• Blue Is the Warmest Color -  This is an intense, raw, and unapologetic look at same-sex first love
• Moonlight - 
• Disobedience
• Brokeback Mountain – Until Moonlight, The quintessential LGBTQ+ movie of the 2000s. There was more than a year's worth of anticipation (and too often the butt of late-night television as the "gay cowboy movie") before the release of Ang Lee's masterpiece. The tender story of unspoken attraction turned forbidden romance catapulted the careers of Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway.
• The World To Come
• My Policeman

• Brothers – I’ve recommended this movie a lot. It was very good and had the potential to be perfect. It faltered a bit in really drawing out the symptoms of prisoner of war Toby Maguire’s character after he returns home.
• Leave No Trace – You’ve likely heard of this movie but have not seen it. It is incredibly sad, but not in the way you might suspect. The underrated Ben Foster gives the best performance of his career.
• Man Down – This one is not for everyone. It’s a deep dive into the illness. People will also say what they will about Shia Labeouf, but the man can act. He never gives a bad performance.
• Room -  As moving of a movie as I've ever seen, and one that I was not prepared for. The scene that divides the first half from the second half is filmmaking mastery. The ripple effect (disassociation, depression, anxiety, hopelessness). Room is the only film on this list that doesn't have PTSD as a result of war.
• Jacob’s Ladder – An older one (1990). For many years, this was the scariest movie I had ever seen. And this was well before I ever knew what it was about.
• Born on the Fourth of July – Part II of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy (Platoon, Heaven and Earth). This one is certainly one that you’ve heard and probably seen. It’s worth many rewatches over the course of a lifetime. Tom Cruise’s career-defining performance tells the story of Ron Kovac, a successful high school athlete and a true patriot who enlists right after graduating. On his second tour in the war, Kovac becomes permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He returns home to a world he hardly recognizes and doesn’t feel like many of his fellow Americans understood or appreciated all he gave.

 

• Young Guns (1988) -
• Tombstone (1993) -
• The Proposition (2005) -
• 3:10 to Yuma (2007)-
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) -
• Hostiles (2017) -

(500) Days of Summer - I will include this Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel film that it qualifies for. The chemistry between these two actors in this up-and-down movie, told in a non-sequential order, was electric. It's a film I will continue to watch every few years, knowing quite well that some repeat viewings will be more difficult than others. It's a Top 50 all-time movie for me. [My Trailer]

Jerry Maguire

Something’s Gotta Give

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

The Big Sick

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

My Best Friend's Wedding

Palm Springs

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Sleepless in Seattle

The Princess Bride

Notting Hill

Groundhog Day

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/best-romantic-comedies-list

https://collider.com/best-romantic-comedies-all-time-ranked/#39-jerry-maguire-39-1996

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2022/4/18/23026994/rom-com-movies-ranking

• Friday Night Lights - Many are unaware or have forgotten that this film exists. This is partially due to the beloved, successful television series starring Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, which ran on NBC for five seasons (2006-2011).  The series debuted two years after the incredibly underrated film of the same name. It's, by far, my favorite football film.
• Cinderella Man -
• For Love of the Game -
• The Fighter -
• 61* -
• Southpaw -

• Rush - The career-defining roles for Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason-Leigh, two narcotics detectives who, while undercover, get hooked on the drug they are forced to take in order to keep their cover intact. Rush shows us how quickly and easily drug addiction can occur, how it doesn't discriminate, and the measures that otherwise decent people will go to feed their never-intended cravings. Rush depicts the all-around aspects of drug addiction as well as any movie.
• A Star Is Born -
• Rachel Getting Married -
• Shame  -
• Half Nelson -
• Uncut Gems -

The End of The Tour -

Silver Linings Playbook -

Black Swan -

Take Shelter -

Melancholia -

Lars and the Real Girl -

 

 

 

 

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/meet-the-parents