David Lynch has to be the modern day master of surrealism. This movie has to be his masterpiece among many of his works.

Innocent actress Betty (Naomi Watts) hopes to make it big in Hollywood, but when she meets a beautiful brunette (Laura Elena Harring) who suffers from amnesia, things begin to get strange. Mulholland Drive ditches traditional plot and instead “works directly on the emotions, like music.”

The movie is an actual dream that stems from a woman’s heartbroken subconscious.

Mesmerizing sequences like the Club Silencio musical number, Betty’s stunning audition, and that creepy moment of when a cocky director (Justin Theroux) meets the world’s creepiest cowboy has viewers glued to the screen. Then you get one of the scariest scenes in Hollywood history, which was the very tense diner scene between two men.

BBC called this surrealist masterpiece the greatest film of the 21st century at the time.

Director Michel Gondry is known for his imagination while screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s pessimism and originality helped created this great romance that delves into the ugly side of love and how relationships work.

Jim Carrey is Joel Barish, a lonely, shy man who meets outgoing Clementine (Kate Winslet). The relationship turns sour, so Clementine goes through a process to erase the memories of Joel from her mind. Joel undergoes the same procedure, but as the technicians get to work, he changes his mind and decides to keep the memories of his ex-girlfriend in his subconscious.

This romance has viewers going in and out of memories, with Joel reliving all the highs and lows of his relationship, before realizing the cause of the breakup. Kaufman’s sci-fi script won an Academy Award thanks to his work with Gondry.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has the couple dealing with each others’ faults and flaws after the initial romance wears off. It explores and examines the different stages of romance and relationships, and is a movie that keeps growing with every time you see it.

Shaun of the Dead is a romantic comedy featuring Queen, cannibals, and cricket paddles. Edgar gave this dead genre a comic twist with lots of gore, laughs, and tear-jerking drama.

A slacker named Shaun (Simon Pegg) has to grow up when a zombie apocalypse falls upon his little British town. His best friend Ed (Nick Frost) joins him on a quest to save friends and family, rescue Shaun’s relationship, and fix long-simmering issues with his stepdad. Wright’s editing fills the movie with brilliant comic touches.

The brilliance of Shaun of the Dead is that the characters are relatable. When they experience pain and sadness, viewers cry along with them. Shaun’s confrontation with his zombified mom is agonizing, then there’s Ed and Shaun’s final goodbye, that pulls a few more tears.

Wes Anderson uses multiple timelines and aspect ratios to explore nostalgia, manners, and European history. His brilliance has viewers walking a tightrope between old-world innocence and post-World War II pessimism.

The story has a lobby boy named Zero (Tony Revolori) working for the flamboyant and foul-mouthed Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). The hotel is located in the snowy European hills, one that pops on screen with pastel colors and intricate rooms, perfectly designed for this fantasy world.

Zero and Gustave find themselves involved in a crime with a dead countess, a valuable painting, and a terrifying thug. It’s a macabre comedy with stylized action scenes, complete with quirky characters that bring laughs.

There’s a stop-motion ski chase, a prison break involving pastries, and a secret society of colorful concierges. The Grand Budapest Hotel is proof that style and substance can go together wonderfully at the hands of a great director.

Ryan Coogler’s addition to the “Rocky universe” had critics and fans surprised. It was the best addition to the series since 1976 since the original, with Cinefix saying that the seventh film in the franchise was “a Hollywood primer on how to pass a torch.”

Michael B. Jordan is Adonis Creed, son of the late great champ Apollo Creed. Adonis os desperate to prove himself in the ring, so he turns to the legendary Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) for help. Coogler builds on the franchise in exciting ways. There is a new twist on the obligatory running scene, plus the moment when Adonis goes to battle the champ with the famous Rocky theme starts playing.

Film critic Siddhant Adlakha points out that it’s “perhaps the single most earned familiar cinematic moment and musical cue in recent memory.”

Michael B. Jordan is the new hero who’s not trying to be Rocky Balboa but a protagonist with his own unique goals. The film’s one-shot boxing match and the sequence of which Adonis shadowboxes against old footage of his dad gives it a nice emotional touch. Creed is an underdog movie that it can hold its own with the greatest sequels of all time.

Director George Miller’s Fury Road has Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) teaming up with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). They set out to rescue five sex slaves from the local warlord (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his army of Flamers, Polecats, and Warboys. The massive car chase across the desert took more than 150 stunt people to film.

More than 300 sequences were shot in the Namib desert, with 90 percent of the stunts done for real. Motorcycles soar over trucks, men swing back and forth on giant poles, then you have 75 vehicles ripping across the sand.

Miller and cinematographer John Seale create a movie that is borderline art. Scenes like the image of the steering wheel shrine, Furiosa sinking into the sand, and the moment of the armada plowing into a sand storm have viewers on the edge of their seats.

When it comes films to dealing with pain and loss, Manchester by the Sea by Kenneth Lonergan may be the one of the best films out there.

Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) plays an isolated and irritable janitor who goes back home after his brother’s death. He becomes the guardian of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges), all while struggling to keep the past at bay. Every sight and sound reminds Lee of a tragic event that happened years ago, one that he may never recover from.

Affleck won an Oscar for his performance, as did Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay. Affleck’s every line and every gesture aches with pain, and the film’s dark humor holds a certain discomfort for those watching. Manchester by the Sea is a brutal film about living with pain forever.

Martin Scorsese takes on Christianity with Silence. It’s a movie about a man’s crisis of faith when he thinks he’s been forsaken by God.

Two Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) go into Japan to find a missing mentor (Liam Neeson) who they think has committed apostasy. Garfield is captured by the Japanese, and he either has to recant and risk damnation, or watch fellow Christians tortured to death. He turns to God for help, but gets no answers or miracles, and he feels God’s crushing silence.

Shot by Rodrigo Prieto, he takes the beauty of Japan and contrasts it with the brutality of crucified men drowning in the sea. The score composed by Kim Allen Kluge and Kathryn Kluge uses the sounds of nature. Garfield and Neeson play tortured priests really well, battling pride and pain amidst their hell on earth situation. The film explores the nature of faith, and on how it inspires both hope and cruelty, knowing full well that it can rip apart lives while giving others the strength to carry on.

The Witch has a Puritan family fighting a supernatural force that attacks their isolated farmhouse. This is Robert Eggers’ very first movie and The Witch is flawless.

Eggers explained his unique ideas to Wired when it came to making the film. “Everything in the frame,” Eggers said, “needs to be like I’m articulating my memory of this moment. Like, this was my childhood as a Puritan, and I remember that day my dad took me into a cornfield and what he smelled like.”

He spent four years studying the Puritan lifestyle, reading firsthand accounts of demonic possession and even borrowing actual dialogue from supposed supernatural encounters.

Eggers says that some of the lines “the children say [in the film] when they are possessed are things real children were alleged to have said when they were possessed.”

Eggers got involved in every aspect. The sets and props, hand-sewn costumes, and furniture built the same way Puritans used to do it. He even brought in a thatcher from Virginia who specialized in 17th-century roofs. He wanted everything to be perfect.

Get Out works as a documentary, at least according to Jordan Peele. It’s about the horrors black people experience daily.

A young black photographer named Chris (Kaluuya) goes out to meet the white family of his girlfriend. At the estate, cared for by black servants, there are ill-advised jokes, weird looks, and casual racist vibes from the girl’s parents. Peele’s directorial debut has him drawing out the tension until it all explodes into a bloody mess of jiu-jitsu, tea cups, and deer antlers.

The film full of clever touches like the rich villain who uses a silver spoon, or Chris who escapes his white captors using cotton. The eerie foreshadowing of “black mold” in the basement is a brilliant touch.

There are plenty of laughs, but Get Out is a film that reveals the real horrors of American society. Peele’s mastery behind the camera makes for compelling storytelling, one you’ll watch again and again.

Over 40 years later, Jaws still has viewers tense and shrieking from its iconic scenes all thanks to the man sitting in the director’s chair. The one and only Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg is the master of tension, and Jaws is a masterclass. Spielberg went the Alfred Hitchcock route, keeping the shark offscreen as long as possible, as he builds up the dread using underwater POV shots and John Williams’ score. Sheriff Brody scans the beach while Spielberg builds up the tension with red herrings and genius editing by Verna Fields.

Viewers jump when a barrel pops out of the water. Brody’s gory book and Quint’s chilling lines give viewers an idea of what happens if they end up in the water.

This is the sequel to the 1981 cult classic. Bruce Campbell’s fantastic physical performance has him throwing himself around like a rag doll drenched in gore, and he never smiles except when he’s going insane.

The creatures are pretty eerie. There’s a possessed deer head and a bloated Henrietta Knowby. The effects may appear a bit dated, but the movie still gives off a sense of fun and danger. And as Ash Williams battles the Deadites, he gives a series of memorable scenes, from a psychotic breakdown and the blood geyser to the epic moment with the legendary chainsaw. It is fast-paced, fun, and a little freaky, no wonder it’s achieved cult status.

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is a story of a retired gunfighter named William Munny (Eastwood) who supposedly changed his ways after his wife’s passing. He settles down to raise his kids and farm pigs. But his farm begins to fall apart before an opportunity for easy money comes knocking, so Munny brings out his guns for one last ride.

It’s a classic Western but as Munny attempts to collect the bounty on two renegade cowboys, the film starts getting darker.

The kills are nasty as people scream in pain and fear. It’s ugly violence whether served up by Munny or the brutal small-town sheriff played by Gene Hackman. Unforgiven questions heroes and bloodshed, giving viewers something to reflect on.

Directed by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest sequels of all time, like with The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II. This superhero movie retains the lighthearted tone from the first film before taking the emotional stakes to a new level.

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is a truly hero. He’s having to battle a mad scientist while trying to keep his girlfriend and hold down a job. He’s messy, emotional, and late to the theater. He is genuinely happy during the brilliant “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” montage, which moves to the gut-wrenching regret he has when failing to save someone by avoiding his responsibilities.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a beautifully shot film by Director Andrew Dominik. It tells the story of two troubled men. One, a celebrity fighting a mental illness, and a toxic fan who wants to kill what he cannot have.

Brad Pitt plays the outlaw suffering from paranoia and depression who sinks into darkness, and in lucid moments, thinks about dying. There are shots where Pitt’s eyes grow wild as the madness begins to move.

Casey Affleck is a sycophant and an insecure leech who just wants to be famous.When he soon finds out that he doesn’t have what it takes, he decides to go the Mark David Chapman route.

The cinematography by Roger Deakins is stunning. Several lenses were made specifically for the film, with film critic Scout Tafoya describing it as “somewhere between a tintype and an oil painting.”

The soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and Hugh Ross’ narration also helps make this film unforgettable.

This movie written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg gets better every time you watch it. In addition to the script, Hot Fuzz juggles genres wonderfully. YouTube film critic Mikey Neumann points out the four separate genres namely comedy, horror, mystery, and action.

Hot Fuzz is also an awesome action flick with a heartwarming bromance between Pegg and Frost. Hot Fuzz is Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg at their very best no wonder it’s become a bloody, British brilliance.

There Will Be Blood captures a barren wasteland with the good stuff coming up beneath the cracks. Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) is a powerful oil tycoon who seems to hate everyone. It is the sleazy Rev. Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), the dark side of the First Amendment, who keeps him in check. They battle it out for control of the oil, and Plainview slowly loses his humanity until all he is is an angry old man with a bowling pin.

Day-Lewis plays Plainview with a brooding intensity. His eyes help tell the story, one full of calculations and competition. He explodes with a fire unrivaled by any performance. The film’s wordless opening sequence and the oil derrick burning in the middle of the night accompanied by Jonny Greenwood’s alien score is hard to forget.

This is a film that captures the dark side of America’s greed, except done tastefully with a dark intensity viewers will remember.

It is a shadow world with a secret society full of gold coins and mysterious rules. A classy hotel with debonair crooks and sexy assassins, and of course Keanu Reeves. Film critic Priscilla Page says the visuals are bathed with “the palette of Mario Bavo, of Dario Argento.”

The movie set at night is full of dark reds, blues, and greens. And the evening silence is shattered by Reeves taking revenge on a Russian mob.

Reeves trained five days a week, eight hours a day, for four long months. He handled firearms, learned jiu-jitsu holds, and drove a fast car. And Keanu does the gun fights himself. The film was directed by two stuntmen (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch), so no wonder the choreography is excellent.

Wick is a man in mourning. A widower with a dog from his late wife who runs into hot-headed gangsters who in turn wants his car and murders his pup. John Wick is a grieving man looking to cope with his sadness and rage by using as many bullets as he can.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. directed by James Gunn is the sequel of the original hit. It follows the adventures of our heroes after the “Mr. Blue Sky” opening to the gloriously violent “Come a Little Bit Closer” prison break.

The family drama involved and finding forgiveness have viewers relating into what it’s like to survive abuse. Almost every character has been scarred: Star-Lord who is being manipulated by his biological father, Rocket Raccoon was mutilated by scientists, then there is Thanos who tortured Gamora and Nebula. Even Yondu has a dark past.

Vol. 2 is a movie about broken and hurt people who learn to move on, forgive and mature, while struggling with pain and a looming threat.

You Were Never Really Here is about a disturbed war veteran who uses a hammer to beat a bunch of bad guys. It’s got good action but not done in a predictable manner thanks to Director Lynne Ramsay.

Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a hitman who rescues girls from sex traffickers. He ends up in a genuine conspiracy, but Ramsay and Phoenix go on to subvert expectations established by many movies.

Phoenix plays a weary man who’s good at hurting people, including himself. When he’s not beating perverts, he looks after his elderly mom. Joe barely speaks, but Phoenix is able to convey his words with a mumble or a look.

Ramsay impressed critics with a story that plays out much differently, taking viewers to places they’d never expect.

Synopsis: “An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.”

Away from the memes, this movie has stood the test of time for good reason. Arguably better than the book, the writing, cast, and storytelling make for a cult classic and it’s difficult to even find anything wrong with it.

Synopsis: “A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.”

It’s a near-flawless piece film which is made so well that no real plot point would feel forced or out of character. You have to love how the year is never specified, or what the rest of the world is like the entire time.

Synopsis: “A research facility in Antarctica comes across an alien force that can become anything it touches with 100% accuracy. The members must now find out who’s human and who’s not before it’s too late.”

Arguably a perfect horror movie with an interesting premise, great characters, incredible special effects, a nice soundtrack, and well executed tension that many viewers will keep coming back to.

Synopsis: “A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.”

It’s become a family favorite precisely because it’s about a family who deals with their own issues all while juggling the fact that they have superpowers.

Synopsis: “The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.”

It is the juxtaposition of how Don Corleone rose to power and what Michael is doing to continue that power that just makes this film brilliant. The performances from Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are legendary and timeless, no wonder they went on to star in many more movies together.

Synopsis: “A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.”

It’s a slow-paced movie but masterfully done. The final shot is similar to the opening scene without giving anything away, while the mystery plays out at a steady pace allowing viewers to gain info at the appropriate rate.

Synopsis: “With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.”

The film’s intricate, complicated character study will have you picking up up things you won’t see on the previous watch. The characters have amazing chemistry, plus it culminates in one of the most poignant moments on screen.

Synopsis: “A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.”

Humor, suspense, and at times depressing are some of the reasons why this film is good. The opening scenes bring you into the future without realizing that time is passing. No one pays close attention to the dates in the newspapers, the times on the radio, and the dialogue. Such is the repetition of daily life and viewers will realize that fact after watching this movie.

Synopsis: “A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as the top toy in a boy’s room.”

This beloved animated film has one of the strongest scripts ever written. It’s starts strong and finishes even stronger. It’s a film that talks to adults and children in different ways, using themes of jealousy, purpose, and parental caring all wrapped up in a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate.

Synopsis: “A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential.”

You can watch this movie over and over and still be amazed. It has great story, strong dialogue, and well-developed characters brought to life by incredible acting. The cinematography and music are exquisite.