Year Released: 1944 Laura is hailed as being one of the best film noirs of the 1940s. Full of mystery, the film follows a New York City Police Detective who investigates a woman’s murder, and as he does, winds up falling in love with her.
The film won three Oscars, including Best Cinematography for a Black-and-White Film, Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Director, and was nominated for two more, including Best Writing in a Screenplay.
Badlands
Year Released: 1973 This 1970’s crime drama stars Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen as a young couple on the run from the law for murder. It’s often referred to as one of the best and most powerful films in history. The movie is rated 98% “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Vincent Canby called it a “most important and exciting film.”
Sissy Spacek later said that shooting the film changed the entire way she thought about filmmaking in general. “The artist rules,” she said of the work. “Nothing else matters.” Her co-star, Sheen, says that Badlands is still, to this the day, the best script he’s ever read.
In a Lonely Place
Year Released: 1950 Film star legend Humphrey Bogart stars in this film noir as an unstable screenwriter named Dixon Steele who is suspected of murder. It’s made several “best of all time” lists, including Time’s, “All-Time 100’s,” and Slant’s “100 Essential Films.”
Directed by Nicholas Ray, the movie was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2007. Two years later, Roger Ebert added it to his own list of great movies.
The Apartment
Year Released: 1960 Although at one point, it was simply known as a romantic comedy and drama, The Apartment would be grouped into the “dramedy,” category these days.
The movie follows an insurance clerk played by Jack Lemmon, who lets his seniors at work use his nice apartment in the city to meet with women (that their wives obviously didn’t know about.) The Guardian has called it the sixth best romantic film of all time. It was nominated for ten awards and won five of the ten at the 33rd Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture.
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.