There’s no truly objective way to rank the ten best films of all time. Cinema has existed for well over a century, in hundreds of languages, telling thousands of stories. We use movies to explore the human experience — to focus on one corner of the world and stay there for an hour or two. It’s a collaborative, beautiful medium shaped by countless talented people who put their imaginations to work for audiences everywhere.
Still, certain films rise above the rest for a critic or a movie lover. Below are ten films that have influenced me deeply, each one making the world feel a little stranger, funnier, scarier, or more interesting. These are my ten best films of all time.
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10. Coraline (2009)
If you’re a child curious about horror, Coraline is one of the gentlest doors into that world. The film balances wonder and unease with surprising grace for a PG-rated picture.
Coraline Jones leads us into astonishing, imaginative worlds. The movie makes even the smallest creatures — like rats — feel strange and otherworldly, creating an atmosphere that’s both magical and unsettling.
9. Gone Girl (2014)
“Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game.” While the elusive “cool girl” ideal is fiction, watching Gone Girl and learning Amy’s chilling monologue gets you a step closer to understanding its cultural pulse.
Rosamund Pike delivers a dazzlingly cold, razor-sharp performance as Amy, and Ben Affleck plays her hapless husband with a bruised everyman quality. Together they form a disturbingly perfect pair.
Equal parts feminist critique and twisted thriller, Gone Girl grips you whether it’s your first viewing or your hundredth.
8. Clueless (1995)
Clueless is almost the perfect teen movie — one step away from perfection. Alicia Silverstone’s Cher remains an enduring style icon, from bright coordinated outfits to her memorable gym costume.
The film turned phrases like “as if” and lines such as “you’re a virgin who can’t drive” into instant classics. Its witty dialogue and clever reinvention of Shakespearean romance within a high school setting make it a timeless favorite.
No one stages a makeover sequence quite like Cher, and no other film blends teen comedy and romance with the same effervescent charm as Clueless.
7. Lady Bird (2017)
Even if you’ve never driven across Sacramento at dusk, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird captures that feeling of small-city sunsets and the ache of leaving home. For many who graduated high school the year this film arrived, it felt like a perfect closing scene for adolescence.
Lady Bird wraps messy, awkward teenage years in warmth and humor — plaid skirts, arm casts, and all. Saoirse Ronan’s performance anchors the film, and the chemistry between the cast and Gerwig’s voice makes it an essential coming-of-age story.
6. Get Out (2017)
Spoiler alert: Get Out still boasts one of the most startling twists in modern cinema. Jordan Peele, a comedian turned director, blends sharp social commentary with genuine horror and dark humor.
The film introduced the “sunken place” to the cultural lexicon and offered a searing critique of performative liberalism in post-Obama America, all while maintaining the essentials of a classic horror story.
5. Spirited Away (2001)
Spirited Away often serves as many children’s first encounter with an unsettling animated world. It’s not a slasher film, but it’s a fable about greed populated by strange, haunting spirits and formidable witches.
The animation is breathtaking — from sumptuous, irresistible food to a ghostly train gliding above rippling water. Studio Ghibli finds power in quiet moments: the sway of trees, the hush of the sea. The film feels at once like a thrilling adventure and a reflective meditation on everyday life.
4. Moonlight (2016)
If Stanley Kubrick is known for the long, unnerving “Kubrick stare,” Barry Jenkins is his counterpoint: the intimate close-up that reveals everything. Moonlight is a masterclass in capturing inner life through quiet, lingering images.
Told in three chapters that follow Chiron at different ages, the film conveys a lifetime of feeling with few words. Jenkins shows that the universal comes from the specific: Chiron’s story, while particular, resonates deeply and leaves us feeling intimately acquainted with him by the film’s end.
3. Mysterious Skin (2004)
Mysterious Skin fuses childhood trauma with alien mythology in a way that feels both surprising and inevitable. Gregg Araki, working with a small budget, created a quiet, powerful meditation on the long shadows cast by abuse.
The film treats its subject matter with brutal empathy, never exploiting pain for cheap shock. Anchored by memorable performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet, it has secured its place as essential, hard-hitting queer cinema.
2. Parasite (2019)
If you want to show someone what cinema can do, a brief sequence from Parasite — like the infamous peach scene — makes the case. Those minutes blend comedy, horror, heist, and drama under an uncanny score and demonstrate Bong Joon-ho’s gift for tonal balance.
Parasite moves effortlessly across genres, making you laugh, wince, and hide your eyes in turn. The film resists simple moral divisions; its characters are never purely heroes or villains. Its complexity and precision have made it one of the decade’s most compelling works.
1. The Shining (1980)
There’s a particular joy in seeing a cult classic finally recognized. When The Shining premiered, Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall faced harsh criticism — even Razzie nominations — but history has vindicated the film. Duvall’s frayed, intense performance and Kubrick’s obsessive visual style combined to produce a horror masterpiece.
The Shining distills fears of isolation and the fragility of the mind into a relentless, haunting journey through the Overlook Hotel. If you plan to see only one horror film in your life, this is the one to choose.
These ten films may not all top every critic’s list of the most artistically significant works, but each has left a distinct mark on viewers and culture. They changed how I see cinema, and many of them changed how people talk about movies.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: keep watching, keep exploring new genres and voices, and don’t dismiss the power of a well-made horror film to reveal something deep about the world and ourselves.