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
Day of the Jackal, The

Tense cat-and-mouse game of hired assassin gunning for Charles De Gaulle and the police officer who must stop him.
Mystery
A
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Day the Earth Stood Still, The

This classic touches both great themes of sci-fi movies in the 1950s: aliens/monsters from space and the horrors of the nuclear bomb. Unlike in most, the alien here is benign—backed up by the power of awesome robot Gort. Excellent performances from Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, but Gort steals the show.
SciFi
F
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Desk Set

Spencer Tracy is a computer technician out to modernize company librarian Katharine Hepburn’s office.
Comedy
M
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Destry Rides Again

First-rate comedy/western about a soft-spoken lawman who doesn’t want to use his guns, even though he’s the son of a famous gun-wielding lawman. Jimmy Stewart is at his aw-shucks peak, and Marlene Dietrich has never been better—especially when she sings the show-stopper See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have.
Western
M
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Dial M for Murder

Overly stagy Hitchcock still has enough classic moments to keep viewers entertained.
Mystery
M
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Diner

Barry Levinson’s pæan to 1950s Baltimore features a human script and a nice ensemble of young actors.
Drama
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Dirty Pretty Things

Illegal immigrants—one with a mysterious past—navigate the hazards of London’s unseen underbelly. People come to hotels at night to do dirty things. It is our job to make them look pretty.
Drama
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Diva

A young mail courier with a crush on an opera diva becomes a pawn in the police’s war against an international drug and prostitution ring.
Mystery
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Dog Day Afternoon

Relentless, true story of a botched bank robbery in Brooklyn.
Mystery
F
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Double Indemnity

The film that defines noir. Barbara Stanwyck is outstanding as an amoral wife who wants out of her marriage and will use anyone to help her. Fred MacMurray at first refused to play her lover and accomplice, fearing it was too great a departure from his romantic comedy roles and would hurt his career; instead,…

Mystery
A
SAG100