Fight Club
Manages to be even better than Chuck Palahniuk's masterpiece of a book. Very few adaptations accomplish that.
Almost spilling over with its amount of symbolism and philosophical life advice. Possibly life-changing.
On a sidenote: Brad Pitt is criminally underrated. Yes he is a world star, but rather regarding his looks and private life than his body of work. Which is a pity, because his filmography is one of the best an actor could dream of.
Inglorious Basterds
Of course, there’s a Tarantino, but just a single one, even though Django or Pulp Fiction could make this list as well. For example, PF made me the cinephile I am today, but I didn‘t want to overload this list with…
Fight Club
Manages to be even better than Chuck Palahniuk's masterpiece of a book. Very few adaptations accomplish that.
Almost spilling over with its amount of symbolism and philosophical life advice. Possibly life-changing.
On a sidenote: Brad Pitt is criminally underrated. Yes he is a world star, but rather regarding his looks and private life than his body of work. Which is a pity, because his filmography is one of the best an actor could dream of.
Inglorious Basterds
Of course, there’s a Tarantino, but just a single one, even though Django or Pulp Fiction could make this list as well. For example, PF made me the cinephile I am today, but I didn‘t want to overload this list with one director specifically. So, just see this spot as a placeholder for Tarantino himself, with IB as my most favorite favorite one.
Inglorious Basterds: finally, a film about WW2 that even a German can enjoy. And, of course, Christoph Waltz with one of the best portrayals of all time.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Watching this movie is an experience. The runtime almost feels too short, even though it spans three hours. I love the work of every actor involved, their portrayals are superb. That's probably why I quote or re-enact lines or scenes from this film the most often of all my favorites.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker‘s Apocalypse
Interchangeable with the film it is about, but I prefer this documentary, because it adds so much more to it. For example, the extent of how far artists are willing to go? Their sacrifices, work ethic, etc. This documentary changes one's perspective regarding the craft of filmmaking.
The Lord of the Rings
The trilogy which redefined the word EPIC and took it to a whole other level.
Birdman
I am an actor in a theatre group and this film grasps the reality of such a production brilliantly.
The Godfather
Widely regarded as the GOAT and with good reason.
Brando's scenes alone would be enough for this film to make it on my list here.
There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis portrayal of the character Daniel Plainview may be the nearest an actor has ever come to perfection.
Der Schuh des Manitu
I would guess you need to be a native, or else the German humour is probably lost on you. Yes, Germans can be funny, too :D
I still use quotes and phrases from this film in my everyday life and I doubt I'll ever stop that. Hopefully not.
The Big Short
Capitalism condensed and put into an understandable format. Really an eye-opening experience.
The fact that my second major at university is Economics might play a role for its place in this list as well.
Dead Poets Society
I'm in teacher training programme for English and Economics and I have to say that Robin Williams portrayal of Keating is superb. I hope I can be as good as this character at my job one time.
Rest in peace Robin.
Arrival
Denis Villeneuve may be the most consistent director of our time. Arrival is my favorite of his. I believe this film to be a love story. And it tackles one of life's biggest questions and answers it with excrutiating honesty: Embrace the hardships life throws at you. Why should it be easy? The good moments are worth it, even though they are fleeting.
Steve Jobs
What does it take to be great? What is greatness even?
Aaron Sorkin's fantastic screenwriting, Danny Boyle's superb pacing and Michael Fassbender's awesome acting make this film a masterpiece.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Always brings a smile to my face. Its silly humour is what made me and my friends love this so much in our teenage years. I still very fond of this flick.
Captain Fantastic
A film that will make you question a lot of basic premises our modern western society thinks are axiomatic.
Adaptation
This film will be analyzed in countless courses and seminars. It's a beast of a film with a sheer limited ability to be interpreted. Simply awesome.
Charlie Kaufman's genius is out of question. As the master of self-reflexive cinema, Adaptation is my favorite of his work as a screenwriter, whereby all of his creations are amazing and almost impossible to top from a metafictional perspective.
Ocean‘s Eleven
All of the original trilogy are favorites of mine. A star-studded cast. Cool one-liners. Really creative screenwriting. And you just feel that these guys were friends who had a great time making this film. This transmits it to the viewers and their experience as well.
The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger's Joker is the sole reason that this film is in my top twenty, even though Nolan's poor directing and screenwriting. Of course, Nolan's movies are very interesting, and enjoyable, but their flaws in coherence and consistency prevent me from giving them the amount of praise other people do.
Spirited Away
The journey every adolescent (hopefully) has to make sometime in their life: Being on their own, confronting the difficulties life throws at them, not surrendering and prevailing in the end. Growing with the challenge.
The Shining
I generally have a hard time with the horror genre. But this film is the exception and with good reason(s): Nicholson. Kubrick.
Honorable mentions:
- David Lynch's whole filmography, especially Elephant Man
- Into the Wild (2007) by Sean Penn
- The Departed (2006) by Martin Scorsese
- Macbeth (2015) by Justin Kurzel
