Over the past few years I’ve made a concerted effort to watch lots of movies considered to be among the best of all time. Now, for the first time, I’ve made my own list of favorite movies of all time. Every other Wednesday throughout 2022, I will be revealing ten movies in my list of 250 Favorite Movies of All Time.
200
Title: The Lady Vanishes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Dame May Whitty
Year: 1938
When did I first watch this movie?: Summer 2020
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: This is definitely an underappreciated gem from Hitchcock, a thriller that’s also wildly funny.
199
Title: Star Trek: First Contact
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell, Alice Krige
Year: 1996
When did I first watch this movie?: When it came out in the theaters. Twice.
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: The Next Generation crew didn’t get much to work with in their movies, but this action-packed, time-traveling, Borg-fighting, and surprisingly humorous adventure stands as an exception.
198
Title: Glory
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Year: 1989
When did I first watch this movie?: 1989, in the theaters
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: The story of Black soldiers in the Civil War finally gets told in one of the best movies about that war or any war.
197
Title: Better Off Dead…
Director: Savage Steve Holland
Cast: John Cusack, Curtis Armstrong, Diane Franklin, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby
Year: 1985
When did I first watch this movie?: Mid-80s, on video and cable
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: A quirky comedy about a teenager heartbroken over breaking up with his girlfriend with so much quotable dialogue. “It’s got raisins in it…You like raisins.” This movie also gave me the false hope that my troubles with getting a date in high school would be solved by the arrival of a French foreign exchange student.
196
Title: Us
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker
Year: 2019
When did I first watch this movie?: January 2020, streaming
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: A creepy blending of horror and social commentary this is a textbook example of screenwriting setting up in the first half and delivering in the second.
195
Title: Faces, Places
Director: Agnès Varda, JR
Cast: Agnès Varda, JR
Year: 2017
When did I first watch this movie?: April 2020, for Blogging A to Z
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: An utterly charming documentary where two great artists travel the French countryside, photograph people, and then make the photos into monumental murals.
194
Title: Sullivan’s Travels
Director: Preston Sturges
Cast: Joel McRea, Veronica Lake
Year: 1941
When did I first watch this movie?: mid-90s, on video
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: A self-referential comedy that satirizes and celebrates Hollywood filmmaking. And Veronica Lake, too!
193
Title: Run, Lola, Run
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Joachim Król, Armin Rohde, Heino Ferch, Suzanne von Borsody, Sebastian Schipper
Year: 1998
When did I first watch this movie?: 1999, at the theaters
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: I was supposed to see The Blair Witch Project but it was sold out so I saw this German thriller instead. The protagonist, Lola, has to run through Berlin to find money to save her boyfriend. It also has a banging soundtrack that I listened to repeatedly in the late 90s. I’ve still never seenThe Blair Witch Project.
192
Title: Some Mother’s Son
Director: Terry George
Cast: Helen Mirren, Fionnula Flanagan, Aidan Gillen
Year: 1996
When did I first watch this movie?: Late 90s, on video
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: In the 1980s, Irish Republican paramilitary prisoners protested their treatment by Britain by going on hunger strike. The mothers of two of these prisoners – one who actively supports the Republican movement, and one who was taken surprise by her son’s involvement – form an unlikely bond. This is a compassionate treatment of a complicated episode of The Troubles.
191
Title: The Trouble With Harry
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock, Jerry Mathers, Royal Dano
Year: 1955
When did I first watch this movie?: mid-80s on cable
Why is this one of my all time favorites?: Another underappreciated Hitchcock film, and one that is a great comedy about how to dispose of a dead body.
Panorama of the Mountains 