My Definitive Top 30 Favorite Films of All Time
by nestor-trujillo | created - 05 Oct 2017 | updated - 01 Jun 2018 | PublicTried to keep it to 10, then 20, then 25, but finally landed on 30. Here are the top 30 films that have most greatly impacted and affected me, arranged loosely in order although, besides the first 5, I can say I love all of these equally with all my heart.
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1. Hunger (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw
Votes: 73,551 | Gross: $0.15M
2. La haine (1995)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama
24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili
Votes: 196,450 | Gross: $0.31M
3. Irreversible (2002)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon
Votes: 147,655 | Gross: $0.75M
4. Elephant (2003)
R | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson
Votes: 97,248 | Gross: $1.23M
5. The Hunt (2012)
R | 115 min | Drama
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm
Votes: 364,376 | Gross: $0.69M
6. A Cuban Fight Against Demons (1972)
120 min | Drama
In 1672 Cuban revolutionaries launch an uprising against the Spanish who are occupying the country.
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Stars: José Antonio Rodríguez, Raúl Pomares, Silvano Rey, Olivia Belizaires
Votes: 73
7. The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two men and their sons must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Craig Van Hook
Votes: 290,366 | Gross: $21.38M
8. Magnolia (1999)
R | 188 min | Drama
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 328,496 | Gross: $22.46M
9. Shame (2011)
NC-17 | 101 min | Drama
A sex addict's carefully cultivated private life falls apart after his sister arrives for an indefinite stay.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Lucy Walters
Votes: 206,241 | Gross: $4.00M
10. Good Time (2017)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City's underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.
Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie | Stars: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Buddy Duress
Votes: 140,295 | Gross: $2.03M
11. Magic Mike (2012)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn, Matthew McConaughey
Votes: 147,204 | Gross: $113.72M
12. The Piano Teacher (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music
A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel, Susanne Lothar
Votes: 71,796 | Gross: $1.90M
13. Close-Up (1990)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah
Votes: 23,018 | Gross: $0.00M
14. Insiang (1976)
TV-14 | 95 min | Drama
The life of a young girl living with her mother in the slums of Manila becomes unbearable when her mother's young boyfriend moves in with them.
Director: Lino Brocka | Stars: Hilda Koronel, Mona Lisa, Rez Cortez, Marlon Ramirez
Votes: 2,133
15. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 898,775 | Gross: $3.64M
16. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,423 | Gross: $104.95M
17. Che: Part One (2008)
Not Rated | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Julia Ormond, Benicio Del Toro, Oscar Isaac, Pablo Guevara
Votes: 47,953 | Gross: $1.80M
18. Biutiful (2010)
R | 148 min | Drama, Romance
A man dying of cancer tries his best to leave the world on his own terms.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Hanaa Bouchaib, Guillermo Estrella
Votes: 94,613 | Gross: $5.10M
19. Gummo (1997)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives.
Director: Harmony Korine | Stars: Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, Lara Tosh, Jacob Reynolds
Votes: 38,251 | Gross: $0.02M
20. Come and See (1985)
Not Rated | 142 min | Drama, Thriller, War
After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
Director: Elem Klimov | Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas
Votes: 97,244
21. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama
A young woman's life is scrutinized by police and tabloid press after she spends the night with a suspected terrorist.
Directors: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 4,885
22. Dogtooth (2009)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Thriller
A controlling, manipulative father locks his three adult offsprings in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Angeliki Papoulia, Christos Passalis
Votes: 110,438 | Gross: $0.11M
23. Knight of Cups (2015)
R | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A writer indulging in all that Los Angeles and Las Vegas have to offer, undertakes a search for love and self via a series of adventures with six different women.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy
Votes: 29,435 | Gross: $0.56M
24. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 183,629 | Gross: $30.86M
25. Happiness (1998)
NC-17 | 134 min | Comedy, Drama
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
Director: Todd Solondz | Stars: Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker
Votes: 74,433 | Gross: $2.81M
26. Seconds (1966)
R | 106 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity - one that comes with its own price.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Rock Hudson, Frank Campanella, John Randolph, Frances Reid
Votes: 22,199
27. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Not Rated | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante
Votes: 13,707
28. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,664 | Gross: $0.02M
29. Heat (1995)
R | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight
Votes: 719,392 | Gross: $67.44M
30. The Wrestler (2008)
R | 109 min | Drama, Sport
A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark Margolis
Votes: 319,943 | Gross: $26.24M
31. Hack-O-Lantern (1988 Video)
R | 87 min | Horror
A kindly old grandfather is actually the leader of a murderous satanic cult which sacrifices its victims on Halloween.
Director: Jag Mundhra | Stars: Hy Pyke, Gregory Scott Cummins, Katina Garner, Carla B.
Votes: 1,843
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