T.'s All-Time Favorite Films

Last week, I revealed my top 15 movies of 2023, and at the top of the list was Full Time, a French drama that feels like a thriller about a divorced mother trying to stay financially afloat. And if you know me, you’d know it’s a pretty big outlier for my favorite movie of any year to be a non-escapist movie I’ve rarely seen anyone else talk about, so I suppose that’s a sign that my tastes are expanding.

Typically, though, my tastes are pretty populist, with my top all-time favorites being both widely known and widely beloved, and with my love for most of them starting in my childhood (thankfully, the defining tastes of my adolescenthood, the Michael Bay Transformers movies, barely followed me into adulthood).

Because there is very little left that can be said about the iconic titles I gravitate toward, I’ve decided that when I do come to writing individual movie reviews on this blog, it’ll be for movies that are lesser known.

Until then, here are my top ten favorite movies of all time, listed alphabetically (And after you read this list, I’d love to hear what your all-time favorite movies are in the comments below!):

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It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) (PG)
While it’s a classic that’s appealed to a wide audience for decades (which, after its underappreciated debut, happened to become that way due to a copyright error that allowed it to be played on TV repeatedly for free at Christmastime in the 1970s, making audiences assume it already was a beloved classic), its nature as a largely grounded drama, albeit with fantastical theology, makes it an outlier in my overall tastes. Still, its ending is the most emotionally satisfying I’ve ever seen; I even saw the film on the big screen once, and it made my life feel more complete.

Jaws (1975) (PG)
Even though I’d already seen Steven Spielberg’s other revolutionary creature movie Jurassic Park (which along with classic Godzilla movies gave me my love for creature movies in the first place) many times by the time I’d seen Jaws, Jaws still managed to blow me away and change the way I view movies in my adulthood for how it develops its characters amid its thrills (although I’d somehow already come to my senses about the Transformers movies earlier that same year).

I’ve seen many more creature movies since, and while there are a lot of good to great ones (i.e. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Aliens, Tremors, A Quiet Place), the lesser ones can give me even more of an appreciation for the genre’s crown jewel.

The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) (PG-13)
These movies, along with the Legend of Zelda games, formed my taste in medieval fantasy and made it my favorite genre. Given how schlocky the vast majority of the genre is on film (as I’ve dug through myself), Lord of the Rings not only are some of the rare good ones, but they also stand alone in their greatness.

Is there any other escapist story put to screen that's this gritty and sophisticated for older audiences, this wholesome and simple for younger audiences (who aren’t too scared and overwhelmed by it, that is), this aspirational for both audiences, and with this masterful a production behind it? It also feels like a personal journey to me more than any other fictional story put to film.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) (PG-13)
My favorite non-fantastical action film, with Speed as my runnerup (Raiders of the Lost Ark would also be a contender if it weren’t for its gruesomely supernatural climax). Ghost Protocol’s nuclear stakes are pretty familiar as far as spy movies go, but it uses the familiar to set up, if not the most propulsive set pieces of the franchise, then the most sheerly creative. I still really enjoy what Christopher McQuarrie has done since with the most impressive action series going today, but Brad Bird rollickingly laid the groundwork for it going forward here.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) (PG)
Comedies I saw at a young age like UHF, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Three Amigos, and, of course, Napoleon Dynamite (along with non-movies like Homestar Runner and Spongebob) explain why I have a pretty random sense of humor. But Napoleon Dynamite’s randomness is more grounded than the absurdism of the other titles, more driven by the peculiarities of its characters. I still love absurdism (heck, One Crazy Summer from 1986 recently became one of my all-time favorites), but Napoleon Dynamite tells a funny story I can see happening in the real world.

The Prince of Egypt (1998) (PG)
A masterpiece of both a biblical adaptation and an animated musical; a film made to capitalize on what Disney was doing at the time that managed to beat the Mouse at its own game (unlike, say, Quest for Camelot from that same year); and a film that peaked DreamWorks Animation right out the gate (not counting Antz, released earlier that same year). There are other traditionally animated films that I love, such as My Neighbor Totoro, The Iron Giant, and The Lion King, but The Prince of Egypt wows me more than any other.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) (PG)
This doubles as both my favorite CG animated film, with Inside Out as my runnerup; and my favorite superhero film, with Batman Begins as my runnerup. Its frenetically inventive comic book-styled visuals have arguably revolutionized the medium unlike anything since Toy Story, inspiring imitators like Puss in Boot: The Last Wish that still feel special in their own rights. Its narrative also brings together an ensemble of Spider-people from different universes and manages to feel cohesive without losing the endearing Miles Morales as its heart.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) (PG)
It took me years of growing to appreciate this one, but just as Lord of the Rings is my favorite straight-up fantasy, The Wrath of Khan is my favorite straight-up sci-fi, and they’re both great partly because of how they pull from their source materials.

Khan has a prime time TV series, a Saturday morning cartoon, and a feature film before it, yet even as it honors its own history, it also works as an entry point for anyone who’s never seen Star Trek (as does Galaxy Quest). And while it puts character and theme before action, its thrills are effective because they’re sparse, and their compositing effects hold up more seamlessly than most from the time.

Star Wars (1977) (PG)
The Original Trilogy was playing in constant rotation in my house by the time Star Wars really started getting divisive with The Phantom Menace, so I’ve known the franchise and been rooting for it to be good for as far back as I can remember.

And even though I’ve enjoyed more emotional, mature, and cohesive stories told in the galaxy far, far away, from The Empire Strikes Back to much of the 2008 Clone Wars series, the one that began the franchise — later subtitled Episode IV - A New Hope — still enchants me the most for its childlike innocence, for its fairy tale simplicity. And the simplicity of its lore is partly why the Original Trilogy endures as the crown jewel of cinematic space operas (as opposed to the overly mythology-building John Carter and Jupiter Ascending).

The Wizard of Oz (1939) (G)
Given how this is the most iconic and enduring film of all time, arguably more so than Star Wars, listing this as one of my favorites is as populist as it gets. I’ve always felt conflicted about my love for it due to someone dear to me being forever traumatized by it (so if you’re reading this, I’m sorry to remind you of this movie), and stories that were recently going around about how Judy Garland was mistreated behind the scenes make my love for it even more conflicting. Even so, the film touches my inner child in the best way more than any other film can.

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What are your top ten favorite movies? Comment below with your thoughts!

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