What is your all time favorite movie and why?

[BryceRChapman]

Hey all!

I'm always looking for new and unique films to watch and was curious to hear some of your favorites!

My favorite is a tie between two completely different kinds of movies. Memento and American Movie, both 90s films.

Memento - was Christopher Nolan's first feature film and is by far my favorite. It is about a man whose wife is killed and he suffers from anterograde amnesia making each day seem like the day after his wife is killed. His goal is to track down his wife's killer and tattoos clues he finds along the way onto his body in order to progress.

What makes the film really unique is that it is half in color and half in black and white. The black and white clips are in the past and are progressing forward in the story while the shots in color are in the future and moving backwards. The movie ends in the middle where they meet.

American Movie - was a 1999 Sundance wining documentary. It follows a guy from Milwaukee who has wanted to make movies his entire life but has essentially one at it all the wrong way. The documentary shows him going through the creative struggles of finishing a film, to his financial struggles and even his struggle with keeping people to help him make the film. It is honestly the funniest movie I've ever seen as well as one I can connect with the battle creatives face in creating the art they want to make.

 

[ElaineA]

If given a list of, say, 5 movies, I could maybe pick a favorite from the 5, but to pick a favorite among the thousand(s)+ movies I've seen? Impossible. I don't think I could even pick a favorite within a specific genre. Or year. Or even director(s), for some of them. *waves at Coen Bros*

 

[mccardey]

Okay. Ahem. I don't watch many movies because prosopagnosia, but movies I've loved and remembered were:

The Lion In Winter (mostly for Kate H)

The Year Of Living Dangerously (except for the stoned swimming-pool scene)

And - no, I think that's it. Oh

Remains of the Day (God, I do hate these American trailers! They miss the point entirely!) and

Another film but I can't remember what it was. It might have been The Man In The Glass Booth or it might have been something else.

All excellent films.

Wait - Strictly Ballroom and also The Castle. (You prolly have to be Australian for those...)

ETA: And Manon de Sources

ETA : Also - I do very love films of musicals. So - The Music Man. Sweeney Todd. Merrily We Roll Along. All the musicals. (Except Cats, obviously...)

 

[dickson]

It’s daunting to pick a single favorite. I have many favorites instead. But if there is one film that turns up more often than any other for me, it would have to be The Third Man.

Joseph Cotton pursues Orion Welles in devastated post WW II Vienna, shot on still-ruined location, in a story by Graham Greene. It’s not the Cold War, not yet, but you can see it coming.

A few years back I spent a couple of weeks in Vienna. Almost the first thing I did was ride the Riesenrad, the enormous Ferris wheel on which Welles and Cotton meet, and where Welles makes his immortal remark about the Swiss and Cuckoo clocks. Wandering around Vienna one stumbles across most of the locations for exterior shots in the movie (no, I didn’t go into the sewers—but I would have done if I’d been there a little longer). I wandered down a lovely covered alley lined with every manner of little shop, opening up every few dozen yards to reveal an outdoor cafe or bierstube, that I only recognized later on rewatching the movie, was in 1947 the scene of a nightmarish headlong chase down a fire-gutted ruin at night.

Finally, The Third Man has what is, for my money, the best ending in cinema history. If haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil. By all means see it for yourself!

 

[mccardey]

It’s daunting to pick a single favorite. I have many favorites instead. But if there is one film that turns up more often than any other for me, it would have to be The Third Man.
<<snip>>

I won’t spoil. By all means see it for yourself!

I will watch it if you will watch The Lion In Winter.

 

[lorna_w]

How about a few favorites you may have never heard of...?

1. Lawless Heart. 2001. A Roshomon kind of structure. Bill Nighy at the top of his game.
2. Panic in the Year Zero. Obscure post-apoc tale, pretty dark, with terrific acting, including Ray Milland, Jean Hagan, and a shockingly good/serious Frankie Avalon as their son.
3. Crumb. About the cartoonist I loathed, until I saw this biographical documentary, and by the end, I thought "considering that background, he's about as functional as a person could come out of it!" Also, Zwigoff is a genius.

I do love a good documentary, and they take many spaces on my top 25. Les glaneurs et la glaneuse; When We Were Kings. The Wrecking Crew (interesting for writers because of the parallels between the musicians lives and ours. Also, I'm a huge Carol Kaye fan, so I loved this.)

 

[Norsebard]

What is your all time favorite movie and why?

My choices are going to be far less cerebral than the movies that have been listed here so far:

5. The original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1980-1983).


4. Smokey & The Bandit (1977). Yes, really!


3. Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (Org.title: Flåklypa Grand Prix) (1975). This is still the best animated movie I have ever watched despite all the efforts of Disney and Pixar. It's a story of the Little Guy who dares to Dream Big. When a world champion race car driver boasts that nobody is able to beat him on the track, a bike repair man living in a tiny mountain village in rural Norway gets a notion of giving it a shot. He and his friends soon set off to build the legendary 'Il Tempo Gigante' - that features a few trick components like Moonshine racing fuel! - to challenge the pompous champion. How will their home-grown machinery fare against the cream of the crop?

It's a wonderful family movie full of friendship, engineering ingenuity and stickin' it to the world's pompous a**es. The haunting theme tune continues to give me goosebumps even to this day.


2. American Graffiti (1973) - needs no introduction (I don't think - maybe it's been forgotten by the younger generations.)


1. Convoy (1978) - directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, Franklin Ajaye and Ernest Borgnine. It's probably Peckinpah's least Peckinpah-ish movie, but every single second of its colorful story touches my soul profoundly. I know that's rather melodramatic but it also happens to be true.

Most people under 50 have never heard of it, but I'm sure that the term 'Rubber Duck' is familiar to more. It's an action drama that revolves around a fiercely independent owner-operator truck driver, his colleagues and their eternal opponent, a sheriff who's a 'bribe-taking piece of meanness' to use a line of the dialogue. When more and more drivers join the convoy to put a spotlight on their poor working conditions on the road, it catches the eye of self-serving politicians who try to exploit it to their own advantage. As expected, the Rubber Duck will have none of that and leaves to pursue his own thing away from the oily politicians - but the sheriff has one last ace up his sleeve...


Yeah, like I said... not too cerebral.


Norsebard

 

[Autumn Leaves]

My favorites are:

1) [this entry has been written as a bullet list to prevent excessive squeeing] Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010), which:

• is a faithful adaptation of one of my very favorite Discworld books
• is a beautiful and touching story of redemption without getting too sappy about it
• is absolutely hilarious
• resonates with me, because I've watched my parents raising a business from scratch, just like Moist does in the film
• resonates with me, because for a long time, snail mail in our country was infamous for being veeeerrrry sloowwww (and as it became noticeably better a few years ago, I joked that Moist must have taken charge of it)
• stars my two very favorite actors - Charles Dance and David Suchet

2) The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) - an utterly lovely and very funny and touching story of Dickens facing a writer's block and quarrelling with his characters. I am aware that it's not quite historically accurate (his marriage is portrayed in a rather rosy light), but it's just brilliantly made.

3) The Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1978) - a moderately loose adaptation of one of Stanislaw Lem's wonderful Tales of Pilot Pirx short stories. It has lots of great acting, and Lem's amazing sharp humor from the original is perfectly preserved. (It has a couple of clumsy moments, making the main villain and the anti-villain rather stereotypical, but then it would have been hard to adapt their loooong philosophic monologues from the story - and I think the film's general charm more than makes up for it).

4) Heart of a Dog (1988) - one of the very, very rare instances when I declare the movie adaptation undoubtedly better than the book (yes, even my beloved Going Postal doesn't overshadow the original book for me). It's an adaptation of Bulgakov's satirical sci-fi novella, filmed deliberately in sepia, and its portrayal of the Soviet realities of the time is a work of utter genius.

 

[Elenitsa]

I would say first and foremost West Side Story. I watched it 20+ times. And it is at tie with one from my country, an adventure series involving tall ships and exploring the Magellan Strait and Tierra del Fuego.

 

[mewellsmfu]

I'm with Elaine. I have a lot of favorites, but the Coen brothers claim an outsized amount of real estate on that list.

 

[dickson]

I will watch it if you will watch The Lion In Winter.

I saw it in its original theatrical release! Which dates me, for sure. I watched it again a few years back, and was struck by how little the plot mattered alongside Kate Hepburn and Peter O’Toole striking sparks off each other. I can only imagine what it was like to see it on the stage.

Now I have the music from the titles running through my head!

 

[Jazz Club]

My choices are going to be far less cerebral than the movies that have been listed here so far:

5. The original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1980-1983).

Yeah, I agree about Star Wars! Also Gladiator and the Lord of the Rings films. Priceless, with Audrey Tatou, is a great French romantic comedy. Goodbye Lenin is a German bittersweet comedy that's excellent (it's actually very sad for a comedy).

Shawshank Redemption, obviously (bit of a cliche lol). For oldies, Singing in the Rain, North by Northwest and Some Like it Hot always seems as good every time I watch them. For comedies, Clueless (of course, I'm a 90s kid lol) Office Space and Wayne's World.

 

[Paul Lamb]

It's not faithful to the novel (Shoeless Joe), but I think my favorite movie is Field of Dreams. More than a touch of magical realism, great cast and acting, a slow-burn build to an exactly perfect ending. It's one of those "I should have seen this coming all along" kind of movies. I've watched it dozens of times.

 

[Janine R]

It’s impossible to pick a favourite movie (or food or book or season). Here’s a few in no particular order:
Alien
Burning
Boyhood
Walkabout
North by northwest
Whiplash
LA Confidential
West side story
12 angry men
Like father like son
Train to Busan
Stand By Me

 

[DeleyanLee]

I always have to do favorites by genre:

Drama: Still The Lion In Winter (another one!). Overall, I prefer the 1969 version over the 2003(?) remake (Patrick Stewart/Glenn Close). I adore this movie because ALL the conflict is purely interpersonal and the dialogue is wonderful. Not to mention early jobs for Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton.

MGM Musical: Singing In the Rain. Too many wonderful songs and dances (though I do skip over the big dance sequence in the middle, I admit).

Modern Musical: Chicago. Sultry with Fosse-inspired choreography and great performances by all the stars.

Western: Silverado. I know it's a parody. It's still a GREAT Western.

Comedy: Tie between Galaxy Quest and A Fish Called Wanda. Hard to choose.

That's enough for now. LOL!

 

[DorianFrost]

I don't watch a lot of movies - I tend to prefer the long-term character investment of tv series. Apparently I have a thing for movies based on books because the three movies I repeatedly come back to are all based on novels, though The Old Guard may eventually be added to that list and prove an exception to that tendency. I also love The Matrix, but come back to that a little less frequently (not that I like it less, I just need to be fully mentally present).

Howl's Moving Castle: Hayao Miyazaki, as always, has such gorgeous art in his films. The voice actor casting was well done. Both Sophie and Howl's characters were beautifully explored. If you're looking for something that closely follows the book, this doesn't, but I love both the book and film equally.

A Wrinkle In Time (2003): Not to be confused with the more recent film adaptation. I watched this one at my grandparents' as a child and it definitely imprinted on me, lol. Given the mixed reviews, it clearly wasn't for everyone, but I was impressed with the casting in this - mostly lesser known actors as this was a low-budget film, with the exception of Alfre Woodard who was perfect as Mrs. Whatsit, but they all performed excellently. I was especially impressed with how well the child cast for Charles Wallace inhabited the character. It also varied significantly in some areas from the book, but I felt it held true to the core of the characters and themes. Also, the soundtrack was amazing.

Peter Pan (2003): This is probably the only film adaptation of Peter Pan that I like (I understand the charm Hook holds for many others, but it is not for me). This one actually adheres pretty well to the book, with some time and medium appropriate variations. It's a gorgeous film, with brilliant casting. Once again, I was impressed with the performance of the children/preteen actors. And Jason Isaacs will forever be the perfect Captain Hook so far as I'm concerned.

 

[Nether]

Still wracking my brains. While there's usually a short-list -- things I've watched time and time again -- it's been a while since I've watched those.

My viewpoint when it comes to favorites tends to be more extreme than most peoples'. Most people are like, "I love this movie," but I need to be "I LOVE this movie." If I'm bored of something after having seen it 30 times, that's not a strong enough to be in contention for a favorite.

When watching a potential new favorite, I'll finish a viewing then immediately rewatch it. I need to be able to quote it. I need to be able to tell pointless tidbits and trivia about the movie to people who have zero interest in the film and are nodding politely until they finally excuse themselves to get away from the conversation.

At some point when I'm taking a break from writing -- which is a complete hypothetical because I've been on a breakneck schedule since... last June -- I'm going to probably sit down and re-watch every serious contender.

But just to name a movie where I used to have that kind of an attachment to, probably The Nightmare Before Christmas. I'd say it's probably been consistently in my top 10 favorites since maybe 2000 or so. Never as an all-time favorite, but always something consistently up there. For that, people will nod and say, "Yeah, I get that." Meanwhile some of my historical absolute favorite films would elicit a, "Wait, what?", because they very often don't even crack 40% on Metacritic and aren't even 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it's just stuff that I watched where it goes so far beyond camp to be an instant classic.

 

[stephenf]

Memento - was Christopher Nolan's first feature film and is by far my favorite.

Sorry for being pedantic , Following was Chris Nolan's first film .
Anyway
The 1982 version of Blade Runner is one of my favourites . It was almost one of the last big films to be shot entirely on film . The water running down the walls is real .

 

[neandermagnon]

Favourite from an artistic point of view: The Godfather. What can I say? Such exquisitely photographed brutal murder. Every moment of this film has outstanding cinematography. The plot is complex and gripping. The characterisation of Vito and Michael Corleone is outstanding - and the acting is outstanding. The juxtaposition of horror and beauty in the plot, the characterisation and the cinematography...

Favourites for other reasons: (At least based on what I can think of right now. I have probably forgotten a few.)

The Martian: the novel is better but the film is still epic. (To be fair on the film, the novel is my all time favourite novel so it's virtually impossible for the film to be better.)

Thor Ragnarok - I just love this film. And all of Marvel. But this has so many things I like about films in it. It's actually quite hard to pick a favourite Marvel film - I also really like the Guardians of the Galaxy ones, and some others. Thor Ragnarok deserves to be ranked as one of my all time favourites, not just a favourite Marvel film.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - one of my favourite films as a kid. I just love it. Outstanding, groundbreaking animation for its time, and an exciting plot with lots of comedy and interesting characters. And a villainous villain.

Favourite Disney film: Encanto. And not just because there's a positive description of a strong, muscular woman (she is my favourite character in the film of course) but for so many other things - epic story, very relatable and thought provoking - beautiful metaphor with the cracks in the house, amazing animation, amazing soundtrack. I tend to find Disney animated films enjoyable and worth watching, but I can't recall any that I feel are so deep as this one.

Once Upon a Time in the West: another one for beautiful cinematography. Harmonica guy is the most intriguing film character ever. Most epic revenge sequence ever.

There's a few also that I'd like to watch again that I found to be epic at the time but only saw the once, e.g. Gladiator, Lord of the Rings trilogy etc. And also one that I loved as a teenager but haven't watched in a very long time so don't remember much about it any more: Flatliners. I remember that being epic enough that I watched it several times. Also Philadelphia. I think I've seen it twice but it might be in the category of too traumatic to rewatch. This is getting me thinking that I need to watch more films lol

Also various films that I've forgotten to consider because I can't remember the whole of cinema in one go.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Asking a favorite movie is like asking a favorite song or book; the mere question empties my brain of all reference material and leaves me with a blank stare...

There are many movies I've greatly enjoyed over the years, and some that left marks even if they don't necessarily hold up.

The Flight of Dragons, the animated Rankin-Bass movie based on Peter Dickinson's hypothetical essay on a "real" dragon animal and Gordon R. Dickson's The Dragon and the George, was a childhood favorite and quite likely the direct culprit for my dragon obsession, not to mention my lifelong enjoyment of animation.

The How to Train Your Dragon trilogy are my favorite animated movies (at this moment), and Toothless is perhaps the best "nice guy" dragon ever to exist on the silver screen, absolutely exploding with personality in every shot. Kubo and the Two Strings was so good I sprang for it twice on the big screen.

Seeing the dinosaur reveal in the original Jurassic Park on the big screen remains a landmark sense-of-wonder moment in my life, along with the opening sequence of the original The Lion King.

Growing up, we wore out our VHS copies of Forbidden Planet and Spaceship (a 1980's parody of SF movies and Alien in particular that contains a scene with the only answer you'll ever need to the question "Do song lyrics matter?" - spoiler alert: yes, they do), as well as The Man With Two Brains and All of Me (both Steve Martin movies) and Labyrinth (I still own and listen to the soundtrack regularly).

I know the plot has Issues, but Avatar was the only movie that made me want to walk out after the credits, buy another ticket, and walk right back in; that world was so immersive, especially in 3D...

I have rarely laughed as hard in a theater as I did watching Enchanted, though the timing - I'd just come through major emergency surgery for something that thankfully turned out not to be cancerous, and it was my first outing - may have had something to do with it.

Clue (the 1980's version) has the most perfect comic timing and delivery of any movie, every shot, start to finish.

The Martian is one of the truest and best book adaptations I've seen. So is Coraline, for all that it added a whole new character; it just works.

Alien and Groundhog Day are both masterpieces in their genres, as is Fritz Lang's Metropolis; Lang was unbelievably ahead of his time. (I also quite enjoyed the Moroder recut, which did an excellent job matching music and is basically another film, though I am an unashamed child of the 1980's.)

I know for a fact I'm missing several favorites...

 

[Nether]

Thor Ragnarok - I just love this film. And all of Marvel. But this has so many things I like about films in it. It's actually quite hard to pick a favourite Marvel film - I also really like the Guardians of the Galaxy ones, and some others. Thor Ragnarok deserves to be ranked as one of my all time favourites, not just a favourite Marvel film.

Fun movie. Probably in my top five favorite MCU films.

Clue (the 1980's version) has the most perfect comic timing and delivery of any movie, every shot, start to finish.

I think the first four times I watched Clue, I didn't like it, but I started to change my mind after the fifth viewing. Given Clue was one of my favorite board games, I think my initial expectations were too high.

 

[Roxxsmom]

I always find it tough to come up with these on the spot, as there are so many categories of movie, and my reaction to them depends on my mood and the overall context in which I watched it.

For SF, I'd put Blade Runner at the top of my list, and since I love SF, that's a strong endorsement. I was underwhelmed by it when it first came out in the theaters, perhaps because it came out in the wake of the Star Wars movies. My adolescent self was more into traditional action adventure back then. But as I have aged, the darker themes in Blade Runner, and the film's brilliant ambience and subtext have captivated me more.

I really liked Alien 2 (Aliens) also. I liked Alien as well, but thought the second movie was the best in the series. In my mind the story ended there, because

Spoiler: Spoilers for Alien series.

the rest of the Alien series took the entirely satisfying ending to the second movie and flipped a finger at those of us who like stories to go out on a positive note with at least some deserving people, yanno, surviving. The rest of the series actually makes it harder for me to watch Aliens, now, because what was the point of all the characters went through, really, but before the rest of the series came out, Aliens was definitely on my short list

.

As far as animated movies go (and I am fonder of animated moves than many adults), I'd have to put the utterly gorgeous Spirited Away at the top. I also really liked Lilo and Stitch (A rather unconventional Disney cartoon that doesn't get as much press as it should, imo, maybe because it was released in the Same year as Spirited Away, and the critics back then could only focus on one excellent animated movie at a time). Both of these movies had wonderful, brave female protagonists whom no one could accuse of being "boys in a girl's body."

I also really liked Groundhog Day. Bill Murray has several good movies that explore the "Asshole to Redeemed" story arc, but this one blends humor, darkness, and romance to make a very entertaining and memorable story that still sucks me in if it's on while I am flipping through channels.

An honorable mention goes to District 9 also. I enjoyed that movie, both for the unusual story and because the protagonist (and other people in the story too) was not your stereotyped "rock jawed," courageous hunk of a star, and his evolution felt authentic. The humans in that movie felt and looked like ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. The ending was incredibly poignant, and it's sad they never made a sequel. But considering the hot messes that are sometimes made of sequels (see Aliens series above), well, maybe it's for the best.

As for ridiculously silly fun, I have to say Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I know I'm forgetting plenty of movies I've loved over the years, but this is what I can think of at the moment.

Oooh, McCardy mentioned The Lion in Winter. I absolutely love that movie. Definitely at the top of my favorite "classics."

 

[Maze Runner]

As several posters have said, I find it impossible to pick a favorite, but I'll do it anyway...Maybe I just don't want to face another Monday morning. Yes, I know the alternativc is a lot worse.

The only way I can approach it is to think of an actor I like then of a movie of theirs I like. So...Meg Ryan-Addicted To Love, Gene Hackman-Unforgiven, Rod Steiger-In The Heat Of The Night, Warren Beatty-Bugsy, Sophia Loren-It Started In Naples, Sean Penn-State Of Grace, Marlon Brando-On The Waterfront, Lawrence Fishburne-Always Outnumbered, Robert De Niro-The King Of Comedy, Montgomery Clift-From Here To Eternity, Sean Connery-Family Business, Mia Farrow-Hannah & Her Sisters, Dean Martin-Some Came Running, Christian Bale-American Hustle, Kevin Spacey-American Beauty, Tony Curtis-40 Pounds Of Trouble, Charlize Theron-Young Adult, Michael Douglas-Wonder Boys, Shelly Winters-Harper, John Cassavettes-The Dirty Dozen, Cloris Leachman-Young Frankenstein, Geraldine Page-Pope Of Greenwich Village...Sam Jackson-Jackie Brown

 

[Nether]

Sam Jackson-Jackie Brown

Great movie, but not the first that comes to my mind when I think of Sam Jackson

 

[Maze Runner]

Great movie, but not the first that comes to my mind when I think of Sam Jackson

I know what you mean, he's been in a lot of good movies, and he's always great. But to me, his performance in Jackie Brown. is the stand out in that movie. I mean, De Niro's role is kind of there just to support Jackson's it seems, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. I'm not the biggest Tarantino fan, but I liked this one.