Image via Columbia Pictures
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Jeremy Urquhart
Published 19 minutes ago
Jeremy has more than 2100 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings).
When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account.
He is also currently in the process of trying to become a Stephen King expert by reading all 2397 novels written by the author.
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Movies, right? Movies are cool. There are lots of movies. Particularly in the last 50 years, movies have been pretty great. They were great before then as well, because obviously Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Metropolis, and Sunset Boulevard are all more than half a century old, along with hundreds of other great movies that, yes, are all great, but they won’t be eligible here. Sorry.
For now, the last 50 years of cinema is what matters, so if something was released in 1975 or later, and it’s an absolute classic, then it might be below. There’s one movie here that was released in the summer of 1975, and at the time of writing, it’s almost the winter of 2025, so that’s technically just over 50 years ago, but eh, it’s right on the line. Also, there are so many amazing films from the last 50 years that aren’t here, but that’s inevitable, and would remain so even if this ranking contained 500 examples.
20 'City of God' (2002)
Image via Miramax Films
City of God is a lot of things at once, functioning as a coming-of-age film, a socially conscious drama, and a gangster movie (sort of). It’s about kids growing up in a crime-heavy area of Rio de Janeiro, contrasting how some people learn to thrive in such an environment while others set their sights on getting out any way they can once they're of a certain age.
The way City of God shows its characters at different stages in life – childhood and then on the cusp of adulthood – makes it feel almost like an epic, but it’s like an epic crime film on fast-forward. It’s relentlessly paced, cramming a lot into a little over two hours, but it also never spirals out of control or becomes exhausting in a detrimental sort of way. Some of it’s hard to watch, but the honesty and intensity of it all is also part of the reason why the film’s as great as it is.
19 'There Will Be Blood' (2007)
Daniel Day-Lewis looking stern as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be BloodImage via Paramount Vantage
If you make a milkshake and take a drink every time There Will Be Blood mentions milkshakes, then you probably won’t get through much of your milkshake, and you'll also have to wait well over two hours before the sipping really starts. So, that would be the worst drinking game of all time. Don’t do that, with There Will Be Blood, but do watch There Will Be Blood, because it’s great.
There’s a level of hype surrounding it as one of those “quintessential best movies of the 21st century so far,” and that can make the whole thing intimidating, especially if you have an idea of what the film’s going to be like before realizing it might not be that. There Will Be Blood only explodes occasionally, and is very subdued and quietly uneasy for most of its runtime, but there’s a lot to chew on here with the sprawling and intimate exploration of greed provided. Also, Daniel Plainview is an endlessly fascinating character, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of him… yeah, it’s Day-Lewis at his best, what else is there to say? Words of praise can only go so far.
18 'The Dark Knight' (2008)
The Joker hold a Joker card in The Dark Knight.Image via Warner Bros.
If you're tired of hearing about The Dark Knight, too bad, because it’s about as good as comic book movies get, and also, it feels like more than a comic book movie, in many ways. It’s got the feel of a crime/thriller, plus the action you'd associate with a superhero movie, though it’s a bit more grounded than what you might see in most other more fantastical or sci-fi-heavy superhero/comic book flicks.
It's not that being a bit more realistic or downbeat is automatically better, and more just that The Dark Knight does the whole darker and grittier thing extremely well. Also, it’s hard to talk about the movie without mentioning how well it’s paced, and similarly hard to overlook or not mention is Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, which really is – and always has been – as good as everyone says it is.
17 'Amadeus' (1984)
Tom Hulce as Mozart conducting while an audience sits behind himImage via Orion Pictures
If Amadeus had been a more straightforward biographical film about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it could’ve still been interesting, but it was thankfully quite a bit more than just that. Mozart’s a prominent character, but Amadeus is just as interested in shedding light on fellow composer Antonio Salieri, who was never as widely known as Mozart, and harbors intense feelings of jealousy toward him throughout the entire film.
So, these were real people, but it’s not exactly a straightforward biographical film about Salieri, either, since there’s a good deal of speculation involved and the events of the movie are seen – and recalled – from his potentially biased point of view. What Amadeus has to say about complicated emotions and the darker side of human nature is even more interesting than what it has to say about fame, celebrity, and music from this time in history, but for what it’s worth, it’s still fascinating and compelling on that front, too. It’s another classic that squeezes a lot into just one movie, and of all the Best Picture winners that are more than a few decades old, it’s one of the ones that holds up the best.
16 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire - 2019 - Noémie Merlant as MarianneImage via Pyramide Films
Viewed a certain way, there’s not a ton that happens in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but there is a lot that’s felt… or not felt. But not feeling, or resisting feelings, is another kind of emotion or feeling, so, there’s that. It’s hard to explain. It’s a movie about two people who have feelings for each other, but they have to keep things subdued, especially because they're two women in love at a time when that was seen as taboo.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire does a lot visually, stylistically, and pacing-wise to set it apart from otherwise comparable films.
You might think you’ve seen that kind of tear-jerking historically set romance movie before, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire does a lot visually, stylistically, and pacing-wise to set it apart from otherwise comparable films. In that sense, it is original and striking, even with elements being familiar on paper, but also, love is one of those things that’s beyond broad and universal, but finding even small ways to explore it differently than most romance films is worthy of celebration. And that’s why Portrait of a Lady on Fire is worth celebrating/highlighting here.
15 'All of Us Strangers' (2023)
Andrew Scott standing on a train and looking empty in All of Us Strangers (2023)Image via Searchlight Pictures
Yeah, it’s a whole lot more recent than most other movies here, and who knows how people will view it in another 30 or 40 years, but for now, All of Us Strangers really is one of the most essential films released in recent memory. If you say too much about its plot, things will be ruined, but it’s part romance and also part psychological drama, with something of a supernatural spin to things, too.
Hey, even listing the genres feels like saying too much. There are only a few characters in this, there’s something surprising or unexpected tied to every one of them, and All of Us Strangers burns slowly before hitting you hard – more than once, too – in its final act. The movie takes its time, and you might not have a good time if you're hit particularly hard emotionally, but if you can find the time, All of Us Strangers is worth watching at least once (and maybe twice, because there’s a lot to be gained from a rewatch for a movie like this).
14 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)
Image via New Line Cinema
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King concludes one of the best trilogies of all time in a pretty much ideal way. It might be the big screen gold standard for how to conclude something people have invested a good deal of time in, doing for movies what the final episodes of shows like M*A*S*H and Six Feet Under did for TV. Anyone that wants to tell you The Return of the King had too many endings… no. Cut them out of your life. They're not good for you.
There had to be a longer ending than usual here, since there’s about nine hours (or 11, if you're watching the extended editions) of story to conclude. And even before the final few scenes, The Return of the King is still a masterpiece. It could’ve face-planted on the finish line and remained a great piece of spectacle, and one of the most ambitious epics of all time, maybe like how The Stand is still an awesome book, even if that ending is a bit weird. But no, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the full package. Great action, impressive fantasy spectacle, and a moving conclusion. The first two films are also phenomenal, but the third of the trilogy might well be the best.
13 'Parasite' (2019)
The Kim family assembles pizza boxes in a scene from 'Parasite'Image via NEON
The Oscars are at least occasionally cool, since films like Parasite can sometimes win. There are broad and relevant social issues explored here, but not in a typically Oscar bait kind of way, since Parasite has a certain bite to it while also being entertaining and willing to get unpredictable. It’s a really wild ride the first time you watch it, and undeniably anxiety-inducing, too.
There’s a working-class family introduced near the film’s start, and they find one way to increase their standing in life is to work their way into the lives of a wealthier family, but then unexpected things happen, and… yeah, as mentioned before, things get a bit crazy. It’s so tightly made, though, and well-controlled, even with the range of genres and all the different emotions tapped into jerking you around, as a viewer, but Parasite does ultimately feel like the right kind of chaotic.
12 'Spirited Away' (2001)
Chihiro and Haku in Spirited AwayImage via Toho
There have been plenty of iconic animated movies released in the last few decades, but if the task at hand involves highlighting the best of the best, then Spirited Away probably needs a mention. Narratively, this might not sound groundbreaking on paper, being a coming-of-age story focusing on a young girl who has to get by in a strange fantastical realm to both get out alive and save her parents, but the execution is what matters.
Namely, it’s Hayao Miyazaki handling things, and he’s probably the most recognizable name in Japanese animation, maybe ever, for good reason. Princess Mononoke is also just as good, and The Boy and the Heron was also excellent (and will likely be celebrated more as the years go on), but Spirited Away is Spirited Away; like the Citizen Kane of anime, so you gotta shout it out.
11 'Jaws' (1975)
Image via Universal Pictures
That previously alluded to movie that’s just over 50 years old, since it was famously a summer release in 1975, it would feel wrong to snub Jaws just because of that slight discrepancy. It’s the quintessential shark movie, with nothing else really coming close, since the threat here is universally terrifying, and the story – while certainly compelling – is incredibly easy to follow.
Jaws was also the first masterpiece Steven Spielberg ever directed, and even if some of his later films are more ambitious and expansive in scope, the simplicity of this one is just too hard to resist. You'd think a movie about three guys trying to kill a shark would get boring after a while, but Jaws never does, like the movie equivalent of that same bedtime story your parents might've told you every evening when you were four or five, and it somehow never got old.
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