A Christmas Story

Seen it to death but I accept no substitutes when it comes to Xmas film viewing.

A Star is Born

This can be either the original with Janet Gaynor & Fredric March, or the musical remake with Judy Garland & James Mason

A Woman's Face

Joan Crawford plays one of her many wounded women to a T

Adam's Rib

Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as married lawyers who each represent their corresponding gender in a headline-grabbing divorce case.

Aliens

Creepy critters with acid blood menace Sigourney Weaver to the point that she utters one of the greatest kiss-off lines in film history: yeah!

All About Eve

Worth catching just to see Bette Davis meaningfully eat chocolates at a cocktail party, lol!

All of Me

Steve Martin's best physical comedy performance on film doing double-time with Lily Tomlin as ultimate repressed spinster, Edwina Cutwater.

American Grafitti

George Lucas' best film is this semi-autobiographical story set on one eventful night in the lives of early-60's California teens.

An Unmarried Woman

I love Jill Clayburgh and this is the best thing she ever did. I want to live in the NYC of this film: pre-terror, pro-art, & anti-rotten men.

Annie Hall

Woody Allen classic with Diane Keaton at her most endearingly ditsy

Auntie Mame

I kind of have one of these in an adventurous godmother, but no one touches Roz Russell in the lead.

Ball of Fire

Barbara Stanwyck is a sassy nightclub singer on the run from her mobster bf; Gary Cooper is an uptight professor in whose house she hides out. Of course they fall crazy nuts for each other.

Beautiful Thing

One of the sweetest coming-of-age love stories I've ever seen on film. If you don't agree, hey-hey, you're a Mormon!

Big Red One, The

Now this is how to make a movie about WWII: Lee Marvin leads a group of raw recruits to manhood in this effectively low-budget Sam Fuller classic.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Despite the presence of Mickey Rooney as an ethnic slur tacked on by the studio (character was not in Capote's novel), Audrey Hepburn and young George Peppard shine in this oddball love story.

Breaking Away

I saw this this day I turned 18, the movie with the two beautiful guys named Dennis learning great life lessons.

Charade

Audrey again, this time being romanced / protected by suave spy Cary Grant in mid-60's Paris.

Chinatown

The last great film of the 70's. Labyrinthian tale of decadence in 30's Los Angeles starring Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway in -- sadly -- their only film together.

Coal Miner's Daughter

Sissy Spacek owns the role of her lifetime as Loretta Lynn opposite Tommy Lee Jones as Lynn's husband Doo.

Contact

Jodie Foster as a dedicated scientist obsessed with first contact with extraterrestrials, from a book by late astronomer Carl Sagan. Subject matter is dealt with intelligently as opposed to what George Lucas would have come up with.

Cry Havoc

Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Marsha Hunt, Joan Blondell, and several other B-movie heroines suffer beautifully in WWII-era Bataan.

Dark Victory

Bette Davis suffering bravely through terminal illness. If you aren't bawling by the time she says: "Anne. Be my best friend: go.... now!", you have no soul.

Dead Man Walking

Heart-wrenching, fact-based story about Sister Helen Prejean devoting her life to leading criminals to seeing the error of their ways. Susan Sarandon won her long-overdue Oscar for this role and Sean Penn makes you pity a monster, if only for a little while.

Desk Set

Tracy & Hepburn, aging nicely. He's an efficiency expert, she's a TV network's head of research. They clash, they flirt, etc Way too rare example of smart middle-aged love story.

Dog Day Afternoon

Al Pacino is a very desperate man, so much so that he robs a bank only to find there's barely enough cash on hand to make it worthwhile. A day-long siege with hostages ensues and the story gets weirder from there. Riveting fact-based tale.

Duck Soup

Okay, yes, this 1933-era picture has dated a bit but everytime Groucho Marx is on camera it is worth watching. Funny funny stuff and still-wicked satire on war & politics.

Easter Parade

Fred Astaire needs a new partner to dance with, stumbles upon Judy Garland in a chorus line. He turns her into a reluctant star. Great songs and story.

Fail-Safe

1962: Henry Fonda is the President and a computer glitch has sent a nuke to Moscow. He has to decide whether or not to sacrifice NYC in order to save the entire planet from annihilation. Intense, to say the least.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Matthew Broderick in one of his precious few memorable screen roles (the others are "Infinity", "Biloxi Blues", "Godzilla", & "Addicted To Love") as the title hero off on an improbable jaunt with two pals in mid-80's Chicago.

Five Easy Pieces

Jack in the best of his angry young man roles as a talented pianist who gives it up to live a blue-collar existence. Sad, aimless film...

Frankie & Johnny (Pacino)

Al and Michelle Pfeiffer play the title couple both working in a Greek cafe in NYC. Each has been through the mill relationship-wise but an attraction slowly builds between them.

Funny Face

Astaire is really way too old for the character -- based on the then-twentyish fashion photographer Avedon -- but the flick also stars Audrey and Kay Thompson, the latter influencing faaabulous drag queens for years to come.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Marilyn Monroe plays blonde bombshell Lorelei Lee opposite brunette bombshell Jane Russell as showgirls touring Europe and seeking wealthy husbands along the way.

Groundhog Day

Bill Murray's best flick to date has finally become a classic, the one about the selfish man who God makes live the same day over and over again until he becomes a decent human being.

Hairspray

John Waters' sweetly-satirical musical set in early 60's Baltimore made a star out of Ricki Lake and gave his longtime leading queen Divine immortality.

His Girl Friday

Rapid-fire dialog between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. No more needs to be said.

Holiday

Cary Grant and Kath Hepburn play rich young things in Depression-era America trying to make sense of their world.

Jacob's Ladder

Tim Robbins as a Vietnam vet suffering frightening hallucinations which threaten to destroy his marriage to Liz Pena. Later reworked as "The Jacket" with Adrien Brody as a Gulf War vet.

Jaws

This movie scared the living beegees out of me as a kid. I still can't watch the underwater diving scene at night... with the corpse in the .... auuuggghhh!!!

Jezebel

Tarty Bette Davis slaps Henry Fonda and recoils like a wounded cat; later he brings home a wife and as Jane Fonda said in a recent documentary, Davis' pain is all in her eyes. Brilliant, ageless Oscar-winning performance.

Key Largo

Bogart & Bacall as ex-soldier and war-widow held hostage by dirtbag gangster and his mob in Bacall's Florida hotel as a hurricane tears through the keys.

Klute

Jane Fonda follows up Bette Davis as a disaffected tart of the early 70's involved in a creepy murder mystery.

Lifeboat

Tallulah Bankhead's main contribution to film as snotty WWII war correspondent stuck with assorted riff-raff in the title vehicle, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Looking For Richard

Al Pacino and a slew of other stage & film stars strive to mount a production of Richard III in Manhattan. Fascinating documentary.

M*A*S*H

Robert Altman's biggest hit which spawned beloved TV series -- much saltier and more on the edge of course!

Made For Each Other

Carole Lombard & James Stewart as newlyweds in early-30's NYC.

Meet John Doe

Stanwyck & Cooper as an ambitious reporter and a homeless vagabond-turned man of the people in this Frank Capra classic.

Meet Me In St Louis

Judy Garland sings a bunch of memorable hits and wears tons of petticoats in this turn-of-the-last-century charmer.

Mildred Pierce

Joan Crawford slapping her snotty daughter upside the head and the wisecracks of Jack Carson & Eve Arden are the very major draws here.

Mister Roberts

Mr Fonda should have won an Oscar for this performance as a beloved officer on a WWII supply ship full of oppressed sailors and icky closet case Captain James Cagney.

My Man Godfrey

Idle rich chick Carole Lombard falls hard for butler Godfrey (William Powell) in this screwball classic.

Niagara

Marilyn Monroe singing "Kiss Me" and the wiseassedness of Casey Adams, not to mention Jean Peters' loveliness make this a fav.

Ninotchka

Garbo (as a Russian tightass) laughs and Melvyn Douglas is surprisingly sexy in this gem from 1939.

Now, Voyager

Bette Davis delivers her Emancipation Proclamation as a frumpy spinster who experiences a sea change via modern psychiatry, circa 1942.

One Hour Photo

Robin Williams' best role since Garp, as a sad & lonely photo developer who falls in love with a seemingly perfect family, then flips out when life goes awry.

Out of Africa

I detest the horribly-miscast Robert Redford in this flick, but Streep is just incredible as Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen. Gorgeous location filming in Kenya helps.

Poltergeist

JoBeth Williams and Craig T Nelson struggle to keep their imperfect family together when ghosties steal their adorably little daughter CarolAnne.

Possessed (2nd film)

Joan Crawford and insanity just seem to go together, y'know?

Racing With The Moon

Lyrical period piece set in WWII-era smalltown California stars Sean Penn and Liz McGovern as mature young lovers.

Radio Days

Woody Allen's valentine to the 30's and early 40's of his childhood, stuffed with great music of the day.

Rebecca

Eeeevil lezbean Judith Anderson terrorizes doe-eyed newlywed Joan Fontaine in remote manor house owned by hunky hubby Larry Olivier. Hitchcock's only Oscar-winning flick.

Reds

Warren Beatty directs himself and then-gf Diane Keaton in this sprawling biopic of misguided American commie John Reed and his bride; Jack Nicholson shows up as a lovelorn Eugene O'Neill midway...

Say...Anything

John Cusack romances Ione Skye.

Short Cuts

Altman's episodic look at early 90's Los Angeles. Lily Tomlin, Chris Penn, & Julianne Moore are especially good in this.

Silkwood

Streep plays crusading real-life union organizer in early 70's South and Cher puts herself on the map as a legitimate actress.

Singin' In the Rain

Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, & Debbie Reynolds whoop it up as the silent era ends in 1929 Hollyweird.

Sixteen Candles

Initial entry in the Molly Ringworm trilogy plays like a screwball comedy for early 80's teens. Future stars Joan & John Cusack make their marks here and the actor formerly known as Casey Adams (see "Niagara"), Max Showalter, plays Molly's wacky grampa.

Sleeper

Woody and Diane 100 years in the future where mediocrity is rampant and banana-peel jokes are super-sized.

SOB

Some people find this too trashy, but I like the guts of the all-star cast doing some serious ripping into Hollywood's glitzy facade.

Sophie's Choice

It involves a child being wrenched from her hands in a concentration camp and is bookended by life in postwar Brooklyn with an adoring Southern writer and a volatile lover for Meryl Streep as she gives a master class in acting.

State of the Union

Tracy & Hepburn as politician with scruples and his loyal wife up against a conniving machine run by a very young Angela Lansbury.

Sweet Dreams

Jessica Lange is sultry country star Patsy Cline opposite studly Ed Harris.

Swing Time

Astaire & Rogers, fav musical. Fred & Ginger dancing on a circular set is one of my alltime fav setpieces on film.

Terms of Endearment

Okay, yeah, it's a soap opera but it's a funny one with some genuinely moving moments. "Give my daughter the shot!!!!" Classic...

Testament

It's like a primer of how to deal with a nuclear crisis. Jane Alexander is a rock while all around her crumbles.

The African Queen

Bogie and Hepburn lust after each other for two hours aboard a rusty steamboat.

The Band Wagon

Fred Astaire and pals try to mount a retelling of Faust, then get all peppy when it understandably tanks.

The Birds

All-time fav Hitchcock thriller: claustrophobic & creepy.

The Good Thief

Nick Nolte playing a world-weary petty criminal in modern Paris pursued relentlessly -- though politely -- by frienemy Tcheky Karyo as a police detective. Stylish Neil Jordan production features surprisingly-sexy teen heroine.

The Grapes of Wrath

The Last Picture Show

The Long Walk Home

The Maltese Falcon

The Philadelphia Story

The Shop Around The Corner

The Silence of the Lambs

The Sound of Music

The Terminator

The Thin Man

Asta leading Nora Charles into the bar is among its many charms

The Verdict

The Wizard of Oz

The Women

The World According to Garp

To Have and Have Not

To Kill A Mockingbird

Under Fire

Nolte is a photographer alongside journalists Gene Hackman & Joanna Cassidy in Somoza's war-torn Central America of the 70's in this gritty fact-based story.

Victor/Victoria

We're No Angels (Bogie vers)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?