20. Rififi - What guy (or girl for that matter) doesn’t like a good heist flick? Well Jules Dessin’s 1954 film noir classic is the single best heist film I’ve ever seen. Thought to be controversial for its violence, sexuality and drug use, Rififi is now considered the prototypical film noir and for good reason. The film is wrought with cynical, impeccably dressed gangsters, double crossing, femme fatale and the coolest use of an umbrella in any film ever.

19. Cool Hand Luke - No one plays the anti-establishment, anti-hero better than Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. The film also bears one of the most famous lines in the history of American cinema. “What we have got here is a failure to communicate.” The quote has become so ubiquitous that people use it without really knowing where it comes from. The film is simply a charming, well-done classic with an ending that seems tragically appropriate.

18. The Natural - One of two sports movies to make my top 20, The Natural is (sorry Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out and Pride of the Yankees and… you get the point) the greatest baseball movie ever made. Yes, there are those who gripe that Barry Levinson’s ending doesn’t mirror the book (and I can imagine I will have the same gripe when I was I Am Legend later this month) but Roy Hobbes trotting around the bases as shards of lights fall to the field is one of my favorite moments in any movie ever. Pair that moment with Randy Newman’s Oscar-nominated score and you have unbridled, goosebump-inducing cinematic gold. Not to mention, most of the film’s baseball scenes were shot in Buffalo’s old War Memorial Stadium. Big shout out to Western New York!

17. Ed Wood - One of the only Tim Burton movies that I really enjoy, Ed Wood is simply genius. Forget about Johnny Depp’s performance, which I think is the best of his career, Martin Landau’s spot-on Bela Lugosi makes me laugh every time. There’s one particularly obscene Lugosi moment where he takes a shot at Boris Karloff that had me on the floor laughing. If you haven’t seen it and can get pass the film’s initial unmistakably Burton-esque weirdness, I think you’ll love this movie.

16. The Graduate - Simply put, Mike Nichol’s 1967 film is one of the greatest American films ever made. Unlike most movies that were made 40 years ago, The Graduate doesn’t age. It looks and feels as if it could have been made in 2007. The themes of disconnect, apathy and early 20’s alienation are those felt by all young people, particularly those who have just graduated from college and are, involuntarily, facing the brink of adulthood. Not to mention the film has probably the most famous soundtrack in the history of cinema.

15. Hoosiers - An American classic. Plain and simple. The first time I saw Hoosiers was in 8th grade. My friend Brendan and I had been handed the cassette by our basketball coach with a simple instruction, “You gotta watch this.” There isn’t anything about this movie that I don’t absolutely love. I don’t think it’s possible for one to understand how important Hoosiers is as a significant piece of Indiana history unless you’ve lived in the state. (To that point, the Library of Congress put the film National Film Registry in 2001). Still in Indiana, in small towns and large cities, there is a real sense of civic pride when people talk about this film and for good reason, there are few sports movies as good as Hoosiers.

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