Perhaps there is no objective way to rank the ten best films of all time. Cinema has existed as an art form for more than one hundred years in hundreds of languages, telling thousands of stories. We use film to understand the human experience — to zoom in on one corner of the world and stay for an hour or two. It’s a beautiful medium that requires a communal effort, and so many talented people have blessed the world with their imaginations and skill.
For any movie lover, certain films rise above the rest. I’ve chosen ten movies that have shaped me, making this world creepier, funnier, stranger, and more interesting. These are my 10 best films of all time.
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10. Coraline (2009)
If you’re a child—or an adult—hesitant to dip into the world of horror, Coraline is a perfect starting point. The film manages to be both magical and frightening, an impressive feat for a movie with a PG rating.
Coraline Jones leads us through imaginative, uncanny landscapes that feel like an otherworldly fairytale. Even typically mundane creatures, like rats, become eerie and ethereal in this uncanny visual design.
9. Gone Girl (2014)
“Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game.” While the elusive “cool girl” ideal is fictional, watching Gone Girl and remembering Amy’s infamous monologue gets you part of the way there.
Rosamund Pike delivers a cold, cunning performance as Amy, while Ben Affleck plays her disheveled husband with unsettling plausibility. The pairing is a terrifyingly perfect match.
As much a critique of gender performance as it is a psychological thriller, Gone Girl captivates every time you watch it, whether it’s your first viewing or your hundredth.
8. Clueless (1995)
Clueless is one stepbrother away from being perfect. Alicia Silverstone’s Cher remains an enduring style icon for teens and young adults, from her sunny yellow outfits to the playful bodycon gym uniform.
Lines like “as if” and “you’re a virgin who can’t drive” are among the sharpest, funniest pieces of dialogue in modern teen cinema. Cher’s makeover scenes and the film’s playful adaptation of Shakespearean romantic tropes elevate the teen rom-com into something timeless.
7. Lady Bird (2017)
Even if you’ve never driven across a Sacramento bridge at sunset, watching Lady Bird can feel like it captured a piece of your adolescence. For those who left high school the year this film arrived, it felt like a perfect, messy ribbon tied around the end of youth.
Lady Bird is both hilarious and tender. The collaboration of Saoirse Ronan and director Greta Gerwig (with a memorable turn from Timothée Chalamet) produced a defining voice in the coming-of-age genre, honest and particular in its emotional truth.
6. Get Out (2017)
Get Out still ranks as one of the best plot twists in modern film. Jordan Peele’s debut blends sharp social commentary with genuine horror and a dark streak of comedy.
Introducing the concept of the “sunken place,” the film reframes racial anxieties in a way that feels both original and disturbingly familiar. Get Out remains a vital cultural text and a tautly effective horror movie at the same time.
5. Spirited Away (2001)
Spirited Away introduced many young viewers to a gentler, more contemplative kind of fear. It’s not a slasher; it’s a mythic cautionary tale about greed, populated by eerie spirits and mysterious witches.
The animation is some of the most exquisite ever created: from sumptuous food to a train that glides over a shivering sea. Studio Ghibli finds meaning in stillness — in scenes where trees sway and waves break — turning small moments into profound memory.
The film offers both an adventurous journey and a quiet meditation on real-life desires and consequences.
4. Moonlight (2016)
If Stanley Kubrick is known for the long, staring compositions that foreground distance, Barry Jenkins finds the reverse: patient, intimate close-ups that reveal a character’s inner life. Moonlight uses these moments to let us into Chiron’s private world.
Seen across three stages of life, Chiron speaks little but communicates volumes through gestures, glances, and the film’s luminous cinematography. Moonlight proves that the universal often lives in the smallest details.
3. Mysterious Skin (2004)
Mysterious Skin marries alien conspiracy tropes with the devastating aftermath of childhood trauma. It’s a quiet, affecting study of how abuse ripples through adolescence and into adult life.
Gregg Araki turned a modest budget into a searing, necessary film for queer cinema. The movie treats its subject with brutal empathy, depicting violence in a way that refuses exploitation, anchored by memorable performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet.
2. Parasite (2019)
If I had to show someone what cinema can do, I might point to the infamous peach scene from Parasite — a few minutes that mix comedy, horror, heist and tragedy with an uncanny musical thread and an unrelenting rhythm.
Bong Joon-ho is a master of tone, moving effortlessly between genres so the audience laughs, cringes, and winces within a single sequence. Parasite resists simple moral categorization, offering a complex vision of class, desire and desperation.
Its layers and tonal shifts make it a film that rewards repeated viewings and discussion.
1. The Shining (1980)
There’s a particular joy in seeing a cult classic slowly take its place in film history. When The Shining first premiered, Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall faced intense criticism; now, Duvall’s unhinged performance and Kubrick’s exacting visual control are recognized as key elements of a horror masterpiece.
The Shining captures our dread of isolation and the monstrous potential within domestic space, turning the Overlook Hotel into a place of uncanny terror. If you plan to see just one horror film in your life, this is the one to choose.
These ten films may not all belong on every canonical list of the most critically lauded or academically celebrated movies, but each has made a distinct impact. They moved viewers, altered expectations, provoked thought, or simply made us feel more intensely.
If there’s one takeaway from this list, it’s to keep watching broadly, keep expanding your cinematic horizons, and never dismiss a film because of its genre. Great movies can surprise you from any corner of the medium.