We've compiled a list of the best movies ever created to honor the best of the most popular and important modern entertainment medium and art form.
In no particular order, here are the top movies, including the finest films, iconic films, must-see films, and well-known films you need to watch.
1. Vertigo (1958)
Vertigo is a sexy Freudian mind-bender set in a world of existential obsession and crafty doubles, and it's frequently regarded as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest success. Kim Novak haunts in two roles: Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton, both objects of desire for James Stewart's intriguing ex-cop, as she shape-shifts her way through Edith Head's transformational outfits.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
George Miller's lengthy sequel stars Tom Hardy as Max, who is wandering aimlessly through dystopia when he's caught up in a daring escape by the imprisoned "wives" of tyrant and predator Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), spearheaded by one of Joe's former victims, war rig driver Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron).
3. King Kong (1933)
In Merian C. Cooper's beautiful, awe-inspiring, and even touching adventure romance, it was beauty that killed the beast. It was remade multiple times, including a somewhat well-received 1976 version starring Jessica Lange and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning 2005 epic, which was overlong but often excellent.
4. The Dark Knight (2008)
Best known for a towering Heath Ledger performance that gave the film an air of myth months before its release, Nolan's aggressive expansion of the Batman saga was one of the most thrilling crime sagas since Heat, critically acclaimed as it became the fourth film to gross $1 billion worldwide, forever changing the way audiences and movie studios looked at superhero films. The baffling absence of The Dark Knight from the Best Picture contest was a major reason in a major rule change the following year. It's entirely possible that this will be the most influential film of the century.
5. Star Wars (1977)
Star Wars was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won six of them. It's everything a blockbuster should be, and it still works as a standalone film after all these years; even after the millionth viewing, you'll want to rise up and cheer when reluctant hero Han swoops in to rescue the day in the climactic minutes.
6. Titanic (1997)
Titanic is one of the most extraordinary, extraordinarily entertaining films of all time, a bar-setting masterpiece of the craft, and it appears that the nonsense backlash is dying these days: pure and simple, strong and true, Titanic is one of the most extraordinary, extraordinarily entertaining films of all time, a bar-setting masterpiece of the craft.
7. Taxi Driver (1976)
One of Martin Scorsese's earliest masterpieces, this 1976 picture depicts Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a psychologically ill cab driver whose pent-up disdain for New York City steadily devolves into murder. Jodie Foster co-stars as a 12-year-old prostitute in one of her most difficult parts. According to mythology, after meeting an adolescent prostitute in real life, screenwriter Paul Schrader made several changes to Foster's role. The picture was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994.
8. Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight brought home three Academy Awards, including Best Picture in one of the most infamous live-television blunders in history.
9. The Matrix (1999)
The Wachowskis' ice-cold stunning sci-fi actioner surpassed all odds, seized the zeitgeist, and won four Academy Awards (notably beating Star Wars: The Phantom Menace for Visual Effects, American Beauty for Film Editing). The Matrix retains its appeal and heart-pounding intensity with each trip down the rabbit hole. The second and third installments fizzled out; fingers crossed that this year's fourth installment, a return to the parallel reality narrative that enthralled us the first time around, captures the magic of the original hit.
10. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Return of the King, the third installment, swept the Oscars, earning 11 awards in total.
