4. Cloud Atlas

This is such a beautiful movie. It fundamentally shifted my view of humanity and our eternal struggle against our worst impulses.

Even today, when things are so bleak and uncertain, this gives me a quiet and unshakable hope.

5. V/H/S 2

I'm a huge sucker for found-footage movies, and this edition of the anthology is the best. "Safe Haven" is the short film that gets all the kudos, but "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" is just one of the most terrifying things ever to me

6. Dear White People

One of the very first times I *actually saw myself* in a character on-screen. Lionel Higgins remains this deeply personal character for me because of it, and it also captures the messy breadth of the Black American experience so, so well

7. Get Out

An *instant* classic. Another movie that captures the modern Black American experience so well -- it's this perfect blend of social satire and horror. Inspired a slew of imitators who couldn't quite thread the needle, and it shows the size of Peele's achievement.

8. Bamboozled

Whew, this is a thorny-ass movie. There are lots of problems with it, especially in the third act, but I'm still haunted by Pierre Delacroix's act of frustrated rebellion becoming the very vehicle for his success...and how quickly he allows himself to justify it.

9. Friday

An unapologetic HOOD movie, this feels a lot like my neighborhood growing up in ways big and small -- like how simply being let into someone's house is a big step in your relationship as a neighbor.

It's also funny as fuck. "Bye Felicia" alone = XD XD XD

10. Hairspray

JUST TRY TO STOP ME from singing along to this movie. It helps that it's set in my hometown. FUN FACT: My local library and barber were both on North Ave., and I still have an aunt who lives in that neighborhood.

11. Moulin Rouge!

I don't know about you, but some movies serve as a "skeleton key" that unlocks whole genres for me. Moulin Rouge did that for musicals -- it's such a heady, emotionally-breathless film that sweeps you up like a tornado. Baz Luhrmann at his best.

12. Snowpiercer

When @ThePenDrake@twitter.com leaned over to me and said "the train is capitalism" it blew my freaking mind. :O

An incredibly sobering metaphor for the unsustainability of the status quo, and a strong argument for the necessity of derailing it for our long-term survival.

@ThePenDrake@twitter.com 13. Talladega Nights

Quite possibly my all-time favorite comedy. Imminently quotable, just a pure joy to watch from start to finish, exactly my brand of humor. Every actor brought their A-game, there's really not a dud in the bunch. SO GOOD. XD

14. Hot Rod

Another all-time favorite comedy. Weird, random, always throwing you off-guard with form-breaking jokes. This is an incredibly underrated gem. <3

15. Last Night

I don't know where you can watch this movie, but it's this wonderful "cozy catastrophe" story about people in Canada spending their last six hours of life on Earth before the apocalypse. A singular movie, but "Seeking A Friend For The End of the World" comes close

16. The Iron Giant

It's an oversight I haven't added this movie yet, but HOLY CRAP does it leave me a sobbing wreck at the end. Really takes me back to my imaginary giant friends when I was a wee leveret. <3

17. Zootopia

HOT TAKE I STILL LOVE THIS MOVIE

Is it perfect? No, but I think Judy Hopps is an unfair target. It still gives me that childlike sense of wonder even after all this time, and it's such a GREAT representation of a furry world.

18. Spirited Away

This movie just makes me feel warm and contented. A masterpiece, quite simply. I love how it presents the spirit world as dangerous until Chihiro interacts with it on its own terms. It really underscores the importance of adaptability to thrive in life.

19. All Quiet on the Western Front

This movie is freaking remarkable. It is one of the best depictions of the wide gap between the perception of war and the reality of it, what war actually does to its participants. If you see only one WWI movie, this should be it.

20. Ikiru

Kurosawa is one of the best film directors of all time, and this is the one I keep coming back to whenever I think of him. It's relatively minor, but its quiet humanism is simply lovely and affirming.

21. The Tree of Life

This movie caught me off-guard, and it is a singularly great experience. More a visual poem than a movie, it's almost impossible to describe it. You really have to drop your barriers and engage with it as it is.