88 Movies You Have to Watch at Least Once in Your LifeLike this list

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• The Farewell

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  In her Golden Globe-winning role, Awkwafina plays Billi, a woman on a trip to China for a "family wedding" that's actually a final goodbye to her grandmother. While there, Billi struggles to find a deeper connection to the country and tries to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Thelma & Louise

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  Two friends set out on a road trip, but end up on the wrong side of the law after Louise shoots and kills a man who tries to rape Thelma. It’s a story of freedom and female friendships that has a lot of great scenes, some of which feature a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Holiday

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  All hail the queen of romantic comedies, Ms. Nancy Meyers! You grew up watching another movie she directed, The Parent Trap (1998), so we owe her another round of applause for the masterpiece that is The Holiday. Los Angeles-based Amanda (Cameron…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Parasite

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  An unemployed family of four slowly starts to put themselves into the lives of workers of the crazy wealthy Park family. Then, there's an incident that can’t entirely be cleaned up in a shift. Long after the credits roll, you’ll be questioning the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Casino Royale (2006 Motion Picture) [DVD]

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  James Bond is known in the movieverse for its action-packed, women-objectifying spy films, but all that changed when Daniel Craig took over the role. His first movie as Britain's most notorious secret agent is filled with deception, love, unreal…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Memento

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  Before Christopher Nolan was known as the popular director with brain-bending plots, he made this small film. It's about a man who has no short-term memory, who's after vengeance for his murdered wife—oh, and it's shot almost entirely in reverse…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Diary of a Teenage Girl

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  Set in San Francisco in the '70s, 15-year-old Minnie (Bel Powley) has just had sex for the first time, and she wants a lot more of it. Director Marielle Heller gives us the sex-positive coming of age movie you never thought would arrive, while…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• She's the Man

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  The '00s weren’t the '00s without Amanda Bynes, and She’s the Man proves it. When Viola (Bynes) finds out that her school is cutting the women’s soccer team, she decides to take a chance and disguises herself as her twin brother to play for his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rocky

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  It’s the classic underdog story that made Sylvester Stallone a household name. The movie follows boxer Rocky Balboa on the road to fight heavyweight champion Apollo Creed in a match deemed “a somebody v. nobody.” The film, written by Stallone, would…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Booksmart

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  Olivia Wilde’s directional debut about two overachieving high school seniors' wild night on the eve of their graduation is so stomach-hurting-from-laughing-too-hard funny. It hits to my inner core a level of nostalgia I haven’t felt in years. Oh, to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Jaws

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  When Steven Spielberg made this movie, I’m unsure if he knew it would become the face of anti-shark propaganda. Regardless, this movie about a sheriff, marine biologist, and fisherman hunting down a shark that’s terrorizing their beach town is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Brooklyn

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  Saoirse Ronan shows us why she's an icon in this '50s story of an Irish immigrant who moves to New York. She falls in love with a local Italian fella, but then has to return back to Ireland for some unexpected business—and finds herself forced to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Schindler's List

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  A movie about the Holocaust is almost guaranteed to be poignant (and, frankly, depressing), but under Stephen Spielberg's expert direction, this one surprises with its restraint. That's deliberate—the sadness and symbolism build throughout the film…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Shining [DVD]

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  Jack Nicholson is on this list a few times, but this is probably his most well-known role. The Torrance family, husband Jack, wife Wendy, and son Danny, are staying in the Overlook Hotel during the winter. Then, the hotel begins to come alive with a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Criterion Collection)

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  Listen. We could put a lot of Wes Anderson movies on here: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Darjeeling Limited are all worth a watch. But this is the perfect film if you're looking for quintessential Anderson: It's jam-packed with his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Snowpiercer

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  This is Bong Joon-ho pre-Parasite. Even though this film didn't get quite as many accolades, he was already getting very good at commentary about social disparity and climate change (I'd actually argue that this might even be a little better?). In…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Annihilation

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  Based very, very loosely on the book of the same name, Natalie Portman is a scientist who goes in search of her husband. She enters Area X, a mutated, trippy landscape that's been expanding ever since it was hit by a meteorite. And shit just keeps…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Tangerine

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  Shot entirely on an iPhone 5S, this film is groundbreaking for another reason: It actually cast (unbelievably talented) transgender actors to play transgender characters. And with all that, this movie is most known for being utterly hysterical and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dazed and Confused

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  A movie about the last day of school for a group of teenagers in Austin, Texas, in 1976, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck? Sign us up. You'll be quoting McConaughey for weeks after it's done.

• Pride & Prejudice (2005 Version)

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  The only acceptable film adaptation of the beloved Jane Austen novel is the 2005 movie from Joe Wright (fight me). In this film, we find Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy fighting their feelings for each other over the course of two "please, someone,…Read moreRead more of this annotation