb), Jeff Goldblum (an unexpected bad guy), John Cleese (another sketchy sheriff), and Lynn Whitfield. A cast like this ought to produce excitement and connection, and it does.

The characters mostly don’t know each other. One by one, they stumble into tricky situations: Glenn is ambushed but escapes, then finds Kline, who has been robbed, stripped, and left to die. They head into town, where Kline finds the man who stole his horse and kills him, while still in his underwear. It’s clear that Kline knows what he is doing.

Kline and Glenn then intervene as a bar owner and several drunks are threatening and refusing service to a black cowboy (Glover). The sheriff shows up and sides with the bar owner, but Kline and Glenn testify for the cowboy. Kline is then arrested for shooting the thieves who stole his horse. Glenn breaks his brother (Kevin Costner) and Kline out of jail. For various reasons, they are all heading to the same town: Glenn and Costner to reunite with their family and go west, Glover to find his parents and sister, Kline (as far as we know) because he’s just wandering.

They are still pursuing their own agendas, and not yet going after the crooked sheriff Cobb (Dennehy) and the wealthy rancher McKendrick. One by one, they get attacked and injured, until there are four different victims to save. They are spread all over by this point; each of them decides to find and rescue the captive that they know personally; Glenn and Costner are in the most trouble.

Once everyone has been rescued, each decides individually to head back into town to take down Cobb and McKendrick. But as they are heading there, in a dramatic moment, they encounter each other, fall into line together, and turn into a galloping team. It’s a great scene. They then reach the rise overlooking the town. The town is Silverado. They look at each other. They have had enough of the corruption in this town. You are cheering them all at this moment, and grateful that they have come together to finally stop the madness.

On my next list, the 150 ranked movies list, I have other great westerns, including Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Purely as westerns, those movies are as good as Silverado, or better, but each of them has traumatic and bloody deaths and ambivalent endings. Silverado does not; it goes through all the steps to make us care, to connect us with each character, to make us fear for them, and then brings us to a rousing conclusion when they come together for the grand ending. I like exciting movies with great endings, so it’s on this 5 Stars list.

20 Pale Rider

Pale Rider is a return to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name character from the 1960s spaghetti westerns, but at a significantly deeper level, and with a more triumphant ending. Eastwood is the mysterious stranger who rides into LaHood, a western mining town controlled by a corrupt baron. He immediately saves an innocent man, Hull, who is being beaten by the mining baron’s thugs. We see that he has six bullet wounds in his back; his unexpected fighting talents, and his bullet scars, echo the mysterious character from Eastwood’s earlier westerns.

He is next seen wearing a clerical collar, causing the locals to call him Preacher. The mining baron’s son attacks the Preacher, but loses; the baron himself tries to bribe and threaten the Preacher. When that fails, he hires a marshal to run all the miners out of town, and though the Preacher warns them about the baron and the marshal, they ignore his advice and refuse to leave. The townspeople see the mining operation and realize they’re in trouble.

Meanwhile, the Preacher has left town without explanation, seeming to abandon the residents, but we see that he has actually ridden to a nearby town, removed his clerical collar, and collected his guns. He gets back to LaHood in time to stop the baron’s son from raping Hull’s daughter, whom he rescues. The marshal and his gang arrive in town, but when the baron describes the Preacher, the marshal says that can’t be true because that man is dead.

One of the local residents discovers gold and rides into town happily, believing he’s found enough gold for the town to chase off the mining baron and reclaim their property, but he is shot dead by the marshal.

The Preacher acts like he might just leave, but first he blows up the entire mining operation, freeing some captives, and then rides into town alone, where he kills all of the baron’s gang and the marshal and his deputies. In a clever twist, the marshal is shocked that somehow the man he knew before is still alive, and then the Preacher shoots him with six shots to the chest, repeating the wounds that had supposedly killed him years before. Meanwhile, just as the baron is about to kill the Preacher, Hull makes it into town on his own and kills him. The Preacher rides away. It is exactly like the various Man with No Name westerns, with a stranger who is supposed to be dead arriving in town, showing unexpected talents, and leaving without ever explaining who he is or why is there. But in every way, this feels far more satisfying; it’s clear to everyone that he is a hero, there’s no one yelling “Who are you?” at him, he only takes down the bad guys, he doesn’t make any demands of the townspeople, and you’re not left wondering who he is or why he came. You don’t know, and you don’t care, because he saved them. He’s not a supernatural character; he retrieved his guns from an actual safe deposit box; he’s a hero who knew whom he had to kill, and he came to LaHood to do just that.