My Top 30 All-Time Favourite Films

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in 1995's "Before Sunset"

Whenever someone asks me, "What's your favourite movie?", the question always feels approximately as useful as asking, "Which one of your kids do you love the most?" Sure, I have my favourite but like I'm going to tell them. Ahem, scratch that. What I meant to say was, "How can you pick one when there are so many to love?" (Two points for good parenting.)

To make it easier (though hardly easy), I narrowed it down to my Top 30. Following that is a list of my Top 10 in each of nine categories: Drama, Comedy, Action, Family/Romantic Comedy, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Horror, Crime/Thriller, Historical, and Animated.

My choices were based on fairly basic criteria: Was it a good story? Did it unfold well? Was the writing good? Did it keep me engaged? Did it move me? Would I want to watch it again (and again)? I wasn't concerned with whether Oscar, critics, or friends approve. These are my faves. My own. My pre-e-e-cious.

Lists like these are always flawed, inevitably missing a few, thanks to lapses in memory, and perennially subject to change as new films come out. Nonetheless, I still believe they're useful if only to get a snapshot of where my preference lied at a particular point in time, as in indicator of the types pf movies that tend to attract me, and/or also as a basis for recommended viewing. (Added bonus: They can also serve as a guide in my later years when senility takes hold and I have the pleasure of viewing these films afresh, over and over again.)

MY TOP 30 ALL-TIME FAVOURITE FILMS:

1. Before Sunrise
2. Magnolia
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Garden State
5. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (US version)
6. Forrest Gump
7. The Big Lebowski
8. As Good As It Gets
9. Groundhog Day
10. Goodfellas
11. Casino
12. Inglorious Basterds
13. Snatch
14. The Bourne Identity
15. The Bourne Supremacy
16. The Bourne Ultimatum
17. The Departed
18. Schindler’s List
19. The Great Dictator
20. Leon The Professional
21. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
22. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
23. Blade Runner
24. Gladiator
25. Braveheart
26. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
27. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
28. Alien
29. Ratatouille
30. Jaws

DRAMA (Top 10):

1. Before Sunrise
2. Magnolia
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Forrest Gump
5. Inglorious Basterds
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. A Beautiful Mind
8. Chocolat
9. Glengarry Glenn Ross
10. Network

(Runners-Up: The King's Speech, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fargo, No Country For Old Men, Dead Poets Society, American Beauty, Kramer vs. Kramer, Fearless (Peter Weir), The Virgin Suicides, American History X, Philadelphia, Blood Diamond, Slumdog Millionaire, Django Unchained, K-Pax, Crash, The Green Mile, Titanic, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Blue Valentine, Up In The Air, Ides of March, The Contender, Million Dollar Baby, Matchstick Men, A Single Man, Requiem For a Dream, I Am Sam, Lord of War, Titanic, Moulin Rouge)

COMEDY (Top 10):

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Groundhog Day
3. The Great Dictator
4. Wayne’s World
5. Monkey Business (Marx Bros.)
6. Adaptation
7. Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
8. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
9. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
10. The Breakfast Club

(Runners-Up: Tootsie, The Truman Show, Shaun of the Dead, Coming to America, Duck Soup (Marx Bros), Horse Feathers (Marx Bros), Office Space, Anchorman, Superbad, Pineapple Express, Burn After Reading, Napoleon Dynamite, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas The Mask, Liar, Liar, Elf, The Jerk, Life of Brian, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Airplane, Zelig)

ACTION (Top 10):

1. Snatch
2. The Bourne Identity
3. The Bourne Supremacy
4. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. Leon The Professional
6. Apocalypse Now
7. Skyfall
8. Die Hard
9. Die Hard 2
10. Lethal Weapon

(Runners-Up: The Deer Hunter, Lethal Weapon 2, Man on Fire, The Boondock Saints, Suicide Kings, In Bruges, Goldeneye, Fight Club, Drive, Heat, Sin City, Casino Royale, The Raid: Redemption, Unleashed, Ocean's Eleven, Face/Off, Snake Eyes)

FAMILY/ROMANTIC COMEDY (Top 10):

1. Garden State
2. As Good As It Gets
3. When Harry Met Sally
4. Parenthood
5. Planes, Trains & Automobiles
6. Big
7. Sleepless in Seattle
8. Love Actually
9. Little Miss Sunshine
10. The Birdcage

(Runners-Up: Midnight in Paris, Moulin Rouge, Definitely, Maybe, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Juno, Wedding Crashers, He’s Just Not That Into You, Something’s Gotta Give, It’s Complicated, The Holiday, Under The Tuscan Sun, Bottle Shock)

FANTASY/SCI-FI (Top 10):

1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2. Blade Runner
3. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
4. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
5. Alien
6. The Matrix
7. The Terminator 2
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
9. The Dark Knight
10. Pan’s Labyrinth

(Runners-Up: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Batman Begins, The Road Warrior, Jurassic Park, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 200: A Space Odyssey, Iron Man, The Dark Crystal, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, A Scanner Darkly, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Back to the Future, The Wizard of Oz, Moon, Children of Men, Donnie Darko, X-Men, Superman, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek (2009), Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Blade, Hellboy 2, Limitless, The Book of Eli, Tron)

HORROR (Top 10):

1. Jaws
2. The Orphanage
3. Halloween (John Carpenter)
4. The Shining
5. The Ring
6. The Descent
7. The Exorcist
8. Psycho
9. The Sixth Sense
10. The Thing

(Runners-Up: The Birds, The Omen, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Evil Dead, Aliens, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, The Dead Zone, Jacob's Ladder, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Devil’s Advocate, Identity, Red Dragon, From Hell, Sweeney Todd, Angel Heart, Paranormal Activity, Halloween (Rob Zombie), Cloverfield, Quarantine, The Midnight Meat Train, From Dusk Till Dawn, Signs, Event Horizon, Prince of Darkness, Drag Me To Hell)             

CRIME/THRILLER (Top 10):

1. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
2. Goodfellas
3. Casino
4. The Departed
5. The Godfather
6. The Godfather 2
7. The Silence of the Lambs
8. Pulp Fiction
9. Seven
10. The Shawshank Redemption

(Runners-Up: The Untouchables, Witness, Memento, The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Chinatown, Carlito’s Way, The Verdict, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Vertigo, Rear Window, Unbreakable, Insomnia, Changeling, A History of Violence, Dog Day Afternoon, The Insider, Scarface, A Time To Kill, The Pelican Brief, Conspiracy Theory, The Manchurian Candidate, Inside Man, Pride and Glory, Brooklyn's Finest, City Hall, 8MM)

HISTORICAL (Top 10):

1. Schindler’s List
2. Gladiator
3. Braveheart
4. The King’s Speech
5. Lincoln
6. The Social Network
7. Sunshine
8. Gandhi
9. Mississippi Burning
10. Lawrence of Arabia

(Runners-Up: Argo, Good Night and Good Luck, Saving Private Ryan, Chariots of Fire, Master and Commander, The Pianist, Elizabeth, The Hurricane, We Are Marshall, Defiance, Sarah's Key, Enemy At The Gates, All The President’s Men, JFK, Spartacus, Ben Hur, Guilty By Suspicion, The Right Stuff, Glory, Hotel Rwanda, Victory, Pollock, The Mission. Apollo 13)

ANIMATED (Top 10)

1. Ratatouille
2. Finding Nemo
3. Fantasia
4. Toy Story
5. Wall-E
6. Up
7. The Little Mermaid
8. Beauty and the Beast
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas
10. The Lion King

(Runners-Up: The Emperor’s New Groove, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Fantasia 2000, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Iron Giant, Pinocchio, Happy Feet, Flushed Away, Chicken Run, Heavy Metal, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Rescuers, Hercules, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lady and the Tramp, The Secret of Nimh)