It’s the hap-happiest season of all. We bring nature inside as we adorn our living spaces with seasonally appropriate trees, and we light up the longer nights with bright and colourful lights. Music from generations long since passed is re-played and re-contextualised, and centuries old iconography is re-evaluated and repurposed.

There’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and carolling out in the snow. If we’ve been good, we’ll receive gifts (thanks Santa!), and if we’re lucky we’ll eat so much food we can barely move. Almost certainly, we’ll watch a movie. From the Netflix Originals of the current era to the silver screen classics of wartime Hollywood, Christmastime movie watching doesn’t discriminate based on picture quality, colour or the lack thereof, acting powerhouses or barely trained actors – if it works, it works. And if it’s good, we’ll hold onto it forever.

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’ve scoured the annals of Christmas movie history to bring you the very best of the best to watch this holiday season. These films are Christmas classics and beloved cult hits, some culturally significant and others often overlooked. These films are seasonal treats; two advent calendars worth of movie magic from the big-wigs in Hollywood and beyond.

Short films (those with a runtime of under one hour) will not be included here, nor will films that cross multiple seasons but feel like Christmas movies – sorry You’ve Got Mail and Bridget Jones’s Diary. Debatable Christmas movies like Gremlins have also been omitted because of their inclusion in our alternative list “10 Excellent Non-Christmas Films Set at Christmas“. Seasonal classic The Apartment has also been disqualified on the grounds that it covers Christmas and beyond, and is arguably more of a new year’s movie.

These are 50 Unmissable Christmas Movies as chosen by The Film Magazine team members. Entries by Mark Carnochan, Kieran Judge, Martha Lane, Sam Sewell-Peterson and Joseph Wade.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

1. Remember the Night (1940)

Golden Era stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray (who would go on to star in The Apartment) spark an unlikely romance when Stanwyck’s Lee Leander steals a bracelet from a jewellery store and MacMurray’s John “Jack” Sargent is assigned to prosecute her over the Christmas holidays.

One of the era’s many beloved studio romantic comedies, Remember the Night features all the elements that would come to define the genre while encompassing some screwball comedy and classic transatlantic accents. The tagline read “When good boy meets bad girl they remember the night”, and it’s likely you’ll remember this seasonal treat too. JW

2. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Few things signal classic Hollywood Christmases like Jimmy Stewart, and 6 years before arguably his most memorable performance in the iconic Frank Capra Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, he starred in a seasonal favourite that was just as beloved by critics, The Shop Around the Corner.

This holiday romance from Ernst Lubitsch (who also directed Heaven Can Wait) sees Stewart’s Alfred fall in love with his pen pal who, unbeknownst to him, is the colleague he most despises at his gift store job – You’ve Got Mail has got nothing on this. With some hearty moments and all of the circumstantial comedy of the best movies of the era, The Shop Around the Corner will make you laugh and fill your heart in that special way that only the best Christmas movies can. JW

3. Holiday Inn (1942)

Early sound pictures were revolutionised by famed tap dancer Fred Astaire, and by 1942 he was a certified movie musical megastar. In Mark Sandrich’s seasonal musical Holiday Inn, he teams with would-be Christmas icon and man with a voice as sooth as silk, Bing Crosby. The result is one of the most iconic and influential Christmas movies ever made.

The film’s outdated attitude towards race are cringe-inducing and inexcusable in a 21st century context (there’s a whole sequence featuring blackface), but its other dated sensibilities shine bright amongst more modern and commercial Christmas films; its wholesome aura, classic dance scenes, and era-defining songs making for an unmissable experience. To top it all, Bing Crosby sings “White Christmas” for the first time in this film, cementing it in history as a seasonal classic. JW

4. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Widely acknowledged as one of the holiday season’s best-ever films, Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris) illuminates his would-be wife Judy Garland in arguably her most established performance, bringing Christmas cheer to all without sacrificing any of the harsh realities facing the American people in the first half of the 20th century.

Featuring the original (and arguably the best) rendition of Christmas classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and being anchored by some heartbreaking story elements, Meet Me In St. Louis maintains its power and relevance 80 years on. It offers a Christmas movie that will forever mark the height of its sub-genre, as well as the two filmmaking careers (of Minnelli and Garland) that helped to define the era. JW

Recommended for you: There’s No Place Like St. Louis at Christmas

5. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Remember the Night star Barbara Stanwyck is once again front and centre for a Golden Era Hollywood Christmas movie, this time playing a city magazine editor whose lies about being a perfect housewife are put to the test when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her house.

This is screwball comedy with all the spirit of the festive season is as romantic as it is funny, and prominently features the shadows of World War II to gift the film a unique emotionality that has ensured it is rewatched year on year. JW

David Fincher is one of the best and most accomplished filmmakers working in 21^st century Hollywood. He has received three Best Director nominations at the Academy Awards for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and Mank (each of which also received Best Picture nominations), and a Palme d’Or nomination at Cannes for Zodiac. His projects are consistently well-funded, well-reviewed, and beloved by audiences.

Fincher represents a synthesis of filmmaking styles. He is a student of Stanley Kubrick’s cold observation and Steven Spielberg’s guiding composition, matching each director’s reputed attention to detail. His versatility working in genres from sci-fi to drama to psychological thriller demonstrate an ability to bring what’s needed to a film while maintaining a distinct aesthetic.

His textural style is marked by high-contrast lighting, visual distancing that highlights important close-ups, and focused montage – even when the color palette changes, or the camera incorporates new techniques based on momentary decision-making, Fincher’s tendencies can be identified throughout his work. Fincher is also associated with the advancement of visual effects in the film industry. Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and, to a lesser extent, Zodiac, contain specific digital effects that are notable for their quality – as in Benjamin Button, with the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, and the CGI blood in Zodiac.

Fincher was also among the early pioneers of digital cinema on a large scale. Zodiac was the first film to be shot straight to a hard drive, and Mank was filmed on a black-and-white digital camera rather than converting color in post-production (as was the case with The Artist due to technological constraints). These choices are solutions to problems more so than aesthetic preference – the switch to digital improves workflow, costumes don’t need to be changed when the blood isn’t real, and why not cast Armie Hammer to “be” two people when you can just put his face on another actor’s body?

Fincher doesn’t write his own scripts, but he knows a good one when he sees it and is instrumental to shaping it through the development and production process. The narratives Fincher selects see their characters put through the wringer, often physically and emotionally. There’s often a sense of mystery that the audience explores alongside the characters, and we are left with a sense of clarity by the end, be it optimistic or dour. Perhaps most prolific are his serial killer procedurals, including the Netflix series ‘Mindhunter,’ where his characters work inside and outside the “system” to solve a case while losing themselves along the way.

David Fincher loathes the association with a brand, but how else can he be described? This article will rank Fincher’s films based on the image of a “David Fincher movie.” How do these films best embody the director known for his incredible work ethic, sweeping control that values collaboration, synthesizing of old and new, and dark stories presented in an unintrusive aesthetic?

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

12. Alien 3 (1992)

“No one hated [Alien 3] more than me,” Fincher told The Guardian.

The third instalment of the Alien franchise follows Ripley after she crash lands on a prison planet inhabited by religious zealots who are outraged by the presence of a woman.

The special effects and drab, grungy mise-en-scene are most notable in this otherwise boring film with a senseless, meandering plot.

The Assembly Cut of Alien 3, the film’s redemption in its apologists’ eyes, was not constructed by Fincher, so it’s hard to even associate it with him even if his name is on the film.

Anyone who has the luxury of never having seen Alien 3 should stay in blissful ignorance. Pretend ‘Mindhunter’ is the eleventh Fincher film and watch that instead.

Recommended for you: Alien Movie Franchise Ranked

11. Panic Room (2002)

Films that take place in one location are tough to get right, especially when a significant amount of time has two characters in one small room.

Fincher’s camera uses every bit of space while keeping the sense of claustrophobia and fear. The script is clever, and the performances help carry the film through its near two-hour runtime.

It’s a solid film, but it feels hollow. It’s lacking a real thematic punch that is present in other Fincher movies – it’s effective, thrilling filmmaking that foregrounds women in action roles, and is certainly worth a watch.

Panic Room is the kind of movie that would make for a strong debut, but its context between Fight Club and Zodiac – two landmarks in Fincher’s career – keeps it on the lower end of this ranking.

Movies discussed include The Godfather, Seven Samurai, Blade Runner, The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Pan’s Labyrinth, and many, many more.

The goal of our top 10 lists here at The Film Magazine was to help showcase our team’s personalities and spotlight movies that are important to film history and ourselves. Everyone’s lists are worth a read, as the different approaches, perspectives, and personal histories brought something unique that other writers had not seen before.

As Kieran noted in his list, these are not necessarily favorite films, though there is some crossover. Jacob’s list aims to cover Western film history from the silent era through 2016, the latest entry on his list. Kieran’s approach was to showcase “the peak of cinematic mastery,” and controversially includes a film trilogy as one entry (a fun topic of debate amongst the hosts). Sam’s list spans genre and history to find the films that impacted him the most throughout his life. Since there are 30 different films discussed, this episode is a bit longer than usual, and is the first of the new livestream episode format. Each approach yielded a list unique to the podcast, and we are proud to present the Second Cut episode on the Top 10 Best Films of All Time.

The Film Magazine’s Team page, with links to everyone’s Top 10 lists in their bio!

Jacob Davis: Jacob’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

Kieran Judge: Kieran’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

Sam Sewell-Peterson: Sam’s Top 10 Best Films of All Time

The Film Magazine Redbubble | The Film Magazine Donate (PayPal)

Music: Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi https://soundcloud.com/wataboi
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by FDL Music https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

bedtime after a coffee by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen/
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

Join us for our next episode, where we go back to our roots and discuss famous film flops! Because who doesn’t love a box office bomb with a fun story? Elizabeth Taylor’s old Hollywood epic Cleopatra, the Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli musical New York, New York, and the Michael Cimino western Heaven’s Gate will all make an appearance.

Follow Second Cut!

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

For requests, suggestions, and feedback, email the hosts at secondcutpod@gmail.com.

Taxi Driver (1976)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Paul Schrader
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel

On a steamy street in New York on a hot summer night, a cab pulls into frame, followed by an intense shot of eyes bathed in neon light and a psychedelic rendering of the city’s ceaseless hustle and bustle. The American New Wave, or New Hollywood, was brimming with films that brought arthouse sensibilities to the American mainstream, and Martin Scorsese’s neo-noir crime thriller is among the best. More than a vehicle for star Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver represents a convergence of genre and style from across place and time, painting a dreary picture of its contemporary America that still resonates today.

Taxi Driver was the second of Scorsese’s films to feature Robert De Niro, and it’s the movie that really put Scorsese on the map as the best filmmaker of the “auteur generation” – the group of 70s American filmmakers who grew up loving and studying film in a way their predecessors hadn’t. By 1976, Scorsese had made Boxcar Bertha and Mean Streets, and his film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore had been nominated for Oscars. But Taxi Driver took his career to another level, scoring him the Palme d’Or at Cannes and another round of Oscar nominations.

The story, written by Paul Schrader, follows a Vietnam veteran named Travis Bickle who tries his hand at driving cabs. He is tortured by an inability to sleep and a lack of human connection beyond what he sees on TV or in a porno theater, which drives him to derangement, causing him to direct his inner conflict outward through violence. 

While Travis is not a character to be admired, he is certainly one audiences can sympathize with. He’s socially awkward, demonstrated by his early encounters with Cybill Shepherd’s Betsy, a worker on a Presidential campaign staff, and a talk with fellow cabbie Wiz, to whom Travis can’t quite explain his feelings of estrangement. In his search for connection, he stumbles upon a child prostitute played by Jodie Foster, and feels a misplaced sense of patriarchal protection for her. It’s through Foster’s character that Travis ultimately finds his outlet for his angst, creating a moment that challenges our preconceptions of heroics. His views, however, expressed through his journal, are abhorrent, filled with racist rhetoric and descriptions of New York’s citizens as scum and vile. 

But De Niro plays such a morally complex character to a T. De Niro is widely recognized for his charm, so it’s quite interesting to see him adapt himself to fit Travis’ socially inept characteristics. He has an ability to utilize his charisma as a front, like when Travis initially seduces Betsy, leaving viewers all the more embarrassed on his behalf when he doesn’t understand why she was upset he brought her to see a porno on their first date. De Niro captures Travis’ sense of alienation and impotence, but finds a way to humanize him. Part of the authenticity of Travis comes from Scorsese allowing improvisation, particularly with De Niro. Arguably the film’s most famous scene is entirely improvised, as De Niro stands before a mirror and says, “You talkin’ to me?”

Jodie Foster really steals the show in her role, one that had to be approved and monitored by child welfare professionals. She rehearsed and improvised with De Niro around New York, and feels entirely authentic and bright within the film despite the dark nature of her character. In one of her best scenes, she has breakfast with Travis at a diner wearing hilarious green sunglasses, and her teenage self is finally allowed to be expressed. She eats a jelly and sugar sandwich while Travis goes on about how she needs to be home with her parents, and in typical teenager fashion she calls him a square and starts talking about how she and her pimp get along because they’re both Libras. Speaking of her pimp, he’s played by Harvey Keitel in a wig sporting a ten-gallon pimp hat, and while it’s understandable why he doesn’t play a larger role, Keitel’s performance makes you wish he did.

Taxi Driver also serves as a symbol of the convergence of commercial American filmmaking, European new waves, classic Hollywood auteurism, and exploitation films. The film borrows from The Searchers through the protagonist’s quest to save a woman who may not want to be saved, and there are direct visual allusions to Psycho through an overhead tracking shot in the finale, drawing parallels between Travis and Norman Bates. A shot onto dissolving alka-seltzer has been compared to Godard’s Two or Three Things I Know About Her, and clearly functions as a symbol of Travis’ simmering violence. It also features raw, unbridled violence that had been traditionally reserved for Italian horror and Corman flicks. The shot of Murray Motson’s mangled hand, an effect created by Dick Smith, and the spurts of blood from Travis and others elevated cinematic violence from The Godfather to a more intimate level.

Taxi Driver is also notable for being the final film score from legendary composer Bernard Hermann, best known for Citizen Kane and Psycho. His score creates the neo-noir atmosphere as Travis prowls the streets of New York for fares. Perhaps the best of the score is the music of the dramatic finale, punctuating the bloody shootout. It’s a classic, studio-era type of sound with tense horns, oscillating strings, and foreboding timpani drums. It’s a beautiful piece that gives audiences the sense of slipping into a dream, causing one to wonder if the scene or the film’s epilogue are even real. Hermann passed mere hours after completing the score, which earned him a posthumous Oscar nomination.

Through a modern lens, one might wonder what the value of Taxi Driver is? Its perspective from a nihilist racist feels particularly useless in a post-Trump world, where we seem to be constantly subjected to the inner thoughts of the more deplorable denizens of society. There’s an entire rant in the film, delivered by Scorsese (standing in for an injured actor), about shooting a woman in her vagina for having an affair with a black man. The value lies in its indictment of society’s treatment of men, how the structural patriarchal forces that create the idea of masculinity fail to truly care for America’s men, and how that leads to them finding inappropriate outlets for their feelings because they don’t know how to express themselves. America is still facing the problem of disaffected men turning to violence against women, or larger forces like schools or churches, and we seem to be out of ideas for how to solve it. Taxi Driver doesn’t offer solutions, but clearly elucidates the problem in incredible cinematic fashion.

Taxi Driver’s legacy may not endure. It was great for its time and place, but Scorsese is more popularly associated with Goodfellas and Casino, which feature two other spectacular De Niro performances. But Taxi Driver is an essential film when examining the career of Scorsese and De Niro, and the American New Wave. Its darker themes, violence, and style make it a landmark work in the history of American cinema.

Score: 21/24

Recommended for you: Where to Start with Martin Scorsese

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)
Director: Sam Wrench
Starring: Taylor Swift, Amanda Balen, Taylor Banks

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour has been a sensation, with fans clamoring for tickets. Of course, many missed out on the experience, but Swift and her team decided to release a film version. The film was made under union contract, and was shot over three nights at the performer’s Los Angeles tour stop. She partnered with AMC theaters to distribute the concert’s film release, and the film drew huge presale numbers, setting the record for October’s highest opening day gross and becoming the 2nd best opening weekend of any October release in history.

Those on the fence may wonder if it’s worth seeing. It is just a concert, after all, and it will come to streaming… but this is a theater-worthy experience. Taylor Swift put together a cinematic performance that qualifies for the Best Musical of 2023. The story? Taylor Swift.

The origin of the show lies in the pandemic. Taylor’s tour for “Lover” was canceled, and she recorded and released four more albums in the proceeding years. As she explains in the film, she wanted to tour all her eras at once, and the result is a three-hour, visually-stunning show in which Swift engages with her history and constructs her artistic image and narrative.

Each of the eras has a distinct tone that is evoked by the mise-en-scene and Taylor’s performance. The show is introduced with a “Lover” title card, and incorporates pinks, blues, and fluffy clouds that are reminiscent of the album’s cover. Her outfits are silver, gradually changed through jackets and other tops. The show moves to “Fearless”, and Taylor comes out in gold with an acoustic guitar, and she strikes poses and dances like the country star she was perceived to be (and was) in the mid-2000s. She’s playing with the band behind her like more traditional American country music performances. Her country twang comes back out a little bit. It’s more than playing music, it’s embodying a role and period in her life through theatrical elements.

Cinematically, the film places viewers into the fullest view of the show. If you went to the concert and couldn’t see the stage, you missed out on a vital element of the visual effects in “Delicate” as Taylor cracks the stage with emphatic steps. The tight shots allow for the full effect of Taylor’s expressive performance, and give an occasional music video quality through focused tracking shots. The crowd reaction shots incorporate the fans, and mirror reactions of theater-goers who cheered, chanted, and waved glow sticks during showings. The decision to cut certain songs for the theatrical experience makes sense as it keeps each era more even in length, and it’s possible the full show is released at some point. Most importantly, editing between the three nights is seamless, which is a testament to the clockwork this show runs on.

The lighting is what gives the show its kinetic quality, gifting it more of the feeling of performance art than concert. Red was a prominent lighting motif across eras – “Red”, of course, and “Reputation”, but it was most striking when the whole stadium turned red for “Bad Blood”. “My tears ricochet” features long shadows that can only be seen from above but are thoroughly unique to the segment. Blackouts lead to strong spotlight shots of a solo Swift, ready to tell the audience a story.

For “Folklore”, Swift establishes the story of the album: she was sitting around watching TV, and had fantasies about running around the woods in a Victorian dress, flourishing in nature. She started thinking about writing a teenage love triangle, so she created characters and wrote songs from their perspectives. She’s establishing her artistic process directly through her film, and cultivating her persona as a relatable figure to her fans. Swift functions as a narrator for a variety of melodic vignettes in a white dress, representing her role within the folklore of her own career. Any personal events from her own experiences become subtext for fans to read from the themes of a song’s performance and lyrical content. It’s symbolic of what she has done. taking control of her work from studios and her image, earning her place as a star in a range of media outlets.

Ultimately, The Eras Tour isn’t only a positive cinematic event for the money, but for the experience as a whole. It’s a way for her fans to come and express themselves in a public forum. While this is generally frowned upon in theaters, The Eras Tour is tailor-made for singing along and feeling the energy of the film. And isn’t crowd reaction the real benefit of watching movies in public? We go to hear the screams in horror films, the laughs in comedies, and to experience the emotional highs and lows of characters as a community.

The Eras Tour is among the must-see theater experiences of 2023. It’s the definitive edition of the concert from the biggest star in the world, and a serious showing on the silver screen. Go into the theater with a blank space, shake off any expectations, and this will show that Taylor Swift is, indeed, the man.

Score: 23/24

The studio’s now iconic brand of 3D computer animation changed studio animation across the world forever, even causing industry leaders Disney to change from 2D into 3D over the course of the 2000s. Among Pixar’s many hits and acclaimed award winners are Toy Story, the film that changed it all, and Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Up, Coco, and Soul.

In this edition of Ranked, we here at the Film Magazine have teamed our writers up to complete a joint ranking of Pixar Animation Studios’ feature offerings, judging each film in terms of enjoyability, resonance, longevity, critical acclaim, and artistry.

Written by Mark Carnochan (MC), Jacob Davis (JD), Katie Doyle (KD), Martha Lane (ML), Sam Sewell-Peterson (SSP), and Joseph Wade (JW), these are the Pixar Animation Movies Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

27. Lightyear (2022)

Budget: $200million
Box Office: $226.4million
Director: Angus MacLane

Coming out of the lockdown era that had forced many Pixar releases directly to Disney Plus (thus skewing their box office totals), the so-called “2nd Disney Studio” needed a big win with Lightyear that just didn’t come. It barely made its budget back, and with promotional costs taken into account actually made a loss for its parent company. The film was Toy Story, but not quite; a spin-off origin narrative explaining what the Buzz Lightyear toy was based on, a movie from the world of the Toy Story movies. In it, Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) fought a mysterious power-hungry evil force, finding his own ragtag group on a quest across galaxies to cement himself as a legend and save humankind.

Conceptually, Lightyear isn’t unlike many other Pixar movies: an underappreciated but cocky hero is humbled before achieving greatness with the only people (or creatures) that are willing to put up with him. This in-movie predictability, paired with the lack of clarity pre-release regarding exactly what Lightyear was, curtailed all of the usual Toy Story-universe excitement. It looks shiny, and some high-contrast space battles make for stunning sequences, while there is enough by way of stakes and twists to ensure an enjoyable time, but Lightyear was a cash-in and people could sense it; an expensive version of those direct-to-video Disney movies from the 1990s.

JW

26. Cars 3 (2017)

Budget: $175million
Box Office: $383.9million
Director: Brian Fee

By 2017, the only reason Pixar were forcing out new Cars instalments is because parent company Disney wanted some of those sweet merchandise profits. In 2011, following the release of Cars 2, Pixar revealed that the Cars franchise had made the company more than $10billion; current figures aren’t available, but even with a large curtailing of revenue, this franchise would be one of the most profitable film franchises of all time. In this fairly inconsequential film, Lightning McQueen plays the archetypal old sportsperson inspired to return for one last shot at glory. It isn’t quite Rocky Balboa, which isn’t even exceptional in the first place, but some of the animation is leaps beyond what was on offer in the first film.

Those charged with gifting this cash-grab with some kind of meaning or heart certainly tried – a feminist subplot indicated society’s advances in representation (both in sports and movies) in the decade since the original film and McQueen’s return to the spotlight held weight for those who enjoyed the original Cars movies – but these strangely designed cars were seemingly only ever destined for children’s bedrooms, the imaginations of those who played with the toys far outliving the impact or influence of this less-than stellar Pixar offering.

JW

Recommended for you: 10 Great Anime Films for Newcomers

As I made this list, I wanted to give an overview of film history, honing in on pieces that are important in Western (especially American) cinema’s evolution. While the Koker Trilogy is undeniably great, its reach in shaping the broader cinematic medium, especially in the West, is limited (despite reflecting present-day leanings towards found footage and maximal realism). I have also chosen to avoid films I have not seen all the way through. I’ve seen the Odessa Steps segment in Battleship Potemkin and studied Eisenstein’s revolutionary editing techniques, but I could not recommend a film I have not seen as one of the best of all time no matter the expert consensus.

Another factor in my selection process was the overall trajectory of the filmmaker(s) involved to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. While The Matrix is a great movie and highly regarded within its era, the Wachowskis’ later works have polarized audiences and critics considerably. It’s important to note that my list leans heavily male, reflecting both a historical bias in the industry and my personal gravitation towards directors who cater to male viewers. This list also restricts itself to feature-length films, ruling out shorts like the Lumiere brothers’ 50-second The Arrival of a Train. I also tried my best to include a variety of genres, otherwise this would devolve into a list of the 10 best crime films of all time.

With these considerations in mind, here are my selections for the 10 Best Films of All Time. You may have seen some, but I encourage you to watch those you haven’t, as they are sure to entertain and enlighten in various ways. These films are presented in no chronological order because ranking them is an impossible task, as they are each exceptional in their own right.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @JacobFilmGuy

10. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Do you hate the idea of silent movies but are curious about giving one a try? Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin may be an easier starting point, as their comedic styles have a timeless appeal that resonates across generations. However, if you find yourself intrigued by the dramatic offerings of 1920s cinema, The Passion of Joan of Arc should be your first choice.

This film immerses viewers into Joan of Arc’s harrowing trial for heresy at the hands of English-aligned Frenchmen during the Hundred Years’ War, faithfully adapted from the event’s historical records. The director, Carl Theodor Dreyer, is hailed as one of the silent cinema’s maestros, standing tall among Europe’s early cinematic innovators.

As a silent film, it places emphasis on the visual aspects of film in a way that theater cannot replicate, showing the unique artistic power of cinema to put viewers right in the face of subjects. Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s portrayal perfectly conveys Joan’s torment and unwavering resolve. Dreyer’s directorial style is uniquely his own, blending techniques from various European cinematic movements to craft this masterwork.

Created on the cusp of the sound era, it may even be considered the pinnacle of the silent era, representing the apex of a crescendo that laid the foundation for the visual elements of the movies we know and love today.

9. Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa worked in many genres and eras, but is best remembered for his films about historical Japan. Rashomon and Yojimbo have stood the test of time, but Seven Samurai is undoubtedly his greatest work. It’s a simple story of a ragtag group of warriors who come together to defend a village from bandits, told exceptionally well in a way only film can.

Seven Samurai may be the breeziest three-hour film of all time, with not a moment wasted and excellent pacing to boot. The group’s interactions with each other and the villagers are what really make the film, and frequent Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune stands out for his attitude and posturing as a 16th century ronin. Kurosawa and cinematographer Asakazu Nakai’s talent as visual artists is shown in the stunningly composed shots that capture the Japanese countryside, intense action, and the good but complex nature of the film’s heroes.

The film also represents a cultural exchange between Western and Eastern cinema that will continue as long as those traditions exist – John Ford was an influence on Kurosawa whose films inspired directors like Sergio Leone, George Lucas, and the folks at Pixar who made A Bug’s Life… not to mention the film’s influence on the concept of team-ups in general.

No matter what type of film or genre you prefer, Seven Samurai and its influence is nearly inescapable within cinema.

Recommended for you: Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune: Cinema’s Greatest Collaborations

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
Director: Patrick Wilson
Screenwriter: Scott Teems
Starring: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Sinclair Daniel, Peter Dager, Joseph Bishara, Andrew Astor

The first film in the Insidious film franchise is a touchstone of 2010s paranormal horror with its dissonant spooky strings and striking imagery. It twisted the “haunted house” story into the story of a haunted family, and explored astral projection in a horror context. Everything that came after couldn’t manage anything that didn’t involve sudden loud noises that startled us more than they horrified us. But Patrick Wilson and the team behind The Red Door have managed to successfully correct the franchise’s course, and in doing so have provided a satisfying ending to the family at the core of the first two movies.

Insidious: The Red Door follows the Lambert clan around a decade after the events of Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2. Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) have divorced, Josh’s mom has recently died, and their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is off to art school. There’s tension between father and son, and the events of the first two films come back to haunt them both literally and metaphorically. The most important scene from Chapter 2, where Josh and Dalton are hypnotized to forget what happened, is shown at the beginning to give full context for what comes next.

It’s an impressive directorial debut from Patrick Wilson. He was given the task of essentially reverting and redirecting a major horror franchise, and managed to make a film that feels singular and unique within those limitations. This isn’t simply another tale of someone being haunted and having to exorcise them, it presents a real struggle between entities in The Further (the astral projection realm) and humans on Earth, and establishes that fight and the powers well without the need to see the other films.

The first key to Insidious: The Red Door is the foundation of its story. While the third and fourth films involve Elise, the medium from the first film, they tell stories that have no impact on the rest of the franchise. You can’t go back and watch the third film and see how that encounter with a demon really impacted her character and affected her actions in the “future” (other than the recruitment of her ghost-hunting assistants). There’s no root other than her character being in other movies. But The Red Door uses the consequences of the first two films to impact its characters and create meaningful, interesting family drama – specifically the father-son story. The disconnection from each other and their history change the relationship between Dalton and Josh, and Josh fights his own demons involving his father’s abandonment of him at a young age. This foundation of story and character turns the demons from cheap thrills into symbols for generational trauma and familial strife – while this is often the case with horror, it’s scantly executed beyond the surface level.

The performances of Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins also help emphasize these themes, showing that the impact an experienced performer like Wilson can have as a director is invaluable. Being a post-pandemic, relatively low-budget film, there’s rarely a moment where there are more than a couple of characters on screen (which drives home the emotional isolation that both Josh and Dalton are feeling), and each actor makes the most of it.

Sinclair Daniel brings a lot of quirkiness and fun as Chris, Dalton’s roommate who is happy to listen to and help the troubled teen. Patrick Wilson embodies a weariness that really drives home the image of the depressed divorcee haunted by physical and emotional demons. But Ty Simpkins, reprising his role from the first two films, steals the show as the brooding artist. A scene in which Josh and Dalton briefly fight about their interpersonal issues shows there’s so much simmering under the surface for both characters, and their actors are able to portray those untapped emotions well, even if it’s unclear exactly what those feelings and thoughts are.

While story and character are important for the scares, the horror moments are the primary mode of channelling horror for the audience, and this may be where Wilson really hits the mark. Gone are the spooky strings and sudden sounds accompanied by a figure jumping in from outside the frame. Instead, there’s a lot of silent, visual horror taking place in negative space. Lighting and incomplete imagery distort shots and objects in ways that are unsettling. There are surreal uses of space and edits that can frighten more than any jump scare from the last film, The Last Key (2018). The Further has also been modified into more of a strange, extant realm that audiences don’t get a good view of. One great horror scene involves Josh playing a memory game during broad daylight as a figure slowly approaches. It’s full of anxiety and apprehension on top of the fear that comes along with aging and losing memory, and it manages all that without the lesser jump scare tricks.

Could the Insidious franchise continue? Sure. Studios are always looking for large profit margins on cheap horror films, and established names typically carry the most weight. But this film is surely the end of the Lambert family saga, giving them a definitive conclusion that the IP owners shouldn’t go back on.

The most important question from this film is, “What will director Patrick Wilson do next?” Might he tackle a Conjuring film? An original film? Will he stay in horror? This was a huge step in his career, and it will certainly be interesting to see if this directorial debut leads to greater heights for one of the 21st century’s most iconic horror film faces.

Score: 15/24

One of the most popular acting schools in Hollywood is the Method. Popularized in the 1950s, the Method is a way of naturally embodying a role, becoming the person on screen rather than acting like a person. Marlon Brando is often associated with Method performance, and his work in On the Waterfront (1954) won him his first Oscar for Best Actor. But what was it about Brando’s performance that captivated audiences, critics and his fellow filmmakers? Why is his performance still recognized as great to this day? And what can be gleaned from the screen to demonstrate the Method in action?

While Brando was not a student of the prestigious Actors’ Studio, he is still an exemplar of the ideas behind the Method and how they changed film acting for years to come. What distinguished Marlon Brando as a screen actor in On the Waterfront is his training and preparation behind the scenes that led to a unique performance that only he could have given.

On the Waterfront tells the story of a community of dock workers under the thumb of a local crime lord, Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). The workers play “deaf and dumb” when questioned about events related to Friendly’s more unsavory business. Brando plays Terry Malloy, a dock worker and associate of Friendly’s thanks to his brother’s work for the organization. Terry’s actions lead to the death of a character in the film’s opening, and he struggles emotionally with this throughout the film, especially when he begins spending time with the dead man’s sister.

It’s difficult to watch a performance to see exactly what effect the Method has had on an actor, as every actor’s goal is to fit naturally into the role they are portraying. What is different between the Method and more classical performance techniques is the source of the actor’s emotion, and how they embody the role. Classical performance is about becoming the character, using the experience of that character available within the source material; an “outside-in” approach that disregards the actor underneath in favor of what is required by the role. An actor playing Winston Churchill or Helen Keller would aim to recreate the actions, mannerisms, and tone of such an illustrious figure. The Method, popularized in the United States of America by Lee Strasberg, was more “inside-out”, using improvisation exercises and mental approaches inspired by psychotherapy. Affective memories might inspire an actor’s performance – when playing a scene in which a character is sad, the performer would actively conjure a sad memory that creates a feeling of sadness within the actor. It’s a more “real” way of reacting, by accessing actual emotional states that lead to the appearance of authentic feeling.

Marlon Brando’s style of Method did not come from Strasberg’s teachings, though. His success is attributed to Stella Adler who taught him to be relaxed and to separate himself from the character. “‘Drama depends on doing, not feeling,’ … [which] is to say that acting comes down to movement more than thought. … Thus her training included makeup, voice, mime, acrobatics, and the history of theater.” (Colombani, 10)

This led to a vast difference in performance for Brando across his filmography as he was able to transform into characters through physicality, tone, or makeup. James Naremore notes that his physicality as an actor is what made him stand out in 1950s Hollywood, calling his work a “deviation from the norms of classical rhetoric” with a slouch, mumble, and tendency towards gestures or actions that others might avoid like talking with a mouth full of food in One-Eyed Jacks (1961). (201) His style and training stands out in On the Waterfront, but exactly how is not obvious without that background knowledge.

Like with Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Brando brought his makeup training to the role in On the Waterfront. Terry has a distinct scar on his eyebrow, evidence of his former boxing career and a departure from Brando’s handsome, clean-cut look. Later in the film, Terry is brutally beaten by a group of gangsters. His face is covered in blood that Brando applied himself, and it makes the character distinct outside the age of Code-era Hollywood. The camera is put right in Terry’s face with him centered in the frame to give each of us the full extent of the violence, and Brando’s expression sells Terry’s pain with a mixture of anger, sadness, and desire to continue the fight. Terry’s bloodied walk from the pier is a powerful moment for his character – he staggers like a boxer resisting falling after a knockout blow, exhibiting Terry’s perseverance against the dark forces on the docks. The physical transformation from Brando to Terry to beaten Terry is made clear through the makeup, but it’s Brando’s action that is the real star of the show. 

The film presents a contrast within Terry that Brando plays to a tee. There’s the boxer – the tough, dumb guy at the mercy of those around him – and a sensitive young man who feels like a bum because his shot at success was taken from him. An early scene, in which Terry comes to see Johnny Friendly, demonstrates the former. He walks into Friendly’s bar, and Friendly greets him with some mimed boxing. Terry holds back because Friendly is his mob boss, but he gives a little bit of a pose to act as if he’s going along with it. He’s putting up a front and bringing his experience as a boxer into the stance he takes as Johnny approaches him. Friendly picks Terry up, and Terry walks off frame looking uncomfortable and shifting into a slouch, showing that Terry doesn’t like how their physical rapport recreates their power dynamic. There are layers to what Brando puts into Terry as he reacts to Johnny Friendly’s various actions, showing Terry’s background, feelings about the other characters, and how people act with multiple dimensions of thought. For Brando, acting is something we all do every day, and the question is how to express the different feelings someone has within a given situation because people are never just one thing.

Later on, Terry rescues Edie (Eva Marie Saint), the sister of the man whose death he feels responsible for, from a group of mobsters. He stands with his hands folded at his belt as he sees Edie off. A former dock worker recognizes the pair, and Terry gets physical with the man as he begins to talk about the dead man, a harsh switch from his non-threatening pose only moments before. Terry and Edie begin to chat about her brother and the convent she attends. Terry tells her not to be afraid of him, and one of the film’s most famous improvisations occurs when Terry retrieves Edie’s dropped glove. He picks up the glove, brushes dirt off of it, and places it on his hand while sitting on a swing set. It’s an image that demonstrates Terry’s innocence, his helpful, almost childlike nature that rests at his core. Terry is curious in their discourse, and Brando demonstrates this with his glances and inquisitive intonation. Terry has traded in the boxing gloves, a symbol of his tough front, for Edie’s glove, and the act of placing it on his own hand shows a desire for a more romantic self. It’s an embracing of the more traditionally “feminine” qualities of his character. It’s a brilliant moment that, when taken in concert with his mimed boxing and bloodied face, gives a full picture of the role of Terry. 

While many associate Marlon Brando with Strasberg’s approach of the internal brought to the forefront, his acting style is not so simply defined. His Method brings together many traditions that focus on losing yourself physically within a character’s mindset and expressing that internal self outward. Without Brando’s particular training and style of acting, Terry might have been played without so much nuance. It can be easy to fall into cliches with a dumb tough guy character, but Brando’s ability to show the nuances of Terry Malloy take him from a potential stereotype to a well-fleshed out character by way of performance. Even if it cannot be easily picked off the screen by a viewer, there is no doubt that Method acting comes through in the screen performances of Marlon Brando.

Bibliography
Colombani, Florence. Anatomy of an Actor: Marlon Brando. Translated by Lucy McNair and Brandon Hopkins, English translation, Phaidon Press Limited, 2013.Naremore, James. Acting in the Cinema. First edition, University of California Press, 1988.

In “Acting for the Camera“, Tony Barr defines acting as “[the response] to stimuli in imaginary circumstances in an imaginative, dynamic manner that is stylistically true to time and place, so as to communicate ideas and emotions to an audience.” (17) The “dynamic manner” is of particular importance in this definition, as a performance must feature range and change even within individual scenes to better represent the ever-changing feelings within a real person. In his essay “Notes on Film Acting“, actor Hume Cronyn also highlights the importance of change as an important part of film acting due to its effects on the audience and the practicalities of the movie business that require actors to embody disparate parts of the film to accommodate the production schedule. (199) In The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn embodies the acting principle of change, delivering a multifaceted performance that feels true to her character and keeps audience members engaged with the small-scale character drama.

The Philadelphia Story follows a socialite, Tracy (Hepburn), who is to be wed to a clumsy, self-made man (John Howard). The lead-up to the wedding is interrupted by a writer, Mike (James Stewart), and Tracy’s ex-husband, Dexter (Cary Grant), who attempt to stir up trouble on the behalf of a magazine editor. Over the course of the film, Mike and Dexter fall in love with Tracy, leading all three characters on a journey of self-discovery. Tracy occupies the most scenes as the lead character. Her various discussions with Mike and Dexter help to show the vulnerability of Hepburn’s portrayal of a tough exterior. Tracy is a woman who feels the social pressures of being a pillar for her dysfunctional family, a figure of interest in Philadelphia, and a woman who just wants to be loved for who she is. This is where Hepburn’s talent as a Hollywood Naturalist performer comes in. Within the hectic schedule of Golden Age Hollywood production and high expectations of a lead actress, Katharine Hepburn seems to effortlessly embody each nuance of Tracy in a variety of scenes with several performers.

Hume Cronyn and Bette Davis have each described what acting was like during the Golden Age, giving insight into the Naturalist approach, even if they do not refer to it as such. Cronyn, when discussing the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, mentions the complete lack of rehearsal. “My first scene was quite a long and important one,” Cronyn said, “I grew nervous and depressed in anticipation of that moment when … someone would say to me ‘You’re on!’ and I would be totally unprepared.” (193) To compensate for this, Cronyn had to rehearse on his own, creating places and things that were his character’s outside of the film’s text. While Cronyn did not live the experience of his part, he created natural aspects of the imaginary figure that would help him feel a bit more immersed into the role. Davis went into depth regarding the role of an actress in Golden Age Hollywood, both how she and the studios put actresses into parts. She was selective with roles, maxing out at four a year due to the fast pace of production, and a “refusal to disappoint her audiences by letting them see her in a role wholly unsuited to her talents…” (179) Davis, like Cronyn, used the material available to learn all she could about her characters, spending “endless hours … reading about them, studying their lives and habits…” (180) At the time of the filming of The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn’s star was on a bit of a downturn in Hollywood. She financially invested in the drama, and it paid off, literally. She successfully embodied the figure of Tracy, presumably using the techniques described by Davis and Cronyn, to create an internal reality brought to the exterior in her excellent performance.

Hepburn’s layered portrayal of Tracy can be seen early on in the film when Tracy goes with her sister to a stable where they meet her Uncle Willie (Roland Young) and fiancé George. She begins the scene with a sort of joke on Uncle Willie. Tracy pours her uncle’s favorite perfume onto a handkerchief and sneaks up behind him, causing the womanizing Uncle Willie to attempt to kiss the presumably beautiful woman who is approaching him. Hepburn’s physicality sells the weird joke. She creeps slowly towards Uncle Willie, waving the handkerchief with a wide grin across her face. He responds to this jape by pinching Tracy, who leaps away before stealing Willie’s copy of Spy magazine, a trashy tabloid that Mike writes for. Tracy sighs and switches to a more serious mood as she conveys her distaste for the magazine. When George arrives, Tracy puts on another playful front – she even tackles him to dirty his new pants. The two begin to discuss Spy and, again, Hepburn brings Tracy’s displeasure to the forefront in tone and expression. Tracy’s true feelings about George are betrayed as she refers to their future home as her own, and her demeanor changes from self-righteous sternness to placative. Every one of these mood transitions, which offer a wide look into Tracy’s feelings and relationships, is in response to listening to her own emotions and the emotions of those around her. Each emotion is accompanied by a unique physical response, both in body and tone. The grinning approach of Uncle Willie, the yanking of the magazine from his hands, her blank expressions as she reads it, the joy and playfulness with George, and her forced smile and touching of George as she tries to maintain the façade of a loving connection. Each of these actions gives us a physical window into Tracy’s soul, and gives the impression of a full, living person in an inside-out manner that feels natural.

A similar series of changes within a scene comes later when Tracy and Dexter share an exchange dripping with contempt. Tracy is confrontational from the moment Dexter walks into the scene. Her hands are on her hips before she transitions to a cross-armed pose, displaying her guarded nature that Dexter addresses in the scene. She is described as a goddess that desperately protects herself from vulnerability, and, in that moment, Hepburn begins to hold back tears, lip quivering, due to Dexter’s harsh analysis. Hepburn’s action demonstrates the truth of Dexter’s words, and it’s a brilliant and noticeable reaction that contrasts with the tough exterior she takes in the previous conversation. Tracy recovers quickly as George walks into the room, reproducing the appearance of all being well within Tracy’s spirit even when she is clearly not okay. It’s a different side to Tracy from the previous scene because Hepburn is playing the emotions that her actions are intending to cover, building on Tracy’s complex self with a new layer. Tracy herself is acting as anyone in the world would when attempting to not betray their true feelings within a situation.

One may come away from the previous confrontation wondering how Tracy and Dexter were ever married, but a later scene shows a softer side to their relationship that gives the couple a whole new context. Mike and Tracy end up at Dexter’s home following a drunken encounter with George, and Dexter goes out to meet Tracy in her car. Tracy is sleeping when Dexter slides into the seat and tells her she’s beautiful. She tells him she’s sober, but her voice is tired, her reactions delayed, and her words are slurred compared to her usual sharp intonation. This moment is fleeting, but there’s clearly a tenderness between Tracy and Dexter as they sit face to face. For a moment, one wonders if the two might kiss before she turns away, as if to avoid betraying the scent of alcohol on her breath. Hepburn’s portrayal offers more of the concealed vulnerability, yet she continues to play the attempts at guarding it, something much more difficult to do for a character under the influence of alcohol.

Katharine Hepburn’s acting ability within the Hollywood Natural style allows her to excel in the role of Tracy in The Philadelphia Story. The wide variety of scenes and interactions at varying levels of emotionality and sobriety give her an opportunity to showcase many emotions, and actions that help convey or cover them. She does not only listen to words, but also layers of feelings about the other characters, the situations Tracy is involved in, and responses to physical stimuli. The result is an incredibly complex character that exemplifies the idea of a dynamic performance while managing to seem real to each of us. It’s no wonder that this role got her career back on track after critical failures and a falling out with MGM.

Bibliography
Barr, Tony. Acting for the Camera. Revised Edition, Eric Stephan Kline, William Morrow, 1997, New York.
Cronyn, Hume. “Notes on Film Acting.” Theory and Practice of Acting, printed by Richard Allen, 13 Feb. 2023. 193-200.