WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE?

Zodiac

A tie: GoodFellas and A Christmas Carol (but only the 1951 Alastair Sim version!)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The Departed - so much action

All About Eve - can't explain it, overall - but Bette Davis and a great script

A tie. Terry Gilliam's Brazil, which was prescient in the way it showed how machines were becoming more organic, and people were becoming more like unthinking machines. And Lost in Translation, partly because I used to travel all the time and would meet people who became instant best friends, but I realized that the friendships I forged with them would not survive a change in location; being in a foreign place is what made the friendship viable.

Bound (1996). Yes, even though it’s about lesbians. And before you make fun of me, please read Roger Ebert’s four-star review below.

Damn “The Matrix”! I wish the Wachowskis would make something this gritty and low-budget again.

Withnail and I

A Streetcar Named Desire

Honestly, Disney's "Pocahontas".

I love the songs, the cool coloring (greens, blue, violets), the sensitivity to animals and nature. Both Pocahontas and John Smith are beautiful. 🌲🌳🌿🐇🐅🐟🐢🐿

"Colors of the Wind" is just a beautiful song. Love it. Makes me cry every time.

I don't really tell people that it's my favorite movie, however, because there are any number of angles from which to criticize the movie and people can get very worked-up by it's liberal messages (kind of like telling someone you're vegan).

Cinema Paradiso

In case you haven't heard it.

*its liberal messages

Silence of the Lambs

Doesn't matter what part I start watching it at, it always sucks me in and I have to watch to the end.

Jaws. Watching it right now, actually.

I Know Where I’m Going

The Maltese Falcon - No telling how many times I've watched it. It's a great acting ensemble. And Peter Lorre is so much fun to watch.

Billy Elliott

My pretentious inner self wants to say Ermanno Olmi's Il Posto (which trully is a film that has touched me like no other). But my less pretentious side wants to say Priscilla Queen of the Desert or Mean Girls (which are the only two films I literally know by heart - I'm not kidding, I know every single word of dialogue from these two).

2001: A Space Odyssey, Babette's Feast, The Godfather, Bernie--these are 4 that come to mind, I'm sure I can think of a few others but don't care to right now.

Love Me Tonight - brilliant score by Rodger & Hart, script, cinematography performances by Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette McDonald, Myrna Loy and Charles Butterworth, and great direction by Rouben Mamoulian make this one of the greatest musical comedies ever.

Rpdgers, that is.

and Charles Ruggles, a cutie when young

Lion in Winter

Citizen Kane. Yes, the most boring choice ever. I’ve seen it over 30 times.

The Virgin Suicides

The Omen. Say what you will, everybody likes to see a bit him or herself on the screen.

r20 here. Thought of 5 more: Patton, The Producers (1968 version, of course), Murder on the Orient Express (1974 version with Lauren Bacall, Albert Finney and Ingrid Bergman, of course), Cabaret, The Shining

Blade Runner, Director's Cut. Vangelis was such a perfect fit for the tone of the movie.

Hey OP. You should alter the question a bit and get one artistic favorite and one popular favorite. You know, like the next Oscars!

The Haunting

Good one r31, a little corny in a few parts but Julie Harris and Claire Bloom were good. One more for me, Gandhi.

That one was great, R21! "One Hour With You" was another great one with Jeanette and Maurice.

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Jam-packed with 1960s character actors.

BOOGIE NIGHTS.

Perfection from first shot to (especially) last shot. Epic, the cast of a lifetime. Amazing script, pristine direction and a slaying soundtrack. Marky Mark is a douche but PTA films him so lovingly in his absolute prime that it doesn't even matter. He's gorgeous, and it works. A masterpiece.

Serial Mom. Kathleen was great. I still laugh whenever I see it.

Casablanca

Mr. Mom with Terri Garr and Michael Ketaon. Was a great 30s screwball-style 80s movie and a personal fave.

Frozen is another I really love. Always cheers me up.

R34- OMG! I was going to say "Gaslight" with Ingrid Bergman until I remembered "The Ghost And Mr. Chicken". That's my guilty pleasure movie. I wanted to live in that boarding house in Rachel Kansas. Did you notice that the elevator operator in that one scene - who asks for Luther's autograph- is the same actor who played the runaway husband of Rose of Sharon in "The Grapes of Wrath"?

Synecdoche, NY

An Unmarried Woman, because of Jill Clayburgh, the script, 1977, Soho, the Village, Elaine, Sue, and Jeannette, 162 Spring Street, Paul Jenkins, the long walk home, and...

Frozen

The Hunger is one of my favorites, the first scene with Bauhaus singing Bela Lugosi’s dead, Deneuve and Bowie in all their 80’s glory, it’s all fascinating.

My guilty pleasure movies are The Devil’s Advocate and Enchanted. I am a bit ashamed about the last one and never tell anyone about it, but God, I’ve watched it so many times and it just makes me so happy, can’t explain it.

Blood Diamond

Gladiator

Lost In Translation

Mommy (Xavier Dolan)

I've seen The Exorcist about 167 TIMES, AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT

Rocky Horror Picture Show Brings back flood of happy memories when everyone was a whole lot happier, fun and free.

Sentimental favorite--THE WIZARD OF OZ. It does it all and it does it best. How do we find home? What will life throw at us? Tornadoes? New shoes? A tin-man? Your name written in the sky for all to see as a wanted enemy? It's all there. And Margaret Hamilton CREATED the prototype of the modern wicked witch. That character hadn't existed quite yet. Margaret Hamilton defined what it still is today. Amazing.

Hollywood sophisticated favorite--ALL ABOUT EVE. I still think it has the wittiest script ever. Ever.

Personal life influenced favorite/one that moves me personally more than any other--MIDNIGHT COWBOY. It kills me. How does america treat those who can't take care of themselves? It kills me.

Art cinema favorite--IL NOTTI DI CABIRIA/NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. Fellini's most gorgeous and most heartbreaking. My absolute favorite female performance on film is Masina as Cabiria. Great in an otherworldly way great. The last sequence in the film, and particularly that last 2 minutes or so--sublime and unforgettable. Defining. It was a b.c./a.d. moment in my life the first time I saw it.

Sorry to cheat by answering in this way. Thanks.

And loving the shout outs for BOOGIE NIGHTS/CABARET/THE SHINING/BABETTE'S FEAST/THE VIRGIN SUICIDES/CITIZEN KANE/GOODFELLAS/THE GODFATHERS/A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE/SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Brilliant and thrilling movies--all.

The Empire Strikes Back

R26 I love Virgin Suicides too. Vertigo is definitely a movie I keep rewatching. Guilty pleasures? Clueless, 10 things I hate about you, and The Age of Innocence.

Days of Heaven. The end.

Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell is by far my favorite movie. So many quotable lines from the movie that I use in everyday life. Mame's life philosophy of "Live, Live, Live" is mine too. And Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch! The bourgeois Uptons and their daughter, Gloria.

Ken Russell's film of The Boyfriend.

Tyler Posey's short film - the uncut version

The Mephisto Waltz

Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart.

If....

The Year of Living Dangerously

Pillow Talk- so many levels. Joy Luck Club. Steel Magnolas. Sordid Lives.

The Women

I don't have an absolute favorite, but off the top of my head:

-One Hour Photo with Robin Williams. So, so well-done in every way, and Williams manages to perfectly straddle the line between creepy and sympathetic. One of his best performances ever.

-The Lion King. I'm a millenial, nuff said.

-Metropolis

-The Shining

-The Thing

Chinatown

Melancholia

I should probably say one of the Trois Couleurs trilogy but the truth is it's probably Clueless.

R51 Clueless is a great movie. You have nothing to feel guilty about for loving it. Just because it deals with superficial high school kids doesn’t mean it isn’t brilliant.

Carrie (the 1977 version). It took me a long time to get there, but to go from identifying with Carrie's insecurities—which I did, big time—to Tommy Ross's confidence was my goal.

I liked Clueless, too. Seeing it in the theatre was one of the last things I did with my friend Bryan before he moved away. We'd been through too many deaths among our friends, and we both ended up leaving the city where we'd all known one another. Liked the movie, though not a favorite. Greater nostalgic than filmic value.

Carrie is a phenomenal movie if for no other reason than it’s based on a Stephen King novel and yet it uses symbolism and metaphor to make the film more than a “Boo! I scared ya!!” story.

I recently saw the highly recommended IT. IT is an abysmal movie.

Clueless is smarter and more resonant than it should be, and so is Emma. I wouldn’t call either “the greatest” movie, but both are favorites.

Favorites, roughly in order: Melancholia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clueless, Mulholland Drive, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Pan’s Labyrinth, Auntie Mame, All About Eve

Had no idea DL was so unsophisticated in its cinematic leanings.

r71 And pray tell, Cuntella, what are three of your faves?

1. Call me by your name (easily) 2. Ordinary People 3. Brokeback Mountain 4. Terms Of Endearment 5. Reds

Fifty plus years of movie watching and my top three are locked in.

4/5 of a WW for r73.

‘ The Loveless ‘. Arthouse almost pastiche 50s biker movie with a keen sense of its own absurdity, great dialogue, great art direction, great performances, great quiffs, great soundtrack.

Snapping at its’ heels would be Withnail and I and Bladerunner.

All three together make for a perfect weekend indoors.

The Warriors could also turn up if they wished.

Oh, someone mentioned The Thing...darn, that too.

R75

I LOVE this! This is DL. Great suggestions - I'm adding all of them to my Amazon Prime Video watchlist.

While I count Barry Lyndon, Seven Beauties, Ikiru, Tokyo Story, 8½, Word Is Out, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown as among my all-time favorites - along with my guilty-pleasure favorite, Suspiria . . .

My top spot goes to that oldie that pits good liberalism (George Bailey) against evil unbridled capitalism (Mr. Potter) . . .

THE PIZZA BOY--HE DELIVERS.

Because it delivers.

Brief Encounter, just perfect.

The original Manchurian Candidate.

So many great movies. I especially love Withnail and I and All About Eve. But for pure entertainment every time I have to say Casablanca.

Part of me wants to say Los Olvidados, or Babette’s Feast, or Fanny & Alexander, or Brief Encounter, or The Whit Stilman triology, or the Merchant-Ivory catalogue (all great films I really enjoy), but honest me knows that on those days I’m feeling all blue, overcome with ennui, questioning decisions and relationships I plop on the couch and watch “Sliding Doors” and somehow, it helps - I feel better.

My all-time top three: REAR WINDOW, FEMALE TROUBLE, LOGAN'S RUN

The Opposite of Sex with Christina Ricci. Funny, sexy, heartfelt and the ending makes me cry, it's so joyful.

The Godfather Part 2

And I don’t even like The Godfather

Nashville. Life is Sweet. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969). The Trip to Bountiful. Magnolia.

Blue Velvet

The Departed

The Year of Living Dangerously

Alien (1979)

Charlton Heston was in my favorite movies as a child: Planet Of The Apes(1968), The Omega Man (1972) Soylent Green (1973) Earthquake(1974)

I'd rate Aliens just slightly above Alien, R90, but that might be a product of when I grew up. I absolutely love both though. Too bad there were not any more movies in the series after that.

Pizza Boy...He Delivers was a turning point in cinema. It ended on such a brilliantly ambiguous note: what exactly was it that the pizza boy delivered? Pizza or sex? Worthy of Godard. Cineastes are arguing the point to this day.

r78 I love your taste. Seven Samurai mostly for sentimental reason my father took me to see it when I was 13 because it was his favorite. People said he looked like Toshiro Mifune.

Are you going to make a mix tape compilation?

[quote]what exactly was it that the pizza boy delivered? Pizza or sex?

Hensonpenis, the youngest

Jess Franco's "Venus In Furs."

The Blood Spattered Bride

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Blue Velvet

Goodfellas

I could watch either all day.

I don't have one favorite, but movies I always enjoy (these are not ranked): Hoosiers, Sunset Boulevard, Cold Turkey, The Best Years of Our Lives, Radio Days, All About Eve, The Lion in Winter, Spinal Tap and Auntie Mame. There are probably others, but these popped into my head.

Vertigo.

L'avventura.

Death in Venice.

Caligari, Metropolis.

Night of the hunter.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Carrie

Boys In The Band...the most quotable movie since All About Eve.

Gone With The Wind and Best In Show

"Suddenly, Last Summer" - for the film's writers -

". . . It's the way he talked about people, as if they were items on a menu: that one's delicious looking; that one's appetizing . . . "

The following link contains one of the best DL discussions on film, ever.

Enjoy -

Arthur (1981 original)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Racing with the Moon

The Goodbye Girl

^^ One cannot have "CETK" on one's list without having "Blade Runner" as well.

1. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin)

2. Woody Allen's Annie Hall

3. Mick Jackson's/Steve Martin's L.A. Story

Though I had already listed "The Mephisto Waltz" want to add another since others list several: "The End Of The Affair"

Mrs. Doubtfire and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.

The Last Picture Show

Local Hero II: Fucking a Fish Called Wanda

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Badlands

The only movie I saw over and over again in my local movie theatre was James Bond: A View To A Kill. As a little kid I was obsessed with Grace Jones (the only Playboy issue I ever bought was the one featuring her).

Arsenic and Old Lace

Colt “Muscles in Leather.”

"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"

John Dies At The End

"Tangled" always cheers me up, which is why it's my favorite. it keeps me from losing hope and despairing (the state of the country, animal abuse, etc.).

The one with Tom Hanks where something bad happens and then he overcomes it.

Muriel's Wedding is near perfection. An Angel at My Table Is my #2

Op's question was what is your favorite movie? Not list your top 5. Having said that I can not choose just one as they vary day to day, mood to mood.

The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills.

So few I agree with. Casablanca - yawn. Everyone has different taste I guess. Same with books and music. For me, Citizen Kane maybe.

Gidget Goes Hawaiian

Auntie Mame, Casablanca, Godfather I & II , Cabaret. (maybe , to be a good Kansas republican : Triumph of the Will)

Magnolia

Fearless. Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, and Isabella Rosellini are all great. The last 20 minutes, with the actual plane crash, are devastating, all underscored with the gorgeous Gorecki Symphony No. 3.

Ohhhhhhhhh, "The Sound of Music"---Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages........

The Wizard of Oz.

—There's never been a better movie made since 1939 I know you're a friend of Dorothy and all r131 but I don't know if I would go so far as to make that claim.

Already in the 100s and I'm the first to list Valley of the Dolls? The greatest bad movie ever made. I can't watch two minutes of it and shut it off. If I come across it by accident I'm in for the count.

Blade Runner.

The dripping slums of dystopian LA. Rutger Hauer, meeting his maker, and terminating him. The Bradbury Building, interior. The soundtrack. Joanna Cassidy being retired in her see-through plastic raincoat. The fury of Daryl Hannah. Edward James Olmos as police officer.

If I had to select only one stranded on a desert isle movie, this would be it.

R134 But which version? Aren't there, like, four of them?

Seriously, I want to know because I've never seen it. Which version should I seek out?

The original one, that was first released, r135, 1982.

No, R136... "The Final Cut" is by far the best version (released in 2007)

The original Theatrical Cut has the voice-over narration, and is missing many important scenes.

Always go for "The Final Cut" if you can.

Sorry, r137, disagree. The original was the best. And since it’s my desert isle, I get to choose.

I agree with R137, Final Cut is the best choice. For me, the film is much better without the narration.

R135 here. Do I need to start a fucking poll?? But thanks to both of you.

In Bruges. Great performances from all, but Colin Farrell has never been better.

If it’s got to be only one, then I’d have to go with “Ben-Hur” (1959). The most comprehensive view of the ancient world, with real people dealing with loss, faith, redemption. Not to mention the best music score ever written.

(But “Lost Horizon” (1937) is a close second.)

Explanation of the different versions, and how they're different:

They asked what your favorite movie was, not if you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be, so you pickedk the longest and most boring one.

They also didn't ask what movie you think you should pick. Or which you would most like to see again.

They asked which is your favorite and left it up to you to decide the criteria.

"The World of Henry Orient."

The setting of (running around and living in) Middle-Class NYC; the quirky teen leads (ditching school decades before Ferris Bueller!); the crazy "Stalking the inept pianist but successful Lothario Henry Orient (Peter Sellers)" plot with the serious themes of parenting, marriage, relationships, money, and adultery, and the effects on children and adults; and of course the great Angela Lansbury!

One movie makes a "favorite," not a list, not "my top 3," etc.

Field of Dreams

Very difficult to choose just ONE film, but if I only get one - it's PARTING GLANCES.

Ben Hur

I Walked With a Zombie.

Steve Buscdmi ruined Parting Glances. If only they cast someone else. I just can’t watch him.

R151-He was kinda cute in that movie.

Vivian Vance

[quote]Steve Buscemi ruined Parting Glances.

No, he didn't.

Robert Altman's NASHVILLE.

The Grapes Of Wrath (1939)

Heat (1995) Die Hard (1988)

I really cannot choose between the two.

It does the same for me, R120

No love for Some Like it Hot, with its brilliant screenplay by Billy Wilder and IAL Diamond, Curtis and Lemmon deliciously decked out in custom-made drag, Marilyn Monroe positively luminous in those barely there, Oscar-winning Orry-Kelly gowns she wasn't allowed to sit down in, and topped off by one of the most famous final lines in movie history?

I'm adding like half of these to my Amazon watchlist. The ones from the last 30 years or so.

This is Spinal Tap

Jupiter Ascending

I don't know, R162, that might be enough to get you committed to the asylum!

3 Women

Dirty Harry

yes auntie mame of course !!!!! twas the beginning of all fagdom and cheery aunt movies.

Tom Jones with albert finney and the divine edith evans !!!!! watch it u ignoramouses…..

Généalogies d'un crime 1996 Raul Ruiz

Mulholland Drive

Oh! Thanks to a comment in R138 ‘s post, I have an idea! Have we ever done a “Desert Island Discs - DL Version”?? For those unfamiliar with DID, it’s a BBC radio show that’s been on forever and has had the widest, most eclectic, and most interesting range of guests thru it’s decades long run. An interview is involved with the guest, but they’re also asked to pick 8 pieces of music, 1 book, and 1 luxury item to bring with them as a stranded castaway on a desert island.

Being DL we can of course mix it up - I say keep the book, the luxury item, but I don’t we need 8 pieces of music - say 2 music albums/CDs, 2 movies, 2 books, 3 luxury items, 1 man to share the island with. You get the gist.

Has it be done before? Anyone up for starting a thread?

The Royal Tenenbaums.

The Matrix.

It used to be John Carpenter's 'The Thing' and I still watch it at least once a year, but these days my favorite film is Powell and Pressburger's 'A Canterbury Tale'.

Aliens (1986)

Rosemary's Baby

Sixth Sense

Out of Africa, if only for the John Barry score and Sydney Pollack's cinematography.

Room With a View

Goodfellas or Eat Drink Man Woman. Can't decide.

Or Alien.

I just ordered that, R16. Will report back. Looks great and love Dame Wendy.

You’ll love it, r180. It’s one of my favorites. And, weirdly, I think it’s one of Martin Scorcese', too.

All the President's Men

Amelie

Pride.

Bound is pretty fantastic.

R180 & R181 It's also Tilda Swinton's #1.

If there can only be one, it must be THE RED SHOES.

For those who mentioned "The Thing", you did not specify which version.

1951? or 1982?

R164 Oh! Thank you! 3 Women is one of my all-time favorite films. My god. I went through a phase where I would watch it or have it on all the time. Sad perhaps, and weird, but there you go. I am fascinated by it. I know it TOO well almost. I marvel that it got made. And by a major studio!? WTF? And yet it is BRILLIANT.

The performances! It is unlike any film I've ever seen. Tragic and absolutely hilarious at the same time. It captures the culture of the 70's for women in a stunning way. How the culture was selling to them how they could be/should be pretty, a good hostess, stylish, thrifty, modern, free, sexual, feminine, in charge, etc. It is an incredible piece about culture and women. So happy to see it mentioned here.

Thanks, R186, I really do find great recommendations on threads like this one, especially now that imdb did away with its boards (stupidly). And it clear when folks have really discerning tastes here so look forward to seeing it.

I wrote this on a Criterion site but I have recently discovered these great dvds from S. Korea that play here no problem, great prints, just take off Korean subtitles or use English for foreign films -- and they cost 5 bucks or so usually. That's all. Great artwork too on the covers. Best part is there are lots of out of print titles/unavailable here in the States and you can get them without spending a lot. Takes a couple of weeks to arrive but there is one guy (multiplus) in California that also sells them and they arrive within a couple of days. Just fyi. (That's where I ordered my "I Know Where I'm Going" so fresh on my mind).

What's Up Doc? / Paper Moon

Comedy - Some Like It Hot

Drama - A Room With A View

It used to be The Year of Living Dangerously before Mel Gibson revealed himself.

I've seen Jaws and Goodfellas more than I've seen most of my family.

Groundhog Day

Same, R193 but all these years later it's Hunt's complex and poetic Billy Kwan that seems to have embedded itself in my psyche.

Lucy Mame