Year Released: 2017
Coco is Disney’s 2017 coming of age tale about a pre-teen boy named Miguel that has dreams of becoming a musician. He finds himself in the land of the dead having a life altering experience and communicating with skeletons. The film, while it’s definitely a comedy, also really tugs on the heartstrings of viewers, and is hard to watch without getting at least a little teary-eyed.
The film won several awards in 2018, including both the Academy and Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It is a favorite of both children and their parents and makes a great choice for family film night.
Inception
Year Released: 2010
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this unique sci-fi film from Christopher Nolan that delves into lucid and hive-mind dream exploration. Audiences and critics alike went wild for the film, which the latter referred to as “wholly original,” and “cut from a new cloth.” And, indeed it’s not like anything we’ve ever seen before.
Inception was nominated for eight Oscars and won four, including the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. It was nominated for four more, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.
Shadow of a Doubt
Year Released: 1943
It shouldn’t come as a surprise there are a few Alfred Hitchcock films popping up on this list. Shadow of a Doubt is a psychological thriller full of murder and mystery, but unlike the majority of Hitchcock films, is somewhat of a slow burn. The director has apparently said it’s his favorite of all that he’s created.
The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story and won the Satellite Award for Best Classic DVD. It has a 4/4 from Roger Ebert and a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wall-E
Year Released: 2008
The first animated film on our list thus far, Wall-E came out in 2008 and delighted children and families all over the world. It grossed over $533 million across the globe against a $180 million budget. The film centers on lonely trash compactor robot who’s been left alone on an uninhabitable world and falls in love with another robot who happens to come visit him.
Wall-E made Time’s list of the “Best Movies of the Decade,” and voted 29th out of 100 “Best of the 21st Century” films by 117 international film critics. It won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, among several other accolades.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Year Released: 2002
While many of the films on our list are a bit older, now we’re in a different area of film history now. The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular film franchises, and the 2002 release of The Two Towers was met with $951.2 million at the box office, making it the highest grossing film of the year, and the fourth highest of all time, at least, at that point.
Often hailed as being one of the best fantasy films, the movie was nominated for six awards during the 75th Academy Awards show and wound up winning two.