Recommended Movies

Posted by Elliot

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Sure, there are lots of movie review sites. And if you’re looking up something particular, they’re a great help. But if you don’t know what to watch, you need trustworthy advice to heighten the signal/noise ratio. Welcome to etg Design’s database of worthwhile movies.

The few hundred films included focus mostly on classic movies, which today probably need a little extra help getting the attention of younger viewers. These recommendations are brought to you by Elliot and Steve Grant, longtime movie buffs who are relatively open-minded about what constitutes a good movie.

To get second opinions, you can choose to display only movies that made the AFI’s 400 nominations for Top 100 movies (62K PDF) or FilmSite.org’s 200 Greatest Films. NB: Both these lists exclude foreign films; the AFI 400 was finalized in 1996.

Steve’s list includes roughly 100 movies and also excludes foreign films. To continue the pattern of 50% greater exclusivity, Elliot’s list attempts to capture the approximately 50 most important films. Within those 50, I’ve tried to cover as many genres, cultures, eras, and themes as possible. Don’t write to me complaining about the choices—it’s subjective, it’s an impossible task, and it’ll probably change over time. Finally, the intersection of all four lists is approximately 30 movies.

(If you want a larger list, take a look at the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.)

To display films, simply select the appropriate search criteria below. You can filter the search by genre, rating, or inclusion on the various lists mentioned above.

Movie Ratings

Movies are rated on a system devised by my movie-watching cabal based on the simple question: How much worth your time and/or money is seeing this film?

There are six levels of ratings. They’re easy to remember, and they even proceed in alphabetical order:

  1. A (Advance Showing): Some films are such must-sees that they’re worth paying extra and going out of your way to catch—as you might do for an advance (a.k.a. special sneak preview) showing.
  2. F (Full Price): A film rated Full is worth seeing on its intital run in the theaters, even though you’ll have to pay the full ticket price. It’ll be worth it.
  3. M (Matinee): Matinee movies are worth seeing in the theaters, but only if you can get a discount on the ticket price. They’re good—usually a lot of fun—but probably not worth seeing more than once.
  4. R (Rental): Rental flicks have redeeming qualities, but they’re ones you definitely won’t mind catching on video. The screen may be small, but you don’t want to pay even a matinee ticket price for this kind of film.
  5. TV: A movie that gets a TV rating isn’t worth spending any money on. If it comes on TV, you probably wouldn’t mind spending a few hours to catch it, but otherwise you can avoid it with a clear conscience.
  6. W (Worthless): This bottom category is exactly what it says. A Worthless film is one that you should skip even if it comes on TV and you have nothing better to do.

Recommended Movies

Movie Genre Rating Lists
Manchurian Candidate, The

Viciously cynical and paranoid conspiracy film about a brainwashed assassin. Angela Lansbury is outstanding in an against-type-casting role.
Mystery
A
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Mark of Zorro, The

Lots of fun as the masked Curse of Capistrano fights corruption in early California.
Action
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Marty

Beautifully acted and scripted, this small-scale gem shines with an Oscar-winning performance by Ernest Borgnine (nearly always a heavy in films) and great support from Betsy Blair. Iconic catch-phrase: “I don’ know—what do you wanna do?” Romantic but realistic and genuinely heartwarming, with no false sentiment; adapted from his TV play by Paddy Chayefsky.
Drama
M
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Matrix, The

Only for those with a high tolerance for cinematic violence; but a stylish, thought-provoking thriller of humanity’s escape from a virtual reality.
SciFi
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Meet John Doe

Slightly uneven Capra take on media cynicism and human redemption is nonetheless an entertaining and thought-provoking film.
Drama
M
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Metropolitan

This ’90s take on Jane Austen follows a set of NYC debutantes, their escorts, and the lower-class radical socialist who accidentally joins their circle.
Comedy
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Miracle on 34th Street

Too-grown-up Maureen O’Hara learns a lesson about faith in magic and the Christmas spirit from a Macy’s Santa claiming to be the real Kris Kringle.
Comedy
M
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Miracle Worker, The

From William Gibson’s play (originally produced on TV), this powerful film tells the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller (Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, in Oscar-winning performances), the deaf-blind girl whom Sullivan rescues. It’s said that while performing this play on Broadway for more than a year and then during the filming, both were…

Drama
A
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Mister Roberts

Henry Fonda repeats his Broadway turn as a naval officer stuck on a cargo ship at the tail-end of WW II. William Powell and Jack Lemmon keep the proceedings fun.
Drama
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Modern Times

The third of Chaplin’s greatest comedies. Minimal use of sound—which had already been around for about a decade—does not alter the fact that this is still essentially a silent film. Charlie satirizes industrialized life that dehumanizes and oppresses the poor, downtrodden American worker during the Depression. Among the classic bits is his travel through the…

Comedy
A
ETG50