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Consider this your movie bucket list.
We’ve all been there: sitting on the couch, snacks ready, endlessly scrolling through Netflix or Hulu trying to find a movie that you actually want to watch. There are sooo many options out there, from rom-coms to classic horror movies to spy thrillers, that sometimes it can get overwhelming. But don’t worry, for those nights when you’re not sure what to put on, we went ahead and rounded up the must-watch movies that everyone should see at least once in their life to make things a little easier for ya. Consider it your ultimate movie bucket list.
What makes a movie a “must-watch” film? Well, taste is subjective, so if you don’t like some of these…fair enough! But a must-watch movie is usually something that defined or changed a genre or had a significant cultural impact. There are a lot of classics on this list, and you might be surprised at how relevant some of them still feel. But if you’re looking for something a bit more recent, there are plenty of contemporary films on here too. We’ve included many Best Picture winners, along with a couple of this year’s Oscar contenders. Many of them will probably be movies you’ve heard of, while others might not be on your radar just yet.
Without further ado, here are 81 of our picks for must-watch movies you can stream now. So bookmark this list and save it for your next “I have nothing to watch!” night in.
Oh this? Just one of the greatest love stories ever told. Just ignore the fact that there was totally room for Leo on that door at the end…
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This Best Picture winner follows the wealthy Park family and the poverty-stricken Kim family. Ki-woo, the son of the Kim family, fakes his credentials to get hired as a tutor for the daughter of the Park family, and quickly realizes that the rest of the family can also scheme their way into jobs working for the Park family. But when the Parks leave for a weekend vacation and the Kims have the run of the home, things get bizarre. It’s simultaneously entertaining, thought-provoking, and thrilling. TBH, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after I watched it.
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This gorgeous coming-of-age film follows Chiron, a young Black boy, as he explores his sexuality and identity. It’s told in three parts, chronicling Chiron’s childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. It won three Oscars, including Best Picture, so you should add it to your queue now if you haven’t seen it already.
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Widely considered one of the best movies of all time, this classic is worth a watch. It follows Andy, a banker sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover, along with Ellis “Red,” a fellow inmate and prison smuggler who befriends Andy.
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This movie might inspire you to take your own day off, just saying. Fingers crossed that you can also spring your best friend and boo from school, “borrow” a nice car, and find yourself performing in a giant parade before the day is over.
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If you somehow haven’t seen this romantic drama yet, wyd?? Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams star as Noah and Allie in this epic love story that’s got young love, letter writing, lots of drama, kisses in the rain, and heartbreak. I’ll just say this: keep the tissues handy.
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If you never had to watch this in your high school English class, it’s time to catch up. This 1957 film is about the jury of a murder trial and the tensions that arise when one member raises doubts about whether the accused is actually guilty. It forces the rest of the jury to re-evaluate their own thoughts about the case, but not without drama. Listen, it’s a classic for a reason.
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This chilling horror film about a Black man who visits the family home of his white girlfriend is without a doubt one of the best movies in recent history. No spoilers, but there are several twists you definitely don’t see coming.
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This sweet story follows Forrest Gump, a man with an intellectual disability, as he finds himself playing a role in major historical events like the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. But all he really wants is to spend time with his childhood best friend, Jenny and make her proud.
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Okay, this will make you want to call your parents. The premise is simple: it follows a boy named Mason from childhood to his first few days at college. This film was actually shot over 12 years, with the actors shooting for a few days each year. So it’s like you’re actually watching Mason grow up, which is a really cool way to experience a movie.
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This Best Picture winner from 2008 follows Jamal Malik, an orphan raised in the slums of Mumbai, as he edges closer and closer to winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
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This historical drama is a must-see, but be warned, it can be tough to watch. It takes place in Poland during World War II and follows Oskar Schindler, a businessman who hires many Jewish people to work in his factories. As time passes, he becomes increasingly concerned about the treatment of Jewish people by Nazis and turns his attention to saving lives instead of making money. It’s all in black-and-white, except for one very meaningful moment of color.
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This *very* dark comedy grapples with sexual assault and trauma. It follows Cassie, a woman who dropped out of med school after her best friend was sexually assaulted. Now, she spends her time working at a coffee shop and proving to “nice guys” that they aren’t so nice. I promise, it’s not like anything you’ve seen before.
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Has there ever been a more quotable comedy? If you somehow didn’t watch this every time it was on TV while you were growing up, it’s time. It follows Cady, a smart teenager who just transferred to a new high school after spending her childhood in Africa. She starts hanging out with the school’s most popular girls in order to take one of them down, but finds that girl world is more complicated than it seems.
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Robin Williams plays an English teacher at a boarding school in 1959. The drama follows him as he builds a relationship with his students and teaches them how to live adventurously rather than conforming to their families’ expectations.
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It’s worth a watch just for the training montage alone. Rocky is about a struggling boxer in Philadelphia who gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to face off against a heavyweight champion. Also, it won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1976.
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Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play two cowboys who fall in love while working as ranch hands in Wyoming. But their secret relationship gets even more complicated when they decide to marry their respective girlfriends.
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Hilary Swank plays aspiring boxer Maggie, who convinces a gruff trainer played by Clint Eastwood to take her on and train her. Despite his initial reluctance, he agrees and they form a close friendship — until an accident in the boxing ring changes everything for both of them.
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Basically the rom-com blueprint. It follows Sally and Harry through 12 years together, from their super awkward first meeting to a few chance run-ins to a close friendship where they talk each other through relationship woes, and then…well, you can probably guess the rest.
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If you’ve never seen this iconic 2001 movie about Harvard law student Elle Woods finding and proving herself, it’s time. If nothing else, you have to see it and get caught up before Legally Blonde 3 comes out.
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It’s not often that a fantasy adventure movie takes home the Oscar for Best Picture. But this movie did just that, and it also took home 10(!!!) additional Oscars, including one for Best Director. It’s the third film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it follows Gandalf and Aragorn as they lead the World of Men against Sauron’s army in hopes of drawing his attention from Frodo and Sam as they head towards Mount Doom with the One Ring.
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If you wrote this off because the film bros in your life wouldn’t shut up about it, I get it. But the thing is, there’s a reason it’s considered one of the best movies of all time. It’s a Shakespearean story about the patriarch of an organized crime dynasty as he turns over the reins to his son. You know, kinda like Succession but with a tad more violence.
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This thought-provoking documentary follows former presidential candidate Al Gore as he works to raise public awareness about the dangers of global warming. It came out in 2006, and you might be surprised at how relevant it still feels today, even as the conversation around climate change has evolved. You could make it a double feature and watch 2017’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.
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Need a movie you can watch with the whole fam? Up is about a 78-year-old man who ties a bunch of balloons to his house and flies away to Paradise Falls, where he’s always hoped to travel with his wife. Unfortunately for him, there’s a stowaway on board named Russell, a bumbling but enthusiastic wilderness explorer scout.
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A classic romance film, Casablanca is about an American nightclub owner in Morocco confronted with a difficult decision during World War II. When his former lover and her husband, a Czech resistance leader, turn up looking for his help so they can obtain exit visas and escape the Nazis, he must decide whether or not to help them flee.
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This sweet, offbeat comedy follows a dysfunctional family as they take a road trip in a beat-up VW bus to get their daughter to a beauty pageant. It has a hilarious cast, including Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin and Greg Kinnear.
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This movie was nominated for basically all the 2022 Oscars. Jesse Plemons plays George, a wealthy Montana rancher, and his real-life wife Kirsten Dunst stars as the widowed innkeeper he falls in love with. When George brings Rose and her son to his family home where he lives with his brother Phil, tensions rise. Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), a well-regarded rancher, subtly and not-so-subtly torments Rose and her son until he abruptly decides to take the boy under his wing and teach him about the land. It’s definitely got some twists you won’t see coming.
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This based-on-a-true-story movie stars Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich, a single mother and legal assistant who discovered that a California power company was polluting a city’s water supply. She does some digging, and ends up involving her law firm in one of the biggest class-action lawsuits in American history.
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The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. But I’ll break that rule to explain that this suspenseful movie is about an unfulfilled insomniac man who meets an enigmatic soap salesman. After they get into a fistfight in a parking lot, they realize that they found the experience cathartic, and the fight club is born.
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This touching movie centers around a Chinese family who find out that their matriarch only has a short time left to live. They decide to keep her terminal cancer diagnosis from her and gather the family in China under the pretense of a wedding so they can spend time together. It’s based on director Lulu Wang’s family history.
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This psychological thriller from 1960 follows a secretary who is on the run after stealing money from her employer to pay her boyfriend’s debts. But when she checks into the remote Bates Motel for a night, the unimaginable happens.
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This touching movie follows Will, a secretly gifted mathematician who works as a janitor at M.I.T. After getting arrested during a fight, he begins seeing a psychologist as part of an agreement to avoid jail time. Through his sessions with a therapist played by Robin Williams, he starts to think differently about his friendships, his relationship, and his potential.
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This is among the highest-rated movies on iMDB, coming in at #4 out of 250 with a rating of 9.0 out of 10. So yeah, it’s pretty good. Heath Ledger plays the Joker terrorizing the city of Gotham. Batman is the only one who can stop him, but he’ll need help from Lieutenant Gordon and DA Harvey Dent.
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Just one of the best classic holiday films of all time, nbd. George Bailey is a depressed businessman contemplating ending his life until an angel shows up to show him what things would be like if he never existed.
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This movie follows two brothers, Danny and Derek. Danny was the leader of a white supremacist gang who went to prison for killing two Black men who attempted to steal his truck. After being released from jail and renouncing his hateful views, he tries to keep his younger brother Derek from going down the same violent path. Warning: this movie is graphic.
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What if you could literally just erase a person from your memory after a painful breakup? Sounds like the dream, but as the main characters in this tender, romantic sci-fi movie find out, things can get complicated when you agree to a futuristic treatment that wipes your memory of your ex.
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If there’s one Quentin Tarantino film that could be classified as a “must-watch,” it’s this one. This 1994 movie follows two hit men, a mob boss and his wife, and a boxer who’s past his prime. Their lives all weave together in a series of bizarre, often violent, and funny incidents.
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This 1960s western follows three men: a professional gunslinger, a hitman, and an outlaw. Two of them reluctantly partner up to try and find a trove of buried gold before the third one can get to it. It’s one of iMDB’s top 10 movies with a rating of 8.8/10.
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James Stewart stars as a photographer confined to his apartment in a wheelchair as he recovers from a broken leg. He spends his time looking out his window and observing his neighbors (when he’s not being visited by his girlfriend, played by literal princess Grace Kelly). One night, he observes what he thinks could be a murder, and things get intense as he tries to take action from afar.
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Dolly Parton, our queen! This movie is about a group of women in a small Louisiana town as they support each other through weddings, divorces, fights, children, illness, grief, and everything in between. In addition to Dolly, the all-star cast includes Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, and Olympia Dukakis. You’ll definitely want to call your BFF and/or your mom after watching.
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This film tells the true story of a Black football coach (played by Denzel Washington) who has been hired to coach a high school team during their first season as a desegregated school. In his position, he must not only lead the team to a winning season, but address racism between the players as well as prove himself in the community.
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Dustin Hoffman stars as an aimless young man who has recently graduated from college. He’s seduced by Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s law partner. After meeting her daughter Elaine, he starts to fall for her, and Mrs. Robinson is *not* happy about it. The last scene is one of the most famous in cinematic history, so you’ll definitely want to give it a watch.
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This one is also nominated for a bunch of 2022 Oscars including Best Picture, so watch it soon. It’s about two astronomers who are trying to warn people about an approaching comet that’s going to destroy all of human civilization. The comet’s approach is an allegory for climate change, and many of the characters are meant to represent how indifferent politicians and others are to the very real effects of climate change. If that doesn’t sell you, it’s got a STACKED cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Jonah Hill, and more.
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This chilling movie follows a young FBI cadet trying to catch a serial killer who skins his victims. To understand and catch him, she has to get help from another serial killer, an incarcerated man who cannibalized the people he killed. Honestly, Hannibal Lecter’s “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti” is the stuff of nightmares.
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On the surface, this seems like a pretty standard rom-com: Julianne is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to another woman. But there’s something kind of quietly subversive about this movie in that Julianne toes the line between likable and unlikable as she sets out to break up the happy couple. Plus, it doesn’t give the cliche ending you’re probably expecting.
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Last year’s Best Picture winner was this beautifully shot drama about a woman in her 60s who loses her job when the factory she works in is shut down. She sells most of her belongings and begins living as a modern-day nomad traveling around the western United States in a van while taking on gig jobs. It’s a thoughtful look at the impact of the Great Recession and how many senior citizens made choices similar to Frances McDormand’s character in the movie.
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If you’ve never seen this super campy cult-favorite movie, time to change that. The plot isn’t really important when you’ve got catchy musical numbers and a bizarre cast of characters, but basically a couple finds themselves stranded by the side of the road and must seek refuge at Dr. Frank-n-Furter’s spooky castle.
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This Bollywood movie spent 1,000(!!!) consecutive weeks in theaters. It follows a young woman embarking on a trip across Europe with her friends, and a wealthy young man doing the same. As they keep bumping into each other across Europe, they fall in love. But when the vacation is over, they have to prove to their families that they’re truly meant to be together — which is no small feat, considering her father has promised her hand in marriage to another man.
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This film from Stanley Kubrick follows a group of astronauts traveling to Jupiter in search of an alien monolith, guided by a supercomputer called HAL. Although it was made in 1968, many of the ideas about technology, artificial intelligence, humanity, and existentialism are just as potent today as they were then.
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In the mood for something a little more lighthearted? Singing in the Rain is a 1952 musical about Hollywood’s transition from the silent picture era to talking pictures. It follows a silent film star (Gene Kelly) and his co-star/pretend girlfriend, who has an…unfortunate voice. When he meets a beautiful aspiring actress and chorus girl, he realizes that she might be who he’s been looking for all along.
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This 1989 movie from Spike Lee is just as relevant today as it was when it was released. It takes place in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year as tensions between neighbors escalate, eventually reaching a violent crescendo.
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This might be the most famous movie theme song of all time. Jaws is a suspenseful classic from Steven Spielberg about a shark terrorizing a small beach town. Don’t watch it before your beach vacation.
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This psychological comedy-drama follows Truman, a man who has unknowingly spent his entire life being the star of a non-stop TV show. Unbeknownst to him, his entire life has taken place on a set populated by actors. But as the show approaches its 30th year, Truman starts to notice some odd happenings and questions his life.
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If you’ve ever felt a little lost or lonely, this film will hit you right in the feels. It centers around two American tourists in Tokyo who strike up a short-lived friendship. One of them is an aging movie star there to shoot a commercial and one is a newlywed accompanying her photographer husband, and both of them feel a little uncertain about where they’re headed. It’s gorgeously shot and has great performances from Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.
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This political thriller tells the true story of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who uncovered the details of the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
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Heeeeeere’s Johnny! This chilling movie based on the novel by Stephen King is about a writer who takes a job as an off-season caretaker for a remote hotel. He and his family move to the hotel for the winter, but it isn’t long before the isolation starts to take its toll on his family and things turn violent.
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Ugh, as IF we wouldn’t include this on our list of must-watch movies. Cher is a popular, rich student in Beverly Hills who enjoys playing matchmaker and giving makeovers (and shopping, of course). Come marvel at young Paul Rudd who plays Cher’s love interest/ex-stepbrother and wonder how he literally hasn’t aged since 1995.
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If you’ve always wondered why Marilyn Monroe was such a big deal, watch this film to understand why. It follows two men who go undercover in an all-female band after witnessing a brutal mob killing. Marilyn plays Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, a ukulele player/singer.
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This 1991 movie was the first feature film made by an African-American woman (Julie Dash, who wrote and directed the movie) to receive theatrical distribution. It takes place in 1902 and follows the lives of the Gullah, who are the descendants of slaves living off the coast of South Carolina as they struggle to maintain their cultural heritage while considering a move to the mainland.
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This western stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the two leaders of an outlaw group. When one of their capers goes wrong, the pair decide to make an escape to Bolivia before it’s too late.
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Ofc you’ve seen the pictures of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly with her long cigarette holder and opulent jewelry. But have you ever actually seen the movie? It’s based on Truman Capote’s novel about a young woman living in New York who becomes interested in her new neighbor but believes her past endeavors and aspirations of marrying rich will keep them apart.
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If your high school English teacher didn’t show this to your class, time to catch up. Based on the book of the same name, it tells the story of Atticus Finch, a small-town Southern lawyer who defends a Black man against a false allegation and teaches his children about prejudice. It’s a powerful film led by actor Gregory Peck.
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“This is not a love story,” explains a voiceover in the movie. And that’s kinda true…but not totally. It’s about Summer and Tom, two coworkers who get into a situationship, which is fine until one of them catches feelings and the other one doesn’t. What’s interesting about this movie is that neither one of them is totally in the right when it comes to their relationship. You could watch it more than once and come away with a different conclusion each time.
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Robert De Niro plays a Vietnam War veteran suffering from PTSD who spends his nights working as a taxi driver and ruminating on what a dark, dirty place New York City has become. He encounters many interesting people along the way who affect his views.
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This moving film tells the story of a family who immigrates from South Korea to a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s in pursuit of the American dream. It’s loosely based on writer and director Lee Isaac Chung’s real-life upbringing, and it is truly a gorgeous story about family, immigration, and ambition.
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The Megan Fox-issance of the last few years gave this movie new life, and thank god it did. It’s a campy comedy-horror film about a high schooler possessed by an evil demon, and her best friend who’s trying to stop her killing spree. It was kind of a flop when it came out, but it’s now gaining recognition as a feminist cult-classic.
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There have been several movie adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s novel about four tight-knit sisters, but there’s something special about this one. It’s got an all-star cast: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, and oh, Meryl Streep!! And despite taking place in the 1800s, the conversations about love, financial security, friendship, and creative pursuits feel very relevant.
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This film follows Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, who has been confused with a millionaire of the same name. He sets out to get restitution for a rug that’s been ruined by debt collectors and find the millionaire’s missing wife, with the help of his trusty bowling buddies, ofc.
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When this sci-fi movie came out in 1999, everyone went crazy for the groundbreaking visual effects (and a young Keanu Reeves). It tells the story of a young computer programmer who encounters mysterious rebels and learns about the true nature of his reality.
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This 1974 movie is about a housewife experiencing mental illness. Gena Rowlands gives an emotional, riveting performance as Mabel, the woman struggling with her mental health as it affects her marriage and her relationships with her children.
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This 1975 movie won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Writing, so it basically swept the Oscars that year. It follows R.P. McMurphy, a criminal who pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution. While there, he forms relationships with the other patients and leads them in an uprising against the cold, tyrannical nurse who oversees the facility.
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This quintessential ’80s movie follows five high school students in Saturday detention. They’re stereotyped as a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse, but through the course of a nine-hour(!!!) detention with a tedious essay assignment, they realize they have more in common than they assumed.
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This Korean thriller will have your heart pounding, trust me. When a virus breaks out across the world and starts turning people into zombies, passengers on the train from Seoul to Busan are forced to fight for their lives.
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There’s no way around it, you’re going to cry at this Best Picture winner. It follows a Jewish father and his son in Italy as they’re sent to a concentration camp during the Holocaust. To keep the family’s spirits afloat and shield his son from some of the horrors of their life, he pretends with his son that it’s all just a game as he tries to find a way out of the camp.
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This magical animated film from Hayao Miyazaki follows a 10-year-old girl who wanders into a world filled with spirits, gods, monsters, and otherworldly entities and must save herself — and her parents. The kids in your life will love it, but so will the adults.
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This wacky ’80s movie follows Marty McFly, a high schooler who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past because of a time-traveling device invented by his best friend, an older and very eccentric scientist. Marty has to make sure his parents (who are teenagers at the time) meet and fall in love so that he doesn’t accidentally end up never existing. Just go with it.
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This Mel Brooks movie is about the grandson of the infamous scientist Dr. Frankenstein. When he inherits his grandfather’s castle in Transylvania, he goes for a visit and finds information about reanimating a dead body. Shenanigans ensue.
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This gorgeous black-and-white film chronicles a year in the life of Cleo, a housekeeper for a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in 2019.
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Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star in this 1995 psychological thriller about two detectives chasing down a serial killer whose crimes are all connected to the seven deadly sins. You’ll never forget the “what’s in the box?” scene.
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This dark in-your-face comedy will make you think about figure skater Tonya Harding in a totally different way. She’s famous for her believed involvement in an incident where her rival Nancy Kerrigan was brutally attacked, and the movie spends some time focusing on that — but it also tells us a lot about Tonya’s abusive upbringing and violent marriage.
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